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Facebook hires people to snoop at your posts to train AI to snoop better

Reuters is reporting that over the past year, a team of 250+ contract workers in India, have been going through the posts of millions of Facebook users. Including photos, status updates and other content posted since 2014.

Include are the subjects of the post and trying to ascertain the author’s intention of said posts. The work, according to Facebook is aimed at understanding users posts to its services and help the company develop new features, with the final aim of increasing usage and ad revenue.

The work along with other “content labeling” projects that Facebook has at the moment, employ thousands of people. Many of these projects are aimed at “training” the underling software that determines what users see ion their news feeds and which ads are show at a particular time.

This program along with previous miss-steps add fuel to the fire, surrounding the rise of privacy issues at Facebook. The company is already facing worldwide investigations over other privacy abuses involving the sharing of user data with business partners. And an almost constant stream of news about the lack of overall security of the platform in general. Such as the recent news Facebook kept user passwords and other data in plain text. Making it much easier to steal users information.

A Facebook spokeswoman said: “We make it clear in our data policy that we use the information people provide to Facebook to improve their experience and that we might work with service providers to help in this process.”

Facebook launched the project in April of 2018. The Indian firm is being paid $4 million and employs 250+ “labelers” , according to the company. The contracted work consisted of analyzing posts from the past five years.

After completing this initial work the team was cut down to 30 workers who now concentrate on “labeling” posts from the previous month. Work is expected to continue through the end of 2019, at least.

Other Facebook’s “labeling” include looking for sensitive topics or offensive language in videos posted to the platform. The reason seems to be more training of automated Facebook tools that help advertisers avoid sponsoring videos that are adult or political in nature.

Other uses could also be to better target users using their marketplace feature, where AI automated recommendations for new listings will be targeted to users based on their past posts.

From the report there seems to be no way for Facebook users to stop this data collection even with their private posts between friends and family..

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Google Tracks Your Location Even If You’ve Opted Out

Reno Computer Repair - Google Tracking
Reno Computer Repair – Google Tracking

The Associated Press is reporting that Google keeps tracking you even after you have turned off location history on your devices…

This report, confirmed by computer researchers at Princeton, have found privacy issues with Google’s Location History settings affecting most Android devices and even a large percentage of iOS devices (aka Apple) for consumers that use Google Maps or Google search. The investigation found that even when users “paused” Location History  on mobile devices, Google services will continued to save user data.

 

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Think Facebook is bad for privacy? check out google.

Reno computer repair - google
Reno computer repair – google

While Facebook has been on the bad end of the news cycle for a time now with all their privacy issues. It might surprise some (or not) all the information Google keeps on you.

Searches, visited websites, tablet and phone access and more. A warning here if your on a shared computer (everybody using the same browser and account) you might not want to see this.

But if your curious how much google has on you click the link to your account information… You can also delete this information from this page. Which I might suggest becomes a new habit for you.

https://myactivity.google.com/myactivity?utm_source=my-activity&utm_campaign=my-act-restricted

 

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Facebook will not increase privacy for American’s

reno computer repair by RenoGeek- GDPR
reno computer repair – GDPR

In Europe a new law, the General Data Protection Regulation or (GDPR) is about to take effect. This new law will help insure that Europeans will have increased privacy protections. Preventing many companies from data mining their users personal information. In a phone interview with Reuters yesterday Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook declined to confirm that these new protections would be universally implemented. Skirting the issue. This would imply then that if you don’t live in the EU you will not be enjoying the same protections that millions of others will have by default.

When you combine this and the Cambridge Analytica  / Facebook snafu, in which 50 million users privacy was ignored and their experiences on Facebook polluted via ads trying to push a certain political view, it does not look good for the privacy of the average American using Facebook.

So as has been always the case, you will have to be in charge of your own privacy while using the Internet. As these bigger companies are turning computer end users into their primary product.

So implement all the privacy changes that experts have already been talking about for a long time. Use https everywhere, privacy badger, popup blockers, VPN’s and of course go into the privacy setting on Facebook and set them to more secure settings.

Not sure how to do all this? Call your local Computer Expert, RenoGeek.

