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Posts Tagged ‘smartphones’

High-tech devices leave users vulnerable to spies

January 6, 2012 2 comments

physorg.com

Spy technology is now available to the who wants to glean cellphone information, read private emails and track someone’s location using global positioning systems. And increasingly, experts say, the technologies are being used by spouses and partners to track, harass and stalk.

“Technology has just exploded. It’s so sophisticated now, and it’s very easy to utilize these different technologies to keep tabs on a person and find out where they’re going,” said Gina Pfund, chief assistant prosecutor of the Domestic Violence Unit in Passaic County, N.J.

The person watching or listening is often a family member and frequently a suspicious or controlling partner. They have scanned Facebook pages, viewed online Web-browsing histories, and examined cellphone records for proof. But some take it a step further, planting Read more…

Categories: hacking, spy, Technology Tags: , , , , , ,

Sprint, MasterCard, Citibank Partner Up For ‘Google Wallet’

May 26, 2011 1 comment

pcmag

Nexus S 4G 150 A Google Partner Event in New York kicks off in a couple hours with all signs pointing to an announcement about a mobile payments platform that’ll let you tap your phone against a card reader to pay for an item, using technologythat has been implemented in Japan for years. But if the groundswell of rumors is to be believed, there’s not much left to announce:

Late Wednesday night This Is My Next unearthed an internal announcement from The Container Store, believed to be a launch partner for Google’s mobile payment platform, dubbed “Google Wallet”:

It sounds like Google has chosen some major “innovative” retailers to kickstart a mobile payment platform that lets customers tap their phones against a contact-less card reader to pay for an item. And it sounds like The Container Store will start using the readers on September 1.

Bloomberg reported Tuesday that Google will use the event to unveil a mobile payment platform on Sprint phones embedded with NFC chips. Customers with these NFC-supported phones, currently limited to Google’s Nexus S 4G (Sprint) and Nexus S (T-Mobile) in the U.S., will be able to tap their devices against an NFC-enabled card reader to make an instant payment. The program will launch in Read more…

Categories: GOOGLE, Technology Tags: , , , , , , ,

iPhone iPhone keeps record of everywhere you go

April 21, 2011 Comments off

guardian

Apple’s iPhone saves every detail of your movements to a file on the device. Photograph: Linda Nylind for the Guardian

Security researchers have discovered that Apple‘s iPhone keeps track of where you go – and saves every detail of it to a secret file on the device which is then copied to the owner’s computer when the two are synchronised.

The file contains the latitude and longitude of the phone’s recorded coordinates along with a timestamp, meaning that anyone who stole the phone or the computer could discover details about the owner’s movements using a simple program.

For some phones, there could be almost a year’s worth of data stored, as the recording of data seems to have started with Apple’s iOS 4 update to the phone’s operating system, released in June 2010.

“Apple has made it possible for almost anybody – a jealous spouse, a private detective – with access to your phone or Read more…

Categories: Technology Tags: , , , , , , ,

Soon coupons (or Big Brother) will find you at the store

January 11, 2011 Comments off
Shana Rose
Coupons, long the staple of the Sunday paper, are going high tech and with the popularity of smartphones, more young people and men are now using digital coupons. But soon technology will progress further and manufacturers will be able to target shoppers right in the store. 

The technology is coming which will pinpoint your exact location in the store. The GPS current phones use doesn’t work indoors, but there are companies hard at work, developing software that will create a detailed map of the store and assign location points throughout the store.

It’s called geotagging.

Companies will be able to geotag consumers with a smartphone. The goal: to send a coupon for an item you wouldn’t normally buy, while you’re near it or standing in front of it in the aisle.

And if you’ve downloaded shopping list apps, or coupon apps, it’s likely the manufacturers or stores will know what kind of items you normally buy, and figure out if they want to offer you a discount to try another brand or an item you might not necessarily buy regularly. Most companies don’t like to give out coupons for items you are going to buy anyway.

The folks I talked to at a grocery store in Metairie say they’d love the savings, but are concerned about having their location pinpointed at all times.

Categories: Big Brother, Technology Tags: , , , ,