By mike
You’ve got to wonder how badly you foobered up your product release when the Electronic Frontier Foundation has this to say about Buzz:
If you’re going to use Google Buzz, we recommend that you opt-out during profile creation. If you have already created a profile, change it to private immediately. Then go through the suggested list, and edit it as appropriate before making it public again. PC World has a helpful privacy checklist to help users understand the privacy implications of Google Buzz options.
How many people are going to want to read through such checklists and really tweak their profile/settings in order to actually take advantage of Buzz while maintaining some semblance of privacy? I just turned it off and removed anything I could find related to Buzz in my profile. If anything, it made me take a closer look at how open my profile was on Google.
Fail, Google. Really really really huge fail.
By mike
Didn’t realize that Google Buzz gets turned on with some really, really huge privacy-nuking options. WTF, Google?
From the Silicon Valley Insider:
A Google spokesperson asked us to phrase this claim differently. Like this: “In other words, after you create your profile in Buzz, if you don’t edit any of the default settings, someone could visit your profile and see the people you email and chat with most (provided you didn’t edit this list during profile creation).”
I guess I could take some time to figure out how to protect myself, but instead I’ll be sitting it out for now with a tech tip from Consumerist:
You can go into Buzz and selectively follow/unfollow certain people to avoid this kind of incident, but the best evasive maneuver is to scroll down to the bottom of the screen and click “Turn off Buzz.”
Wow… just wow, Google.
By mike
via Gizmodo: AT&T Comes in Last in Consumer Reports Study That Surprises No One
Here’s some news anyone with an iPhone could have told you: AT&T delivers crappy service that its customers hate. But this news comes from a reputable source, Consumer Reports, instead of the usual whiny friends.
Carrier exclusivity and all that.
By mike
So I’m interested in this ’cause I run a Mac at home for sanity’s sake. Gizmodo’s reporting about a particularly nasty (possible) result of hoovering that new copy of iWork ‘09 that was announced a few weeks ago: OSX.Trojan.iServices.A.
This may be a first for the Mac software world, and it’s not cool at all: ill-gotten copies of iWork ‘09 circulating on Torrent sites contain OSX.Trojan.iServices.A, which is something you don’t want.
The Trojan parks itself in your /System/Library/StartupItems folder with read-write-execute root privileges—from there it can phone home to a remote server and install additional nasties throughout your system. Right now, the only true fix is a full format and re-install, since its residual pieces can be spread far and wide. You can spot if your particular warez iWork is infected by searching for the iWorkServices.pkg inside the installer.
You know, Macs being invulnerable and all…
