Did you join one of the ‘social networks‘? If you did join one, did you give the site the login and password to your email account?
Why?
Did you give the site that information because it asked for it? If you don’t know by now that is not a very good idea, then I will tell you why you need to keep your email private.
You need to know what happens when you give that ’social network’ your login and password. They are going to ’spam’ everyone in your address book by sending them an ‘invitation to join this social network. This invitation will be sent to any business address, your boss (that could be very embarrassing!), every contact you have in your address book. This may include the owner/moderators for Yahoo Groups/other lists and can get you removed from the group/list! Owner/moderators really don’t want to join your social network and don’t appreciate the spam/invitation.
I suspect you probably didn’t know that was going to happen, but in fact it did.
Now comes another question. What will that site do with all those email addresses it just added to their email address database? You do know spammers pay big bucks for email addresses, don’t you?
Now just in case you didn’t know all this and think you may want your friends to join you on that social site, most of them have an option for you to just add the email addresses manually. You might want to ask them first though, just in case they don’t want their email address to be added to a potential spammers’ list.
Think about it, giving someone access to your email is just not a good idea. Who knows what could happen if someone in charge of that database turns rogue and decides to ‘have some fun’ with your email account!
I always buy my tax software and complete the return on my computer. I have always felt that online services of any sort are subject to hacking and who knows how these sites are really secure? (OK, I’m slightly paranoid!)
Several years ago I decided to ‘test’ the validity of the figures my purchased software produced, so I signed up online to a well known tax software site and input the data for my return. Being the paranoid person that I am, all I put in for personal data was my name and email address that was required to signup. No Social Security number, no address, etc. as I used the ‘fill out later’ option for those requirements. Once I determined my purchased software produced the same figues as the online version, I was finished and never went back to
the online site.
This year my paranoid feelings turned out to be right. I started recieving emails from this tax software company informing me that my electronic returns had been sent.
Now at first I thought this was a clever and well coded phish. It all looked very legitimate except for the fact the name of another person was included in the email. I decided I had better let this company know about the phish. So I found a contact email and forwarded one of the emails to the company.
I was totally shocked when I received a reply saying the emails were from them! The email wanted me to provide the last four digits of my Social Security number and they would provide more information. Since they didn’t have my Social Security number, that was a bit of a problem.
When I got more emails telling me the returns had been rejected due to some sort of errors I decided to see if I could find a phone number and call these folks.
I spoke to a nice man and explained the problem. He seemed to think that the person who filed the returns had used my email address. Now that explanation seemed to be totally lame (and typical!) as I just can’t believe someone would use another person’s email address for something as important as their tax returns. However he spoke to a supervisor and then he told me I would not receive any more emails from them.
Wrong! I have received at least three emails from them since then and today I got one asking me to ‘Tell Us About Your Recent ‘removed’ Support Experience’ and complete a survey!
This experience has just reinforced my belief that some things are better not done online!
Martha
Be careful when installing some legitmate programs or you may get some stuff you don’t want.
When I installed the latest version of Java on my new laptop, I noticed that I was ‘offered’ Open Office as well. While I have nothing against Open Office, in fact it is a very useful and free office suite, and is installed on another of my computers, if I hadn’t been watching I would have got the download for OO as well and it is a big download.
I like Foxit Reader and I like it much better than the piggy Adobe Reader. But the download wants me to take the Ask toolbar as well and insists I do and not just in one place. To me this is just ’shady’ practice. I recall another ‘offer‘ that wouldn’t take no for an answer and really made me mad! I am not alone, read Bits From Bill.
Now I read that Symantec is doing the same thing! Here comes the Ask Toolbar again!
Are these reputable companies now forcing unwanted apps on us just to pad their bottom line? You bet, that’s just what they are doing.
I understand when individuals that really need the money use Google Ads and that irritating Intellitxt to help pay the bill for their websites, but for companies like Symantec? Do they need the money that badly?
A word to the wise, unless you want all this ‘value added’ stuff, watch out while installing new apps! Getting to be more dangerous on the ‘net every day.
Martha
I am going to miss my morning newspaper. I still get a paper every morning, but it is less and less all the time.
There are a lot of full page ads, but I won’t miss those. There are some articles that I still enjoy reading, but those are few and far between. Most of what is in the paper I saw on the local news the day before, or I read it online from USA Today or CNN.
I used to get enough grocery coupons to pay for the cost of the paper. Now the coupons are still there, but not for stuff I want. Besides the store brands are less than the name brands even with a coupon.
I have been debating for some time whether or not to keep the newspaper. There has always been something satisfying about reading the paper with my morning coffee, and that enjoyment kept me from unsubscribing even though the content has been diminishing and some days there doesn’t seem to be much of anything besides the comic strips. I need that morning chuckle to start the day.
Today was my decision day to stop paying over $200 a year for the paper. Sunday morning comics have always been a nice respite from all the negative news. Today they were gone. No comics. I called the paper to find out why and was told they were to be found in Section F. Why would you put the comics in the ‘Homes for Sale section? Perverse humor? Nope they weren’t there either.
