FCC To Propose New Privacy Rules for Internet Service Providers

Personal privacy continues to be a hot button item for many of us as we embrace new digital communication technologies.  Most recently, the Chair of the Federal Communications Commission, Thomas Wheeler, announced plans to propose new rules limiting what personal information can be sold by Internet Service Providers. (ISPs)   An ISP is your connection to the Internet.  These companies provide the wire or fiber coming into you house or business. In our area the leading ISPs are Cincinnati Bell, Comcast and Time Warner Cable.  In most cases, other than supplying email accounts, ISPs serve only as the intermediary between you and the plethora of online services like Facebook, Netflix, Skype, Pandora and thousands of thousands of other apps.

Currently most all of these ISPs capture copious information about which sites you visit and even what information or product you are searching for.  This information is extremely valuable to companies who want to sell you something and, as such, a source of significant revenue to the ISPs when they sell this information to those companies.  It is no coincidence that an hour after you search for some item or service on line that often you will see a slick advertisement on your Facebook page for that very item.

Chairman Wheeler is proposing that this practice of selling usage information should be better communicated by the ISPs to the consumer and that the consumer must “opt in” to allow their information to be shared.

When signing up for most any service or app, before downloading or using it we are faced with “accepting” the terms of an agreement written in legal and technical terms which would befuddle even the most educated among us.  Since they are almost biblical in length, most of us just click the box and go on our merry digital way.  Buried deep in your ISP agreement is your permission to allow the sale of your information to third parties.

The proposed rules would change this permission process requiring you to click a specific box allowing the sale of your usage information rather than having this permission buried in the agreement text. 

ISP’s contend that the revenue from the sale of this information helps keep their monthly fees low.  This may be the case and the rules would allow for some flexibility in pricing if you allow your information to be sold.

These new rules are still in the development phase and would need to go through the process of public comment before being considered by the entire commission.  This normally takes several months.  I will stay on top of it.

So What Is Really Stored In Your iPhone?

The saga continues to be played out in the courts and the media.  Should Apple be forced to write new software allowing Federal investigators to retrieve information thought to be contained in the iPhone5 used by Syed Farook, one of the terrorists responsible for the recent San Bernardino attack?   Strident and cogent arguments have been made from both sides of the argument and soon the courts will have the final say.  After following this story you may be more than curious to know what specific information might be contained in your iPhone or other smartphone model.

To begin to get a clearer picture of the contents of your phone it might be good to note that your smartphone is much more than a device for making calls or texting.  The computing power and storage capacity of a standard iPhone6 has exponentially more computing power than the Cray super computers of the last century and could guide a million Apollo lunar missions simultaneously.  The phone’s internal storage can handle billions of bits of information and the screen can display graphics better than the best flat panel TV. 

For many of us, the smartphone has become indispensable for managing our professional and social lives. That being so, we keep a great deal of information in the phone which was once relegated only to our wallet, a bank safety deposit box or that shoe box in the hallway closet.  Since we know we have stored contacts and addresses, passwords and bank account information, and pictures of our kids, we have a good idea of what we are carrying around in our pocket or purse and, heaven forbid, what we have lost if the phone comes up missing.  Or do we really know?

Over and above what we actually choose to save in our phone, the software in the phone retains an extraordinary amount of information automatically without our knowledge but with our permission. Most of us automatically click “Accept” when faced with the License Agreements on our devices without actually reading what we just accepted.

If you were able to peer into the innards of your phone you would find a trove of some very personal information.  Each picture has a time, date and location stamp.  Depending on the size of your storage, a record of every keystroke and other phone usage is retained for months perhaps as much as year.  This includes bank account information, passwords, personal communication, text messages, music or podcasts listened to and even locations visited.  Once accessed, a map and chronology of your entire life could be reconstructed.  For most of us that story might be very boring, for others, not so much.

For sure the digital revolution has been a boon to our economy, has enhanced our education and knowledge, and opened up wonderful entertainment options. It also has given us some very serious and important social and political issues to deal with.

I will be on WVXU’s Cincinnati Edition at 1:30pm Wednesday, March 23^rd. You can call in with any technology questions or comments.  WVXU is 91.7 FM.  Hope to hear from you.  If we get enough calls I may be asked back.

