AS HEARD ON: WGAN Mornings with Ken and Matt: Privacy, Monitoring, Kids and Screen time, and AG Barr vs Apple Encryption and more

Good morning everybody!

I was on with Ken and Matt. We had a good discussion about Privacy and Monitoring then we got into Kids and Smartphones and a study that says the issues are not as bad as we have been led to believe. Then it was onto the FBI and AG Barr vs Apple Encryption. So here we go with Ken and Matt.

These and more tech tips, news, and updates visit - CraigPeterson.com

---

Automated Machine Generated Transcript:

Craig
If you have a company phone, monitoring of it is likely because the company doesn't want it to be lost, and if it is, they want to be able to recover it. They want to keep their data safe, all reasonable things. But many companies are now tracking you when you are going outsourcing go to the coffee shop. Hello, everybody. Great Dieter song here. Glad you joined me. A lot of news in tech this week. You got to make sure you catch my show this weekend. We're going to get into smishing a lot more. We're going to be talking about some new research out there about this company that just came out of real secrecy that is ending our privacy. We're going to be talking about a significant change over in Marriott where they're trying to compete like so many brick and mortar businesses with the online world. So what is Marriott doing to compete? I don't think you'd get much more brick and mortar than when it comes to hotels and resorts that they own all over the world. All of that will be coming up this weekend. Make sure you subscribe to my podcast so that you get all of this and more. And let's get off to this morning's conversation with Ken and Matt up in Maine.

Ken
Welcome to the program, sir. As usual. Yeah. Cold weather. Well, we do live in New England. So you know, it's going to warm up before the snowstorm on Saturday.

Craig
I lived halfway out in Canada halfway up to the Arctic Circle, and more than halfway actually. And I remember days when the air temperature high was 2030 below zero. And so this isn't so bad. But you know, as you get older, you just don't tolerate it as well, I think.

Ken
So. You know, I'm looking at your website, which is collectivism.com. You have some exciting topics today, for example, chat. Let me see which ones do we care about? How about somebody named Chet, what do we care about Chet when we're mad and Ken?

Matt
That's true. It kind of sounds like an older man. Chet was a name from
a long time ago. It's true.

Craig 2:10
Yeah. A long time ago. I love this article from the Wall Street Journal. They've got a very, very cool illustration on it, where Chet wakes up in the morning, and he goes in and gets his coffee and does things throughout the day. And what the Wall Street Journal is showing is this fictional worker named Chet, as he's going through the day, his employer is tracking his activities. So for instance, when you get up in the morning, most people the first thing they do in the morning and the last thing they do at night is to check their email. Well, if you're checking your email, the business knows Hey, Chet, just checked his email at 635 in the morning, and then if you have a company phone, that phone is probably tracked as a company doesn't want it to be lost. I want to be able to recover it. They want to keep their data safe, all reasonable things. But many companies are now tracking you when you are going out. So say go to the coffee shop. And the local coffee shop has free Wi-Fi. And your phone connects to that free Wi-Fi network. While the business probably has a setup, so it makes a VPN call into them. They've got the GPS coordinates of your location. As you're walking around the office, your phone has Bluetooth on it, and it has Wi-Fi on it. And all of that can be tracked. The big-box retailers are pretty much all tracking us by our cell phones because we connect to their Wi-Fi networks. It is a warning to everybody from the Wall Street Journal, and the stuff we talk about almost every week, about our activities, travels, and the tracking they are doing. And when we're talking about the business side, Chet's phone conversations on his work desk phone, and potentially the cell phone can be recorded, transcribed, and monitored. They know who is calling, but it isn't necessarily looking for bad things from Chet but potentially looking to see to whom he speaks. Is he somebody that's a mover and shaker in the organization? Is he someone who's inspiring other people, helping other people, tutoring mentoring other people. So there is a lot that's going on in just our regular day to day lives. That I think frankly, Ken, a lot of people aren't paying enough attention to this monitoring. We've got to keep an eye on our privacy. I'm going to be talking more about that as well on my show.

Matt
We are talking to Craig Peterson, our tech guru. He joins us at this time every Wednesday to go over what's happening to excuse me, in the world of technology. A great one that caught my eye here was the discussion Kids phones, my 12-year-old who was about to be 13 got a phone this year against my wishes, but whatever, that's a different conversation. Anyway, he got one. A lot of parents, including myself, have a lot of apprehensions about their kids getting phones and the effect that it has on them and sort of whether or not it leads to, you know, obviously, either anti-social behavior or like depression and whatnot. And then, of course, there's the cyberbullying stuff and all the things that go along with that. So far, I've been rather pleasantly surprised by his level of maturity with the phone and how it has not dominated his life. So now, there's certainly more time for him to disappoint me, but he's done an excellent job with it so far. Nonetheless, the reason I'm bringing it up is you have something to talk about as it relates to research and what it has recently shown and found about sort of kids and cell phone usage. What do you think is essential to communicate about that now?

Craig 5:52
Well, I think you're doing some of the right things because cyberbullying is a very, very big deal. I was bullied pretty heavily in As a kid, but back then, it was people you know, their kids using two by fours hit me up the side of the head and pull knives on me, you know, really, really nice school. Um, but nowadays, it's different because back then, yeah, kids usually get away from the bullies, I may be able to see them from a distance, and you know, I can getaway. But nowadays that cell phone goes into your home, and the kids just can't get away from it. Some of the comments that other kids might say can be very, very mean and nasty. So you're right to be worried about that.
Another thing people have been worried about, I think legitimately, is, you know, when Ken and I were kids, we got in and got sat in front of the boob tube. And that was kind of our babysitter for part of the day. I know, and they were worried about whether or not it was going to cause problems with our brains. And in some cases, it's pretty apparent that it has right, Ken.

