There’s a setting on your phone and web browser that Google is desperate to keep you from discovering. How desperate? In 2021 alone, Google paid Apple, Samsung and others $26.3 billion to keep it buried. That’s more money each year than McDonald’s makes selling burgers. This setting affects who gets to track your location and watch what you look up online. It affects the usefulness of the information you see and how much of your screen is taken up by ads. Geoffrey A. Fowler(Señor Salme for The Washington Post)Geoff’s column hunts for how tech can make your life better — and advocates for...…There’s a setting on your phone and web browser that Google is desperate to keep you from discovering. How desperate? In 2021 alone, Google paid Apple, Samsung and others $26.3 billion to keep it buried. That’s more money each year than McDonald’s makes selling burgers. This setting affects who gets to track your location and watch what you look up online. It affects the usefulness of the information you see and how much of your screen is taken up by ads. Geoffrey A. Fowler(Señor Salme for The Washington Post)Geoff’s column hunts for how tech can make your life better — and advocates for...WW…

This article was published more than 2 years agoCommentGift ShareEveryone knows you shouldn’t feed a troll. But more than ever, you should go out of your way not to retweet, share or follow one, either.First came the pandemic. Now we’re facing an infodemic. Misinformation from so-called trolls, bots and other online agitators about the death of George Floyd and Black Lives Matter protests, following a tsunami of . And the people who care most intensely about those issues may be inadvertently spreading it further — a hard-learned lesson from social media meddling in the 2016 and 2018...…This article was published more than 2 years agoCommentGift ShareEveryone knows you shouldn’t feed a troll. But more than ever, you should go out of your way not to retweet, share or follow one, either.First came the pandemic. Now we’re facing an infodemic. Misinformation from so-called trolls, bots and other online agitators about the death of George Floyd and Black Lives Matter protests, following a tsunami of . And the people who care most intensely about those issues may be inadvertently spreading it further — a hard-learned lesson from social media meddling in the 2016 and 2018...WW…

This article was published more than 2 years agoCommentGift ShareAs governments build coronavirus-tracking smartphone technology, who is making sure their apps live up to privacy promises?A new analysis of one of the first of a handful of U.S. contact-tracing apps, finds it violates its own by sharing citizen location and other personal data with an outside company. The Thursday by privacy software maker .The oversight suggests that state officials and Apple, both of which were responsible for vetting the app before it , were asleep at the wheel. Americans are of location and health...…This article was published more than 2 years agoCommentGift ShareAs governments build coronavirus-tracking smartphone technology, who is making sure their apps live up to privacy promises?A new analysis of one of the first of a handful of U.S. contact-tracing apps, finds it violates its own by sharing citizen location and other personal data with an outside company. The Thursday by privacy software maker .The oversight suggests that state officials and Apple, both of which were responsible for vetting the app before it , were asleep at the wheel. Americans are of location and health...WW…

This article was published more than 2 years agoCommentGift ShareIt’s one of the Internet’s big little lies.When was the last time you actually read a privacy policy? Most of the time, clicking “I agree” is just a speed bump to getting onto an app or website. Even when I make a project out of reading the privacy policies and terms of service for or , I can barely understand .So I was intrigued when Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) called me recently to say he wants lawmakers to stop pretending like we do. “Nobody reads the small print,” he said. “You end up giving up far too much...…This article was published more than 2 years agoCommentGift ShareIt’s one of the Internet’s big little lies.When was the last time you actually read a privacy policy? Most of the time, clicking “I agree” is just a speed bump to getting onto an app or website. Even when I make a project out of reading the privacy policies and terms of service for or , I can barely understand .So I was intrigued when Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) called me recently to say he wants lawmakers to stop pretending like we do. “Nobody reads the small print,” he said. “You end up giving up far too much...WW…

This article was published more than 2 years agoListen8 minCommentGift ShareMindy Kaling has gone missing from the library.I was looking forward to reading the comedian’s new story collection, “.” So I typed Kaling’s name into the used by my public library to lend e-books. But the latest from the star of “The Office” was nowhere to be found.What gives? In 2020, Kaling switched to a new publisher: Amazon. Turns out, the tech giant has also become a — and it won’t sell downloadable versions of its more than 10,000 e-books or tens of thousands of audiobooks to libraries. That’s right, for...…This article was published more than 2 years agoListen8 minCommentGift ShareMindy Kaling has gone missing from the library.I was looking forward to reading the comedian’s new story collection, “.” So I typed Kaling’s name into the used by my public library to lend e-books. But the latest from the star of “The Office” was nowhere to be found.What gives? In 2020, Kaling switched to a new publisher: Amazon. Turns out, the tech giant has also become a — and it won’t sell downloadable versions of its more than 10,000 e-books or tens of thousands of audiobooks to libraries. That’s right, for...WW…

