Tag: internet

AT&T Hotspots Now Injecting Ads

An anonymous reader writes: Computer scientist Jonathan Mayer did some investigating after seeing some unexpected ads while he browsed the web at an airport (Stanford hawking jewelry? The FCC selling shoes?). He found that AT&T’s public Wi-Fi hotspot was messing with HTTP traffic, injecting advertisements using a service called RaGaPa. As an HTML pages loads over HTTP, the hotspot adds an advertising stylesheet, injects a simple advertisement image (as a backup), and then injects two scripts that control the loading and display of advertising content. Mayer writes, “AT&T has an (understandable) incentive to seek consumer-side income from its free Wi-Fi service, but this model of advertising injection is particularly unsavory. Among other drawbacks: It exposes much of the user’s browsing activity to an undisclosed and untrusted business. It clutters the user’s web browsing experience. It tarnishes carefully crafted online brands and content, especially because the ads are not clearly marked as part of the hotspot service.3 And it introduces security and breakage risks, since website developers generally don’t plan for extra scripts and layout elements.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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AT&T Hotspots Now Injecting Ads

Twitter shuts down accounts monitoring politicians’ deleted tweets

After suspending API access to the Open State Foundation’s (OSF) primary American account in May, Twitter went ahead and nixed the foundation’s 30 remaining satellite accounts over the weekend. OSF employed these accounts to monitor and publicize the deleted tweets of elected officials in countries worldwide. Twitter also shut down the group’s Diplotwoops account, which served the same purpose but for diplomats. Notice:Twitter have killed part of @politwoops that powers this account. No new posts for now but tweets available at http://t.co/w6y19ppzRZ — Tweets MPs Delete (@deletedbyMPs) August 22, 2015 Twitter reportedly decided to shut out the OSF after “thoughtful internal deliberation and close consideration of a number of factors.” The foundation cited a note from Twitter regarding its decision, stating “Imagine how nerve-racking – terrifying, even – tweeting would be if it was immutable and irrevocable? No one user is more deserving of that ability than another.” The OSF has since released a statement on the matter: What elected politicians publicly say is a matter of public record. Even when tweets are deleted, it’s part of parliamentary history. These tweets were once posted and later deleted. What politicians say in public should be available to anyone. This is not about typos but it is a unique insight on how messages from elected politicians can change without notice. It should be noted however that Twitter is not a government entity and, even here in the US, has precisely zero responsibility to allow accounts that it feels violate its TOS. In light of the shutdown, the foundation states that it will continue working ensure messages sent by elected politicians remain visible. Just not on Twitter. Filed under: Internet Comments Via: The Next Web Source: Open State Foundation Tags: openstatefoundation, OSF, politics, twitter

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Twitter shuts down accounts monitoring politicians’ deleted tweets

Hands-On With Ford’s Sync 3

 Ford was one of the first major car manufacturers to bring connected car technology to its lineup with Sync in 2007, but while the first iterations of its Sync and MyFord Touch infotainment systems were ahead of their time in the car world, they were also rather slow, clunky, and the user interface was somewhat unintuitive. Sync 3, which is now available on the 2016 Ford Escape compact SUV… Read More

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Hands-On With Ford’s Sync 3

San Jose May Put License Plate Scanners On Garbage Trucks

An anonymous reader writes: It’s bad enough that some places have outfitted their police vehicles with automated license plate scanners, but now the city of San Jose may take it one step further. They’re considering a proposal to install plate readers on their fleet of garbage trucks. This would give them the ability to blanket virtually every street in the city with scans once a week. San Jose officials made this proposal ostensibly to fight car theft, but privacy activists have been quick to point out the unintended consequences. ACLU attorney Chris Conley said, “If it’s collected repeatedly over a long period of time, it can reveal intimate data about you like attending a religious service or a gay bar. People have a right to live their lives without constantly being monitored by the government.” City councilman Johnny Khamis dismissed such criticism: “This is a public street. You’re not expecting privacy on a public street.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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San Jose May Put License Plate Scanners On Garbage Trucks

Hack Amazon’s Dash buttons to do things other than buying stuff

Amazon’s Dash buttons are tiny adhesive physical triggers that can order for you, through the magic of WiFi, anything you need to stock up on. But that’s not the limits of their power, if you’re willing to tinker with them. Ted Benson, (who works at a company that likes to regularly perform such shenanigans with the aid of its web tools), reckons it”ll you take under 10 minutes to repurpose Amazon’s physical iteration of Buy It Now. (I think he’s underestimating the degree of incompetence this editor possesses, but anyhow.) Benson managed to hack a diaper-ordering Dash button to act as an Internet Of Things -style tracker for how often his (adorable) baby poops. Or how many times he wakes up in a night. The trick lies in the fact that Amazon’s buttons aren’t constantly connected to WiFi. For the sake of battery life, the buttons only come to life when pushed, meaning the workaround picks up when your button is trying to access the internet, and registers that as a trigger for anything but buying stuff from Amazon. With a little bit of python code, a simple program can track when the button tries to connect to the WiFi, and once it gets a hit, record a datapoint. (In this case, inside a Google Doc spreadsheet.) Of course, you need to ensure you’ve setup the button not to order something every time you press it –easily done when you first start using the button. If you’re looking to make the idea of smart diapers seem suddenly very stupid, you can find all the code and instruction needed in the Medium post right here Filed under: Wearables , Internet , Amazon Comments Source: Medium Tags: amazon, amazondash, dashbutton, diapers, internetofthings, poop, video

