Mrs. Mecomber's Scrapbook

Talking technology, computers, and the Internet… for the average computer user

Archive for category crime

A Review of McGruff SafeGuard Internet Monitoring Software

Sep 1

Posted by Mrs. Mecomber in computers, crime, free programs, surveillance | No Comments

I’m not too pleased with this one. It messed up my computer! That’s too bad, because I think it is, overall, a very effective program when it works correctly.

A discussion by young mothers on Twitter caused me to look into Internet filtering software again (see my brief review of Blue Coat K-9 software). Their kids are just beginning to stretch their wings and go on the computers. There’s a lot more to be concerned about today, than when my kids were just starting out on computers, even 10 years ago. Back then, the filth wasn’t in one’s face… today, a LOT has changed.

So I wanted to test out a free Internet monitoring software program that I’d heard about, McGruff SafeGuard. I signed up for an account and downloaded the program.

From there, it was about two hours of screaming at the computer as it rebooted and rebooted and rebooted. It was possessed. I still don’t know what happened!

OK, back to the beginning: I installed McGruff SafeGuard, using all the “recommended” configuration choices. One little window among dozens popped up, saying that McGruff SafeGuard might experience problems because the computer had Vista Service Pack 2. I had the option to stop the installation, or continue. Well, I’ve dealt with programs that have had all sorts of problems with Vista! If the SafeGuard software seemed buggy, I’d just uninstall it. So I clicked “Next.”

Whoa. Bad move. The thing went bananas. It wanted to uninstall all sorts of stuff from the operating system, including my NVIDIA App Filter. The thing rebooted, and Windows went wonky. Data Execution app closed, a number of other online programs (IM, web browser, anti-virus) closed, and then Windows said it was restarting in one minute. And it kept restarting, again and again! I tried to get into Safe Mode to uninstall McGriff SafeGuard, or at least do a System Restore.. nope! I was livid– I couldn’t even get into Safe Mode?!

Now, I understand that it must be difficult for software vendors keep up with ALL the Windows operating systems, updates, and service packs. And it doesn’t help that *some* software makers intentionally make it very difficult to install and maintain monitoring software (not to mention, a wholesome computer environment). So it must be tough for McGruff and others to constantly be changing their software. But for heaven’s sake, PLEASE mention this on the website or something! I scoured the website for mention of fatal errors and problems with Vista the program… nothing. The only slightest heads up I had was with the “you may experience some problems with Vista Service Pack 2″ while I was installing it. :-p It said I may have “problems.” Didn’t mention that the program would kill my computer!

I finally dumped the software. Windows only gave me one minute to do anything before it shut down and restarted again, so as soon as it booted up, I typed very quickly to uninstall McGruff SafeGuard. It took me 6 tries (the computer is kind of slow, lol). In the end, I wasn’t able to fully uninstall the program in one minute’s time, but I uninstalled enough files to force McGruff SafeGuard to abort itself. This allowed me to go into System Restore and roll back the computer files.

Whew!

I again searched for any mention of such problems (any problems) on the McGruff website. Not a peep. Too bad. There’s no telephone support, either. I had to email my urgent message. I got an email response in about 2 hours, but by then, I had figured out a way to disable the program.

I hear good things about McGruff SafeGuard among Windows XP users. But if you have Vista, beware. Who uses XP anymore?!

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60% Americans Don’t Know… Do You?

Jun 17

Posted by Mrs. Mecomber in computers, crime, surveillance | 2 Comments

Yikes.

Did you know that photocopiers store images of every single document copied on the machine, on a huge hard drive? Did you know that this data is filled with medical records, sensitive information, Social Security numbers, bank information, and more? And did you know that these copiers are often resold to buyers, both foreign and domestic, with that hard drive and all that information intact?

I didn’t!

This video is shocking.

I’d really like to know why copiers have this technology in place, anyway. I know that my small copier here at home has a memory, and stories the last few documents (so I hope) in its memory, in case I want to reprint or re-fax a document. But, really, it’s not a convenience to store so much information. It’s easy enough just to rescan the documents if there’s an error. I think it’s grossly criminal to store EVERY SINGLE document in detail. Why is this? Is there some law that demands this? Why would copier manufacturers invest in such large hard drives to do such a thing…. and then not tell the consumer that the copier stores all this data?

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Google Maps Recording Your MAC Address, too

Apr 26

Posted by Mrs. Mecomber in Google, crime, surveillance | 1 Comment

Wow. Unbelievable. Unbelievable that Google would do this, and even more unbelievable that so little is done to stop them.

