Musings of Old Man Joe

There and back again!

Internet

Social Media & Privacy

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So I finally let Facebook, Instagram, Whats App go as I am sick of wondering where they will either sell my stuff or just plain lose it due to carelessness. If you wonder what Facebook takes from you read their privacy policy it will scare the shit out of you  click here.

I have been agonizing about this for a long time (Go Figure!). Later this year I will formally be starting my own business in website design, and I felt it was correct to have an online presence as my business was online, but I changed my mind, more about that in a later post!

I have found that these social apps don’t really make me more sociable (personally). I just get to see what all the people I know are reading but not how they are feeling or what is going on in their lives. Not that I particularly need updates that much. The only reason it took me so long is there are many people I have worked with and hung out with. I may never see them again in real life but I could keep contact in some way. But at what cost if my info is hacked and I have to change my passwords and all the other crap that’s involve when your data is stolen. So I wanted to come on here and say that if you look there are alternatives to Facebook that are in fact the next generation of social media, and it’s quite exciting!

One Facebook alternative that I may try is MeWe as it’s based around privacy, and when you post a picture of your kids you still own the pictures not the company you posted it to.
The difference is that you pay for services, which is the model in Asia, and means you are not the commodity, the services are the commodity. This is a fundamental difference and it’s important. There are many other social apps, but they are very specific in the types of social interaction they present. I felt this was the closest as a replacement of Facebook.

This is from their website:
MeWe is free for members because privacy is not something anyone should ever have to pay for. All the great features that people love in social media and none of the BS are free and standard on MeWe including: private 1:1 and group chat; private and open groups; disappearing content; custom camera with Gif creation; live voice and live video; next-gen voice messaging; personal social cloud; custom group profiles; and much more.

In addition there are optional special features including extra storage (8GB is free, and 50GB is $4.99 per month), Secret Chat (like WhatsApp only without their egregious tracking) for $.99 cents per month, Custom Emojis at $.99 cents a packet, plus MeWe Pages (coming soon) at $2.99 per month, and special games exclusive to MeWe members.

At the moment I am burned out of social media, but I just wanted to share.
(pun intended)!

 

 

perplexed

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Those that have been so kind to read the few words I post on here, as I am studying quite a bit & the old life thing going on I don’t have too much time to post.
I have found it difficult to put into words what I see politically and globally with what is going on.

Last night I was watching the series by James Burke entitled “The day the universe changed!”

We are back in 1984-1985 and the cold war is still up and running, the threat of nuclear war still looms & the world wonders what the future will hold.
We all know the mission to the moon was a pissing contest between Russia and the United States. With a side mission called scientific discovery. I was about 9 years old when Neil Armstrong walked on the moon & got to dress up as a spaceman in my class.

When I was in my teens I would read boys books about time and space and the future science will bring. It was exciting and full of hope for the future. Western countries stood for freedom of expression and movement, the idea you can make it if you try! The United States was by far the biggest economy so it was felt the best opportunities were there, not that it was any more free than any other western country.

Russia & China being the opposite of freedom, no freedom of movement and being told what you can and cannot do was not the way for the future of society, if we were to go to space and beyond!

Of course times change and the cold war ended & we left the moon and didn’t go back because we won the contest. The funding for science dropped because funding was never really about the science. Time moves along and technology moves into the mainstream. So there is money to be made, and today we have the web (light & dark). We have access to more info than any humans since the beginning. This was going to be the new dawn of humankind.

But of course the dark side was always possible, and with the availability of knowledge was the availability of crap, social media, fake sites, scams, identity theft, click bait, Fox News!

The Russians discover they can fight a media war because people aren’t equipped to filter, and they don’t know where to get news they can trust.
Trump calls any story he doesn’t like fake news because it doesn’t stroke his ego. News media continue to give time to stupid people to give the impression of being fair. People begin to believe the stupid people because they are getting exposure.

And then there was this!
THE CHRISTIAN RIGHT AND THE RISE OF AMERICAN FASCISM 

Before the 1970’s the christian right was part of the rest of the united states, probably just as happy with the moon landing and what science might bring for the future. A baby wasn’t a baby until it was a baby, not today when some consider a few cells to be a baby. But things changed and it may change what was once the bright future of the United States.

For some the multi-diverse idea of society breaks what they consider the mold from their youth. It was a fiction but real enough to them, and they feel it is gone & want to rekindle the past. They have been deceived into thinking it can come back. Society and business moves forward because business in the end wants to make a profit. The old industries are no longer really viable but they have been told the reason is immigrants, unions, the other side selling jobs overseas.

Business did move overseas, but it was purely for profit, and cheap labor. But another  reason not mentioned too much was due to technological advances. Now we have people being voted into government who don’t believe in science, who want to make the United States a purely christian country, which goes against freedom of religion. I believe in freedom of religion, you should be able to practice what ever religion you choose. But do not try and impose your religious beliefs on me. If you take away my right to choose, I may as well be living in 1985 Russia or China!

