Have you ever felt Facebook is showing you very relevant ads about topics you’re only discussing around your phone? If yes, then you may find this news worth reading. Communications Professor Kelli Burns from the University of South Florida claims that Facebook is listening to all conversations people have while its app is open to serve more relevant ads for products related to what they are talking about. However, the social networking giant responds it does listen to audio and collect information from users, but does not record or use sounds heard around people for targeted ads.
"Facebook does not use microphone audio to inform advertising or News Feed stories in any way," a Facebook spokesperson said. "Businesses are able to serve relevant ads based on people's interests and other demographic information, but not through audio collection."
Facebook rolled out a feature in May of 2014 when the company said that it might target ads "in the future" based on the use of your audio identification in posts. Like if you post that you are listening to "Shake It Off," you might see an ad for Taylor Swift’s concert tour. However, Burns isn’t convinced by Facebook’s claims and has accused the social media giant of using an audio collection tool to not only gather it simply of helping out users, but also listen in on everything users say to serve them with relevant ads. Burns says that she tested the feature by discussing certain topics around the phone and discovered that the site appeared to show relevant ads based on the topic. Burns' finding is supported by many users across the Internet, who also say that ads in their Facebook feed are related to things they spoke or discuss around their phone, but never searched for it on the Internet. If you are also the one not convinced by Facebook’s claims, you can turn off this feature with relative ease. Here’s how you can stop Facebook from listening to you: For iPhone users: Go to the Settings → Facebook → Settings and Turn OFF Microphone. Android users can use App Permissions to do so. For this: Go to Settings → Personal → Privacy and Safety → App Permissions → Microphone → Facebook and Turn OFF the slider. Since these changes are done at the operating system level, Facebook can not turn the feature ON even if the social network wanted to. Thanks and stay blessed!
LinkedIn's 2012 data breach was much worse than anybody first thought. In 2012, LinkedIn suffered a massive data breach in which more than 6 Million users accounts login details, including encrypted passwords, were posted online by a Russian hacker. Now, it turns out that it was not just 6 Million users who got their login details stolen. Latest reports emerged that the 2012's LinkedIn data breach may have resulted in the online sale of sensitive account information, including emails and passwords, of about 117 Million LinkedIn users. Almost after 4 years, a hacker under the nickname "Peace" is offering for sale what he/she claims to be the database of 167 Million emails and hashed passwords, which included 117 Million already cracked passwords, belonging to LinkedIn users. Also Read: Popular Social Site Vk.com Hacked ! 100 Million Passwords Leaked Online The hacker, who is selling the stolen data on the illegal Dark Web marketplace "The Real Deal" for 5 Bitcoins (roughly $2,200), has spoken to Motherboard, confirming these logins come from the 2012 data breach. Since the passwords have been initially encrypted with the SHA1 algorithm, with "no salt," it just took 'LeakedSource', the paid search engine for hacked data, 72 hours to crack roughly 90% of the passwords. Troy Hunt, an independent researcher who operates "Have I Been Pwned?" site, reached out to a number of the victims who confirmed to Hunt that the leaked credentials were legitimate. The whole incident proved that LinkedIn stored your passwords in an insecure way and that the company did not make it known exactly how widespread the data breach was at the time. In response to this incident, a LinkedIn spokesperson informs that the company is investigating the matter. Also Read: Facebook Founder Zuckerberg's Twitter, Pinterest accounts gets Hacked! And the Password was... In 2015, Linkedin also agreed to settle a class-action lawsuit over 2012's security breach by paying a total of $1.25 million to victims in the U.S, means $50 to each of them. According to the lawsuit, the company violated its privacy policy and an agreement with premium subscribers that promised it would keep their personal information safe. However, now new reports suggest that a total 167 Million LinkedIn accounts were breached, instead of just 6 million. Assuming, if at least 30% of hacked LinkedIn Accounts belongs to Americans, then the company has to pay more than $15 Million. Meanwhile, I recommend you to change your passwords (and keep a longer and stronger one this time) and enable two-factor authentication for your LinkedIn accounts as soon as possible. Also, do the same for other online accounts if you are using same passwords on multiple sites. Thanks and stay blessed!
The man who runs the biggest social network and continuously implements new security measures to boost its billion users security, himself failed to follow basics of Internet security for his own online accounts. Yes, I’m talking about Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who had his Twitter and Pinterest accounts compromised on Sunday. The hacker group from Saudi Arabia, dubbed OurMine, claimed responsibility for the hack and guess how the group did it?
The hackers tweeted that they found Zuck's account credentials in the recent LinkedIn data breach, from which they took his SHA1-hashed password string and then broke it and tried on several social media accounts. The group, which has more than 40,000 Twitter followers, then successfully broke into Zuck's Twitter (@finkd) and Pinterest profile and defaced its banners with its logo as well as tweeted out some offensive posts. Mr. Zuckerberg has not sent a tweet from the account since 2012. Now, what’s more surprising? Zuckerberg's LinkedIn password was "dadada", which he also used for his other online accounts, the group tweeted. So, this might be another alarm for those who haven’t yet changed passwords for their LinkedIn as well as other online accounts that used the same credentials. Also Read: Popular Social Site Vk.com Hacked ! 100 Million Passwords Leaked Online In tweets now deleted, the group also claimed to have gained accessed to Zuck’s Instagram account, but Facebook confirmed that the group did not access his Instagram account.
"No Facebook systems or accounts were accessed," a Facebook spokesperson said. "The affected accounts have been re-secured."
More than 167 Million members' email and password combinations were hacked during a 2012 LinkedIn data breach and had just been posted online. The passwords were encrypted with the SHA1 algorithm with "no salt" that made it easier for hackers to crack them. Like other data breaches, I suggest you change your password immediately, especially if you use the same password for other websites. Thanks and stay blessed!
