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Andrew Orr

Since 2015 Andrew has been writing about Apple, privacy, security, and at one point even Android. You can find him most places online under the username @andrewornot.

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Articles by Andrew Orr

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Reddit Announces Public Bug Bounty Program

Andrew Orr ·

For the past three years Reddit has maintained a privacy bug bounty program for cybersecurity researchers with HackerOne. On Thursday the company announced a public program.

With our continued growth and visibility, we’re now ready to make the program public and expand the participation to anyone wanting to make a meaningful security impact on Reddit. As we scale the program, our priority will remain focused on protecting the privacy of our user data and identities. We know each security researcher has their own skills and perspective that they bring to the program, and we encourage anyone to submit a report that shows security impact. We’re super excited to hit this milestone and have prepared our team for what’s to come.

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Adobe Releases Global Emoji Diversity & Inclusion Report

Andrew Orr ·

On Thursday Adobe released the Global Emoji Diversity & Inclusion Report. It surveyed 7,000 emoji users from around the world on how they use diverse and inclusive emojis.

Only half of global emoji users feel their identity is adequately reflected in current emoji options. More representative emoji, inclusive of different cultures, age groups, and ethnicities, are key in helping emoji users better express themselves. This goes a lot deeper than personal identification — it helps people accurately express how they are feeling.

Big Library Read’s Latest Book Club Offering is ‘The Art of Taking it Easy’
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Big Library Read’s Latest Book Club Offering is ‘The Art of Taking it Easy’

Andrew Orr ·

Overdrive’s book club called Big Library Read announced its latest entry for readers called “The Art of Taking It Easy” by psychologist and stand-up comedian Dr. Brian King. Through Libby, OverDrive’s one-tap reading app, The Art of Taking It Easy is available for free, simultaneous use access from over 20K libraries and schools worldwide through April 19. Being selected for Big Library Read provides great exposure for King, with hundreds of thousands checkouts per program and the unique opportunity for readers to interact with the author and others in the online discussion.

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Security Firm Behind iPhone Unlocking Finally Discovered

Andrew Orr ·

The security firm that unlocked the iPhone of the San Bernardino shooter has been unveiled, and it’s an Australian company called Azimuth.

Azimuth is a poster child for “white hat” hacking, experts say, which is good-guy cybersecurity research that aims to disclose flaws and disavows authoritarian governments. Two Azimuth hackers teamed up to break into the San Bernardino iPhone, according to the people familiar with the matter, who like others quoted in this article, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.

An interesting story, especially with the connection to Corellium.

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Behind ‘UID2’, a Way for Advertisers to Track Your Email

Andrew Orr ·

The EFF wrote a detailed post about UID2, a proposed way to make it easier for advertisers to identify people via their email.

UID2s will be connected to people, not devices. That means an advertiser who collects UID2 from a website can link it to the UID2s it collects through apps, connected TVs, and connected vehicles belonging to the same person. That’s where the “unified” part of UID2 comes in: it’s supposed to make cross-device tracking as easy as cross-site tracking used to be.

But this will also create new incentives for sites, apps, and connected devices to ask users for their email addresses.

All the more reason to use Sign In with Apple wherever possible or disposable email services.

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Clubhouse API Open to Scraping Public User Data

Andrew Orr ·

On Saturday, a SQL database containing data of 1.3 million Clubhouse users was posted on a hacker forum. The data included names, user IDs, social media profile names, and other details.

While the data associated with the Clubhouse user base was not acquired as a result of a breach, allowing ‘anyone with an API’ to download public Clubhouse profile information on a mass scale can backfire. For example, data scraping is often used by spammers and phishers to find new victims: they aggregate public contact details and use them for spam lists, robocalls, or social engineering attacks.

It’s not sensitive data but it can be combined with other data hoards that may have sensitive data. Every little scrap of data, while innocent on their own, can be potentially used against you, whether from advertisers or hackers.

Measure Your Broadband With New ‘FCC Speed Test App’
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Measure Your Broadband With New ‘FCC Speed Test App’

Andrew Orr ·

As part of its Measuring Broadband America Program, the FCC announced the release of a speed test app. The information collected through the app will help to inform the FCC’s efforts to provide improved coverage information to the public. “We expect that some of the information collected through the app will be incorporated into the Commission’s broadband data collection systems, including challenges to provider-submitted maps and our collection of additional crowdsourced data.”