Smartwatch, Echo, and 23andMe, oh my!
Dear Opt Out netizens,
Welcome to all new subscribers! I’ve had a little hiatus here after blogging every night for a month to complete the instructions for my 21-day “Cyber-cleanse.” Click through for bite-sized instructions, day by day, for reclaiming your data and autonomy online: I cover browsers, email, calendars and contacts, secure messaging, securing your smartphone, social media, shopping, VPNs, photos, collaborations, smart devices, and ditching Google for good! There is more to come, so stay tuned!
Meanwhile, here are a few things to share this week that I’m excited about.
I am so thrilled that the Pebble Smartwatch is making a comeback! Unlike other smartwatches the Pebble operating system was written before the personal data economy got started, so it has data sovereignty written into it from the get-go. Fun fact: I still use an original Pebble smartwatch and have done for over a decade, thanks to the Rebbel Alliance. Score one for keeping your data where you put it — on your wrist, not on someone else’s computer.
If you have an Amazon Echo in your home (or know someone who does), this past week Amazon changed the terms of service. Now its always-on recording cannot be turned off. In other words, Echo will no longer process any voice commands on the box: everything will be an open microphone shoveling everything you say and do in your home to Jeff Bezos’s computers. It makes their AI look easy and seamless, but also has the downside of having an open mic in your home—an essential tool for the secret police during the Cold War.
Calling all book-lovers! Lifehacker featured an interview with me and with Cory Doctorow this week to report on ways to evade DRM and decrease our general reliance on platforms like Amazon Kindle for books. Since Audible and Kindle no longer allow downloads, many people are looking for alternatives. You may also want to check out systems like Calibre (to free your books) and Bookshop.org, a B-corp that has just come out with their own app.
The French Government has started releasing data sovereign, open source tools for everyday document creation, collaboration and sharing. Check them out! The French have, in general, been working hard to counter hegemonic U.S. systems with home-grown, sometimes enrypted, often open source ones of their own: one of my faves is cryptpad.fr. PrivacyGuides has been doing a terrific job listing a whole series of alternatives, including many based in Europe to benefit from GDPR.
If you are or have ever been a customer of 23andMe, it’s definitely time to log in and delete all your user data, records, and information. The company is about to go into receivership, making your data liable to be sold to the lowest bidder. The California Attorney General has issued an alert and indicated how you can remove your data.
Most of my research is about NASA and public tech: if you’re interested in innovation in the public sector, check out my op ed for Tech Policy Press on cuts to NASA and a piece in Issues in Science and Technology on cuts to the NIH.
Finally, it’s never been a better time to get off corporate social media systems. But leaving social media is not just as easy as a few clicks: our whole communities are online, and it’s hard to leave our friends behind. Fortunately, I have an entire series of posts about this! Start with the break-up approach, then check out the how-to’s of departure, and then reclaim your social life away from prying digital eyes. Soon-to-be-former Twitter users may especially appreciate CYD, a tool for downloading all your Twitter data.
Until next time — keep up the good work and make sure you know where your data is!
Janet