Last week a story circulated the web about Alexa recording the personal conversation of a woman and then sending it to a friend of hers. While that was certainly a unique predicament, it can be good to periodically look at what your own Alexa has picked up.
Google knows a lot about you, and a decent amount of that info comes from YouTube. By default, the video site tracks everything you watch and search for (including that time I played the same Taylor Swift video on a loop for 2 hours) so it can suggest better videos -- and target you with more relevant ads, of course.
Just as we all thought the dust was settling on the whole Cambridge Analytica thing and the funny memes from Mark Zuckerberg's visit to Congress had run out of steam we find out that at least 200 more Facebook apps were collecting data and sharing it without our permission.
Privacy has always been a key feature and popular selling point for the messaging app WhatsApp. Company co-founder Jan Koum grew up in the Soviet Union under heavy government surveillance, and he promised to keep user data protected after Facebook acquired WhatsApp in 2014. Now, with Koum on the way out, it may be time ditch WhatsApp before that promise leaves with him.
Facebook knows way too much about all of us, but it's not the only company hoarding everyone's private data. Google knows just as much about us as Facebook (if not more), and that should trouble you, even if that data hasn't been used as recklessly - at least, not that we know of.
iOS: Every time you plug your iPhone into a computer, you see the same pop-up on your phone asking if you should "Trust" it. This may seem like a harmless question, but by granting trust to computers, you're essentially giving them access to everything on your iPhone, including photos, videos, contacts and "other content".
Facebook launched a tool yesterday that you can use to find out whether you or your friends shared information with Cambridge Analytica, the Trump-affiliated company that harvested data from a Facebook app to support the then-candidate's efforts in the 2016 presidential election.+
Today the Wall Street Journal listed all the data Facebook can grab when you upload a photo, based on Facebook's privacy and data collection policies. The list illustrates what we've said before: Facebook doesn't need to spy on your through your microphone, because you already let it spy on everything else you do.
Most people use their Facebook accounts to log into websites and apps on a regular basis, but after the company's recent privacy scandal, it's clear that doing so can put your personal data at risk. To its credit, Facebook has made it possible to delete those logins for years, but it was always a tedious one-at-a-time process - until now.
