Tip, Tricks and Articles for iPad, iPhone, Mac
iCloud, Windows, Android, Office 365, Dropbox, Apps, and more

You may have heard in the press this week about the new My Health Record system that will be available from October 15th 2018, where our health records may be available to up to 900,000 health professionals around Australia.

No doubt you have heard all about the Cambridge Analytical scandal - the unauthorised use of the Facebook data belonging to millions of people.

Facebook has made it possible now for you to easily check if your data was shared as part of this breach.

Below is a 1-minute video that shows you where to look in your iPhone's Facebook app.  Alternatively, select this link to perform a quick check from your web browser of whether your privacy was breached. 

Have you ever wondered just why you get presented with all that rubbish and advertising on Facebook?  Maybe you have wondered if there is a way to stop certain types of posts from appearing on your timeline.

Here is an article that Macworld published recently that I found really interesting.  

How to find out what Facebook knows about you - Macworld Australia    

​Have a read, and then make any necessary adjustments to the personal information and preferences that Facebook has recorded about you!

                                                           ​

Have you ever seen a message on your iPad, iPhone or computer advising you that a website wants to store 'Cookies' on your device?  What are these things called 'Cookies'? 

Cookies are small files saved to your device, holding a bit of data relating to you and the website you have visited.

For example, your name, address and email address details that you entered for that website may be saved as a Cookie for that website, so that the same information can be filled in next time you visit the website.  

When you save your login details for a website by ticking a 'remember me' box, a cookie will be created on your device.

Cookies are not the only things that websites save to your device.  

Some websites save 'Website Data' to your device - data that tracks what you looked at (for example, that chair that you were looking at buying, or that hotel you were looking at), then re-uses that data next time you visit. 

Depending on your settings, this saved 'Website Data' may then be shared with other, so that tailored ads can be 'served' to you based on your previous browsing history

How do I know what websites are storing data on my device?

You can view the list of the websites that store data on your device, and how much data each of these websites is storing.  

You can even delete the website data for specific sites - especially those that keep 'serving' their ads to you, as if they are stalking as you browse!

Go to Settings -> Safari -> Advanced -> Website Data.  

The sites that store data are listed in size order, with only top 10 shown initially.  Tap on Show All Sites to see the full list of websites saving data to your device.  

Alternatively, to clear all cookies, website data AND History, choose the option Settings ->Safari -> Clear History and Website Data.  This will clear out the list of websites that you have visited in the past year (or since you last did such a clear).

Related Articles (for iTandCoffee Club members)

Below are some other previously published handy hints about the Safari and web browsing on your iPad and iPhone.  An iTandCoffee Club membership is required to view these past Handy Hints.  

Not yet a member?  Why not join today - see here for details!

• iPhone, iPad Navigation - Get back to top of a list or a page really quickly
  
• Navigating when On Safari!
  
• Getting to places on Safari quickly!
  
• My Safari uses Yahoo (or Bing) - how can I make it use Google?
  
• How do I limit the web pages returned in Safari to recent Australian pages
  
• Defining your Favourite websites in Safari
  
• Easy access to your Favourite website in Safari
  
• Is there a quick way to close all open tabs in Safari
  
• Getting back a Safari page you accidentally closed
  
• Finding some text on a Safari Page
  
• Dealing with a Mac web browser that has been hijacked by Ads
  
• 'Tab view' in Safari on iPad - easier management of your open pages/tabs 
  
• An easier way to close web pages
  
• Reader View - for clutter-free web page viewing
  
• Easy way to choose to view 'mobile' format web page in 'desktop' format
  
• Quickly add a web page to your set of Favourite pages
  
• Use Camera to scan and enter credit card information
  
• Shared Links for your RSS feeds!
  
• Private browsing per page and Private Browsing always
  
• Safari Saved Passwords in Native apps
  
• Is your iPad/iPhone's Safari storing all your Passwords for anyone to see?

If you own an Android mobile phone or tablet, you really need to read this article published this week in The Age.

If you value your privacy, you may want to check what apps you have installed on your device - Big Brother may be watching you!

Click/tap on the link below to read the article from The Age.

