Android Security: Android Apps Collect Private User Data: Research. Collecting too much data ... Android. Photo: Bloomberg More than 100,000 applications available for download from Google's Play Store may be collecting too much data from users, a research firm says. About one-quarter of more than 400,000 applications studied are "suspicious" or "questionable" because of what they do in the background, such as location tracking, accessing contact lists or harvesting the contents of email messages, according a report issued yesterday by security firm Bit9.
Those functions typically go far beyond the programs' stated purpose, Bit9 said. Android phones warn users when they download applications about what information the programs will access. Some of the most aggressive apps are programs purporting to be affiliated with popular brands, such as Facebook and Zynga, Bit9 chief technology officer Harry Sverdlove wrote in an email interview. Advertisement App Privacy Mobile-app privacy has also attracted the attention of law enforcement. Bloomberg. Are Startup Founders Entrepreneurs or Poker Players?
In the U.S., small business (less than 250 employees) makes up nearly half the GDP and accounts for more than half the employment. But with the Great Recession, a number of these small businesses have gone bankrupt. The bets that entrepreneurs put on themselves came up short. But that’s why they are called “bets” — these entrepreneurs are knowingly exposing themselves to risk, and potentially, a great reward. But for many, the reward is less than they had hoped. This leads me to a key question: Are entrepreneurs strategic visionaries or gamblers? In my opinion, they are a little bit of both. While employees have a substantial bit of their focus on what their boss wants, an entrepreneur tries to predict (a.k.a., guess) what customers will want. Balancing the risk, and cost, of being wrong with the value created by being right is the game. The second skill required to be a successful entrepreneur is the ability to build a strong culture. Image Credit: maorix.
If You Build It, They Won’t Give a @#$% Welcome to the densest, most competitive information marketplace in history. Never before have people been so ready to send out more marketing messages. Never in history have people cared less. Just five seconds ago I was invited to yet another religious Facebook group for a religion I’m not even a part of. Gee, thanks. You already know this intuitively. Effective immediately, the reality of the new world is that if you build it, they won’t give a shit. 3 actual facts (that will actually help you) ONE. A) they have no idea how ideas succeed in the actual real world. B) they are lying to you and you are surrounded by the wrong people. If you actually think your idea is great (when it isn’t), the onus is on you. Is your idea competitive enough? ONE THING YOU CAN DO RIGHT NOW. TWO. This is different from the previous problem, where people may know you exist, but they don’t care, because your idea is horrible (by the way, there are only two kinds of ideas– horrible and great– nothing else).
How to Maintain Security When Employees Work Remotely. Thanks to significant advances in networking and mobile technologies, more people are working less and less from the office. Increasingly, we work from client locations, hotels, home offices and sometimes even from summertime beach cabanas. This unprecedented ability work from anywhere has enabled companies to keep the best employees, regardless of where they may live, and swelled the ranks of "virtual" companies, whose employees meet constantly online, but rarely in the flesh. But as computing infrastructures become more diffused and decentralized, keeping machines and data secure becomes more challenging.
All those far-flung devices can become infected with malware that may also infiltrate the company's network and make off with valuable company data. Mobile devices also are susceptible to data leaks because they can be lost or stolen, as well as more easily accessed by an outsider. Here are guidelines on how to tighten security, while leaving workers free to roam: A Software Entrepreneur On The Madness Of Software Patents and Trolls. I regularly get emails and have discussions with entrepreneurs who are on the receiving end of a software patent lawsuit.
Many of these are young companies, often with little or no revenue. It’s total, completely madness. If you don’t believe me, read the latest rant from a young entrepreneur on the receiving end of a software patent lawsuit from a troll. My startup, all five employees and $0 revenue, is being sued by a patent troll.
It is madness. Software patents are weapons of mass extortion. The trolls know that the cost of patent litigation is huge- millions of dollars for a thorough defense. And getting a patent is not that hard. And just like with illegal extortion, patent extortion causes real personal and economic pain: I wake up in the middle of the night with my hands clenched like lobster claws. It is romantic to fight but the trolls know that a startup’s number one job is to stay alive.
What we need is leadership.