Facebook

Facebook has been taking some very heavy pressure in the media and from law makers for some time now and I thought it prudent to outline how these companies operate and make their vast profits. Ultimately it is up to you to decide if you want to continue to use these apps to share information. Hopefully this article will give you some more information which may help you understand the world of the “cloud”.

Cattle and Sheep

With the wonderful weather we have been having you may have taken a drive in our countryside and observed the picturesque views of meadows and animals of all varieties grazing peacefully. To you, unless you are a farmer, they are lovely animals at peace. The livestock farmer sees them completely differently. To the farmer they are assets to be fattened up and eventually sold for slaughter or their products sold. When it comes to the internet that is exactly what you are to Facebook and indeed to virtually all of the data giants including Google ,Amazon, Ebay, and Whatsapp(Owned by facebook). In case you wonder about Apple and Microsoft their aim is also the same you are profit and you wallet and personal data are the milk or meat.

Selling Your Information

In considering the about point you must also dwell on the following truth: Every picture, message, post, search and visit to the cloud are collected analyzed and flogged to whomever is willing to spend the money to get the data. So Aunt Molly’s 80^th pictures and posts are being collected and turned into profit by Facebook and their compatriots. The revelations in the press about who accesses this data and how it can be used to manipulate your thoughts on topics has caused a sharp decrease in the number of people opting out from using social media.

Integrity and Privacy

As a computer technician I’ve repaired hundreds if not thousands of computers in my work career. Most of them were packed with information. Part of my job requires as a fundamental requirement that I can be trusted and that my integrity is such that I won’t be accessing your personal private data.  Imagine my repair terms required you to agree to allow me copy all of your data trawl through it to build a picture of who you were and then flog it to companies looking to exploit it. What person in their right mind would drop off their laptop to have a virus removed? But that’s exactly what is happening when you use Facebook and other cloud apps. The latest kicker is that they are doing the same with your cloud email which explains why it was “free”. It’s not you are paying the price of you privacy for it.

The wonderful thing about using software is that you can choose NOT to use it.

“You must be the change you want to see in the world.” - Mahatma Gandhi

Oliver Reidy is a computer technician and has been in the industry since 1981.You can contact him via email at help.desk@reidyonline.com or at the telephone numbers listed on this page. This article, and all previous articles, are available to view online at http://reidyonline.blogspot.ie/ or www.reidyonline.com/blogspot.htm

General Data Protection Regulation

On the 25th of May 2018 the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) became the law of the land and the wider EU. If you haven’t noticed the effects of this new comprehensive regulation you will no matter what area of life you operate in. In this article I will give a very brief overview, to familiarize yourself fully with the GDPR please visit the site of the Data Protection Commissioner at http://gdprandyou.ie/  The Dail made 105 amendments to the regulation before passing it into law. You can download the full text of the act in pdf format by visiting https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/bills/bill/2018/10/

The Aims of The Regulation

Some but NOT all of primary aims of the regulation are:

#1 Make Companies, individuals, and organizations responsible and accountable for keeping personal information on any citizen of the EU including justifying why such information is recorded, how long they will retain it, and crucially the right of every EU citizen to know what information is being kept and have it corrected and/or deleted. Specific portions of the regulation are targeted at protecting minors.

#2 Provide for severe financial penalties for companies, organizations, and individuals where they are found to be in breach of the regulation.

#3 Elimination of complex or implied agreements to keep and pass on personal information.

#4 Provide a simple mechanism for citizens to register a complaint against any company, individual, or organization that they believe is in breach of the act.

#5 Require companies, individuals, or organizations to respond to citizen requests about personal data.

What Is Personal Data?

The regulation defines personal data as any information which can identify an individual or pertains personally to that individual and includes photographs and video.

The Reach of The Regulation

 GDPR applies to any company, individual, or organization who records personal data on EU citizens regardless of where these entities are located inside the EU or in non EU countries.  Thus a company located in the United States of America who holds personal data on EU citizens is subject to the regulation.

Next month based on your feedback I may continue on this subject

Understanding Wifi Part 2

In my previous article on this topic I outlined some terms and concepts to help you better understand Wifi and some of the issues you may encounter. This article goes under the skin of wifi to help you grasp the concepts.

Promises Promises

Many moons ago I attended a sales seminar where the teacher coined an adage I’ve tried to adhere to it went “promise a lot and deliver more”. This unfortunately is not an adage any internet provider I’ve encountered adheres to rather its completely the opposite. Take your pick of any of the providers you’ll get the same “promises” while the delivered product falls far short of that.

What consumer would sign up to a broadband service if the provider admitted “Our broadband service is patchy, oversubscribed, running on outdated and poorly designed and maintained infrastructure and will disappoint you more that elate you”. So they spin it with promises of speeds and service that would knock your socks off. I’ve yet to see any such service provided on a sustained basis.

So given the above you can be sitting on top of your broadband modem/router and have a 100% wifi signal and still have a terrible internet experience. If you understand that you are well on the way to coping with wifi in Ireland. Incidentally phones and tablets account for this in their design so don’t be fooled just because your RTE news page loads like a bullet. Chances are it’s from the phone/tablet cache and not real time. Laptops and desktops don’t generally use this trick hence I will hear my phone works fine but my laptop is dog slow. That is generally not true unless the signal quality differs between devices or there is a problem on the laptop.

Poor Broadband or Poor Wifi

Indentifying if the root cause of your poor internet connectivity is down to your broadband or your wifi is where technical skill and experience come into play. If I had a euro for every person I’ve encountered that has assured me they know the reason their connectivity is poor and were completely wrong Id be sitting on a beach in Jamaica.

Wifi is a signal therefore it is subject to a host of environmental factors which can affect it. Likewise not all wifi broadcast equipment is equal and in my experience when it comes to the quality of broadband equipment installed in homes you will not be supplied with top end equipment on your 12 month contract. Investing in equipment that suits your environment and needs can significantly enhance your internet experience.

Everyone claims to know everything about wifi – few actually do.

Understanding Wifi

Wifi use within the home and business continues to grow with more and more devices demanding use of this technology. The “internet of Things” will mean increasingly non computer devices in your home will rely on this technology to communicate with you. Understanding how it works, why it fails, and how you can optimize  can make your life much easier. Confusion reigns, not surprisingly, amongst many users of the technology and it’s failings. From streaming TV to accessing your email from your phone at home you rely on the technology to perform well. Unfortunately many factors can affect its performance.

Types of Wifi

Wifi is NOT 3g 4g or 5g. Your phone is equipped with both methods of communication but its important to understand these are separate technologies. For the purpose of this article I will address WiFi only.

Wireless B G N and AC

 The original wireless technology was wireless B and since its introduction faster versions have been released up to the very latest wireless AC. It is highly unlikely you have more than one device you use that has Wireless AC and even if you do the rest of your configuration is probably wireless N.

Wireless N can easily support streaming of TV, gaming, and your regular phones but it comes with several caveats as follows:

#1 your Wifi Connection is only as good as the strength of the signal to the broadcasting source.(usually your broadband modem).

#2 Your Wifi Speed is only as good as the speed of the connection to the broadcasting device and onward what speed that device has to the internet.

#3 The more devices you have on Wifi the more it will degrade the speed of ALL devices using the wifi signal.

#4 Any single Wifi enabled device can hog the wifi connection meaning it can consume virtually all of the bandwidth of the wifi signal,

#5 Wifi technology suffers from “phantom signals” and also channel saturation.

Next Month, God willing, I will continue on this topic.