Image by alancleaver_2000 via Flickr

If you have ever wondered how “public” to be online and what’s safe when it comes to your security and privacy, I thought this article was well worth being aware of.  Very creepy stuff indeed going on.  I’ve reprinted the following article with Paul’s permission.  You can subscribe to his newsletter (which I highly recommend) here:
http://www.yisel.net/talkbiz

And if you found this article useful, please take a moment to post a comment and share with your network and pass it on!

“The Portable Voyeur”
===================

In the last issue, I put out the idea of looking at your
online networks and niches as “virtual neighborhoods.” Nothing
especially new in that concept, except that almost no-one in
the marketing field talks about them that way. That discussion
is mostly left to forum operators and social networking geeks.

In this issue, I want to talk about something closer to home.
Literally IN your home.

People spying on you using your own electronics.

Let’s start with the least intrusive, and work up to stuff you
may not believe is happening.

The last few are downright creepy.

….

There’s a thing called “IP geolocation,” which uses a database
of IPs (numbers locating your computer on the network) and
physical areas to show where a computer is located. There are a
bunch of these, and the accuracy can be anything from very
close to wildly off the mark. The good ones can narrow it down
to a few blocks, in most cases. Sometimes to a specific
building.

You can see this most often when you notice an ad on a site
that’s used by people all over the world, but mentions your
city by name. “[YourCity] mom discovers…” or “Man in
[Hometown] loses 47 pounds using…” That’s IP geolocation in
its mildest form.

Twitter has offered the option for a while to attach your IP
address  to a tweet, basically trying to tell people where you
are. You have to opt into that, though. It’s turned off by
default.

Facebook’s new “Places” settings options enable a more
advanced function by default. The idea is to make it easy for
your friends to know where you are. Unfortunately, it also
makes it easy for people you might not want to share your
location with to find you. Or know when you’re not home…

It’s easy to disable this option, if you know it’s there and
what it’s called. John Williams sent me a link to the
instructions. You can read those here:

http://lifehacker.com/5616395/how-to-disable-facebook-places

Why would this matter?

Well, maybe you don’t want your friends to know where you are
every minute that you’re online. Or maybe you don’t want
world+dog knowing when you’re not home. Or maybe you don’t want
your employer knowing you’re logging onto Facebook from work.
Or from the park when you called in sick.

Just how much info should be distributed about you
automatically?

But wait… There’s more!

….

There are applications on some portable devices and phones that
can transmit the data from a GPS system to other sites. This
can be used to pinpoint your exact address, and your location
to within a few feet.

That’s how the “Places” function on Facebook works. And, with
the default settings, your Facebook “friends” can “check you
in” if they’re with you. Handy, if you’re careful about who
your “friends” are, and who you allow to share the info. Given
the default settings, though, it’s an announcement to the world
every time you log in from a mobile device.

That can get into the realm of the dangerous. With it set to
“Friends of friends” able to view the info, you could be
broadcasting your location to burglars, stalkers, ex-
employees, your employer, or even just that annoying person
you’d rather not see right now.

Given recent comments from CEOs Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook -
“Privacy is dead”) and Eric Schmidt (Google – “If you have
something that you don´t want anyone to know, maybe you
shouldn’t be doing it in the first place”), there is every
reason to believe these services will be used as aggressively
as possible.

Both companies have said the comments were taken out of
context. That could be easily believed of Zuckerberg’s remark.
Schmidt’s is a bit less dismissable. None of that matters,
though, when you look at the way their firms actually treat
their users’ private data. Facebook set this option to “On” by
default. Google initially opted every Gmail user into their
social networking platform, Buzz, and created significant and
foreseeable problems for some users.

I’m pretty sure I don’t want those sorts of decisions made for
me without my knowledge or consent. How about you?

And it gets (potentially) much, much worse.

….

Apple has applied for a patent that has some deeply disturbing
implications: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/08/24-0

The summary: They want a patent on software that, in mobile
devices, would let them listen to your conversations and/or
take pictures of you or your surroundings, without any way for
you to know it’s happening. Just remotely activate those
functions, at their own discretion.

