Uber is rolling out live video for teen rides, letting a linked parent or guardian look into the car through the driver’s front-facing phone camera. Both the teen and driver are notified when someone starts watching. On the surface, it sounds like a way for teenagers to use Uber independently while keeping parents in the loop. But I don’t see how watching the ride translates into making it safer. This is security theater with a live feed.
Tagged Privacy
Apple Reverses Hide My Email Domain Change
Apple has reversed course on moving iCloud+ Hide My Email addresses to a dedicated private.icloud.com domain. Sign in with Apple is still moving there, but Hide My Email addresses will remain on icloud.com. This does not solve email privacy; it merely preserves one relay feature in an email system that still needs reworking.
Meta’s LED Is the Camera Sound All Over Again
Meta’s smart glasses now have a square peg pushed through a round hole — the Guardian ran a piece this week asking whether anyone can tell the glasses are filming from its LED. Reasonable question. Wrong premise. While that argument runs, cameras with better coverage and no indicator at all are driving past you, and nobody has said a word.
App to Replace Google Analytics, GDPR-Compliant, and Cookie-free
I wrote an op-ed recently on changing the analytics tool on The Mad Tea Party, and this is my app-to piece on what happened. Now, due to the nature of what GDPR and other privacy related regulations, there are a lot of grey areas. One thing I found while researching what to do with the website was that many tips and guides writers decided not to touch on GDPR subject, even though it has been around since 2018 or so.
Analytics Tool, Google, and Geo-Lock
This post is a rant than a spiel, but thought to share some ideas on it. It you have seen some random cookie notices this morning, my apologies, if you were one of them. Long story short, I have been using Google Analytics on the website for the longest time, —probably since I started self-hosting it— and the latest changes in privacy regulations mandated that the website needs to have a cookie consent pop-up. And that cookie consent management, in Google’s words, came with paid partners. No more.