The main reason that spy phone software is a growing problem in business is that everyone has a cell phone, from the person in the mailroom to the CEO. Smart phones are everywhere and it is a rare executive or manager who does not have a Blackberry or an iPhone. Any one of these phones can have spyware on them – known or unknown to the person who owns the phone.This software, installed on a phone, gives the spy access to a lot of information about a company and leaves no trace of who is responsible or even if confidential information has been leaked. The spy could be a dishonest employee or a loyal employee who does not know that the spyware has been installed on the phone.What Spy Software Can DoInformation is power, and if your competitor knows your every move and can listen in on confidential meetings and decisions, they will have a tremendous advantage. Yes it is illegal. It is also very easy to do and very difficult to get caught. Employees found with spyware on their phones can claim that they did not install it and did not know it was there. This would be very hard to check, if you could detect the spyware to begin with.Spyware installed covertly on the phone of a CEO or top executive of the company would enable the spy to listen in to confidential conversations near the phone. A competitor with access to this information could cause a lot of damage.Removing the spyware from your own phone, does not address the problem of the dishonest employee who may be selling information gained through the spyware. Client lists, lawyers, business partners, and all the conversations with these people are no longer confidential.Protection From SpyingWhat kinds of steps can be taken to protect the confidential information? Banning all cell phones from the work place would be punishing innocent people who need their phones to do their work and keep in touch with family members.The company could provide everyone with a smart phone and track all the phones provided. As owners of the phones, the company can legally monitor them – as long as the employees know this is being done. This would also put the company in a position to ask that all phones come in regularly to be wiped clean of any spyware that may have been installed covertly. These kinds of measures would increase everyone’s awareness of spying software and make it more difficult for spying to be carried on in the workplace.To assume a conversation over a cell phone, or near a cell phone, is confidential is a mistake. Take precautions; don’t discuss confidential information on the phone or near a phone. Remember, you may not have spy software on your phone, but the other person may have it on theirs.
Tag Archives: services
What Are The Greatest Changes In Shopping In Your Lifetime
What are the greatest changes in shopping in your lifetime? So asked my 9 year old grandson.
As I thought of the question the local Green Grocer came to mind. Because that is what the greatest change in shopping in my lifetime is.
That was the first place to start with the question of what are the greatest changes in shopping in your lifetime.
Our local green grocer was the most important change in shopping in my lifetime. Beside him was our butcher, a hairdresser and a chemist.
Looking back, we were well catered for as we had quite a few in our suburb. And yes, the greatest changes in shopping in my lifetime were with the small family owned businesses.
Entertainment While Shopping Has Changed
Buying butter was an entertainment in itself.
My sister and I often had to go to a favourite family grocer close by. We were always polite as we asked for a pound or two of butter and other small items.
Out came a big block of wet butter wrapped in grease-proof paper. Brought from the back of the shop, placed on a huge counter top and included two grooved pates.
That was a big change in our shopping in my lifetime… you don’t come across butter bashing nowadays.
Our old friendly Mr. Mahon with the moustache, would cut a square of butter. Lift it to another piece of greaseproof paper with his pates. On it went to the weighing scales, a bit sliced off or added here and there.
Our old grocer would then bash it with gusto, turning it over and over. Upside down and sideways it went, so that it had grooves from the pates, splashes going everywhere, including our faces.
My sister and I thought this was great fun and it always cracked us up. We loved it, as we loved Mahon’s, on the corner, our very favourite grocery shop.
Grocery Shopping
Further afield, we often had to go to another of my mother’s favourite, not so local, green grocer’s. Mr. McKessie, ( spelt phonetically) would take our list, gather the groceries and put them all in a big cardboard box.
And because we were good customers he always delivered them to our house free of charge. But he wasn’t nearly as much fun as old Mr. Mahon. Even so, he was a nice man.
All Things Fresh
So there were very many common services such as home deliveries like:
• Farm eggs
• Fresh vegetables
• Cow’s milk
• Freshly baked bread
• Coal for our open fires
Delivery Services
A man used to come to our house a couple of times a week with farm fresh eggs.
Another used to come every day with fresh vegetables, although my father loved growing his own.
Our milk, topped with beautiful cream, was delivered to our doorstep every single morning.
Unbelievably, come think of it now, our bread came to us in a huge van driven by our “bread-man” named Jerry who became a family friend.
My parents always invited Jerry and his wife to their parties, and there were many during the summer months. Kids and adults all thoroughly enjoyed these times. Alcohol was never included, my parents were teetotallers. Lemonade was a treat, with home made sandwiches and cakes.
The coal-man was another who delivered bags of coal for our open fires. I can still see his sooty face under his tweed cap but I can’t remember his name. We knew them all by name but most of them escape me now.
Mr. Higgins, a service man from the Hoover Company always came to our house to replace our old vacuum cleaner with an updated model.
Our insurance company even sent a man to collect the weekly premium.
People then only paid for their shopping with cash. This in itself has been a huge change in shopping in my lifetime.
In some department stores there was a system whereby the money from the cash registers was transported in a small cylinder on a moving wire track to the central office.
Some Of The Bigger Changes
Some of the bigger changes in shopping were the opening of supermarkets.
• Supermarkets replaced many individual smaller grocery shops. Cash and bank cheques have given way to credit and key cards.
• Internet shopping… the latest trend, but in many minds, doing more harm, to book shops.
• Not many written shopping lists, because mobile phones have taken over.
On a more optimistic note, I hear that book shops are popular again after a decline.
Personal Service Has Most Definitely Changed
So, no one really has to leave home, to purchase almost anything, technology makes it so easy to do online.
And we have a much bigger range of products now, to choose from, and credit cards have given us the greatest ease of payment.
We have longer shopping hours, and weekend shopping. But we have lost the personal service that we oldies had taken for granted and also appreciated.
Because of their frenetic lifestyles, I have heard people say they find shopping very stressful, that is grocery shopping. I’m sure it is when you have to dash home and cook dinner after a days work. I often think there has to be a better, less stressful way.
My mother had the best of both worlds, in the services she had at her disposal. With a full time job looking after 9 people, 7 children plus her and my dad, she was very lucky. Lucky too that she did not have 2 jobs.