It would also let them monitor biometric data and all of your
online activities while using their devices.

Ostensibly, this would be developed for purposes of preventing
theft, or catching thieves. It’s even been suggested to me that
Apple may want the patent to keep the idea from being used by
others.

I don’t buy it. But that doesn’t really matter.

First, it’s nearly certain that, if this technology is
deployed and not made illegal for use by private citizens, it
will be abused. The theft-prevention rationale was offered, for
example, by the Lower Merion school district, in their program
giving laptops to every high-school student. “Only to enable
recovery in event of theft,” they said. That didn’t stop people
at the school from using it to spy on students in their homes.

Yeah. Really.

One kid was disciplined for “improper behavior” that occurred
at home, in his bedroom. The Vice-Principal used a photo taken
using the webcam in the laptop as his evidence. According to a
forensic analysis commissioned by the district, the school took
66,503 screenshots and photos using these systems. The school
admits these include pictures of the kids in their bedrooms.

If teachers will do that, what would a corporation do?

….

So, if you have one of these portable devices, where do you use
it? In what situations do you simply carry a cell phone, iPad
or other portable computing device? Do you want people able to
spy on you in all those places, at any time, without warning?

It’s been suggested to me that there is prior art that might
cause the USPTO to reject such a patent application, or be used
later to invalidate it if granted. That raises other
challenges. Specifically, anyone at all could include it in
their systems.

Google has a cell phone OS. Just how much do you want them to
add to their collection of data on you?

Then there’s the “social networking” phone, which is designed
specifically for use with Facebook and Twitter. Do you want
your kids to have one of those broadcasting their location to
the world at every moment the phone is on?

This isn’t science fiction, folks. We’re not getting into foil
fedora territory here. This stuff is real.

….

And then there are the outright criminals.

There is already malware code in the wild that lets remote
operators turn on the webcam on infected computers. That’s not
a big deal if you use a desktop machine and don’t keep one
connected, or disconnect it when you don’t intend to use it.

But what about the laptops and netbooks, and even some
monitors, that are sold with a camera and microphone installed
in the machine itself? The last two portables that I got have
them. Where do you, or your kids or employees, use laptops?

This isn’t especially difficult stuff to do. And the market
isn’t restricted to criminals. For instance, on the first
related search I did, I found someone asking how to remotely
activate the webcam on his wife’s laptop without her knowing.

Some of these devices come with GPS systems installed. Anyone
who can access those will know exactly where you are, what
you’re doing or discussing, and with whom.

Anyone want to market sound-proof phone carriers, with built-
in Faraday cages? A month ago, I would have considered that a
ridiculous idea. Now, I’m thinking it’s a niche.

….

Electronic security isn’t just about data protection any more,
folks. It’s gotten very personal, and it’s about to get more
so.

You can take steps to reduce your exposure to this kind of
invasion of privacy. First, make sure you have proper security
software on all your computers. That’s good policy anyway,
so that’s not too extreme.

With the social networking sites, it’s a matter of watching
your preferences. Also just common sense. And easy.

Don’t leave external webcams attached when they’re not in use,
if you have any objection to what you do in the same room with
them being seen by someone else. Using a USB hub makes
disconnecting them easy, and it’s a reasonable precaution, with
the amount of trojans running loose online.

With laptops and netbooks, just be aware that this stuff is
possible, and take whatever precautions you may feel are
appropriate. That might be nothing at all, for many of you. It
could mean turning the thing off when it’s not in active use.
Or putting tape over the camera lens. Or, if you have the need
or desire to be especially cautious, having a physical switch
installed to prevent remote activation of the camera or
microphone.

I can’t begin to guess what level of security will work for
you. Some people won’t consider it an issue at all, and they
may well be right. For them. For others, these are real
concerns. It’s getting very easy to install this kind of
monitoring code, and there are too many people with incentives
to do it. Employers, co-workers, competition, family members,
and various less savory types. Brings new meaning to the word
“spyware,” yes?

