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Companies Like Doordash Share Your Purchases With Facebook

Andrew Orr ·

Thomas Smith dug into his Facebook settings and downloaded a copy of his data. In a section introduced this year called Off Facebook Activity, he found that companies like Doordash send data about your purchases to Facebook.

If you’ve bought an item on myriad e-commerce websites, made a donation to a political campaign, used any of several hundred participating apps, or, in my case, bought a wildly expensive bubble tea, there’s a good chance Facebook knows about it. What are they doing with this knowledge? Again, it’s pretty clear. It’s there so it can “show you more relevant ads,” “help you discover new businesses and brands,” and the like.

He also sounds incredibly guilty for buying bubble tea through Doordash.

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TestFlight Beta for NextDNS iOS 14 is Here

Andrew Orr ·

NextDNS for iOS 14 is now available as a TestFlight beta. It uses the encrypted DNS feature introduced with iOS 14.

The first beta of NextDNS for iOS 14 is now available at:https://testflight.apple.com/join/AFDFPLP3

This version uses the new Encrypted DNS feature of iOS 14, removing the need for the fake-VPN trick used in iOS 13 and below.

The new iOS 14 feature means three things. First, DNS apps will no longer need to set up a fake VPN profile for you to use the service. Second, these DNS settings will work over cellular, whereas in the past it would only work over Wi-Fi unless you used said fake VPN profile. Third, this means that if you have a real VPN app, you can set it to use the OpenVPN protocol. Because of the fake VPN profile created by DNS apps, you had to use the IKEv2 VPN protocol if you wanted to use the VPN and DNS apps at the same time.

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Apple Employee 'Close Your Rings' Fitness Challenge is Back

Charlotte Henry ·

Apple’s ‘Close Your Rings’ employee fitness challenge returned this week. It sets staff the challenge of closing all three of their Apple Watch Activity rings every day of the month. Usually, it takes place in February, which is designated as Heart Month. However, it was postponed this year due to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to an Apple employee that spoke to MacRumors, Apple is reinstating the challenge this week, with the event expected to end on August 16. Employees who finish the challenge will be rewarded with a t-shirt that says “2020” in a logo with ‌Apple Watch‌ Activity-style rings. Employees who complete the challenge each day will earn a “gold” ranking and will receive a gold pin along with their t-shirt, and there are also silver and bronze rewards accompanied by silver and bronze pins.

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Instagram Introduces New Way to Fundraise for Personal Causes

Charlotte Henry ·

Instagram is rolling out a new way to fundraise. Parent company Facebook made the announcement in a blog posted, published on Tuesday. The tool will be made available to users in the U.S., UK, and Ireland over the coming months.

We’re making it easier to create fundraisers directly on Instagram that benefit such personal causes. To create a Personal Fundraiser tap Edit Profile, Add Fundraiser and then Raise Money. Choose a photo, select a fundraiser category and add details to help tell your story and encourage others to donate. Then you’ll enter your information for Stripe, our payment processor for donations. And when you’re finished, you’ll tap Send to submit your fundraiser for review. All fundraisers go through a review process to make sure they are for eligible causes. Once approved, you can start raising money. Each fundraiser lasts 30 days, but can be extended as many times as you want. You must be at least 18 years old to create a fundraiser.

‘TempMail’ Gives You Disposable Email Addresses
Cool Stuff Found

‘TempMail’ Gives You Disposable Email Addresses

Andrew Orr ·

Temp Mail is the service I use when I need disposable email addresses. No registration is required. You can instantly generate a new address, copy it to the clipboard or use a QR code, receive attachments like regular email, download EML sources (including attachments) and more. There’s also an optional premium subscription that gives you features like custom email names, premium domains, multiple mailboxes, no ads, and extended email storage. App Store: Free (Offers In-App Purchases) You can also use the web tool.

‘SW-DL’ Shortcut Brings YouTube-DL to iOS
Cool Stuff Found

‘SW-DL’ Shortcut Brings YouTube-DL to iOS

Andrew Orr ·

YouTube-dl is a command line tool that lets you download videos from websites, although it’s commonly used for YouTube as the name suggests. With a-shell, a terminal emulator I covered, it’s possible to install the downloader on your iPad and iPhone. Someone also created a shortcut for youtube-dl (Reddit post here, shortcut link below). Note that it currently crashes on the iOS/iPadOS 14 betas. It’s possible to install youtube-dl in a-shell with the command “pip install youtube-dl.” Since I’m running the betas, I’m going to tinker with using a-shell.

Podcast

TMO Contributor Kelly Guimont (#12) - BGM Interview

John Martellaro · · Add Comment

Kelly Guimont is a long-time podcaster, Contributing Editor for The Mac Observer, the host of the Mac Observer’s Daily Observations podcast, and a tech support guru.

In her 12th appearance, Kelly and I chat about our favorite movies and TV shows of late. I open segment #1 with an extended review of the Tom Hanks movie Greyhound (Apple TV+). Next we turn to a Kelly favorite Black Monday (Showtime). I then talk about two favorite murder mystery TV shows Death in Paradise S9 (Amazon) and The Mentalist (Amazon). Kelly tells us about Romancing the Stone (DVD) and Billions (Showtime). Join us as we explore together what’s great about these shows.

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Apple Supplier on List of Human Rights-Abusing Firms

Charlotte Henry ·

The U.S. Department of Commerce added a further 11 Chinese firms to its list of those involved in human rights violations, CNET reported. Violations include attacks on Muslim minority groups. One of those, Nanchang O-Film Tech, is known to have associations with Apple.

The Commerce Department said the group of 11 companies that supported “mass arbitrary detention, forced labor, involuntary collection of biometric data and genetic analysis” targeted at Uighurs and other minority groups will face restrictions on US products, including technology. “Beijing actively promotes the reprehensible practice of forced labor and abusive DNA collection and analysis schemes to repress its citizens,” Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross said in a statement Monday. “This action will ensure that our goods and technologies are not used in the Chinese Communist Party’s despicable offensive against defenseless Muslim minority populations.”

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iPhone Wrapped in Tin Foil Found at Ghislaine Maxwell's Home

Charlotte Henry ·

An iPhone wrapped in tin foil was amongst the possessions found at Ghislaine Maxwell’s hidden New Hampshire home. Ms. Maxwell is accused of being a conspirator of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The tale is amongst a collection of Apple-related crime stories rounded up by AppleInsider.

When the New Hampshire home of Ghislaine Maxwell, the ex-girlfriend and accused co-conspirator of the late mogul and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, was raided last month, FBI agents found a cell phone wrapped in tin foil among her possessions. According to federal prosecutors, as cited by CNN, the phone was “a seemingly misguided effort to evade detection, not by the press or public, which of course would have no ability to trace her phone or intercept her communications, but by law enforcement.” It’s not clear if the phone was an iPhone, but Vanity Fair reported that Maxwell had an iPhone, iPad, and laptop with her during her time living incognito. Maxwell, who has been charged with federal crimes including enticing a minor to travel to engage in criminal sexual activity, has pled not guilty.