Facebook advertisers target people who visited their site

Facebook has launched a new feature that allows businesses to target their audience from those who have visited their website or mobile app.

This decision is a direct response to feedback from businesses that say they don’t want to choose an ad unit when creating the ad.  Facebook has narrowed down the objectives  to: Clicks to Website, Website Conversions, Page Post Engagement, Page Likes, App Installs, App Engagement, In-store Offer claims and Event Responses.

News Feed ads have seen a rise in popularity from the enhanced call-to-action buttons.

Facebook has announced the new Custom Audience features this past October.

The company promised to roll out globally “in the coming months” and have delivered.

It works by placing business on Facebook and marketing their website.  The Facebook third-party SDK mobile app, builds custom audiences based on actions people take while visiting their site.  

In the picture above, new custom features target a specific audience on the left.  On the right, an example of marketers creating a Page post to drive traffic to their website.  There are five call-to-action buttons for users to click on: Shop Now, Learn More, Sign Up, Book Now, and Download.

Facebook shows two features of how business target a specific market.

• A travel website with a re-marketing pixel uses Custom Audiences to reach specific groups of people.
• Retailers build re-targeting campaigns by installing the Facebook or third-party SDK in their mobile app.  People are targeted through both mobile or desktop, this encourages them to come back and purchase items in their shopping card.

Facebook pulls information located on other properties where the plugins reside back to its main service.  The benefit of revenue from this computer correspondence generates more beneficial advertisers.







Facebook places these ads where it sees it will platform best, this will be from mobile News Feeds, desktop News Feeds, and/or the right-side advertisement column on the Web.

The redesign on social networks are to be as seamless as possible.  In June, the efforts were announced, in July Facebook streamlined its ad products, removed online offers, sponsored results, and questioned ads.

By August and September, Facebook started letting marketers upload an image and it would be used for all ad types.

With the updated ad tools, most ads are focused on mobile devices.  Mobile devices are in compliance with companies needs to keep increasing its revenue.

What do you think about these ads?  Are they beneficial to you?  Please tell us your thoughts in our comments below!

Don’t miss out on the latest tech news and computer security alerts! Follow us on Twitter at @hyphenet,  “Like” us on Facebook or add us to your circle on Google+.


References:

Facebook now lets all advertisers target people who visited their site or used their mobile app – The Next Web
http://thenextweb.com/facebook/2014/01/28/facebook-now-lets-advertisers-target-people-visited…

Facebook redesigns its ad buying and reporting tools to help businesses meet ‘objectives’ – The Next Web
http://thenextweb.com/facebook/2013/10/08/facebook-redesigns-its-ad-buying-and-reporting-tools…

How to get rid of pop-ups, viruses and adware.

If you keep seeing pop-ups every time you open a new window, you may need to make some changes to your computer.

It is possible your computer is infected with a virus or malicious software. You should take action and remove it as soon as possible!

Malware from pop-ups can be fairly easy to remove by making a few changes to your operating system. You just have to Add/Remove a few programs.

Sometimes when anti-viruses and malware are not easily removable, you may need to reformat your hard drive and reinstall the operating system.

For laptops, installing the operating system from the partition backup may not completely remove the malware. Be sure to get installation disks for your operating system from your hardware and reinstall your operating system.

Here are some ways you can keep those pop-ups under control and configure your computer with the latest version of software.

Part 1 of 3: Updating Your Browser

#1 Check for Updates.  

Always keep your browser up to date.  You will find this extremely helpful when trying to control pop-ups in your browser.  Most browsers will update automatically, but sometimes this feature has been disabled.

• Firefox – Click the Firefox button in the upper-left corner.  Hover over Help and select About Firefox.  Click here for a more detailed guide on updating Firefox.
  
• Chrome – Click on the menu button in the upper-right corner of the Chrome window. Select About Chrome near the bottom. A new tab will open and Chrome will do its job checking for updates. Check out the video below for further details.

• Internet Explorer - Updating on Internet Explorer depends on the version you are using.  Older versions of Explorer will require you to restore from the Tools tab at the top of your browser, then go to Windows Update.  For Internet Explorer 10 and 11, you can enable automatic updates by clicking on the Gear icon and selecting About Internet Explorer.  See this guide for more help.

#2 Reinstall your web browser, or install a new one.

Pop-up software is embedded so deep that sometimes you can not remove it just by updating.  For cases like this, you have to reinstall or change your web browser to solve the problem.

