If you care about your online privacy, you should read this

People are paying for digital services with their personal information. This is only becoming worse. I am talking about smartphones, social media and online games. You pay with your privacy, whether you want to or not, because you have ‘’no choice’’. You just follow the crowd. Many people have an iPhone, use Twitter, play Wordfued or Draw Something. They also agree to a huge list of conditions (which almost nobody  reads), and give away all the personal information to a few American organizations who can do whatever they want to with your information. You tell them everything; who you are, what you like, who you know, what kind of music you listen to, and the movies you watch. But also; who you are mailing, what you write in a mail, your location and where you are going to. You tell them everything.

In the meantime you are being filmed by security cameras and other iPhones. You are in a video on YouTube, being tagged on Facebook, or someone is mentioning you in a blog or Tweet. All this information will be saved, exchanged and even sold behind your back.

The online privacy is getting more and more public. I am writing this blog post to make you aware of this situation, because one thing seems certain: privacy as we know it today, will no longer exist in the future.

More tips to secure your privacy are coming soon. The next post will be about the privacy on Facebook.

It’s possible to see what others are doing on their smartphone with public WIFI

You can unlock somebody’s phone without having their passwords or locking code. When someone succeed to get access to someone’s phone they can see the call history, voicemail and even make calls.

Secondly, there is a software program that allows people to get in your Facebook/email/Twitter etc, when you are using a public WIFI signal. They can read your (private) messages and even send messages or change some settings. Doug Stewart is giving some tips to avoid this in the video. 

Google tracking Safari users without permission

Google and some advertisers found a way to track millions of Safari users without permission. Safari is the standard web browser of Apple on Macs, iPads and iPhones. Google and the advertisers used a special code to see the activities on Safari. 
Normally, Safari will only accept cookies (data packets with information about the users) through websites the users visits themselves. Other cookies, for example the cookies of advertisers, will be blocked. The special code of Google that was placed in different advertisements made it possible to still send the cookies, so the user would be traceable.
The whole tracking system was made to see whether users were logged into the Google-services because of the +1 system. The +1 system is similar to the liking-system of Facebook. Google deactivated the code when The Wall Street Journal contacted them about this issue. Google says that the data is anonymized now. 

How to tell if you are being tracked on Safari?  

Safari users on a mobile device or a computer
1. Click on ‘’Settings’’ icon
2. Click on ‘’Safari’’
3. Scroll down to the bottom of the screen
4. Click on ‘’Advanced’’
5. Click on ‘’Website data’’
You will see a list of all sites that have stored data on your device. A website that you do not know, could be a tracking company. If you see doubleclick.net in the list, you most likely have a tracking tool on your device. 

Safari users on the computer
1. Go to ‘’Preferences’’ and ‘’Privacy’’
2. Click on ‘’Details’’
You will see a screen including all sites that have stored data on your computer. The sites that you do not recognize storing ‘’Cookies’’ or ‘Local Storage’’ could be tracking companies. 

Apple is trying hard to stop the tracking. If you want to take initiatives to block it yourself, you can follow the more complicated instructions here.

Source: http://www.ubergizmo.com/2012/02/google-owns-up-to-tracking-safari-users/

Source: http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2012/02/16/how-to-tell-if-youre-being-tracked-on-safari/

Spykey - An iPhone app to spy on your computer

The SpyKey app is a software application for the iPhone. With this app it is possible to follow everything someone is typing on a computer live. This app can be downloaded for 3,50 euro and the server application has to be installed on the computer. You can watch over your children, but also spy on your partner or colleagues.

Keylogging is a technique that is also used by hackers to steal bank information. Apple gave permission to sell this application.

Source:  http://www.ubergizmo.com/2011/06/spykey/