The Story So far!

Recently I found an application that one of the permissions is “Retrieve Running Programs“.   I thought this was something of a hoax or even a little strange.   So I wondered what are those Android App Permissions anyways and why would they require this.  I found this great information on a forum website. 

Retrieve running applications
Hardware controls
URI: android.permission.GET_TASKS
Risk: MEDIUM-HIGH
Protection level: DANGEROUS

Official Description
Allows an application to get information about the currently or recently running tasks: a thumbnail representation of the tasks, what activities are running in it, etc.

Details
This permission is of moderate importance. It will allow an application to find out what other applications are running on your phone. While not a danger in and of itself, it would be a useful tool for someone trying to steal your data. Typical legitimate applications that require this permission include: task killers and battery history widgets. Other than that however, most apps should not need this permission.

<Via Androidforums>

So then I sent an email to Kiloo Games asking why this was needed for the game.   Here is their response:

 

Kiloo Support (Kiloo)

Mar 04 12:21 (CET)

Hi,

Thank you for your inquiry.

Subway Surfers needs that information to make sure no notifications pop-up when you’re in other apps.

Best Regards,

Kiloo Support 

Now I find this very interesting and a little percular.  It doesn’t sound like this is what it supposed.   If you read what Android Forums said then you would know we’ve given Subway Surfer permission to snoop on us and they can do what ever they want with that information because we AGREED to it.  

Many Users don’t care about this!

While I am not sure who actually care about this.  I am really concerned with my security and privacy.  I don’t think any application in their right mind would want to put this permission on any Application.   I think until people start asking questions or removing these applications they will keep doing this so they can build data on what people do when they aren’t playing the games they built.   You really want them to get your bank information or for that matter your passwords to other games or applications.

I am asking for a boycott of these types of programs to tell developers we don’t want our information to be public and they need to respect this.   If you have this installed on your android device it is best to remove it ASAP and contact them to tell them why you removed their game.   Until we do this they will not listen to us and respect our privacy!

Paul Sylvester

Social Media is a Mess Sometimes!

When I started my journey into the social media, I have heard some really strange rumors and even some claims that real but aren’t!  For instants some of these are something like this:

“Pope Benedict resigned to avoid arrest, seizure of church“

Obamacare Requires RFID chip implanted in all of us

Facebook Closed February 29th, 30th, 31st!

Hover of my Name Hoax

As you can see some of these are obviously fake or made to fool people to have people like and share these stories because they are so out rageous.

Stupid People on Social media should put a sign on their profile “Don’t listen to me!”

I hate stupid stories and I created this guide to help determine these types of stories.  I know I am basically talking about Facebook right now because it seems to be the widely used social media outlet right now.

• Think before you share! — Consider all possibilities and if it angers you then cool down before you share it!
• Research rumors or Stories — If you just take what people tell you and don’t look into yourself then you shouldn’t be my friend!
• Check Sources — Sometimes friends like to add links that aren’t really that relevant to the story to make it look real or they share what others have said with those links just because they don’t know better.   It is best to always check sources but this is sometimes should be avoided.   Only click links you trust.
• Not everything on the Internet is TRUE! — Here is something else you must understand.  Anyone in Anywhere can blog about what ever they want and it doesn’t have to be true.  Yes I know, there reputations may look genuine but that doesn’t always mean they are honorable.

As you can see these are just a few ways to help weed out those unsavory stories that aren’t quite true but in the long run, if you don’t make the effort to stop them they will never stop.   If everyone does this, then those types of stories will not circulate.

The Next one I see!

I’ll be starting my own little campaign to help weed out these by coping and pasting this into every story that I find to be false:

Here’s YOUR Sign — Social Media over hyped and uneducated goes to <name>  http://bit.ly/HeresUrSign

As you can see this is an attempt to help educate my friends and family when they do share something that isn’t quite right or accurate.  Although this might make them mad, at least it will get the truth out and I do hope you do the same thing and help stop some of the nonsense that goes on in any Social Media outlet.   

Paul Sylvester

Those were the days!

Some of you probably are to young to remember some of the stuff that I’ve seen and others probably know more than what they let on.   In this article, we are going to go back in time and discuss some of this that you probably don’t remember or remember vividly.   Depending on old you are, this could be a walk down memory lane or you could learn something that you never knew.   Either way, you will want to share this with your friends and maybe they can learn something too.