• First step is to download the latest version of the browser you are using.  You can easily find download links on the homepage of each browser.
• Uninstall the current browser you are using.  You can do this from the Control Panel from the Start Menu.
  1. Open the Programs and Features
  2. Go to Add/Remove Programs
  3. Click Uninstall/Remove and follow the prompts
  4. Please note: Internet Explorer cannot be uninstalled in Windows
• Keep up with your bookmarks and user settings so they can be imported when needed to be installed again.
• Install the new browser. After the old browser is uninstalled, run the installation file that was previously downloaded.

Part 2 of 3: Enabling Pop-up Blockers

#1 Enable pop-up blocker in Firefox

Pop-up blocking is automatically enabled in Firefox.  If it has been disabled, you can access the pop-up setting in the Options menu.

• Click the Firefox button and select Options
• Click the Content tab
• Check the “Block pop-up windows” box
• Click the Exceptions button.  Make sure you trust all the sites on the list.

#2 Enable pop-up blocker in Chrome

Chrome blocks pop-ups by default.  You can access the pop-up settings from the Settings menu.

• Click the Menu button in the upper-right corner and click Settings
• Click the “Show advanced settings” link at the bottom of the page
• Click the “Content settings” button in the Privacy section
• Scroll down to the Pop-ups section.  Be sure that the “Do not allow any site to show pop-ups” option is selected
• Click the “Manage exceptions“  button.  Make sure that only trusted sites are listed.

#3 Enable pop-up block in Internet Explorer

Pop-up blocking is enabled in later versions of Internet Explorer.    You can follow this to make sure it has been disabled.

• Click on the Tool menu or Gear icon.  Select “Internet options“
• Click the Privacy tab
• Make sure the “Turn on Pop-up Blocker” box is checked
• Click the “Settings” button.  Recheck all the sites to make sure you trust them
• Adjust the “Blocking level“. Use the drop-down menu at the bottom to decide your blocking level.  Set it at “High” to prevent pop-ups

#4 Install browser add-ons

Many browsers have add-ons that you can install on Firefox and Chrome that will help with your pop-up issue.  Many add-ons are available to download.  Here are a few helpful ones:

• Firefox – install AdBlock and NoScript to prevent websites from loading pages and content that is not needed
• Chrome – NoScript is available to use, although, AdBlock is not

Part 3 of 3: Cleaning Up Your Operating System

#1 Run an antivirus scan

Viruses are likely to install pop-ups on your computer and take over your browser.  Getting rid of these pop-ups is going to take a virus scan to detect the invading programs:

• Running an antivirus scan and run and anti-malware/spyware scan as well.  Well known scans are Malwarebytes or Spybot Search & Destroy.  The programs are free but should only be downloaded from the developers’ websites.
• Scan in Safe Mode, it is more effective than doing it in Windows.

#2 Uninstall toolbars

Uninstall toolbars because they may be slowing down your browser and even lead to more pop-ups.  Here is a guide to removing toolbars from your browser.

#3 Run a registry cleaner

A registry clean removes the lingering entries waiting in your registry.  Registry cleaners do not remove viruses or malware, so they should run after removing those with other programs.  CCleaner is a popular and free registry cleaner.

If you follow these steps, you can improve the health and speed of your computer.  Have you come across a way to avoid pop-ups or found an application to help maintain them?  Please share your comments below!

Don’t miss out on the latest tech news and computer security alerts! Follow us on Twitter at @hyphenet,  “Like” us on Facebook or add us to your circle on Google+.

References:
How to Get Rid of Pop Ups – Wiki How
http://www.wikihow.com/Get-Rid-of-Pop-Ups
How do I get rid of pop-ups, viruses, adware, or spyware? – Yahoo! Security
http://security.yahoo.com/rid-pop-ups-viruses-adware-spyware-000000179.html

Philippines Cyber Crime Law: Facebook ‘like’ could land you in jail.

Next time you want to “like” something on Facebook, may land you in jail.  The Philippines Cyber Crime Law is taking away the freedom to post on social media sites.




 
Filipinos are some of the most social online users.  They rank among the top 10 users of both Facebook and Twitter in the world.

According to the new Cybercrime Prevention Act, you can end up in jail if you participate in cybersex, identity theft, hacking, spamming, pornography, and social media sites in the Philippines.

This new law that was signed into effect on September 12 by President Benigno Aquino III.

The ones who are liable are the ones who made the original post and the ones who share or ‘like’ them.

