That is why not only ads are infecting everything online, the data brokers behind them is an even worst idea. Data Broker Hack Exposes Location Info From Millions of iPhone Users - MacRumors

The upcoming Windows 11 AI ‘Recall’ feature, which is designed to take regular screenshots of a user’s PC content to help them find past information, has been called a security disaster by a security researcher. According to the expert, Kevin Beaumont, the Recall feature is essentially an “infostealer” that can be exploited by hackers to access sensitive data, such as user interactions, text messages, passwords, and websites visited. Despite Microsoft’s attempts to improve the security of Recall, the researcher claims the feature will “set cybersecurity back a decade by empowering cybercriminals” as the underlying database can be accessed through malware-infected PCs. Continue reading →

★ Holy Hell, Trump Did Use Twitter Direct Messages, There Were ‘Many’ of Them, and the Special Counsel Now Has Them
https://daringfireball.net/2023/08/holy_hell_trump_did_use_dms

Reader: mastodon.social daringfireball.net

The situation with Trump and his extensive use of Twitter and how Twitter responded to the search warrant/court order confirms that leaving Twitter was one of my best decision in a long time. Twitter’s actions to protect Trump are disgusting (telling him that there is a search warrant targeting his use of the platform). I cannot, in good faith, be on such platforms.

My experience with Pixelfed goes so well that I’m in the process of migrating my old photos from Instagram. And what comes after this migration? The IG account closure. While everyone goes wild about Threads and going in drove to Threads, I’m turning my back to this privacy nightmare and fully embracing Fediverse.

In my mind, every new platforms should start from 0 user base. Meta, just to name that one, have a monopoly of social graph. This is anti-competitive. Should Bluesky sue Meta? Should the open source community sue Meta? Yes. And yes. Remember Microsoft and Internet Explorer back in the days? Remember Apple and the App Store? We are not ready to accept this but here we are. Meta is a monopoly in my book. Continue reading →

I own 3 YubiKeys that I have for personal use. There’s one that I keep connected to the USB hub on the desk in my study, another that I keep in my work bag, and a third that I keep in the safe at my mum’s house. Source: I Won’t Buy A YubiKey - Kev Quirk

When I read stories like this one, I’m reminded of how bad I am at managing my security posture. I depend on 1Password (less and less) and (more and more) on Apple’s Keychain. Will passkeys suppress the need for YubiKeys?

I’m dropping this here. It’s a matter of time. Mark my words.

Today, you can choose not to drive a Tesla if you don’t want Elon Musk, Inc. knowing everywhere you go.

Tomorrow, you might have to limit where you live because you won’t live in a Google Home and reconsider having 20/20 vision again in exchange for the artificial lens company seeing everything you see.

Privacy is not something you can “vote with your wallet” on. We either protect it as a human right or we lose it altogether.

#privacy #humanRights #BigTech #peopleFarming #capitalism

👀🤔

For the first in years, I just bought something from eBay. Man, this website design sucks and seems to date back to the early web. Is there anyone who cares about design at eBay? Anyway, they do care about security, though. Upon logging in with my password this morning, there was a popup asking me if I wanted to get rid of my password. I thought it was the eBay website that was about to turn on the Touch ID but instead asked me to confirm the passkey creation. Continue reading →

I’m using NextDNS.io for a better web experience… not the same but it does a great job of making the web more privacy friendly and a lot faster too. Too bad that we will have to wait for iOS 15.1 or later for iCloud Private Relay. Each year there are features that get dropped from the initial release… remember iMessage in the cloud, anyone? Continue reading →

Joke of the day: “We believe that personalized ads and user privacy can coexist.”. 😂😂😂

What if nobody at Google knows exactly what their data hungry engine is all about? I mean, what if nobody has a global picture, so nobody can say “oh my god, it’s terrible, we must stop it!”. This makes me think of the nazis in second world war: very few had a global picture of what was really going on. It was devised this way so it was easier to “manage” and keep the machine humming. Continue reading →

Benjamin Mayo on FaceTime 15 in the landscape of collaboration tools like Zoom and Teams: FaceTime is more like an add-on of Messages, competing against WhatsApp and traditional phone calls if anything. You also see this in how each service handles identity; Zoom and Teams have abstracted user accounts, whereas on FaceTime you connect by sharing your personal phone number or email address — information that you only want to give out to close friends. Continue reading →

But the thread running through everything was that if you buy an Apple device, it’s yours. And it’s you. And if you buy, well, anything else, you’re just a slab of meat holding a slab of glass through which the internet will manipulate and extract data from you any way it wants. So, yeah, the garden’s walls may be high, but Apple says that’s only to keep you safe. Continue reading →

After publishing my essay on what I was hoping Apple would do in response to the developers community, Matt Birchler wrote a small response regarding my assertion about payments processing platform being a limited feature in the grand scheme of things. It appears I was wrong. Thanks to Matt blog post, I have a better view of what goes behind the scene here. That being said, Apple’s payment processing service within the App Store serves Apple’s purposes and is the one that is very narrow, very focused. Continue reading →

First: Apple is very efficient at pursuing their business model, which is based on selling overpriced, obsolete hardware to customers locked in their ecosystem," Durov wrote. “Every time I have to use an iPhone to test our iOS app I feel like I’m thrown back into the Middle Ages. The iPhone’s 60Hz displays can’t compete with the 120Hz displays of modern Android phones that support much smoother animations. And: Durov added that the worst part about Apple’s technology is not “clunkier devices or outdated hardware,” but that users who have an iPhone are a “digital slave of Apple. Continue reading →

I’m so proud of people right now: medias are reporting that 96% of them chose to protect their basic right for online privacy. I wasn’t expecting that many people to select the “Ask Not To Track” option. This is a game changer. This should serve as a clear message to businesses with business models essentially based on personal data mining and online profiling without user consent. Enough is enough. For those who are ok with hyper targeted ads, fine, but not at this cost. Continue reading →

To all my followers, have an successful Apple update day! This one has been long in coming! Don’t forget to disable app tracking as soon as you can. Best way to say “🖕🏻” to Facebook et al. Now turning to iOS 14.6 beta which seems to bring new devices support only (2021 iPad Pro). Continue reading →

Today I woke up with this idea of hating Facebook and everything they represents. For those who know me, this is nothing new. But today is one of those days where I despise Facebook more than ever. Let’s face it, again: Facebook has made massive data collection an ordinary thing. Facebook normalized global surveillance a mundane fact. Facebook is killing the pillars of democracy without fanfare. Facebook has turned most of us a beast feeders. Continue reading →

There is a lot to like in the recent Tim Cook’s interview with Kara Swisher (link to Podcast). It’s a must-listen. Here are a few observations and remarks. I love Tim Cook’s stance on issues like privacy protection. But at the same time, I have a hard time understanding how Apple can continue to sign a search deal with Google while advocating privacy protection. This is simply unsustainable and hard to defend if you ask me. Continue reading →