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Protect your data for life with this decentralized virtual network

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Conceal your data from prying eyes with a VPN that could be with you for life.
Rope off the data mine because it's closed for business when you grab this DPN hardware.
Photo: Cult of Mac Deals

Your personal online data may not be as secure as you’d like it to be. If you’re browsing on public Wi-Fi or even at home, your data may be tracked, sold and used by advertisers, your ISP or malicious snoops.

Luckily, you can help conceal your activity online with a single piece of hardware. The Deeper Connect Pico Decentralized VPN protects your devices and data from intrusion, and it’s only $248.

How to keep your data private after Roe v. Wade reversal

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This detailed guide will help you keep your data on your device and your device only.
This detailed guide will help you keep your data on your device and your device only.
Image: D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac

In the aftermath of Roe v. Wade being overruled by the U.S. Supreme Court, and Facebook turning over a teenager’s private chats about her abortion to police, protecting your data is more urgent than ever.

Your iPhone and Apple Watch, and third-party apps you use on them, efficiently capture data that could be used against you at a later date by law enforcement. We’re talking things like location data, ovulation records, text messages and your web-browsing history.

Keeping all your data private after Roe v. Wade to avoid prosecution could prove highly important. Luckily, Apple gives you powerful controls over how and where your data is stored. You just might need to adjust certain settings for maximum privacy.

Read on to dive deep into data security recommendations for iPhone, Apple Watch, and Mac.

Will contact-tracing apps do more harm than good?

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iPhone showing coronavirus that causes COVID-19
Can a tracing app protect your health and privacy.
Photo: Cult of Mac/Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

The world was starting to develop a healthy skepticism for tech companies and their claims of making data privacy a priority. The Facebook-Cambridge Analytica scandal seemed to get our attention and we began to understand how easy it is for groups to track our digital lives.

Then COVID-19 spread with bullet speed across the world and now surveillance of our movements to track the virus is sounding to many like a good idea.

US orders Apple to identify users of rifle scope app

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random riflescope
Justice officials have their sights set on a lot of private data.
Photo: Captaindan/Wikimedia CC

The Department of Justice has ordered Apple and Google to turn over names, phone numbers and IP addresses for users of a gun scope app that allows gun owners to calibrate scopes and capture video.

Data privacy activists say the government’s ask would set a “dangerous precedent,” giving officials access to data on thousands of innocent people.

Facebook throws shade on Apple’s ‘exclusive’ approach

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Facebook
Facebook and Apple have beef.
Photo: Thomas Ulrich/Pixabay

The clash of tech titans Apple and Facebook continued Monday when Mark Zuckerberg’s newest executive team hire called Apple an “exclusive club” serving only “aspirant consumers with the means to buy high-value hardware and services.”

Nick Clegg, Facebook’s new head of global affairs, didn’t mention Apple by name when he spoke to a group in Berlin today. He didn’t have to.

Google enabling auto-delete of search and location history

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Setting your Google account to automatically delete old information about you will soon be possible.
Setting your Google account to automatically delete old information about you will soon be possible.
Photo: Google/Cult of Mac

Everyone who uses Google services, whether on iPhone or Android, will soon be able to have some of the data being collected about them automatically erased after a span of time.

It’s already possible to order Google to erase everything it stores about your search history, but this new feature will allow for on-going deletion.

Guilty iCloud hacker sent to slammer

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Celebgate hack
Christopher Brannan gets a prison sentence for his part in the crime.
Illustration: Killian Bell/Cult of Mac

A judge sentenced a former high school teacher to 34 months in prison Friday after the man pleaded guilty to his role in the “Celebgate” hack of iCloud and other accounts.

Of those convicted for the high-profile hack, Christopher Brannan, 31, received the harshest sentence for breaching accounts. The attack led to the circulation of nude photos and videos of model Kate Upton, actress Jennifer Lawrence and others.

Apple caves to Kremlin pressure to store iCloud data in Russia

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Apple in Russia
A new Russian law means President Vladimr Putin could take a peek at the iCloud data of his citizens.
Photo: Caviar

Apple will comply with a Russian law that could force them to decrypt data on Russian customers at the government’s request.

The law took effect last year and requires the tech giant to store data on servers in Russia for up to six months. Apple acquiesced to a similar law last year in China, a smartphone market in which it has invested heavily.

Facebook employees considered quitting after iOS apps shutdown

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Facebook employees
Facebook employees went through a tense 24 hours.
Photo: Facebook

Apple’s sudden shutdown of Facebook’s internal apps for iOS created enough chaos this week that some working for the social network company were openly talking about quitting, according to reports.

The Facebook employee apps show shuttle schedules, campus maps, and company calendars. Apple disabled all of them Wednesday after it learned Facebook ran a research app where iOS users could be rewarded for their data, a sideloaded app that violates Apple’s developer rules.