Google Street View logs WiFi networks, Mac addresses

Google’s roving Street View spycam may blur your face, but it’s got your number. The Street View service is under fire in Germany for scanning private WLAN networks, and recording users’ unique Mac (Media Access Control) addresses, as the car trundles along.

Germany’s Federal Commissioner for Data Protection Peter Schaar says he’s “horrified” by the discovery.

“I am appalled… I call upon Google to delete previously unlawfully collected personal data on the wireless network immediately and stop the rides for Street View,” according to German broadcaster ARD.

Spooks have long desired the ability to cross reference the Mac address of a user’s connection with their real identity and virtual identity, such as their Gmail or Facebook account.

If this was a clan of teenagers, they’d be arrested for voyeurism or something. But nooooo, Google can do it!

And this is all the more reason to ditch the wireless and get wired. You bet.

Google’s uniquely cavalier approach to privacy, and its potential ability to cross reference the information raises additional concerns. Google CEO Eric Schmidt recently said internet users shouldn’t worry about privacy unless they have something to hide.

Eric Schmidt is a schmuck. I don’t have to answer to that jerk. Who the heck does he think he is?! As if HE can monitor anyone he wants, and scold us for chafing against Google’s imposed “morality,” that we should be grateful or something?! Unbelievable.

This is scary. Not only are they hell bent on monitoring us, they believe that it’s their moral duty to monitor us.

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Library of Congress to Archive Tweets

Apr 17

Posted by Mrs. Mecomber in Internet, Twitter, computers, crime, surveillance | 4 Comments

I’ve seen the government do a lot of stupid things; this is way up on the list.

Library of Congress to House Entire Twitter Archive

The U.S. Library of Congress, which archives many forms of media for their cultural and historical significance, has announced it will keep a digital archive of every public tweet that has been broadcast on Twitter since its inception in March 2006.

It’s only appropriate that the initial announcement of this project was given on the Library of Congress’ Twitter account (@librarycongress) and was followed up by a Facebook message before the official press release is issued.

Even though tweets, as messages on Twitter are called, can only be 140 characters long, the amount of information to archive is significant. There are 50 million tweets per day and the total number of tweets already number well into the billions.

Hmmm I don’t remember them asking me if I wanted my tweets archived by them… and what about non-Americans? Is the LOG only archiving Americans’ tweets, or all, everywhere, ever?

The comments on the story were mainly along the same vein:

Oh god, that is a stupid idea. Somehow, endless streams of, “OMG”, “u rock”, and “<3", doesn't really strike me as something worth saving.

Ah, but the LOG has a fix for that. They are going to archive ALL tweets, but only highlight tweets from the *important* people:

Recognizing that the inane tweets will certainly outnumber the significant ones, the Library of Congress plans to highlight the culturally and historically important tweets, such as the first-ever tweet sent by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, President Obama’s tweet announcing his win in the 2008 election and a set of tweets that helped a photojournalist get released from prison in Egypt.

This Twitter archive isn’t evidence of a new focus for the Library of Congress; it has been collecting and archiving websites and online media for a decade now. The Library of Congress currently houses 167 terabytes (or 167,000 gigabytes – the largest iPod storage is only 64 gigabytes) of information pulled from the Internet during that time.

So the Library of Congress has been storing everything, anyway.

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Employers Spying on Employees

Apr 12

Posted by Mrs. Mecomber in Internet, crime, news | 2 Comments

This is very interesting news from Clark Howard today:


Employers monitor your social networking profile

Are the Facebook posts and Twitter tweets you make while away from the job immune from the prying eyes of your employer? The New York Times reports that new software called Social Sentry is ensuring everything you do online is being scrutinized.

Employers pay between $2 and $8 per employee (depending on company size) to have Social Sentry’s proprietary software automatically track employees in the social media sphere. The Social Sentry service is only available for Facebook and Twitter at this point, but it will soon expand to cover YouTube, MySpace and LinkedIn.

Six out of 10 companies now say they have a social media monitoring policy. Employers are considering anything that’s publicly accessible as something that you waive your right to privacy on.

So those racy jokes posted on your “wall” can lead to dismissal, no matter how good a job you’re doing at work. Remember, you serve at your employer’s pleasure.

This is just WEIRD. I’m all for employers cracking the whip on the job. Employees should not be using their work time for fooling around.

BUT employers spying on employees’ personal lives?? No, employees do NOT “serve” at the employer’s pleasure. Not people in a free country, that is. :-p Government, bureaucrats, and big business have too much control over our lives.

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