Tag Archives: News

Why everyone is so convinced Facebook is spying on their conversations

Posted in Privacy, Security by

Bipul Lama believes Facebook is spying on him.

And he’s got proof, sort of. Lama performed a test. For two days, all he talked about was Kit-Kats.

“The next day, all I saw on my Instagram and Facebook were Kit-Kat ads,” Lama said.

After his Kit-Kat experiment, he successfully repeated it with chatter about Lysol. The 23-year-old musician is now more convinced than ever that Facebook is listening to his conversations through his phone’s microphone.

“It listens to key words. If you say a word enough times, the algorithm catches those words and it sets off targeted ads,” Lama theorized.

Lama is far from alone. The belief that Facebook is actively listening to people through their phones has become a full-on phenomenon. Facebook has, of course, denied it does this. That has done little to dampen the ongoing paranoia around the theory.

Because it is just a theory… right?

Source: Why everyone is so convinced Facebook is spying on their conversations

‘Star Trek Discovery’ premiere review: Smart, serious sci-fi on a slow burn

Posted in News, Sci-Fi by

Another female captain to add to the diverse list of captains of Star Trek vessels. And I’m actually happy it’s finally someone from the East. Even more so, someone with a history of action films. Patrick Stewart had a history of films behind him too, but not all were action, and is mostly famous for his  Shakespeare work.

Source: ‘Star Trek Discovery’ premiere review: Smart, serious sci-fi on a slow burn

App That Paid Users to Exercise Owes Nearly $1 Million for Not Paying Users to Exercise

Posted in News, Technology by

In the capitalistic nightmare we live in, everything has to be a transaction. So, when Pact launched its fitness app that let you make money for working out—or else pay a fee for failing to do so—it seemed to be the perfect motivational tool. There was just one problem: The company apparently wasn’t that great at paying up, and was it too good at collecting fees.

Hah, I remember this app. I actually did try it for a while but failed to see its appeal, or how it could make me continue to exercise. People would only be interested in this if they were really seriously wanting to meet a goal. People demotivated enough, would just cancel the pact/goal and continue on.

Source: App That Paid Users to Exercise Owes Nearly $1 Million for Not Paying Users to Exercise

CCleaner malware outbreak is much worse than it first appeared | Ars Technica

Posted in Uncategorized by

The malware backdoor in this story is quite intriguing. They are targeting specific companies (Samsung, Akamai, Cisco, Microsoft amongst them) and only attempting the second level attack if they are detecting they are being installed there.

The advice mentioned in the article is that anyone who installed the software on their system should REFORMAT THEIR DRIVE. Quite an extreme recommendation. My suggestion – stop using Windows.

Source: CCleaner malware outbreak is much worse than it first appeared | Ars Technica

Google/HTC deal is official, Google to acquire part of HTC’s smartphone team | Ars Technica

Posted in News by

So Google has officially hooked up with HTC. How do I feel about this? Rather ambivalent, actually. On one side Google is already using their phones (Pixel), but HTC did roll over to Apple a long time ago without standing up to their bullying tactics – something that made me ditch HTC in favour of Samsung (and, tbh, I’m glad I did). However, this link up means Google gets a dedicated team to work on their phones. Whether this means they’ll become a decent competitor to the other devices, remains to be seen.

Source: Google/HTC deal is official, Google to acquire part of HTC’s smartphone team | Ars Technica