6 Links That Will Show You What Google Knows About You

Want to find out all the things Google knows about you? Here are 6 links that will show you some of the data Google has about you.

1. Find out what Google thinks about you

In order to serve relevant ads, Google collects data about you and creates a profile. You can control and review the information Google has on you here:

http://www.google.com/settings/ads/

Google also has a tool called Google Analytics, that helps publishers see what pages you have viewed on their website, how many times you have visited it, how long did you stay etc. You can opt out if you don’t want this type of data to be collected:

http://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout

2. Find out your location history

If you use Android, your mobile device may be sending your location to Google. You can see your entire location history here:

https://maps.google.com/locationhistory

3. Find out your entire Google Search history

Google saves every single search you have ever done. On top of that, they record every Google ad you have clicked on. This log is available in Google web history controls:

https://www.google.com/history/

4. Get a monthly security and privacy report from Google

Google offers an Account activity page that tells you about all the Google services you are using. You can even enable a monthly report that will be sent to your email:

https://www.google.com/settings/dashboard

5. Find out all the apps and extensions that are accessing your Google data

The Account activity page also offers a list of all the apps that have any type of access to your data. You can see the exact type of permissions granted to the app and revoke access to your data here:

https://security.google.com/settings/security/permissions

6. Export all of your data out of Google

Google lets you export all your data: bookmarks, emails, contacts, drive files, profile info, your youtube videos, photos and more here:

https://www.google.com/takeout

BONUS

Google also keeps a history of your YouTube searches. You can find it here:

https://www.youtube.com/feed/history/search_history

Source: http://www.google.com/goodtoknow/online-safety/security-tools/

WhatsApp Ranked Worst at Protecting Your Privacy and Data

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has released its annual report card of tech companies for 2015 based upon how much they keep your personal data secure from government snoops.

And the Worst Companies Award goes to…

1. At&T
2. WhatsApp
3. Verizon

Yes, you heard right! WhatsApp is one of the three worst companies at protecting its users’ data so if you are concerned about your data privacy, you should think twice before using WhatsApp.

The EFF released its latest Who Has Your Back report based on 5 basic criteria that included:

• Follows Industry Accepted Best Practices
• Tells Users About Government Data Demands
• Discloses Policies on Data Retention
• Discloses Government Content Removal Requests
• Pro-user Public Policy: opposes backdoors

The prominent privacy advocacy group analysed 24 companies in total, and among them AT&T, Verizon and WhatsApp came out to be the worst companies at protecting its users’ data.

Where Verizon met two criteria of the EFF's criteria, WhatsApp and AT&T only met one.

AT&T, WhatsApp and Verizon have some worst policies when it comes to protecting its users’ personal data from government requests.

Here’s some advice from the EFF to WhatsApp: "WhatsApp should publicly require a warrant before turning over user content, publish a law enforcement guide and transparency report, have a stronger policy of informing users of government requests, and disclose its data retention policies.

Also, Google and Microsoft both earned just three stars each, which isn’t really up to the mark for such two companies that claim definite levels of respect and trust when it comes to data privacy.

However, the EFF report also says that Microsoft has made improvement in company practices and will be in a position to raise a fourth star in September.

Companies that earned the full five out of five stars on the EFF’s privacy scoreboard are Adobe, Apple, Yahoo, Dropbox, Wordpress, Wickr, Credo Mobile, Sonic and Wikimedia.

You can see the results of every single company in the EFF's chart above, and if you want the more detailed explanation, you can access the full detailed EFF report here.

Source www.TheHackerNews.com

How Microsoft Can Spy On You And How To Stop It

This Article will explain how they spy on you and how you can stop Microsoft from getting your IP Address without your permission.

How Microsoft Can Spy On You?
The answer is simple, via their NCSI ( Network Connectivity Status Indicator ).

Why should we care of it?
Well... each time we start our Windows Computer an Internet connection test is run automatically to test the Internet availability.

So each time we start it, our PC makes a connectivity request to a text file into the NCSI Server of Microsoft ( 131.107.255.255 & dns.msftncsi.com ).

The Text file should be located here:
http://www.msftncsi.com/ncsi.txt

Where's the fun part?
Microsoft admitted that they DO NOT NOTIFY the user Before attempting to collect informations, infact it is automatically done if you have the Internet!.

 ...In short...

They store, in a NO-ENCRYPTED way, your logs into their WebServer, each time you connect. The logs contain the time of each access and the IP address recorded for that access.

Wanna See in Deep?? Look Below Here!
"User notification: [ NCSI does not notify the user before attempting to collect information. ] ... "

"Encryption and storage: [ NCSI does not use encryption ] ...

[ IIS logs are stored on the server at www.msftncsi.com. These logs contain the time of each access and the IP address recorded for that access. ] ... "

What did they say about it?
They said that "These IP addresses are not used to identify users, and in many cases, they are the address of a network address translation (NAT) computer or proxy server, not a specific client behind that NAT computer or proxy server."

Alright... So Someone may say that it is a service to help native users see a yellow icon if there is a limited connectivity. 

But... ask to yourself, why should Microsoft needs to get all these Personal Informations from Us (stored in that way)?.

Isn't a "Legal" Spy System? ... well , if you feel ashamed from all of this, we will teach you How to Block all that stuff!.

So, if you Wanna Block the Microsoft "Auto IP-Listening" Service? Act as below:

1) Open REGEDIT and press Enter

2) Go on HKEY_LOCAL_MACJONE

4) Click on SYSTEM

5) Click on CurrentControlSet

6) Click on Services

7) Click on NLaSvc

8) Click on Parameters

9) Click on Internet

10) On the right side look for "EnableActiveProibing" and set This Value to "0"

Done?! No, There's another way on how they can Track us, by using our Local Computer Policy Editor.

Wanna be more secure?
You'll have to deactivate the "Windows Network Connectivity Status Indicator active tests".

How can you do it? Follow these steps:

1) Search for gpedit.msc and click on it, the Local Computer Policy Editor will appear

2) Go here:
Local Computer Policy > Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > System > Internet Communication Management > Internet Communication Settings

3) Look for "Windows Network Connectivity Status Indicator active tests" and turn it OFF.

**Still Worried?!** 

You can Manually Block the domains and the referred IPs directly from the HOSTS File!...

1) Navigate here:
c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts

2) Open the file with NOTEPAD or another Text Editor:

3) Paste these following lines at the end of the File:

127.0.0.1 msftncsi.com
127.0.0.1 131.107.255.255
127.0.0.1 dns.msftncsi.com

4) What's next? Of Course you must Save it!.

Congratulations! You have now stopped to send all your Connection Details to Microsoft!.

YOUR SMARTPHONE IS STILL SPYING ON YOU AFTER TURNING IT OFF – ANDROID

Security experts have recently found that your smartphones are spied even your phone is switched off.Security researchers have unearthed a new Android Malware called PowerOffHijack.  PowerOffHijack because the nasty malware has a very unique feature – it hijacks the shutdown process of user’s mobile phone.Next time you turn off your Android phone, you might want take the battery out just to be certain.

After pressing the power button, you will see the real shutdown animation, and the phone appears off. Although the screen is black,your been spied.According to the company, PowerOffHijack malware infects devices running Android versions below 5.0 (Lollipop) and requires root access to perform the tasks.

PowerOffHijack malware has already infected more than 10,000 devices, mostly in China.PowerOffHijack malware has ability to silently send lots of premium-rate text messages, make calls to expensive overseas numbers, take photos and perform many other tasks even if the phone is supposedly switched off.

Note: Simple method to get rid of you being spied is by taking out the battery after u switch off your smartphone.