Category Archives: socialmedia

Facebook Will Verify the Physical Location of Ad Buyers with Paper Postcards

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It’s not a great solution, but it’s something: The process of using postcards containing a specific code will be required for advertising that mentions a specific candidate running for a federal office, Katie Harbath, Facebook’s global director of policy programs, said. The requirement will not apply to issue-based political ads, she said. "If you run an ad mentioning a candidate,… Continue reading Facebook Will Verify the Physical Location of Ad Buyers with Paper Postcards→

Department of Homeland Security to Collect Social Media of Immigrants and Citizens

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New rules give the DHS permission to collect "social media handles, aliases, associated identifiable information, and search results" as part of people’s immigration file. The Federal Register has the details, which seems to also include US citizens that communicate with immigrants. This is part of the general trend to scrutinize people coming into the US more, but it’s hard to… Continue reading Department of Homeland Security to Collect Social Media of Immigrants and Citizens→

The Data Tinder Collects, Saves, and Uses

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Under European law, service providers like Tinder are required to show users what information they have on them when requested. This author requested, and this is what she received: Some 800 pages came back containing information such as my Facebook "likes," my photos from Instagram (even after I deleted the associated account), my education, the age-rank of men I was… Continue reading The Data Tinder Collects, Saves, and Uses→

Book Review: Twitter and Tear Gas, by Zeynep Tufekci

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There are two opposing models of how the Internet has changed protest movements. The first is that the Internet has made protesters mightier than ever. This comes from the successful revolutions in Tunisia (2010-11), Egypt (2011), and Ukraine (2013). The second is that it has made them more ineffectual. Derided as "slacktivism" or "clicktivism," the ease of action without commitment… Continue reading Book Review: Twitter and Tear Gas, by Zeynep Tufekci→

New Technique to Hijack Social Media Accounts

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Access Now has documented it being used against a Twitter user, but it also works against other social media accounts: With the Doubleswitch attack, a hijacker takes control of a victim’s account through one of several attack vectors. People who have not enabled an app-based form of multifactor authentication for their accounts are especially vulnerable. For instance, an attacker could… Continue reading New Technique to Hijack Social Media Accounts→

Spear Phishing Attacks

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Really interesting research: "Unpacking Spear Phishing Susceptibility," by Zinaida Benenson, Freya Gassmann, and Robert Landwirth. Abstract: We report the results of a field experiment where we sent to over 1200 university students an email or a Facebook message with a link to (non-existing) party pictures from a non-existing person, and later asked them about the reasons for their link clicking… Continue reading Spear Phishing Attacks→

Passwords at the Border

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The password-manager 1Password has just implemented a travel mode that tries to protect users while crossing borders. It doesn’t make much sense. To enable it, you have to create a list of passwords you feel safe traveling with, and then you can turn on the mode that only gives you access to those passwords. But since you can turn it… Continue reading Passwords at the Border→

The Quick vs. the Strong: Commentary on Cory Doctorow’s Walkaway

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Technological advances change the world. That’s partly because of what they are, but even more because of the social changes they enable. New technologies upend power balances. They give groups new capabilities, increased effectiveness, and new defenses. The Internet decades have been a never-ending series of these upendings. We’ve seen existing industries fall and new industries rise. We’ve seen governments… Continue reading The Quick vs. the Strong: Commentary on Cory Doctorow’s Walkaway→

Yacht Security

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Turns out, multi-million dollar yachts are no more secure than anything else out there: The ease with which ocean-going oligarchs or other billionaires can be hijacked on the high seas was revealed at a superyacht conference held in a private members club in central London this week. […] Murray, a cybercrime expert at BlackBerry, was demonstrating how criminal gangs could… Continue reading Yacht Security→