"If you use Verizon on your smartphone you may have read about Verizon placing a 'super cookie' on your phone. Here is an article explaining more about this issue, and how to opt out of the 'super cookie,'" and with that we can envision Jim Hamm with a serious look, followed by his grin.
Perma-Cookies? Privacy?
Starting off with a title that uses the word "evil" this article goes on to describe Verizon's sneaky tracking technique. Jim Hamm warns, "If you use Verizon, you may want to read this article." And read the comments below.
Who's Looking
"Verizon loves you — and in particular your browsing habits. Take a read here. Better stay away from those, ah, nefarious websites...(grin)…." And this is from Jim Hamm.
(And just now, by allowing Cookies so I can post, I see 50 websites have latched onto my computer even though I clicked to Block Cookies from third parties and advertisers.)
Avoid This Amazon Virus
John Carter grabs our attention with this information on how to avoid this Amazon virus.
"Here’s a new way to install a virus or tracking cookie on your computer. Just make the email message look like an official note from Amazon and include a zip file to click on to let the curious try to figure out what it’s all about.
The email address in the message wasn't mine. I never order from Amazon using the email address the message used. And if I wanted to verify the order, I would go online and check out the order ID mentioned in this email.
(Remember you can click to enlarge the illustration.)
Google is Fined
" Here is an article describing how Google lied to Safari users on how cookies work in Safari. This is sad when a company like Google actually lies to customers. They paid a fine, but admit no wrongdoing," says Jim Hamm.
(Remember, if you dislike reading white letters on a dark background you can hold these keys to toggle to black print on light background: Control Option Command 8. Repeat to toggle back to the original look.)
More Info for You
Webmaster Mary Ann Clark has posted an informative piece on cookies by John Clark on the www.pmug.us site. Go to Benefits > Tips 'N Tricks to find this new article and nine other helpful pieces.
To keep up to date, click on RSS on the PMUG home page menu. It will set you up with PMUG listing on NetNewsWire. When that opens click to Refresh All, so the latest comes up. On this blog you scroll down to Subscribe to: Posts (Atom) and click.
Short & Simple, Of Course, Mac Helps You!
Using your Mac is easy to do. Here are some shortcuts. How many are you already using? Which ones will you try later today?
To write anything: click to open Pages. Up comes a blank document, ready for your report, a birthday blessing for one of your 45 closest relatives, an anniversary poem to send to some family member, or the first chapter of your fiction piece that’s been brewing in your head.
Jot down some key ideas. Do Command + S to save it, giving it a short title.
Off the page where you’re writing do a click with the right side of the mouse which brings up a short list. Choose New Folder and drag this latest writing into it. Type a name for the folder.
When you’re ready to add to that first version of the new writing do Command + D to duplicate what you have and add to it. Keep Version 1 as is; work on Version 2. As you think of other bright ideas during the day you make a new version and keep it in the same folder.
Your busy brain has thought of some important details to add, or some colorful adjectives, or . . . . That first idea may present possibilities. A “I remember when…” piece may have poetic notions. Now you’ve got a document of prose and a document of delightful rhyme. Keep these in the same folder.
As the deadline approaches you put the finishing touches on the one that fills the bill. Name the final version “June handout BEST.” Those other ideas may lend themselves to some other use, so hold on to them for now.
With cursor in the background screen do Command + I to bring up Get Info on the left hand side, a nifty box for you to add info. Keywords you put in can help you find this new writing later.
Command + R when looking at a list from the Inspector you view a tiny picture of the various files. Put your cursor on the one you want to find. Command + R then brings it up in the files so you can see where it’s located. (When you see the one you want in Inspector you can just click on the title you want and it will open, but you won’t know what folder it’s in.)
To cut, highlight what you want to remove and do Command + X. Paste what you’ve then highlighted with Command + V. To copy, highlight what you want and do Command + C.
Find it on your desktop or a file list: On the Menu at top of page that lists Finder first, go to File > Label and choose a color. Your folder will show up in a list with that color bar around the title.
Want to enlarge the type under the folders on the desktop? On the main menu bar on the top go to View > Show View Options. Experiment with enlarging icon size, spacing, text.
On the Internet, Command + D at the URL line of the website lets you add that site to a folder in Bookmarks. Scroll through the little box to find the suitable home for that URL.
Command + Shift + 4 brings up the screen shot that you stretch around the picture or text that you want to copy and saves the screen shot as a file on desktop.
