What can phone hackers get from you?

My recent post on the News of the World newspaper has made me think about the ease of phone hacking. If investigators, reporters and editors of the tabloid found it easy to hack the phones of victims, does that mean my phone is easily accessible to phone hackers? It is quite a scary thought isn't it?

I own a Blackberry Torch Smartphone. Before I purchased this mobile I had a Samsung Ericsson, purely for the fact it had enough data space to save all my favorite songs and that was it. There wasn't much more to it. When everyone around me was buying either a Blackberry or an I-phone, and the media was constantly advertising smartphones I began to get curious, and we all know the saying "Curiosity killed the cat!"

I can't imagine life without a smartphone. Scuse the pun but they are smart! I use it to check my emails, to get Facebook and Twitter alerts, to message my other blackberry contacts for free, to get directions, and to get alerted on important dates to remember. As you can tell my smartphone holds so much information about me. I check it regularly and probably would feel lost without it. I love being able to use the internet freely especially in conversations that turn into "I don't know, Google it!"

However, amongst all the benefits of being a smartphone owner there are some negatives. When society used old mobiles we were all less vunerable to phone hacking. We are now opening up to the threats and making ourselves more prone to internet Issues. Hackers can find out all sorts of information so although technology is  a high demand to us we should ask if we are being safe? Would we be better owning a stone age phone?

Why after 168 years the News of the World will stop?

It was recently announced News of the World was going to stop publishing after 168 years of circulation. I couldn't believe it! My father has brought the English newspaper for as long as I can remember and I'm sure it was the same in most households. This newspaper was the one to buy on a Sunday, but now are we just suppose to stop because it is being shut down? Is it as simple as that?

The News of the World was killed off due to a crisis over a phone- hacking scandal. It was said to have hacked in the phones of a murdered teenager (Milly Dowler), relatives of other murdered children, victims of the London bombing, and the families of soldiers who were killed in Afghanistan or Iraq. This is absolutely disgusting and a successful organisation like NOTW should not felt the need to do this just to generate a story. I fully understand the hatred towards the paper. It is a toxic brand and investigators as well as reporters should be ashamed. Personally I feel the chief executive Rupert Murdoch had to shut down because it would have been too difficult to build the brand reputation back whether they did or didn't hack phones.

For example, London Retailers stopped selling the NOTW before it was culminated and prompted other retailers to do the same.The allegations against the paper was enough for people to stop buying it and reading it. People have been affected by the hacking and in my eyes at least shops are considering the feelings of their community. We can now spend our money on honest and hardworking newspapers!

T.K.Maxx raised an astonishing £300,000 for Comic Relief 2011

Usually I go out on Friday night’s, let my hair down and catch up with good friends. This Friday I decided to continue working, stay in and watch some T.V. Shamefully I had forgotten it was red nose day, but when I tuned into BBC I was reminded with ‘red nose day on red button’.  I decided to do my uni work with the programme on in the background- especially as my attention span isn’t the greatest when it comes to watching T.V anyway! But there it was a programme with coverage of the live events that had taken place to raise money for poor and vulnerable people across UK and Africa. I couldn’t help but think why have I never donated money? I started to watch the show carefully where I was surprised to see the whole country coming together to make a difference. I then started to think of all the ways people were trying to raise money, and then it dawned on me- T.K.maxx had window advertisements for red nose day t-shirts the other day when I was in town. I was only passing but I thought it was a great idea to make money and get recognition for their brand…I continued to watch when host- Davina Mccoll slowed the atmosphere right down to tell us of an amazing comic relief corporate partner.

To my surprise it was T.K.Maxx! I didn’t know this but T.K.Maxx have supported red nose day since 2004. I decided to look through their website www.tkmaxx.com  where they stated: ‘We conduct our business with integrity’. As I read on, it come to my attention T.K.Maxx participate in several charity schemes and take a responsible and ethical approach to the way they do business.  This was evident on Friday 18^th March where T.K.Maxx raised over £300,000,000 from their 100% fairtrade cotton red nose day tshirts, what an achievement!  I have always enjoyed shopping at T.K.Maxx but now I feel like I want to spend my money in there more.

The tkmaxxblog suggests the store wanted to do ‘something funny for money’ which is why iconic British fashion designer Vivienne Westwood  teamed up with T.K.Maxx and designed t-shirts that represented humour and historical imagery. The campaign has been greatly successful and has even been seen on many celebrities including; Sienna Miller/ Helena Christensen/ Ant & Dec/ Sophie Dahl and Bryan Adams. I am amazed by T.K.Maxx for not just participating in the raising money for charity but for going to great depth in doing so, and getting thousands of people to buy a t.shirt.

Thankyou T.K.Maxx for your great contribution!!!