“Well, look in the Your Life section, That is section F” the customer service rep said. Nope, not there either, and that section is section E not F. I know sometimes I may not ‘get it’, but I can read the section numbers! The comics are missing. So she sent me out another paper.
Guess what, no comics in this one either, but there were a few more ad circulars. The section numbers are still the same as the first paper. So, the customer service rep didn’t know which section was which or else no one told her the comics were gone. Another thing could have been a ‘Dilbert’ move, they laid off the folks who know how to put the paper together.
Regardless of what happened, my decision has been made. I customized my Google page to include my favorite comics and that’s the end of it.
Martha
Did Microsoft finally get IE right? Time will tell.
I installed IE 8 on my test computer which is using a nearly pristine version of Vista Home Premium. The computer is less than two months old and so far I am only using it to test stuff (no betas yet).
I attempted to import my bookmarks from Firefox (a nice improvement) and then I got the same old thing, ‘not responding’. I closed IE and reopened it and found to my surprise that the bookmarks did import.
So I looked to see if the humongeous security hole was gone, but nope, it’s still there! (ActiveX)
Until ActiveX is removed from IE, it will never be my default browser.
When I get a new computer with Windows 7, I will get two other browsers, Firefox and Opera and then I will disable Internet Explorer! (I hope they keep this option in the final release!)
Martha
Bonus – Old definition. A reward for a job well done.
Bonus – New definition. Another way to screw the Amercian taxpayers by rewarding people who really should be fired for incompetance.
How terribly sad!
Martha
I am using the beta for Windows 7 and it is pretty cool.
It still has UAC. There are several levels of UAC, but if you really want protection, it needs to be the top level. (Security. Stops MBR Rootkits from installing as well as untold other crimeware).
Vista bashers like UAC turned off; guess they don’t like to rely on Windows to protect their computers. First they fuss about the lack of security, but when they get it, they don’t like it. Can’t please some folks regardless of what you do.
It still won’t support your old printer or scanner, because the printer and scanner manufacturers don’t make drivers for them. (Not the fault of Vista or Windows 7, but try and make folks believe that!)
It looks cool and still puts things in different places than Windows XP. (The locations make more sense!)
The Internet connection utility is super cool. Windows 7 found my print server and installed the printer with no problems. I was amazed at how well that went.
So far Windows 7 seems to be fast, lean and working well. I did have to download an email program as no email client is included with Windows 7.
Unfortunately the biggest security hole in Windows is still there. (Internet Explorer) I hear there will be an option to turn IE off; that is great news!
After updating Windows 7 the first thing I did was download and install Firefox. Then I installed Avast for virus protection. For what it is worth, everyone should have a backup browser. Even if you use and like Internet Explorer, you never know when IE will have a ’spasm’ and quit working.
I expect some of the Vista bashers will try Windows 7 and really like it.
Martha
It’s been a while since I posted the first ‘HTML Vista Bashers‘. I still like Vista and the ‘Vista Bashers’ are still bashing.
I keep asking folks why they don’t like Vista. The answers I get vary, but most of the time there is only one reason.
A favorite program won’t work. When I ask them if they tried the Program Compatibility Mode, they don’t know what that is!
They can’t find anything because it isn’t where Windows XP put stuff. (They don’t look!)
The UAC (User Access Control) is too much ‘in my face’. They could turn it off, but they don’t know that.
Some of the replies indicate they aren’t even using Vista, but someone they know has it and that someone doesn’t like it.
A common response was ‘I read it’s no good’. No real reason, they are just repeating what they have read or heard.
I think the real reason may be Vista isn’t Windows XP!
Some of these folks remind me of sheep. They follow someone else and never make a decision for themselves. Sheep sometimes will follow the lead sheep off a cliff, at least that’s what I have heard.
Martha
I do not use Internet Explorer. I don’t like Internet Explorer. Rumor has it I can turn it off in Windows 7 and I hope that’s true! I will use it long enough to download Firefox and then it will be turned off.
So if I turn IE 8 off, then what will happen when I want to update programs that open IE when I click Update? IE is NOT my default browser and I deeply resent it when programmers that insist I use it to update a program!
Most programs when updating from within honor my preferences and use my default browser.
I won’t mention any names, but I just updated my favorite screen capture program and when I clicked for the update IE opened. Grrrrrrrrr!
Martha
Our new president promised us ‘hope and change’. Did he mean he would surround himself with folks who don’t pay their taxes?
I hope that’s not what he meant!
It’s just my opinion, but I think anyone, regardless of who they are should be disqualified from any position in government if they are guilty of not paying their taxes.
It’s NOT ok to say ‘I didn’t know’! If I had failed to pay taxes, the IRS, which is a government department, probably would have threatened me with jailtime and would have come after me big time as soon as they knew I owed taxes. And why didn’t they go after these guys?
It isn’t very comforting to me to know the Secretary of the Treasury is a tax cheat. He’s in charge of the Treasury! And the sad thing is, he isn’t the only tax cheat being offered a high profile position in the United States government.
The ‘change’ is looking more and more like change to the Clinton era. All of the folks in charge seem to be from that time.
I hope that things will change and for the better, but so far it doesn’t seem likely!
Martha
« Previous Entries