Your own personalised stalker
It always seemed slightly creepy that your computer shows advertising that is strangely accurately targeted at things you might have been interested in. On the surface, that seems quite useful. If you have to tolerate ads on your screen, at least having them show things you were interested in seems helpful.
Instead, we wonder how the system knows. It feels like a breach of our privacy.
It all starts when you install an app, and it pops up a question asking for permission to use your location, and/or your camera and/or your microphone.
This is useful for advertisers. For example, they can use your location. If the app reports this back to the content provider, they can match up your location and compare you to other people nearby. If you tend to go to the same places as other people, you are probably interested in the same things, so an advertiser might use that assumption to present advertising to you, or other people that you spend time with.
That does sound a bit overreaching, but we reluctantly agree to the presented terms simply because we want to use the app. If that is a condition of use, and we want to use the app, then we agree.
So, now we are seeing consumers getting the choice to push back.
Apple
Now, with iOS15, Apple are saying that you will get to see what apps are accessing your data. You will be able to see when an app used that permission, and there it was sent to. Whether that list of third party sites is any use or not is meaningful is unclear.
Not quite as advanced but following quickly behind is Google Android. With Android 12, you will have the option to de-personalise your data. They will still track usage, but won’t link it back to you.
Is there any truth to the rumour that your phone or TV is listening to you, and presented content based on private conversations it overhears?
Given how poor the voice recognition is on phones , cars, or tools like Alexa or Siri, its pretty evident this can’t be reality. If it, is, then heaven only knows what it thinks it’s hearing. The voice recognition tools are getting better all the time, but there is a long way to go.
Working in the community
Helping you help others Our business purpose statement is to help our community by helping the organisations within it achieve their goals. We do that with IT that is reliable and more importantly, does the job they need to make them successful. Occasionally...
Highlights of Microsoft Inspire – Day Two
It's not the same doing conferences remotely. Nevertheless, it's important to keep us current with our industry and Day Two of Microsoft Inspire was no different, We've already posted about day one. Day two highlighted the application of the latest Microsoft...
How do you manage IT properly without an IT Manager?
IT Management Made Easy Technology has the potential to greatly enhance not only how your staff communicate and collaborate with each other, but also enhance how they deliver services to the clients they work with. IT Management as a Service (ITMaaS) is Kinetics...
Highlights of Microsoft Inspire – Day One
"Live from .. not Las Vegas .." Microsoft Inspire is their annual showcase business event for their IT partners like Kinetics. We’ve been attending this conference in the US for many years. Normally we’d be in the US this week to learn, share, network and grow with...
What you need to know about the massive global ransomware cyber-attack over the weekend
The Risk Is Real. Over the weekend, thousands of businesses were caught up in a global cyber-attack that is being blamed on a Russian hacker group called Revil. It is disappointing when geo-politics impacts everyday business, and the reports talk about President Biden...
(yet) another reason Why paying ransomware demands hurts. (The FBI agrees)
We don't negotiate with terrorists Recently, we asked the question if organisations should pay ransomware demands. There is a balance between desperation and the uneasy knowledge that you might be funding further criminal attacks on the community. We’ve just read a...
Improvements in Outlook calendars
Outlook is getting a faceliftToday’s pressures demand we jam more activity into less time. There seem to be more meetings, workshops and events than ever, even if many are virtual. Unfortunately, managing these commitments doesn’t seem to get any easier. Most of us...
Windows 11 – Coming soon to your PC?
This morning, we're hearing about Windows 11 coming to a PC near you within a few months (ahead of "the holiday season" in the US) So, do you care? We're a bit curious. Microsoft have had a patchy record with Windows (pun intended). Every second version seems to be a...
Pretending to be you or your colleagues
Just because it seems safe, doesn't mean it is. On some emails, you might see a warning that marks them as being ‘external’. This gets added as the email comes into your organisation. The idea is a simple one – if you see an email marked as external, then you will be...
Did you know that Microsoft Word has an option for sharing documents with colleagues so they can read and comment, but not change them?
Review Mode Now you can share documents with colleagues so they can comment, but NOT change your hard work. You can turn it on when you share by clicking on the “People you specify can edit >” line of the sharing window. That will mean they can open your document...