Ken
I use a TV all the time to babysit my six and a half-year-old twin grandchildren. It is a great babysitter. They have good shows like Mickey Mouse Clubhouse now.

Craig
Is DisneyPlus subscription? Yes,

Ken
Yes, all of that and all the Star Wars to my grandkids love Star Wars.

Craig
Do they? The generation Z's aren't into Star Wars. So what else doesn't work? Well, there was a study published last Friday here, Matt, by two psychology professors and, and they look through some other studies, they come through about 40 different studies, and this is according to the New York Times. They're looking at social media use depression and anxiety amongst adolescents. Is it tied is it related? And these two from one from the University of California, Irvine, who was the lead author published it in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry says, quote, there doesn't seem to be an evidence base that would explain the level of panic and consternation around these issues. So, from what they're saying, there is a right to be concerned here about kid's phones and some adverse effects from the social side. Social media and smartphones with the kids there, they still stand out there questions about their brain development, what by the time they're adolescents, it's nowhere near as big a deal with causing brain development issues as when they're under five years old. But the other thing to really worry about is is what Danny and I were talking about. And he, of course, he's got the smartphones. You guys both have that everybody has a smartphone. There are smishing campaigns.

Matt
What's Smishing?

Craig
Smishing is, you know what phishing is, right? Of course.

Matt
Of course. We have had to take not less than 650,000 online training here at the WGAN morning news about said phishing ploys and whatnot. So, yes, we know that well.

Craig 9:12
You do understand the difference between using an ax to cut through the ice to do your fishing in the winter, and when to those screws, instead, Right? Oh, Nevermind. So with smishing, it is another version of phishing, and it's using SMS or text messages. There is a big smishing campaign going on right now. Danny has seen some of these things come through as a lot of people have. I've got an article about it up on my site this week. What's happening is they're pretending they're us. They're pretending they're Apple or pretending they're a lot of other people. So adults know that you don't respond to phishing campaigns. You don't answer these numbers that you don't recognize. You get a text message from Apple. Hey, Does Apple send you texts like this? And expect you to call back, so we don't call back, which is the right thing to do, by the way, all the time. Don't call numbers that you don't recognize and don't answer the phone. But man, how about your 12 or 13-year-old or have you trained him well enough. Do you think

Matt
Do you think he has run through the full rocky training montage yet? No.

Ken
Okay, so that's the other thing I'd be worried about. We are talking to Craig Peterson. He is our tech guru. He joins us every Wednesday at 738. You can also hear him on WGAN on Saturdays at one o'clock, and he has a website Craig Peterson dot com. Quickly why does the FBI need Apple to hack into my iPhone?

Craig
Oh, what a great question. Fantastic question, mate. Hold on, let's just give people, you do understand? Yeah.

Matt
Well, every once-in-a-while, you know, we leave no clock.

Craig
The FBI wants to hack into your phone because you've got an iPhone 11 right, Ken Yes.

Ken
No, no I kept the iPhone 10 because I don't need the 11

Craig 
Exactly and that's excellent advice. I think the job, okay. Nicely done. Toys

Craig
My advice right now is if you're going to get a new phone get an iPhone 10 the XR right now I mean I the XR is that the regulars.

Ken
I'm going to have a big size.

Craig  
Okay. Yeah, yeah, it is. It's one of the big moments. So, don't upgrade until the 12 comes out or maybe the 13 until 2021. Maybe 22 because that's when 5g is going to stabilize. Okay, but back to it. Your iPhone 10 probably not the FBI cannot hack into your phone. But some of these other iPhones, the older ones, like the ones that were just used recently in Pensacola. He shot his phone, and phones of that age, they don't need Apple's help to crack into it. But even as probably the FBI is asking for help, perhaps because the phone was so severely damaged, it was shot, right, right in the face. But Apple is excellent about trying to make sure these phones are secure. And the big question here and it's been for a long time, should the FBI or other government agencies be able to break any encryption basically at will or with a court order? And I am torn on this subject. I think they should not be able to because I look at it as our private papers. And we do have a right to privacy in those papers in those records. And nowadays, we're talking about our iPhones, frankly.

Matt
All right, well, Craig Peterson tech guru extraordinaire, joins us at this time and every Wednesday to go over the world of technology, this being no exception to that. I appreciate you joining us, as always, Greg, and we'll talk to you again next week.

Craig 
Hey, gentlemen, thanks. Take care. Bye. Bye. You bet.

Matt
All right, we are going to take a break.

Craig 
All right, everybody, again, I usually release the Saturday morning. So keep an eye on your email, you're going to want to follow them along. And we're going to be having a unique series of a little podcast but also emails because I want you to have this stuff written so you can share with your friends and family. I know not everybody listens to podcasts, right. And I'm going to be starting to send those out over the next couple of weeks about some specific security things. Some things you can do, using the tools you already have, to make yourself your, your friends, your family's computers, smartphones, etc. more secure, so we'll be going over that, so keep an eye out. Make sure you subscribe if you haven't already. Please subscribe to the podcast I'd appreciate it if you think it's worthwhile. I love it because those are the numbers that I see. My email list is just Craig Peterson dot com slash subscribe, and I send every week an email, and in that, if you scroll down a little bit, you'll see links to each one of my podcasts for the weeks, including my appearances on various shows. And so with that information, you can just click right on the link and listen to that specific podcast. So I appreciate it. Craig peterson.com slash subscribe. Take care, everybody. We'll be back on Saturday.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

---

More stories and tech updates at:

www.craigpeterson.com

Don't miss an episode from Craig. Subscribe and give us a rating:

www.craigpeterson.com/itunes

Follow me on Twitter for the latest in tech at:

www.twitter.com/craigpeterson

For questions, call or text:

855-385-5553