In my last post, I told people how to turn off your friend's ability to check you in via Facebook Places, the new location-based feature that Facebook made available this week. Of course, in typical Facebook fashion, they left the default settings wide open, potentially exposing users to potential privacy violations! In practical terms, this means:

• When you check in some place via Facebook Places, your friends will see it in their Facebook timeline.
• Your checkins at this location are logged and can be seen by people checking in there later on.
• Friends can check you in places if they are at or near that place.
• Third party Facebook applications your friends might use can access places you (or your friends) check you into.

This begs the question: how can you (or your friend) check into a location on Facebook? Right now, checkins are limited to mobile phones with GPS and you must be physically near the location that you check into (or your friend must be). So I can't, for instance, check my friends into someplace near their hometown unless I happen to be in their hometown near the location in question. Knowing Facebook, though, they could change this later on.

You probably don't want your friends checking you in places. Or maybe you don't want to use Facebook Places at all. Here how to adjust your settings for Facebook Places so you can stay as off the grid as you'd like. Note you can click on each image to get a full-size version.

First off, go to Account > Privacy Settings in Facebook:

From the next screen, choose Customize Settings:

First look under Things I Share:

If you want to opt out of Facebook Places. set Places I check In To to Only Me"and uncheck the Include me in "People Here Now" after I check in. Otherwise, adjust these settings as you see fit. If you want to prevent people from checking you into places (whether or not you want to opt out), look under Things Others Share. Set the Friends can check me into Places option to Disabled.

You may also need to go back and prevent third party applications from accessing your Facebook Places checkin data. Click on the Back to Privacy button on top and then click on the Edit your settings link under Applications and Websites.

Make sure to uncheck the Places I check in to option (and any other ones you want to uncheck) and click Save Changes.

If you have set these options to their most restrictive setting, congratulations, you have opted out of Facebook Places (as much as you can, anyway).

Go to Account > Privacy Settings, click Customize Settings. Under "Things others share", set "Friends can check me in to Places" to Disabled. Otherwise, your less scrupulous friends can check you into potentially embarrassing locations.

Optionally, under "Things I share", adjust the "Include me in "People Here Now" after I check in" and "Places I check in to" settings accordingly.

Update: you should see my more complete guide to changing your Facebook Places settings.

Crossbeam has issued a press release about their expanded strategic partnership with my employer, Check Point Software Technologies. The key paragraph in that press release:

Customers can now purchase integrated solutions from Check Point, complete with maintenance and support delivered by Check Point’s award-winning global service organization. Check Point will provide support for both its software products and Crossbeam’s X-Series platform. This simplifies the ordering process and promotes closer product, sales and technical collaboration between Crossbeam and Check Point to support customer needs.

The kind of customers that will buy Crossbeam X-Series platforms are the kinds of customers who want what we used to call "first call, final resolution" back at Nokia. This is exactly what this provides: a single point of contact for purchasing and support of Check Point software on Crossbeam hardware. What's not to like?

There's been a lot of discussion today about the "new iPhone" that was discovered because some git left it in a Redwood City, California bar. (Un)fortunately, it made it's way to the folks at Gizmodo and it's now a topic of discussion all over the Internet. Given how much Apple likes to control the information about their products, I can't see them intentionally "leaking" the device prior to the official announcement.

There is some benefit to this "leak" in that it cranks up the hype machine to 12. However, this allows a lot of potentially mis-information to be propagated--unchecked by Apple. In general, though, mobile phone manufacturers do not like their products leaked before they are ready for one simple reason: it gives the competition a head start in responding. At least that was the corporate line given to us at Nokia when I worked there :)

The one piece of information that nobody is mentioning in their coverage  is, I think, the most scary. According to the Gizmodo piece, Apple was reportedly able to kill the leaked prototype device remotely. While I can see why such a feature would be beneficial (and maybe Nokia will take the opportunity to copy that feature "with pride"), it raises all sorts of questions: Can Apple remotely kill any iDevice it chooses, not just prototypes? Is the data on the phone recoverable? How "hackable" is this mechanism (i.e. can someone discover this mechanism and hack it for their own purposes)?

As usual, enquiring minds want to know.

Update #1: Numerous people have pointed out both that Apple can remotely disable applications as well as the Remote Wipe functionality that can be activated when a device synchronizes through a Microsoft Exchange server. What I'm talking about is the possibility that Apple can, without a connection to an Exchange server, issue a remote wipe to a device. It's possible that with this prototype device, this did happen through ActiveSync. The thought that Apple could reach into my device and either disable applications or Remote Wipe the device without my knowledge or consent does not sit well with me.

Update #2: And yes, MobileMe does this remote wipe thing as well. So clearly Apple has the capability to do this. It still makes me nervous that a device I've purchased could be wiped at the touch of a button by the company who sold me the product.

A poem that needs no explanation to those who understand it.

This is my network. There are many like it, but this one is mine. My network is my best friend. It is my life. I must master it as I master my life. My network, without me, is useless. Without my network, I am useless. I must send my packets true. I must block packets faster than my enemy who is trying to pwn me. I must pwn him before he pwns me. I will....

My network is human, even as I, because it is my life. Thus, I will learn it as a brother. I will learn its weakness, its strength, its clients, its servers, its switches, its routers and firewalls. I will keep my network clean and ready, even as I am clean and ready. We will become part of each other. We will...

Before God I swear this creed. My network and myself are the defenders of the world. We are the masters of our enemy. We are the saviors of our data. So be it, until there is no enemy, but Peace.

Amen.