TECHNOLOGY

If You Have This on Your Phone, Delete It Now, Experts Warn

Published

3 years ago

November 20, 2020

The San Francisco Telegraph

If You Have This on Your Phone, Delete It Now, Experts Warn

People usually take safety very seriously—that is, until it comes to a device where they store almost everything: their phone. Our phones have become an easy place to hold all the things we want to carry with us throughout the day. And while jotting down your grocery list isn’t necessarily a hacker’s dream come true, there are some things you may be keeping on your phone that could easily fall into the wrong hands. According to experts, the worst thing you’re keeping on your phone is photos of items that contain your personal information. Read on to hear from experts on why this is so dangerous, and for more storage spaces you should be careful with, discover The No. 1 Worst Thing to Keep in Your Wallet.

“People believe their data and privacy are only at risk in the event they lose their phone or it gets stolen. However, hackers can easily gain access and view the contents of your phone remotely,” says Antti Alatalo, a tech expert and founder of Smart Watches 4 U.

Kristen Bolig, a security expert and founder of SecurityNerd, says that people see their phones as a “convenient” place to store photos of IDs, passports, and other private documents in case they need a backup plan if they forget or lose these items when needed. But as Alatalo points out, hackers don’t need to physically touch your phone to get access to this private information.

“Storing these items on your phone opens you up to a laundry list of security concerns,” Bolig warns. “Unlike with computers, many people fail to take basic safety precautions on their phones. Smartphone users rarely install antivirus software. This leaves items stored on their phone vulnerable to dangerous cyber attacks. That’s not to mention the threat of having a phone stolen and giving criminals a virtual buffet of personal data.”

According to Bolig, hackers commonly attempt to steal photos from people’s phones through iCloud, which many “iPhone users automatically upload all their photos to without giving it a second thought.” Bolig says that while this a great tool to back up photos, it has serious risks. In fact, one infamous 2017 hack managed to infiltrate 250 million people’s iCloud accounts.

David Lynch, a tech expert and content lead for UpPhone, also warns iPhone users that their photos are accessible to any iPhone app they give permission to. When first downloading an app, it asks for these permissions and many people hit the “Allow” button without thinking about it. However, users can easily change this in their privacy settings and Lynch encourages them to, especially if they’re keeping personal information within their photos.

“Ask yourself: ‘Do I really want certain apps having access to all of my photos?’ Most of the time, the answer will be no,” Lynch says. “And it’s important to keep in mind that giving an app access to things like your photos also gives the app access to the metadata of the photos—such as depth and location information.”

The best way to prevent yourself from getting your personal information stolen is to not keep it on your phone. But if you’re someone who is going to no matter what, there are ways you can make this practice safer. Gabe Turner, a digital security expert and chief editor of Security.org, says if you’re keeping sensitive photos on your phone, you should use an encrypted storage app. And no matter what, he recommends “creating a long passcode to your phone and turning on two or multi-factor authentication” for various apps.

But hackers aren’t only getting your personal information by infiltrating your photos in the iCloud. For other ways your phone could become compromised, keep reading, and for more you should know about your device, check out these 4 Cell Phone Emergency Tricks You Probably Didn’t Know.

Unsecured apps

Woman looking at her phone on social media

Neil Roach, an IT expert with 20 years of experience and founder of Boxroom Office, says many smartphone users will go out of their way to download unsecured apps, which are apps “downloaded from a website and not from the Google Play or Apple App stores.” And while the apps themselves may not be malicious, they often come with “security vulnerabilities that don’t become apparent until you find yourself the victim of identity theft.” And for more security mishaps, Ring Doorbells Are Being Recalled for This Frightening Reason.

Siri

young white guy using speakerphone

Siri can pose a security risk for many reasons, but one of them is because you’re probably not turning off a risky feature. A Wired article from 2018 warned consumers about turning off Siri’s access when locked. Unfortunately, if you can access Siri when your phone is locked, so can other people. And for more useful content delivered straight to your inbox, sign up for our daily newsletter.

Public wi-fi

Turner says someone can easily hack your phone if you’re connected to public wi-fi. “If you’re connected directly and not to a Virtual Private Network (VPN), then people can see your web activity and private IP address, which makes you more susceptible to hacking. And they can access your photos,” he says. And for more places you shouldn’t store certain things, make sure you know The No. 1 Thing You Should Never Keep in Your Car.

Unrecognizable text messages

Senior whit woman looking at phone confused

Alatalo warns smartphone users not to open any text messages they don’t recognize, especially if they are storing private information on their phone. After all, these texts could actually be “malicious malware that automatically downloads when you click on the message.” And for more security tips, check out these Essential Home Security Tips You Need to Know.

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TECHNOLOGY

How much YouTube pays for 1 million views, according to creators

Published

1 year ago

May 6, 2023

The San Francisco Telegraph

YouTube creators earn money from Google-placed ads on their videos.

A number of factors determine how much money they make, including video views.

Creators said how much YouTube pays for 1 million views ranged from $3,400 to $30,000.

