Idea of the Day - A new idea each day. Some Don't Suck!

Our Latest Posts About: Privacy

Phone Booths!

Thursday, January 26, 2017 1:00 AM By Joe Crescenzi

I miss phone booths!

You rarely see phone booths anymore, and that's a shame. Now that everyone has a mobile phone, I'm sure a lot of people think they're not useful anymore, but as far as I'm concerned, phone booths are useful specifically BECAUSE everyone has a mobile phone.

Phone booths aren't just a convenient place to FIND a phone, they're also a private and quiet place to USE a phone. The last thing I want to hear in a public place is somebody blabbing away on their cell phone about their hemorrhoids or their most recent fight with their girlfriend.

Just because people already have a phone, doesn't mean they're not interested in finding a quiet place to make a call, so although businesses might not make money directly from the booths, phone booths definitely add to... [More]

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Lockable iPad Apps

Wednesday, January 25, 2017 1:00 AM By Joe Crescenzi

Whenever you allow your friends and family to use your iPad, you are also inviting them to read your email.

We all know Apple's iPhone and iPad are very secure. In fact, even law enforcement have a hard time unlocking them. There is, however one small problem. A lot of people unlock their iPads to let friends and family members play games, surf the Web or watch movies, and that means they also gain access to most of your private information such as email, photos, shopping and social media accounts.

The solution to this is pretty simple. Apple needs to create an option to assign a second Passcode to grant access to Apps that need an additional layer of security. This will allow people give friends and family access to less secure Apps without giving them access to more sen... [More]

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The Big Data Crystal Ball

Monday, December 19, 2016 1:00 AM By Joe Crescenzi

Companies spend millions of dollars trying to figure out what you like. Why not just ask?

Big Data is everywhere, and it's watching everything you do. Retail stores track your purchases whenever you use a credit or loyalty card. Search engines like Google or Bing keep a history of every search you've ever done, and social media sites like Facebook and LinkedIn track every post, like, share, and comment. While they may use different techniques to track your activity, they all have one goal in mind, which is to try to guess what kinds of products and services you like so they can target ads to you.

The trouble with Big Data is that even the best system is still just a GUESS.

It doesn't matter how sophisticated their algorithms are, they can never truly know your all... [More]

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Target's Targeting You.

Sunday, December 4, 2016 1:00 AM By Joe Crescenzi

Target knows more about you, than you know about yourself.

In retail, information is king, and nobody does it better than Target. Every time you shop at Target using their Red Card, or even your own credit card, they track every item you buy so that they can anticipate your future purchases.

The Target Red Card lets them take things even further because it links back to your full name, email, and home mailing addresses, so they can send you coupons and flyers tailored to your specific interests.

The idea of tracking your purchases isn't new. Companies have been tracking your purchases for years, but until recently they lacked the sophistication needed to do much more than offer coupons for similar or competing products at checkout. As retail databases grow, companies li... [More]

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Quick Tip - The Best Way to Securely Cross Something Out

Sunday, October 9, 2016 1:00 AM By Joe Crescenzi

Use this quick tip whenever you want to insure that whatever you cross out is hard to read.

Most of the time, whenever you cross something out, it's pretty easy for somebody to figure out what you originally wrote. Lines make terrible camouflage because your mind can clearly see the patterns of the letters.

The solution is to take advantage of your mind's desire to see letter patterns, by creating additional letter patterns right on top of the old ones. Even if you simply wrote out the alphabet over your old text, it would be drastically more effective than crossing it out.

To make it even harder, try mixing up letters instead of just writing the alphabet, or writing other words at random.

Lockable, Password Protected Apps for iOS and Android

Monday, May 2, 2016 9:31 AM By Joe Crescenzi

Nothing is private when friends and family use your tablet.

Whenever you allow a friend or family member to use your iPad or Android tablet, you're giving them complete access to just about everything in your private life.

So when guests come over and you allow them to see your photos, or play some games, you are also allowing them to read your email, and even access things like your bank account apps. That's pretty scary.

While the tablet itself has a password option, once you unlock it, you are basically giving the person holding it the keys to everything. The only way to block people from accessing your private information that is to keep the entire tablet locked with a Passcode, so there is no way to allow people to use some of your apps, while blocking them from usin... [More]

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Why iPads Need User Profiles

Tuesday, March 29, 2016 1:00 AM By Joe Crescenzi

There's one thing wrong with sharing your iPad with your family... nothing is private.

Most people today have their own email address and social media account. This means that a typical family of four will have at least four different email address, and at least as many social media accounts. In fact, each family member is likely to have multiple social media accounts for everything from YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, so there's a pretty good chance that there could be 20 or more accounts to juggle on the typical iPad.

Unfortunately, since the iPad doesn't have a feature that lets each family member have their own User Profile, anyone who uses it will end up using the same email and social media accounts.

This can be particularly disturbing if a child acci... [More]

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LinkedIn is Too Creepy!

