Category Archives: Twitter

Scam, Security, Twitter

Staying Safe on Twitter

There are many sites that would love to steal your Twitter password. Here’s a way to make sure they don’t.

1. Have your browser remember your password – When you sign-in to Twitter, check the remember me box which permits your browser to save your password in its cache. Do this ONLY if you are on your own computer, right? Don’t do this on a shared computer.

2. Only allow apps that you trust: Once you are signed in, a proper Twitter app will be able to access your credentials through Twitter. Every app that is authorized by Twitter will be able to access your details if you are already using Twitter when you try to add the app. Makes sense, right?

3. Don’t re-enter your password – Any app that is authorized by Twitter does not require your password. You’re already logged into Twitter and the apps, if they are authorized by Twitter, can access your info every easily. Once you click the ALLOW button, the app takes over and does its stuff and you can use it. Easy as pie. If an app asks for your password, then it’s trying to steal your account or hijack it. Once you type in your password the app will use your account to send out tweets and DMs to all of your followers. These tweets and DMs will all contain a link that will try to steal their passwords too. See how it goes?

How to Safely Add a Twitter App

Let’s add an app, just to show you what you’re looking for. I’ll use Tweeter Karma as an example. I like to know who’s following me and whether I am following them or not. Twitter Karma gives me all the details on that. Head over to http://dossy.org/twitter/karma/  This is what you’ll see:

Twitter Karma Site
Look for the 'Sign in with Twitter' button and the official Twitter logo.

 

Once you click the ‘Sign in with Twitter’ button, you’ll see this come up:

The Official Twitter Access Authorization
This is what you see on an official Twitter app site. Note that your password isn't needed.

 

Just to be safe, look for this in your url window:

Twitter URL in URL Window
Make sure the Twitter address is in the url, not a fake 'twitter-ish' url.

 

The site is ‘twitter.com’, the real Twitter URL. The https is a nice touch, too. That means the site is secure.

After you’ve clicked your way through these windows, you’ll see something like this:

Successful Log In Menu
Now you're logged in, all without giving up your password.

 

If you follow these steps when adding a Twitter app, you’ll be safe. Look for improper urls, password requests, etc. If the app looks suspicious, it probably is. Twitter is just fine by itself, the apps are fun but not totally necessary. Hopefully with this blog post, you’ll manage to stay safe out there!

Thanks for reading.

Facebook, Privacy, Security, Twitter

Facebook Privacy – Apps

The last time we wrote about Facebook privacy, we dealt with the setting which controls the information that your friends bring into apps that they use. You can read that post HERE. Today, we will write about editing the settings for the apps that you use.

Facebook can be a lot of fun, right? There are many apps and games plus you can link other social networking accounts, such as Twitter, to your Facebook account. However, each app uses your information in different ways. Some apps only use a little of it, others use a lot more. Here’s how you can limit every app so that it only uses the information that it requires in order to work.

Click on the little arrow to the right of the word ‘Home’ up on the top right of any Facebook page. Choose ‘Privacy Settings’. Then choose Apps, Games and websites. What we are looking for on the next page is ‘Apps you use’ and the ‘Edit settings’ button on the right.

Once you click that button, you’ll see something like this:

Menu for App Settings in Facebook
This is where you can edit each app that you use on Facebook

This is the menu for the Fotobounce application. I’ve written about Fotobounce before. With this application you can download complete photo albums on Facebook as well as many other sites. Here is the post on that. 

Fotobounce needs to access some of my information in order to work. You’ll see what it needs to access on the right side where you see the words ‘required’. However, at the bottom, you’ll see that Fotobounce wants to do two more things. It wants to access my Computers Made Simple Page and it wants to have the right to ‘Post to Facebook as me’. Hmmmm. I wonder why Fotobounce needs to do this? Since I don’t want this application to do either action, at least until I know why it needs to, I will click on the word ‘Remove’. I can still use the app but it won’t be able to Manage my Pages or Post to Facebook as me. Done!

On the top right of this menu  you will see the words “Remove app’. If you have any doubt about an application that you use, clicking these words gets rid of that application for good. Give it a try. Do you really need all of those applications accessing your personal information? Think about it.

Facebook can be a lot of fun. We all know that. But Facebook also likes to use your information for their own gain and for reasons that have nothing to do with your enjoyment of the site. Facebook also won’t tell you what information it’s using. Setting your privacy limitations is vitally important. Get to know these settings and use them often.

Thanks for reading!

Spam, Twitter

Twitter Spam

3 Comments

I hate spam on Twitter. Most spam is fairly obvious, some of it is a bit less so.

Here is an example of something that isn’t really classified as spam but, in my opinion, is just as bad. Someone tweets a link with a description. The link leads to the tweeter’s site which has another link to the site which contains the information. Here’s a capture of what you see from the link in the tweet:

A Type of Spam on Twitter
The link in the tweet leads to this, not to the original site.

I’m not going to post the tweet here. It describes the article that this link leads to. This is the tweeter’s site, not the site where the information is posted. It’s an intermediate step, one that generates income for the tweeter but, probably, not very much for the original creator of the information. To me, this is spam.

With absolutely no originality or, apparently, sense of fair play, the tweeter simply links pages from his page and tweets the link to his page. In order to get the information that is tweeted about, you have to go through two different sites. I tweet my own material, things that I have actually created. But I also share links that lead directly to other sites without going through any of my sites. This tweeter is doing this solely to make money, not to help the Twitter community.

If you follow people that do this double-click spamming, please un-follow them. This type of spam doesn’t qualify as spam, according to Twitter, but I’m sure that you would agree that is.

Thanks for reading!

Update: I received a comment on this post by, strangely enough, the spammer in question. I am not going to approve the comment because, guess what, he posted links to his own site in the comment. While he insists that he doesn’t make money from his site, there are two ‘Advertise Here’ spots on the right side of the page and a definite link to a hosting company on the page. The site is nothing but links to other sites, no information whatsoever. It’s obvious to me that even Google won’t allow their ads on a site like this. With Google, of course, content is king. When there’s no content, there’s no Google. Nice try, buddy. Your tweets and your site are contrary to the sense of community that Twitter is known for.

Update 2: This is a capture of Thomas’s site showing the potential for ads. With 182 pages of links, it’s kind of easy to see what there aren’t any there now.

Looking for Ads in All the Wrong Places
An Attempt to Get Some Advertisting