New Course and Workshop Booking Number

The Committee has decided to provide the Enrolments Coordinator with a mobile phone that will become our primary phone number for booking all Classes and Workshops. This has been done for several reasons including freeing up the Coordinator’s personal phone for private use, ease of handover when the coordinator travels/is unavailable, a separate voicemail for SeniorNet messages and the ability to offer WhatsApp calls.

The new Course and Workshop booking number is 021 169 6256 and takes effect immediately. Please do not use Elaine’s private phone for any further SeniorNet calls – all our documentation (paper and website) has been updated with the new number. WhatsApp users can also call or message this phone directly.

If you are concerned about the cost of making a call to a mobile phone from your landline, just make a quick (cheap) call and ask the Coordinator to call you straight back or send an email to SNKBookings@gmail.com and ask to be contacted. You can, of course, also send txt messages to the new mobile number but please include your name in the message.

Term 2 is coming up

On Monday 30^th April, we begin our Courses and Workshops for Term 2. Have a look at the programmes by clicking these images on our website (or right here) and then call to make your bookings on our new Enrolments’ number
021 169 6256

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Membership Renewal Reminder

Veronica, our Membership Coordinator is reminding you to make sure that you renew your membership before April 30 to ensure that you get your $5 discount. Membership renewal is only $25 per person or $45 per couple.

After 1 May, Membership renewal is $30 per person or $50 per couple. Members will have received an email from Veronica Kemp on 2 March, explaining how you can pay your subscriptions.

New Courses and Workshops – What would you like us to do?

If you have an idea for a Workshop topic then please tell us by either contacting the Learning Centre by phone  04 299 0754 or by email kapiti@seniornet.co.nz or talk to a member of the Committee.

Windows Live Mail – Getting Old and Creaky!

Many of our members are still using Windows Live Mail on their Windows 10 computers. While the application is still working fine, we are becoming increasingly nervous about how much longer it will continue to work properly. Microsoft have already issued veiled warnings about this obsolete application and we have also seen several cracks appearing in the program with certain features not working as they should. We can expect these “cracks” to grow (and multiply) over time as Microsoft continue to evolve Windows 10. This note is not intended to frighten people and we have no indications of impending doom! We do however want to warn everyone that one day in the not too distant future, Windows Live Mail is likely to stop working.

We want to encourage our members using Windows Live Mail to start planning to move away from this eMail application and to consider shifting to the Windows (10) Mail application already available on their systems. Every term we are running an
Email Using Windows Mail Course (2 weeks) and we would strongly encourage users of Windows Live Mail to act early, learn how to use this exciting, easy to use, new mail program and start the move away from Windows Live Mail before you are backed into a corner.

As a member of SeniorNet Kapiti, you are well positioned to avoid any disruption should Windows Live Mail start faltering but only if you are proactive.  This coming term our Email Using Windows Mail course starts on Monday 21 May at 9:30am ($15). To book, call 021 169 6256 and reserve your seat.

Yet Another New Scam!

Well, guess what? There’s another scam in town and this time they’re targeting your mobile phone. It’s called the “Wangiri Scam”. If you own a mobile phone of any type, you should be very wary of this one!!

How does it work? Quite simply, and it preys on your thoughtful/considerate nature to steal money from you. Firstly, you get a phone call from a very strange number
(eg +88xxxxxxxxx or 0023xxxxxxxxx). Your phone only rings a couple of times – not long enough for you to actually answer it. Then they hang up. They are trying to get you to call them back PLEASE DON’T EVER CALL BACK.

How are you being scammed? If you do call the number back, your return call will be routed through a service which charges you (like an 0900 number). They then deduct money from your mobile phone account as if you are making an International Phone Call…only much more – I’ve heard of amounts up to $30 and there’s no guarantee that your mobile phone provider can recover the money.

Our advice if very simple PLEASE DON’T EVER CALL BACK a number you don’t know. If it’s a legitimate caller, they will call you back and hang on much longer than two rings. If you simply ignore these calls, you won’t get drawn into the scam.

Our Website – Staying Connected!

