Tech News Today for November 17, 2016
Tech News for Thursday November 17, 2016
Many iPhone users have a serious love-hate relationship with iCloud, and one of the things people hate is how it handles personal information. For most of us, iCloud privacy is just fine. But for whistleblowers, activists, and others who require the highest level of privacy, some of the actions iCloud takes with our information is not acceptable. According to the Intercept, once you enable iCloud, Apple will automatically send your call history to the company’s servers. Russian digital forensics firm Elcomsoft says that in many instances the data gets uploaded without you even knowing and is store for up to four months. Apple has responded with a statement saying that they offer iCloud syncing as a convenience and that they recommend that you use strong passwords on your Apple account and two-factor authentication. Read more at theintercept.com.
AirBnB is moving beyond its simple couch surfing roots to become a platform of sorts, offering up experiences to its users once they get to their destination. Travelers would be offered the option to take tours, visit events, take surfing lessons, train with long distance runners, and take lessons from Samurai masters to name a few. The sometimes days long experiences are created by AirBnB hosts who are in many ways experts of their own areas, and most experiences currently cost less than $200. Read more at vanityfair.com.
It feels like it's getting a little more dangerous out there for people with varying viewpoints, at least it feels that way on social media. Buzzfeed reports that research by the Anti-Defamation League says anti-Semitism on Twitter is on the rise, especially for journalists, and now the ADL has published its recommendations for how Twitter, Facebook, and other social networks should address the rising harassment. Platforms need better reporting tools, better response rates to reports, significant investment technology that fights harassment, and more transparency in their abuse review processes. Read more at buzzfeed.com.
The Raspberry Pi can be used for so many things. On one side of the scale, a mega-emulator for all of your favorite arcade games. On the other, a key-sized dongle that intercepts unencrypted web activity and log in credentials in 30 seconds, even on a locked machine with password protection. PoisonTap is free software that runs on the smaller RaspberryPi Zero, and can also install backdoors on machines that would give someone control over the machine remotely. Read more at arstechnica.com.
Mozilla launched Firefox Focus, a new iOS app for iPhone and iPad that calls itself the browser for privacy so you can "Browse Like No One's Watching." Personally, I think you should always think someone's watching you, but Focus does let you block online trackers, tap to erase pages you've visited, and makes it easy for you to get rid of cookies and passwords from your device. You know, so you can browse for presents for your wife without her knowing. It's not the greatest of browsing experiences, but if you want more privacy, try it out. It's free. Read more at blog.mozilla.org.
Megan Morrone and Jason Howell are joined today by Matt McFarland of CNN Tech to talk about the impact of technology on jobs in the US. Tech News Today streams live weekdays at 4PM Pacific, 7PM Eastern at twit.tv/live. You can subscribe to the show and watch it on-demand at twit.tv/tnt.