Well At Least They’d Pay You…

July 22, 2010 — Mrs. Mecomber

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Nielsen Research. All opinions are 100% mine.

… and at least they TELL you they are monitoring your activity… unlike some OTHER gargauntuan googly companies who roam the streets harvesting your wireless data and storing it all in their databanks, who also *happen* to have close relationships with governmental and global “intelligence” agencies…

There’s a new app for Windows phones. It’s by the Nielsen Company. The Nielsen Company is, I think, the same company that monitors and provides viewer information for television, doesn’t it? You know– “7.2 million households watched this TV movie!!” Were you ever once of those people who asked, “How do they know that??”

Anyway, Nielsen is offering incentives to Windows phone users, so that Nielsen can monitor and measure your phone applications.

The measurement software allows us to measure the applications you use and websites you visit for the purpose of anonymous, aggregate measurement only. We will never report your individual usage and will never release your personal information to third parties for marketing purposes.

Persons who opt in are eligible to receive a Windows $50 gift certificate after a year. Hmmm. Would you do it?

Neilsen says that the data that is gathered includes:

  • the type, name and use of apps on your phone
  • the url and content of the sites you visit
  • the date, time and duration of phone calls, texts, and calls and texts received (but no personal information about the calls)
  • phone battery information
  • Occasional detection of your location via GPS

Pretty remarkable, if you ask me. I wouldn’t do it. It’s *nice* that at LEAST you’re being ASKED if you want to be monitored, but it’s monitoring. How far will we go, selling our information? Check out the website, see what’s it’s all about. Would you do that? Do you think I’m making too big a deal from this?

Visit my sponsor: Nielsen Research

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Posted in news, surveillance, technology. Comments Off »

Employers Spying on Employees

April 12, 2010 — Mrs. Mecomber

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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Posted in crime, Internet, news. 2 Comments »

Beware the Chinese-Made Computer Parts

March 31, 2010 — Mrs. Mecomber

Ya gotta wonder.

A few years ago, there was news that Chinese-made Maxtor/Seagate hard drives sold in the UK and U.S. were infected with malicious trojans. From what I recall, the Chinese shrugged and said “oopsie.” Now there’s news that the Chinese are installing malware and distributing computer accessories with purposeful security holes.

United Kingdom’s MI5 — Americans can think of this as a combination of the FBI and CIA — has reported that the Chinese government has been giving UK executives electronics with built-in security holes.

According to the Sunday Times, “A leaked MI5 document says that undercover intelligence officers from the People’s Liberation Army and the Ministry of Public Security have also approached UK businessmen at trade fairs and exhibitions with the offer of ‘gifts’ and ‘lavish hospitality.’ The gifts — cameras and memory sticks — have been found to contain electronic Trojan bugs which provide the Chinese with remote access to users’ computers.”

How much more are we going to take? This is unconscionable! The Feds bust gangs for *thinking* about militia, war-time activity (which, last I looked, wasn’t a crime in this country– you can’t bust people based on their thoughts), but the Chinese get off SCOT FREE, contaminating our pet food, milk, hacking and spying on us, and infecting our computer parts with password-stealing malware. Unbelievable. All the while, the government continues to encourage out-sourcing of our manufacturing to China. It’s really unconscionable.

Beware ANYTHING made in China. Including the bought-and-paid-for politicians.

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Posted in computers, crime, news. Comments Off »

Clark Howard: Major Retailers Ripping You Off

February 16, 2010 — Mrs. Mecomber

I got the following in my email from Clark Howard e-zine:

RIP-OFF ALERT: We’ve gotten several calls from listeners complaining about being ripped off while checking out at many otherwise legitimate Internet selling sites.

Typically, our callers report seeing a message during checkout asking if they’d like to save X amount of dollars on their purchase. Clicking through on the message and agreeing secretly enrolls you in a subscription service that is billed to your credit card or debit account on a monthly basis. And there’s no real notification — other than some mice-type that’s too small to read.

The Wall Street Journal reports New York Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo suspects 22 companies of being involved with this rip-off. Among the companies he’s subpoenaed are Staples, Barnes &Noble, Avon, GameStop, 1-800-Flowers and Orbitz, just to name a few.

No need, however, to wait and hear their side of the story. You know all you need: That supposed instant discount will cost you big-time. Cuomo alleges that three of these discount programs pulled in more than $1 billion annually.

The real question is how will trusted brands that take advantage of this suspect sales ploy gain their reputations back with customers??

You can read the full post here. The comments are really, really enlightening, I think. I had no idea that such reputable companies would do such STUPID things!

