I've Been Mugged

2.4 Million Customers Leave The Five Biggest Banks In The UK

2013-06-18T09:15:00-04:00

The Move Your Money campaign in the United Kingdom announced on June 12 that about 2.4 million customers have moved their accounts from the five largest banks to smaller and local banks: "The figures, based on quarterly market polling publically available, show a mass movement away from the big banking...

Q And A With NSA Surveillance Whistleblower

2013-06-17T13:36:00-04:00

If you haven't read it, this morning the Guardian UK newspaper website featured a question-and-answer session with the NSA surveillance whistleblower, Edward Snowden. Some highlights are below. I found the whole exchange highly informative. About rumored charges of treason reported in some media outlets, Snowden replied in the Q&A session:...

Blogger Claims Toddlers Killed More People Than Terrorists In The USA This Year

2013-06-12T13:30:00-04:00

This is not humor. At the Opposing Views website, blogger Stacie Borrello has started an interesting analysis. Borrello claimed: ""You you might be shocked to know that preschoolers with guns have taken more lives so far this year than the single U.S. terrorist attack, which claimed four lives in Boston."...

Research And Survey Results About Civil Liberties And Protection Against Terrorism

2013-06-10T17:15:00-04:00

Disclosures last week about secret programs by the U.S. government that spy on both citizens' telephones and Internet usage, have raise the question: is it necessary to give up civil liberties for protection against terrorism. Several pundits and politicians (from both parties) have been quick to defend the current administration's...

CBS News Explains More About Prism, the Secret NSA Data Collection Program

2013-06-07T11:00:00-04:00

The Guardian UK newspaper revealed on Wednesday some details about a secret spying operation by the NDA which collects Verizon user phone information. Thursday evening, CBS News discussed this and provided some additional details: "It culls metadata from Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, PalTalk, AOL, Skype, YouTube and Apple and will...

Guardian UK Reveals Court Order Allowing NSA To Spy On US Citizens

2013-06-06T11:30:00-04:00

Thanks to an I've Been Mugged reader for passing along this information. Yesterday, the Guardian UK newspaper reported about a secret order allowing the National Security Agency (NSA) to collect the telephone records of all Verizon customers in the USA, including calls both inside the USA and calls to locations...

Drupal CMS Data Breach

2013-06-05T11:15:00-04:00

In my consulting business, I work with a variety of content management software (CMS) brands to help companies improve the usability of their websites. So, this news item definitely caught my attention. Late last month, Drupal.org announced a data breach that may have exposed many users' names, email addresses, and...

Schnucks Files Paperwork To Move Class Action Lawsuit To Federal Court

2013-06-04T11:15:00-04:00

The Madison-St. Clair Record newspaper reported recently that Schunucks had filed legal paperwork to have a class action lawsuit filed in Illinois moved to a Federal court: "Schnucks late last week filed a notice to remove the suit that Laverne Rippy brought April 25 in St. Clair County Circuit Court...

Google Glass And Wearable Mobile Devices. Several Privacy Issues Emerge

2013-06-03T14:30:00-04:00

You have probably heard about Google Glass. It is the first of several wearable mobile devices expected. These devices are integrated into consumer's clothing. In the case of Google Glass, the mobile computing device is integrated, today, into a simple pair of eyeglasses. (in the future, perhaps sunglasses and prescription...

8 Tips About Cruise Ship Vacations And Cruise Ship Maintenance

2013-05-28T12:56:32-04:00

After fires this year on board Royal Caribbean cruise line's Grandeur Of the Seas cruise ship and Carnival cruise line's Triumph cruise ship, plus a 2012 fire onboard Costa cruise line's Allegra cruise ship, a reader asked what I thought about the cruise lines and cruise ship maintenance. These events...

Less Talking. More Doing

2013-05-27T11:00:00-04:00

Finally, the executives at Microsoft get some spines and begin to tell it like it is:

Dear Facebook Executives...

2013-05-26T13:58:00-04:00

Dear Facebook executives, I have greatly reduced the number of hours I watch television/cable because of too many advertisements. I can do the same with your service, too: