Posts Tagged ‘facebook’
“Warning !!!!!!!!!!! Don’t use the Christmas Tree App. Be advised it will crash your computer. Geek Squad says it’s one of the Worst Trojan Viruses there is and it is spreading quickly. Please repost to friends & let them know !!!”
Tell Me More: In actuality, Geek Squad has not officially investigated this particular application, nor have we identified it as the source of any infections in any cases we have supported. However, that doesn’t automatically mean that it’s ok to use.
Should I Be Worried? We haven’t completed our investigation of the “Christmas Tree” application and cannot guarantee that it’s completely safe. As a general rule, if it’s not 100% necessary for you to use an application and you can’t verify that the developer is trustworthy, you may want to do some research before installing it to your profile.
What Do I Need to Do? Here’s what you should know about Facebook applications before you install them:
• Any Facebook application that you install or use on your profile has access to your personal information and friends list, so make sure you’re only interacting with applications and people you trust with your personal info.
• Facebook developers are bound by a contract with Facebook, which requires them to respect the privacy settings you’ve chosen for your account information. Occasionally Facebook identifies developers who break these rules and use personal information for less-than-friendly purposes. The end result of this misuse of personal information is identity theft — yet another reason to be extra careful with the information you’re sharing via applications.
• Facebook applications cannot directly interact with your computer or infect your computer with viruses. However, if a rogue application gains unauthorized access to your personal information, hackers could potentially use that information to infect your computer through other means, or trick you into downloading an infection using a pop-up or “scareware” tactics. Be careful about what you click on inside applications, because the pages and information inside them are not provided by Facebook and could potentially be used by companies or individuals to steal personal information — or infect your computer.
Geek Squad Final Word: As always, if you experience any undesired computer symptoms, seek help from a computer professional as soon as possible. If you notice any signs of your Facebook account being compromised or sending out messages you didn’t intend to send, it could be a signal that your computer may be infected, and you should seek professional assistance.
For more information, visit Facebook’s Safety Center (http://www.facebook.com/safety), check out the Geek Squad home page at www.geeksquad.com, or contact your nearest Geek Squad Agent. Whether it’s online, via 1-800-GEEKSQUAD, or in any Best Buy store, we’re here to help 24/7/365!
Social networking websites are one of the fastest growing website genres on the internet. Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, etc. Connect, chat, and let people know what you are doing with just a click of the mouse or punch of the cell phone button. This is “the thing” to do nowadays, the way we keep in touch. With this easy of communication comes the possibility of exploitation. Today we are going to talk about the possible safety hazards of letting your guard down when socially networking via the internet.
There are a couple of set-in-stone ground rules that everyone needs to know about social networking websites. Let me share with you the same information I tell most of my clients:
• Social networking websites themselves are generally safe; The content people put on them, however, may not be. It is the human element you need to worry about.
• Always remember that any content you post on the internet will be there forever, for anyone to read, store, and republish
• Just because the screen says your friend John has sent you information doesn’t mean John is actually the person who did
• If it doesn’t “seem right” it probably is not right
• Things free or too good to be true, are. Just like in the “real world.”
Now that we are armed with those rules, let us run through a few possible scenarios. For instance, you hop onto a popular networking site to update your status and you see you have a message from your friend. We are talking about someone you know but does not frequently message you. You open the message and there is a link to what is described as a ‘cool video’ or some super-duper product that you should “check out.” The link doesn’t work, or for whatever reason it doesn’t seem to work. Or perhaps it is such as stupid thing you are wondering why your friend was even wasting your time. “No biggie” you may think. A week later, however, you find that you are getting popup ads left and right and your computer is slowing down.
What happened? Well your friend probably had a virus or spyware infection that spreads itself via sending messages to everyone who his is ‘friend,’ telling them to click on the link. When the link is clicked the spyware is installed. (Please remember that antivirus and antispyware programs are not always 100% effective) The spyware has been watching what you are typing, trying to steal credit card numbers, or otherwise is up to no good. Bam, you’ve been socially hacked.
