Privacy campaigners have complained (on behalf of concerned customers) after it was revealed that an update to Uber’s app allows users’ GPS signals to be followed after they have left the vehicle at the end of their journey.

Continues To Run In The Background.

The change to taxi-style service provider Uber’s app in the U.S. means that it continues to run in the background on a user’s phone when they have left the vehicle. Prior to the update, the app would only be able to follow a user’s GPS signal while Uber was open on the user’s phone.

Why?

Uber has been reported as saying that the extra tracking ability is needed from the beginning of the customer’s request for a car up until 5 minutes after the journey so that pick-ups can be made more reliable and customer service and safety can be enhanced.

Complaints.

Whatever Uber’s stated reasons, the ‘improvement’ to the app, which was actually announced publicly a year ago, has caused upset amongst those concerned with privacy. When the change was originally announced, the Electronic Privacy Information Centre (EPIC) immediately lodged a complaint with the American Federal Trade Commission.

The Problem.

Those opposed to the app change clearly see it as something that has implications for privacy. The complaint by EPIC suggested that it represented an unfair and deceptive trade practice that misused location data, and threatened the privacy, rights and personal safety of American consumers.

As part of the complaint, EPIC stated that the change to the app ignores the FTC’s prior decisions. EPIC points out that prior to the arrival of Uber whose app collects detailed personal information from its users, American consumers could routinely hire taxis without any disclosure of personal information or any tracking of their location.

EPIC also cites a concern that Uber may disclose sensitive personal information to third parties, unaffiliated with the provision of the services to the customer.

EPIC’s complaint also suggests that based on the fact that a ‘top Uber executive in New York City’ was investigated for tracking the location of journalists reporting on the company, some people may feel justified in assuming that the practice was specifically intended to identify and track critics of the company.

Uber – Seems Fair.

Uber however have been reported as saying that it’s app change seemed ‘fair’ in the context that location is at the heart of the ‘Uber experience’, and therefore more location data is needed to improve aspects of that service.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

This story illustrates how more businesses are using apps and are using the data collected by those apps, and how they could possibly use them in ways that we may not approve of. The reaction to the change in the app in this case however shows what important issues data protection and privacy have become to consumers, particularly at a time where data breaches at large /well known companies appear to be fairly common.

In the UK, this should also be a reminder that GDPR is due to come into force in just over a year’s time, and that businesses need to become well acquainted with how they are able to collect and use customer data relating to EU citizens according to these regulations in order to be compliant, treat customers well, and to avoid bad publicity.

Police have issued a warning that some recent thefts from vehicles which have taken place in 3 Berkshire service stations have involved the use of radio jammers.

Remote Technology Used.

Thames Valley Police have said that thefts of items from vehicles at the Chieveley, Reading and Membury services on the M4 have involved the use of radio jamming devices. These devices can be bought cheaply online, the sales of which are likely to be difficult to trace due the fact that many sellers of these items are believed to be unscrupulous or have links to crime.

Although there appears to be no clear proof, police believe that this is the most likely explanation because, in 14 cases, there have been obvious signs of a break-in.

The fact that lorries, vans and cars have been successfully targeted also suggests that jammers rather than keys or similar methods were used.

At Chieveley Services for example, thieves took tools, a suitcase and a laptop. At Membury, it was luggage, wallets and cash were stolen while at Reading Services 3 high end vehicles were targeted. All attacks are thought to have involved the use of jammers.

How Could The Jammers Have Be Used?

As the name suggests, radio jammers interrupt and interfere with radio signals.

Modern vehicle key fobs use radio signals to lock / unlock the doors. Radio jammers can be used remotely and they can easily cover an area the size of a service station car park.

Police therefore believe that the thieves were able to take up a remote position in the car park, far enough away from their targets and other drivers to not be observed, but close enough to be able to operate the jammer as drivers were pressing the ‘lock’ button on their key fobs. A radio jamming signal can prevent the car doors from locking and without a manual check by the driver they are therefore left unlocked until the driver returns.

