Monday, April 26, 2010

Google and your MAC Address now with Street View

10.27.10, I've updated this article to include some recent news about Street View below.

Google CEO apparently has a total disregard for your privacy:

... have long desired the ability to cross reference the Mac address of a user's connection with their real identity and virtual identity, such as their Gmail or Facebook account.

... Google CEO Eric Schmidt recently said internet users shouldn't worry about privacy unless they have something to hide.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/04/22/google_streetview_logs_wlans/

Update 10.27.10.
Here is a related article about Street View and how Google has appointed a "director of privacy" (a bit late I think) regarding after

Google announced that it had accidentally collected passwords, e-mails and other personal information from random Wi-Fi users while working on its Street View feature.

They go on to say

said employees will get enhanced privacy training during orientation, and starting in December, all employees will be required to take part in a security-awareness program.

Also a bit late I think, they have been required to have Privacy and Security Training since 2003.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/web/10/26/google.street.view/index.html?hpt=Sbin

CNN.com has a collection of articles on this topic here
http://topics.cnn.com/topics/google_street_view

Bllippy

I meant to post this earlier when I heard of it through a more direct source, but again, buyer beware it seems, and I may post more soon about Google and them showing your house online based on your computer's MAC address which is commonly tied to email and other online activity, but back to Blippy:

several credit card transactions shared on social networking site Blippy have been exposed -- with full credit card numbers included -- in Google search results.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/04/23/credit.card.numbers.mashable/index.html?hpt=Sbin

Sunday, April 4, 2010

Free credit reports: not so free

As many of you know, I was telling you this at least two years ago:

As part of the new CARD Act of 2009, companies advertising free credit reports are now required to clearly disclose that what's being marketed isn't the free credit report you're entitled to receive by law.

http://money.cnn.com/2010/04/02/pf/free_credit_report/index.htm


AnnualCreditReport.com is the official site to help consumers to obtain their free credit report.
https://www.annualcreditreport.com/cra/index.jsp

Fighting identity theft not a priority, report says

Apparently we need to be vigilant looking out for ourselves, as many of you know.

Ten million Americans a year are victims of identity theft. It's a growing problem in the United States, but fighting it doesn't appear to be a priority, a new report says.


http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/03/30/identity.theft/index.html?iref=allsearch

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