Another scenario popping up lately involves micro-blogging websites. One of the most popular is Twitter. (Micro-blogging is posting status updates or information in only one to two sentences). There are several excellent micro-blogger humans out there reporting everything from celebrity updates, news hot off the press, and even your latest television show character developments.
However, there are also those micro-blogging accounts where it seems that some “person” is following the status updates of 5,000 people yet only 10 or 20 people are following them. This seems odd…who has the time to follow 5,000 people yet is not popular enough to warrant anybody ‘following’ what they are doing? Yet this random person just ‘followed’ or ‘added’ you to the list of people they listen in on? Weird! So what in the world is going on?
Well, it is completely feasible that this person is waiting for you, and the 5,000 other people, to post something that could be personally identifying. Maybe you don’t post revealing information all at once. Perhaps without realizing it you do it over the course of months. Like pieces of a puzzle to be assembled into a greater picture at a later time. Maybe you uploaded a photo revealing your address or house number in the background of your family picnic? Did you post something with your name on it, or tied to your name like the picture of the new car you bought? Did you just update your status about the burger joint on the corner of Main St and how you are eating there?
Believe it or not just with that simple information above a person can cause you a big headache. For example: With that house number, nearby the burger joint address, the make/model of your car or license plate number in a picture (and personal information tied to this plate number), or anything else you posted, someone could do something as simple as fill out a credit card application in your name. With the free credit card application they stole out of your mailbox. Or perhaps they could use this information to impersonate you in other ways. Ick, who the heck needs that sort of trouble!
That whole scenario seems like a lot of trouble for someone to go through, but it really is not that hard. There are freely available programs on the internet that can scour social networking websites for certain keywords multiple times per hour. When they hit upon this keyword, the program marks that post for future review by human eyes. That person who was following you now has all the information they need from your three months of blogging posts to paint an excellent picture of you. They could possibly step into your shoes if they wanted to.
So what can you do to protect yourself? Remember the set-in-stone rules I mentioned above. What appears to be, may not be true. Ask your friend you do not speak to often if they really sent you a funny video about a cat climbing the Christmas Tree before you open the message and follow the link.
Do not post anything on the internet you wouldn’t want someone to see no matter how innocuous it seems to be. Personally identifying information such as license plate numbers, house numbers or other addresses, specific names, how you went to Johnny’s High school and still live in the same town…things like that. Remember that this information is stored somewhere, likely in multiple places, for almost all eternity. Information can be used like pieces in a puzzle to paint a bigger picture of you.
Do not accept “friend requests” from people you do not know. Do not allow people to “follow” you if you do not know who they are. If you are unsure as to the authenticity of the person on the other end, ask them a piece or two of personal information that only the true person would know. Watch your children and make sure when they are on these social sites that they adhere to your rules and guidelines.
Trust your gut feeling. When a scenario seems odd it could mean someone is up to no good. In addition, remember when you cannot see the person on the other end of the internet connection you have no proof they are who they say they are.
I truly hope this information helps steer you towards trouble-free social waters. The internet is certainly an awesome way to connect and stay in touch at the speed of light. We need not be afraid of the web, but we do need to respect the power it can have over us if used incorrectly.
Now I think I will go post on Twitter that I have finished writing this blog…
When I hear stories like a 104 year old Twitter user (Ivy Bean), I wonder if it’s our own reservations that keep us older folks from diving into the latest and greatest tech. Children are less likely to allow the intimidation of new technology get in the way of using it.
The release of a Blu-ray 25th anniversary edition of the film last week is like welcoming an old friend back in shiny, new HD duds. As soon as the movie starts up again, I’m instantly transported to the first time I saw this classic as a kid in the theaters, and it is wonderful!
This year at E3 Microsoft announced some new additions to the XBOX360 video game console that will make it a more social experience for players. One of the fastest growing social platforms on the web right now is Facebook. Microsoft announced an add-on that uses Facebook Connect to allow XBOX360 players to take gameplay photos and upload them to their Facebook account automatically.
