Category: Hi tek

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Brian X. Chen writes that It’s Time to Stop Paying for a VPN. I think he’s right, especially given that some VPN providers may be owned by less-than-trustworthy parties. For a time, I was using iVPN, which still seems to be a reasonable choice. However, when my subscription lapsed, I didn’t renew. My motivation to use a VPN just wasn’t as strong as it once was.

For those that still need a VPN, self-hosting is an interesting option. The article mentions Algo, which looks straightforward and well documented. I haven’t tried it out myself, but if I feel the need to for a VPN in the future, I might opt for Algo over a commercial provider.

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NYTimes: The Lesson We Are Learning From Zoom

Unfortunately, I’m not sure we ever learn this lesson about privacy.

Brian Chen has some advice at the end of this article we should all follow:

… be mindful of what it means to tell others to use a product with weak data security. Try to avoid using it for sensitive matters, like work meetings that discuss trade secrets.

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Yelp and Gofundme decided to automatically create Gofundme campaigns for businesses and promote them on Yelp. Then, they decided to make it opt-in only after backlash from business owners.

Maybe their heart was in the right place. However, Yelp should have resisted the idea of soliciting donations on behalf of a business without the business owner’s knowledge or permission.

This reminds me a bit of Grubhub’s actions recently. While it is a very different situation, it is still a tech company doing things that might affect a business, without the business owner’s consent or knowledge.

via Slashdot