Google Street View - really a threat to national security?

I received the following press release this morning through Technology4Media:

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Google Street View Poses Threat To UK's National Security

Infosecurity Europe Says Google Street View Poses threat To UK's National Security.

The organisers of the Infosecurity Europe, Europe’s No. 1 information security event, say that they are expecting a storm of controversy to erupt over the introduction of the Google Street View facility in the UK.

"The introduction of this service in the UK, which has already attracted vociferous criticism in the US, is regarded by many as a voyeuristic intrusion of privacy. But the invasion of personal privacy is nothing compared to threat this service poses to the national security of the United Kingdom," said Tamar Beck, Group Event Director, Infosecurity Europe.

"I find it deeply disturbing that critical sites such as police stations and army facilities are accessible on the service, thus posing a serious threat to national security, since terrorists now have the electronic equivalent of a dummies' guide to 25 of the UK's major cities," she added.

According to Tamar Beck, whilst Google Maps' satellite view option has previously provided some degree of information to would-be terrorists on the Internet, the viewing angles are sufficiently limited to be of little use to a potential terrorist.

With Google Street View, she says, all the limitations go out of the window, giving terrorists instant - and anonymous - access to major UK cities on a street-by-street basis, where they can pick and choose terror targets from their training camps in Afghanistan, Iran and other volatile areas of the world.

It is to be hoped, she went on to say, that the UK Authorities take action to opt sites such as police stations and army barracks out of the Street View service, so as to make life more difficult for anyone involved with threats to UK national security.

"Not only is Street View a gross invasion of privacy, it's also a major threat to national security. This is something that will be a hot topic at next's months Infosecurity Europe event," she said.

"The world has changed immeasurably due to the Internet and not the changes it engenders are positive. The next few weeks and months could be crucial in the way the Google's UK Street View service evolves,"
she added.

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And in response I posted a comment on Twitter:

Is Google Street View a threat to UK national security? Just received a press release adamant that it is.

I was intrigued to see what other people's views were on this statement and it wasn't long before tweets came in:

@CatStormont More or less, the twitter could be a threat to national security - doesn't it show the movement/daily agenda of PM? :)

@CatStormont more so than leaving data on the train? Or having confidential documents in see through carriers? Pff!

It's true, how can Google compromise national security when the UK government very openly publicises the movements of the PM and other foreign dignitories. Recent tweets from DowningStreet demonstrate:

DowningStreet: No10 admin waits in car for PM and Nicolas Sarkozy to emerge and head to EU Council in Brussels. Stiff breeze, Tricolore flys full above us.

DowningStreet: The PM will deliver a speech on nuclear proliferation in London from around 11:00 GMT. Watch live via http://www.number10.gov.uk

I won't get into the matter of confidential documents being left on trains, or flash drives being "lost", or computers still holding data being removed from facilities, or more confidential documents being openly walked through the streets of the City in clear plastic wallets. But if anything, it appears the security of the UK was perhaps compromised long before Google Street View went live.

NB. Thank you to all who tweeted a reply. In the interest of security I have chosen not to publish your Twitter names.

Click Here

I saw this article on TechCrunch (Why Advertising Is Failing On The Internet) ping up in a tweet by @guyweston of @CoolPink and was intrigued. I fully intended on reading the article, honestly I did but I was drawn in by the banner ads on the right hand side. Ironic when you consider the title of the article!

With print advertising becoming more and more expensive, and with more and more people using the internet as an information resource, I am completely behind Internet advertising – as long as it is done well. And in this day and age where demonstrating ROI in extremely important you can’t just stick up a banner ad with masses of text and with a click through to your corporate homepage. The banner ads on the right hand side of the TechCrunch article effectively demonstrate how you need to direct and encourage the viewer to take action.

Click here
Learn more
Register now
Get this here
Go here now

Pschologically, we follow these types of instructions. We are so used in life to following directions on maps, from our SatNav, in buildings, at the supermarket, it is only natural that when we are told to “Click here” on a website we innately want to follow the instruction.

And when we “Click here” where do we go? Hopefully not to a non-specific home page. We want information, to sign up to something, to download something. Send us to a dedicated page. Take our details and populate your database. We’ve gone to the trouble to “Click here” so we obviously want something, we’re interested, you have our attention.

Your ROI for a web banner should be measurable from an increase in unique page impressions and leads captured from your landing page, whether that is from an enquiry form or specific subscription form.

SEO SPAMMERS - we hate them but can we learn from them?

I received the most informative, helpful and insightful email this morning from Tracey at clearpathtraffic.com, it read:

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We can put your site at the top of a search engines listings. If this is something you might be interested in, send me a reply with the web addresses you want to promote and the best way to contact you with some options.

