Internet/E-commerce Archive

Like Goo-Gone for Google…Protect Yourself from Google’s Personal Data Grab

February 29th, 2012. By AbiK

Grippy-grabby Google is about to get a whole lot more up-close and personal beginning in March. That’s when all the convenience their new privacy policy is supposed provide officially kicks in. For many, however, the ‘convenience’ is merely a euphemism for ‘intrusion’ and only reinforces the notion that ‘internet privacy’ is the oxymoron of our age. Googlers can,however, make a change to their Google profiles to help stop the intrusion.

If you’ve seen the “We’re changing our privacy policy” notices all over anything and everything Google, and you’ve clicked “Learn more” you’ve seen that the new policy reflects Google’s “desire to create one beautifully simple and intuitive experience across Google”. (Red flag word = ‘intuitive’—ain’t nothing technologically intuitive out there that hasn’t first had some data input to create that intuition; in this instance, it’s Google trawling your every click and collecting the breadcrumbs you’ve dropped along the way).

So for those of you who don’t want the convenience of Google presenting you with intuitively targeted ads on your Google search screens based on your activity on Google’s entire suite of products—like what videos you viewed on YouTube or what you clicked with Google Plus—well, now’s the time to delete your Google web history—and press the proverbial ‘pause’ button on Google’s ability to continue to store your web history. Think of it as Goo Gone®* for Google.

Here’s how to Delete your Google Web History and Protect your Privacy:

1. Sign into your Google account.

2. Type the following URL into your browser bar: https://google.com/history and hit Enter (or Return)

3. Click “Remove All Web History”

That’s it—simply by doing that, you will also stop Google from collecting your web history, until such a time if and when you feel the need for Google to do so again.

Needless to say, this won’t protect you from all things Google—but it sure is a step in right direction when it comes to internet privacy.

*This is not an endorsement of Goo Gone by LawyersandSettlements.com, however, the author does keep Goo Gone on hand to get out of sticky situations.

Tags: Google Ads, Google privacy, Google Web History, Internet Privacy, Online Privacy
Posted in Emerging Issues, Internet/E-commerce | 2 Comments »

Facedumped & Filing a Lawsuit: Love, Facebook Style

July 14th, 2011. By AbiK

Girl plays Mafia Wars.

Boy plays Mafia Wars.

They’re in the same clan!

Boy lives in Washington.

Girl lives in Michigan.

So what?

They chat.

They graduate to the phone.

They really chat—sometimes 8 or 9 hours a day!

Girl sends boy gifts.

Girl books flight to Washington. Books hotel.

Tickets to the Mariners’ opening game, too!

Girl hears from Boy just before big trip.

Boy tells girl she can visit.. as a friend.

Boy says wrong thing!

No Boy no!

Boy oh boy. Well, that’s the abbreviated version. There’s a few other critical details—like the girl, Cheryl Gray a paralegal from Livonia, MI—is 50, though she allegedly first told the boy, Wylie Iwan of Washington, she was 42…that indicate this relationship was, of course, off to a good honest start.

But the story gets better. See, that flight, hotel, game tickets cost a pretty sum. And Cheryl must’ve thought about that after she got Facedumped (yes, it’s reported Wylie said the “F”word via Facebook…F as in “friend“, that is). And she thought about the Christmas gifts and Valentine’s Day flowers she sent. Perhaps she reflected on the dearth of those coming her way, as there are no reports of any FTD deliveries heading eastbound with this one.

And, as we’ve all heard, hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, right?

So after giving it thought, what does this paralegal do? She files a lawsuit.

On May 18th, Cheryl Gray filed civil lawsuit against Wylie Iwan seeking $8,368.88 for misrepresentation (would shaving 8 years off your age be “misrepresentation” too? just asking…), promissory estoppel, defamation of character and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

Keep in mind, this, from a woman who’s never met this man “live”. They sort of dated via Facebook. For about 3 months. Oh hell, who am I kidding—they talked. They didn’t “date”—at least not in the traditional sense. And, sadly, talk can be quite cheap especially when it’s only happening on a Facebook chat screen. Seriously.

I’m also wondering how these two—both apparently have children—managed to “chat” with each other for up to 9 hours at a clip—and play Mafia Wars? Might’ve been some clues there to answer that age-old “is it a match made in heaven?” question.

Regardless, is there really a lawsuit here?

I don’t think so.

Hurt? Definitely. Humiliation? Granted. Dishonesty? Perhaps. Cause for litigation? Uh…not seeing it.