Command + B makes what you’ve highlighted turn into a bold font. Do it again over the bold and it toggles to go back to not-bold.
Command and + on a highlighted word lets you enlarge it by repeatedly tapping the +. The opposite, Command and the - will shrink the highlighted word.
On Mountain Lion you can do some of this an easier way. Highlight the word or paragraphs, etc. Then right click with your mouse on that document. It lists choices, such as spelling, speech, etc. Look under Writing Tools and it brings up look up in dictionary, thesaurus, search in Spotlight, Google, Wikipedia, and show statistics.
If you’ve set Pages to show word count at the bottom of the page: click on Words and it gives the total number of pages, lines, paragraphs, characters and characters not counting spaces.
If you accidentally delete something -- and before you type in something else -- go to Edit on the menu across the top of Pages and click to Undo Typing. It will replace what you took out.
Here’s 8 pages of shortcuts if you’re REALLY into shortcut info for every possible idea: http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1343 Keyboard by category
Let’s Take a Look at Mail: When you’ve clicked to open a New Message and have written a first draft, then you can click on the last tiny icon on the top right. Your Mac gives you choices of how to make your email more attention-getting with choices of colorful templates such as Birthday, Announcements, Photos, Stationery, and Sentiments. You can drag in some photo to make this email personalized.
Shop on Amazon: Go to amazon.com and click on Sign in to set up Your Account. Must allow cookies! Command + , (the comma) then choose Privacy > Block cookies from 3rd parties. Go to Your account to see history, using gift cards, settings, etc. Your balance never expires. (I go back afterwards and change Cookies setting to Never.)
Start your own FREE blog: https://accounts.google.com/ Must allow cookies first. Then sign in with email address and a password. Set up your account. Go to view Dashboard where you have choices to make about web albums, YouTube profile, etc. Go to www.blogger.com to look at available templates. Here’s links to info: https://support.google.com/blogger/
Keep up to date: If you subscribe to NetNewsWire you can be notified when there’s a new entry to the PMUG newsblog http://pmugnews.blogspot.com and also to the PMUG website: http://pmug.us/ Take a look here http://netnewswireapp.com/mac
(That’s all for now!) This is the PMUG meeting handout for June 15, 2013
from Elaine Hardt
So, What Do You Want Them to Know?
It’s not a cheery handout today. But as we keep hearing news reports the importance of security and privacy grab our attention. Of course, there are things we need to know and do. Keeping up with the latest information is a necessary precaution for all of us. Here is just a few possibilities for current sites for you to review.
ID Theft, Opt Out Directions, Free Credit Report, Social Networking Danger
See http://www.worldprivacyforum.org lists articles on ID theft, security, privacy, cloud computing, medical info on HIPAA, medical identity theft, and more.
Lots of links are provided on this website. One article brought to our attention was “Top ten opt out list.” The information goes into detail and when printed out is 12 pages long as it describes the various opt-outs you can use to stop information about you from being collected, circulated, and sold among various companies and government agencies.
One company is described which builds detailed dossiers on consumers with “information scraped from social networking sites like Facebook, and is combined with public record data.” Dossiers have been used in political campaigns and other businesses. According to their quotation from Wall Street Journal this company’s segments recently included “a person's household income range, age range, political leaning, and gender and age of children in the household, as well as interests in topics including religion, the Bible, gambling, tobacco, adult entertainment and ‘get rich quick’ offers. In all . . . more than 400 categories, the documents indicated."
This site also gives consumer tips and links on how to get your free annual credit report.
A February 2010 report discloses Digital Signage Privacy Principles which might be a new term and a previously unexplained form of sophisticated digital information collection.
Traveling Brings New Challenges for Security and Privacy
See https://www.eff.org/wp/defending-privacy-us-border-guide-travelers-carrying-digital-devices. This website gives 20 pages of information.
Defending privacy at the U.S. Border: a guide for travelers carrying digital devices states that “for now, a border agent has the legal authority to search your electronic devices at the border even if she has no reason to think that you’ve done anything wrong.”
It discusses such agencies as CBP, ICE, TSA. Which other countries have you recently visited before entering the United States? What other connections do you have there?
Be aware of two basic precautions: make regular backups so if your computer is ever taken, lost or destroyed you’ll still have access to your data, and encrypt the information on your computer.
