Stop stores and airports from tracking your movements

Stop stores and airports from tracking your movements
By Kim Komando


Did you know that for several months Wal-Mart tested a facial recognition system that can pick an individual out of a crowd and track them automatically through a store? It's true. Wal-Mart was mainly using the system to spot known shoplifters, but I'm sure you can think of more worrying purposes.

Facial recognition is one of many technologies that brick-and-mortar retailers are testing to get real-time data on their customers. Online stores can see exactly what products and ads a user looks at, but offline retailers traditionally only know what people buy. They want to change that so they can maximize their marketing and profits.

HOW RETAILERS TRACK YOU

  While facial recognition is still in limited use, many retailers, and other locations with a lot of traffic like airports, are using Mobile Location Analytics to track your exact location. For example, an airport knows how much time you spent in a shop, moving through security or at the baggage claim. A store knows when you move from one department to another, or even linger in a certain aisle.

How do they do this?

MLA uses the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth in your smartphone or tablet. Every mobile gadget has a unique 12-digit hardware identifier called a MAC address that it broadcasts via Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. As your gadget comes in range of the various Wi-Fi routers and Bluetooth hubs scattered around a store or airport, the MLA system picks up your MAC address.

Companies collect this information over time and use it to track traffic flow, line wait times, popular products or aisles, tweak employee work schedule and more. But could they use the information to do something more?

The good news is that on its own, your gadget's MAC address tells the store nothing about you. Your name, email and phone number aren't transmitted. At most, it might be able to figure out what manufacturer made your phone.

Most of the companies that handle this tracking have also signed agreements that they won't try to tie your MAC address to any other information they might have about you. Of course, those agreements are voluntary and there are ways a company could identify you if it wanted.

HOW A COMPANY COULD LEARN YOUR IDENTITY

One way is by using in-store beacons. These beacons use Wi-Fi, Bluetooth or Near-Field Communication to connect with your phone and send you deals on products you're walking past. To receive these deals, however, you have to be running the store's app, or have signed up to receive them. So, there's no real privacy concern.

However, imagine if a store were to combine your MAC address location with a beacon pushing a deal to your phone. You likely signed up to receive the deals with your name and email address. It's a simple matter to link that information up with the company's records of your purchase history from your credit card or loyalty card. The store could have a full profile on you in seconds.

Then there's facial recognition, as we talked about earlier. If a company knows your gadget's location, it's a simple matter to point a camera at you. Granted, most facial recognition systems require a photo on file to make a match.

However, if a company has your name and email address, it's a short leap to get your profile picture from Facebook and spot you as you walk into the store. Of course, that's unlikely for the foreseeable future because of the backlash it would cause.

However, it doesn't have to be the store that's tracking you. If law enforcement was doing an investigation and got your gadget, they could technically subpoena records from MLA companies for the gadget's MAC address and learn your movements. Or if the MAC address records were lost in a data breach, I'm sure hackers could find some use for them.


HOW TO STOP THE TRACKING

The Future of Privacy Forum has set up a site called Smart Store Privacy. If you go there, you can put in your Wi-Fi and Bluetooth MAC addresses and it will tell participating tracking companies (there are 12 signed on at the moment) not to track those addresses. You don't have to give any other information.

Finding your Wi-Fi and Bluetooth MAC addresses is a little tricky depending on your gadget. Here are some general instructions.

APPLE

For Apple gadgets, go to Settings>>General>>About and look under Wi-Fi Address and Bluetooth. You're looking for a 12-digit number like 91:17:7B:82:C2:A5 or 91-17-7B-82-C2-A5. It should be clearly labeled. If you don't see an address, you should turn on Wi-Fi and Bluetooth and then check again.

Note: If you're using an Apple gadget running iOS 8 or higher, it changes its MAC address every time it connects to a Wi-Fi or Bluetooth hotspot. So, a store won't be able to track you because it will look like a new gadget every time.

ANDROID

For Android gadgets, every phone manufacturer has things set up a little differently. First, make sure Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are turned on. Then go to Settings>>About Phone, or Settings>>About Tablet. It might be under Hardware Information or Status. If you can't find it, check your gadget's manual for the precise location.

WINDOWS PHONE

For Wi-Fi, go to Start>>Settings>>Connections>>Wireless LAN>>Advanced. Look in the MAC field. Wi-Fi needs to be on for this to work.

For Bluetooth, go to Start>>Settings>>Connections>>Bluetooth>>Accessibility and look under Address. Bluetooth needs to be on for the address to show up.

