Better @better@mastodon.ind.ie

‘Surveillance capitalism has led us into a dystopia’

@aral recorded this video with BBC Ideas back in July. It gives a brief introduction to surveillance capitalism, complete with animation.

https://www.bbc.com/ideas/videos/surveillance-capitalism-has-led-us-into-a-dystopia/p06p0tdy

Also on our forum: https://forum.ind.ie/t/surveillance-capitalism-has-led-us-into-a-dystopia-bbc-ideas/2438

‘Facebook Isn’t Sorry — It Just Wants Your Data’

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/charliewarzel/facebook-isnt-sorry-it-just-wants-your-data

“To observers, these might seem like easily avoidable errors, but to Facebook, whose very identity and foundational mandate is the instinctual drive to amass personal data, they make perfect sense.”

Also on our forum: https://forum.ind.ie/t/facebook-isn-t-sorry-it-just-wants-your-data/2435

‘Just Don’t Call It Privacy’

“What is at stake here isn’t privacy, the right not to be observed. It’s how companies can use our data to invisibly shunt us in directions that may benefit them more than us.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/22/sunday-review/privacy-hearing-amazon-google.html

Also on our forum: https://forum.ind.ie/t/just-don-t-call-it-privacy/2422

‘Facebook Is Giving Advertisers Access to Your Shadow Contact Information’

https://gizmodo.com/facebook-is-giving-advertisers-access-to-your-shadow-co-1828476051

“Facebook is not content to use the contact information you willingly put into your Facebook profile for advertising. It is also using contact information you handed over for security purposes and contact information you didn’t hand over at all, but that was collected from other people’s contact books…”

Also on our forum: https://forum.ind.ie/t/facebook-is-giving-advertisers-access-to-your-shadow-contact-information/2414

‘Google Says It Continues to Allow Apps to Scan Data From Gmail Accounts’

https://www.wsj.com/amp/articles/google-says-it-continues-to-allow-apps-to-scan-data-from-gmail-accounts-1537459989

“Google Inc. told lawmakers it continues to allow other companies to scan and share data from Gmail accounts… The company also disclosed that app developers generally are free to share the data with others”

Also on our forum: https://forum.ind.ie/t/google-says-it-continues-to-allow-apps-to-scan-data-from-gmail-accounts/2410

‘WhatsApp Cofounder Brian Acton Gives The Inside Story On #DeleteFacebook’

https://www.forbes.com/sites/parmyolson/2018/09/26/exclusive-whatsapp-cofounder-brian-acton-gives-the-inside-story-on-deletefacebook-and-why-he-left-850-million-behind/

At the end of the day, I sold my company,” Acton says. “I sold my users’ privacy to a larger benefit. I made a choice and a compromise. And I live with that every day.”

Also on our forum: https://forum.ind.ie/t/whatsapp-cofounder-brian-acton-gives-the-inside-story-on-deletefacebook/2407

Better Blocker: thank you for our best week yet!

https://ar.al/2018/09/25/better-blocker-thank-you-for-our-best-week-yet/

@laura and I want to thank those of you who purchased @better last week. Thanks to you, we had our best week ever and sold over 2,500 units. That’s quite something given that we have sold just over 20,000 units in total over the last two years.

The Better Blocker macOS app became the #1 paid app overall in the Netherlands and Guatalama App Stores, entered the top ten in 14 countries, & was in the top 100 in 27 countries.

The new, radically simplified, Better Blocker for macOS is now out in time for today’s release of macOS Mojave :)

(And it supports Dark Mode. In case you care about such things.)

https://ar.al/2018/09/24/better-blocker-for-macos-mojave/

‘Apple moves to thwart Facebook tracking’

https://mashable.com/article/apple-safari-browser-block-facebook-cookies

“Notably, these protections won’t do privacy-conscious consumers any good while they’re logged into Facebook, but it will help to protect them from the social network’s ever-expanding grasp while they’re logged out.”

Also on our forum: https://forum.ind.ie/t/apple-moves-to-thwart-facebook-tracking/2388

‘Campaigners win vital battle against UK mass surveillance at European Court of Human Rights’

https://privacyinternational.org/press-release/2265/press-release-campaigners-win-vital-battle-against-uk-mass-surveillance-european

“It confirms that just because it is technically feasible to intercept all of our personal communications, it does not mean that it is lawful to do so.”

Also on our forum: https://forum.ind.ie/t/campaigners-win-vital-battle-against-uk-mass-surveillance-at-european-court-of-human-rights/2383

Wow, @better now leads the overall list of paid apps in the German Mac App Store

(By the way, I’m a happy customer for quite some time now, so, if you need a tracker blocker for Safari on iOS/macOS you should definetely take a look at it)

Better Blocker for iOS 12 is now live.

https://better.fyi

Two weeks ago, I wrote that we wanted to radically simplify Better and widen its reach (https://ar.al/2018/08/27/better-blocker-two-year-review-and-thoughts-on-the-future/). With this release, we took the first steps towards that goal. We distilled the app to its essentials (taking it from 44MB to 11MB in the process) & lowered the price to the lowest tier on the App Store ($0.99/£0.99/€1.09).

Details: https://ar.al/2018/09/14/better-simpler-and-more-affordable/

Here’s to bringing the Better web to more people.

Better, simpler, and more affordable

https://ar.al/2018/09/14/better-simpler-and-more-affordable/

Today, I submitted a radical redesign of Better Blocker for iOS to the App Store for approval in time for the launch of iOS 12…

‘Feedbin: Private by Default’

“Since Feedbin is 100% funded by paying customers, I can focus solely on making the best product possible without compromises. Therefore, Feedbin can be private by default.”

https://feedbin.com/blog/2018/09/11/private-by-default/

Also on our forum: https://forum.ind.ie/t/feedbin-private-by-default/2366