#TechSeven - Heartbleed, US Airways porn, & Privacy

This week's tech talk on CJAD Montreal on Friday afternoon capped a rather disturbing week in the technology space. I chatted with Anne Lagace Dowson about a bunch of stuff, and if you weren't able to tune in, here's what you missed:

Heartbleed - the never-ending story

You'd think this story, after raging for the past couple of weeks, would be all played out. Think again: every day this week seemed to bring a new twist to this one. The RCMP Wednesday announced an arrest in the case - I wrote about it for Yahoo Canada - Heartbleed fallout could drive fundamental change - and Anne and I talked about hacker culture, and how it isn't necessarily about busting into systems to score a big, criminal payday. In many cases, it's about street cred, and proving to your hacker peers that you have the technical chops to pull off the toughest exploits.

We also spoke about future job prospects for hackers who get caught. Bizarrely, being arrested is the hacker equivalent of becoming a rock star. Don't be surprised if lucrative job prospects lie in the suspected CRA hacker's future. We live in a strange, strange world, indeed.

US Airways sends a pornographic tweet

There's no end to examples of major brands misusing social media tools and finding themselves in the middle of an online firestorm as a result.

It all started off so innocently. On Monday afternoon, a disgruntled customer took to Twitter to express discontent, tweeting: "You ruined my spring break, I want some free stuff." The airline responded with, let's not mince words, porn. The tweet from US Airways included a photo that is, ah, not even remotely acceptable. Of course, it went absolutely viral within minutes, and spawned a just-as-funny bunch of funny responses. The company, of course, apologized and said it was investigating. This was, of course, too late, as it always is.

I won't link to the pic because it's highly NSFW, involving a woman doing something with a model plane that no model plane should ever have to endure. But I'm guessing it's still floating around Google's index. And probably will be forever. Add another chapter to my ever-lengthening manual of things I wish I never had to explain to my kids, but now have to.

The lesson: Social media can quickly and efficiently turn a small chunk of data into an immediate viral sensation. It can also ruin a career and damage a brand with one finger on a touchscreen or click of a mouse. Companies that forget these basic truths - by ignoring social media's power and engaging employees or agencies that play fast with the rules and the tools - risk getting burned.

Canadians love their iPads - now more than ever

Survey results released this week by the Media Technology Monitor suggest tabloid ownership in Canada is skyrocketing - and most of us are buying Apple iPads.

Over 42% of Canadians surveyed between October and December of 2013 said they now own a tablet. This compares to only 10% in 2011 and 25% in 2012. The 2013 ownership numbers suggest tablet take rates are spiking: up 66% alone over the previous year.

Most of us seem to like Apple: 2 out of every 3 tablets sold are iPads, a number that continues to increase every year. Samsung's Galaxy Tab devices and - this one freaked me a bit because it's no longer supported by the company - BlackBerry PlayBooks each had 10% market share in 2013.

Interestingly, we're using our tablets less often than we used to. in 2011, 46% said they used their tablets several times a day. By last year, that had dropped to 38% - especially among Samsung and PlayBook users. Apple iPad owners appear as addicted as ever, though, with use-every-day stats consistently higher than those reported for any other device type.

For what it's worth, Canada, my birthday is in May, and I like the iPad Air :)

Google makes it official: It's reading your email

I've said it before: there is no privacy online. Anything you do when you connect to the Internet can and will be seen by your service provider and in all likelihood used to serve up ever more invasive ads. Google has raised this process to a high art, scanning your online activities with sophisticated software to get a better sense of your interests, then using that insight to serve up relevant, targeted ads. It means if you just brought your first child home from the hospital, you'll see ads for diapers and not Depends. Or funeral packages.

But this kind of creeps people out, and privacy advocates have taken issue with the secrecy with which most online companies, including Google, Facebook and Twitter, have operated. No more. Google has just updated its Terms of Service document - the thing that's billions of words of legalese, that we never bother reading because we're too focused on finishing up the registration process so we can start using the service - to make it plainly explicit what it's up to, and why.

Here's what it now reads: “Our automated systems analyze your content (including emails) to provide you personally relevant product features, such as customized search results, tailored advertising, and spam and malware detection. This analysis occurs as the content is sent, received, and when it is stored."

Before this update, Google said it might “pre-screen” content, but only implied that it was to filter spam or other questionable content, and not to serve up targeted ads. The new Terms of Service clarifies the company's intentions, and comes as Google, Facebook, Yahoo and other web services companies find themselves being sued by users concerned over their privacy policies.

It doesn't change the fact that Google's software knows more about us than our own mothers. And it doesn't make the Internet any more private or secure. But a little in-your-face honesty probably isn't a bad thing.

Twitter has an engagement problem

Twitter has become the Internet's temperature gauge. Want to know what your peeps are thinking Right Now? Or an almost-live update from the hockey game? Twitter is your first choice. The service is now closing in on a billion total users - 974 million - with 241 million of them known as "monthly active users". And those numbers continue to grow.

The problem: According to Twopcharts, fully 44% of all Twitter accounts have never sent a tweet. The data suggests even those who HAVE sent tweets aren't exactly burning up their Twitter thumbs: 30% of existing Twitter accounts have sent between 1 and 10 tweets, and only 13% of accounts have sent 100 or more tweets.

Of course, you CAN simply log in and read other people's tweets. But for a service built on making advertising dollars off of new tweets, retweets and favourites, the service needs to find new ways to pull us deeper into its world.