Passwords

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I freely admit I have been quite lax when it comes to certain things & the internet. I have some very secure passwords that I use, but I tend to reuse them because they are secure! For a while now I have been working towards becoming a website developer, front and back end. That process continues, but it has been part of the process that the old way of dealing with passwords is no longer viable. And making sure the passwords I use will actually stop a person gaining entry to the site I am trying to protect.

My initial intention was to just pick a password manager that works well and there you go all done. I am kind of like that, rush to get it sorted type. When it comes to certain types of software I either will be patient or I won’t; let me explain!

I am mostly on a mac or Linux so I don’t use virus software, but because of the nature of virus software (protect my system) I expect it to work, from the get go! I shouldn’t have to trouble shoot it on the installation, it’s a trust thing!

So I am checking out some password managers, 1password & Lastpass,  I will give a review after a few weeks testing them. There is a bit of a learning curve as I already have Key Chain on my mac and at work I use chrome which already do a great job remembering  passwords. The difference is that a password manager will stop or try to dissuade you from reusing the same password all the time. Let you know when it’s weak aka dogs name! And they have a password generator that creates strong passwords.

Although both password managers I am looking at have their differences I do trust they are both fairly secure. Nothing is completely secure but the chances of them being hacked are slim to almost none. Which leaves me to consider install and ease of use, there is also a price difference which I will take into consideration.

Regardless of what I am doing if you don’t use a password manager you should consider it in this day and age, even if you just used it for your financial websites. It pays to have the extra layer of security these days.

Be safe People!

Dealing with the Internet these days.

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I work in the security business, I also deal with other aspects of security in regards to the internet. This means bad bots & malware and privacy are things I focus on often.
I try to keep myself informed in regards to data and where it’s going these days, not just the general stupidity of Facebook. But also what will be the deal now that AI is taking over much more of the daily grind when it comes to pretty much anything online.
Google Duplex Demo:

It’s apparent that AI, machine learning is moving ahead in leaps and bounds. The world moves on and even though our fool of a president eliminates the cyber security department to allow his Russian friends to do their stuff unimpeded.
It’s still an issue that I want the people who can make our data safe as possible are in fact doing so?
The internet as you probably know is or has for a while been moving to mobile. Google ranks websites on not only loading times, security certificates, but also if the work on mobile devices. malware on mobile has increase and so has robocalls.
If you are interested on checking what google has on you they are fairly open and transparent about it. go here Google sign  in and check your stuff.

For Apple go to Apple’s Privacy Policy page:
(https://www.apple.com/legal/privacy/en-ww/)
Scroll down to the section titled “Access to Personal Information.” It’s worth reading and says explains that Apple will provide you with a copy of the information it holds if you request it.
Click the “Privacy Contact Form” link.
Choose your language.
Select “I have a question about privacy issues” from the drop-down box.
Fill in your first and last name, email, subject and comments.
Click submit.

Apple is much better with privacy, and Google is transparent, for Facebook we are just a commodity so don’t be surprised!
As for the future, if we can get passed the sharing our lives on the web without thinking about the consequences of how and what we share. AI will I think come to the rescue as computer systems can be taught to defend us.
AI will also be used to attack our systems and learn from it’s mistakes at speeds we can only imagine.
If I seem to contradict myself it’s because we are probably going to see both. To win we will have to take out the players, in the same way servers are taken when dark web actors are arrested these days.
I have a Facebook account, and I believe that Facebook learned a lesson after Trump won. You have a responsibility to the people who provide you with their data as much as you do to the companies you allow us the data to make money. I personally think Facebooks biggest mistake was the new Feed, Facebook isn’t a news source, it’s a social network, it takes no responsibility for the news it shares on it’s feeds. When legitimate news sites are not trusted and Facebook is we have a serious problem.
Our Data whether we like it or not is a commodity, and we should treat it as such. This feels like we are moving into Black Mirror territory!

Just another day in paradise!

Facebook and blogging??

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Hi All

Well it’s that time of the month so I will write a post! I have today suspended my Facebook account, over-reacting I hear you say; well I don’t really use the bloody thing and all I see are people sharing what somebody else produced. So the contact isn’t even one on one really, it’s also a sounding board for radical opinions one way or the other. And lastly I don’t wish to be data for a political action group either here or in the UK or even in Moscow.

I would like to thank my wife Susan for being an inspiration when it comes to the blog thing. Stories from the edge of blindness has been a true avenue for Susan to express how she feels as her life changes, either good or bad.  And the excitement in her voice as she talks about her friends in blog world is a wonderful thing.

It’s raining in Los Angeles, which means my two Princess’s Blossom & Jade will be staying indoors. They don’t like rain, or getting their paws wet, or stepping in puddles. I shall follow their example!

Have a nice day!