The law has caused many protests among the 35 million Filipino users and social media socialites out of the 95 million population.

Hackers are sending messages defacing government websites while others are creating petitions to stop the law.  There are no current signs that the government aims to start a repeal.

“Even Mark Zuckerberg can be charged with cyber-libel,” the senator said.

The provision, according to Guingona, is very broad and vague, and it’s not even clear on who should really be liable for the social media statement.  Anyone who is found guilty, is likely to spend up to 12 years in prison.

Petitions have been declared to the law as unconstitutional and files before the Supreme Court.

The Human Rights Watch has expressed dismay over the controversial law, this is a serious threat of their freedom of expression.

The government has criticized the hacking of its websites but says it welcomes any protest.

Sen. Vicente Sotto III makes no apology for being the senator to focus on the provision for libel last minute.
Lawyers are saying the Philippines’ Cybercrime Prevention Act has done what the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA), achieved in the United States, which disallowed illegal sharing and downloading copyrighted music and videos.

There are protests and public repeal to the law, but so far there is little sign that the government is backing down.

What if this were happening in the United States?  Do you think this will permanently affect the Philippines?  Will the law lighten up?  Please leave your comments below!

Don’t miss out on the latest tech news and computer security alerts! Follow us on Twitter at @hyphenet,  “Like” us on Facebook or add us to your circle on Google+.


References:

Like something on Facebook, go directly to jail. – Yahoo News
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/technology-blog/something-facebook-directly…

Facebook’s “like” may land Filipinos in jail – CBS News
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/facebooks-like-may-land-filipinos-in-jail/

Worldwide Tech Issues

Worldwide tech issues have evolved this past week: India reopens tax queries with HP and Infosys; A Wyoming building may have played a part in the massive Internet outage in China; and South Korea is investing into 5G technology.

India’s Tech Complaints

Photo Credit: Business Insider

Tax authorities in India are claiming that HP and Infosys owe them a countless number of unpaid taxes.
India is bewildered from the claims made for software and manpower.

It was been reported, “developed and deployed on clients’ premises.”  If the deductions relate to the clients’ premises, they are disqualified and the only valid work must be carried out on their own grounds.

HP and Infosys challenged India’s tax claims and prospered from the .  Now these cases are being revisited.  The new complaint is that Infosys submitted expenses pertaining to landscaping.

A price has not been confirmed on how much the companies might be asked to pay back, but reports say Infosys’ tab is $68 million US dollars.

Wyoming Played a Part in Chinese Outage

The mystery of the Chinese Internet power outage baffles many.  There is a recent discovery that most of the Internet traffic was redirected to a company in Cheyenne, Wyoming on Tuesday.

China’s 500 million Internet users were unable to load any websites that ended in .com, .net, or .org for almost eight hours.

The China Internet Network Information Centre, a state-run agency in which they deal with Internet affairs, said they had traced the problem to the country’s domain name system.

One of China’s biggest anti-virus software vendors, Qihoo 360 Technology, admitted the problem affected three-quarters of the country’s domain name system servers.

Some servers acted as a switchboard for Internet traffic from China’s Great Firewall rerouted traffic from Baidu and Sina, to a block of Internet address registered to Sophidea.  The company in Cheyenne, a small brick two-story building on a residential street.

Baidu is the company behind China’s largest search engine.

 The discrete destination of China’s Internet Traffic in Cheyenne, Wyoming. Photo Credit: SMH

The building above is home of 2000 companies on paper.  Reuters held an investigation in 2011 and found that the Prime Minister of Ukraine was also registered to the address.

The Ukraine Prime Minister was charged with helping online poker operations evade an Internet gambling ban.  The ban from the government were contracts from  selling counterfeit truck parts to the Pentagon.

Wyoming Corporate Services that were registered for Sophidea, moved to a different building on Pioneer Avenue in Cheyenne last year.

The owner of Wyoming Corporate Services, Gerald Pitts, said they could not disclose any details about Sophidea without any “due process”.  Gerald Pitts said the Wyoming Corporate Services acted as a registered agent for nearly 8000 businesses.

“What they do I’m not 100 per cent sure.” – Gerald Pitts, Wyoming Corporate Services

It is still not clear about what caused the traffic shift on Tuesday.  A Chinese newspaper had suspected the cyber attack.  But by Tuesday, technologists came to an alternate theory, a backfiring of China’s own Internet censoring system.

The company Sophidea, redirects traffic from one address to another to mask a person’s whereabouts, evading the firewall.

