Obama sharply criticizes China's plans for new technology rules
I view the stance of President Obama as hypocritical. If the US can and does demand that all access, why can't China ask for the same thing?
In an interview with Reuters, Obama said he was concerned about
Beijing's plans for a far-reaching counterterrorism law that would
require technology firms to hand over encryption keys, the passcodes
that help protect data, and install security "backdoors" in their
systems to give Chinese authorities surveillance access.
Basically many app makers do not encrypt the data they transmit over the Internet, for example Google Maps. So if you have the right Internet Access, you can watch everything they do through the information sent back by Apps. With map programs, they are telling you the location of the person. So you don't even need to physically do anything to track a phone, you can just watch the Internet traffic they send back. Wow! And very clever.
I disagree with the article, I see it as US companies have lost a lot more business than the article mentions. IBM and Cisco have both been lower sales in China and Brazil. And the potential threat to your security by ordering a US electronic product is scary. It's interesting the US government was not allowing US Telecom companies to buy Chinese made equipment due to the perceived security risks, and now it turns out US equipment has been compromised. And it has been mentioned, that the NSA may be deliberately making it easier to compromise privacy, which is making is increasing the risk from other parties. And if your using Snapchat to increase your privacy, I would be careful...
The good news is long term, the revelations will increase the security of personal data. There are a lot of troubling longer term issues which are scary. The fact your Smart Phone has so much data on you, can be easily hacked, and tracks you is troubling. How facial recognition software will decrease your privacy. And the increased use of license plate readers will not help.
The good and bad thing about Google, is it tracks you. Your personal information is used to sell ads more effectively. That is what pays the bills at Google. If there was no Internet Advertising, Google would not exist.
Au Weiwei - NSA surveillance: The US is behaving like China
Excellent read, and troubling. Privacy is a huge concern of mine, and I had a pretty good idea of what was going on. I did not realize that Skype was included in this, I thought it was pretty secure.
Civilization is built on that trust and everyone must fight to defend
it, and to protect our vulnerable aspects – our inner feelings, our
families. We must not hand over our rights to other people. No state
power should be given that kind of trust. Not China. Not the US.
The best comment I read was: I did enjoy one comment I saw somewhere on the interwebs (sorry can't remember where) - that the public would be much more accepting of this behaviour if the NSA gave away a browser, search engine, provided a free mapping service and hosted email.
And if your using Gmail, a good way to increase your security is by using Google Authenticator, its an App on the iTunes store. Usually password recovery is done through an e-mail or text message. Unfortunately both are open to hacking, if somebody has access to your email somehow (such as the Wire Writer who got hacked through Social Engineering through Apple). Or text messages can be redirected if your password is changed.
Passwords can be hacked and found out many ways. Just think about how many times you have gotten a new credit card, since a site you used got hacked supposedly. It's happened to me twice. There have been massive data breaches. I just found this listing some recent data breaches from Kaspersky: http://threatpost.com/en_us/category/topics/data-breaches
Another free tip - if possible, add a password on your credit card. The normal verification questions are not that great.
Something not mentioned was the issue outside of China, of trust / privacy for a Chinese Social Media company. And yes, I am very familiar with privacy issues with FaceBook and Google.
How spies used Facebook to steal Nato chiefs’ details
I am just shocked, that Chinese spies may be responsible (please note sarcasm). How spies used Facebook to steal Nato chiefs’ details - The Telegraph NATO'S most senior commander was at the centre of a major security alert when a series of his colleagues fell for a fake Facebook account opened in his name - apparently by Chinese spies.
Privacy is a big concern of mine, and its a challenge to figure out what should be public, and what is private (keeps me from getting in trouble with my family). And as a business owner, it makes me very careful about customers privacy and understanding concerns.
I was surprised when an author I read, mentioned the transparent society, and in the last couple of months I am finally understanding what he meant. This article/editorial, along with the cartoon, helped me understand that unfortunately to FaceBook, I am a product, and not a customer, unfortunately. And this story about early FaceBook surprised me.
And yes, I have read about Super Cookies and other types of online tracking, and I know all new cell phones have GPS built into them, and I have read about Stingray. And to be fair, I am aware of all the data that Google and other search engines have collected on me, and how this can be combined with other information to build a very detailed portrait of who I am (and this was before Google +)
I learned about E-Mail privacy the hard way, with the golden rule being never send an E-Mail you would not want to be published on the front page of the NY Times. Physical letters were so less likely to be forwarded. And now with twitter, anything you send can be instantly available to everyone!
Privacy is a big issue, both as a business owner, for myself, and my family.
The recent ruckus with Facebook privacy sharing with other sites was eye opening. I did not appreciate that I was not given a choice with their partner sites, except if I went to each partner site.
Advice I got early in my career is never put anything in an E-Mail you would not want on the front page of the NY Times. I would now extend this to Social Networks.
Many customers are careful on giving out their credit cards. After reading this story I can understand this as well as the number of privacy breaches from very large organizations. One good thing of the E-Commerce/Order Entry software I use is it does not even give me access to customer credit card information. There are two areas of privacy that any business should pay a lots of attention to IMHO. The first is privacy. The second is E-Mail such as newsletters. The goal is to give a great customer experience.
