How to Harden Your Smartphone Against Stalkers

As things move to the Cloud, the chances that someone is going to be able to watch your whereabouts through your own phone – not with some agreed upon Find My Friends  app – but by using your password and a “safety” application like Find My Phone, on the iPhone for example, are increasing many fold. For extensive instructions on what to do and how to do it to prevent this from happening, take a look at these two articles – one for the iPhone and one for Android. If you have had a recent messy break-up, these articles are definitely a must. Stop phone stalkers dead in their tracks.

Facebook to Sell Apps

Facebook unveiled a new hub for consumers to find games and other apps on the social network, including its first storefront for selling paid apps, in the company's latest effort to expand the ways it makes money from its massive audience. The new App Center, which Facebook says will launch in the next few weeks, comes as the company is preparing an initial public offering that would value the company between $77 billion and $96 billion. A key concern for investors is Facebook's slowing revenue growth, due in part to the widening trend of consumers accessing its service on smartphones, where Facebook provides limited ads. On the safety side, take note that Facebook will not be vetting these apps except those it actually sells itself. There will be a lot of pointers to mobile apps on other stores as well in the store. Buyer beware.

Banning Self Harm Posts

Instagram, Tumblr, and Pinterest all now have policies that ban “self harm” posts that condone or encourage eating disorders, self mutilation, or committing suicide. In December, the National Suicide Prevention LifeLine teamed with Facebook on a service that lets users of the social network click a link to begin a live chat with a suicide counselor or to report posts that might indicate suicidal behavior.

When Children See Porn on the Internet

Parents are now finding in addition to the “birds and the bees” talk with little kids and the later “healthy sex” talk with teens, they are having to have the "pornography talk." Accidently encountering Internet porn usually is set off by some random wandering online or deliberate searches of a curious teenager, but either way it is causing parents to have to confront how to explain away what children come upon.  A recent article in The New York Times entitled “So How Do We Talk About This?” covers advice from experts and parents alike who have faced this problem. The most common mistake parents make, experts said, is to wait to have the conversation until some incident precipitates it. They urge parents to be preemptive and open. Need some help on managing explicit online content at home, on your phone, and anywhere else the Internet travels? Take a look at the Motherlode blog entry on the subject for a checklist.

Looking to Change Your Email Provider?

Looking to change your email account, but you’re afraid of privacy issues? Take a look at “It's not crazy to pay for an email account” on the USA TODAY  site. Google’s Gmail has its merits, but knowing that no one except your correspondents are reading your messages is not one of them. On Gmail, automated software scans your email account and sends out advertisements that match the results. Kind of creepy.

Smashing Devices?

Before recycling a Windows XP laptop, netbook or Android smartphone you might want to consider that you might need to blow the thing to smithereens first if you really want to wipe it of all your sensitive data, says McAfee identity theft expert Robert Siciliano, in USA TODAY. Siciliano bought 30 random used devices off Craigslist and tested them and found that while half were wiped clean, the other half revealed all kinds of sensitive data including bank account numbers and records, work documents and Social Security numbers. Apple's iPad and iPhone and Research In Motion's BlackBerry don't represent the same risk, he says. But you should reset your used Apple or RIM device to the original factory settings before it leaves your possession.

Covering Your Tracks on the Internet

“There are no secrets online,” writes Kate Murphy, in the Personal Tech section of The New York Times and she is right. Whatever email you sent in a fit of pique, those vulture videos you watched to help out a friend’s daughter who is a field biologist and that illness you checked out online – they are all part of an online profile of you that can be easily gathered. That information can then be stored, analyzed, categorized and synthesized and then sold as a package deal to data brokers who in turn can sell it without a “by your leave” to advertisers, employers, health insurers, or credit rating agencies. So what can you do to help cover your tracks on the Internet? Murphy outlines several ideas in her article, “How to Muddy your Tracks on the Internet”, to help readers try to figure out the best balance between cost, convenience, and privacy.

Becoming a Gmail Power User

Want to block app developers from accessing your info just because you are a Gmail user? Did you forget to log out of your Gmail account on a public computer but don’t have time to go back and logout? Who is that John Smith who keeps sending you emails? Find out how to solve these problems and more by catching up on "How to become a Gmail power-user".

The Future of Money in a Mobile Age

When I use the Starbucks app on my smart phone to pay for a cup of tea in the morning, I often think how convenient it is and wonder when our wallets will become unnecessary as long as we have our phones. Now, the folks at the Pew Internet and American Life Project have done a survey on just that subject and their findings are fairly predictable. Many people (65%) surveyed said that the security, convenience, and other benefits of “mobile wallet” systems will lead to widespread adoption of these technologies for everyday purchases by 2020.  Others—including some who are generally positive about the future of mobile payments—expect this process to unfold relatively slowly due to a combination of privacy fears, a desire for anonymous payments, demographic inertia, a lack of infrastructure to support widespread adoption, and resistance from those with a financial stake in the existing payment structure.

How Distracting Are Voice Controls?

As car manufacturers add more and more voice controls to new vehicles, the jury is out on how distracting they are. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration proposed guidelines in February for in-car technology, but it isn't addressing voice controls until at least 2014.  In the meantime, some research seems to show that reaction times are slower when drivers are working with controls on their car that are voice activated. The good news? The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS)  spokesman, Russ Rader, calls voice controls an "unsettled area of research," but he notes that crash rates "are plunging," including both fatal crashes and fender benders. IIHS expected both would increase as cellphone usage did.