Showing posts with label Apple. Show all posts

Copyright Hoaxes down at Facebook... And the Google/Apple War Rages On...


So Cybergirl logs onto the FB this week (as per usual) and what does she find? A slew of the following posts…

In response to the new Facebook guidelines I hereby declare that my copyright is attached to all of my personal details, illustrations, comics, paintings, professional photos and videos, etc. (as a result of the Berner Convention).
For commercial use of the above, my written consent is needed at all times!
(Anyone reading this can copy this text and paste it on their Facebook Wall. This will place them under protection of copyright laws.) By the present communiqué, I notify Facebook that it is strictly forbidden to disclose, copy, distribute, disseminate, or take any other action against me on the basis of this profile and/or its contents. The aforementioned prohibited actions also apply to employees, students, agents and/or any staff under Facebook's direction or control. The content of this profile is private and confidential information. The violation of my privacy is punished by law (UCC 1 1-308-308 1-103 and the Rome Statute).

Facebook is now an open capital entity. All members are recommended to publish a notice like this, or if you prefer, you may copy and paste this version. If you do not publish a statement at least once, you will be tacitly allowing the use of elements such as your photos as well as the information contained in your profile status updates...

Everyone is manically posting and reposting – but what is this scaremongering all about? Is it really possible for third parties and FB itself to use all of our personal information, our images, our data since FB birth - are we seriously at risk? Prayed on by a dark, three headed monster intent on consuming our digital presence and reproducing it in the form of publicity fodder for all manner of nefarious publications? (Cue scary music) – well it turned out there was no need to panic – the –‘copyright’ doctrine was a well thought out hoax that took the majority of Fb users hook, line and sinker and offered some sweet, green ‘I told you so’ moment to the ones who managed to work it out ahead of time.

Cybergirl particularly enjoyed the following post from a fellow FB user:

In response to new blah blah blah I blah my blah blah blah in occurrence from blah notwithstanding blah blah blah blah blah tremendous self importance blah. Blah blah blah blah Roswell blah. Blah blah blah. Blah copyright blah blah blah I AM IMPORTANT AND BEAUTIFUL blah. Blah. Blah! Blah? Blah blah blah too much blah spare blah time blah blah they will come for our blah children. Blah.Officially blah only to refer to blah within the confines of blah and private. Blah blah. Secret blah blah insecurity blah image. BLAH!

So what is the moral of the story? Generally, anything that is filled with legal jargon, related to Facebook and its infringement of human/copy ‘rights’ and allows the reader merely by posting, a lifetime protection from the aforementioned risk – is generally too good to be true. Anything, and I mean anything you post on FB – treat it as officially in the public domain… Because in all but name – it is. See a friend who recently vied for a job at Google and won – what did he post? The slightly uncryptic ‘Larry said yes’ – the young man in question also had something to say about Apple which readers of this blog might enjoy:

‘Bad Apple’ - accompanied by the following photo…



Cue the following comment from the user’s friend:

"Yes...good time to be a Google analyst rather than Apple one huh??"

Hmmm, my sentiments exactly.

And just to finish - here's another image Cybergirl particularly enjoyed...


And just for posterity - here's another...



Tax Avoidance, Soho House and the Death of ITunes?




So for those of you following this blog – Cybergirl has been banging on week in, week out about the shady tax shenanigans of high profile brands such as Google, Facebook and Apple to name but a few – brand who clearly believe that tax avoidance is akin to filing a dodgy taxi receipt on expenses or waiving the service in a restaurant. ‘Tax avoidance is legal’ is the catchphrase du jour, from politicians and brands alike.

But I ask you, is it legal for the millions of ordinary citizens who file self assessment forms every year come January 31st? How would Apple feel if their employees started filing expenses to the tune of £200 million? Or if their customers started paying £2 instead of the £270 for an IPad Mini?

Margaret Hodge, Labour chairman of the public accounts committee said, ‘We’re not accusing you of being illegal, we’re accusing you of being immoral,’ – why not? Why on earth is this kind of corporate behavior not illegal? Why when British citizens are expected to adhere to the authority of HMRC, are companies that rake in millions in profits exempt? Google has admitted structuring its affairs to reduce liability, well if it’s good enough for them – it’s good enough for us. That wad of blank taxi receipts Cybergirl found abandoned in the back of a black cab recently – they’ll be filed imminently – it’s ‘legal’ don’t you know...

