Having received the “either pay your eFax bill up front for a year or suffer a 30% increase in your monthly rate” notice of eFax increasing their rates, we chose, instead, to cancel our eFax account.
Jonathan McRae was arrested while wearing an Anonymous mask during a public hearing regarding election and voting issues in Maricopa county, Arizona. Note that we did not say that he was arrested for wearing the Anonymous mask, but rather while wearing the Anonymous (Guy Fawkes) mask. And, in fact, the mask wasn’t even covering his face (he had it up on his head – see the below video link).
One of the advantages of having a Target Red card, whether the credit card or check debit card, in addition to free shipping when you order online from Target, was that you could feel good that 5% of the profits from your purchase were being given by Target to a school of your choice, through the Target Take Charge of Education program. Well, not any more. Target has just announced that they are terminating the Target Take Charge of Education program, effective six months from now, in May, 2016.
Once again Facebook, your friendly social media hotspot, is the target of marketers wanting and gaining access to your personal data — as a loyalty frequent shopper card program can use that data to cross-reference your likes and interactions to target your pocketbook. And all of it is correlated to you, personally, without so much as a choice to opt-in.
Whether you call it spear phishing, spear fishing, or spearphishing, it’s a computer hack of your email in a way that’s targeted toward you, where you work, or a group you belong to. And, it masquerades as coming from someone you know and trust from your family, friends, workplace, or social group.
A hacker, who goes by the name “Guccifer”, has hacked the email accounts of former president George W. Bush, as well as the accounts of his family and friends, and has taken to posting his findings online, including private photos, emails and private home addresses. Guccifer told The Smoking Gun, who broke the story, that he isn’t worried about the feds coming after him because they have actually been investigating him for awhile and this latest stunt is “just another chapter in the game.”
Notre Dame star linebacker Manti Te’o, during an interview with ABC News’ Katie Couric, has confessed to at least having some knowledge of the fact that his girlfriend Lennay Kekua was fake. At least in the end. And in an even more bizarre turn of events, one of the hoax perpetrators, Ronaiah Tuiasosopo, has admitted through his attorney that he was the voice of Lennay in phone calls to Manti.
If you have cats, you may not realize that you are living with cold-blooded killers, at least you are according to New Zealand man Gareth Morgan. According to him, the country of New Zealand must eradicate cats, and then ban cats, in order to save the birds. Garrett Morgan has launched an online petition to completely get rid of cats in New Zealand, and even suggests euthanasia as an option for current cat owners.
Notre Dame athletic director, Jack Swarbrick has confirmed that the school’s star football player, Manti Te’o, is a victim of an Internet hoax. Te’o’s girlfriend, Lennay Kekua, was a complete fabrication and reports that she died from leukemia during the 2012 football season are a lie. Initial reports had Te’o as part of the hoax, but Te’o and his family are flatly denying this, saying that Te’o is profoundly hurt and embarrassed by the entire situation.
Hailed as a rapist and stalker’s haven, “Girls Around Me” is not only a creepy app in its concept, it enables iPhone and android users to track nearby women based on their geographic location. The information is aggregated from check-ins through Facebook and Four Square, and perhaps what makes it the creepiest app, and why it is being called the “stalking app,” is because if a user of the app likes what he initially sees about the girl, he can see more information about her as pulled from her Four Square account and Facebook link, including more photos of her.
Update: We have just learned that Senator Leahy has withdrawn his support for the amendments to the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA). He received resounding criticism from many groups and private citizens who felt that the revisions are unconstitutional and a gross invasion of privacy. In a series of tweets, below, Senator Leahy said that he did not support the bill amendments, and seems to deny that he ever did.
Facebook has found yet another way to monetize their product users. Their Promoted Posts feature, coming to the U.S. allows users to butt their way to the front of the line, gaining posts that they feel are important more visibility in their friends’ news feeds, for a $7 per post fee.
College professor Timothy Messer-Kruse didn’t think that something as small as making a tiny edit a Wikipedia page would spark national headlines, but it has. After finding proof that a historical event, the Haymarket Square riot, did not quite happen the way historians have long believed, Messer-Kruse decided to update the Wikipedia page of the event to reflect his findings. What he found was that it was going to be an uphill battle to make that change.