BLACKBERRY

For Wi-Fi, go to Setup>>Options>>Device>>Device and Status Information, and look under the WLAN MAC heading.

On Blackberry gadgets running OS 5 or earlier, go to Options>>Status and look under WLAN MAC.

For getting the Bluetooth address, go to Connections>>Bluetooth>>Properties to find the MAC address.

Of course, there are tracking companies out there not signed up with Smart Store Privacy. To totally avoid tracking, you'll have to turn off your Wi-Fi and Bluetooth before entering a store. That keeps your MAC address from broadcasting.

Facebook Friend Request SCAM

Beware: Facebook friend request scam
By Kevin Downey


It's so easy to get lured into online friendships. Especially this time of year, when people are friendlier than usual and reaching out to old acquaintances like you, you often accept friend requests without giving it much thought.

That's nice, when it's a person you know and trust. But, too often, your so-called online friends are really just scammers trying to steal your identity.

If you think back to when you first signed up for social media sites like Facebook, you probably put in information about yourself that seemed safe. Your birthday and home town seem innocent enough. Plus, a little information about your job or, if you're in the military, where you're stationed.

But all that information is useful to scammers trying to steal your ID. The Better Business Bureau asks social media users to report Facebook scams and other social media scams to them. But there's more you can do to protect yourself from having your ID stolen.

Besides reporting scams to the BBB after they've occurred, you also need to be proactive. You need to check your social media profiles, and get rid of information that scammers can use to steal your ID, according to a professor at the University of South Florida.

Here's what he recommends you do:

1. Don't accept friend requests from people you don't know, even if they know people you know
2. Don't include your birthday, address, or phone number on your profile
3. Frequently update your privacy settings; make sure you put restrictions on who can request that you be their friend

As you share Thanksgiving photos with your family and friends on Facebook this weekend, be on the lookout for scammers. Plus, when you have a moment, review your profile and privacy settings. It can save you headaches down the road.

Source: The Epoch Times

Facebook Quiz Warning

Don't take that viral Facebook quiz
By Kelli Uhrich


Updated 11/25 with new clarifications from Vonvon and instructions to disable the quiz app.

We know it's tempting. You've seen that quiz going around that all your friends seem to be taking. It's a personality quiz, and that's right up your alley. But, wait a second. Before you take it, you might want to think twice. And if you've already taken it, keep reading to learn what you should do.

The quiz "Your Most Used Words on Facebook" is a viral sensation. It scans your Facebook posts and creates a "word cloud" from the words you use most in your account. But, this quiz could go beyond just collecting your name and a few details about your life.

It has access to your birth date, hometown, education and work details. It picks up everything you've liked and browsed, and even has access to your photos. Plus, it archives your IP address.

That's quite a bit of information for a simple quiz on Facebook. And the thing is most people take the quiz after agreeing to the terms first. The app prompts a page that asks you to authorize its connection with your Facebook account.

We see those pop-ups all the time, though. So it's easy to assume that it's just another request, and it's probably fine. But this should make you take another look, and be more cautious.

What's particularly frightening about this Facebook quiz is the Privacy Policy associated with the app. You know, those lengthy contracts that nobody reads? The company behind the quiz, Vonvon.me, has snuck a little nugget in there that everyone should know.

The policy states that anyone who logs in using Facebook is authorizing the app to continue using their information even after they've terminated their account. Even more, users who agree to the terms are authorizing the app to store their information on servers around the globe. Some of which are located in countries where privacy laws don't exist.

Of course, the Vonvon.me agreement states it would never share your personal information with a third party without telling you first. However, it also says in the agreement that by clicking "OK" you're stating you've been told.

The CEO of Vonvon has spoken out and clarified that it doesn't actually pull any of your personal information out of Facebook or sell any of it. It only uses the bare minimum it needs to create the word cloud. However, it's a good reminder that the company could have if it wanted, and some other company in the future might.

If you already took the quiz and granted permissions for the app to access your Facebook account, you can't take back whatever information it already collected. However, you can keep it from scooping up more of your information in the future.

You'll need to unlink the app from your Facebook account. To unlink an app or game from Facebook, follow these steps:

1. Click the arrow in the upper-right corner of your Facebook page and select Settings
2. Click Apps in the left menu
3. Hover over the app or game you'd like to remove and click X. This app could be identified as "Vonvon" or "Your Most Used Words on Facebook." You should also review what other apps you've given access to in the past and what permissions they have.

Note: An app or game may have stored info from when you were using it, but you can contact the developer to ask that they delete any info they may still have.