All posts by Computers Made Simple

Data Use Policy Update, Deactivate Facebook account, Facebook, New Terms of Service

Facebook Mobile Reads Your Text Messages

February 7, 2014 Computers Made Simple Leave a comment

In case you missed it when you were installing the latest version of the mobile Facebook app, accepting the Terms of Service means that you are giving Facebook the right to read your text (SMS) messages. Facebook says that they need this for account security. Here is a screenshot of the permissions that Facebook requires you to say yes to:

Photo of Facebook Permissions 1 — **Read these carefully.**

Facebook explains all of this here but don’t expect it to be crystal clear:

Facebook Permissions 2 — **This doesn’t make sense, at least in our opinion. What do you think?**

Look at the left side and see if you can find some problems with this.

First, Facebook wants to read your text messages. All of them, not just the ones that they send you. By the way, they should have copies of those texts, shouldn’t they? Why do they have to search through your texts to find their texts to you? Makes no sense.

Second, Facebook wants your permission to download files without letting you know about it. They say it’s only News Feed content but is it? Under the guise of ‘improving the app experience’, they want to control your mobile device’s downloads.

Third, they want to read and write your contacts. Once you give an app write permissions, it’s the same as letting that app control your mobile device. Read permissions are common, write permissions are not.

Fourth, you’re giving Facebook permission to change your calendar events and send email to your guests without your knowledge. You should be able to see all kinds of problems there. Why would any app even ask for such permissions? If you say yes to this, you’re letting Facebook take over your phone, just the same as a bot takes over your email account and sends out spam without you knowing about it.

Finally, Facebook wants to read your calendar plus ‘confidential information’. We’re not sure what the second part means but it appears to give Facebook the right to read anything on your phone. Why not just stop at ‘calendar events’? Why use the term ‘confidential information’?

We’ve deleted Facebook from our Android device. Should you? We think so. Saying yes to these permissions will open up your whole life to Facebook, not just the things you decide you want to share. You’re giving Facebook access to the most personal details of your life plus permission to change information, invite friends to events, etc. We’d rather that you ‘Just Say No’ and delete Facebook from your phone. It’s not worth it.

Thanks for reading. We would love to hear your comments. Let us know what you think.

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Adjust Default Privacy Settings, Facebook, Security, Security Settings

Facebook Security Settings – Part 2

February 4, 2014 Computers Made Simple Leave a comment

In our last post we showed you how to use the Code Generator feature in the Facebook mobile app. Here is the link: Facebook Security Settings – A series Using the code generator, you can prove your identity to Facebook when you try to login from a new browser or location. Today we’ll run down the complete list of Facebook Security Settings. They are quite straightforward but very important. Let’s get going:

1. From any page on Facebook, look up on the top right for a tiny icon, a downward arrow just to the right of the globe icon. Click it and choose Settings. Like this:

Photo of Facebook Security Settings 1 — **We want Settings.**

2. On the left side, click on Security:

Photo of Facebook Security Settings 2 — **Click on Security to bring out this menu.**

3. Make sure your settings are the same as in the photo above. You want as much protection as possible. On the right side there is the word Edit. That allows you to change the settings in each section of the menu.

4. The theory behind all of this is to ensure that you are the person using your own Facebook account. If Facebook doesn’t recognize something that it should, it will prevent anyone from logging in to the account. This is a good thing, don’t you think? All of your personal information is useful to crooks, even if you have no financial details inside your Facebook profile.

TIP: If you don’t think that your security is important, here’s a story. On one of our accounts, we noticed that there were active sessions in another city, somewhere that we haven’t been in years. We closed them, of course, but that made us wonder how this could have happened. There were two active sessions which we immediately closed. Even if you don’t take our advice and change your settings, for whatever reason you have, it’s a good idea to check your ‘Active Sessions’ just to make sure someone isn’t logging in to your account from another location.

5. You can also enlist a friend or relative as a trusted contact, provided that they have locked down their account just as you have. This contact will be able to vouch for you should your account be hacked. With their help, you’d be able to recover it more quickly.

Read each section of this menu carefully. There are little help menus inside each part so you can’t get confused over any of this. If you do, ask us. OK? Do it now, don’t wait.

Thanks for reading!

Here’s the link to our Facebook page: Computers Made Simple on Facebook Keep up to date on our posts and occasional tips and tricks.

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Adjust Default Privacy Settings, Facebook, Two Step Verification

Facebook Security Settings – A series

February 3, 2014 Computers Made Simple 1 Comment

This week we’ll be sorting out the various Facebook security settings that are designed to protect your account. One of the most important parts of this is your ability to add a second step to your normal login process. Here’s how it works.

1. When you login using from your laptop for the first time, for example, Facebook will ask for your password. Since this is your first time logging in from that device, Facebook will also ask you to confirm that you are you, essentially, by asking you to provide a code.

2. There are two ways that you can get this code. One is in the form of a text message (SMS) sent to your registered phone. The second way is through the use of a code generator that is an app within your mobile Facebook app.

3. Once you enter the code, Facebook acknowledges that you’ve confirmed your identity and opens up for you.

The SMS/text message method is self-explanatory. You link your phone with Facebook, they send you a text, that’s it. Not all mobile plans allow the use of these ‘short codes’ however. In these cases, here’s what you have to do.

1. Open Facebook on your mobile device. On any page, swipe from left to right to reveal the side menu. Like this:

Photo of Mobile Facebook — **Swipe left to reveal the side menu.**

On the left menu, look for the words Code Generator. Press there. This is what you’ll see next :

Facebook Code Generator Code — **This code changes every 30 seconds.**

Assuming that you always have your mobile device with you, enter the current code when you attempt to login to Facebook from a new device. Two-step verification is meant to protect your information and it works. Our advice is to set it up and use it.

