dan tynan on Apr 24 2013 | Filed under: (anti) social media, 15 minutes, Da Web, ITworld, Privacy, Shameless self promotion, Things that don't suck
So this week I’m on the BBC blabbing about how Web tracking companies are out to get us. What did the Beeb want with me? Read on for the details. It started with this blog post I wrote a few weeks ago about how certain ads – one in particular for Jitterbug smartphones – were [...]
dan tynan on Apr 17 2013 | Filed under: ITworld, Privacy
About a week ago I wrote a piece asking why RapLeaf, a data mining company with a controversial history, had failed to remove my personal profile from its database, despite my strong recollection of having opted out some two years ago. With some help from RapLeaf, I finally figured out what happened: I did in [...]
dan tynan on Apr 09 2013 | Filed under: Da Web, ITworld, Music
My son, who is 16, was humming a tune to himself the other day as he got ready for school. It took me a minute before I realized what it was: “Happiness is a Warm Gun” by the Beatles. Now I love the Beatles, but we don’t play a lot of it around the house [...]
dan tynan on Feb 25 2013 | Filed under: ITworld
I am hereby declaring the Pottery Barn Rule to be in effect for the entire Internet. Memo to all hackers worldwide: You broke it, you own it, now fix it. Let’s just recap the last week or so. We have the Mandiant report, published earlier this week by the New York Times, which details how [...]
dan tynan on Feb 05 2013 | Filed under: (anti) social media, ITworld, National insecurity, Privacy
A couple of days ago I received a scary sounding email from Twitter. It started like this: Twitter believes that your account may have been compromised by a website or service not associated with Twitter. We’ve reset your password to prevent others from accessing your account. My first thought was that this email was bogus [...]
dan tynan on Jan 08 2013 | Filed under: (anti) social media, ITworld, Web 2.0
Stop me if this has happened to you. You open your inbox one morning and see a message from an old work colleague named Bob, sent via LinkedIn. It looks something like this: Eager to find out what wonderful things Bob has to say about you, you click the “See endorsements” link in the message, [...]
dan tynan on Nov 01 2012 | Filed under: ITworld, politics, Privacy
At this point in this especially insane political season there’s still no telling who will end up winning it all next Tuesday. But it’s very clear to me who has already lost: You and me. More specifically, what little personal privacy we may once have had. The amount and scope of data collection employed by [...]
dan tynan on Oct 05 2012 | Filed under: Google, ITworld, Privacy
By now it’s kind of a truism that Big Data is going to be Big Business. Marketing companies want to comb big data sets to determine what you’re likely to buy, so they can show you the right offers at the right time. Health care providers want to analyze big data so they can determine [...]
dan tynan on Oct 02 2012 | Filed under: (anti) social media, ITworld, Web 2.0
You may not know this but I am a freakin’ expert on cigars. If it’s rolled up in dried tobacco leaves and smuggled in from Cuba in diplomatic pouches, I am your guy. This must be true, because I read it on my Klout profile. The world has gone a little Klout crazy, lately. There [...]
dan tynan on Sep 18 2012 | Filed under: (anti) social media, Facebook, ITworld, Web 2.0
Ok, I admit: The question that serves as the headline for this post seems on the surface a bit absurd, if not downright crazy. Any day now Facebook is likely to announce its 1 billionth member, giving it a population more than three times that of the United States. And it has barely scratched the [...]
dan tynan on Sep 08 2012 | Filed under: (anti) social media, Future Tech, ITworld, Privacy, TY4NS
Last week I had the pleasure of attending the IFA 2012 consumer electronics show in Berlin as a guest of the IFA organizers. When not drinking Pilsner and eating bratwurst I managed to squeeze in a panel on the future of the car, featuring representatives from Ford, Microsoft, Inrix (the leading provider of aggregated traffic [...]
dan tynan on Aug 02 2012 | Filed under: (anti) social media, ITworld, Things that suck
I first noticed the problems about a month ago. I tried to promote a TY4NS blog post on Google Plus but nothing happened when I clicked the G+1 button. I figured it was probably a glitch in the plug-in code. I have an attention span of about 4.2 seconds for this sort of thing, so [...]
dan tynan on Jul 09 2012 | Filed under: (anti) social media, ITworld, Privacy
A few months ago I got an email from a woman about a story I’d written nearly three years ago. To protect her privacy I’ll call her Samantha Sugarlips. In that story, which I’d written for my somewhat more sarcastic blog, I mocked this woman for posting photos and other personal information to Facebook, then [...]
dan tynan on Sep 09 2011 | Filed under: (anti) social media, censorship, ITworld, National insecurity, politics, Privacy, Uncategorized
Last week I was in Germany, as a guest of the IFA Berlin consumer electronics show. That means, of course, that I had to perform the airport security samba. I took off my shoes and my belt; stuffed my watch, keys, cell phone, and loose change into the pockets of my jacket; took my laptop [...]
dan tynan on Jan 01 2011 | Filed under: Facebook, Google, ITworld, TY4NS, Web 2.0, yahoo
As I write this there are but a few hours left of 2010, which I believe will be remembered as the year Facebook became the dominant force on the InterWebs, supplanting even mighty Google in its reach and depth. What will happen in 2011? Beats me. But that won’t stop me from offering up some [...]
dan tynan on Dec 26 2010 | Filed under: Facebook, Google, ITworld, Twit or Tweet, TY4NS
I don’t know about you, but lately I’ve been suffering a failure to communicate — and it comes from having too many ways to do it. Tweets. Facebook updates. Emails to six different accounts. Skype chats. Google voice. Text messages. Sometimes I even manage to talk to people. But mostly the efforts of the world [...]
dan tynan on Nov 30 2010 | Filed under: Facebook, ITworld
I know, I know: Some out there will say merely using Facebook is a mistake. This blog post isn’t for you — feel free to move along to the comment forums on OldGuysWhoSmellLikeAsparagus.com. As for the rest of you, take heed. I’m using Facebook as the primary example here, but the many of the same [...]
dan tynan on Jul 22 2010 | Filed under: (anti) social media, Facebook, ITworld, Privacy, TY4NS
As I noted earlier this week, Facebook just crested 500 million members, and it’s been pulling out all the stops to draw attention to that fact. Mark Zuckerberg is making the TV rounds, talking to Diane Sawyer on ABC last night. Rumors swirl that a cartoon version of Zuckerberg may even appear on "The Simpsons" [...]
dan tynan on May 07 2010 | Filed under: Facebook, ITworld, TY4NS
When you’re a social network with tens of millions of users and you’ve got the attention of the US Congress, that’s almost never a good thing. And so it goes with Facebook and its naked attempt to become the central repository of consumer preferences on the Web (see "What’s to like about Facebook’s ‘Like’ Button?"). [...]
