TWeaK

Yeah with that they're likely talking about apps spying on you. That isn't really a phone thing, but pinning down exactly which apps do it is hard. Almost certainly it's Facebook apps (especially the hidden system apps they get manufacturers to install), wouldn't be surprised if reddit's app does some of that as well.

Personally, I've not had that problem in years, but I run custom ROMs without gapps, and generally try to stick with FOSS apps. However it definitely is a thing where you have a conversation about something around your phone and then soon after see ads for that thing.

It's more the fact that MAC addresses have an inherent ability to track you, and many such companion devices you might interact with are in fixed locations.

Modern security conscious Wifi devices address this by randomising MAC addresses - they're no longer fixed for wifi. You can even configure different wifi networks to have randomised per-connection or per-network (default per-connection), so you can still set up MAC filtering easily.

Bluetooth unfortunately requires fixed MAC addresses as a core part of its pairing functionality. What's more many connections can require you to provide bluetooth contact data - the same data used for covid contact tracing - eg Ford's implementation of Android Auto among others.

So your car might not only be tracking you with its internal GPS and cellular 4G connection, it also wants to know wherever you go with your phone, based on the Bluetooth LE devices you ping.

As such you should turn your bluetooth off whenever you're not using it.

The global data brokerage industry is worth well over $500bn now. There are 8.3 billion people in the world.

Google don't broker data, but they collect more than everyone else. If data were a stock, data brokers would be the +$500bn industry, while Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Amazon collect far more and HODL while living off the "dividends" of advertising, or more lately AI.

The cloud was always "someone else's computer", now someone else is using that data - and you clicked "agree" to let them.

They offered free access to a website/service, and then in the fine print said you offered free access to your data. They hid two transactions into one, to try and prevent a proper assessment of value exchange, and then tried to make out that it was one transaction after the fact.

Wade had not driven since the incident.

Nope, and in the support threads the devs were all "Tough, we don't want it, use gestures".

Inverted navbar and long press back button to force close an app are essential for me. Meanwhile diva devs are a massive turn off.

Love some of what they've done, hate their attitude. Bit like the lemmy devs, except the GOS devs won't allow anyone to fork or incorporate their stuff.

Lol I wouldn't hold your breath, these devs won't even give you inverted navbar buttons so unless it's something they themselves want, you won't see it.

Win 10 LTSC IoT edition already has security updates until 2032, and if you activate Win 10 with MAS you'll almost certainly be activated with this version automagically.

Signing in with a Microsoft account is what they really want you to do. This is why they never fixed the glaring vulnerability that allows you to hack the password from local accounts. It's also a general symptom of the fact that Microsoft doesn't really care if you pirate their software anymore, they care about you disabling telemetry because they make more money harvesting personal data than they do charging for software - even subscription software like Office365.

Turning it on only when you're using it doesn't stop it harvesting all your Bluetooth interaction data (like covid contact tracing). That's what Android Auto does with Ford cars - the car isn't just tracking you when you drive it and reporting back to Ford, it's tracking where you go with your phone based on all the Bluetooth devices you ping.

The best solution is to just not have it. Or, if you have to have it, have it on a spare device.

https://xkcd.com/927/

Thankfully.

For now..

We'll see how Palantir turns out.

Lol I immediately forgot what they said AMD stood for by the 3rd paragraph, and then started wondering if there was some fancy tech partnership involved.

Also I wish the article spent more time talking about how these work. Sounds like you have solar cells implanted in your retina, then wear glasses with cameras that project a red image onto your eyes, to the subretinal solar cells which send electrical impulses to your optic nerve, in place of or alongside the eye's regular nerve signals. They also have a zoom function.

Incoming mandatory closed source government ID software for the tracking device you carry in your pocket.