How to share photos – without using Facebook

By Maria Varmazis

Ah, Facebook. We don’t know how to quit you.

Some pundits tell us blithely: Just delete the app, delete your account! Extricate yourself forever. If only it was that easy.

Many of us who want to quit would do it in a heartbeat if we could replicate the functionality that keeps us coming back. Aside from its massive user base, the other major hook Facebook has for many of us is that it’s an one-stop-shop for a number of different tasks.

One of the key features that keeps people going back to Facebook seems to be photo sharing. Especially with far-flung family and friends, folks with little kids and/or much-loved pets at home really, really want to share those photos with their adoring grandmama. And since grandmama is on Facebook, and all the aunties and uncles are too, photo sharing there is the path of least resistance.

But there are other options for photo sharing that don’t hand over every pixel to the Facebook megamind. These options fall under a few categories, so let’s explore:

Read more at https://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2019/01/09/how-to-share-photos-without-using-facebook/

Politicians who block social media users are violating First Amendment

By Lisa Vaas

Keep your hands off that “block” button, an appeals court told a government bureaucrat who temporarily blocked a constituent who’d posted criticism on one of her Facebook Pages. Blocking is unconstitutional, the court declared, given that aspects of the page in question “bear the hallmarks of a public forum.”

The ruling was handed down on Monday by the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and could serve as a precedent, given that it’s the first decision from an appellate court that addresses the applicability of the First Amendment to social media accounts run by public officials.

A similar case, in which a New York judge banned President Donald Trump from blocking Twitter users on the grounds that it’s a violation of free-speech rights, is pending appeal in the Second Circuit Appeals Court.

The Trump Administration argues that the @realDonalTrump account is a personal one, meaning that the First Amendment doesn’t apply. The appeal is due to be heard soon. The case could wind up in the Supreme Court, as US courts deal with the question of what constitutes an “official” account on social media.

The difference between a personal vs. an official social media account was at the crux of the case decided on Monday.

That case was about what Phyllis Randall, Chair of the Board of Supervisors in Loudoun County, Virginia, got up to with one of her Facebook pages.

Read more at https://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2019/01/09/politicians-who-block-social-media-users-are-violating-first-amendment/

Got an SMS offering $$$ refund? Don’t fall for it…

By Paul Ducklin

SMS, also known as text messaging, may be a bit of a “yesterday” technology…

…but SMS phishing is alive and well, and a good reminder that KISS really works.

If you aren’t familiar with the acronym KISS, it’s short for “keep it simple, stupid.”

Despite the rather insulting tone when you say the phrase out aloud, the underlying ideas work rather well in cybercrime.

Don’t overcomplicate things; pick a believable lie and stick to it; and make it easy for the victim to “figure it out” for themselves, so they don’t feel confused or pressurized anywhere along the way.

Read more at https://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2019/01/08/sms-phishing-is-alive-and-well-and-simply-believable/