This article was published more than 2 years agoListenNaN minCommentGift ShareI had such great hope for my kitchen-counter paparazzo.The covid-19 Zoom boom has turned us into camera operators. Making sure everyone’s face can be seen in the videoconference is a daily struggle. Along comes Amazon’s new , a countertop camera and computer that tries to follow you. Spinning in a motorized circle, it does its best to track your body so you’re always in the shot — and in view of its 10.1-inch screen.I spend so much time on video calls, I was tempted to splurge on one of these $250 robot...…This article was published more than 2 years agoListenNaN minCommentGift ShareI had such great hope for my kitchen-counter paparazzo.The covid-19 Zoom boom has turned us into camera operators. Making sure everyone’s face can be seen in the videoconference is a daily struggle. Along comes Amazon’s new , a countertop camera and computer that tries to follow you. Spinning in a motorized circle, it does its best to track your body so you’re always in the shot — and in view of its 10.1-inch screen.I spend so much time on video calls, I was tempted to splurge on one of these $250 robot...WW…

This article was published more than 2 years agoListenNaN minCommentGift ShareYou can trust Apple … right?You go to your iPhone’s App Store to download a game. Under a new “App Privacy” label added last month, there’s a blue check mark, signaling that the app won’t share a lick of your data. It says: “Data not collected.”Not necessarily. I downloaded a de-stressing app called the Satisfying Slime Simulator that gets the App Store’s highest-level label for privacy. It turned out to be the wrong kind of slimy, covertly sending information — including a way to track my iPhone — to...…This article was published more than 2 years agoListenNaN minCommentGift ShareYou can trust Apple … right?You go to your iPhone’s App Store to download a game. Under a new “App Privacy” label added last month, there’s a blue check mark, signaling that the app won’t share a lick of your data. It says: “Data not collected.”Not necessarily. I downloaded a de-stressing app called the Satisfying Slime Simulator that gets the App Store’s highest-level label for privacy. It turned out to be the wrong kind of slimy, covertly sending information — including a way to track my iPhone — to...WW…

This article was published more than 2 years agoListenNaN minCommentGift ShareAmazon has a new health-tracking bracelet with a microphone and an app that tells you everything that’s wrong with you.You haven’t exercised or slept enough, reports . Your body has too much fat, the Halo’s app shows in a 3-D rendering of your near-naked body.And even: Your tone of voice is “overbearing” or “irritated,” the Halo determines, after listening through its tiny microphone on your wrist.We hope our tone is clear here: We don’t need this kind of criticism from a computer. The Halo collects the most...…This article was published more than 2 years agoListenNaN minCommentGift ShareAmazon has a new health-tracking bracelet with a microphone and an app that tells you everything that’s wrong with you.You haven’t exercised or slept enough, reports . Your body has too much fat, the Halo’s app shows in a 3-D rendering of your near-naked body.And even: Your tone of voice is “overbearing” or “irritated,” the Halo determines, after listening through its tiny microphone on your wrist.We hope our tone is clear here: We don’t need this kind of criticism from a computer. The Halo collects the most...WW…

CommentGift ShareThis article is free to access.Why?The Washington Post is providing this news free to all readers as a public service.Follow this story and more by Here’s a phone alert you wouldn’t want to miss: “You have likely been exposed.”Another coronavirus surge is upon us, and your phone might be able to help. More than 182 million Americans have the ability to get pop-up notifications from local health authorities when they’ve personally spent time near someone who later tested positive for the coronavirus.But exposure notifications only work if you and the people around you turn...…CommentGift ShareThis article is free to access.Why?The Washington Post is providing this news free to all readers as a public service.Follow this story and more by Here’s a phone alert you wouldn’t want to miss: “You have likely been exposed.”Another coronavirus surge is upon us, and your phone might be able to help. More than 182 million Americans have the ability to get pop-up notifications from local health authorities when they’ve personally spent time near someone who later tested positive for the coronavirus.But exposure notifications only work if you and the people around you turn...WW…

This article was published more than 2 years agoCommentGift ShareThis story was featured in Drop Me The Link, our one-story election newsletter. Want to make sure your ballot counts? Track it online like a UPS delivery.That’s now possible across much of America, in part because of the coronavirus pandemic.I don’t often get emails from my state government, so I was curious about one recently asking me to check out California’s new election website, . There, I typed in my name, birthday and Zip code — and a minute later, I had signed up for personalized voting updates. Now I’ll get a...…This article was published more than 2 years agoCommentGift ShareThis story was featured in Drop Me The Link, our one-story election newsletter. Want to make sure your ballot counts? Track it online like a UPS delivery.That’s now possible across much of America, in part because of the coronavirus pandemic.I don’t often get emails from my state government, so I was curious about one recently asking me to check out California’s new election website, . There, I typed in my name, birthday and Zip code — and a minute later, I had signed up for personalized voting updates. Now I’ll get a...WW…