‘We can hear you having sex’: Messages to neighbors via Wi-Fi network names a growing trend, report says

An increasing number of computer users setting up Wi-Fi in their homes are reportedly sending out messages to annoying neighbors via their wireless network names.

The creation of the Internet has meant that the options are now vast for those people who’d rather not use their vocal cords to communicate with another person, preferring instead to engage in more indirect methods of communication – they can, for example, send an email, an instant message, an SMS, or a text. Communicating through the name of your wireless network can also be added to the list, a method which is a fast-growing trend, according to a BBC report on the subject.

When someone sets up a wireless network at home, they’re prompted to give it a name so it can be easily identified. That name will be seen by anyone within range who searches for a wireless network using a computer or mobile device.

In most cases, these names are nothing out of the ordinary, something like “Bob1” or “mycomputer123”. However, recently more and more people are using their network names to send out messages to neighbors.

According to the BBC, many of the names relate to noisy neighbor issues. “Stop wearing heels”, “Stop slamming the door” and simply “shut up” are listed as examples. Perhaps these are the work of desperate people for whom a polite face-to-face request failed, or maybe they simply tremble at the thought of direct confrontation with their noisy neighbor.

Sex, or noisy sex, is also the subject of some network names. “We can hear you having sex” is a common one, while “Stop having so much sex” is also listed.

Naming networks in this manner is the digital equivalent of sticking an anonymous note into the mailbox of whoever’s causing offense, except that this way the offender won’t necessarily know it’s him or her being targeted (unless the network name includes a house or apartment number – or even the person’s name). Also, the offender needs to be fiddling about with their wireless settings in order to see the list of nearby networks, something they most likely don’t often do.

So, no, it certainly won’t ever be the most effective form of communication, though for many it is, one assumes, a bit of fun and an additional way of trying to get their message across.

Seen any interesting network names in your neighborhood recently? Got a good one yourself?

[Image: Pavel Ignatov / Shutterstock]

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Facebook scans private messages for brand page mentions, admits a bug is boosting Likes

Some suspicious Like counts suggest that Facebook is scanning private messages and hitting the Like button for its users accordingly.

This week a Hacker News post indicated that Facebook is reading our privately sent messages, scanning them for content, and Liking pages depending on said content. For instance, if you send a friend a message about the Beyonce concert that includes a corresponding link, it’s possible Facebook will go ahead and Like Beyonce’s official page for you – maybe even twice.

A video explaining how the social network scans and analyzes message content for “likeable” data showed how one such message increased Like counts by two – the video has since been pulled from YouTube. But privacy researcher and consultant Ashkan Soltani created a test page to see if sending a link via Facebook Messages could bump up its likes. You can try it by grabbing this link, and without hitting Like, send it via private message to a Facebook friend – and before you do, note the number of Likes. Once sent, that number should increase by two. You can watch this in action below. 

While the test page method consistently works, there’s a little more confusion about actual brand pages. I sent a handful of brand page links to a Facebook friend, noting the number of Likes before and after. Though the numbers increased, there’s no way to definitively tell if this is from my sending them or from other users legitimately hitting Like on these pages.

Still, there’s some pretty overwhelming evidence to suggest Facebook is reading private messages. Soltani, who also originally saw the post on Hacker News and checked out the since-pulled YouTube video, explains. “The video was focusing on how to boost likes, and one thing I noticed from the demonstration was that in order to do this, he was sending private messages, and this implies Facebook is scanning private messages.” Basically, when you send a link through a message on Facebook, it creates a thumbnail that you essentially are previewing. Facebook does monitor this preview to make sure you aren’t sending malware – a simple security system. “But the value only gets increased when the link is actually sent – the preview and URL verification won’t increase the number of Likes,” Soltani tells me.

“We know Google has been doing this for awhile, but I think it’s surprising for most people that Facebook is doing it,” he says.

Not only is it surprising that Facebook is monitoring messages, but that it’s leading to Like-boosting. It does two things for brands: One, it gets them those new Likes. Two, it gives them a more accurate view of their organic shares. Privacy options on Facebook mean it can be difficult for marketers to track how their pages are being shared, but Facebook reviewing what’s in private messages mean they can get a better idea – Soltani, in fact, found that Facebook Insights were reporting the increase in organic shares of his page over private messages.  