Service Station Car Parks Perfect Target

Service station car parks are thought to be particularly attractive to thieves using this method because they are busy and have a fast turnaround of transient users who are unlikely to know or to notice who is the owner of a specific vehicle. It is also the case that service station users are more likely to have more valuable items in their vehicles e.g. holiday and work-related items.

Problems With Insurance Claims Likely

There are concerns that because there was no forced entry, victims of these crimes may have difficulty with their insurance claims.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

This news is of course very significant to business travellers using the M4, using any other UK motorways, or indeed using public car parks.

The advice is for all motorists to:

• Listen carefully to ensure the locking mechanism has engaged.
• Check that the door is actually locked before leaving your vehicle, even if you have pressed the lock button on your key fob as normal.
• Don’t leave valuable items in the vehicle / in view in the vehicle if possible.

After a long negotiation, the UK telecoms regulator Ofcom has now ruled that it will be formally asking the European Commission to start the process of separating BT from its network infrastructure arm, Openreach.

Why?

Through Openreach, BT owns (and is responsible for providing) the vast majority of the UK’s telecoms network infrastructure, not just for itself but also for any competitors including TalkTalk, Sky, and Vodafone (and BT’s own retail arm). This has led to competition problems.

There is also an argument that greater investment is needed in the network, and that action needs to be taken to improve broadband and phone services across the UK.

How Did It Come To This?

Back in July this year, Ofcom recommended that Openreach should be run as a separate company from BT. It also recommended that BT’s fibre rollout shouldn’t be fully separated but could run as a distinct company with its own board and employees.

The recommendations at the time stopped short of saying that BT should be fully separated from Openreach as it was believed that this would be enough to ensure the greatest possible degree of independence from BT Group, without incurring all of the significant the costs and disruption associated with total separation.

The recommendations in July came out of what had been a 10 year review by Ofcom. As well as setting stricter minimum requirements on Openreach to repair problems and install new lines more quickly later in the year, service performance tables and broadband coverage maps were proposed for next year.

What’s Changed?

Ofcom’s latest announcement that it will now submit an official notification to the European Commission to start the process of separation is reported to have come about because, according to Ofcom, BT has not submitted any proposals that can meet the competition concerns. Ofcom has stated that it is still open to any voluntary proposals from BT.

If the public consultation with the EC in early 2017 supports Ofcom’s views, the regulator will be give n the go-ahead to separate the companies.

What Does BT Say?

BT is reported to have has said that it has noted Ofcom’s announcement and that it put forward the necessary proposals in July, which it is currently implementing. BT is also reported to be in discussions with Ofcom over other outstanding but related issues.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

From a business point of view, access to a wide choice of high quality, similar Broadband and comms services is important, as is having the very latest high speed fibre optic broadband.

Industry and technical commentators have highlighted how BT appears to many people to have been either dragging its feet and / or have been unwilling to comply with Ofcom’s recommendations.

For many businesses, the idea of a situation where there is greater investment in the infrastructure, higher quality and more effective services along with better customer services is very attractive and many businesses feel therefore that splitting up BT and Openreach will be an important step towards achieving this.

Just as we’re getting over Black Friday in the UK, news comes from the U.S. about record-breaking online sales on the first day after the Thanksgiving break that has become known a ‘Cyber Monday’.

Black Friday Vs Cyber Monday

Black Friday and Cyber Monday are now the popular culture names for the day after Thanksgiving (which is on a Thursday), and the following Monday. Black Friday became a popular shopping day because U.S. workers would take the day after Thanksgiving off work to have a long weekend, which meant that retailers dropped prices on the Friday to tempt them to shop on their day off. Cyber Monday came about because retailers noticed that people were still continuing to buy goods online on Monday.

Up until 2014, Cyber Monday had been the world’s biggest online sales day until its rival Black Friday took over. Now Cyber Monday has made a huge (online) sales comeback.

How Much?

According to the latest figures, $3.45 billion of sales were generated in the U.S. this Cyber Monday. This put Cyber Monday back in front as the biggest selling day, beating the previous record of $3.34 billion spent on this year’s Black Friday.

How Many?

According to Adobe’s figures, the huge sales total was generated by 23 billion visits to websites. This accounted for 80% of all online transactions for the top 100 U.S. retailers!