It gives details on how and why. Talks about hard drives, flash drives, mobile phones, details, date and disk encryption, digital cameras. It goes into how to interact with border agents, what to say, how to behave. The appendix lists 47 sources and their links with descriptions.
You can click to download a PDF with this material. This might be something you’d want to pass along to your grown kids and friends who plan to travel this summer.
Cookies?
These are not just the yummy ones Ginger brings to PMUG! Read on . . .
What Info is Available for Internet Sites to Take?
Using Firefox: are you collecting lots and lots of cookies? See how to view history and clear what you don’t want saved. http://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/how-clear-firefox-cache Using Safari: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1677
See http://kb.iu.edu/data/ahic.html Indiana University knowledge base, dated 3-3-13. Brief description of cache, cookies, history. How to: for Firefox, Internet Explorer 7, 8, 9, Chrome, Opera, Safari, Mobile Safari for iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, Android.
What personal information does Amazon gather and why? There’s 5 pages to read! http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=468496 dated 4-6-12.
Google’s Policy: http://www.google.com/policies/privacy/ last modified 7-27-12. Their policy in 8 pages; what they take and what you can determine on your end. “We will not reduce your rights under this Privacy Policy without your explicit consent.” Hmmmm.
Password Managers Can Help
The query to Ben Patterson brings up info he wrote about iPhone, iPad: http://heresthethingblog.com/2013/04/30/reader-mail-simple-password-manager/
How Safe is My Info on a Thumb Drive?
A handy little thumb drive can hold a lot of info. But they can be misplaced, lost, mishandled. Make a plan to store them and use them. How long of a life do they have? Probably you’ll want to back one up, then buy a new one & copy over again in a few years?
An infected USB thumb drive can infect a computer. This discusses software encryption, hardware encryption. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secure_USB_drive
An Unexpected Phone Call From Your Grandson
Oh, it was a young man’s voice on the phone, but he said, “Grandma, I’m calling from Rome and I need help.” Who wouldn’t be concerned? How did he travel so far from home? What’s going on? Asking a few questions like, “Maybe you have the wrong number. What did you say your name was? What’s your sister’s name?” Ask anything that only the real grandson could possibly know. “Give me your phone number and I’ll call you back after I ...“ Make some quick excuse and sound sort of confused. Your brain’s internal warning device is in full swing now. You’ve heard about scams like this. Don’t be cheated out of your $$$.
Facebook gives crooks the information so they can find information to pretend to be your grandchild. http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2013/01/16/scam-artists-using-facebook-to-target-grandparents/
Alert your grandkids about posting information on Facebook, etc that would jeopardize you or them! A good reminder now and then shows you care about their safety.
So, What Can We Do?
While we are bemoaning the loss of truth, honesty, and respect in the world today we of the “generation with years of experience” must continue to be relevant and responsible. It’s part of our heritage, how mama and dad raised us to be decent and trustworthy. It’s like doing push-ups for exercise. Now, we’re exercising our brains. And part of that is continuing communication. Listen and learn. Respond as best as you can!
Let your computer help you keep in touch. Let PMUG help you learn.
+ + +
This was today's PMUG meeting handout from Elaine Hardt, May 18, 2013
About Cookies
| Wonder how cookies work? Jim Hamm finds this info, and this is their cookie, too. |
Google & Safari Settings for Cookies
Jim Hamm keeps a lookout for useful information. "Here is an article by John Gruber, of the Daring Fireball blog, discussing the use of cookies from websites you visit. It's a little confusing to follow, but apparently Google decided to circumvent settings in Safari and permit ALL websites from placing cookies in your browser, even if you explicitly set Safari NOT to permit this.
"A 'John Battelle,' whom I've not heard of, wrote an article sort of defending Google in doing this. Gruber disagrees with both Google and Battelle on this issue (as I do, too), and the article lists some of Battele's comments followed Gruber's response."
Jim explains, "If you're not familiar with Gruber's blog, Daring Fireball, I have a lot of respect for his opinions and comments, on this and other topics.
"Google wrote code to specifically circumvent Safari's settings, and apparently no longer does this egregious action. Google certainly has been helpful in searching for stuff on the net, but I don't appreciate sneaky actions like this on their part."
Safari and the Cookies
Earlier we'd looked at Cookies. Now after the upgrade to Safari 5.1 the Command + Comma command brings up a new look at Preferences > Security. Go to Privacy on the bar there to bring up Block Cookies, Limit website access, and the list of Cookies and website data. After carefully opting in to Cookies only to post to my blogs and then afterwards deleting all Cookies it was a shock to see a huge list of 595 websites which have latched on to tracking my data since upgrading to Safari this afternoon. (To see the topic of Cookies go to Labels on the right side of this home page and scroll down.)