In response to the report, a Facebook spokesperson says that while private information isn’t being shared out of messages, data is being recorded to give brands better organic share numbers and also admits there appears to be a bug increasing Likes: 

“Absolutely no private information has been exposed. Each time a person shares a URL to Facebook, including through messages, the number of shares displayed on the social plugin for that website increases. Our systems parse the URL being shared in order to render the appropriate preview, and to also ensure that the message is not spam. These counts do not affect the privacy settings of content, and URLs shared through private messages are not attributed publicly with user profiles. We did recently find a bug with our social plugins where at times the count for the Share or Like goes up by two, and we are working on fix to solve the issue now. To be clear, this only affects social plugins off of Facebook and is not related to Facebook Page likes. This bug does not impact the user experience with messages or what appears on their timelines.”

It’s an interesting twist shortly after Facebook has staked so much in ridding the site of Like-jacking and faked Likes – not to mention the social network’s unending bid to win user trust. 

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Outrage over Facebook’s private message scandal should send us running for our privacy settings

A supposed leak of old private messages turned out to just be resurfaced old Wall Posts - but the resulting outrage should be an indication you need to head to your privacy settings.

Yesterday a new Facebook privacy scare hit the Web when users began complaining that old private messages from 2009 were being publicly posted to their Timelines. Facebook quickly came back, defending itself and saying that these were Wall Posts from 2009, things that people had put on friends’ Walls in ’09 intentionally.

Here’s a sample of what most of the resurrected moments looked like (via BetaBeat):

There’s no definitive way to tell, but these seem to read like privately shared messages, although it’s worth mentioning that some users who’d seen this also went through their Messages inbox to see if they could find the reproduced notes and were not able to – meaning that these could have very well been publicly posted. Also, we all used to speak very differently — read, candidly — on Facebook. 

Facebook, for its part, says that they’ve checked the complaints and none of them have been private messages exposed. “A small number of users raised concerns after what they mistakenly believed to be private messages appeared on their Timeline,” a Facebook rep tells me. “Our engineers investigated these reports and found that the messages were older wall posts that had always been visible on the users’ profile pages.”

 “A lot of the confusion is because before 2008 there were no likes and no comments on wall posts. People went back and forth with wall posts instead of having a conversation [via comments].”

Remember those days? If you don’t, and you have Timeline, take a walk down memory lane and just look: Pre-2010, your Wall (as it was then known) is full of single statements that you assumedly responded to over on your friends’ respective profiles.

There also weren’t as many privacy concerns, and to that end, privacy controls. It was a simpler time. The Timeline changed all that – and then some. I’ve said it before but it bears repeated: By putting the year toggle on the sidebar of your profile, it’s become incredibly, incredibly easy and quick to scan to all the dumb stuff you did when Facebook was college-kids only, before you parents and brands and employers and everyone was using the platform. Obviously, this only applies to a certain generation, but those of us in that bracket were raised online. Much of our young adult and adult lives are catalogued here, for better or worse, and the Timeline means everyone we give permissions to can go right ahead and see what we’ve done and said for themselves.

So if you haven’t already, you immediately should head over to your privacy settings and use the Limit Past Post feature. This takes everything you publicly posted or shared with friends of friends limited to your friends only. Of course this doesn’t take care of things people posted on your Wall – unfortunately that’s out of your hands, and can be just as damning.  

It’s clear that something went wrong here, though. Maybe those weren’t private messages that suddenly showed up on users’ Timelines, but it certainly doesn’t make sense to see content from three years ago suddenly front and center on your page. I reached out to Facebook for clarification but didn’t get an answer to this question.

Be it system glitch or user error, it’s a harsh reminder that the Internet is an elephant: It forgets nothing. 

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

How to prevent others from seeing that you’ve read their Facebook messages

Annoyed by instant Facebook messages to which you don't have the time to respond? Facebook Undetected can hide your message receipts.

By now you may have noticed if you send chats or group messages on Facebook, you are greeted with a checkmark at the bottom of the post when your recipient has seen your message. This can both be a good and bad thing; on one hand, you can call someone out on not responding if you know they’ve seen the message while on the other, if someone you don’t really want to speak to sends you a chat and you don’t want to reply, they will know you saw it and ignored them. So how do you avoid the latter type of confrontation? Why, with the Facebook Undetected extension, of course!

Developed by Crossrider, the extension works across most major web browsers: Safari, Firefox, Chrome, and Internet Explorer. You can install the extension in just matters of minutes to cloak your message receipts. Instead of the usual checkmarks readers get, it will remain blank like things formerly were on Facebook.

Of course, another way around this is to turn off Chat and just communicate via private messages so you can choose to open ones sent by close friends. However, if you like the messenger-style chats with your friends, this might be a simple way to hide from those you lack time to respond. Still, can we recommend you just delete the friends you never want to hear from again to avoid the awkward messaging? That’s probably the best way to give someone the hint that you don’t really feel like chatting with them — ever.

You can download Facebook Undetected here.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com