Blizzard’s Snow Job: Security About As Tight As Parental Controls

Nov. 14, 2012 Call it karma, payback, or just ‘got caught,’ the class action lawsuit against Blizzard Entertainment (makers of mega-hits like Diablo, World of Warcraft, Starcraft etc) is really about gamers tired of being played.Anyone who thinks youth and gamers “don’t care” about privacy and security might want to watch closely as this media mess unfolds, because it’s an … [Read more...]

Life 360: Family Locator Apps-Mapping the Shades of Grey (Part 1)

Oct. 15, 2012  Teens call them ‘trackers,’ parents call them ‘tools,’ and the telecom industry refers to GPS and LBS (location based services) as sheer “growth” in a mobile market that’s booming with map-based apps that pinpoint the whereabouts of users. We need to uncork this whopper of a conversation beyond the micro (oooh, handy! or ewww creepy!) and into macro … [Read more...]

Safety Expert Uses Media Literacy to Deconstruct McAfee Study

July 2, 2010 When I first saw this  note in my social media stream it raised my media literacy eyebrows to explore further. It said, “Interesting: McAfee has a very diff take on their own study  than does CNET's Larry Magid." First thing that popped into my brain was, “That's NOT surprising, research is only relevant when one can deconstruct the background of who’s doing … [Read more...]

Harvesting Kids’ Eyeballs; Free Mobile For Ad Views: Blyk!

“What do young people want in mobile? Text. Voice. Alarm clock,” Antti à–hrling, the co-founder of Blyk, mused… What else? Free. And man, do kids want free... Blyk, (pronounced 'blick', YouTube video here) offers 217 texts and 43 minutes free to 16-24 year olds in Europe...The quid pro quo trade-off of minutes for marketing? Try a 29% … [Read more...]