How brands fool us

The Google experience over the last week—and I can say ‘week’ because there were still a few browsers showing blocks yesterday—reminds me of how brands can be resilient.    First, I know it’s hard for most people to believe that Google is so incompetent—or even downright corrupt, when it came to its bypassing Safari users’ […]

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Google, hacks, privacy breaches, and ad codes: there’s a pattern emerging here

In all my recent posts, I’ve stopped short of saying that Google hacked us, but that the code inserted had Google’s name all over it.    But if Google was party to or had profited from hacking, then it wouldn’t be the first time, right?    Remember when Google hacked the Safari browser to track […]

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In praise of Zoho Mail

  Now that all of our email, bar a handful of client accounts, are going through the paid version of Zoho Mail, I couldn’t be happier.    When we shifted things over, my friend and web development expert, Nigel Dunn, suggested either Google or Zoho. He’s a big fan of Google, and I can see […]

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YouTube leaks again

Because of privacy concerns and the unethical way Google has gone about its interest-based advertising, I never connected my YouTube and Google accounts. In fact, I block the YouTube cookie on my desktop machine and my laptop.    Which makes these findings all the more interesting. Six to seven months ago, despite taking all these […]

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The modern phone shifts how I consume technology—but only slightly

  This has been my year for acquiring new technology, beginning with a new external hard drive just after Christmas 2011, to a new desktop machine right after New Year. The keyboard, printer, scanner have all given way to replacements; while even the internet package and modem are new. TelstraClear then gave me a new […]

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Facebook’s explanations check out after all

After a day of worrying about a potential Facebook privacy breach—and some very simple questions no one seemed to be asking—Richard MacManus’s Facebook status update attracted a comment from Jesse Stay: Someone needs to go back through their email notifications, and if we can find one that matches a wall post, where the email notification […]

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History has already shown us the better way, so why ape an outmoded market leader?

A friend had his Gmail hacked, and, much like an Atlantic article I read in the print edition a few months ago, the hackers deleted his entire mailbox. Google says these hacks only happen a few thousand times daily.    I’m concerned for him because he has to deal with the Google forums, and we […]

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Does frictionless sharing go further than we think?

Frictionless sharing on Facebook, as I understand it, works largely as described in the diagrams at Shortstack. If you want more depth, ReadWriteWeb explains it.    But what if you have never authorized the application? In my case, I have never authorized anything from Disney or ABC. I double-checked today to see what apps I […]

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Facebook Timeline gets rolled out: here come the complaints

Above: My Facebook Timeline, as it appeared in October. As more of the planet gets on to Facebook Timeline, it’s been interesting to watch reactions.    When Facebook went to a new layout three years ago, plenty of people—myself included—went to an anti-new Facebook group. Most were there because they didn’t like change, threatened to […]

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RIP Facebook lists: you can no longer select them in privacy settings

P.P.PS.: As of December 21, 9.29 GMT, Facebook has fixed the bug.—JY P.PS.: Scroll down, as I traced the source of the bug two days after the original post. At the time of this post-postscript (December 21, 2.46 GMT), Facebook still had not fixed things.—JY Facebook privacy is broken.    After discovering last week that […]

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