Some Online Security Tips

Computer security and privacy have been dominating the headlines.  The most recent announcement in the media deals with a major security vulnerability named Heartbleed. This bug affects a popular encryption technology designed to protect your sensitive data on the Internet, like usernames, passwords and emails.  Unlike some bugs and viruses, there really is no protection that you can install on your computer to address Heartbleed since it exploits a programming error in the encryption software and as such requires the software developers to fix the problem. 

There are however things that you should do to assure your security and privacy whenever you go online.  I have written often about the need to be vigilant about security.  This might be a good time to reiterate some of those tips.

When you purchase a Wi-Fi router, smart phone or other device that require a password be sure to change the default password.  Many devices come out of the box with a standard password already installed.  The problem is that often these passwords are known by most every hacker on the internet.  So failure to change it leaves you open and exposed.

Speaking of passwords, don’t use obvious names and dates.  Your birthday, your kid’s name, your street address do not provide much protection.  A password with a numerals and both upper and lower case text along with some punctuation marks are best.  The password should not make a real word or phrase.

Many of us are wedded to our smartphone and tablet and use them for all types of online activity and take advantage of the proliferation of free Wi-Fi hot spots.  From McDonalds to Speedway, from interstate rest stops to public parks, it seems we can most always find a free Wi-Fi connection.  While reading a newspaper or checking the weather are fine, you should not use these public Wi-Fi spots to access online banking sites or other sites that contain important and private data.

If you use online banking many institutions will allow you to be notified when any transaction that you did not initiate gets processed.  So when a deposit or debit is made to your account, you will get an email alerting you to the activity.  This service often requires you to activate it on your account.  Be sure yours is activated.

This last tip might be an example of closing the barn door after the horses have escaped.  More and more merchants offer affinity cards allowing discounts and other perks to card holders.  When you visit the store you swipe the card.   Over and above the discount you receive you also have provided the store with a trove of purchasing information.  Some stores sell this information to third parties.   Also more and more often you are asked for your telephone number when checking out as well as the offer to email you a receipt.  Again giving out little bits of information over time can provide a very accurate profile for those miscreants looking to steal your identity and money.

Increasingly we will do more on line and as we do there will be better protections developed like voice, retina and or finger print recognition. Until these are common place, be careful out there.

Convenience Has a Price

There is no doubt that the proliferation of all things digital has provided once unbelievable conveniences in our daily lives.  Simple things like shopping or writing a letter are now made effortless with the help of computers, tablets, smart phones and other digital accoutrement.  We can ask our smart phone for directions to the closest ATM when we need cash.  Amazon not only fills our book order but makes suggestions for other reads that we might like.  Parents can keep an eye on their teenager’s comings and goings and your auto insurance company can even offer discounts if you let one of their digital recorders “ride along” with you.

I am not nor do I want others to be paranoid about big brother or big sister.  I do think that it is a good to be aware of how much information we provide to others often without a second thought.  Once digitized that information can live forever and be shared freely among thousands of users.

Many of us have mobile phones.  Even the simplest model allows our carriers to retain the contents of most every call we make or text message we send.  Smart phones with GPSpinpoint our exact location 24/7.  

We swipe our Kroger card freely to get discounts thus allowing our buying patterns to be tracked.  Once a birth certificate is registered for your new born don’t be surprised if you see more ads for Pampers on your Facebook pages.  Browse the web to look at the new Corvette our buy lots of expensive food items and you might see more offers for trips and expensive cars in your email.

 

Gathering, storing, sorting and analyzing all of this information is made possible by our digital networked society.  Everything is connected and once a scrap of information enters this electronic labyrinth it is essentially there forever.

For sure some companies and organizations maintain strict privacy policies but the volume of public information on line is amazing.  If you want to try an experiment search for information about yourself.  Start with Google and move on to the various White Pages directories.  Don’t forget HamiltonCountyAuditor.org and the Clerk of Courts website in your county.  You will be amazed by the profile you can develop.  Where you live and what your home is worth is but a click away.  Missed a tax payment?  That bit of information is there too.

In some ways the horse has left the barn.  For most of us the convenience of having this free flow of information is now so pervasive that even if we want to, we cannot go back. So the next time you are loading an App on your iPad or smart phone and it asks you to enable the GPSlocation feature remember that it does come with a price.