One in four apps on your Android mobile needlessly mining your personal data | theage.com.au

This will have been due to the fact that online catchup TV providers block internet users who are accessing the service from outside Australia.

So, how do you get around this?

Well, you do what I have finally got around to doing.  You sign up to a VPN (Virtual Private Network) service.  

Here is an article that reviews several such providers.

Once you have created your and account with your VPN service, you install and sign in to this service on each of your devices.  

You then choose which 'country' you want to be 'connected to' by choosing a VPN server that your service provider offers in that country.  (Different service providers will offer different countries and server locations within those countries.)

Not only will this allow you to access Australian content when you are not in Australia, you will also be able to access overseas content that is normally only available to locals.

And the best part when travelling (or even when using a public WiFi network here in Australia)?  

Your privacy is protected when you use any public WiFi network, since the VPN creates something called an 'encrypted link' for any communications between your device and the internet.  This will prevent anyone from 'stealing' your information - something that can happen to unsuspecting technology users at airports, in hotels and in cafes.

If you plan on travelling in future and taking along your technology, this is something that you should definitely consider.

iTandCoffee will run a session on the topic of VPN's later this year.  

If you are interested in attending such a session, click here to register for future updates on dates and times for this topic.

Oh my goodness! Did you see this article yesterday in The Age?

• Samsung Smart TVs will listen to, capture and transmit your private conversations, company warns | theage.com.au

Not only can your TV 'hear' and transmit your conversations to Samsung, but Samsung has warned that this information "could be transmitted to a third party"!  This might include some very sensitive, private information that you have inadvertently discussed while near your TV!  

We have one of these Smart TV's, so I am most definitely going to be checking the settings on it today to make sure this feature is turned off.  

I'm fairly sure we did already turn it off pretty soon after we got the TV, as it kept 'listening' and changing channels unexpectedly - very annoying!  

But the worry is what it might have 'heard' and transmitted to Samsung while it was turned on - and I'm not sure how long we had the feature enabled!  Once this information is 'out there', there is no getting it back.

Is your TV listening in on your conversations? 

Update Friday 13th Feb, 2015

The Age has published a follow-up article where Samsung clarifies how the voice-recognition software works, and reports that Samsung has changed the wording of its Privacy Policy to clarify this.

I must say that, until recently, I didn't have any anti-virus products on the Macs that I use for my work.  I am very careful about what sites I visit and what I click on if ads pop up.  So I have never had any problems.

However, my recent visits to two clients have caused me to re-think my unprotected status, and I have now download a free virus scanning tool and run regular checks of my Mac.

Two iTandCoffee clients with Adware Trojans on their Macs in one week!

The first iTandCoffee client had a problem with Safari on her Mac.  

When she visited the Webjet website and tried to book flights, her Webjet session seemed to be 'hijacked' and all sorts of advertisements would pop up on the screen, making it impossible to search for her flights.

Yontoo Adware Trojan causes strange Safari behaviour

Well, in this case the problem was that her computer had been infected with a Malware product known as Yontoo - in this case, most likely introduced by kids accessing illegal download sites.  

The below information about Yontoo is extracted from an article on the cnet website ...

If you have noticed similar strange behaviour in Safari (or any other web browser on your Mac), you too may have this Adware Trojan on your Mac.  Check out this cnet article for details of what to do to remove the Yontoo trojan.

Genieo Adware Trojan replaces Google as search engine

A visit to a second client in the same week involved uninstalling a similar, but less obvious, Adware product that had installed itself on that client's computer.

This particular one was Genieo, which was causing every search that the client did using her Mac's Safari search bar to return results using something called Genieo - even though she had specified in her Safari Preferences that she wanted to use Google. 

This was another case where a unwanted product - similar to Yontoo - had installed itself as part of the download of another legitimate product. 

If you notice similar behaviour on your own Mac, check out this article for information about Genieo and how it appeared on your Mac, and of how to remove this Adware product.

Products for detecting and removing malware from your Mac

For an article that looks at various options for anti-malware products for Mac (many of which are free), check out the below article scooped on the iTandCoffee Scoop.it page recently.

Need Help?

