Tag: cyber safety

Snapchat Ghost Mode – and how to protect your child from snap stalkers

Activism, Cyber Safety, Privacy, Social Media, Startups

Technology shifts and changes so quickly that it can be hard to keep up. Almost every day there are updates to your computers, “patches” to fix software, improvements to the apps on your phone and more. If you are like me, you’ll have automatic updates on so that these changes take place in the background – often overnight – so that when you turn on your device for the day – voila! – new improvements at your fingertips.

But not all updates are created equally – or with your best interests in mind.

A recent Snapchat upgrade added a new feature – Snap Maps. It’s a way to “view Snaps of sporting events, celebrations, breaking news and more from all across the world”. Sounds great, right?

But it’s also a way for you and your friends (or the general Snap user) to share your location with each other. So now, if you are wondering where your friends are and what they are doing, you can seek them out.

It’s super easy to use, just open the Camera screen and “pinch out” like you are zooming out from a photo and Snap Maps will be activated.

From the map you can see snaps from interesting locations and events as well as photos of people that you know or are connected to.

But isn’t that stalking?

It’s rather cool that you can see where your friends are. In fact, Google has variations on this functionality in its maps – and even had the standalone product, Latitude, until it was closed down in 2013. At the time, I had concerns with Latitude and with the data that we uncaringly share with the people who make our phones and create the apps we run on them – and so too do I have concerns with Snap Maps.

Don’t get me wrong, as a marketer, location information can be super useful. And as a person with friends all around the world, I get a particular kick out of knowing where my friends and connections are and what they are doing.

For example, I know my friend Suzanne is travelling in the US at the moment. Thanks to Snap Map I now know that she was just on Mariposa Street in San Francisco. No doubt checking out the local fried chicken shops.

That’s kind of fun. But as a consumer it makes me nervous.

We know that on social media, the concept of “friendship” is fairly loose. There will be a lot of randomness in your friend list – plenty of people who you don’t know, have never met, and probably wouldn’t invite to your home to stay for the weekend. Yet, you can trust them with your location, each and every second of the day.

A warning for parents

As adults, we can make choices about who shares our personal information, location and so on. But parents with children who use Snap Chat may not realise what has become available with the new Snap Map functionality. In fact, most parents won’t know that some children have open privacy settings meaning that anyone can “friend” and connect/share information with them without asking.

Imagine, for example, your child has a group of friends who use Snap Chat to share photos, chat and keep connected outside of school. Then imagine that there’s an incident – like some bullying or bad behaviour – a falling out of some kind.

Thanks to Snap Maps, all your child’s connections (including the bully) will know where your child is whenever they are logged in.

No doubt, parents have asked their children about their connections and “friends”, and have received assurances that “no, I don’t add people I don’t know” … but words and actions are sometimes strangers. In this video, Joey Salads conducts a Snap Map stalking experiment with the parent of a young girl. The results are compelling.

Turn on Ghost Mode to protect your Snap Chat privacy

The only way to stop your location being shared across your Snap Chat network is to enable “Ghost Mode”. You will be prompted for location sharing the first time you upgrade to Snap Maps, but you can also edit your privacy settings later.

If you have children, I’d recommend you enable Ghost Mode immediately. In fact, unless you’re confident that you know your connections well, I’d enable ghost mode on every device. Being location aware can be useful, but data sometimes reveals more than we expect – and there’s no reason for us to turn a blind eye to it.

How to Remember Passwords Like Sherlock Holmes

Privacy, Web/Tech

One of the greatest challenges of the internet age has nothing to do with technology and everything to do with being human. It is the act of remembering passwords.

There was a time – and yes it was a simpler time – when we really only needed to remember one or two passwords. There was a personal identification number (PIN) for our ATM cards and then a password for our email. Then along came internet banking. For all of our bank accounts. Logins for news sites. Websites. Shopping accounts. We setup profiles on sites like Kiva for charity, registered for various frequent flyer programs, free email accounts and games. On top of that are cornerstone accounts – the Apple iTunes account and your Google Account are controlled by a single ID that is linked across a variety of services – but that integration was rolled out over time.

By the time that social networks came along, we already had dozens of user IDs, a handful of email addresses and profile and accounts scattered across the web.

To make matters worse, each of these sites has its own standard for password strength. Some sites require complex passwords incorporating non-standard letters or numbers or capitalisation. Some sites require all of these. For online transactions, financial institutions require two factor authentication (but only some) – requiring two stage combinations before providing you access. This can include your standard account ID and password along with an SMS code or a picture puzzle displayed on-screen.

All of these variations have to be remembered. Or documented somewhere secure. Accordingly, our ability to remember passwords has become big business – with service and platform providers offering to help us “manage” the mess we have found ourselves in. Sure, many of our web browsers “remember” our account details for us, but what happens when you login from your phone and not your computer? What happens when you login with your home PC and not the laptop you use for work?

It doesn’t matter if someone hacks an account?!

