Smartphones and ubiquitous internet access have paved the way for digitizing most of our daily lives. We can surf the web and steam movies from anywhere. But modern technology has also managed to supplant much more mundane analog and physical things, like all the crap we’re used to carrying in our purses and wallets: ID,
Today I’m going to introduce you to Apple’s radical, internet-destroying new privacy technology: informed consent. What is App Tracking Transparency? Apple is calling its new program App Tracking Transparency (ATT). And it’s basically just what it implies – it makes ad tracking transparent to the user. Because ads are what makes the digital world go
It’s long since time that companies and customers adopt a much more pessimistic security and privacy stance. Data is not the new oil, it’s the new toxic waste. And while we need to get better at trying to contain it, it still seems to find ways to leak. And so we need to assume that
I don’t do book reviews often. (If you’re counting, that’s two.) But I’m utterly compelled to write about Privacy is Power by Carissa Véliz. I’m truly not prone to hyperbole, but I feel this is one of the most important books of our time. You need to read it. Our privacy is under assault like
Every year on January 28th, we take a day to specifically focus on our data privacy. Of course, we should be cognizant of this issue 24/7/365, but sometimes it’s just good to have a bunch of Data Privacy Day Champions (like me) remind you about it from time to time. And what better day than
[LAST UPDATED 11/28/2020: See the additional notes below the original article. This story evolved quickly and there were several important new pieces of information, including an official response from Apple.] Apple released a big update to its Mac operating system: macOS 11, aka Big Sur. While this release has several new and interesting features, including
Zoom went from an obscure teleconferencing company to a household word (a verb) when the pandemic hit. Zoom wasn’t the best videoconferencing app by any means. It lacked many key features like true end-to-end encryption and had some serious data oversharing problems. But Zoom was dead simple to use and kinda fun to say. For
One of the major perks of modern smartphones is the built-in camera. When was the last time you actually carried (or bought) a separate camera? I used to love the little Canon Elph cameras because they were small enough to carry around on a belt holster. But it’s gathering dust now because my iPhone arguably
If you haven’t heard of TikTok, you’re probably not a teen. This relatively new social media service is very popular with the younger generation. It’s been downloaded 1.5 billion times. With this app, you can share short videos and … well, you know, goofy social media stuff. I’m old. I don’t get it, either. The
Apple and Google have proposed a method of doing contact tracing using the Bluetooth on our smartphones. It’s done using fancy cryptography and such, but I wanted to explain the basic mechanics in a simple way. Skip down to the bottom if you just want that part. We are all now learning way more about