Contact iTandCoffee if you need help with getting rid of malware or installing an anti-malware product on your Mac  - call n1300 885 420 or email enquiry@itandcoffee.com.au. 

There has been a wave of phishing emails going around lately, targeting peoples’ email accounts and tricking people into logging into their accounts via ‘spoofed’ web pages that look like webmail logins from their mail host.   A significant number of iTandCoffee clients have been taken in by this scam.

One of the key reasons people have fallen for this one is that the email has come from someone they know (who has previously fallen for the same scam), so looks like a trust-worthy email.  They think that they have been sent a message or a document from the person, and that they are logging in to their account so that they can view what they have been sent.  

As soon as they log in, they give away their email account’s password and allow the scammers to send phishing emails to all their contacts - so more people can be taken in by the same scam.  

If the victim does not reset their email password very quickly, they may find themselves locked out of their own mail account!  

They have also then given the scammers access to all sorts of confidential information held in their mail account, and perhaps left themselves open to further attack through online account password resets and much more.  

Critically, they may have used the same password for other online accounts - so by giving away one account’s login details, they may have inadvertently given these undesirables access to so much more!

It is essential that, if you think you may have been the victim of such an attack, you change your email account’s password immediately.  And, while you are at it, make sure you change the password on any other online account for which you have used the same email address and password combination.

When you change your email account's password, it is highly recommended that you also set up a feature called 2-step authentication (if your email host provides this). 

In the remainder of this article, we will look at how to do this for your Hotmail, Live, Outlook and Bigpond accounts (for Bigpond accounts created since 2011) - or for any other account that is hosted by Microsoft.   (Similar steps apply for Gmail, iCloud (Apple), Yahoo and other email accounts - the website you go to will be different though.)

To set up 2-step authentication for all accounts that are hosted by Microsoft, you need to log into your account via your web browser (which we will describe in more detail shortly).  

This is also where you go to to change the password of your hotmail.com, live.com or outlook.com email address.

For email accounts that are hosted by Microsoft, but are operated by businesses or other ISP’s, you will need change your password in a different place.  For example, for Bigpond mail account holders, you will need to log in to your Bigpond account via the Telstra website, and change the password there.

(Some background:  hotmail.com and live.com accounts are now considered Microsoft accounts, but still have their @hotmail.com and @live.com suffixes.  Other mail providers are also using Microsoft to host their mail - for example, newer @bigpond.com mail accounts are hosted by Microsoft, so webmail for these accounts is accessed using the Microsoft mail website.  Telstra started hosting their new mail accounts with Microsoft after about 2011.) 

Visit https://login.live.com and sign in with your email address and password.  

Click on your account name at the top right to see the set of options shown below, then click on Account Settings.

To change your password and/or set up two-step authentication, click on Security & password.

(Note.  If you are concerned about fraudulent activity on your account, click on the Recent Activity option to see details of attempted accesses to your account.) 

You will then be taken through a series of screens that help you set up the improved security on your account.  There is even an app (Google Authenticator) you can install on your Smartphone or Tablet to provide a security code every time you log in. 

We will not go through all the steps in this setup, as they are quite self-explanatory.  (But if you do get stuck, make a time to see iTandCoffee to assist you with this setup.)   

Once you have set up 2-step Authentication, the next time you log into your account you will be asked to enter the verification code that has been provided to you.  

If you chose to use the ‘Authenticator’ app on your Smartphone, your screen will look like that below.  Open the Authenticator app on your Smartphone or tablet.  A code will appear - enter that into the Code text box. 

If you asked for authentication via SMS, you will need to check your phone and enter the code shown there.
If you have provided several options for provision of the security code, you will be able to choose which form of authentication you wish to use this time. 

You can specify that a particular device is a ‘trusted’ device, and that you don’t need the be asked for a security code every time that device accesses your mail account.  

When you enter your the provided verification code during login, just tick the box below to say that you sign in frequently on this device.  

From that point on, you will only need your password to log into your mail account from that device.

So, hopefully that gives you enough information to set up your improved email account security for Microsoft accounts.  

iTandCoffee can provide further help for anyone who has difficulty with any of the above - call 1300 885 420 to make a time, or email enquiry@itandcoffee.com.au