Sunday, February 14, 2016 1:00 AM By Joe Crescenzi

Does LinkedIn think's it's a high school dating site?

Every now and then I get an email from LinkedIn telling me who's recently viewed my profile page. It usually starts off telling me the names of some of the people who viewed my profile, followed by teasers telling me that a few other people also viewed my profile but I'll need to become a paid subscriber to find out who they are. Really? That's wrong on so many levels.

First of all, there's no reason to show the names of anyone who's viewed your profile, whether they are paid members or not. It's just plain creepy.

Let's say I see an interesting public post about repairing a widget in my news feed, and out of curiosity I decide to click on the author. At this point, the only thing I know about the author is he might... [More]

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LinkedIn Profile Views Should Always Be Private.

Thursday, January 7, 2016 1:00 AM By Joe Crescenzi

Why does LinkedIn display who views each profile?

Social Media sites have replaced newspapers TV news as our primary source for news and information. More often than not, we will hear about breaking news on social media sites long before we read about it in the newspaper or watch it on TV.

Although I can read news stories on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+, I rarely read anything I see on LinkedIn, because it's not as private.

Unlike the other sites, whenever you read a profile, LinkedIn not only tracks it, but tells the account owner you read it. That's counter productive because many people don't want to be tracked.

Let's say somebody posts something interesting about your favorite movie on Facebook, Twitter or Google+. If you're curious about the author, you m... [More]

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Texting Alias

Saturday, November 21, 2015 1:00 AM By Joe Crescenzi

Keep your mobile number private.

I had two phone numbers back in the 80s, one was my beeper, the other was my cell phone. I gave my beeper number to everyone, but I rarely gave anyone the number for my cell phone. Clients left messages, and I called them back when I had the chance, using whatever phone I wanted. Cell phones cost about 75 cents per minute back then, so this was mainly a way to save money.

I still avoid giving out my mobile number, especially to companies that ask for it, not because of cost, but because it often leads to telemarketing calls.

The solution is for mobile companies to offer a Texting Alias, which is a unique address used just for texting. You can share the alias on business cards, web sites, etc. and you'll know for sure that you'll never g... [More]

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Browsers Without Extensions, Plug-ins, or Toolbars

Monday, November 2, 2015 1:00 AM By Joe Crescenzi

You will never find a more wretched hive of scum an villainy than inside the web browser on your computer.

As a tech guy, I get calls every day from people telling me their computer isn't working the way it should. More often than not, the problems are related to something that hijacked their web browser by adding either an extension, plug-in, or a toolbar.

Even when the problem has nothing to do with a virus, all those extensions, plug-ins and toolbars cause countless problems. The trouble is, typical computers are loaded with them and most people don't release how useless, if not harmful they are.

In the photo at the top of this post you'll see an actual screen capture of the extensions settings from my own web browser. The point is... there are no extensions, because... [More]

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Urinals Should Always Have Partitions

Tuesday, April 21, 2015 1:00 AM By Joe Crescenzi

Isn't this obvious?

I can't think of one good reason for a Men's Room to have urinals without partitions, yet I see it all the time. All I can think of is that the people who installed the urinals are trying to save a few dollars, because there simply is no other justification for not having them.

Partitions are simply a small wall between urinals, so they don't take any additional space. Since there's still no door, they don't get in the way or slow you down. The bottom line is there is no reason to leave them out.

Here are a few simple reasons why every Men's Room should have them.

1. Privacy. This one is fairly obvious. When I'm washing my hands, I don't want to get a front row seat to men holding their junk.

2. Spacing. When com... [More]

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Gmail Is Getting Way Too Creepy. They Need to Re-Think How They Read Our Mail.

Wednesday, October 22, 2014 1:00 AM By Joe Crescenzi

Google knew that I was shopping for a lawnmower... even before I did. That's creepy.

As many people know, when Google introduced Gmail, in the Terms of Service, Google reserves the right to use the content of your emails to serve targeted advertising. They don't hide it. They try to make it a point of telling you it's there.

When Gmail first started, it was pretty simple. If you were reading an email about sneakers, there was a good chance the advertising on the Gmail page might be related to sneakers. It freaked some people out at first, including a lot of people in Congress. Google defended their system by making it clear that although their software was indeed reading your email, no human was. At worse, you saw some ads next to your email that seemed to know what you... [More]

Continue...Gmail Is Getting Way Too Creepy. They Need to Re-Think How They Read Our Mail....

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* Note: The ideas on "Idea of the Day" were posted without any formal research into existing inventions.

In some cases, patents may already exist for these ideas, in other cases, there may not be any existing patents and you are free to develop and explore the viability of developing and patenting the ideas.

The authors make no claim that any of the ideas are safe, practical, or suitable for any particular purpose. You are responsible for the results of trying, developing, patenting or using any of the ideas on this site.

For some people, our ideas are just an interesting read, but our goal is to encourage you to take action. If you see an idea that you like, do something with it... Take action.

- Joe

Idea Of The Day. A new Idea Each Day. Some Don't Suck.