privacy

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Cloudflare Web Analytics is a Private Alternative to Google Analytics

Andrew Orr ·

Cloudflare announced on Tuesday the introduction of Cloudflare Web Analytics as a  free, private analytics service competing with Google Analytics.

Cloudflare does not track where visitors are going online, and can help web owners get clear and accurate information about how their sites are performing without the need to profile users. Cloudflare already processes the requests for sites on its network and can collect analytics at the edge without adding third-party analytics scripts to a website.

Cool Stuff Found

Apple Shares New Privacy Video About Over-Sharing

Andrew Orr ·

Apple uploaded a funny privacy ad for the iPhone on Thursday. With the song “Diamonds Cutting Diamonds” by Lydia Ainsworth in the background, the commercial follows various people as they share private information to strangers, like their credit card number, “I browsed eight sites for divorce attorneys today,” and  “I hate Lee, puke emoji” (As he sits right behind her). Apple includes a link to its privacy page in the video description.

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News Publishers Consider Abandoning iOS Over Privacy Feature

Andrew Orr ·

Over at The Verge, Casey Newton wrote about the increasingly heated battle between Apple and advertisers. There are a couple of tidbits I wanted to comment on.

If you believe that free, ad-supported news is beneficial to a healthy democracy, it’s worth noting that all these pro-privacy changes come at a cost.

Free is great, free news is greater, and transparency is greatest. I believe discussing a healthy democracy involves advocating for open source software, which would necessitate a stance against Apple. So I don’t disagree, and as Mr. Newton notes, we need strong privacy laws as well. He also shares an interesting link to Vox, in which some news publishers are considering abandoning iOS if they can’t monetize their users.

Cool Stuff Found

This ‘Clear Clipboard’ Shortcut Empties Your Clipboard Automatically

Andrew Orr ·

Redditor u/SpamSencer created a Clear Clipboard shortcut that does exactly what the name says: It automatically clears your clipboard. With iOS 14 Apple introduced a feature that shows when an app accesses the clipboard, like TikTok and Microsoft. You could even set it up as an automation so that whenever you open any app of your choosing, the shortcut will run (an iOS 14 feature). You’ll just have to painstakingly tap on every app you have installed if you choose to automate it.

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Instagram: Please Give Us Your Government ID

Andrew Orr ·

Instagram will start asking “suspicious accounts” to verify their identity with a government ID. Instagram claims this will help users understand when accounts are “attempting to mislead their followers” although it’s not clear what kind of behavior the Facebook-owned company thinks is suspicious. One reason is shared: If most of your followers are in a different country than you.

IDs will be stored securely and deleted within 30 days once our review is completed, and won’t be shared on the person’s profile as pseudonymity is still an important part of Instagram.

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Secret Service Purchased ‘Location X’ Product to Track Phones

Andrew Orr ·

A Secret Service document reveals the purchase of “Location X” a product that uses location data harvested from apps. The product is from a company called Babel Street. If that name sounds familiar it’s because two employees left the company to form “Anomaly Six” another location tracking company.

“The purpose of this modification is to add 1 licenses [sic] to CLIN 0003 and incorporate the Master Subscription Agreement and Locate X Addendum as attached,” the contract document reads. Motherboard obtained the document through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.

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Twitter Could be Fined up to $250 Million Over Privacy Violations

Andrew Orr ·

Since October 2019 the FTC has been investigating Twitter over its use of personal data for targeted ads. Twitter has set aside US$150 million for the minimum fine amount but it could possibly reach up to US$250 million.

If it’s preparing for an unfavorable outcome, that’s probably because it’s not the first tech company that’s had to face the same allegations from the FTC. Facebook previously had to pay $5 billion for several privacy missteps, including the use of people’s phone numbers, provided for security purposes, for its ad business.

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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.