Newsletter Archives
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Look who’s stalking 2: Apple responds to AirTag security threats
ISSUE 19.10 • 2022-03-07 PUBLIC DEFENDER
By Brian Livingston
The Apple AirTag, a $29 tracker the company started selling last year, has been criticized by experts for its weak protections against criminals who use the device to stalk people and pinpoint vehicles to steal. In response, Apple posted last month a response that promises only minor upgrades to the gadgets’ software.
Meanwhile, a developer announced recently that he had built — using a few dollars’ worth of electronic parts — an AirTag-like clone that takes full advantage of Apple’s free and worldwide Find My communication network. As an illustration of the weakness of AirTags, the clone easily defeats all of Apple’s existing security and detection systems, including the new features the corporation said last month it was planning to implement in the future.
Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 19.10.0 (2022-03-07).
This story also appears in the AskWoody Newsletter 19.10.F (2022-03-07). -
Look who’s stalking: Protect yourself from Apple AirTags
PUBLIC DEFENDER
By Brian Livingston
Ever since Apple started selling $29 tracking devices called AirTags last April, criminal types have used them to tail people, pinpoint and heist their cars, and worse — but warnings of planted devices were made available only to iPhone owners. Now, people who have more common phones can find out whether they’re being tracked, too.
The AirTag is a small, plastic-encased device that’s approximately the size of three or four dollar coins stacked on top of each other. It competes with such trackers as the Bluetooth-based Tile Pro and the GPS-based Verizon Humx. But most Bluetooth devices connect only to phones within 50 meters or so, and GPS trackers require you to pay monthly fees.
Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 19.02.0 (2022-01-10).
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Kape Technologies, formerly Crossrider, now owns 4 top VPNs
PUBLIC DEFENDER
By Brian Livingston
A holding company with a controversial history — Kape Technologies — announced this month that it had purchased a leading virtual private network, ExpressVPN, adding it to a collection of three other major VPN companies that Kape acquired in 2017 through 2019.
This concentration of VPN services has raised concerns.
Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.37.0 (2021-09-27).
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Apple gives privacy one minute
APPLE NEWS
By Silvia Eckert
“California streaming” ducks the controversial CSAM issue at last week’s annual iPhone event.
As reported by Brian Livingston in his column Apple plans to break its end-to-end encryption (AskWoody 2021-08-30), Apple announced about a month ago an initiative to limit the distribution of Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) by looking for inappropriate imagery on its customers’ devices and reporting occurrences to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. But because the technology represented what amounted to surveillance that could be applied to virtually anything, an enormous amount of backlash against the initiative occurred.
Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.36.0 (2021-09-20).
This story also appears in the AskWoody Free Newsletter 18.36.F (2021-09-20). -
Apple plans to break its end-to-end encryption
PUBLIC DEFENDER
By Brian Livingston
Apple Computer shocked computer-security experts when the Cupertino company announced on August 5 that it plans to circumvent end-to-end encryption in Mac and iOS software, reporting US users if more than a few photos in their iCloud account match a national database of child pornography.
“We want to help protect children from predators who use communication tools to recruit and exploit them, and limit the spread of Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM),” Apple said in its announcement. But people with experience in the subject said the technology would be used for everything other than that.
Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.33.0 (2021-08-30).
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Microsoft Edge imports other browsers’ passwords
ISSUE 18.26 • 2021-07-12 PUBLIC DEFENDER
By Brian Livingston
When some readers installed the new Microsoft Edge browser — which replaces the old “legacy Edge” — they got a big surprise. They discovered that Edge had somehow magically absorbed all the usernames and passwords they’d carefully saved in their previously installed browsers, such as Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, and legacy Edge.
What’s even more surprising is that Edge — which until recently couldn’t import or export passwords at all — may be doing this new behavior by design.
Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.26.0 (2021-07-12).
This story also appears in the AskWoody Free Newsletter 18.26.F (2021-07-12). -
Anom: A $2,000 smartphone that let the FBI listen in
ISSUE 18.23 • 2021-06-21 PUBLIC DEFENDER
By Brian Livingston
Special smartphones that were supposedly the most super-secretive in the world actually resulted in at least 800 arrests, the seizure of eight tons of cocaine, and the recovery of $48 million in currency from organized-crime gangs on June 6 and 7.
The FBI, Europol, Australian Federal Police, and the law-enforcement agencies of several other countries announced on June 8 that they had quietly intercepted 27 million messages from what’s being called “WhatsApp for criminals.”
Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.23.0 (2021-06-21).
This story also appears in the AskWoody Free Newsletter 18.23.F (2021-06-21). -
Other Apple privacy practices
ISSUE 18.18 • 2021-05-17 APPLE
By Nathan Parker
Not all privacy settings are neatly contained in the main Settings app in iOS, iPadOS, and macOS.
In my previous articles in this series on Apple’s privacy settings, I enumerated those found in what we might call the “usual places.” There are some others involving privacy that are found elsewhere. This final article in the series will help you find those “out of the box” controls.
Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.18.0 (2021-05-17).
This story also appears in the AskWoody Free Newsletter 18.18.F (2021-05-17). -
Take control of your Mac’s privacy
ISSUE 18.16 • 2021-05-03 APPLE
By Nathan Parker
Apple’s emphasis on privacy is focused on personal devices, such as iPads and iPhones. But Macs have privacy settings, too.
In my recent article “Take control of your privacy — iPhone & iPad” (AskWoody 18.12, 2021-04-05), I discussed many of the settings provided by iOS and iPadOS to control the privacy and security of the device and the apps running on it. Although one might think all Apple systems would be in lockstep, I have noticed that the settings in macOS are not quite as granular, not quite as detailed, as those in iOS/iPadOS.
Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.16.0 (2021-05-03).
This story also appears in the AskWoody Free Newsletter 18.16.F (2021-05-03). -
How to control the privacy of your Microsoft account
MICROSOFT
By Lance Whitney
You can review and manage a host of privacy settings and collected data for your Microsoft account via a dedicated account website.
I know that some Windows users shy away from creating a Microsoft account because they’re concerned about the software giant siphoning up too much information about them. That’s certainly a valid concern. Like other tech companies, Microsoft will track many of your activities to “customize your experience” but also, sadly, to serve you targeted ads and other content.
Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.16.0 (2021-05-03).
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Take control of your privacy – iPhone & iPad
APPLE
Take control of your privacy – iPhone & iPadBy Nathan Parker
Apple heavily promotes its devices and services as being focused on your privacy, especially for those who heavily use Apple’s built-in apps and services.
Apple has a prominent page on its site devoted to its view of privacy.
Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.12.0 (2021-04-05).
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Here’s looking at you, kid: the child-cam scam
PUBLIC DEFENDER
Here’s looking at you, kid: the child-cam scamBy Brian Livingston
It’s terrible when no one is paying attention to you. But it’s much worse when someone is paying attention to you whom you don’t WANT to be paying attention to you.
Around the world, millions of nursery schools, daycare centers, and private homes have installed “child cams.” These are intended to allow parents to see what their kids and caregivers are doing at daycare, how their infants are sleeping in a crib room, and so on. Many of the systems allow the video to be viewed from a distance across the Internet.
Read the full story in AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.8.0 (2021-03-01).