PLEASE CONFIRM RECEIPT IMMEDIATELY

It’s been a while since I posted a spam message. This was great though sadly lacking in the contact number so how am I supposed to claim my money????!

Attn: Beneficiary,

I am Mr. Raymond Mureto from the Office of Inspection Unit/United Nations Agency in George Bush Intercontinental Airport Houston, Texas USA. During my recent routine check at the Airport Storage/vault on withheld packages, I discovered an abandoned shipment that belongs to you from a Diplomat from London and Africa, when scanned it revealed an undisclosed sum of money in two Metal Trunk Boxes weighing approximately 25kg each and some people are coming after this consignment to clam it in your name.

The consignment was abandoned because the Contents was not properly declared by the consignee as “MONEY” rather it was declared as personal effect to avoid interrogation and also the inability of the diplomat to pay for the INTERNATIONAL CONSIGNMENT MONEY MOVEMENT Charges Before bringing in the consignment into US and we refused to return back the consignment where it came from since, we have already received it here in USA. On my assumption, each of the box contain not less than $5.250 Million to $10.7Million and the consignment is still left in our Storage House here at the George Bush Intercontinental Airport Houston, Texas USA till date.

The details of the consignment including your name, your email address and the official document from the United Nations office in Geneva are tagged on the Metal Trunk boxes in your favor. But to enable me confirm if you are the actual recipient of this consignment, I will advise you to provide your current Phone Number and Full Address to enable me cross check if it corresponds with the address on the official documents including the Name of the nearest Airport around your city.

Please note that this consignment is supposed to have been returned to the United States Treasury Department as unclaimed delivery due to the delay in concluding the clearance processes. Therefore you are advice to respond to this message and call me immediately as you read. Once I receive your above requested information I can get everything concluded within 3 to 6 hours upon your acceptance and proceed to your address for delivery.

Below is my direct telephone number, I am always out of office for inspection, so if I am unable to pick your call you should know that I have gone for inspection just email me and make sure you include your mobile number so that I can give you a call, but for now I am expecting your call today as you read this message.

Best Regards,

Raymond Mureto
Head Officer-in-Charge
George Bush Intercontinental Airport Houston, Texas USA

Facebook, social media privacy and Cambridge Analytica

It would appear lots of people are now freaking out about the data they share. Whilst that’s a good thing that people are more privacy aware it’s also a bit late as you’ve been sharing everything for years and those third parties already have your data and revoking access is a bit closing the stable door after the horse has bolted.

Anyway if you are concerned there are a number of things you can do to reduce the data leakage if you don’t want to delete facebook entirely.

Ad preferences;
This is where you can opt-out of interest based advertising (you will still see ads just not using the data collected to profile you into target segments), you can usually see what segments the company has placed you (based on what you like, sites you visit, other adverts you interact with, location etc). Now you can limit them tracking across the web – however facebook if you want to be able to login with facebook etc you are still letting them track the sites you visit so that’s the convenience trade off. It’s a free service after all and that means you are the product.

Facebook Ad preferences
Google Ad preferences
Twitter Ad preferences
Instagram Ad preference (see Facebook advert preferences)

If you are in the EU you can also use Your Online Choices to opt-out of many advertising networks that track you in a similar way (usually pixels or code snippets on the sites you visit. In North America you have a similar option at Your Ad Choices.

http://www.youronlinechoices.eu
http://youradchoices.com

Sites you are logged in with using some connection (and sharing personal data with);
This is where you can see sites you’ve used the login with Facebook/Twitter/Google/etc. Usually you are sharing public profile information like name and image, other times you are also sharing email address and much more. Some sites ask for friends lists (See the Cambridge Analytica story for why this is bad) and relationship status etc etc. Why do they need this? They don’t. Usually they will suggest it’s so you can invite your friends easily or somethings. Seriously though you can type a name yourself though right?

Facebook login and app data
Google login and app data
Twitter login and app data
Instagram login and app data

Now one thing to consider here is you have already shared this information with the third party. So that quiz you took in 2013 may still have your data even if you remove the access here. When you use facebook or google etc to login always check what data you are sharing and set it to just the bare minimum.

Downloading your data;
In the EU you have a right to see the data a company has about you. Facebook have a tool to allow you to download everything and then browse it easily using your usual browser. It’s cool and worrying when you see all your likes etc in one place.

Facebook data download
Twitter Data
Google allow you to download your data but hey it’s a lot if like me you use photos and gmail.
Instagram I’m not sure if you can yet.

 

George Takei, Young Activists and Facebook Team Up to Make HRC Logo a Mega-Meme

As you’ve probably noticed, your Facebook feed turned red last Monday when all of your friends, particularly those in the US or with US friends, including people you had no idea had an opinion on gay marriage, changed their profile pictures to a little pink or white equals sign on a red background. The symbol is a re-colored version of the yellow-on-blue logo designed in 1995 by Stone/Yamashita who declined to comment for this story and its been changed a grand total of once since then. Anastasia Khoo, director of marketing for the Human Rights Campaign is possessive of the image, which looks a little like a corollary to the Swiss flag.

And is she biting her nails over all the variations the internet has come up with? “I have to say, I guess when we decided to make this decision it was almost preordained—in for a penny, in for a pound,” she said, “and I’ve loved it. I’ve been so impressed by the creativity weve seen out there, even from people like Martha Stewart.”

Even George Takei has had a go.

 

 

via George Takei, Young Activists and Facebook Team Up to Make HRC Logo a Mega-Meme | Adweek.