Make sure your kids are aware of the potential issues, too.

….

I’m told that law enforcement agencies have had the ability to
turn on cell phones remotely as listening devices for a while
now, with a proper warrant. I consider that a very different
thing than random strangers being able to access these kinds of
info at will.

As of this moment, I am not aware of this being a problem for
cell phones and similar portable devices. Just keep this in
mind, and pay attention for it.

Whether Apple gets that patent or not, it’s coming.

….

If it’s installed or used by any corporation, I have a
suggestion that seems appropriate: The top officers and all
members of the board(s) of directors should be required to
carry one of the devices with them at all times, with the audio
and video enabled 24/7, and streaming to the web for the whole
world to view.

Hey, if we don’t get to decide what we can keep private, why
should they?

….

The idea here isn’t to scare you, or create some sort of
conspiracy buzz. If that was the goal, I’d point you to an even
more extreme, and equally current, example of invasive
observation: http://talkbiz.com/r/iris.php

As you can see, this stuff is real. The technology exists right
now, and most of it is already in use. It may not pose much of
a threat to many of us, but it’s something to be aware of and
to watch out for.

Knowing it’s possible is 90% of the battle.

Be careful out there.

Paul

If you found this post useful:
1.  Subscribe to Paul’s newsletter:
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2. Post a comment retweet, email, or share on Facebook!

See you online! (Hopefully not without your permission.

Yisel

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Image via Wikipedia

This quote pretty much sums up how everybody should conduct their business.

“We can afford to lose money. We can afford to lose a lot of money. But we cannot afford to lose one shred of our reputation. Make sure everything you do can be reported on the front page of your local newspaper written by an unfriendly, but intelligent reporter.” – Warren Buffett

Image by bcymet via Flickr

Have you ever been asked, “I’ve got good news and bad news.  Which do you want to hear first?” I always answer bad news.  I like to get it out of the way and then end on a good note.

So…

I’ll start with that.

My blog got hacked into a few weeks ago.

It was automatically being forwarded to other sites in some sort of scheme to get clicks to ads.

Fortunately it wasn’t forwarded to a porn site.  Which I’ve heard sometimes hackers do for kicks.
(Sorry to disappoint  guys, not that type of newsletter. )

So that put a little damper on some content I had planned to roll out to you by now.

Not to fret though.

I noticed it in time and though there was some downtime not to mention a few expletives

“Those good-for-nothing &*$#$@#%^”…

(Well, I didn’t actually say it…but I thought it.)

Anyway, the point is I got it fixed.

Obviously the bad news is that it can happen to you too. 
And according to stats, it most likely will.

The good news…

You can learn from my experience and I’ll show you how
to prevent it.

Be on the lookout for a post on the subject in the near future.

But first, on another quite different topic…

With the launch of Google Buzz and some prominent marketers canceling their Twitter accounts, many people are asking, “Is Twitter dead?”

I’ll be posting tomorrow my take on it and what I think you should do.

For first notice make sure you register for my newsletter on the upper right.

As always leave me your feedback on the blog.  Would love to hear from you.

See ya soon. 

It would make sense to think that the more things you can get done in the least amount of time the more productive you would be.

Heck, if you can do many things at the same time even better, right?

Wrong!

Sure, I’ll admit that at one time it seemed that bouncing the baby on my lap, writing a blog post, listening to a teleseminar and starting dinner all at the same time were a great use of my time.  The more things I could possibly fit in at the same time became like a multi-tasking badge of honor that was somehow indicative of my super mom meets She-ra wannabe persona.

Of course, the burnt dinner, the crying baby, the unfinished blog post and not being able to recall one single thing from the coaching call told quite a different story.

So I’m gonna make it easy for you and sum up the truth about multi-tasking in ONE sentence.

Here it is…

Multi-tasking KILLS your productivity.