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A better DNS?

Reno Computer Repair Blog- cloudflare dns
Reno Computer Repair – cloudflare dns

Short post today.

Seems like cloudflare wants to get into the DNS (Domain Name Server) business. They are promising faster and more secure name resolution along with not storing information for more than a week. Should give google and opendns a run for their money. If you want to try it yourself (at your own risk) change your computer or router settings to 1.1.1.1 or 1.0.0.1 and you can check them out at…

https://1.1.1.1/

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Change Facebook Ad Preferences

Reno-computer-Repair-Online-Privacy
Reno-computer-Repair-Online-Privacy

Seems with the loss of 5 billion or so in wall street value Facebook has finally found a reason to start taking some of its end users privacy concerns seriously.

Starting with a simplified interface you can now go into the depths of Facebook land and change “some” of the things you are shown while on their website.

If you are a long time user you may wish to plan  some “away” time to wade through the hundreds if not thousands of categories that have been connected to your account  and I would definitely suggest that you expand the settings to view to find all the ways the big “F” has been tracking you.

But if you take the time and go back once in awhile to review what new things they have learned about you delete them. You can keep what they know about you to a minimum.

Of course if you don’t have a reason to share everything with everybody on the planet you can also change the settings so that only your friends can see what you post.

At any rate it might be fun to see how much Facebook as learned about you.

(or not).

You can review and change your Facebook Ad privacy settings here..

https://www.facebook.com/ads/preferences

 

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Timeline – The next thing on your system to clean out

Reno Computer Repair - Spring Creators Update
Reno Computer Repair – Spring Creators Update.

Windows Spring Creators Update will feature a new utility called Timeline. It will let users see in chronological order all the activities they have performed on their computers. While this utility is being touted as something of a super “recently used” list. It may turn out to be a privacy issue. As anybody logged into your account will have an even easier time seeing what you have been up to.

While Microsoft says users will be able to change the settings of Timeline to show less (or no) information, it will as most settings on Windows 10 systems be buried. Meaning many if not most people will have little clue as to where they can adjust what is saved and shown.

I predict that this utility will be used against end users in a number of ways. Bosses at work demanding to see this log from workers to check up on them. (easier than asking the IT department to keep tabs on people).

And even IT support scammers using it instead of event viewer to give the impression that hackers are tracking their every move. In addition this provides a new attack vector for fake system utility programs. Claiming they will “clean” this new tracker and instead infecting users unknowingly.

Hopefully the good folks in Redmond, WA. Have already considered these possibilities and will provide some kind of hardening of this new program to prevent misuse of this utility.

But as with web browsers and email it will once again be up to the end user or their IT support staff to monitor and clean out the digital junk this new utility will create.

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Want to share your life on Facebook? Don’t be Surprised when companies steal your data.

Reno Computer Repair - Cambridge Analytica
Reno Computer Repair – Cambridge Analytica

Cambridge Analytica is in the news for allegedly stealing user data from Facebook and then using it to help the GOP in the 2016 election. In short they took user data from Facebook profiles while users were interacting with a personality quiz.

While this company claims that they did not violate Facebook’s rules on how they handle data and that they also complied with their own “privacy” policy. It just goes to show that when using almost any “free” service online, you are paying for it in the end by supplying information about yourself to that company and any 3rd party they share or sell that information to.

While this case seems to deal primarily with people clicking on a Facebook link and then going to a 3rd party website to take a quiz.  There are many ways that Facebook (or the companies they “work” with) can take (steal) your data.

So how do you protect yourself while in “Zuckerberg Land”? There are a number of ways to limit (but never eliminate) the chances your data ends up where you never expected it to.

Limit what information you share in your bio: 

Do you real need to put every school you went to? Where you worked or work at? What your favorite restaurant or movies are? How you voted last time around? The State and city you live in? The more information you give away, the easier it is to collect and then refine what is know about you. Share less and be safer.

Change the privacy settings on Facebook:

Click on the help icon then settings and then privacy. Under “Your Activity” change your settings from “public” to “friends only”. Look at the other settings and decide what levels you feel comfortable with. For me I don’t wish to share my phone numbers and other info with strangers.