Sincerely,

Tracy Phillips

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On searching for clearpathtraffic.com I was surprised to see that that the domain was unrecognised. How unfortunate – and stupid – to send out SPAM marketing and not have an operating website.

Please note the hint of sarcasm in this blog post.

Indeed on investigation, the only references on the web to clearpathtraffic.com was the following blog:

“Hey Jason Adams, Mike Lewis, Paula Reynolds of Keyword Placement Inc and Key Placement SEO - Please Stop Sending SPAM” – Jill Olkoski

And this server blacklist:
Legacy Mail


Check out the Cedar Hill Community blog to see the name iterations that Keyword Placement Inc, PowerPoint SEO, Placement Technologies, Placement Auditors have been using.

The thing that really annoys me about this is that, other than being spammed, these people are really really bad at what they are trying to do! But perhaps we can learn from them. Lets count some of their ridiculous mistakes:

1. The email I got had no contact details for clearpathtraffic.com. No registered company name and address and no legal disclaimer.

2. There was no personalization. The email just jumped right in there telling me what they could do, but with no mention of my name as the web administrator or of the company I work for, or even our web address.

3. They had done NO research other than data mining our email addresses. If they had they would have realized that, in fact we rank very well thank you very much within our niche market area.

So, whether you are a large corporation or a small business/one man band, do not get suckered in by these SEO twerps (yes, I used the word "twerp"). If you can’t verify who they are on the web how the heck are they going to “put your site at the top of a search engines listings”. If you want to improve your organic search rankings you can do it yourself, there is plenty of FREE advice out there on blogs and Twitter or you can learn what to do with support on a course like that by Business Marketing Online.

5 reasons for being un-followed

Wondering why you are losing Twitter followers? Ever posted something and seen your followers immediately start to drop off? Below are 5 common reason why people un-follow.

1. Tweet flooding – There are two types of tweet flooding that spring to mind here, number one being those who tweet every second of the day and number two, those who post all their tweets during their daily allotted hour for Twitter. Now, people one and two may be tweeting informative, useful stuff but if it makes it difficult for people to read their tweet stream, you’re high on the decapitation list. Take a break, step away from Twitter for a while if you tweet all the time or, if you only have a short time dedicated to Twitter, leave more time between tweets. It’s as simple as that.

2. Essay tweets – If you can’t say what you want to say in 140 characters you should be writing a blog. Try not to run over into several tweets – it’s called MICRO-blogging for a reason. @HenryFordNews can get away with this when tweeting live surgery but an essay broken into 8 tweets explaining why you shouldn’t have eaten that cookie requires a blog. Try blogspot.com.

3. @ Spam – Spam is a bit of an oxymoron on Twitter however @ Spam messages are those direct, intrusive messages such as “@CatStormont Why don’t you join our team and distribute our new health food? DM me for details.” It’s like junk mail through the letter box, or cold calls from insurance/market research companies. My answer to these? In the bin or hang up.

4. Irrelevancy – Know your community. If you’re posting about things that are irrelevant to your audience they’re going to drop out. It’s the sifting mechanism for most people on Twitter. I have one person I follow who insists on posting about lunch and dinner but because I like his cynical dark humour I haven’t un-followed @jasonfry. This is the only person I follow who tweets about his lunch though, I prefer tweets of substance and that engage me.

5. Playing the numbers game – People who are just concerned about numbers on Twitter and not conversation are no fun. Ever been followed by someone looking to be followed back, and then been un-followed yourself once they have their numbers bumped up? If you’ve been doing this and your starting to lose followers – you’ve been rumbled.

What is it that makes you un-follow someone on Twitter?

Issuing a retraction – I hate WordPress

At TFM&A I made a statement to @jakeisonline that I now wish to retract. It’s something I’ve been saying for over a year now due to a bad experience. Chatting to Jake, I mentioned that I found WordPress frustrating and I have been known to say around the office that in fact I hate WordPress. A pretty strong statement you’ll agree. However I am wrong. This weekend, after some education, I have learnt that I do not hate WordPress. In fact, I am starting to appreciate WordPress’ capabilities. It is however badly thought out and designed WordPress websites that I do indeed hate.

“Why?” you might ask, for I am hoping you are confused as to what horrible experience with WordPress should lead me to such a conclusion. Well in answer, I have been working with a website which has been built using WordPress CMS for almost a year now and have regularly felt like I was banging my head against a brick wall at the limitations to the design. As this was my first experience of WordPress I assumed, wrongly, that this was typical of WordPress in general. The templates, navigation and secondary navigation of this website felt fundamentally at odds, restrictive and clunky. Wanting to figure out how, or rather if, I could improve the general flow of this website and add additional functionality with WordPress plugins I showed the site to @danshilcock.