When checking out [at CVS], there is a ‘donate $1′ to some so called charity which is very difficult to say no and get this off my bill. If cvs wants to donate, don’t scam me and everyone else for all these dollars that add up to millions. It is quite a scam and has to be illegal. It is very difficult to remove this.

As you check out of VisionDirect, there is a checkbox already checked for coolsavings.com. i did not notice it and began getting charged a monthly fee immediately. I caught it five months later and contacted coolsavngs.com. They reimbursed me all except one month worth – I would have had to fill out some form. Just wanted to be done with the company. Complained to VisionDirect about this and to date no response. Will take my business to a competitor from now on, even if they charge a few dollars more.

In my case, the charges started to hit twice a month for around $33 (each) when I purchased an airline ticket from Travelocity.

I’ve been a victim of this for the past 7 months from freeshipping.com without knowing about it. My wife purchased flowers from Proflowers.com and was enrolled in this service, they make it seem like part of the checkout process so you have no idea what you are signing up for.

For a few pennies per customer, companies are ripping people off by allowing third-parties to scam customers. It’s just insane. Watch the fine print!

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Posted in crime, deals, news. Tags: , . Comments Off »

Tax Credits for the Homebuyer

January 20, 2010 — Mrs. Mecomber

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Coldwell Banker. All opinions are 100% mine.

Wow! I wish they’d had these tax credits available when I purchased my home. It’s a great time to be a home buyer– with the housing market in a slump, property prices are very low, and people and banks are eager to sell.

Coldwell Banker, that outstanding real estate company, has some information on the 2010 Homebuyer Tax Credits available to first-time and new home buyers. In a nutshell, here are the details:

  • If you are a first-time home buyer, or have not owned in the last three years, are eligible for an tax credit of up to $8,000.
  • If you own a home and have lived in the home as your principle residence for five out of the eight years you have owned your home, you can receive up to $6,500 in tax credit when purchasing a home.
  • There income limits and deadlines, so if you qualify, do not delay.

This video is good and has more information about the tax credits.

This is a great incentive to get the home market moving again. I love the Coldwell Banker website, too– I routine search for properties to keep tabs on property values in the country. You can search the website for home and property listings, too.

Be sure to definitely check this out to see if you qualify!

Visit my sponsor: 2010 Homebuyer Tax Credits

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Posted in Internet, news, websites. Tags: , , , . Comments Off »

Government Gmail Use: Is It Wise?

January 14, 2010 — Mrs. Mecomber

I saw this excellent article by Paul Strassman (writing a guest post for Larry Dignan) at ZDNet. I admit, though- I did not know that government officials– in this case, the Department of Defense– use Gmail for their government correspondence. Holy cow!

Federal Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra has been a consistent advocate of increasing the government’s use of commercially available technologies, such as Gmail. In fact, as the District of Columbia’s chief technology officer, Kundra implemented Google Apps, including Gmail, for all District employees.

A number of Department of Defense (DoD) organizations are already using Gmail. Meanwhile, Google has made secure Gmail the default choice in light of the cyberattack the company detailed on Tuesday.

…Once you can wiretap, you can eventually figure out how to distinguish Gmail traffic from other traffic, and reverse engineer how Gmail data is replicated across servers.

There is no defense against a hostile party with full physical access to your server room. That is why Google’s only logical option is to withdraw all physical servers from China.

There are two Google data centers in China, almost surely co-hosted on shared facilities and not owned by Google. Similarly, there is a co-hosted facility in Russia. Unless a facility is owned and operated by Google it would be always suspect, and even then it would not qualify to operate DoD classified mail.

DoD should therefore not consider Gmail as a viable option because it cannot be trusted. Only a secure DoD Private Cloud, isolated from the Internet, can be seen as an acceptable option.

It’s a contentious issue- the comments on the post are filled with such incredulity as I express. And an update to the post was issued later today, when Google spokesman spoke out:

The premise of Mr. Strassman’s post is without merit: there’s no need to withdraw servers that store Gmail information from China because there aren’t any there.

I think Mr. Strassman’s post IS merited… because while Mr. Strassman does mention the recent cyberattack on Google’s Gmail as an impetus for moving DoD mail away from Gmail, the premise IS that the DoD, and truly all government offices, should have their own secure email system outside of the “cloud” maintained by global business. It’s just good sense. It blows my mind that the DoD has email with Gmail! Doesn’t the government have their own system?! It mirrors the same bafflement that I have regarding the SSL issues with online banking websites– their security is pitiable, whereas my photo-sharing account is tighter than a drum. Crazy!

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Posted in crime, email programs, Google, news. Tags: , , . 2 Comments »
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