Instead of concentrating your efforts like the sun’s rays thorugh a magnifying glass,  multi-tasking spreads the beam of your focus so thin that it reduces to almost nill the effectiveness of what you do.

So instead of doing more things well, you do more things half-arse or not finish them at all.  Which we would all agree is a bad thing.

Instead of feeling confident about goals accomplished, you feel failure at the things still left on your To-Do list.

Instead of being clear about what you are doing at the moment, your thinking becomes muddled and hazy.  What’s even worse is that you develop a habit of erratic thinking that spreads to all areas of your life.

What did I do to overcome this?

I had to re-train my mind to focus.  You see, focus is a skill like painting, or hitting a baseball, or playing the guitar.  And like any skill it improves with practice.

If you can learn to focus on the task at hand,  wether its spending time with your kids, editing a video, writing an email to your subscribers, or simply enjoying a day off away from the computer you’ll be able to accomplish whatever you want.

Which is what being productive ultimately is.  It’s not about being busy for the sake of checking things off your list.

It’s about doing the things that will get you from where you are to what you want. Whatever that is for you.

So today I’m going to share with you two things you can do that will help build your “focus” muscle.

First, get and use a timer.

Using a timer is probably the single most important thing that helped me shoot my productivity through the roof.  You can use a stopwatch, your iPod, an online timer, an old-fashined handheld one, whatever you want as long as you can countdown in increments of time and it gives you some kind of alert when time is up.

Here’s how to use it. Decide what you are going to focus on and set your timer.  Do not work on anything else until the timer goes off.  Turn off the phone, skype, IM, Twitter, email, and any other distractions.

If you’ve never used a timer I suggest you start out with 15 minute increments.  As you get better on focusing you can increase to 30 then 45.  I wouldn’t recommend going past 60 minutes at the most unless you get obsessed with your work and are really hard-core like me.   You know if that is you.

But for most, stick to 30-45 minutes max.

When the timer goes off, take a break.  Physically change what you are doing.  Stand up and walk around, go to lunch, get a drink, whatever works for you to clear your mind.

After that, set the timer again and re-focus.  You can work on what you were working on if you didn’t finish or go on to something else.

After some time, something interesting will begin to happen.  You won’t need the timer.

Once you develop the habit of focus, you’ll be able to pull yourself in to that state as easily as putting on a pair of socks.  It just takes a little bit of time and practice. (Pardon the pun. )

I said I would share with you two things to help your productivity and focus, but this post is getting a little long so I will be posting a follow-up to this next week instead.

I’ll tell you about a great sweet little free tool I’ve been testing the past few months that helps you easily and effortlessly track how productive you are on the computer and also my absolutely favorite way to banish distractions in your business.  Probably not what you think.

Be on the lookout next week.

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There was something in the following video that Seth Godin said that is a paradigm shift on how we have marketed and been marketed to in the past, and how that no longer works in bringing about significant change and contribution to the world.

He goes on to list the qualities of leaders and entrepreneurs who challenge the status quo and bring about things others thought was not possible.

There were so many golden nuggets in this talk that I could write a whole blog post on almost every sentence. Leave me your thoughts and comments.

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Last week I sent a survey to my list asking them whether they wanted more, less, or the same amount of email from me.

I couldn’t believe the results of the survey!

I wasn’t sure what the results would be…

But here they are:

RESULTS

5.9% said "Yisel you’re sending me too many emails, please slow this train down to about an email once a month."

11.8% said "Yisel, keep things like they are, email me about once every other week and keep me posted with what you think will most help me."

82.4% said "Yes Yisel send me emails any time you have something on your mind – I want EVERYTHING!"

So, I guess I’ve got my work cut our for me to them the best.

Before I sent out the survey I thought the majority would want about the same amount of email from me.

LESSON

If you guess what you’re subscribers want, you’ll be wrong. If you really want to know what they want – ASK THEM!

I did also introduce the 5.9% that said I’m sending too many emails to the UNSUBSCRIBE button.

After all, if I’m not gonna serve them the way they want, it’s best we part our separate ways.

