Is Your Phone Tracking You?
This post is part of a series titled, “Technology Q&A.” The series features questions related to technology–and the answers! Have a question? Send it to tech@heav.org.
Q. The news had a story about Apple iPhones “secretly” keeping a log of everywhere I go. A couple of days later there was a similar story about Android phones doing the same thing. What’s going on?!
A. This is nothing new. Nor is it a secretive attempt to monitor your activities. Apple and Google use the information to improve the location services you use on your phone.
Background
I use my iPhone for just about everything. Surfing the Internet, writing e-mail, playing a few mundane games, studying Scripture, checking out astronomical constellations–even writing blog posts! If I were to say with what function my phone has been most helpful, it would be maps. I have several mapping applications, depending on the need. When driving, I use a dedicated GPS driving application. If I’m looking for a specific store or something I need in my general area and speed is a factor, I’ll use the built in Google Map app. I use a different app for finding specific kinds of restaurants. The point being that using maps that are either outdated or inaccurate would be annoying. That geo-location data isn’t generated by itself, so Apple and Google have asked their users to help out a little.
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HEAVTech @ April 27, 2011 | Technology Q&A | Comments (1)
Emoticons
This post is part of a series titled, “Technology Q&A.” The series features questions related to technology–and the answers! Have a question? Send it to Tech@HEAV.org.
Q. I see a lot of references to “emoticons,” but have never really gotten into understanding or using them. Can you explain them to me?
A. Sure! 
I’m so happy you asked! 
Background
As most professional communicators will tell you, words account for a measly 7-10% of spoken communication. That leaves a whopping 90+% of the message interpretation left up to the “audience,” with approximately 38% vocal and 55% body language making up the rest of “the message.” In written communication, the situation is slightly more convoluted when you consider body language isn’t part of the equation. That leaves the words themselves to imply the tone of the message. This is not so much an issue with official communications, but with personal communication, misinterpretation of the tone of the message can have a negative impact. I have experienced this personally. 
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HEAVTech @ April 20, 2011 | Technology Q&A | Comments (0)
Maintaining Photo Privacy
This post is part of a series titled, “Technology Q&A.” The series features questions related to technology–and the answers! Have a question? Send it to Tech@HEAV.org.
Q. I saw a Fox News report that my activities can be tracked via my cellphone pictures. It really bothers me that someone could be stalking my kids using their pictures. What can I do about it?
A. If you have an Android, Palm, BlackBerry, or iPhone, any tracking using pictures (see the Fox News report for details) can be easily stopped. Here’s how!
How It’s Done
Every camera today has data that’s embedded into the picture called EXIF data. EXIF stands for EXchangeable Information File format. This data can range from the model of the camera and what kind of lighting conditions existed when the picture was taken to much more advanced features like aperture, shutter speed, and the location that picture was taken. It’s this EXIF data that is causing concern on cellphones.
How To Protect Yourself
When I watched the Fox video, I had some initial concern, but that concern quickly turned to calm as I realized neither I nor my family members were in any danger. Here’s why….
Two of the biggest potential threats are sharing pictures on Facebook and Twitter. A couple of weeks ago, we talked about ensuring your privacy on Facebook. There’s the added protection that Facebook–and Flickr for that matter–strip EXIF data from pictures. That means even if someone did gain access to the pictures posted to your Facebook and Flickr accounts, the only way they’d be able to determine where the pictures were taken is if you purposefully added that information.
What about Twitter? Well, that’s a bit different. Twitter uses a couple of photo-posting services like TwitPic and yfrog. These both have the capability to “broadcast” the location of the picture, as does the tweet itself. This is easily mitigated by ensuring that if you are going to post the picture, the picture was taken somewhere in a fairly public area like a shopping center or tourist attraction. I happen to use Instagram, which allows me to choose whether or not the location of the picture is added.
This leaves pictures sent via e-mail. That’s a slightly trickier matter. If you think Grandma is going to forward your picture to her best friends, and they’ll be forwarding, etc., it may be time for…
Lockdown
If you want to be conservative and disallow any kind of EXIF data to be applied to you pictures, you can make those changes through the settings on your BlackBerry, Android, Palm, and iPhone. This will ensure you keep location services from adding geolocation info from your cellphone to your pictures. Click here to find out how for your phone. After you’ve made the changes, you can rest assured the only way someone is going to know where that picture was taken is if you tell them!