What is or was a BBS?

Before we had the internet, we’d have to call a BBS [Bulletin Board System] and connect to the Intranet.   It was a way to find out information or play ASCII Games.   They had their own newsgroups through a network such as FidoNet.  Anyone who is old enough to understand this will tell you this was cutting edge stuff in those days.   I used to watch Star Trek and dream of some of the stuff they’d create in the future.   Well it happened and I am really glad I saw the first data pad.

That used to be the ASCII Art for Fidonet, but it has changed it still looks really cool!

Speeds!

Before we had Cable Companies and DSL modems we had 300, 1200, 2400, 28.8, 56k baud modems.   What we have now is light years faster than what we had in those days.  That was why we used ASCII Art all the time, it was way faster and we really didn’t know how to do some of the stuff with HTML then like we do now.   Although loading images and downloading programs or files was a really LONG process could take up to an hour for a 10 meg file.   You’d also have to have a dedicated line to dial out on or by chance someone would pick up the land line and kill your connection.

My Old System!

When I first began using a computer, I had a TI-994a system man was that an old system for some.   It was in competition with the Commodore 64.  Each one had their uses and could be very picky with loading programs.  Some of them you used a TAPE to load the programs onto the system.   Again you’d have to be old enough to remember those days but it was nothing like we had with Hard Drives and available space we have today.   

I did this post because I was feeling a little nostalgic and thought it was a good time to remember some of the things we did then to get to where we are now.   I do hope you learned a little bit about old technology and hope you will share it for others to learn just what it was like in the early 1990’s to 2000’s.   

Paul Sylvester

Hover over my Name [Hoax]

 

The next 2 weeks I will be posting this, and please once you have done it please post done! Those of you who do not keep my information from going out to the public, I will have to DELETE YOU! I want to stay PRIVATELY connected with you. I post shots of my family that I don’t want strangers to have access to!!! However, with the recent changes in Facebook, the “public” can now see activities on ANY wall. This happens when our friends click “like” or “comment”… automatically, their friends would see our posts too. Unfortunately, we cannot change this setting by ourselves because Facebook has configured it that way. PLEASE place your mouse over my name above (DO NOT CLICK), a window will appear, now move the mouse on “FRIENDS” (also without clicking), then down to “Settings”, click here and a list will appear. REMOVE the CHECK on “LIFE EVENTS” and “COMMENTS & LIKES”. By doing this, my activity among my friends and family will no longer become public. Now, copy and paste this on your wall. Once I see this posted on your page, I will do the same.

Some users aren’t thinking these things out.   So Let’s get this straight your worried about Facebook Security and yet you think this is the quickest and easiest way to prevent your information from becoming public!  So I am going to break down this little hoax and explain to you what will happen if you actually do this!

Removing the Checks!

By removing those two check or even all the checks you are going to not get any updates from the person who askes you do this and thus they will not appear on your updates and you will not know what is going on.   They will be totally invisible to you and you will have to visit their page to see any updates and or comments they make to other people.   

How can you know?

This is a question asked by everyone who has ever seen a Facebook post about something similiar! When you don’t ask questions to the person and don’t research those posts then you just show people you don’t care. I will not follow directions blindly just because I KNOW and Trust the person.  We are all human and thus we will always make mistakes this is the nature of humanity.   

Research the post in question!

Researching a post isn’t as hard as it sounds.   You basically have to just use your favorite search engine and cut and past a portion of the text to see if there is any information on the web about that post.   Most of the time you will find people talking about that post or even find out more information to better make a decision.  

Common Sense Helps though!

If you are like me, you know what will happen if you do some of these things that people have asked of you and thus you know a little about consequences.   When I look at what people say on their status updates about what I need to do, I am certain most of them don’t know what it does or what the command does.   Hoaxes are used to scare you and nothing else, if they think you will follow them then they are either waiting for the chance to make money or to just laugh at you for doing something blindly.

Think it through!

If you think the process through you will most likely see the outcome of some of the commands and understand what they do or what they will not do if you do follow commands someone posts on their timeline.   So by thinking this through and researching the post you are far better off and remember not everything you see on Facebook or other social media sites are always going to be true!

Paul Sylvester