I feel badly for Cheryl Gray. She fell and fell hard. But I don’t see a broken heart after a pseudo three-month online relationship as lawsuit worthy. So, Cheryl, maybe the best thing would be to just turn and walk away. Kinda reminds me of  that Joe Walsh song “Walk Away”. And with that, while you’re in break-up mode, rather than embracing your anger in a lawsuit, I’ll leave you with a spur of the moment love-gone-wrong playlist to drown your sorrows in:

Alanis Morissette, “You Oughta Know”

Beyonce, “Irreplaceable”

Beyonce, “Best Thing I Never Had”

Fleetwood Mac, “Go Your Own Way”

Steven Stills/CSN, “I Give You Give Blind”

The Supremes, “Where Did Our Love Go?”

Bonnie Raitt, “I Can’t Make You Love Me”

U2, “One”

Elvis Presley, “Suspicious Minds”

Lynyrd Skynyrd, “Free Bird”

Tags: Cheryl Gray, Facebook, Facebook Lawsuit, Facedumped, Wylie Iwan
Posted in Emerging Issues, Internet/E-commerce, lawsuits | No Comments »

What Happens When Facebook Face Scan Screws Up?

June 8th, 2011. By AbiK

Can you spell L-A-W-S-U-I-T?

As the adage goes, give them an inch, they’ll take a mile. And Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook are giving credence to the phrase with this whole face scanning bit. Internet privacy be damned is apparently the underlying mantra of all that Facebook is becoming.

The latest “isn’t technology great?!” app that Facebook will be deploying focuses on all those wonderful Kodak moments that you load onto your Facebook page. Facebook will launch the software that will scan the faces in all uploaded images—yes, yours too—on the site in a few weeks, according to CNN.com.

The face scanning app will “recognize” you (I love the innocuous feel to that—like I’ve just run into Facebook in the produce aisle at Winn-Dixie and they’ve “recognized” me with a “Hi! Great to see you again!”. Bullsh#t.) and your friends on any given picture. The face scanning program will then suggest the name of the person in the picture. Aww shucks, Facebook’s helping us all tag our friends in photos so we only have to check a box! Bullsh#t.

What’s wrong with having Facebook face scans? I’ll tell you:

1. Facebook Face Scan and Privacy are Like Oil and Water.

See, here’s the thing: all Facebook users have automatically been included in the database for the face scanning. Oh, sure, you can “opt out” but you shouldn’t have to opt out—you should have to opt IN. By going ahead and taking your image, face scanning you and letting you opt out, Facebook already has you in the database, they just won’t “suggest” your name in any photos if you opt out.

Did you agree to be in that database for that purpose? No. When you signed on to have a wall on Facebook, I’m betting that wasn’t part of what you agreed to. And this is yet one more time that users are being told to opt out of some new functionality on FB that they don’t want to be a part of. Remember the need to opt out of Instant Personalization? When folks have gone as far as to create a damn Wiki page to provide instruction on how to opt out of a Facebook app, things have gone too far. But Facebook missed that memo. On the other hand, Google recently chose to NOT release face scan technology it had developed—for privacy reasons. Kudos to Google.

Note to Facebook: when you want to flaunt new technology, capabilities, toys and tools—ask your constituents first whether they want to be a part of it at all before making them opt out of it.

2. What if Facebook Face Scan Identifies the Wrong Person?

I’m guessing that Facebook Face Scan will follow the 80/20 rule when it comes to accurately assigning an identity to a face scan. A number of reports currently on the web put in question its ability to be completely accurate. And it leaves you with this WWFD?—What Will Facebook Do?—with your face scan question. Will they get it right?

I think back to the poor girl whose picture was incorrectly blasted all over the internet in the famed Kobe Bryant case—remember the one in Colorado where Bryant had a little rendezvous? To quote that girl’s lawyer, Sienna LaRene, who at the time was interviewed by Anderson Cooper on CNN, “I think down the road when the dust settles, there is absolutely no question that libel—a libelous situation exists, based on the reckless dissemination of these photographs without any attempt to check if this, in fact, was the complainant in the case. Albeit that would have been bad enough….Reckless? Absolutely. Potential libel suit, absolutely.”

It’s like a bad “separated at birth” dream. And it’s bound to happen. With private investigators out there like Steven Rambam who references sites like Facebook with a “Thank you very much!” for supplying him with an all-access pass to an incredible amount of personal information—it’s easy to see how serious a misidentification can be. Mind you, Rambam would do his homework first and make sure he’s got his man.

