News You Can't Use: Forget the Hackers, Watch Out for the Phone Snoopers Over Your Shoulder

We're all afraid of "hackers," the completely amoral Macedonian computer geniuses who use the invisible highway to steal your credit cards and decide Presidential elections, but it turns out there's an even bigger menace than the "trolls" and "content farmers" some decrepit crazy lady tried to warn us about. It turns out your secret, and no doubt unbelievably embarrassing in the most banal ways possible, personal information can be stolen by something called "working eyes" on criminals and scumbags that look at your little screen while you're also looking at it. The scourge of over-the-shoulder readers is back, friends, made extra pathetic by this miraculous age of high technology and staggering personal atomization.

Bill Fish was texting his wife on breaks during a talent show at their children’s Cincinnati school when a woman seated next to him asked, “Are you married to Nicole Fish?”

In the middle of the third intermission of the grammar school Vegas revue (don't worry, that young man who did the profane "rap music" won't be back) I decided to peck at the pocket Skinner Box, as is the way in this best of all worlds. Next thing you know, I'm being asked questions by a total stranger. Face-to-face interaction? How do I do this thing? Does she want money?

Assuming the woman was trying to be friendly, Mr. Fish said he was, introduced himself and said, “Nice to meet you,” he says.

Assuming friendly intentions is the prologue to just about every horrific tale of modern horror, so be sure to never do that. I thought it was a friendly conversation, we found the remains in a shallow grave a month later, that sort of thing. Avoid social interactions. Sink into your little phone. Shield the screen from peepers. This is healthy.

“Her next line to me was, ‘I saw that you’ve sent her two or three texts, so I just had to be sure you were actually her husband,’” says Mr. Fish, co-founder of Tuck, an online resource on sleep and related products.

I don't want to alarm you bro-ham, but I think she was looking for the Rude Awakening.

“This woman was not only looking over my shoulder, but basically accusing me of infidelity,” he says.

I can't correctly interpret basic social cues like "joking around." I mean, where are the yellow cartoon faces to tip me off in these so-called "conversations?" I can't do this. Thanks, texting!

Some of the rudest privacy violations don’t occur online. On buses and trains and in cafes and lecture halls, peeking at what others are doing on their mobile devices is a temptation few can resist.
 
"Go on, look at this stranger's text conversation, full of grammatical, spelling and logical errors," the devil whispers. It will only cost you your very soul, haw, haw, haw!

Robert Siciliano, chief executive of IDTheftSecurity.com, a Boston security-training firm, was emailing a client on his laptop during a Boston-to-Chicago flight a few years ago. That’s when a passenger behind him tapped him on the shoulder and declared that he knew the person he was emailing.

These modern urban legends suck ass.

Mr. Siciliano wondered if his fellow passenger was crazy.

Man, you crazy or something. Why you so crazy, you crazy man?

“I had the sense that I’d been violated,” he says. When he saw that the man seemed friendly and just wanted to talk, he laughed it off.

We live in a world that literally can't tell when you're just messing around. I think this is the real story here, not your imaginary security training or sleep related products business that you pretend to run on the phone so you can feel like a Big Shot.

A 2017 survey of 174 adults by researchers at the University of Munich in Germany found 97% had observed or been involved in at least one instance of screen-snooping.

I haven't been this scandalized since I found out what "stealthing" was. It has nothing to do with those futuristic 1992 jets, suffice it to say.

Unlike criminals trolling for passwords or other sensitive information, screen snoopers—also known as shoulder surfers or visual hackers— are usually just bored or curious and see mostly games, photos or innocuous texts, the German study found.

Save us from the visual hackers, Germany. Their weaponized boredom is causing the occasional "Nah, I'm just playing, dawg" interlocution.

Snooping punctures the invisible personal bubble that seems to surround smartphone and laptop users in crowded spaces.

My invisible bubble has been breached! Help!

That awkward moment when you must bug out from your bug out location.

Sarah Johnson was riding the New York subway home from work recently when she noticed a woman peering over her shoulder, reading the email she was writing on her phone. 

This is the digital equivalent of holding a book so everyone can see the title.