@danshilcock had shown me a site he had been working on, in WordPress, which made me think that there was something very wrong with the site I was working with. The simple logic of the navigation and page relationships that Dan was showing me was something I needed. Now WordPress seemed simple, intuitive, and based on sound logic. So what was wrong with my site?

Fundamentally, the site I was working with had not taken advantage of the intuitive nature of WordPress when it was built. The designers had hardcoded the navigation into the homepage template, as well as a box of secondary navigation as a list further down the page. The flexible use of categories and blog rolls within WordPress had been lost. If I want to increase the functionality of the website I am unable to fully utilise the WordPress CMS due to the restrictive design imposed upon the site from conception.

I don’t hate WordPress, I just wish the website I have taken on was designed in such a way that it could take advantage of what WordPress has to offer.

If any web developers out there want to get in touch about improving a WordPress site please feel free!

No pot of gold at the end of the rainbow

Ever since Tuesday March 3rd this subject has been blogged about and discussed effusively. So now it’s my turn to throw my own golden coin into the pot at the end of the rainbow. In a strike of momentary genius, the confectionary giant Skittles switched its homepage to a Twitter search feed for “Skittles” conversations. Genius!

Of course, it was only momentary. For the social media savvy Twitter community quickly realised that there were no Skittles or Mars representative’s behind the Twitter campaign, that Skittles was not contributing to the community conversation, and quite possibly that there were “paid for” Twitter users trying to boost the positive comments rolling into the feed. Negative comments spread like wild fire on Twitter and before they knew what was happening, Skittles found their feed riddled with negative comments, unrelated content and profanity.

It was the confectionary Gods versus the social media Gods, and we all know who won out. Skittles pulled the plug on the Twitter feed and instead the homepage now displays…. the Skittles Wikipeadia entry!

Although the whole exercise went horribly wrong for Skittles with no pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, they did get A LOT of people talking and A LOT of media buzz. I really hope Skittles learn from their first sour experience of social media, put some crisis management in place, and re-enter the community to rebuild the relationships that may have been damaged at their first outing on Twitter. At best I hope they hold their hands up and admit “Yup, we got it wrong.”

My child has over 900 "friends" - but does she know them?

I was at a party at the weekend with a group of my parents friends when Facebook came up in the conversation. Now I’m pretty impressed that my parents are on Facebook, though not particularly surprised that they are not active users. But the majority of parents at the party, although novice users of the site themselves, had children who were very active on Facebook.

As the conversation developed it was interesting to hear the difference in “friend” numbers between parents and their children, or more generally adults and those under 18. I was interested to hear that with sites like Facebook, Bebo and MySpace there are competitions between kids as to how many “friends” they have. The concern on the faces of the parents I was talking to was evident, how many of these 900+ “friends” did their child actually know?

Evidently, children rate their popularity these days by how many online “friends” they can link to on their social networking site, or sites, of choice. This desire to quantify their popularity in such a way encourages kids to accept friendship invitations from anyone who offers, opening up a whole host of issues (something too involved for this post).

Used appropriately, such sites as Facebook, Bebo and MySpace are perfectly safe for both adults and kids. But who is teaching our children how to use these sites appropriately?

As a result I ended up giving out some advice to the worried parents at the party:

1. If you are worried about your child’s use of social networking sites, sit down and talk to them.

2. Go through your child’s “friends” list with them and get them to tell you from where and how they know people. If they can’t give you an answer better than “a friend of a friend of a friend” then talk to your child about what they know about that person, and consider removing them from the list. Do they really have over 900 “real” friends?

3. Discuss with your child what is appropriate information to display and give out over the internet. As adults we generally recognise that we don’t post our address, phone number, passwords, and full itinerary etc over the internet but do our children know this? Has someone sat down and explained it to them?

4. If you are still worried, encourage your child to use the internet in a shared area of the house such as the lounge, study or kitchen. A lot of kids have their own laptops and mobiles these days from a young age (many of my Brownies that I look after do and they are only 7 years old) and hideaway in their bedrooms. Know what sites your child is visiting.

5. Reassure your child that they don’t need to have a huge number of online friends to be popular.

I’d love to hear people’s ideas on this subject as it is a topic I want to cover with my Brownies. Is anyone a parent who has successfully tackled this issue with their children? Do you have any additional advice to give to parents? How young is too young for children to be using social networking sites? Has anyone’s school discussed the use of the internet with children?