Don’t play that Game:

Every game, survey, quiz and who were you in a past life link on Facebook is for the most part paid for by an outside company. And that company somehow needs to pay to run the website that said link game or quiz  is running from.

Most companies don’t give away stuff for free unless they are somehow going to make money from you. So the vast majority of these companies are gathering your information and selling it.  Don’t play the games and take the quizzes and they will have less of your information.

The Takeaway: 

The less information you give to Facebook (or any company online) the more privacy you will enjoy. So the next time a Facebook recommend or sponsored post appears in your feed offering to show you what Egyptian Pharaoh you were in a past life pops up. Keep scrolling…

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Did you read page 327 of your privacy policy?

Reno Computer Repair Privacy
Reno Computer Repair Privacy

Every website you go to, every app you install and each social media account you open, more than likely has a privacy policy. The fine print as it were, that you must accept if you wish to use most modern services today. They are even baked into Microsoft Windows (I see the disclaimer each time I setup Windows in my computer repair shop), the ISP you used to get here and read this, your credit card issuers, banks, your home, car and student loans. As well as  TV’s that can stream movies, Alexa and too many other products to list.

But of course these agreements let you know about the many protections these companies take to insure what they learn about you never gets out to the real world and that all your information is safe and sound with an army of employee’s guarding it with their very life’s, right?

To bad that is not the case in the 21st century. These privacy agreements let most companies sell, share and use your information almost any way they want. All those “free” websites, accounts and apps are paid for with every click you make and each cat video you watch. Ever notice after watching  a bunch of videos about a subject, you see ads for something similar for weeks afterward?  That’s your “privacy” in action. And it’s all legitimate and legal. All because you really “read” all the pages in your EULA and the Privacy policy, right?

Some of these documents can contain north of 100+ printed pages. So companies know they are safe stuffing almost anything they want into these “fair warning” agreements.

But while all this is bad enough, the really scary part is in many (if not most) cases deep, deep down in this document will be something to the effect of this…

“From time to time we may share some (or all) of your information with our partners, suppliers and on occasion with law enforcement or other legal  entities that may have jurisdiction over data we have collected about you.”

And all these different companies and agencies in many cases are free to do whatever they like with your information once they acquire it from the primary company you shared your data with. In other words once one company gets your information in can then be shared or bought by other companies, who can then share or resell it to yet other companies.

So the fact that you might stay up every Friday night watching cat’s in tuxedo videos at 3am while also on review websites for the best pot shops in California could, after being shared over and over with different companies, end up being bought by your car insurance company that now raises your rates out of the blue because you have a higher risk of driving while under the influence.

The gist here is that you should read all agreements before clicking on the “agree” button. It might not be worth installing the next add rabbit ears to all my face shoots app, if your giving up information you never thought anybody can or should see.

As an example, here is a link to paypals “3rd party list”. They only share with 500+ companies. What could go wrong?

https://www.paypal.com/ie/webapps/mpp/ua/third-parties-list

 

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The cloud is not all that private

I have been telling my customers for years that storing information in the cloud may not be all that safe if you do not know in what county your information is stored.

In the USA you have some limited rights as to what the government may do with your information and that’s after it gets permission to access it at all.

But in other parts of the world you may have even more rights then in the USA or none at all.

Most countries fall somewhere in between. And unfortunately you, as the end user, may not have a clue where your data is stored and what rights (if any) you have before a government decides to grab your data.

Now it seems the US government would like to take advantage that your data maybe stored on a server (cloud) in one these countries that have limited or no protection for your information.

The bill floating around would grant judges in the USA the right to force other countries to give up your data on demand. Even if they have laws in force that protect your data.

So it may behoove all of us that wish their data to be secure to make sure where it is stored and what rights you have to it. If your using backup services that operate their servers in foreign countries, you may wish to consider keeping your information on US based servers or doing the old fashion thing and getting off the cloud and getting a few backup drives to keep your data safe.

More information about the bill can be found here.

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/02/07/big_tech_biz_back_us_proposals_to_ease_overseas_data_transfers/