On another note Cybergirl spent the weekend at a very exclusive private members club/hotel in the heart of the Somerset countryside, this uber exclusive hang out (and preserve of the rich and famous) is well known for banning mobile phones within its hallowed walls, but now seems to have taken the ethos one step further with a cyberwall that blocks all Facebook chatter. No matter how hard Cybergirl tried, no status updates, photos or location services would penetrate the barrier imposed on this very private garden of Eden. Top marks for privacy to the Soho House Empire...

Thirdly – (yes two points are never quite enough) Spotify – is it the death of ITunes? How on earth did Apple think they could get away with ‘leasing’ material to the millions of people dependent on ITunes software when Spotify; previously the underdog, were offering an almost identical service – the only difference being that with ITunes (and for an exorbitant price) the music is leased for life... Hmmmm - Leased for life or leased by the month – sorry what’s the difference?

Finally (yes this is the week of gripes) what on earth is wrong with Apple’s Mail? The search facility is terrible... Cybergirl can never ever find the requisite email without logging on via Google or another mail client. Googlers have got the hang of searching email – how can Apple be so far behind? Here’s an idea – how about Google lease the technology to Apple? Then all the dominoes would be neatly lined up in a row – now there’s something to think about. Right, rant over.

Google, Apple and Facebook; all in the naughty corner...




Well what a week it's been. I have to say ladies and gents there are times when I struggle to think of what to write about and then there are times when there's such a deluge of web related shenanigans I hardly know what to do with myself...

So it's been a few weeks since I talked about Apple; I came, I saw, I ranted, and then I finally moved onto another subject. But in the last few days, the technology giants, have, once again hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons. Apparently it wasn't enough to park 74 billion US dollars offshore, losing the US economy 17 billion dollars just at the time when it was most needed. No, no, Apple are now following the same business model on the shores of our beloved British Isles; using Ireland as the tax haven to end all tax havens and losing HMRC £570 million of taxable income in the process. How? Apparently this is all 'legal' (Ireland has a significantly lower rate of corporation tax, don’t you know), whether it’s ethical is another question...

Sadly Facebook and Google are following suite, (I know, I know – I lauded Google in particular in last week’s column, I hang my head in shame). Is it a wonder then that Google’s share price dropped yesterday by 20%? Is it really due to a drop in advertising (people waking up to click fraud – perchance?). The timing may have been a blunder (a printing company employed by the search engine mistakenly let a press release out of the bag; no doubt there are some knuckles being rapped down at that company). Facebook in particular paid only £238,000 of corporation tax last year in the UK on estimated revenues of £175 million. Hmph, is all I have to say about that.  Oh and one post-script; if these technology giants just paid their taxes in full like the good honest citizens they target, their profits might just be even higher than present; for companies motivated by greed, that’s got to be an incentive...

________________

On another note – yes there are always several... This week brought to light an ingenious new app (soon to be released to IPhone users and already available on Android); say hello to Cate; the app that allows you to create a secret log of calls and text messages, perfect for keeping prying eyes away from the sensitive data on your smartphone. Now I know it might initially seem like a James Bond Gizmo at the service of adulterous husbands and wives worldwide, but there is an alternative use that might be more useful; privacy (for individuals and government organisations). In the age where sites scour the web aggregating information from a plethora of sources, privacy is starting to look quite attractive. Which brings me to my third and final point:

What on earth is going on across the web? Sites such as Pipl, Peepl, Zoominfo and the French version; Yatedo are crawling the Internet and aggregating free information on everyone on the planet and then creating a profile based on whatever they can find. Since some of this material is old cached pages you’ve tried your darnest to erase, this can prove quite frustrating to say the least. Google yourself now, to see if you’ve fallen pray to the grave diggers of the web – and if so, take action accordingly, by requesting for the profile to be removed, and then contacting Google to have the cached page wiped at webmaster tools.

 And remember – the power of the dollar vote; it's quite literally all we have.

This is Cybergirl, signing off.

TAX WELL SPENT - The Young Entrepreneurs Festival, Digital LIfe Design and more...



Well what a week it's been; Cybergirl had the unutterable joy of accompanying the GWG's editor Alice Kahrmann to the first day of Tech City's Young Entrepreneur's Festival - the three day event was a joyous example of what can be achieved when our tax pennies are well invested; in this case by The Department of Trade and Industry. The sheer elation of seeing over forty of the UK's brightest young minds pitch their way to success (and significant investment) gave Cybergirl a real glow of pride… Log onto The GWG next week for a full report, complete with interviews with both mentors and young entrepreneurs, both full of earth shattering business acumen.




