Teen arrested after inciting riots using BlackBerry Messenger

A teenage girl was arrested yesterday, charged with inciting riots via RIM’s favourite messaging service, BlackBerry Messenger. She is said to have sent a BBM message encouraging others from her home town of Clacton, Essex to copy the rioting and looting that was occuring in London, an offence under the Serious Crime Act 2007.

Earlier this week we reported that RIM promised to help in any way they could to aide in finding the people behind the riots. Does this mean that RIM has made their data available to the UK government? Yesterday the UK Prime Minister, David Cameron said that he would be in talks with RIM, Facebook and Twitter to look at ways they could prevent rioters and looters communicating through these services to organise criminal activities, stating “We are working with the police, the intelligence services and industry to look at whether it would be right to stop people communicating via these websites and services when we know they are plotting violence, disorder and criminality” It is the wish of the UK government to stop these services during periods of unrest. MP David Lammy of Tottenham, where the riots started, made his plea of shutting down the BBM service after the first night of riots, with a lot of other MP’s agreeing.

We’ve mentioned before that BlackBerry is very popular among teenagers, so it comes as little surprise that BBM would be used to communicate. But are the UK government right in requesting these services be stopped? And should RIM have given in to these demands?

Source: The Telegraph

Via:cb

Facebook stole every contact and phone number in your phone – here’s how to undo the damage

This may come as a shock considering how seriously Facebook takes your privacy, but if you’re a Facebook user with one of Facebook’s mobile applications installed on your iPhone or one of several other smartphones, you’ve been robbed. Each and every contact stored on your phone is probably now also stored on Facebook’s servers, as was re-re-rediscovered by Facebook users this past week. Whether or not people in your contact list even have Facebook accounts, their names and phone numbers are likely now in Facebook’s possession. There is probably a clause buried deep within Facebook’s terms and conditions that makes this invasion of your privacy OK on paper, but odds are still pretty good that it’s not OK with you. Complete instructions outlining how to remove all of your contacts’ phone numbers from your Facebook account can be found below. Whether or not the data will be completely wiped from Facebook’s servers is unclear, but we’ll leave that for the lawyers to figure out.

How to remove your private info from all background check sites

We live in a digital age where it seems nearly impossible to maintain your privacy. There are some measures that can be taken to limit your exposure, however. While numerous companies make money by collecting data from public records and selling it to people looking to perform quick and easy background checks, there are ways to stop these companies from tossing around your personal information willy nilly. Reddit user “pibbman” has compiled a list of all the major background check sites that hand out your data to anyone with a credit card, and he has included instructions and links on how to opt out of their services and have your information removed from each site. Of course, be sure to search your name before opting out of any service — you’ll be required to prove your identity to these companies in order to opt out, and there’s no reason to hand over your information if they don’t already have it. Pibbman notes that once you have your personal information removed from each of the major sites he lists, you should also disappear from smaller sites as they seem to pull in data from the “big boys.” Hit the break for the start of this how-to guide, and hit the read link for the rest.

How to remove yourself from each of these have been listed below. I would recommend that you scan some form of ID such as a state issued ID like a drivers license. Black out your picture and drivers number. Leaving your name, address and DOB visible. Any sites that requires such a thing will have an * after the address.

Intelius.com* – Opt-out

Acxiom.com – Opt-out

MyLife.com – To request that a Member Profile or Public Profile be deleted, please contact Customer Care at 1-888-704-1900 or contact us by email at privacy@mylife.com. Upon receipt of these requests, and confirmation that you are requesting that your own profile be removed, please allow MyLife 10 business days to complete this removal. It may be necessary to contact you to validate that you are the profile owner requesting the removal. This is to ensure the correct identity and profile ownership before completing these requests, and is for the protection of our users and their privacy.

Zabasearch.com* – Opt-out

Spokeo.com – Opt-out

BeenVerified.com – LawyerCT’s guide

Peekyou.com – Opt-Out

USSearch.com* – Opt-Out

PeopleFinders.com – Opt-Out: Annoying form you have to mail in

Continued on Reddit…

Read

BGR

Guardly Personal Safety App Coming to BlackBerry Next Week

Guardly CEO Josh Sookman demos the app for iPhone.Guardly will be launching its mobile personal safety app for BlackBerry next week. The app turns a BlackBerry into a next-generation mobile personal safety service and has been available for iPhone since April. The app is geared towards students, young professionals, travelers, seniors living alone, or anyone who frequently walks alone at night, and people who may find themselves in abusive relationships or faced with medical conditions. Friends and family can also use Guardly to watch over each other during natural disasters such as earthquakes, hurricanes, fires, floods and tornadoes.

The app provides 1-tap connection to a trusted safety network via conference call, email, text message, the web and real-time location tracking. Guardly can even auto-dial 911, campus security or other first responders as part of the alert. The app includes a free basic alerting service and a premium version that includes powerful collaboration features.

Interestingly, the founder and CEO, Josh Sookman, is ex-BlackBerry Partners Fund so he clearly knows how to raise money for the startup.

Stay tuned to guardly.com for the app announcement.

via: bbcool

Nigerians victim of tsunami warning hoax broadcast via BBM

 

Nigeria is getting a bad name when it comes to email, and now that reputation is spreading to BlackBerry Messenger as well, in the form of broadcast messages. Earlier this year, a broadcast BBM message was sent out informing BlackBerry users that Nelson Mandela had died. This turned out to be a hoax. Yesterday a more serious and frightening message was broadcast.