P.S. I also told my subscribers I was working something out for them that would REALLY REALLY help them with blogging, even if they didn’t have a blog yet.
I’ll be sending them an email on this tomorrow.

But, if you’d like to cut in front of everyone before tomorrow and see what it is – here is the link:
http://budurl.com/blognow

I was on Facebook and saw this ad on the sidebar.

I ‘especialy’ thought the line ‘represent your business profesionaly ‘ was a nice touch.

I could say so many things about this ad, but I better not.  Grandma might be reading.

I’ll just let you make your own conclusions…

I read an email the other day that referenced the most absurd article .

The End of American Capitalism?

Come on.

Sure, it’s no surprise that the media has been all gloom and doom when it comes to the economy.

The stock market just last year was at a 14,000+ high point and today is now at around 8000…almost 50% less!

Sure it’s sad that lots of people have lost their jobs and some have even seen more than half of their retirement washed away.

But let me explain why you shouldn’t panic.

See, most people are programmed to see the glass half empty.

So they miss out on the half that is FULL.  They fail to recognize the opportunities that abound and exist in these type of conditions.

Let’s take the stock market for example and a company like General Electric.

Last April 2008 it was worth $400 Billion.  Today?  $120 Billion.

So the person that sees the glass half empty will cry "Boo ha ha" and go hide his money under the mattress.

The person who see the glass half full will see OPPORTUNITY and go buy hundreds of companies at ridiculously low prices.

This is just one example.  Same thing is happening in real estate and lots of other places.

So, the end of American Capitalism you say?

Well I say boloney!

As long as entrepreneurs like you and me, continue to see opportunity and CREATE solutions for problems people are willing to pay money for – American Capitalism will continue to be alive and well.

The entrepreneur is the solution.  People willing to imagine and create products, services, or charities that make other peoples lives better.

It’s because of the american entrepreneur that I have hope.  Hope in me, hope in YOU, and hope in America.

Believe in yourself and what you are capable of doing.

I AM an entrepreneur,  are you?

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• “Quack, Quack”, said the duck.

Okay, this post is semi-serious semi-smart a#$ (kids in the room )

Here’s the serious part. Some of the most effective headlines have an element of curiosity and mystery. To do that, you trigger your readers’ "I’ve-got-to peak-in-your-medicine-cabinet-when-I-use-your-bathroom" type of nosiness. But whatever the fancy psychology, you simply want your reader to have to click because they have to find out what’s behind the door.

Plus some fun and outrageousness doesn’t hurt the cause and builds the "I like you factor."

Anyway, here’s the funny part. Inspiration can come from anywhere .

For example, check out these 10 best country break-up song titles from Q magazine:

1. I’ve been flushed from the bathroom of your heart
Johnny Cash

2. Here’s a quarter (call somebody who cares)
Travis Tritt

3. She’s acting single, I’m drinking doubles
Gary Stewart

4. My wife ran off with my best friend and I sure do miss him
Wayne Carter

5. You’re out doing what I’m here doing without
Gene Watson

6. Ive got tears in my ears (from lying on my back in bed while I cry over you)
Homer and Jethro

7. You’re the reason our kids are ugly
Loretta Lynn

8. Tequila makes her clothes fall off
Joe Nichols

9. She’s got the goldmine (I’ve got the shaft)
Jerry Reed

10. If drinking don’t kill me (her memory will)
George Jones

See what I mean? Hey, I told you this was semi -serious. Emphasis on the word semi .

So, which was your favorite? Leave your mark in the comments below.

P.S. Believe it or not, I’m actually working on a blog post about Facebook from one of the titles above. I’ll tweet about it when it’s done so make sure you are following me (Yisel Guajardo on twitter ).

Until next time…ciao.

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Last month I was honored to be a guest writer on Michelle MacPhearson's Social Marketing Blog.

I talked about the rush to acquire friends on social media sites and five ways you can be more likable.

You can read it here: The Social Marketing Friend Rush: 5 Ways To Be Likable On Social Media Sites