An interesting deep dive into how your geolocation data gets exfiltrated by advertising networks via apps on your phone and sold to, not only the highest bidder, but basically any data broker, government agency, or other organisation that can afford it.
All of this, of course, despite you setting your phone to not allow these apps to track you.
By the way, the list of apps that do this (Google Docs) contained 2 apps I had installed on my phone. I'd take a look and see what apps you should be removing from yours.
This piece, from Ed Zitron, is one of the best things I've read in a while. It puts into words what I've been feeling about tech recently better than I ever could. He's angry, but rightly so.
The people running the majority of internet services have used a combination of monopolies and a cartel-like commitment to growth-at-all-costs thinking to make war with the user, turning the customer into something between a lab rat and an unpaid intern, with the goal to juice as much value from the interaction as possible. To be clear, tech has always had an avaricious streak, and it would be naive to suggest otherwise, but this moment feels different. I’m stunned by the extremes tech companies are going to extract value from customers, but also by the insidious way they’ve gradually degraded their products.
A former Boston Globe reporter on his now homeless life. A tense and depressing read.
This is quite a story. I'm not surprised Hollywood wants to turn it into a film. Fugees founder Pras Michel faces up to 20 years in prison after being convicted of conducting an illegal foreign influence campaign with Malaysian financier Jho Low.
This is a fantastic idea: integrating tactile maps on pedestrian crossing buttons to help sight-impaired people get a lay of the land. These exact signal boxes are used here, but I don't think I've ever seen the map module on them. That's a shame.
