Tag: address

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Beware of Strava: the popular social network for athletes allows you to track your address


Researchers at North Carolina State University in Raleigh (United States) have discovered that global activity maps or heat maps from the Strava application are capable of revealing where is the address from some active users.

Strava is a platform that has more than 30 types of activities with features that help athletes explore, socialize and monitor their progress. This service has a global activity map or heat map, a feature introduced in 2018 that marks users’ physical activity anonymously. Thanks to it, they can find out which are the most traveled cycling routes or practicable trails, which allows them to improve brands or compare times with those registered by other users.

The study that has been carried out shows that, with these heat maps, the privacy of these users is violated. According to what they say, it is possible to know where your home is located, knowing the place of start and end of the registered physical activity.

Specifically, in a document that explains how they have reached this conclusion, the analysts indicate that the app allows the address of some users of the application to be identified. very active residing in remote areas.

While it is true that these heat maps record activity anonymously, researchers have found that “in areas with few active Strava users, the heat generated by an individual may be clearly visible.”

Therefore, the addresses of the houses of specific users can be discovered “effectively” based on the activity of the users and the amount of heat that is generated in that city, according to the signatories of this research.

To reach this conclusion, the recorded data was collected for a whole month and publicly available through the Strava heat map, belonging to the states of Arkansas, Ohio and North Carolina, in the United States.

Once this information was collected, image analyzes were carried out to detect areas of beginning and end of physical activity. In this way, it was possible to link the houses with the sources of activity, that is, with the users.

After comparing these data, the researchers They created maps with various zoom levels, using OpenStreetMap. Thus they were able to identify the individual addresses of these residences.

Next, a section of the user application was accessed that they had registered a specific city as their location. This could have been done unknowingly when downloading and configuring the platform.

Once this data has been gathered and accessed to public data of these users, such as timestamps or distances traveled, they were able to filter to rule out matching profiles. Furthermore, their identities could be correlated with the location of their homes by extracting information from their accounts, such as real registration names and profile photos.

From this report, in addition, they clarify that the users with the greatest probability of being located in a certain house were those who registered increased physical activity in heat maps. This is because more information about them could be collected.

So much so that, after combining the data with the OpenStreetMap maps, the researchers point out that “with the threshold of 100 meters and the publication of 308 activities, the possibility of being discovered is 37.5 percent.”

The Strava Clarification

As a result of this investigation, Strava wanted to clarify in a statement sent to BleepingComputer that “does not track users or share data without their permission” and that heat maps don’t show that heat “unless multiple people have completed an activity in a given area.”

Likewise, it has been recalled that any platform user who does not wish to contribute to these global activity maps they can deactivate it through data usage control.

However, he has said that is “continually strengthening privacy tools” and offering more information to users about features to control their privacy experience.

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What to do if you can’t save IP address settings in Windows 10


What to do if you can’t save IP address settings in Windows 10

In case you get an error when changing the IP, first check that the input does not have any typos. Proceed to the methods in the article if you are sure you have entered everything correctly.

Method 1: Replace the subnet mask with the prefix length

Normally, Windows automatically obtains an IP address, but sometimes when manually substituting the address, subnet mask, and other data in network connections, an error appears that the settings cannot be saved.

In the latest versions of the Windows 10 operating system, this IP problem is becoming more and more frequent. This is because the subnet mask values ​​specified above no longer work, since you must specify the length of the subnet prefix. Before the IP setting was written as 255.255.255.0, now you must use a length of 24. It can range from 1-64 for IPv4 and 1-128 for IPv6.

Since the problem occurs during an IP address change, it doesn’t make sense to describe the algorithm for going to system configuration with a parameter change. To fix the error, try changing the values ​​for subnet: from mask to prefix length.

The problem is how to know which prefix length corresponds to a given subnet mask value. The data including the 32-bit address used with the node address is found in the following table:

You can also calculate the length of the subnet prefix yourself. As we are used to, the mask is decimal and you have to convert it to binary and then calculate how many 1’s there are in a continuous sequence. For example, for a 255.0.0.0 mask, the 32-bit address is 11111111.00000000.00000000.00000000, which means there are 8 units, so the prefix length is 8.

Also read: Translate numbers online

Method 2: Configure the IP in the network connections panel

Try to change the IPv4 or IPv6 data in another way: through the network connections section in the classic “Control Panel”:

  • To go directly to the “Network Connections” window, to bring up the “Run” dialog at the same time you press the “Win ​​+ R” keys. In the special line, enter ncpa.cpl and press the “OK” button. or press the “Enter” button.
  • In the list that appears, locate the connection in use, right-click on its name and select “Properties” from the menu.
  • A list of components will appear in which you must select the protocol to edit, for example “IP Version (TCP/IPv4)”, highlight it and press the “Properties” button. below.
  • Check the items with manual editing and enter the necessary values ​​for the IP address and other settings. Save the settings.

    • Note that in this case you have to enter the subnet mask and not the prefix length as in the previous method.

    Method 3: “Windows PowerShell”

    You can also change the IP network settings through the Windows 10 console – “PowerShell”, – using special commands.

  • Run “Windows PowerShell” as administrator. Click on the “Start” icon. right-click and select the appropriate option from the context menu.
  • Enter the netsh interface ip show config command to open the list of network equipment with its parameters and press the «Enter» key. Pay attention to the line where there is information about the active adapter and remember its name.
  • Next, enter the following command with the parameters corresponding to the network configuration – netsh interface ip set address name= “имя сети” static IP-адрес маска подсети шлюз. In our case it will be like this: netsh interface ip set address name= “Ethernet” static 192.168.1.2 255.255.255.0 192.168.1.1. Press the Enter key to apply the settings.