With regards to Cybergirl's activities this week - I'm more than a little excited to be attending the Digital Life Design Cities Conference. Today's event will bring together some of the greatest entrepreneurs and digital minds from across the globe to discuss the issue of 'sustainable urbanisation'  and how to build 'smarter cities for a better future.' Esteemed speakers include: 

Jürgen Mayer, Founder of J. Mayer Architects, Kostas Mallios, Vice President, Intellectual Ventures, Pedro Miranda, Head of Global City Centre of Competence, Siemens, Felix Petersen, Founder & CEO, Amen, Carlo Ratti, Director Senseable City Lab, Juliana Rotich, Co-Founder, Ushahidi, Saskia Sassen, Sociologist, Colombia Universtity, Ole Scheeren, Architect, Ludwig Siegele, Editor, Economist, Rohan Silva, Digital Advisor to the Prime Minister UK, Yossi Vardi, Serial Entrepreneur, DLD Co-Chairman,Clemens Weisshaar, Co-Founder, Kram Weisshaar, amongst many others...

It will be nothing if not a fascinating insight into the evolution of our digital landscape...

On another note this week offered the casual cyberstalker a hilarious example of social networking gone wrong; earlier this year oil giant Shell felt the wrath of a social media campaign gone topsy turvy when it fell pray to a fake website masterminded by Greenpeace; the site offered photographs of nature affected by the detrimental effects of oil spillages (birds covered in oil, melancholic looking polar bears etc) and offered a forum on which visitors to the site could post comments on each photo. Fast forward a few months and supermarket giant Waitrose wades into similar territory with a Twitter stunt that backfires spectacularly - this week the company asked customers to tweet the answer to the following question; 'I shop at Waitrose because…' Here are two of the answers; 'because I don't like being surrounded by poor people' and 'because darling Harrods is just too much of a trek mid week.' Hilarious and another brilliant sign of the subversive freedom given to the public via the juggernaut that is social media. Needless to say the offending question were swiftly deleted.

Now no Cybergirl blog would be complete without a weekly comment on, yes - you guessed it Apple. And I'd hate to let you down on that front so for this week I'm going to divert from previous diatribes and instead offer you a a little anecdote that's fallen straight from the Apple tree; let's call it 'Freebies in Store' - consider it my gift to celebrate the launch of the IPhone 5, which has in one short week accrued two million pre-orders. I'll hold back from commenting on that little statistic - of you want my opinion on the IPhone 5 debacle just read last week's post.

So here goes 'FREEBIES IN STORE'; a very dear friend of mine goes into the Regents Street store with her IPhone 4s complete with a shattered back. She looks a little dishevelled having pulled a work all nighter and neglects to do her make up, or brush her hair. She asks how much it costs to fix? '£150' replies the well trained Apple attendant. My friend  (let's call her Milly) gasps in shock; she's a successful young professional but even this seems a bit steep (well it would do - check out the cost of a new back on EBay - ok, ok I know they might not be real but they're identical!!!). On the verge of tears, Milly accepts the fee - gets her handset fixed and goes to the till to pay, at which point the attendant looks her squarely in the eye and says "that's all taken care of now" Milly stands there flummoxed. She opens her mouth to speak and the attendant looks her squarely in the eye and again says "that's all taken care of now." 

Milly is baffled; no cards have been exchanged, no cash handed over, but with people all around and the assistant's beady eye staring blankly at her, Milly backs away. The assistant keeps smiling and turns her attention to another customer. Milly walks out happy as Larry recounting the story to all and sundry. So what to make of this anecdote; a cynical marketing ploy or the kindness of a rogue Apple employee? Hmmmm - well as I'm pretty sure every single item of stock is tagged, logged and scanned to within an inch of its life - it would seem to me a very clever case of silent marketing. Give away a few freebies and see those altruistic rumours start spreading. Ok I know I'm the cynic in this equation, but it's clever ploys like this that detract consumers from the bigger issues at stake - the ethics of a company with a monopoly over the tablet, computer and smartphone market and two million pre orders of the IPhone 5. But I have to say the handset I keep seeing over and over on the street, on buses and most of all on the tube isn't an IPhone - guess what, it's a Samsung Galaxy S III.

September 2012.
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