Privacy Lost! - The Piracy of Privacy Revisited - Now Everything is Listening in!

By Hector Cisneros

Courtesy of Wikipedia

In John Milton's Epic Poem, Paradise Lost, we see the dilemma that Adam and Eve found themselves in when they chose to partake of the forbidden fruit of the Tree of  Knowledge of Good and Evil. Mankind today has also found itself in an ethical dilemma where we have to choose between the convenience of using Artificial Intelligence to make life "easier and faster" at the cost of giving up our ability to live private lives without big brother listing in on our every word? Today we live in a world where every smart device tracks our movements, listens to what we say and records all of our actions with our families, friends and co-workers. In this episode of Working the Web to Win, we will discuss this dilemma and explore ways to recapture some of the privacy we have lost. So read on and tell all  your friends that all is not lost. There is still time to take back some of what has been given away.

Massive Data Leak Exposes 340 Million Americans Personal Data - Now What!

Courtesy of Flickr

By Hector Cisneros

How valuable is your Personal Data? It’s extremely valuable, at least according to the data aggregation company Exactis. They collect and sell consumer and business data to marketers and resellers all over the world. They have collected information on 218 million individuals, 110 million U.S. households, 88 million verified email addresses and 112 million records with residential phone numbers. The fact that you have probably never heard of Exactis, or that they have collected so much personal data isn’t surprising. What’s very scary is the fact that this data was easily accessible to anybody with only a little internet search knowhow. In other words, any hacker could (and may have) downloaded this massive database, making it easy to profile, imitate, or go after almost every citizen, family, and business in the United States. In this episode of Working the Web to Win, we’ll discuss this massive data leak along with several other huge data breaches that have just taken place in the last few months. So, hold onto your internet passwords and lock down your social accounts as we explore the ever-growing massive data breaches that are making U.S. citizens vulnerable to hack attacks.

Will the New General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Give us More Privacy and Security?

By Hector Cisneros

Courtesy of Pixabay

On May 25^th headlines everywhere were touting the announcement of the new EU GDPR law that was going into effect. Even if you didn’t see the headlines on the news, you would have been inundated by the many emails from a wide assortment of internet and SAS providers. They were all telling you about their updated data protection and privacy policies and were asking you to read it and agree to them. How many of you actually read any of these new policy updates? What do these new policies mean? Are they the answer to Facebooks data selling misconduct or the fact that Equifax dragged its feet for months before informing the public of its massive data breach? Is it the action of our government finally coming to our rescue? In this episode of Working the Web to Win, we will find answers to these questions and many more as we delve into the meaning of the new GDPR law here in the United States. So, get ready to dig deep as the implications of the General Data Protection Regulation spreads across the fruited plain.

Echo For The Prosecution

By Carl Weiss

Courtesy of  Flickr

“Do you swear to tell the data, the whole data and nothing but the data, so help you Intel?”

“Dwee Doo.”

When you think about it, it almost seems like a plot for a sci-fi movie.  The police, while investigating a murder, bring in for questioning an Android.  Said Android was witness to murder.  The prosecution via the courts compels the Android to testify as to what it heard when the murder occurred.

The State of Internet Privacy & Security in America Today

Courtesy of technotification.com

By Hector Cisneros

Our world is an ever widening set of connections, growing in complexity and diversity every day.  With each new type of connection comes the potential for hacking.  Every new Internet of things (IoT) device comes with the potential for loss of privacy. With each new type of counter-surveillance comes the potential for abuse from the government and criminals as well. Most of the technology we have invented sprang from an idea of how to make things easier, more user-friendly, and more useful to the average person. This approach often neglects the necessary safeguards needed to protect unsophisticated users from very intelligent and sophisticated criminals bent on taking advantage of the loopholes present in technology that has been rushed to market. In this episode of Working the Web to Win, we will cover the current state of US internet privacy and security, so that every consumer will be prepared for the onslaught of loss of privacy that is coming. So read on and learn how to protect yourself in the current era of Internet insecurity.

These Cookies are Anything but Sweet

Courtesy of  Pigsels

By Carl Weiss

It used to be that cookies were a sweet treat.  But not anymore.  That’s because everyone from search engines and media conglomerates, to advertisers and cybercriminals have learned how to use these tasty online morsels to sweeten their deal – regardless of what it means to you.  If you are tired of getting the “Betty Crocker Treatment” every time you surf the web, feast your eyes on today’s blog where we will show you how to start counting calories online.

How Do I Hack Thee? Let Me Count the Ways – A Cyberstalking Primer

By Carl Weiss

Photo Credit: inspireleads.com

Valentine ’s Day, a day for sweethearts, lovers, married couples and anyone with love in their hearts. But what happens when love is lost? What happens in our modern society when ex-lovers, sweethearts and couples hit the skids and go their separate ways? What happens when one or both of the ex-enamored ones decided they didn’t get treated right, or worse, they decided to dish out some malevolent treatment of their own?

With Valentine’s Day right around the corner, I thought I’d take the time to give all of our readers a little lesson on what can happen when a former long, lost love refuses to get lost.  I’m talking about the all-too-common practice of cyberstalking.  Along with hacking, this technocrime is on the rise worldwide.  If you want to avoid being your significant other’s online punching bag, you need to take precautions before the rose becomes a thornier issue, if you hope to have a moment’s peace should your relationship go kaput.

Is Google Watching You?

By Hector Cisneros

Courtesy of flickr.com

Is Google watching you?  

A better question is, “Who isn't watching you?”  You hear about it in the news every day. The NSA is grabbing tons of consumer information without any legal authority. Weekly you hear about security breaches at large corporations like Target and other major department stores.  Banking institutions are being hacked for millions of dollars, yet billion of consumers are passively giving up their privacy to free email services, social network subscriptions and smart phone applications. Software applications have had "so-called" artificial intelligence installed since the late '90s. Word processors guess at what you mean while you type. Smartphones often do the same. What does all this mean to your privacy? This article will explore how the internet has removed most of your communications privacy. Now Google, social networks and the major software players all have their sites trained on what you're doing with the intention of getting more of your money. Worse of all, legions of criminals and even our own government is spying on all of us. So read on and learn. Forewarned is forearmed.

Who’s Watching the Watchers?

By Carl Weiss

Courtesy of Flickr

Like him or loathe him, Edward Snowden let the cat out of the bag when he revealed that the NSA was using digital surveillance including phone and internet monitoring of millions of Americans.  While some people label him a traitor, others including Rep. Justin Amash(R-Mich.) call him a whistleblower. The Michigan Republican himself admitted that were it not for Snowden’s revelations, Congress as well as the public was in the dark as to the breadth and scope of the NSA’s nefarious activities.