Technologists have summarized that the disruption may have been caused by Chinese Internet censors who attempted to block traffic to Sophidea’s websites but unknowingly redirected traffic to the service instead.

South Korea Invests

Photo Credit: Techinasia

South Korea’s science ministry announced it was investing $1.5 billion in order to have 5G Internet by 2020.
The 5G network enables users to download an 800-megabyte film in one second.  This is compared to taking 40 seconds with the nation’s 4G network.

South Korea is known to have the world’s fastest Internet speeds and is unquestionably one of the world’s tech-savviest nations.

More than three-quarters of the 50 million people in South Korea use smartphones.  In comparison, the US’s smartphone users tops out at only 50.4 percent.

These are some of the worldwide tech issues I have found.  What tech issues have you seen that may be interesting for us to read.  Please tell us below!


Don’t miss out on the latest tech news and computer security alerts! Follow us on Twitter at @hyphenet,  “Like” us on Facebook or add us to your circle on Google+.


References:

India’s Tech Tax Complaints Deepen – Tech News World
http://www.technewsworld.com/story/Indias-Tech-Tax-Complaints-Deepen-79849.html

Large chunk of Chinese internet traffic redirected to small Wyoming building – The Sydney Morning Herald
http://www.smh.com.au/it-pro/security-it/large-chunk-of-chinese-internet-traffic-redirected-to…

Is Password Protection not a Big Deal to You?

Last year was a big year concerning password protection.  We saw Target and Adobe get hacked, a slue of malware on the internet, phishing scams all over social media sites and even our own personal emails filled with spam.

If password protection is still not a big deal to you, then you should think again.

You would think after seeing major corporations hacked and personal security being compromised, we would take more time creating passwords that aren’t so simple to crack.

The most commonly stolen passwords are still “123456″ and “password”.  This doesn’t only mean “123456″ and “password” is the easiest for cybercriminals to guess, but those are the most common passwords used by people!

“123456” is finally getting some time in the spotlight as the world’s worst password, after spending years in the shadow of “password.” – Splashdata Security Firm

Weaker passwords are much more susceptible to brute-force attacks.  Hackers first off attempt to access accounts through rapid guessing.





Even though common words and phrases are easier to remember, they are also easier for hackers to determine.  Some people tend to replace similar looking words with letters (like “3″ instead of “E”, or “0″ instead of “O”).  Although, it is good to put a variation of characters into your password, this is still not an effective strategy, at least for sensitive accounts.

There are many password management programs that can you can extremely benefit from.  Try LastPass, KeePass or SplashID.


These programs will maintain all your accounts and all you have to do is remember one master password.
Here is a full list of the worst passwords in 2013:

1. 123456
2. password
3. 12345678
4. qwerty
5. abc123
6. 123456789
7. 111111
8. 1234567
9. iloveyou
10. adobe123
11. 123123
12. admin
13. 1234567890
14. letmein
15. photoshop
16. 1234
17. monkey
18. shadow
19. sunshine
20. 12345
21. password1
22. princess
23. azerty
24. trustno1
25. 000000

If you have an account with any of these passwords, consider it a major fail.  Please change your password immediately.

As more people are doing their banking, bill paying, and buying items online, this problem is only getting worse.

How secure is your password protection?  Tell us what you think in the comment section below!

References:

The 25 worst passwords of 2013: ‘password’ gets dethroned – PC World
http://www.pcworld.com/article/2089244/the-25-worst-passwords-of-2013-password…

’123456′ assumes the ‘worst password of 2013′ throne – Fox News
http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2014/01/21/worst-password-2013-named/

Facebook helps scammers with the “like” shares

Images are appearing on Facebook and are helping out scammers with the “like” button shares.  It’s hard to not ‘like’ the image of the little girl that beat cancer or the Facebook super dad that is juggling his two daughters getting them ready for school.

These images are put out there to make these scammers cash.  Sometimes people in the photos don’t even realize their picture is circulating.

This image is from 2007 that has been shared thousands of times on Facebook. The girl’s family never gave permission for this photo to be circulated.

The photo above hit Facebook last year and popped up all over the world with messages of support.  The photo suggested to “Like” the photo if you care about the little girl.  Or “Share” to tell her she’s beautiful.

Facebook scammers use this farming technique to get people to feel guilty if they do not like or share the photo.  Sometimes the post says “ignore” if you don’t care, or “ignore” if you want her to die.

