So I was banned from my own Fortress.

[The Curmudgeon]

Talk about a revolution, usurped from my own kingdom.

But this wasn't the peasants and the servants uprising to banish me from my own kingdom, it was actually pretty damn strange.

So there I was, business as usual, checking the internet on my phone on the way to work. But then, hmmm.. a wrestling page I go on had banned me and my IP address. Being banned from websites and Facebook groups is nothing to new to the Curmudgeon, but I'd been behaving on this one. Why was I banned? And I couldn't even visit the page to ask WHY I'd been banned, as soon as I tried I saw a white screen giving my IP address and letting me know that I was screwed.

And what was even weirder - this place was doing it too. Now I know I hadn't banned myself, so I thought I'd been hacked, that someone had gained access to my phone and installed a virus or some shit. Then Twitter didn't work. Then my e-mails wouldn't send. Holy shit. What was going on?

It took two days for me to work it out. I'd recently installed an app as part of a survey that was going to pay me cash to track my everyday actions; where I traveled, what shops I visited, what websites I went onto.. all that. What the hell, I didn't have anything to hide, what could be the harm?

Apple clearly didn't agree, and it was my iPhone that suddenly stopped playing ball once I'd installed this app. I guess being able to track your iPhone is one thing, but having third party companies tracking you is clearly something else. Once I uninstalled the app (I'd actually forgotten I'd installed it) everything went back to normal. But I didn't get an error message or a warning from Apple, they just shut that shit down.

So heed this warning, friends. I don't know how Samsung or Sony feel about it on their Android devices, but Apple really don't like you letting other people track you. I wrote to the company involved to tell them that their new app was effectively killing people's iPhones, but I've not heard any response back. Here endeth the lesson.

[trashcanman]

Oh ma, I avoid any questionable apps like nobody's business. It's bad enough that Amazon is constantly throwing questionable Comixology adverts in my face all the time, but I really don't need other companies piling on. And those surveys never actually end up paying out for me. They just loop me round and round and string me along with bullshit until I finally say "fuck it".

[Ben]

I'm too paranoid to ever willingly allow anyone to track my whereabouts, especially since it'd probably just result in extra spam email from Chinese retailers selling the same things I look at in stores (Amazon is already king of this), but consider it duly noted that some phone security shuts that shit down. Good to know.

Have to agree with Trashcanman about surveys, too. I used to do that stuff until I realized I never got anything useful out of it and it just encouraged email spam. No thanks.

[The Curmudgeon]

I wonder if it's different in the UK, because I get paid in Amazon vouchers, and since I started doing these survey's last year, and I'm not sitting hammering away at them 24/7 I only do a couple a day, I've managed to get the following:

3 Books
6 DVD's
2 Blu-Rays
29 CD's
2 board games
3 PS4 games
1 iPhone pocket charger
3 iPhone charging cables
£20 PSN credit
2 Lego Dimensions packs


That's since about March last year. Not a king's ransom or anything but definitely worth it and has completely dominated my CD collection. If you like I can send you the links to the survey sites I use.