I’ve been seeing a lot of security stuff on the interwebs these days.
This one was funny. An elderly John Stossel discovering digital hygiene.
Interestingly, most of the apps she’s talking about happen to be Google.
Why, for the sake of all that is holy, are you using Chrome on your iPhone?
Oh, it has your passwords, which makes things easy? I Couldn’t believe my ears when I heard that. Of everything not to give google, that would be the biggest. Sweet Jesus, do you leave your wallet on the counter while you shop? Get a PW manager, FFS. Keypass is free. Proton has one, but I’ve been using SplashID forever. And far as browsers and mail, use Brave. Use protonmail. More on that in a bit.
That said, she focuses on the app and not the device itself. For instance, she bags on the Shell app. Now, I use gas apps because they are inherently more secure than taking out your chip enabled card and stuffing it (or waving it) at a pump of dubious provenance. Sure they have the inspection stickers. Do you trust them?
And of course it tracks your purchases. It’s a purchasing app. And of course it wants your detailed location. That’s how it knows you are standing in front of the pump. The thing is, your credit information is with Shell, or Exxon and doesn’t pass through the systems at that skeevy gas station. True, those transactions from the pump go straight to the mothership, but they are riding the gas stations pipes, which may or may not be secure.
And besides, you can restrict access to mobile resources in your settings. That’s what I meant when I said she skipped straight over the device. Hell, you don’t even have to do that much. First time you fire up an app, when it asks for access. Deny it, or say only when using the app. Then close it when you are done.
Digital hygeine folks, digital hygiene.
I’ll bet half the time these things are able to track you is because you have a hundred of them open at any given time.
The big lesson in the vidya was right up front. Knowing what you know and what’s right before your eyes, why are you still using google?
Of course their AI is woke. So is their search engine.
Setting social irresponsibility aside, in a purely business sense, it is beyond stupid to build a product which will explicitly put your company’s social agenda before the customer’s needs.
Vox Day
This is why I use Apple. They are only marginally better than google, but they do give you the tools to lock your device down. And unlike google, your data isn’t their primary business. Duck Duck Go is a good browser. Brave has it’s own service. Kagi, which I just discovered, looks promising. It’s been forever I’ve looked anything up on google. Matter of fact, I divested myself of the evil empire long ago. I have one google account. It’s my server, and I use it for app integration. But I haven’t needed it in a long time. When I use it, I’m on a virtual machine.
Which brings me to my advice on a lot of this – first, use only what you need, Not what’s easy. And lock down access to only what it needs and when it needs it.
And FFS, Pay your way…
https://voxday.net/2024/02/27/gab-ends-the-cult-of-free/
Ain’t nothin’ free in this world. I pay for the apps and services I use. I like those with a free tier (like how Gab is going), so you can try the app or service out and see if it’s worth it. Then, If I like it, I pay. It’s why I bought Proton, it’s why I pay for my own web servers/domains.
I started this decades ago when a developer friend and I were chatting about freeware and shareware. He had a good point (actually many good points) that I agreed with. You get what you pay for, and the dudes that built it deserve a taste. Seems fair.
So there you go. Smarten up. Stop using Google. Use some digital hygiene. Pay for your stuff. And for God’s sake give up that pron that’s causing your machines to be pwned.
Inspected By Pat 