With innovations like this, it begs the question: are personal computers going to become obsolete?
I’d like to start this post by making the record clear: We are proud to have reached out to Ivy Bean and get her set up on Twitter. With her permission, we also publicized her accomplishment to encourage other older people to get online.
Facebook, the popular online social networking Web site, recently announced plans to allow users to help guide the company’s future policy changes. This move no doubt stemmed from the backlash of recent terms of service changes that implied Facebook could claim ownership of all member-generated content—even if members deleted their accounts.
In light of Facebook’s new policy-crafting democracy, I’d like to offer a few ideas for social networking companies that base their business around member-generated content.
Who Owns the Content?
You do, Facebook. Of course. The first order of business any self-respecting social networking Web site should do is immediately declare complete and total ownership of the content poured into your site by members. Sure, the public may moan that you’re a capitalistic genius, but you’ve built the platform for them to express countless entries about their eating habits or the movies they really like.
Among millions of pointless entries are a few gems of good, solid innovation that you can then latch on to and really exploit to their full monetary potential. Think of the number of movies you could produce from this stuff. Or if you find the next Picasso. You’ll be swimming in money.
They don’t call them “users” for nothing—because they’re totally using the service that you offered to them freely without thinking of your bottom line! Just make sure you hide the ownership rights deep in the privacy policy no one reads, but all must accept. The last thing you need is a lawsuit to rain on your cash cow.
Delete Me? No, Delete You!
Once you’ve taken the exciting step of complete ownership of your members’ content, you might ask yourself what happens if one of those members deletes his/her account. Should you respect this user’s privacy and delete all that personal information you’ve collected from years of posts?
Of course not. You should remind the user that you own that content, now and forever. That mountain of data is pure marketing gold. You can’t disappoint your advertisers. How else will they know how to target CatLover321 if they don’t have access to his email and detailed information about his likes and dislikes from his 8,000 posts about the television shows he’s watched over the years. CatLover321 might even thank you for the direct mail pieces that show up in his inbox months after he thought he deleted his account.
Everyone Wins. Well, Maybe Not “Everyone.”
Now taking complete ownership of content might not be the easiest decision to make, especially once the public sees the brand-new terms of service you put together with the very best team of lawyers you can now afford. And of course, you may also find yourself dealing with dwindling membership as users leave your service in droves to go to a more open and transparent social network. But hey, you’ve already made all that money from others’ ideas, so surely you don’t need them anymore. You’ll be just fine sifting through all that data from their deleted accounts while trying to pitch your relevancy to the advertisers who no longer return your phone calls. And you can sleep well at night knowing you maintained a high level of ethical responsibility. After all, it isn’t YOUR fault they left.
I hope the sarcasm came across loud and clear.
I attended a blogger conference earlier this month called Blissdom in Nashville, TN. Throughout the weekend, 250 bloggers networked, shared and learned ways to build their blogs and businesses. As Blissdom’s official tech support, three fellow Geek Squad Agents and I helped the attendees solve their tech problems. We even learned a thing or two in the process.
One of the major topics discussed was how to get your blog started. If you’re interested in starting or improving your blog, check out http://www.bloggingbasics101.com/. The site contains basic tips and tricks including this must-read if you’re new to the blogsphere.
Note: Comments are moderated and will be handled as per our privacy policy. Please keep your comments on-topic and free of profanity. For more information, please view our Blogging Terms of Use.
anti-virus Apple Blu-ray Cell Phones CES cnet computer Dancing With the Stars Digital Television DIY (Do It Yourself) projects DTV facebook Firmware Geek Squad Global Positioning System Google Maps GPS HDTV Home Alone Home Theater internet laptops malware Microsoft Microsoft OS netbooks PC Security skype Smartphone Spyware Star Trek Technology twitter Two Minute Miracle United States Update Video video game console WiFi Windows 7 Windows XP wireless networking Wireless Networking XBOX360
WP Cumulus Flash tag cloud by Roy Tanck and Luke Morton requires Flash Player 9 or better.
Geek Squad