In our next post we’ll go back and help you adjust your settings to enable this two-step verification. Yes it’s a bit backwards but we’re pretty sure that most of you will be able to adjust these settings on your own.

Thanks for reading!

Here’s the link to our Facebook page: Computers Made Simple on Facebook Keep up to date on our posts and occasional tips and tricks.

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Spotify in Canada

Spotify in Canada – revisited

January 31, 2014 Computers Made Simple 8 Comments

We did a post on how to get Spotify in Canada quite a while ago. It seems that our solution worked for some people but not others. Here’s an update about a system that seems to work for us.

1. There are two versions of Spotify, three if you count the premium version of it. You can download the Spotify app and use it or, better yet, access the Spotify web player. Here’s the link: Spotify Web Player

Photo of Spotify Web Player — **There’s lots of great streaming music on Spotify…if you can access it.**

2. As with most apps and websites now, Spotify wants you to expand your experience by signing in with Facebook. If you live in Canada, don’t do that…not yet anyway.

3. We suggested using a VPN in our last post about this topic. It seemed that this is why it worked for us but we couldn’t see why it didn’t work for others. On the computer which accesses Spotify, we have several operating systems. The Windows 7 OS uses the VPN, mainly to access the U.S. version of Netflix. We have changed the DNS settings of Windows 7 to force it to use the unblock-us.com VPN.

4. The other OS on this computer is Windows 8.1. We haven’t set up the VPN on it yet but we can still access the Spotify web player on it and have been able to do so for months. We were stumped as to why this is possible since we weren’t using unblock-us.com on it.

5. Right now, we think it’s the Facebook linking that lets us use Spotify here in Canada. Why is that? Quite simply because Facebook doesn’t know where the heck we are! That sounds funny but it’s true. A few months ago we decided to pull a fast on one Facebook and removed any mention of our actual location. Since then, Facebook has been telling us that our profile is incomplete. Oh the horror! Well, it will stay incomplete too.

6. Since Facebook doesn’t know where we are, Spotify doesn’t either. It seems that this is the case anyway. Here’s what the linked Facebook info update looks like:

Photo of Facebook Info Update — **There is no reason to tell Facebook where you are.**

If you’re in Canada or any other that can’t stream Spotify, give this a shot. Don’t tell Facebook where you are and, likely, Spotify won’t know either. Hopefully it will work for you just as it did for us. Good luck!

Thanks for reading!

Here’s the link to our Facebook page: Computers Made Simple on Facebook Keep up to date on our posts and occasional tips and tricks.

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Facebook, Scams

Facebook – Think before you share or click ‘Like’

January 30, 2014 Computers Made Simple Leave a comment

We posted a link from our Facebook page last week. It shared a story on CNN about the dangers of sharing stories before you check them to see if they’re really true. It seems like every day we’re faced with these stories that tug at your heart and make you want to share the feeling with others. We’re not sure why people feel that way but we really wish that Facebook users would take a moment to check the story out before they share it.

Photo of Facebook ending May 15th — **Oh no! Facebook ending May 15th. No it’s not. Check the story with the sources in our post.**

Here’s a link to the article on CNN. We certainly don’t recommend CNN for everyday news but this story describes a real threat that you all should be aware of:

“On Facebook, clicking ‘like’ can help scammers”

We won’t post the image contained in the article but you may recognize it when you see it. Take a moment to read the article and you’ll see that the photo on the page is quite old and its use in this context was never endorsed by the girl or her parents.

When you’re faced with the need to share something that you aren’t sure is true or not, here are some resources you can use:

Snopes.com The grand-daddy of all truth sites, Snopes debunks almost all of the urban legends that you see on the Internet or read on Facebook. If you’ve been asked to click like or share a heart-rending post on Facebook, here’s where you can check it out. How do you do that? Take a few words or a full sentence from the post and do a search on Google. Invariably you’ll have success and a link to the Snopes’ post about the story will pop up.

Sophos.com This site isn’t necessarily about Facebook stories, it’s more about virus hoaxes that you encounter there and around the Internet. Here is a description, straight from their page:

“Virus hoaxes are false reports about non-existent viruses, often claiming to do impossible things. Unfortunately some recipients occasionally believe a hoax to be a true virus warning and may take drastic action (such as shutting down their network).”

We don’t use Sophos anti-virus so don’t consider this an endorsement of their software. We use AVG and/or Microsoft Security Essentials, both of which are free.

About.com/Urban Legends On this site’s front page right now is a story about a fake Oprah Winfrey Instagram account which supposedly offers scholarships to the first 100,000 followers. Sure, it looks legitimate but you know it’s not. About.com seems to be on the cutting edge of these hoaxes so keep them in mind when checking the veracity of things that you see on Facebook and the Internet.

TIP: Please check whether a link on Facebook takes you out of the relative security of the Facebook site. We rarely click on a link, specially video links, that lead to an unknown site. Very often these places are set up specifically to steal your login information. Is it worth your identity to see some ‘funny’ video or photo? We don’t think it is.

Photo of Jackie Chan Death Hoax — **Jackie Chan making the most of the rumours of his death. They were greatly exaggerated it seems.**

Any time there is someone who can be tricked or a new avenue to promote such trickery, some devious person(s) will exploit the situation to the fullest, not for good but for personal gain. Be sharp. Don’t be part of the scam. If you see something that you can prove is wrong, tell the poster about it. We’d suggest that it’s your duty, in fact. If you are in doubt, ask us in a comment or on our Facebook page. Here is the link: Computers Made Simple on Facebook

Thanks for reading!

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a little bit of hi-tech, a little bit of common sense and a lot of fun