“Should I move the screen closer so you can have a better look?” Ms. Johnson asked, turning in her seat to look at the woman. Flustered, the fellow traveler denied snooping and backed away. Ms. Johnson, public-relations director for FitSmallBusiness.com, a digital magazine, says, “I try not to let people’s rude behavior bother me.”

Wow. Target destroyed.

She darkens her screen settings or scrolls away from sensitive information if she senses someone is watching.
 

I set it for black text on a black background. Problem solved.

Full Article. 

Komment Korner  

I don't think the security guy who uses his laptop on a plane should be in the security business.

The other day a watcher struck up a conversation on the bus.  She saw I was reading news sites and admired the accessibility.  I take responsibility for that

I drive my car to destinations.

And, yes, your detritus often has your DNA.

Flip phone ......the real smart phone.

Aaron Zehner is the author of "The Foolchild Invention" available in paperback and e-book format. Read free excerpts here and here. 

News You Can't Use: Boundaries Shift in the U.S. on What Cellphone Use is Rude

If you're anything like me you have fond memories of the first time you were in some public setting and another unique individual crafted in God's image whipped out the old pocket phone and began speaking as if invisible soundproof walls immediately sprang up when they pushed the "on" button. It was a magical new frontier in personal atomization, to be sure, but we've come along way since then when it comes to electronic-assisted social retardation. You'll be excited to know that we've never been more open to someone loudly declaring "I'm at the store right now!" into the palm of their hand while you're forced to passively endure it.

Do you text or otherwise engage with a small screen during a social gathering?

A U.S. survey suggests you are not alone, even if you are annoyed when other people do exactly the same thing.

I guess the written text on a screen somehow didn't hear me answer in the negative, shattering the illusion that a story written several days ago is somehow interactive. On the other hand, pecking at tiny screens is now so pervasive we can safely assume everyone is carrying around a hand-sized Skinner Box, so we can at least celebrate that.

The Pew Research Center survey on shifts in what is acceptable in an always-wired world found 82 percent of American adults say that using cellphones hurt conversation in social gatherings.

"Man, I'm always wired! The future!" *spends next eight hours huddled in a cubicle listlessly interacting with grinding and groaning foreign-made technology*

Also this contradicts the premise of the article, but in all honesty I stopped carrying when the writer failed to somehow anticipate my own highly specific and eccentric life experiences.

But even more people - 89 percent - say they used their phones during their most recent get-together, including for texting, talking and for a photo.

Massive cognitive dissonance, the sure sign of a healthy mind.

"We're in the middle of this enormous social transformation where the rules of the road aren't clear and so they're constantly being negotiated," he said.

Let's pretend this banal selfishness somehow represents a fundamental shift in the human experience and not the same pathologies we've already had amplified via inner tubes and talk boxes. 

Cellphone use in social settings tends to be tied to the event itself, with 45 percent of people posting a photo or video of their most recent gathering, the survey showed.

Man, this party is great! Let me ruin it by going all Blair Witch Project. Hey dude, I kicked the map in the river!

A smaller number - 16 percent - said they turned to their small screen because they had lost interest in the group.

Crushing candy is more important than hearing your latest chemotherapy updates, sorry.

Some cellphone use is practical: while in public spaces, almost two-thirds of cellphone users look up information about where they are going or how to get there.

U.S. Americans, some don't have maps, etc.

Asked when cellphone use was "generally OK," 77 percent said while walking down a street and three-quarters said on public transportation. Five percent said it was usually OK at a movie theater.

But Spiderman just told you to turn that thing off. Great power, responsibility, am I right?

Cellphone etiquette became a policy issue in the United States in 2013 when Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler said the agency was considering allowing in-flight calls on planes.

Your "Royal Crown Cola" might be an explosive device, but feel free to bring on that bundle of red wires and speakers.

After criticism about passengers having to listen to neighbors during flights, Wheeler said he personally opposed in-flight cellphones and the decision would be up to airlines. 

Terrible ideas can still be shouted down, even in today's world.

Full Article.

Komment Korner

Nothing new here. Jerks are jerks.

great

I thoroughly support restaurants

I refused to set up voicemail so no one can leave one.

People are just so selfish and rude they use the phone even when it's blatantly rude and disrespectful.


Aaron Zehner is the author of "The Foolchild Invention" available in paperback and e-book format. Read free excerpts here and here. 

Lost in America