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The Telecom Digest for December 1, 2013
Volume 32 : Issue 237 : "text" Format
Messages in this Issue:
A spurned techie's revenge: Locking down his ex's digital life (Monty Solomon)
LG smart TV snooping extends to home networks, second blogger says (Monty Solomon)
Secret Weapon in Mall Battle: Parking Apps (Monty Solomon)

====== 32 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 21, 1981 ======

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Date: Sat, 30 Nov 2013 00:29:36 -0500 From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com> To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: A spurned techie's revenge: Locking down his ex's digital life Message-ID: <p06240841cebf27db5edf@[10.0.1.4]> A spurned techie's revenge: Locking down his ex's digital life Revenge porn is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to cyber-domestic abuse. by Sean Gallagher Nov 22 2013 Ars Technica The e-mail's subject line was "Interested in hiring you." The sender, a woman, said she had seen me on a local Baltimore news show talking about revenge porn, and she was "interested in talking to you about some work." She gave an office phone number, and her e-mail address was from a large local hospital system, so I thought it might be for some sort of speaking engagement. It was anything but. When I contacted her, the woman told me her life had been turned upside down by her ex-boyfriend. He had hacked her phones, her voicemail, and her family's computer, and he was blocking her out of her digital life. She was looking for someone to help her regain control. To some, those claims might sound like paranoia. But there are thousands of incidents of this type of abusive use of technology annually, perpetrated by (mostly male) spouses or partners. The most public forms of tech-centered abuse, especially revenge porn, are getting attention from legislators across the US right now. But these incidents are not entirely new. For more than a decade, domestic violence and "intimate partner" stalking and harassment have relied heavily on technology. The most recent comprehensive study on stalking and domestic violence, conducted by the Department of Justice in 2006, found that more than 887,000 people were aware that they were victims of cyber stalking or electronic monitoring in that year alone. And that was a year before the iPhone was released and well before the smartphone boom really began. ... http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/11/a-spurned-techies-revenge-locking-down-his-exs-digital-life/
Date: Sat, 30 Nov 2013 01:09:41 -0500 From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com> To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: LG smart TV snooping extends to home networks, second blogger says Message-ID: <p06240845cebf31489448@[10.0.1.4]> LG smart TV snooping extends to home networks, second blogger says Internet-connected TVs from LG phone home with file names in shared folders. by Dan Goodin Nov 21 2013 Ars Technica Smart TV from LG phones home with user's viewing habits, USB file names It's not the premise of a sci-fi novel. Internet-connected TVs are watching you now. A second blogger has published evidence that his LG-manufactured smart television is sharing sensitive user data with the Korea-based company in a post that offers support for the theory that the snooping isn't isolated behavior that affects a small number of sets. In addition to transmitting a list of shows being watched and the names of files contained on USB drives, the Internet-connected TV also sent the names of files shared on home or office networks, the blogger reported. He made the discovery after plugging the Wireshark packet-sniffing program into his home network and noticing that an LG TV-model number 42ls570, purchased in April-was transmitting file names that sounded vaguely familiar even though there was no USB drive plugged in. "It turns out it was pulling filenames from my shared folders over the network and broadcasting those instead," he wrote in a blog post published Thursday. "I moved all the media out of the folder and put a few duds in named 'GiantPorn,' turned the TV off and on and it was still broadcasting the old filenames. The TV couldn't see those files whilst browsing manually so I'd hazard a guess it's caching some of these locally." Within about 10 minutes, voilà. The name of the GiantPorn MPEG file was transmitted to 193.67.216.135, an IP address belonging to LG Electronics, according to Whois records. ... http://arstechnica.com/security/2013/11/lg-smart-tv-snooping-extends-to-home-networks-second-blogger-says/
Date: Fri, 29 Nov 2013 00:36:55 -0500 From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com> To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: Secret Weapon in Mall Battle: Parking Apps Message-ID: <p06240818cebdd857bb3d@[10.0.1.4]> Secret Weapon in Mall Battle: Parking Apps By JACLYN TROP November 27, 2013 Phoebe Scott of Orange County, Calif., has a new routine before heading to the mall. She checks the parking lots on her ParkMe smartphone app "so that I can see what I'm up against, or if I need to change my plans." If a lot is below 90 percent full, the trip is on. Her favorite, not far from her workplace, is a garage at the Santa Monica Place mall, where sensors and lights guide her to a specific open space. "It's a daily battle," said Ms. Scott, 29, the founder of Laudville, a social technology start-up. "Anything to make it easier makes a really big difference." The fight for a mall parking spot, long a necessary evil of Black Friday, is growing easier thanks to the proliferation of new technologies, from apps and sensors to color-coded lights and electronic boards. It's one way that malls and shopping districts are trying to lure customers away from their computers, into the realm of their brick-and-mortar stores. "What happens when there's no spots? People drive around and become frustrated," said Kathy Grannis, a spokeswoman for the National Retail Federation. "Who wants to start their shopping experience frustrated?" ParkMe, which tracks more than 28,000 locations worldwide, has emerged as a mainstay app for mall customers navigating the nation's parking lots. With the app, they can find the closest and least expensive lots, as well as alternative garage entrances. The app's user base surged 97 percent in the past year, and it is adding hundreds of garages to its database. ... http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/28/business/secret-weapon-in-mall-battle-parking-apps.html
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