    • This method may work if you change your network settings through the “Settings” app. fails due to error. In this way, the IP saving error can be resolved.

    Method 4: Reset network settings

    Resetting your network adapter and getting rid of unable to save IP settings error can help reset TCP/IP settings, which means resetting your computer’s network settings to zero. This can be done in a number of ways, including the “Settings” app. и «Command line». There is also an option to completely reinstall the network hardware driver. Our separate material describes the reset procedure in more detail.

    Read more: Ways to reset network settings in Windows 10

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    What is a “billing address” on Steam?

    What is a “billing address” on Steam?

    Steam users have a number of different ways to pay for games and top up their account. While in the past it was limited to purchasing with a credit or debit card, today it is possible to use almost any payment system that accepts both cards and virtual wallets. Speaking of the latter, we should mention that you can use such popular electronic payment systems as WebMoney, QIWI, PayPal and others to buy games on Steam.

    However, bank cards, as such, do not lose their relevance – they are still used by a large number of active and not so active users of Steam. At the same time, newcomers have doubts about the connection of this payment method with Steam. One of the most frequent is the following: “What is a billing address on Steam?”. It arises directly in the process of adding and/or updating a payment method, and the term “billing address” is the least obvious and most obscure of all, presented as follows:

    Settlement Address on Steam

    A billing address on Steam is essentially an analogue of a home address, a place where you can send physical (paper) statements for purchases made on the game store, if necessary. It can be the actual place of residence or the residence registration according to the passport. The information about it must be specified in the corresponding field together with the bank card number, its expiration date, the name of the holder, the city of residence (or city of issuance of the card), the postal code and other data ( for example, mobile phone number) in cases where a payment method is added for the first time or an existing one is changed to another.

    Unlike card number, phone number, and first and last name, the information in the “billing address” field does not have to be real (at least if you don’t plan to receive physical statements from Stim). Still, it is better to enter the real address or at least part of it, that is, it is not necessary to specify the settlement, the street, its number and the apartment number – as you can see on the first screenshot, it is It is enough to specify only the first one, especially since you can always change this information.

    How to specify/modify a billing address on Steam

    Being one of those users who came across the notion of “Settlement Address” on Steam in fact, that is, by filling in the payment method details, you already know without our help how to “get” to this section in the app-client. and/or the official website. For everyone else, we’ll tell you where and how this information is specified and how you can change it if or when you need it.

  • While on any page of the Steam app, click on the miniature downward pointing triangle between your profile name and the amount of money in your wallet (or 0.00 otherwise) , which are located in the upper right corner of the main window.
  • Select the item. “About the account”
  • Once you are on your account information page, click on “Change the payment method associated with this account”.
  • You will be redirected to the corresponding page where you can modify your payment details. By the way, the same page can be accessed by following the link below (you will be asked to log into your account with your username and password).

    Stim payment method change pageIn the card selection field, specify the payment system to which you belong: Visa, MasterCard, American Express (or other, depending on the country in which your Steam account is registered) or a virtual wallet, and then click “Continue”.

  • Fill in all the necessary fields to change and/or link the new payment method, that is, provide the following information:
    • Payment system;
    • Card number (or electronic wallet number);
    • Validity period and security code (for a bank card);
    • Name and surname of the account holder;
    • City of residence;
    • Billing Address;
    • Postal Code;
    • Country;
    • Phone.

    After filling in all these fields or only the ones that are required, click on “Continue”.

    • Also read: How to buy a game on Steam

    In this way, you will not only add a new payment method or change an existing one in Steam, but you will also specify “Settlement address”, because now you know what it is. As it is easy to guess, similar to the previous algorithm of actions, you can not only link a new card or wallet to your account, but also simply change the billing address, if necessary.

    Conclusion:

    In this short article, we’ve covered what a billing address is on Steam, why you need to specify it (and whether to do it completely correctly), and how to change it if the need arises.

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    Change and find PS5 MAC address?


    Where do you actually find the MAC address of the PlayStation 5? Can you change the MAC address on the PS5 and if so, where can you find the setting option? This question may concern one or other Sony console owner who either wants to bypass a MAC filter on the router or the parental controls set up on the router. On a PC/laptop you can change and “spoof” the MAC address relatively easily, but what does it actually look like on the PlayStation 5?

    Change the MAC address of the PlayStation 5?

    The short answer is, no, you cannot change the MAC address of the PS5 or spoof it. Unlike the IP address, for example, you cannot set the MAC address manually and without jailbreaking the console there are no options to change the unique hardware address of the PS5’s network adapter.

    Where do you find the MAC address? The MAC address can be displayed via the settings under “System” and “System Information”. Depending on whether you connected the console to the router via a LAN cable or via WLAN, you must then use the corresponding MAC address.

    Connect a WLAN stick to the PS5 and change the MAC address?

    If you can’t change the MAC address of the PlayStation 5 itself, you can’t simply connect a WiFi stick to the console and use it to connect to the router, after all, the WiFi stick has a different MAC address. Unfortunately, we have bad news here too, because unfortunately that doesn’t work. The only way you can bypass a MAC filter with the PS5 would be to open a hotspot with your cell phone, which is also connected via WLAN to the router where the MAC address filter is activated. This way you can build a “bridge” with your cell phone and bypass the router parental controls with a PlayStation 5.

    If a way is found in the meantime to change the MAC address on the PS5 without jailbreaking, then we will of course update this article.