These tactics used for getting people emotionally involved, work.

Thousands of Facebook posts just like this are circulated everyday.

The Facebook Scamming Community

Amanda Rieth of Northampton, Pennsylvania said, “I was first shocked, and then infuriated,” when she found out about her daughters Facebook page post.

Her daughter was diagnosed with Stage IV neuroblastoma in 2007.  Reith’s daughter has been featured in local news segments for her fundraising efforts to be featured in segments for her fundraising efforts to fight cancer through Alex’s Lemonade Stand.

Amanda Rieth has always been a part of the decision to help publicize her daughters fight with cancer.  Never did she think this would happen.

Scammers do not care about at what cost these posts do to the people and families that fall victim to these farming scams.

When the page creators obtain thousands of likes and shares, they’ll strip the page and promote something else that they can get commission for selling.

Many sell the page through black-market websites to someone who will do the same.

This is a way to trick Facebook’s algorithm, it’s designed to give more value to public pages.  You will see scams and spam pages pop up overnight.

“The more likes and shares and comments and that sort of thing you have, the more likely it is to be seen by other people,” Senft said. “If they’re looking to sell the page in a black-hat forum somewhere, that’s what the value of the page is.”

 

The Facebook Scam Gets Worse

The “new” page is sometimes used to spread malware.  Malware is the software that is put onto a computer after it’s attacked for phishing.  This phishing tactic accesses credit card numbers, passwords, and other personal information through links to phony contests or charities.

This hurts many people and future posts, not to mention the reputation of Facebook.

There are Facebook farming posts the pertain to more than just sentimental people.

A recent page with a post that said, “Who loves French fries? Like & share if you do.”
Farming scams like this encourage foodies to get involved in the front.

If you come across these pages on your Facebook, pay no attention.  You may be helping the black-market and possibly falling for a phishing scam.

What “like-farming” scam have you come across?  Please share your experience with us below!

Follow us on Twitter at @hyphenet or “Like” us on Facebook to stay up-to-date on the latest tech news and PC security alerts.

References:
On Facebook, clicking ‘like’ can help scammers – CNN Tech
http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/21/tech/social-media/facebook-like-farming/index.html?hpt=te_t1

Facebook Scam: Samsung TV Giveaway

A new Facebook scam is out, this Facebook scam claims to be giving away a 40inch Samsung TV just by sharing and liking a promotional image.

The page is not real, and has no connection with Big W, the alleged company giving away the TV.
There are no prizes nor winners for this “prize”.

The bogus claim, is like a farming scam, designed to get likes and shares under false pretenses.
The genuine Big W Facebook Page has published a warning about the scam.

 

Facebook Scam Analysis

According to the Facebook Page, visitors can win one of fifteen 40inch Samsung Smart TV’s.  All the user has to do is like and share the Facebook promotional page.

The Page claims to give-a-way the prize “tomorrow night”.

Big W published the following warning about the scam on July 17, 2013 via its genuine Facebook Page:

HOAX BIG W FACEBOOK ACCOUNT: We have had reports of an account posing as BIG W which is claiming to give away free TVs. This is a scam, so make sure you don’t give any of your personal information should they get in touch with you.
Web safety is very important, so make sure you check that an account is authentic by clicking on the account name and checking out their page. The account in question was started two hours ago, which makes it an obvious impostor. Please let us know if you see any pages posing as us. Thanks guys!

These scams are like the Harvey Norman and Kmart Australia Facebook Pages.

The Facebook scams are created by altering the name of their targeted entity.  The Big W page’s logo has been stolen to target the company’s Page and to make them seem more of a legitimate offer.

These “Like-Farmers” avail to get the most likes to their pages in the shortest period of time.  By tricking people into sharing their material and making comments, the like-farmers promote their scam.








The higher number of likes can later be sole on the black market, and the re-branded object can be better suited for future scams.

Surveys and other personal information from participants are collected throughout this process as this functions as a platform for other types of fraudulent activity.

Like-Farming is now very common to Facebook pages.  Many like-farming Pages offer expensive prizes and pop up on the network everyday.

Companies get a lot of exposure if they offer something for “free” through Facebook likes and sharing of pages.

Be wary of any Facebook message that claims you can win an expensive prize just by liking or sharing a picture.


Follow us on Twitter at @hyphenet or “Like” us on Facebook to stay up-to-date on the latest tech news and PC security alerts.

References:
http://www.hoax-slayer.com/big-w-like-farming-scam.shtml