Meddling

It would’ve worked, too, if it weren’t for those meddling kids!

There are 617 posts filed in Meddling (this is page 34 of 62).

Sprinkler head cameras

Sprinkler head cameras from UNC-Charlotte


Yesterday I checked the State Surplus Property Office’s auction site, looking for audio equipment for Little Raleigh Radio. I didn’t find any audio gear but I did find something unusual up for bid: a lot of sprinkler head cameras put on the block by UNC Charlotte.

There’s no telling what these hidden cameras were used for. Were they used to catch employee embezzlement? Damage to property? Academic fraud taking place? Oh, sorry. Wrong UNC.

It’s my opinion that spy stuff like this usually gets sold when something better has been acquired. I wonder what form the newest generation of secret cameras takes at UNC-Charlotte.

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Did Facebook ignore my Facebook ad privacy setting?

Another aspect of being hacked by Mitt Romney has the potential to make me as furious as I was when it first happened. In essence, did Facebook ignore my privacy setting for Facebook “social ads?”

Back when Facebook announced that it would be putting the names of people in your friends list in the advertising it showed you, people howled in protest. I quickly decided I didn’t want to lend my face or name to any Facebook ad so I quickly adjusted my Social ad privacy settings to opt out of this program. Now I’m wondering if my name or face appeared in the Mitt Romney ad and, if so, how that could’ve happened with the way my settings were set.

I will ask the friends who saw me liking Mitt Romney whether my name appeared in an ad or if it was a notification on my timeline. Seeing how I’ve never found any entry on my timeline for liking Romney, I’m guessing Facebook violated my privacy settings.

Interestingly enough, at the time of this post I cannot get Facebook’s Social ad privacy settings page to come up. I’m sure it’s just a glitch, right?

Update 11 Oct 8:35 AM: My “social ads” settings page is still not coming up for me. Very odd.

Why Romney Facebook hacks aren’t from Facebook mobile


With Facebook’s speculation to Mother Jones that hundreds of its users have liked Mitt Romney’s Facebook page mistakenly through their mobile application, I decided to see just what happens when one likes a Facebook ad from the Facebook mobile app. This turned out to be much more difficult than it first seemed because Android apparently has no built-in screenshot capability. I spent over an hour installing and figuring out the Android SDK on my PC before I finally got to the point of taking screenshots.

Yes, it’s a lot of work but, dammit, I need to know.

I fired up the Facebook mobile app on my LG Optimus V phone running Android 2.2.2. Near the top of my news feed was an ad for Samsung (names blurred to protect the guilty!):

Holding my breath, I clicked on the Like button:
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Following up on Romney hacking with an expert


I saw that the Mother Jones reporter consulted security expert Bill Pennington on the Romney Facebook hacking. Like any good digital sleuth, I hunted down Pennington’s email address to see what he thought about the situation. Pennington works at White Hat Security as the Chief Strategy Officer.

This afternoon I sent him the following email:

Hi Bill,

I’m Mark Turner, a guy who was contacted by Mother Jones about the Mitt Romney Facebook hacking thing.

I wanted to be clear about my experience: I’ve worked in IT and network security for 20 years. I’m a sysadmin who maintains security on my corporate network. I’m the guy who keeps the others in the office from clicking on things they shouldn’t.

I use Privoxy ad-blocking software on my Linux desktops. I do not click on ads, ever. And I rarely if ever use Facebook’s mobile app because it sucks ass. Yet, somehow I became a fan of Mitt Romney without my knowledge.

Facebook’s Activity Log shows every one of the 400+ likes I’ve clicked on during the life of my Facebook account. It does NOT show me ever liking Mitt Romney. That’s the only Like that doesn’t show up. Even if I screwed up and clicked on something by mistake, I would expect there to be a record of it.

But there isn’t. That’s why I think something hacked my account from the inside.
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Antidoping Agency Details Doping Case Against Lance Armstrong – NYTimes.com

The USADA has released a report on Lance Armstrong’s doping case. After reading the summary here in the New York Times I find it virtually impossible to think that Armstrong wasn’t doping all along.

What a sorry outcome. I used to love watching cycling but now I’ll never trust it again.

The United States Anti-Doping Agency on Wednesday released details of its investigation of Lance Armstrong, calling it the most sophisticated doping program in recent sports history — a program in which it said Armstrong played a key role by doping, supplying doping products and demanding that his top teammates dope so he could be successful.

via Antidoping Agency Details Doping Case Against Lance Armstrong – NYTimes.com.

Mother Jones on Romney Facebook hacking


Last week I was contacted by Erika Eichelberger of Mother Jones magazine who was curious about my blog posts covering the Mitt Romney Facebook hacking issue. She was interested in talking to other victims, so I put her in touch with a few people on the Hacked By Mitt Romney page.

Her story ran this morning but it concluded a whole lot of nothing:

So we asked the social-networking company to do that. Facebook agreed, and had a team research the issue. They concluded that users are probably liking the Romney page on a mobile device by either accidentally clicking on a Romney ad or a “sponsored story” from the Romney campaign in their news feed. A Facebook spokesman, who wanted to remain anonymous, said the issue is unique to mobile because of the way the app works on small screens, and rejected the idea that the Romney camp was engaging in clickjacking. He added that the company is currently working to clean up its mobile interface.

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Here’s How Facebook Is Cracking Down On Fraudulent Likes – Business Insider

I posted earlier how Facebook would begin cracking down on fake Likes on their service. Somehow I missed this story on Business Insider that explains how Facebook is going about this.

This is worth a read, and as I pointed out earlier, the fact that Facebook has announced this effort is a tacit admission that Facebook hacking is possible.

Facebook announced that it will be making a concerted effort to crack down on removing Likes on brand Pages “that may have been gained by means that violate our Facebook Terms.”

Although a source familiar with Facebook told Business Insider that engineers have already begun the suspicious Like invalidation process, brand pages can expect to see an average decrease of approximately 1 percent of Likes accumulated by malware, compromised accounts, deceived users, or purchased bulk Likes.

via Here’s How Facebook Is Cracking Down On Fraudulent Likes – Business Insider.

Yet another Romney hacking victim speaks


Early this morning another Romney Facebook victim mentioned getting hacked by Mitt Romney. Like many others, she insists what happened to her is not a sponsored link nor is it anything she did herself.

Dora Maria Costa

They are not advertisements that are showing up on my wall, they are posts that match the posts on the Romney page, and when I went to his page, it said I liked it. They are posts, jut like posts that arrive on my wall of pages that I do actually like, or from friends. I did not go to the Romney page and “like” it! I get the ads and the wall posts showing that friends of mine “like” the Romney page. But, this is different. How did Romney FORCE me to like his page???

Daily Kos: Romney Facebook Fraud-Is this legal?


I’ve been searching the web on a regular basis for mentions of Mitt Romney and Facebook. For some reason I just found this mention of Romney Facebook hacking that was posted on Daily Kos by user MilleNeon back on August 18th – long before I got hacked by Romney myself. As far as I know it’s the earliest mention of this phenomenon on the Internet.

This is a short diary, because I just want someone to tell me how to get this to someplace where it can be reported, like Huff Post.

Looked on my FB page, and in the ad column I saw an ad that said three of my FB friends had “liked” Romney. One is a close friend, and she was appalled that her name was in the ad.

Someone told me companies are bundling FB “friends” and selling them. Is this legal?

I grabbed a screenshot of the ad. Does anyone know who I can send this to so this fraud can be publicized?

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