But if you think that your “friends” are mini-Rambam’s who will only check off that image tag box if they have the right person, consider the high school kid with 700 images loaded from various parties. Hmm, is that Karen in that pic? Yeah—I think so… I don’t need to tell you what situations might arise for “Karen’s” image to be broadcast around the web.

And the general public is not as discerning with these things as you think. Case in point: I’ve had—seriously—several people ask me if I’m Nicole Brown Simpson. No kidding. To which I respond, “She’s dead.” Doesn’t matter. That actually reminds me of PCWorld’s headline about Facebook Face Scanning being “Creepy”. It is. (And I love their comical suggestion to start uploading “random pictures of trees and animals and stuffed toys and tag them as yourself.” Very funny @geeklil)

So welcome Facebook face scan, and welcome privacy lawsuits—they’re bound to happen. And potentially libel lawsuits, too. That’s my prediction. In the interim, get your mouse and click over to Facebook for..

How to Opt Out of Facebook Face Scan Sharing

1. Go to Account > Account Settings > Privacy

2. Click on the little link “Customize Settings”

3. Go to “Things Others Share” section

4. Go to “Suggest Photos of Me to Friends” and edit the settings to “Disable”

Do it—now!

Tags: Face Recognition, Face Scanning, Facebook, Facebook Friends, Internet Privacy, Libel Lawsuit, Photo Tagging, Privacy Lawsuit
Posted in Emerging Issues, Internet/E-commerce | 1 Comment »

Pissed off Canadian Tells Sony ‘Game On’ with PlayStation Class Action

May 5th, 2011. By Hunter West

Natasha Maksimovic is mad as hell and she deserves to be. 

Natasha is the 21-year-old resident of Mississauga, a city in the Greater Toronto corridor in Canada, serving as the lead plaintiff of a proposed class action lawsuit against Sony over the potential theft of personal information. 

There are some 77 million people worldwide who may agree with her. 

At issue is personal information belonging to gamers and users of Sony PlayStation and Oriocity systems. Such information includes, but may not be limited to names, street addresses, birthdates, passwords, security answers, logins, billing information, and so on. 

Sony has reportedly apologized for the breach and offered a 30, or 60-day free membership for users on its PlayStation network. 

Maksimovic says that’s not good enough. “If you can’t trust a huge multi-national corporation like Sony to protect your private information, who can you trust?” she asks. 

Exactly. 

It appears that Sony has done two things wrong. First, the electronics juggernaut appears to have dropped the ball in protecting its system sufficiently from hackers who constantly cruise the Internet looking for portals to plunder. Second, they appear to have taken the potential theft of 77 million sets of personal information worldwide—about a million in Canada—somewhat lightly. 

The lawsuit alleges that Sony was aware of the breach, but failed to advise clients in a Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: hackers, internet security, Natasha Maksimovic, Oriocity, Play Station, Privacy, Sony, Sony Class Action, Sony PlayStation
Posted in Class Action, Internet/E-commerce | 2 Comments »

Facebook Made a Hero out of Adam Guerbuez

October 7th, 2010. By Hunter West

Okay, we’ve all heard about him by now. “The 873 Million Dollar Man,” otherwise known as Adam Guerbuez, the Montreal computer whiz and self-confessed internet marketer who was found to have sent millions of unwanted and uninvited solicitations to Facebook users for everything from erectile dysfunction and penis enlargements to marijuana products. 

Facebook took him to court, and two years ago a California court convicted Guerbuez of violating US anti-spam laws. He was fined a couple of hundred bucks for every spam (advertisement) he sent, which totals $873.3 million, when you add it all up. 

Last week the Quebec Superior Court upheld the US ruling, in theory requiring Guerbuez to pay the judgment. 

Give me a break. 

First of all, no one of Guerbuez’s financial stature and position has that kind of money lying around. This is just a guy and a laptop. And if you want to be really impressed, that $873.3 million when converted to Canadian funds at the 2008 exchange rate equates too more than a billion dollars Canadian. 

That’s like the US music publishing industry fining a single mom millions of dollars for allegedly pulling off music from peer Internet music sites without permission, violating copyright. Or fining some guy millions of dollars for pulling movies off the web before their theatrical release. 

Okay, if they re-sold this stuff and made millions, then such a fine would be appropriate. But they’re not. We’re talking a single mom pulling down tunes because her daughter is Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Adam Guerbuez, Facebook, Million Dollar Man
Posted in Intellectual Property, Internet/E-commerce | No Comments »