Newsletter Archives

• The best tech secrets of 2022: AirTags, TikTok, Twitter, oh my

  Posted on December 26, 2022 at 02:45 CST by B. Livingston • Comment in the Forums

  

  ISSUE 19.52 • 2022-12-26

  Look for our BONUS issue on January 2, 2023!

  PUBLIC DEFENDER

  

  By Brian Livingston

  Amid my efforts to help you protect yourself against some rather aggressive technologies, I’m glad to report that there’s been at least some progress this year on the worst aspects of our “labor-saving” devices.

  Please note: I’m not claiming that my columns by themselves caused any of the changes I describe below. I just report the problems. We can all celebrate when bad tech is improved, whoever may have developed a particular solution.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (19.52.0, 2022-12-26).
  This story also appears in our public Newsletter.

  Public Defender AirTags, Cryptocurrency, Newsletters, NFT, privacy, security, Surveillance, TikTok, Twitter

• TikTok steals your files, passwords, and more: FCC official

  Posted on July 11, 2022 at 02:45 CDT by B. Livingston • Comment in the Forums

  

  ISSUE 19.28 • 2022-07-11

  PUBLIC DEFENDER

  

  By Brian Livingston

  TikTok, the wildly popular short-video app owned by China’s ByteDance corporation, may be kicked out of Apple’s and Google’s download stores.

  A US official boldly asserts that TikTok is “accessing users’ most sensitive data, including passwords, cryptocurrency wallet addresses, and personal messages.”

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (19.28.0, 2022-07-11).
  This story also appears in our public Newsletter.

  AskWoody FREE Newsletter, AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Public Defender AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Federal Communications Commission, privacy, Public Defender, security, TikTok

• Microsoft and TikTok – a match made in Clippy heaven

  Posted on August 3, 2020 at 09:29 CDT by woody • Comment in the Forums

  I don’t have any particular words of wisdom to add to the ongoing debacle, except to say that Microsoft is very, very good at killing its acquisitions. Tell me when I can sign up for TikTokTeams.

  Tom Warren at The Verge has an interesting spin on the acquisition:

  The key part of any TikTok deal will be the data and users Microsoft gains access to… Microsoft has all the data it needs on business usage of software, but it hasn’t been successful with pure consumer services in recent years, which has left the company with a gap of insight into consumer behaviors.

  So Tom sees the acquisition as an acquihire-like bid to get even more data. An acquisnoop.

  Wonder if they’ll call it TikTokTelemetry?

  Microsoft News TikTok