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Hack Amazon’s Dash buttons to do things other than buying stuff

The Promise of 5G

An anonymous reader writes: From instant monitoring of leaking pipelines, to real-time worldwide collaboration, the increase in machine-to-machine communications that 5G allows will change the way we live. This TechCrunch article takes a look at the promise that 5G holds and its possibilities. From the article: “By 2030, 5G will transform and create many uses that we cannot even think of yet. We will live in a world that will have 10-100 times more Internet-connected devices than there are humans. Hundreds of billions of machines will be sensing, processing and transmitting data without direct human control and intervention.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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The Promise of 5G

Mozilla Tests Improved Privacy Mode For Firefox

An anonymous reader writes: Firefox’s privacy mode stops your computer from keeping track of where you’ve browsed, but it doesn’t do anything about external tracking. A new feature just rolled out to the Developer Edition and the Aurora channel now actively tries to block online services from tracking you. “Our hypothesis is that when you open a Private Browsing window in Firefox you’re sending a signal that you want more control over your privacy than current private browsing experiences actually provide.” The feature uses a blocklist maintained by Disconnect.me to stop you from navigating to sites known to log your personal data. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Mozilla Tests Improved Privacy Mode For Firefox

Periscope’s live streaming video reaches nearly 2 million users daily

Now that Facebook is getting into streaming (soon for non-celebs too ) and even Google/YouTube is taking notice , the folks at Twitter-owned Periscope are publishing some stats to let us know where the bar is for live video apps. In a blog post on Medium , the team says it has grown past 10 million registered accounts just four months after its launch. An accompanying graph shows its number of Daily Active Users has risen to nearly two million people, with a spike showing where it just about doubled in May with the launch of an app for Android . Rival app Meerkat beat it to the punch on Android , but we don’t have similar stats on its growth yet. By their measure however, the important stat is Time Watched, which Periscope reports has risen to over 40 years of video being watched every day. This includes “huge viewership” on the web, outside of its iOS/Android apps, which the daily users stat does not. in a video Q&A , Periscope CEO Kayvon Beykpour says that features coming soon include landscape video support and better tools for handling spam/abuse. Filed under: Internet , Mobile Comments Source: Periscope (Medium) Tags: accounts, mobilepostcross, statistics, twitter, users, videostreaming

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Periscope’s live streaming video reaches nearly 2 million users daily

Verizon tests new fiber system that hits 10Gbps speeds

Verizon has announced that it has successfully completed field tests of its new super-fast fiber optic technology, dubbed the next-generation passive optical network (NG-PON2). It could offer users connectivity speeds anywhere from 10Gbps to 80Gbps some point “in the future”, according to a Verizon press release. The new system utilizes an optical line terminal (OLT) capable of generating four wavelengths of light, each of which is able to transmit at an eye-watering 10Gbps down and 2.5Gbps up. Interestingly, the network can actually transmit both the current GPON (Gigabit-capable Passive Optical Network) signal as well as this new NG-PON2 simultaneously. What’s more, should one of the wavelengths fail (due to, say, equipment failure), the system can reportedly switch over to one of the other three wavelengths to quickly restore the 10Gbps connection, a redundancy that should help improve the FIOS network’s reliability. The company sees its implementation as a necessary step for the upcoming shift to 4K video streaming. As such, Verizon will begin issuing “requests for proposals” for the hardware and software needed to upgrade its FIOS service later this year. There’s no word yet on when the service will actually come online but it will likely only be available to businesses at first. And even then, potentially only on the East Coast . By comparison, Comcast offers 2Gbps for $300 a month , and Google offers 1Gbps service for $70, both of which are already deployed throughout the country and available to personal and commercial users alike. [Image Credit: Associated Press] Filed under: Internet Comments Source: Verizon Tags: 10gb, fios, NG-PON2, opticallineterminal, verizon

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Verizon tests new fiber system that hits 10Gbps speeds

Hacker Shows How To Fabricate Death Records

wiredmikey writes: Hackers the Def Con gathering in Las Vegas on Friday got schooled in how to be online “killers.” A rush to go digital with the process of registering deaths has made it simple for maliciously minded folks to have someone who is alive declared dead by the authorities. The process of having someone officially stamped dead by getting a death certificate issued typically involves a doctor filling out one form and a funeral home filling out another, according to Rock’s research. Once forms are submitted online, certificates declaring the listed person legally dead are generated. A fatal flaw in the system is that people can easily pose as real doctors and funeral directors. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Hacker Shows How To Fabricate Death Records