Tag Archives | Texting

Phone Snooping ‘Prevented Riots’

By on August 16, 2011 in News 12
Photo: Riemer Palstra (CC)

Photo: Riemer Palstra (CC)

To tweet or not tweet where you’re rioting next? One option was to shut down social networks so that rioters couldn’t mass communicate. The other option was to allow them to tweet and text, then read their messages to find out what they’re planning next. The latter was able to prevent attacks on the Olympic site and London’s Oxford Street. BBC reports:

Police say they prevented attacks by rioters on the Olympic site and London’s Oxford Street after picking up intelligence on social networks.

Assistant Met Police Commissioner Lynne Owens told a committee of MPs officers learned of possible trouble via Twitter and Blackberry messenger.

But Acting Commissioner Tim Godwin said he had considered asking authorities to switch off social networks.

He said they provided intelligence but could also be misleading.

A number of politicians, media commentators and members of the police force have suggested that Twitter and Blackberry Messenger (BBM) had a role to play in the riots.

… Read the rest

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Alamo Drafthouse: She Texted During The Movie So We Kicked Her Out (And Here’s Her Stupid Response)

By on June 7, 2011 in News 72

Via the Alamo Drafthouse:

Recently, we had a situation where a customer persisted in texting in the theater despite two warnings to stop. Our policy at that point is to eject the customer without a refund, which is exactly what went down that night. Luckily, this former patron was so incensed at being kicked out, she quickly called the office and left us the raw ingredients for our latest “Don’t Talk or Text” PSA:

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Two Florida Teens Arrested For ‘Sexting’

By on June 7, 2011 in News 29

SextingI still hate the word “sexting” … Jim Peppard writes for WTSP 10 News:

Brooksville, Florida — Two teenagers were arrested today for sexting a photo of a bare breast.

A 15 year old boy was taken into custody after he told a school resource officer he forwarded a cell phone picture he received last December of a young girl’s breast, the sheriff’s office said. He said another student at Hernando High School had threatened to do him harm, after learning of the photo.

The girl herself was also charged, after admitting she took a picture of herself in the mirror wearing underwear and exposing a breast, and sending it to the boy, according to the arrest affidavit.

Both were charged with transmission of pornography by electronic device, processed at the Hernando County Jail and released into the custody of their parents.

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Spam Kills: A Text Message Blows Up Russian Suicide Bomber By Accident

By on March 2, 2011 in News 4

SpamWow, can’t believe I didn’t read this story before. From Andrew Osborn in the Telegraph:

The unnamed woman, who is thought to be part of the same group that struck Moscow’s Domodedovo airport on Monday, intended to detonate a suicide belt on a busy square near Red Square on New Year’s Eve in an attack that could have killed hundreds.

Security sources believe a spam message from her mobile phone operator wishing her a happy new year received just hours before the planned attack triggered her suicide belt, killing her but nobody else.

She was at her Moscow safe house at the time getting ready with two accomplices, both of whom survived and were seen fleeing the scene.

Islamist terrorists in Russia often use cheap unused mobile phones as detonators. The bomber’s handler, who is usually watching their charge, sends the bomber a text message in order to set off his or her explosive belt at the moment when it is thought they can inflict maximum casualties.

… Read the rest

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How To Make Text Messages Self-Destruct

By on February 4, 2011 in News 2

Lauren A.E. Schuker reports for the Wall Street Journal on a new text messaging service that claims to keep your secrets safe:

TigerText Inc., which can send texts that vanish from both the sender and receiver’s phone after a select period of time so they can’t be copied or forwarded, has developed a niche following among celebrities trying to keep their lives private. About half a million people have downloaded the service, which was started in February 2010 by four Los Angeles businessmen.

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Will Apple End Sexting As We Know It?

By on October 18, 2010 in News 28

tigerwoods3aIn more sad news for the youth of today, Apple has been awarded a patent for technology that alters text messages to remove objectionable content, i.e., an anti-sexting device. Our friends at TechCrunch report:

Today the US Patent and Trademark Office approved a patent Apple filed in 2008, which, get this, prevents users from sending or receiving “objectionable” text messages. The patent’s official title? “Text-based communication control for personal communication device.”

Ladies and gentlemen this means that Jobs and company have just sealed the deal on a solution to the number one fear of parents across America, kids sending “unauthorized texts.” As it looks like whatever algorithm or control the system is comprised of will basically censor the transmission of R-rated content on iPhones, is this the first sign of the end of “Sexting” as we know it?

Yes and no, as those interesting in “Sexting” will probably find some clever workaround to express how much they want to bang, screw, hit it or a myriad of other words that don’t immediately set off the censorship sensors.

… Read the rest

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Flirting in the 21st Century, Brett Favre Style

By on October 11, 2010 in News 6
Brett Favre in 2006.

Brett Favre in 2006.

Via the First Church of Mutterhals:

Everyone knows I’m not exactly keen on manners. But in some ways I am downright old fashioned. For instance, if a man I was vaguely acquainted with took a liking to me and decided the best way to win my favor would be to forward a hastily snapped pic of his, oh, how should I put this, his wang; well let’s just say there is a very short list of people who could get away with such a thing without my taking out a restraining order.

You know where I’m going with this. Proving once and for all that he is a congenital retard, Brett Favre did the above to a comely female member of the sporting press, thusly taking a bad idea and making it monumentally worse. I know, I know, allegedly. Brett Favre allegedly stuck his cell phone down his shorts and allegedly snapped the most unspectacular and tepid alleged dong pictures I have ever had the displeasure of seeing.… Read the rest

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