Facebook Challenges Google’s Tech Dominance by Partnering With AOL, Adobe | Adweek

Facebook and Google aren’t exactly besties, and the social giant’s latest move won’t help matters. In recent weeks Facebook has made two friends through moves that will simultaneously help its own advertising business and hurt Google’s.

Last month, Adobe and AOL joined Facebook Exchange, the social network’s display retargeting platform beloved by direct-response advertisers who are typically big-time Google buyers. Google was conspicuously not included.

via Facebook Challenges Google’s Tech Dominance by Partnering With AOL, Adobe | Adweek.

» The New Firefox Cookie Policy Web Policy

The key point here is most analytics are used by publishers to show readership numbers, most advertising networks are used as a revenue source and unclicked social widgets are used to promote content.

So is this the death of the web as we know it?

Beta versions of the Firefox browser will limit tracking by ad networks. Safari has long done the same, but Safari desktop market share is about 8%, Firefox has around 20% of the browser share, creating a serious dent in the ability of ad companies to track and therefore monetise consumers.

Without advertising revenues, accurate visitor numbers or promotional opportunities many website would struggle I feel. Anyway read more below and at the original article.

 

“If a user does not seem to have intentionally interacted with your content, or if you’re uncertain, you should ask for permission before setting cookies. Most analytics services, advertising networks, and unclicked social widgets would come within this category.

In sum, working around the policy’s technical limits may be reasonable in certain cases, but undermining the policy’s privacy purpose is never acceptable.”

via » The New Firefox Cookie Policy Web Policy. Also worth reading the Mozilla blog post.

Brands Brace for Deluge of New Domains in April | Adweek

In the last few weeks, the Association of National Advertisers and more than 60 companies, including Procter & Gamble, Coca-Cola, Time Warner, Microsoft and General Mills, have sent comments to Icann that call for a limited preventative registration (LPR). For a fee, the LPR would enable companies to block registration of their trademarks across all Internet domain registries.

via Brands Brace for Deluge of New Domains in April | Adweek.

 

Sadly it isn’t in ICANN’s interests to allow brands to limit their costs and when all the new domains come into force it’s going to be  a return to cyber squatting and the like.

Online Food Ordering Startup Delivery Hero Fully Acquires Hungryhouse

The online food ordering market has become even more competitive after Berlin startup Delivery Hero announced it has fully acquired UK-based firm Hungryhouse, as well as purchasing smaller UK player EatitNow.co.uk, and putting pressure on its major rival Just Eat in the UK and across the world.

The deal comes after Delivery Hero acquired a ‘controlling interest’ in Germany’s Lieferheld and a ‘pivotal’ stake in Hungryhouse in March 2012, adding its resources to the UK brand and allowing it to triple the size of its business with more than £6 million in sales across 11,000 restaurants every month.

“We believe there is still a lot of growth potential left in this business, and so we re- invested 98% of the purchase price of our shares into Delivery Hero,” says hungryhouse Co- Founder Tony Charles. “We had always planned to make an exit, but the opportunity to continue the Delivery Hero success story was too much fun to turn down!”

via Online Food Ordering Startup Delivery Hero Fully Acquires Hungryhouse.

Apps providing spin-off opportunities for popular magazine brands | Technology | guardian.co.uk

A great article on how some publishers are looking to bespoke apps and experiences to monetise mobile rather than replicating the magazine format on tablets and mobile.

… a new app released by Dennis Publishing’s male health mag aims to change that, although it’s no digital replica. Men’s Fitness Cover Model Body Plan is a spin-off: a £1.49 paid app offering workout plans promising “you’re just four weeks away from a physique worthy of the cover”.

While I mull the prospect of a “V-shaped torso” by Springtime, the app’s release also made me think about the market for these kinds of spin-off apps for magazine publishers, as they slice and dice their archives of articles and photography in new ways for smartphones and tablets.

Much of the focus on magazines and apps has been on the replica editions, whether offered through aggregators like Zinio, or as standalone apps in the app store newsstands of Apple and Google.

via Apps providing spin-off opportunities for popular magazine brands | Technology | guardian.co.uk.

Think of Facebook “as a self-absorbed, petulant brat, one that doesnt understand how to play well with others” | The Wall Blog

“think of Facebook as a self-absorbed, petulant brat, one that doesn’t understand how to play well with others” 

 

Advertising Age has published what reads as a damning round up of recent activity at Facebook. This includes the controversial recent privacy changes. The point of the piece is that Facebook isn’t a start-up anymore and these are growing pains. Shockingly perhaps, Facebook will be ten next year. Yes, 2013 represents its ninth birthday.However, the piece argues that “despite Facebook’s Harvard-dorm-room roots, the company’s modus operandi is more stubbornly childish than post-collegiate”.  The Ad Age piece says we should “think of Facebook as a self-absorbed, petulant brat, one that doesn’t understand how to play well with others” and that include users, investors, partners, competitors”.

via Think of Facebook “as a self-absorbed, petulant brat, one that doesnt understand how to play well with others” | The Wall Blog.

Amazon’s and Facebook’s Ad Privacy Practices Irk Ad Agencies | Digital – Advertising Age

Two of the biggest publishers on the web don’t use the advertising industry’s standardized ad-privacy program, and it’s a problem for even the largest digital-media buyers.

Facebook and Amazon both offer targeted display advertising that can sometimes incorporate behavioral data from third parties. However, while nearly every other relevant media firm, ad network and ad-data firm either uses the industry’s self-regulatory Ad Choices program or operates one that can be easily integrated with it, Facebook and Amazon do not.

via Amazon’s and Facebook’s Ad Privacy Practices Irk Ad Agencies | Digital – Advertising Age.