gHacks Technology News | Latest Tech News, Software And Tutorials » big-brother http://www.ghacks.net A technology news blog covering software, mobile phones, gadgets, security, the Internet and other relevant areas. Fri, 10 Feb 2012 20:51:26 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Apple Might Be Watching Youhttp://www.ghacks.net/2008/10/18/apple-might-be-watching-you/ http://www.ghacks.net/2008/10/18/apple-might-be-watching-you/#comments Sat, 18 Oct 2008 17:05:09 +0000 Martin Brinkmann http://www.ghacks.net/?p=7713 What is good customer service? Customers would usually state that good customer service means fast and effective solutions for difficulties with a product of a company. What about a company that actively monitors forums and initiates the contact with the customer?

That is apparently what has happened to Nicole Gorski (via Softpedia, thanks Dante) who stated on the official Apple support forum that she got a customer service call from Apple after posting about a problem she encountered with her MacBook Pro.

She confirmed in the thread that she did not contact Apple on this behalf and that they could only got the information about the problem from the forum thread. Another user weighted in that he found this behavior scary and (privacy) invasive.

To come back to the initial question: Do you think it is good customer service to monitor the official support forums actively and contact them without the customer’s consent? Good or scary, what is your take on the story?

]]> http://www.ghacks.net/2008/10/18/apple-might-be-watching-you/feed/ 6 Stop the Big Brother Statehttp://www.ghacks.net/2007/03/10/stop-the-big-brother-state/ http://www.ghacks.net/2007/03/10/stop-the-big-brother-state/#comments Sat, 10 Mar 2007 07:31:07 +0000 Martin Brinkmann http://www.ghacks.net/2007/03/10/stop-the-big-brother-state/ The Big Brother State is a short educational film created at the German university of Augsburg which tries to provide a different view of certain laws that are supposed to protect our freedom for the sake of our rights and privacy. Do we really need more observation at public places, trusted computing, biometric passports and network traffic monitoring. Who is able to tell that that no misuse will ever happen with the collected data ?

The movie uses animations and a dramatic voice to display possible consequences for everyone. Definitely worth to see.

I think Goethe put it nicely by saying “None are so hopelessly enslaved as those who falsely believe they are free.” All of these mechanisms provide a false sense of security. What good does it do if all network traffic is monitored when terrorists use encryption, one use computers, meet in person, meet in another country, send letters, use codes only they know ?

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