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July 2010 Breaking News

Getting constant phone calls, but only dead air or recordings when you answer?

You could be targeted in a new scam directed at stealing money from your accounts, according to the FBI. The new scam combines an earlier "phishing" attack (when thieves stole your account numbers and/or passwords) and a later attack tying up your phone (a "denial of service" attack) so that your financial institutions can not reach you for verification while the thieves clean out your accounts. Read the FBI consumer alert.

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Are These Social Media Practices Endangering Your Privacy and Your Kids’ Privacy?

July 2010

New developments or types of social media launch almost daily. Because such Internet-based applications or programs enable individuals and groups to connect easily and openly to share all types of information, you or your children may be putting private information at risk. Often you may not be aware just how much or what information you are sharing.

Here are just a few recent examples. In late April, Facebook, the largest social network, launched new features including Open Graph/Instant Personalization, with default settings that said yes to sharing more information with third party sites unless you opted out. Although consumer pushback forced Facebook to make some positive changes, there are still potential privacy problems. In February, Google introduced its new social networking program Buzz by enabling it by default for all Gmail users (rather than offering the option to opt in or not); Buzz then would follow everyone in the Gmail users' contact list. In June, Yahoo announced its intention to build social networking Yahoo Updates using the Yahoo email data base. Beyond such controversial participation protocols, however, much more is happening in the social web universe. Did you see where the Library of Congress is going to archive public tweets on Twitter (and the vast majority of tweets are public)? Then, there's Blippy an application that automatically shares all your credit card purchases. The list goes on.

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No-Brainer Tips: Safe Social Networking

By now, everybody (sort of) knows some of the negative aspects of social networking sites: your personal information is shared with many and privacy is pretty non-existent, if you haven't changed your privacy settings.

Has that stopped you or me from using sites such as Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and the like? Of course not. Social networks are fun. But do total strangers and scam artists need to know every detail of your life? Probably not.

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June 2010 Breaking News

Getting constant phone calls, but only dead air or recordings when you answer?

You could be targeted in a new scam directed at stealing money from your accounts, according to the FBI. The new scam combines an earlier "phishing" attack (when thieves stole your account numbers and/or passwords) and a later attack tying up your phone (a "denial of service" attack) so that your financial institutions can not reach you for verification while the thieves clean out your accounts. Read the FBI consumer alert.

Summer Vacation Coming Up?

Read this Identity Theft and Privacy Primer before leaving the house. Why? "When you travel, your risk of exposure to fraud and identity theft may increase," says the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, author of this excellent primer.