Since starting this post I've had 35 new websites latch on to my computer. Is this the way Safari is going to behave now?
What Happened to "Never"?
“Never” doesn’t work anymore on Safari, on Google. Not wanting to allow Cookies to establish their territories on my computer I have clicked on “Only from Sites I Visit” under Preferences > Security only when I want to post to my blogs, as is required by blogspot. Then, as soon as I’m done I’d go to Security, click Show Cookies and choose Remove All. Next, I’d promptly do Done and change Accept Cookies to “Never.” After that I could check back at any time and see that “Never” had done its job. No cookies were listed.
Now, within the past week or so, “Never” doesn’t live up to its name. A list of websites have found some unknown-to-me loophole and helped themselves to Cookies, showing up in that list. I do Remove All, and select “Never” again, and go to look at the weather, news, etc. When I check again later there’s a new crop of websites that have set up shop.
Does this have something to do with the Flash Cookies that Jim Hamm had discussed earlier? Scroll down and click on Cookies on the list of Labels on this newsblog. See the previously posted entries.
I went to the Adobe site to assure myself that the settings were still on.
Now it was time to see if people much smarter than me had experienced “Never” Cookies. To make sure only recent articles would come up I chose “Past Year” under AnyTime on the left side of the Google page after entering key words in Search.
The Apple Discussion group suggests going to Cookies.plist and deselecting AutoFill.
The Macworld forum has some complaints about Safari permitting cookies.
On Arstechnica someone mentioned a Cookies.plist in the Library.
Where is Library? Spotlight doesn’t list it. Go to Finder and click the little house icon in Places. There’s Library with a folder named Cookies. Brings up a list of Geek-talk.
So, I close here, uncertain as to the solution. Do you have ideas and experiences to share? I’m going to go and check my unwanted Cookies right now.
Flash Cookies, Part 2
See yesterday's posting on Adobe Flash Cookies. Jim Hamm goes on to say, "After further exploration of this Flash cookie situation, here's something thing I've done just to see how it works out. I went to the Flash folder (~/Library/Preferences/Macromedia/Flash Player/#SharedObjects) on my hard drive and changed the settings as follows:
Original settings: jimhamm - read and write....everyone - read only
Revised settings: jimhamm - write only (Dropbox)....everyone - No access
Flash cookies perhaps can still get into the folder, but no one can access them. I'll find out if I incur any problems with these settings. So far, Flash on websites seems to work okay...after I click the 'ClicktoFlash' program. This latter program prevents Flash from loading on websites unless I want it to.
"I'm not at all worried or paranoid about Flash cookies -- I'm just doing this because I enjoy doing this kind of 'stuff' (technical term) and because I don't think Adobe should be allowing this to begin with. To a friend I said the following: 'This behavior of storing cookies doesn't seem to have anything to do with Flash.'
"He replied: 'Sure it does... the biggest customers for Flash are advertisers, and advertisers want to target you. Just follow the money.'
"I'll see how this all works out," Jim says.
Adobe Flash Cookies
The concern of Adobe Flash allowing cookies that are not controlled by your browser, to be stored is discussed in the articles here. First, second, third.
Jim Hamm sends this info: "I have read about this previously, and when I checked the cookies in my Mac using Adobe's Settings Manager (third link) I was amazed at the number of cookies I had, and I did not recognize many of the names. On several, I recognized the name but, to my remembrance (which, admittedly, can be shaky), I had never visited the website.
"I deleted all of them, and went to the Global Privacy Settings panel and set it to block all cookies. Unfortunately, it seems all this does is block a website from accessing a camera or microphone.
"I'm not clear if one can set Adobe Flash to block cookies completely and permanently. If someone does know, I'd appreciate your letting me know how to make this setting.
"As a general statement, I'm not concerned so much about cookies that I might pick up in my browser -- and I can set Safari to block cookies. Cookies do serve a useful purpose in many cases and, from what I've read, are not malware as such. But I'm not clear as to why Adobe should capture these cookies. According to the article, 'Adobe condemns the practice of using Local Storage to back up browser cookies for the purpose of restoring them later without user knowledge and express consent.' "
Sneaky Cookies You Might Not Have Seen
Flash “cookies” can be up to 100 kb. They never expire, will never be deleted automatically, and by default they don’t have to ask your permission to save all this data. There’s no easy way to delete them yourself, your browsers are not aware that they exist, so clearing Cookies and History doesn’t help. Adobe has hidden the settings in a Flash app deep in their website. Got your attention, so far?
