How and why Apple users should switch to DuckDuckGo for search

Credit to Author: Jonny Evans| Date: Thu, 18 Jul 2019 07:54:00 -0700

Like liberty for all, privacy demands vigilance, and that’s why Apple users who care about those things are moving to DuckDuckGo for search.

Why use DuckDuckGo?

Privacy is under attack.

It doesn’t take much effort to prove this truth. At time of writing, recent news is full of creeping privacy erosion:

And then there’s Duck Duck Go.

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How to take control of Face ID (with tools you may not know exist)

Credit to Author: Jonny Evans| Date: Mon, 15 Jul 2019 09:00:00 -0700

If you travel frequently and use an iPhone or iPad, then you simply must familiarize yourself with these two tips – they’ll make it much easier to secure your device and its contents when you are on the move.

In praise of Face ID

I’ve become very used to using Face ID. It’s seamless.

On the iPhone, I like that I can pay for groceries with a look and find it much easier to use in the dark than the Home button.

My iPad experience is similar, but I do get annoyed sometimes that I must raise the tablet slightly to get the face angle right – this isn’t always as intuitive as I would like.

All the same, given Apple’s claim that there is a 1 in 50,000 chance that someone else’s fingerprint will unlock your iPhone and a 1 in 1,000,000 chance that it will be unlocked by another person’s face, I’ll always opt for the highly secure choice.

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Memory-Lane Monday: Even worse than you thought

Credit to Author: Sharky| Date: Mon, 15 Jul 2019 03:00:00 -0700

This government agency has cashiers’ stations for handling transactions with the public, and the treasurer’s office decides it needs new software to run those stations, according to a pilot fish in IT.

And there’s going to be one sign-on and password for all the stations, brag the higher-ups.

Bad idea, protest all the IT programmers and system administrators. For one thing, having a single user sign-on to the system will prevent tracking who is completing each transaction. They cite security, accountability and separation of duties, but their protests fall on deaf ears.

The vendor rep shows up one day, and he and the treasurer do a presentation for an audience that includes IT managers. The two sound excited, and a touch proud, when they tell everyone that the cashiers will sign on with the user ID “Cash.” They don’t share the top-secret password, though; that’s just for the cashiers to know.

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