Why So Much Online?

Retail commentators have suggested that the big move online for purchases this year may be partly that people wanted to avoid crowds on Friday, and may not have had time to visit physical stores on Monday due to returning to work.

Mobile For Looking, Desktop For Buying.

Even though mobile devices accounted for most website visits globally for the first time last month, the trend of using the mobile to search and choose and using the desktop to purchase is still continuing for most U.S shoppers. According to Adobe figures, 65% of purchases on Cyber Monday were made on desktop although 53% of website visits came from mobile devices.

Smart-phones were used for 44% of visits and 25% of purchases, with iOS devices accounting for a larger value of purchases than Android devices.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

For businesses, the relatively new shopping events such as Black Friday present a great opportunity to generate more sales and take advantage of proactive consumer bargain searches. For some more seasonal businesses, Black Friday could offer a way to generate and kick-start more sales in the quiet period.

The Black Friday and Cyber Monday facts and figures show how important it is to have a website that works well on mobile devices, and how important it is to make sure that Omni-channel options are open to customers.

Up until recently, Apple products have been widely regarded as being safe from viruses, spam and other unwanted online intrusion. iPhone users, however, have reported an increase in unwanted invitations turning up in their calendars, and unwanted photo-sharing alerts.

What Kind of Spam Invitations?

Some have reported receiving clearly ‘spammy’ offers relating to fake Black Friday deals and discounts on famous designer labels which don’t actually come from the brands themselves. It has been reported that many of the ‘offers’ appear to come from sources in China, and are most likely to relate to fake / copy goods.

Those who have their calendar for business use can it invite others to meetings and events. Now spammers have exploited this feature and the invitations are being sent as part mass mailouts and appear as calendar notifications.

Can’t Be Deleted.

Unfortunately, iPhone users have been finding out that not only do the notifications appear whether they are accepted or rejected, but they can’t be deleted. The messages also notify the spammer when they have been received. This confirms to the spammer that they have found a valid target and therefore opens the floodgates for more spam messages to follow.

What’s Happening?

The iPhone calendar uses the iCloud to back things up to. This means that when the invitations are received, the calendar is automatically backed up to the iCloud, including the new invitations. The photo sharing aspect of iPhones is also automatically backed up to the cloud, hence the use of the photo-sharing alerts by the spammers.

One Solution – Turn the iCloud Off

Technical commentators have pointed out that one simple solution to the spamming problem for iPhone users could be to turn the iCloud off, however this would defeat the object of having it and could create more problems. If users don’t actually use iCloud for your calendar it is a viable option. It can be done by opening the Settings app on the iPhone and System Preferences on the Mac. It’s then a case of going to the iCloud settings and disabling calendars to stop the iCloud syncing and event invitations.

What Else Can You Do?

Technical experts and commentators have offered several possible courses of action that iPhone users can take to avoid the spam. These include:

1. Making another calendar just for the spam events or moving the notifications to arrive in email form, which can be deleted without the sender knowing.
2. Declining the calendar invite when it arrives which should make it disappear from the calendar. If it doesn’t, disable the “Show Declined Events” in the calendar app settings. Unfortunately, with this idea the spammer will still receive a notification.
3. Choose to receive calendar invites as emails. This means that the emails can then be caught in the spam box. This can be done by going to iCloud.com on your laptop and opening the Calendar web app. Click on the gear icon and then open Preferences. In the Advanced tab choose to receive calendar invites as emails. The drawback with this method is that you won’t be able to receive any push notification for new calendar events, whether they are genuine or not.
4. Another  way is to change the calendar entry, i.e. to edit the email account changing the email address to something like spam@spam.com then unsubscribe the calendar entry; it will then appear to come from a dummy email address and not alert the spammer.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

This is an example of spammers finding yet another way around things and causing more disruption and annoyance to businesses. The very thing that is designed to help you back-up and sync important items (the iCloud) has been turned into a vulnerability by the spammers.

If you have been directly affected by the spamming it is now a case of going online and following one of the fixes / get-arounds. Some technical commentators have pointed out that Apple could help users by adding a feature such as an ignore button to the notifications.