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A Complete Guide to Not Getting Hacked

Go Off the Paranoia-Soaked Deep End and Lose Your Mind

Look, the truth is this—you can do all this stuff and still have your privacy and data completely wrecked. Hackers can still get in. Whatever Western government you’re living under can probably still target you with eye-of-Sauron-level surveillance. The social media company holding your data can misconfigure its databases and leave your email address and phone number exposed. In reality, it’s a wash.

However, if you really want to be totally safe and make sure your personal information is protected, I’ve thought about it and there are a couple of additional steps you can take. Here they are:

— Drink heavily and ruminate on the madness of the modern world.

— After a nightcap or three, go to the nearest window and throw your stupid computer out of it while screaming “I’M MAD AS HELL” like Peter Finch in Network.

— Escalate things and murder your phone. Desolder the fucker, smash it to pieces with a ball-peen hammer—then burn the parts in a ritualistic conflagration in the backyard. Later, siphon the phone’s ashes into a little glass vial and hang it around your neck to remind you of your triumph over evil.

— Cancel your lease, sell your earthly possessions and just drive. Where? It doesn’t matter. You just have to get out of there.

— Live in a tent in an unincorporated territory and read books and river bathe. Learn to enjoy the simple things—like the sound of crickets at night, the majestic sight of a buck as it traipses across the prairie, and your own body odor.

— Pray that someday, in some as yet unseen American future, your congressional leaders will grow real, actual testicles and introduce laws to regulate the dystopian corporate monsters that have swallowed the world and eradicated human privacy.

— Weep for humanity.

With 9 Words, Tim Cook Just Explained the Biggest Problem With Facebook

It’s really not a secret at all that Apple and Facebook aren’t friends. They aren’t even all that friendly of enemies. Sure, they’re mostly polite, but there’s no mistaking the degree to which there is hostility between the two companies.

It’s sort of a strange position for two companies that arguably depend on each other in some unusual ways. For example, Facebook certainly depends on the iPhone considering that mobile represents 98 percent of the social platform’s usage. Sure, a good portion of that comes from Android devices, but in the U.S. at least, the iPhone is probably Facebook’s most important platform.

Of course, Facebook is also important to the iPhone. If suddenly you couldn’t use Facebook’s apps, that would be bad for Apple considering that people genuinely like using Facebook, despite its problems. Many of those people would switch to something else if they couldn’t use it on their iPhone.

Still, the two companies can’t seem to resist the urge to take shots at each other every chance they get. For example, Facebook took out full-page ads decrying Apple’s decision to require developers to request permission before tracking users across apps and websites. That’s a big deal to Facebook considering its business is largely based on doing just that.

Tim Cook responded that he isn’t “focused on Facebook at all.” Which, as I wrote at the time, is both brilliant and brutal in its dismissal of the company.

More recently, Facebook threw shade at Apple over the latter company’s announcement that it was implementing a change in future versions of iOS in order to detect CSAM images uploaded to iCloud Photos. Will Cathcart, the CEO of WhatsApp (which is owned by Facebook) said that Apple’s decision represented a surveillance state and was the wrong approach.

We’ll set aside, for a moment, the fact that Facebook is widely considered the worst privacy offender in a tech industry that can’t resist monetizing user data at every opportunity. The bigger point is that–considering how much emphasis Apple puts on privacy–Facebook saw a chance to hit the company where it hurts most.

Now, Cook has another response, this time in an interview with The Australian Financial Review about tech companies and privacy:

Technology doesn’t want to be good. It doesn’t want to be bad, it’s neutral. And so it’s in the hands of the inventor and the user as to whether it’s used for good, or not used for good…The risk of not doing that means that technology loses touch with the user. And in that kind of case, privacy can become collateral damage. Conspiracy theories or hate speech begins to drown everything else out. Technology will only work if it has people’s trust.

That last part is important–those nine words about how “technology will only work if it has people’s trust.” That’s as clear an explanation of what’s wrong with Facebook as I’ve heard yet. And, while Cook doesn’t specifically mention Facebook, the part about “conspiracy theories or hate speech,” makes it pretty clear who he’s referring to.

The point seems to be that tech companies, specifically Facebook, are focused on building features and products, without regard for the impact they have on user privacy. It’s not hard to see how that is true. Facebook has reportedly been working on ways to analyze encrypted messages for the purpose of targeting ads at WhatsApp users–something it hasn’t been able to do so far.

The company has also gone out of its way to defend its use of tracking user data as the key to the free and open internet, and crucial to small businesses. Even if those things are true, it really just makes Cook’s point, which is that “privacy can become collateral damage.” If your business model depends on gathering up and monetizing as much data from your users as possible, it’s pretty hard to also protect their privacy.

It is also worth mentioning that Apple is facing its own criticism over how it handles user privacy right now. Of course, much of that pushback is related to the fact that Apple has long been a champion of protecting personal data, and its decision to include technology on the iPhone that can “scan” your photos for CSAM, feels like a shift in that promise.

It makes sense that Apple would want to shift the focus back to what it considers far worse privacy offenders while reminding everyone of its own privacy bona fides. Of course, the reason that matters is the reason Cook mentions: trust. Sometimes it seems like there is a huge disconnect between the way Facebook sees its role in the world, and the way the rest of us see it. It’s hard to give Facebook the benefit of the doubt if you don’t trust that it has your best interests in mind.

Kim Kardashian Takes Her Custom Mansory Lamborghini Urus for a Drive

Kim Kardashian is now worth over $1.2 billion, thanks to a successful reality show and an even more successful foray into cosmetics and women’s apparel. She’s always been rich in the most basic sense of the word, since she comes from a wealthy family, but her constant hustling and business-savvy have put her among the one-percenters.

Her vehicle fleet is an example of what it’s like to live the billionaire life in sunny California. For twenty years, she’s been getting her cars from Platinum Motorsports in Los Angeles and, as of late, as her business career flourished, she’s started to lean more towards more elegant custom designs. Her latest buy is a one-off Lamborghini Urus.

It’s not the Lamb-Bo she unveiled this past June, the one entirely covered in boucle fabric that was, because of it, practically undrivable. This one is also a brand-new, factory-white Urus, sold to Kardashian by Platinum and then customized with help from a Mansory wide-body kit, one-off wheels and a very special paint from the KK x Platinum Special Pantone series.

The Urus was officially unveiled at the end of last month on YouTube and then on Instagram last week. Almost coinciding with the latter, Kim took it out for a drive a few days ago and, of course, the paparazzi were on hand to capture the moment. After all, if a tree falls in a forest and there’s no one to see it, did it even fall?

The one-of-one Urus looks incredibly dramatic in professional photos, like those in the gallery above, and in the video below. In real life, it’s not as dramatic, but it still makes for a striking sight. The tweet below links to more photos.

It also confirms previous reports on how much Kim is paying for these custom cars that she hardly ever drives but keeps on collecting: $600,000. It’s not incredibly expensive for someone with her kind of money, but considering how many custom vehicles she’s buying and how many she already owns, it does feel excessive. Then again, Kim was never one to show restraint.

Kim Kardashian wears a sports bra as she steps out of a $600K one-of-a-kind Lamborghini Urus https://t.co/6JrS8FDUre

— Daily Mail Celebrity (@DailyMailCeleb) August 20, 2021

TechNews

Pokémon Unite Creator vs. Creator Battle Talonflame Scores HOW many points?! – Nintendo

A Complete Guide to Not Getting Hacked

With 9 Words, Tim Cook Just Explained the Biggest Problem With Facebook

Kim Kardashian Takes Her Custom Mansory Lamborghini Urus for a Drive

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