Where Everybody Knows Your Name

“Sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your name.” Many will remember that song from the 1980’s hit TV show “Cheers.” The program and the sentiments expressed in the theme song were popular well before the Internet. Today, rather than wishing that everyone knows your name, many of us are worried that there is very little about us that isn’t known by just about anyone who cares to find out. Our grocer knows what brand of soup we prefer. Our credit card company knows where we travel on business or pleasure. Our book seller knows we many not be doing climate research when we order “The Tropic of Capricorn.” In short most everything we do every place we travel, every item we purchase and even what we chose to read can now be tracked and in many cases it is.

Some of this lack of privacy is a byproduct of efficient business practices. Stores began to use computers to track inventory so when you came in to get that bottle milk and loaf of bread the shelves would be stocked. Since you were paying with a credit card, they could track your specific buying habits and begin to target you with ads for things that you might like. It wasn’t long before they figured out a way to track your purchases even if you paid by cash. So now many of us carry key rings festooned with little plastic cards with bar codes that we gladly let the check out clerk scan when we shop. The reward is a few cents off the bill or savings on the next gas fill up. The price is your privacy.

As more of us are using Facebook and other social media, the amount of very personal information about us is made readily available. It is easy to get so comfortable with social media exchanges that we might post comments or relate experiences that we would never divulge even to a most trusted friend. A good rule of thumb is never to write a post online that you would not be comfortable reading on the front page of the newspaper.

When you sign up for Facebook or other on line service, you are often invited to create a profile. You may wish to keep that information to a minimum. By entering detailed information like your birth date, hometown, workplace and other personal details you give those who may be looking at this information with other than honorable interest to begin to piece together a good base for identity theft. My advice is to keep the information shared in these profiles very sparse.

Almost daily we are asked for and freely provide small bits of information which may seem insignificant. By using the Internet and powerful computers, all these little bits collected over an extended period of time can result in a very detailed profile. Advertisers or other less honorable enterprises exploit that information… sometimes to your detriment.

In many case the horse has left the barn. There is not much we can do to get our privacy back. We can be more diligent about giving out that phone number or email address every time the clerk might ask. We should also pay close attention as our elected officials try to develop laws to control how this information is used.

If you send me your address, date of birth and mother’s maiden name, I will add you to my newsletter.

On the Internet, everybody knows you're a dog.

In July 1993 the New Yorker Magazine published a cartoon by Peter Steiner showing a dog sitting in front of a computer. The caption read, “On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog." Oh the changes that fourteen years can make. Today, not only will they know you are a dog, they will know the color of your spots, the length of you coat and the brand of dog food you like.

Among the myriad benefits of the Internet, personal privacy remains a serious issue that has garnered much attention of late. Most recently Google® has been in the news as it has been ordered by the US courts to hand over data that contains information from every clip ever played on its popular YouTube® video sharing website. It has been reported that the data file, which has more than 12 terabytes of information, contains the IP address and viewers’ ID.

What this means is if you ever watched a video on YouTube®, that video and your identity may be able to be matched. Most likely not a problem if you were watching singing cats and dogs, perhaps problematic if you were just curious if there really was a video on how to make a nuclear bomb.

There are so many examples of how various companies and organizations both real and virtual gather, store and use information about you. Once you make your first purchase on Amazon.com®, the next time you log on you will be greeted with list of suggested books and other items. This list is developed specifically for you based on previous purchases and in some cases even casual browsing. This can be a great asset when you are looking for new books that you may have missed within a category of interest. It can also funny when you are presented with a list of pre-school classics because the last time you were on Amazon.com® you bought a gift for your grandson.

It is not only online that information about you is gathered. The discount cards that are promoted by Kroger and other grocery outlets help the company track your individual buying habits. Each item you purchase can be tracked if you use the bar coded plastic card when you check out. This way the store can target what coupons they may wish to send to you in the mail.

It is no coincidence that if you were recently online looking at convertibles that your US mail box and your email box will all of a sudden have several advertisements for new convertibles from variuous automakers..

So much of our personal information is available. Typing your phone number into the Google® serach box will most often give your address. The Hamilton County Auditor’s website http://www.hamiltoncountyauditor.org/ has information about your home, property taxes, improvements and even contains a recent photograph and block diagram of your house.
There is not much we can do to protect our personal information from being collected if we are going to continue to enjoy the benefits of modern technology. We can however insist that the use of this information is scrutinized by our leaders and that our right to privacy is protected.