Also, did you know you can set privacy settings for access to your camera and/or microphone on your computer? The Maintain Blog alerted me to check out Adobe’s Website Storage Panel. The page that comes up has the information from your computer already listed. You can view and make changes in Storage, Security Settings, Global Notifications Settings, and more. Reassuringly, it says, “Adobe has no access to this list or to any information that the websites may have stored on your computer. (Double click on this illustration to enlarge.)
Find Spyware, etc.
This just in from David Passell, "Look what the regularly scheduled MacScan found this morning after yesterday's Google Chrome testing. Coincidence? Maybe not since the file path leads to Firefox/Profiles. Needless to say I will isolate (remove) it. (I'll look at that file first)." See http://macscan.securemac.com/ for Free trial.
And this from Apple, "will find, isolate, and remove spyware, keystroke loggers, and trojan horses as well as detect whether remote administration applications have been installed on a computer." Free download of MacScan 2.7 here. (Double click to enlarge screen shot.)
Curious About Cookies?
Remember when cookies were those yummy ones that Mama made? Cookies for the computer are something else!
Corresponding with John Carter I mentioned that "Never" doesn't seem to mean Never. Going to a website for a look before mentioning it on PMUG blog seems to have stirred up their Cookies. Deleting seemed to have taken the Cookies off, clicking Delete All, and then Allow Cookies Never didn't cancel their return. Later the Cookies were back.
Here's John's take: "This is very surprising. I haven't gone to the trouble to check if cookies come back on me - ever. So I have not experienced this problem, but it may be there nontheless. I am using Chrome as my default browser now, and you'll see my report on that in another email. I'm going to start checking for cookies on sites that I have deleted cookies on and don't revisit (pingtest.net being one) to see if those cookies return."
Soon John wrote back with more info on Cookies. "Ah-ha! I think I just discovered why you are getting those cookies. Safari has loaded the sites you visited in Top Sites. Every time you delete a cookie from a site, close Safari, and reopen (and maybe you don't even have to reopen), Top Sites might be reloading the cookies when it refreshes the list in Top Sites.
"Maybe if you clear all browsing data and your browser history from Safari after deleting cookies this will also clean out Top Sites and the problem will go away.
"But like I said, you should not choose Never for saving cookies because that will prevent you from visiting sites that require cookies to be set unless you have entered those sites in your cookie allowed list. It can be more of an inconvenience to update that list than it is to allow cookies only for sites that you visit.
"The only logical reason (logic and reason being at odds with each other) to block cookies is the fear that one of them will pass personal data to the outside world."
John continues, "Here's an excerpt from Wikipedia:
'A cookie can be used for authentication, session tracking (state maintenance), storing site preferences, shopping cart contents, the identifier for a server-based session, or anything else that can be accomplished through storing textual data.
As text, cookies are not executable. Because they are not executed, they cannot replicate themselves and are not viruses. Due to the browser mechanism to set and read cookies, they can be used as spyware. Anti-spyware products may warn users about some cookies because cookies can be used to track people or violate privacy concerns.
"Cookies act as spyware simply because they can report personal information that you enter at a site such as your name, address, phone, login name, and literally anything you enter into a field except a password. That information stored by a cookie is only readable by the site that put the cookie there. That's what makes doing online banking and online purchasing safe. Such personal information is used by the site to confirm you as a returning customer. This is why you should not allow cookies to be stored on a public computer (at the library). When you connect your computer to a public LAN (at the library), your computer is protected from prying eyes simply by the fact that the server (at the library) prevents crosstalk between computers even though you are able to see all the other computers connected to that same LAN.' This needs to be confirmed by one of our Internet gurus in the club, but I believe it to be correct.
"I take serious issue with the claim that cookies can be used to track people or violate privacy concerns. Information about what kind of computer you have, what kind of operating system you use, and what kind of browser you use is not considered private information. No other information can be collected from your computer by a cookie.
"Cookies cannot infect your computer in any way."
John's conclusion is reassuring, "That being said, nothing is impossible. Just keep your operating system and your browser updated when updates are available and you'll be protected in the best possible way."
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