Just got this now, 16:40 today 14/07/11 on Al-Jazeera network…..Lord help us! NASA reports tsunami alert on the west African coast (gulf of guinea) following a quake offshore Malabo (equatorial guinea). 20 meter high tides reported heading towards the coast of Lagos, Lome and Accra.

Needless to say, sending out false reports such as this is not funny, and in fact caused a lot of panic for people. Expert meteorologists determined that there is no tsunami or earthquake, and that the message is a hoax.

I don’t know a single person that actually likes getting a broadcast BBM, and to get ones that are clearly spam, hoaxes, or plain false information is even worse. Every couple of weeks new threads pop up in the forums from people who have received fake broadcast BBMs supposedly from RIM saying their BBM is about to be deactivated. These messages are simply not true, and pointless. Make sure before you spread a BBM to all your friends, you check the validity of it, and if you’re tempted to send a broadcast BBM to all of your contacts, you may want to consider any implications arising if they forward it to their contacts, and they forward to theirs, and so on.

Source: IQ4News

via: CB

 

Lost Device and Backup Service Head-to-Head: SmrtGuard Versus BlackBerry Protect

When RIM announced BlackBerry Protect, the first thing on our mind was “what will that do to SmrtGuard?”. SmrtGuard has been providing BlackBerry users with a similar service for a long time before RIM decided they wanted to eat their lunch and now that the Protect app is out of Beta, it’s a good time to compare the two apps/services. Protect is a great move on RIM’s part because it offers a great backup/lost device service for free, which adds a lot of value to the whole platform. SmrtGuard also has a free version, allowing users to dip their feet in the SmrtGuard pool before taking the plunge to the full featured version. So which offers more value?

RIM Pulls DUI Checkpoint App

BlackBerry users no longer will be able to pinpoint police drunken-driving checkpoints.

Following a request Tuesday from four Democratic senators, Ontario, Canada-based Research In Motion, maker of the BlackBerry, has agreed to pull from its online store downloadable applications that allow its operating systems to identify the locations of local police DUI checkpoints.

Sens. Harry Reid of Nevada, Charles Schumer of New York, Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey and Tom Udall of New Mexico asked RIM, Apple and Google to disable or stop selling the apps for BlackBerry, iPhone and iPad, and Android devices.

USA TODAY reported Monday on the growing popularity of apps that identify law enforcement tools such as DUI checkpoints, speed traps and red-light cameras through user-submitted information that connects with GPS data.

 

Research In Motion did not respond to a request for further comment. The senators said RIM thanked them “for bringing the issue to the company’s attention and said that they would comply with the senators’ request to remove the applications, likely within the day.”

The senators praised RIM and urged Apple and Google to follow RIM’s lead. Cupertino, Calif.-based Apple, maker of the iPhone and iPad, and Mountain View, Calif.-based Google, which makes the Android, did not respond to requests for comment.

“Drunk drivers will soon have one less tool to evade law enforcement and endanger our friends and families,” the senators said in a joint statement Wednesday. “We appreciate RIM’s immediate reply and urge the other smartphone makers to quickly follow suit.”

The senators’ letter, which did not name any apps, said that one of them contains a database of DUI checkpoints updated in real time. Another allows users to notify other drivers of such crackdowns in real time and has more than 10 million users.

The senators didn’t raise any concerns about the apps’ other features.

In announcing the agreement with RIM, the senators cited statistics showing that someone dies every 50 minutes in a drunken-driving crash.

About 30% of all traffic fatalities in 2009, the most recent year for which statistics are available, involved drunken driving, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. That year, drunken-driving deaths fell 7.4% from a year earlier to 10,839, out of a total of 33,808 fatalities, NHTSA says.

Costs of the apps vary. Some are free. One offers subscriptions that range from $9.99 a month to $99.99 for a lifetime subscription.

 

RIM advises disabling JavaScript in your BlackBerry browser after exploit discovered

In light of the exploit found during the most recent Pwn2Own convention Research in Motion has introduced a new article to the RIM knowledge base advising users of OS 6 capable devices on how to avoid having their BlackBerry browser exploited. While the potential for someone actually attempting the exploit still remains small, the fact the information is out there is reason enough to protect yourself against it.

RIM KB26132 is the article in place to prevent the exploit from running on your device — the process is simple really. Just disable JavaScript for the browser while RIM works on hotfix for it. As noted, if you are a BlackBerry Enterprise Server administrator, you can turn off JavaScript support using the Disable JavaScript in Browser IT policy rule. Just remember, in doing this you’ll end up having a less than optimal browsing experience. If you’re not running BlackBerry 6 this is not needed.

 

via: cb

Iowa Law Enforcement Officers Handing Out “TXTING KILLS” Thumb Bands

In an effort to increase awareness around the the dangers of of Texting while driving, some Iowa law enforcement officers are handing out thumb bands that read “TXTING KILLS“.   The bands are part of a statewide campaign to raise awareness about the dangers of texting while driving under a new law prohibiting the practice that took effect July 1.

Police are permitted  to give warnings for the first year of the Texting while driving ban and hope that the TXTING KILLS thumb bans will catch on with the current fad of rubberized bracelets reminding Texters that they shouldn’t be texting while driving.

The state ordered 30,000 of the bands and plans to order another 30,000. State employees have been distributing them at events such as the Iowa State Fair, high-school football games and the Iowa-Iowa State college football game.

“A lot of people want them for their kids,” Ms. Greene said. “It’s a fun way to get across a serious message about not texting and driving.”

[Via WSJ]