A hush-hush economy

November 14, 2024

A hush-hush economy: When you agree to an app’s terms and conditions, you’re agreeing to be tracked — so says the Secret Service (great read, but it’s a paywall link). They used a data-broker company’s tool called Locate X to follow people over time through the apps they’d given GPS access to — no warrant needed or required. Now you know what you’re really doing when you agree to those permissions.

Tags: apps, GPS, Locate X, permissions, Secret Service, terms and conditions, tracking

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Small-biz tip: How to onboard a remote employee

If you’re a small business owner, onboarding a new employee virtually can be a huge undertaking. Taking a new hire out to lunch, giving them a tour of the office and introducing them to coworkers is often an integral part of the experience, but that might not be possible if you hire remote employees.

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Area codes and numbers that are probably spam

Whew, the election’s over. The onslaught of robocalls and texts is over, too … right? Nope.

There are fewer political calls and messages, sure, but there are always scammers and spammers. It may be easier for these creeps to get a hold of us now that our phones aren’t constantly lighting up with election-related notifications.

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iPhone pro tip: Apple’s Shortcuts app lets you automate actions with just one click. The sky’s the limit — for example, you can set up navigating to an event on your calendar, shrinking screenshots to save space and auto-sending happy birthday messages to your favorite people. Here’s a full guide on how to use it.

1 week’s worth

Amount of supplies Norway recommends its citizens have on hand in case of war with Russia. Imagine getting that in the mail. Norway isn’t alone; check Ready.gov for the U.S. government’s planning guides for everything from a flood to a snowstorm. Nothing sets my doomsday alarm ringing like 10 minutes without the internet.

Share via email - Distractions, controlled

Share on Facebook - Distractions, controlled

Share on LinkedIn - Distractions, controlled

I’ve been using Distraction Control (circled in red above) in the latest version of Safari on my Mac. It really works! It lets you hide whatever you want on a webpage — images, headlines and videos. If it’s distracting, make it disappear with a click. ✨

🖊️ Ever write checks? Use a pen (4-pack for $10) with specially formulated ink that gets trapped in paper, helping to prevent criminal check washing and other document alteration.

We may receive a commission when you buy through our links, but our reporting and recommendations are always independent and objective.

ChatGPT, find me customers: Use AI to find out what people are saying online so you can better target your company’s ads. Take a lesson from Shake Shack: They used a bot to scan 80,000 Reddit threads about chicken sandwiches, narrowed it down to the 30 most active and ran ads for their new sandwich. It worked — sales were 31% higher.

Microsoft Edge can’t take a hint: The browser is importing your Chrome browsing data and tabs without asking. Luckily, you can stop it. When you see the pop-up from Edge to Enhance your browsing experience with Copilot in Microsoft Edge, click the tiny white X in the upper right corner and close it. (It’s tiny — you might have to squint to see it.)

When your luggage is MIA at the airport carousel: Apple now lets you share your AirTags’ location with your airline (or anyone else). Open the Find My app, tap on your lost item, then tap Share Item Location > Continue > Share Link. If your bag is found, stop sharing its location anytime; otherwise, the link will expire in seven days.

Test yours at SpeedTest.net to see. If things are slow, it might be time for a full system reboot to clear glitches and restore your speeds. Here’s the right way to do it:

Turn off everything. That’s your modem and router, or yours may be one combined unit.
Wait a full minute. Seriously, count it out!
Turn on the modem first. Give it time to boot completely, then power up the router. Restart your computer and you should be blazin’.