While many factors — content niche and country, among them — determine how much money a YouTuber earns on any particular video, the number of views it gets is perhaps the most significant.

When a YouTube video hits 1 million views, there’s almost a guaranteed big payday for its creator. In some cases, creators can make five-figures from a single video if it accrues that many views.

Three creators explained how much money YouTube had paid them. YouTube pays $3,400 to $30,000 for 1 million views, these creators said.

When tech creator Shelby Church spoke with Insider, she had earned $30,000 from a video about Amazon FBA (Fulfillment By Amazon). At the time, the video had accrued 1.8 million views.

Her RPM rate — or earnings per 1,000 views — are relatively high, she said, because of her content niche. Business, personal finance, and technology channels tend to earn more per view.

“YouTubers don’t always make a ton of money, and it really depends on what kind of videos you’re making,” she said.

Influencers can earn 55% of a video’s ad revenue if they are part of YouTube’s Partner Program, or YPP. To qualify for the program, they must have 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 hours of watch time on their long-form videos.

They can also make money from shorts, YouTube’s short-form video offering. In order to qualify, creators need to reach 10 million views in 90 days and have 1,000 subscribers. YouTube pools ad revenue from shorts and pays an undisclosed amount to record labels for music licensing. Creators receive 45% of the remaining money based on their percentage of the total shorts views on the platform.

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TECHNOLOGY

Tesla employees shared sensitive images recorded by cars – Reuters

Published

1 year ago

April 8, 2023

The San Francisco Telegraph

Some pictures were turned into memes and distributed through internal chats, former workers told the agency

Tesla workers shared “highly invasive” images and videos recorded by customers’ electric cars, making fun of them on internal chat groups, several former employees of Elon Musk’s company have told Reuters.

The electric-car manufacturer obtains consent from its clients to collect data from vehicles in order to improve its self-driving technology. However, the company assures owners that the whole system is “designed from the ground up to protect your privacy,” the agency pointed out in its report on Thursday.

According to nine former workers who talked to the agency, groups of employees shared private footage of customers in Tesla’s internal one-on-one chats between 2019 and 2022.

One of the clips in question captured a man approaching his electric car while he was completely naked, one of the sources said.

Tesla recalls over 360,000 cars over self-driving threat

Others featured crashes and road-rage incidents. One particular video of a Tesla hitting a child on a bike in a residential area spread around the company’s office in San Mateo, California “like wildfire,” an ex-employee claimed.

“I’m bothered by it because the people who buy the car, I don’t think they know that their privacy is, like, not respected… We could see them doing laundry and really intimate things. We could see their kids,” another former worker told the agency.

Seven former employees also told Reuters that the software they used at work allowed them to see the location where the photo or video was made, despite Tesla assuring its customers that “camera recordings remain anonymous and are not linked to you or your vehicle.”

The agency noted that it could not obtain any of the pictures or clips described by its sources, who said they were all deleted. Some former employees also told the journalists that they had only seen private data being shared for legitimate purposes, such as seeking assistance for colleagues. Tesla did not respond when approached for comment on the issue by Reuters.

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TECHNOLOGY

Nordic nation’s military bans use of TikTok – media

Published

1 year ago

March 27, 2023

The San Francisco Telegraph

Sweden’s Defense Ministry has reportedly barred employees from using the Chinese-owned app on their work phones

Sweden’s military has reportedly cracked down on TikTok, decreeing that staff members are no longer allowed to use the Chinese-owned video-sharing application on their devices at work because of security concerns.

The Swedish Defense Ministry on Monday issued its decision, which was viewed by Agence-France Presse, banning the use of TikTok. Security concerns were raised based on “the reporting that has emerged through open sources regarding how the app handles user information and the actions of the owner company, ByteDance,” the ministry said.

The move follows similar restrictions imposed by other EU countries in recent weeks. For example, France banned government employees from downloading “recreational applications,” including TikTok, on their work phones. Norway barred use of the app on devices that can access its parliament’s computer network, while the UK and Belgium banned it on all government phones. Denmark’s Defense Ministry and Latvia’s Foreign Ministry imposed their TikTok bans earlier this month.

China responds to TikTok allegations

“Using mobile phones and tablets can in itself be a security risk, so therefore we don’t want TikTok on our work equipment,” Swedish Defense Ministry press secretary Guna Graufeldt told AFP.

The US, Canada and New Zealand previously banned their federal employees from using TikTok on government-issued devices, citing fears of ByteDance’s ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Members of Congress may try to ban the app from the US market altogether after testimony at a congressional hearing last week by TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew failed to ease their security concerns. “They’ve actually united Republicans and Democrats out of the concern of allowing the CCP to control the most dominant media platform in America,” US Representative Mike Gallagher said on Sunday in an ABC News interview.

Chinese officials have denied claims that TikTok is used to collect the personal data of its American users. “The Chinese government has never asked and will never ask any company or individual to collect or provide data, information or intelligence located abroad against local laws,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning told reporters last week. She added that Washington has attacked TikTok without providing any evidence that it threatens US security.

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