If you ever have any technology-related questions, please feel free to send them to tech@HEAV.org. We’d love to hear from you!
HEAVTech @ April 10, 2011 | Technology Q&A | Comments (0)
Setting Up a Blog
This post is part of a series titled, “Technology Q&A.” The series features questions related to technology–and the answers! Have a question? Send it to Tech@HEAV.org.
Q. Reading the HEAV Blog every week has given me the desire to share my experiences and ideas. Is it hard to get a blog set up and started?
A. In a word, “No.”
The Options
There are quite a few places to start when deciding how to begin your blog. Blogger, Tumblr, Google, and Homeschool Blogger all provide free, fairly easy-to-use blog space. My favorite, however, is WordPress.
Who Uses It?
WordPress is a very popular and widely used blogging domain. In fact, some big names use WordPress software for their sites, including the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, CNN, Fox News, CNET and the U.S. Postal Service. My favorite site, of course, is the one you’re reading right now. Yep! HEAV’s Virginia Homeschool Blog is supported using WordPress.
HEAVTech @ April 6, 2011 | Technology Q&A | Comments (0)
Facebook Privacy Settings
This post is part of a series titled, “Technology Q&A.” The series features questions related to technology–and the answers! Have a question? Send it to Tech@HEAV.org.
Q. How do I keep my Facebook information private so only certain people can see it?
A. You can adjust your account privacy in less than 10 minutes. Here’s how!
Controlling How You Share
Facebook is all about sharing, but the privacy controls give you the power to decide what and how much you share. The settings you choose control which people and applications can see your information. You can share your information with friends, friends of friends, or everyone, and there are presets to help you do that. Or, if you prefer, you can customize your settings. The information you are about to read is available on Facebook, but they don’t really make it easy to find. That’s why I’m making it available here.
For this particular post, it will be much easier if you open a new tab for your Facebook account and follow along. Log in first and we’ll start with this link to your privacy settings.
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HEAVTech @ March 24, 2011 | Technology Q&A | Comments (0)
It’s Cool to Be Square
This post is part of a series titled, “Technology Q&A.” The series features questions related to technology–and the answers! Have a question? Send it to Tech@HEAV.org.
Q. Is there a cost-effective way to accept credit cards for my home business?
A. If you have an Android or iOS device (such as an iPod or iPhone), the answer is Square!
Exploring Square
There’s a saying that goes, “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” Well, that’s what Square is.
Square is a free Android and iOS application that lets anyone take credit cards (Visa, MasterCard, American Express, and Discover) for a straight fee of 2.75%. That’s it! There are no activation, gateway, monthly, early termination, or hidden fees or any additional costs to use Square. Every credit or debit card has the same flat rate. These fees are static and are the same percentage of the total, regardless of how small or how large the transaction.
Some Applications
I learned about Square almost a year ago and started thinking of the relevance. We had just finished our yearly garage sale and had missed getting rid of some junk parting with a couple of larger items because there was no way for us to take credit cards. How nice it would have been to accept credit and debit cards! But there was no way I was going to “rent” a credit-card machine, set up a merchant account, and run a telephone cable out to the garage. All told, that would have set me back $150-$300. (more…)
HEAVTech @ March 9, 2011 | Technology Q&A | Comments (2)
Understanding Twitter
This post is part of a series titled, “Technology Q&A.” The series features questions related to technology–and the answers! Have a question? Send it to Tech@HEAV.org.
Q. What is Twitter, and how does it work?
A. Twitter is a free “microblogging” service that allows a user to broadcast information 140 characters at a time. When it was first released in 2006, text was the only information that could be entered in a “tweet.” Since then, capabilities have been added such as including your location, websites, and even pictures. Messages highlighting other users, locations, and subject matter have added an unsurpassed level of efficiency to the service. Users can decide how simple or how complex they’d like their post to be. Let’s look at some examples. (more…)
HEAVTech @ February 23, 2011 | Technology Q&A | Comments (0)