| Cult of Mac

All your private data is being sold. Here’s how to opt out.

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simple opt out
If you don't worry about your data being sold, here's a nice spot of sand where you can bury your head.
Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac

Did you know that Home Depot shares your “name, address and transactional information … with third party companies”? Or that Marriott Hotels discloses “Personal Data and Other Data with select Strategic Business Partners”?

What about this snippet from The New York Times’ privacy policy: “If you are a U.S. print subscriber, we may exchange or rent your name and postal mailing address.”

The bad news is, pretty much anytime you share your data with a U.S. company, it will sell that data to somebody else. The good news is that you can opt out. And the even better news is that there’s one place to get all the information you need to do it.

References to Apple ‘tag’ item trackers spotted in iOS 13

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Tile bluetooth tracker
Apple wants to take on Tile.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

References in iOS 13 all but corroborate earlier reports that Apple is working on its own item-tracking accessories.

It is thought Apple plans to compete with Tile by offering “tags” that can be attached to bags, keys, and other valuables. You will then be able to track them using the new Find My app coming this fall.

Mozilla petitions Apple to boost privacy with rotating ad IDs

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ipad-pro-smart-keyboard-safari
Rotating advertiser IDs make a lot of sense.
Photo: Apple

Mozilla, the company behind Firefox, is calling for Apple to boost user privacy on iOS by introducing rotating advertiser IDs.

Most iPhone and iPad users don’t know that they can block access to their unique ID, Mozilla says. Regularly rotating IDs would make it harder for companies “to build profiles of us over time.”

Sign the petition to pressure Apple into making a change today.

How to search your Google search history

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Google is watching, all the time. Turn it to your advantage.
Google is watching, all the time. Turn it to your advantage.
Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac

How many time have you tried to remember that site where you read that thing last week? A million, probably. And how many times have you found it? Less than a million, for sure. But did you know that you can use Google to search only sites that you have visited?

You can, and it’s awesome.

Replaceable batteries make Tile the tracker you’ve been waiting for [Review]

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Tile will speak out against Apple in Congress antitrust hearing
A 2018 Tile Pro can be used for years now that the battery can be swapped out.
Photo: Tile

For much too long, the best key finder had a significant flaw. A Tile Pro or Tile Mate helps you keep track of your keys, the remote, or other items, but each only lasts a year. Then you have to buy another one because the battery can’t be replaced. That finally changes in the new 2018 version. Plus they have a greater range.

We tested the latest versions of the regular and Pro versions of the Tile tracker to see if they live up to their promises. 

Google tracks you even if you tell it not to

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A group called Google You Owe Us wants $1000 each after Google invaded their privacy
Google is still tracking users' locations without their permission.
Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac

Google’s claim that it allows users to completely turn off all location tracking is completely false, according to research conducted by the Associated Press.

Whether you’re using an iPhone or Android device, the AP found that many Google services store your location data, even if you’ve used a privacy setting that is supposed to prevent Google from grabbing your data.

Deliveries: The best way to track packages on iOS [50 Essential iOS Apps #1]

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Deliveries for iOS
Deliveries helps keep track of packages in transit
Photo: Ian Fuchs/Cult of Mac

50 Essential iOS Apps As online shopping becomes an integral part of our lives, one pain point remains: Keeping track of when all our precious packages will arrive.

That’s why online shoppers will love iOS package-tracking app Deliveries. It eliminates the irritation of keeping track of where packages are and when they’re going to be delivered. Forget about dealing with the nightmare of order-confirmation emails and online accounts. Deliveries consolidates info on all the packages in transit to your home. Then it lets you keep tabs via a single timeline in an easy-to-use app.

How to stop Facebook tracking your location

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facebook tracking location
Facebook wants to know everything about you… Even where you've been.
Photo: CC Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac

Your iPhone probably knows more about you than your husband or wife. It knows what websites you visit, and who’s in your VIP contact list. It knows your credit card numbers, and it knows what apps you like to read with your morning coffee. And it also knows where you are, at all times, and even what direction you’re moving in.

Apps like Facebook love to drain as much of this information as they can, but thanks to Apple’s privacy-first policy of giving control to you, the user, it’s easy to deny any app access to this sensitive data. Today we’ll see how to stop Facebook, or any other app, from tracking your location.

How to track your kids with your iPhone

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track your kids
What if you could always find your child on a map?
Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac

Using the Find My Friends app to track adults is creepy stalker-type behavior. But using your iPhone to track your kids is like totally cool, right? After all, no child is safe if left to their own devices. Better to let them know as soon as possible that they should let others be responsible for their well-being.

Luckily, iOS has a bunch of neat, easy-to-use and (mostly) non-creepy tracking tools built in. Let’s see how to use them.