Our Website has information to help our members keep up to date with what is happening in and around the Learning Centre, along with interesting articles and of course the latest timetables for courses and workshops. The website is very easy to use and if you want to be informed when new articles appear, you need to click on the “follow” button which appears at the bottom right-hand side of your browser. You can do it right now!

Enter your email address and click Sign me up. After that, you will get a short email from “Wordpress” when new material is posted.

Your email address is always kept in the strictest confidence and never shared with anyone else.

 

Printers for sale.

We have two Brother Colour Laser printers for sale that we no longer need;

<== Brother HL4150CND
& a Brother HL3170CDW==>
Both are in good condition.
Make an offer to
Peter Thomson (pthomson49@gmail.com)
if you are interested.

 From the Chair… Facebook Data Issue – update

As you may or may not know Cambridge Analytical paid 270,000 Facebook users to download and complete a “My Digital Life” quiz.  What these users may not have been aware of was that because of the Facebook settings on their accounts, not only was their information available to Cambridge Analytical, but also the information of their friends, and then their friends, and so on and so on until this estimate of 87 million pops up. This number includes the 64,000 Kiwis who may have been affected.  In New Zealand, only 10 Facebook users actually filled out the quiz and yet that blossomed into potentially affecting 64,000 of us.  This is a perfect illustration of how interconnected we are in the digital space.

Facebook can be an amazing tool for keeping in touch with friends and family, but it can also lead us down the path of oversharing.

Here are a few tips about Facebook use;

• Beware of those fun ‘quizzes’ and apps
  Every quiz on Facebook (for example I recently took one called “Your Movie Star Match”) gathers information like your gender, your age, and your interests. While I found out that my movie star match was Cary Grant, I also was giving away valuable information free, which allowed others to make money.
• Change your privacy settings
  Tap the drop-down arrow on the top-right of Facebook, choose ‘Settings’ and then select ‘Privacy’. From here, you can control who sees your posts, your phone number, your friend requests and more. Consider changing these settings so that only you can see this data. Remember: If a friend takes a quiz like the one mentioned above, they could be giving up their friends list, which includes you.
• Remind your Facebook friends to protect themselves
  If your friends are not using strict privacy settings, then photos and other posts you are tagged in could still be shared or viewed by others. Facebook explicitly says this: “Remember, your friends’ control who can see their friendships on their own Timelines. If people can see your friendship on another timeline, they’ll be able to see it in News Feed, search and other places on Facebook.” Consider “friending” only people you know and trust.
• Look long and hard at those third-party apps that you get via Facebook
  When you install games and other apps that are available through Facebook, you may be allowing those apps to tap into your personal data, including your name, profile picture, gender, networks, username, friends list and other public information. To manage what an app has access to go to Settings and select ‘Apps’ on the left side of the screen. You usually need to share your personal information just to use the app, but you can deselect the option to share your friends list, email address and more.
• Turn on extra security settings in Facebook
  To access these extra settings, go to Facebook’s Settings page, select ‘Security and Login’ from the left side and scroll down to the ‘Setting Up Extra Security’ section. Remember, though, Apps and friends can still share some of this data regardless of whether they are logged in to your account or not.
• If you’re truly concerned it may be time to delete your Facebook account
  This is the ‘burning your bridges’ option, but if you are very worried, or just worn out by Facebook it may be the solution for you. One of the newest posts on our Seniornet Kapiti website advocates for this action and details how to make it happen.  This truly is the best way to stop oversharing, but remember what you have already shared is still out there.
• Just a note, I from time to time go ‘Facebook Dark’ and deactivate my account. This means my information and posts are still out there, but I am not posting, reading, or sharing anything.

 Facebook Issue (one further comment)

There is also an excellent article on our Website (It Never Ends) which comments on the current issues about Facebook and its problems with data disclosure and privacy.

Have fun computing

Chair Teresa

Sponsorship

Please support our sponsors: Noel Leeming, Vodafone, Westpac Bank and Grey Power. Remember to take your SeniorNet card with you as substantial discounts are given on most items at Noel Leeming (not just computers!).