Many people believe that it doesn’t matter if an account is hacked. For example, you could have an old email account hacked and not know it. What happens? Here are a few scenarios to consider:

  1. Your email account is quickly scanned / searched for user IDs or passwords (like account confirmations)
  2. This information is fed into the hackers computer to test out on sites across the internet. This is automated and means that hundreds of attempts / variations can be made in minutes.
  3. The process is repeated with each success – with more information gradually being built up around your profile, access etc
  4. If credit card or bank account numbers are found – then these can be quickly shared, sold on or used as currency in their own right
  5. Small charges can begin appearing on your statements without your noticing, gradually escalating in size
  6. In worst case scenarios, your accounts can have passwords changed and address details altered

There are a series of approaches that can improve your password security – and they are relatively simple to implement:

  • Create your own tiered security:
    • Tier 1: Make a list of your high risk accounts – bank accounts, email, online payments like PayPal or Amazon, social media
    • Tier 2: A list of less risky accounts where no confidential information is kept.
  • Create complex passwords for Tier 1 accounts – each account should have a UNIQUE password
  • Use password managers to store and remember your details
  • Delete the spreadsheet on your PC desktop that stores all your passwords (yes, I know you have one)
  • Reset or change passwords regularly.

Is there another way?

Fans of Benedict Cumberbatch’s Sherlock Holmes will have seen the intense visual approach that the Holmes character uses to remember complex pieces of information. Called the Mind Palace, it involves visualising a complex place in which you can “physically” store your memory. Then by embellishing the location with story, the item to be remembered is reinforced and supposedly easier to recall.

If you really want to be safe on the internet, try storing your passwords in a Mind Palace. Here’s an infographic showing how it works. Good luck!

Story-4-Taking-Back-Your-Privacy-Infographic-full-2

Time for Parents to Step Up as Digital Role Models

Cyber Safety, Privacy, Research Report

Working in digital and social media means you are often drawn into quite personal conversations with people. And by “conversations” I don’t just mean “discussions” or “chats” – but one way broadcasts where your only interaction may be to virtually “nod” (via a “Like”), acknowledge or amplify a situation (via sharing or a retweet). For while social media allows us to “engage” or interact with others, the vast majority don’t. Most of us are “lurkers”.

Lurkers are the 90% of people who use social media to observe. Watch. Listen in. It’s only 1% who create this content. We call this the 90-9-1 rule – or the “1 percenters”.

Participation-Funnel

You may only be “Friends on Facebook”, but this can expose you to a vast insight into a person’s life. For example, lurking you will learn about:

  • Private details – birthdays, relationships status, holidays, workplace, friends and networks
  • Lifestyle – favourite restaurants, foods, cafes, sports, hobbies, games
  • Travel – holiday destinations, desires, interests.

Social media reveals the pattern of your life

Now it all sounds innocuous enough, but think about all these pieces of information put together. What does it reveal? It reveals the pattern of your life. Every item that you post, share, click, promote and comment on can be found in your own feed. Perusing a Facebook profile page essentially provides a glimpse into your private world. For while you may feel that you are just sharing an inspirational quote with your loved ones, it generally means that you are sharing that quote with the friends of your friends. And in isolation you can easily ask – does this tell the “story of me” – and do I feel comfortable with strangers thinking that?

In fact, researcher Sam Gosling and author of Snoop – what your stuff says about you, uses his psychological framework, observation and analysis to explain how our small objects and personal spaces reveal a great deal about ourselves. While his research methodology centres on the analysis of personal bathrooms – his OCEAN framework has also been deployed as a Facebook technology to generate insights from Facebook profiles.

So when you see that 50 people have Liked one of your posts, the 1 Percenters rule suggests that more than 10x that number have “seen” it. And while this doesn’t mean that your update or profile has gone “viral”, it is far from private.

Think of the children

As an adult, this is not that frightening, right? But think of the role modelling that is taking place here. Especially for those who are parents – or who have high levels of interaction with children.

Telstra’s Cyber Safety – Balancing Screen Time Survey asked 1348 Australian parents of children aged 3-17 about their own use of devices. They also surveyed these parents on their children’s use of technology. The research revealed:

  • 65% of parents don’t think they’re good role models when it comes to device usage
  • 77% of parents considered putting controls on the device but 33% didn’t know what is available or HOW to implement it

It is that second bullet point that concerns me the most. Telstra provides Cyber Safety information available via their website, including links to:

  • eSmart – a cyber safety behaviour-change initiative of the Alannah and Madeline Foundation, aimed at schools and libraries
  • Smart Controls for customer mobile accounts that can create restrictions on devices
  • Online Security – tools for broadband customers designed to keep your family safe

In the survey, when children were asked about perceptions of their parents’ device usage, 12 per cent said the amount of time their parent spends on their device impacts how well they look after their family, and a further nine per cent say the amount of time their parents spend on their device takes away from their family time.

Telstra’s Cyber Safety Manager, Shelly Gorr, said:

The results are a reminder to parents that they’re a key influencer on their children’s online behaviour.

Moving beyond screen time

There are plenty of additional insights coming from the survey – especially around the often vexed subject of screen time. How much is too much? How do you manage it? Why should you? Most of this is subjective – and dependent upon your own style of parenting. And while there is a real risk related to screen time – there is also much hype, conflicted and skewed research supporting both more and less screen time for kids. But surely this is not  a question of technology – but a question of “what kind of family” and “what kind of adults” are you preparing for the world.

If it is time for parents to step up as digital role models, there’s also a need for support for those parents. We are currently putting together a simple online course for parents interested in protecting their family online – and managing the effects of screen time. If you are interested in this, sign up below and we’ll let you know when it is available.

Register your interest in cyber safety course