Yesterday we told you about Astro, Amazon’s new home robot. Behind that calm screen face, some people only see a potential privacy killer. It is, after all, a camera and microphone with wheels in your home.
Amazon says there's no risk, telling Mashable, “We employ best-in-class on-device security techniques, to include data encryption, boot protection, and account access restrictions."
Many people won’t be deterred by concerns, but more people are doing what they can to protect how much of their personal information they allow into the world. Privacy-first browsers and VPNs are often the first line of defense for anyone who wants to protect their privacy, but here are a few more launches for those interested in reducing your digital footprint.
Email Aliases
Yesterday, 1password released a new Masked Emails product which lets you protect your email addresses by creating random emails without leaving the sign up page. Email aliases help protect you if there’s a data breach in the service/tool you’re signing up to. Hackers won’t be able to get your actual information and try to phish scam you — which is where 91% of all cyber attacks start.
Note that Apple, Gmail, and other services do have email alias functions you can use, if you prefer.
Document Encryption
Let’s say you drop your files in a secure file storage. There’s usually still a risk that someone can take a photo of it. LeadsID converts any document to PDF format but enriches it with invisible steganographic marks. That mark enables LeaksID to notify the document creator anytime someone opens a confidential document — including a small fragment or a photograph of it on a smartphone — and determine the identity of the offender.
Note Taking
We each have our own favorite note-taking tool, but if you wrote down a list of the reasons you love it and where it could improve, would privacy even make the list? If it did — or if you thinking it should — the launch of Skiff might pique your interest. It’s a workspace built from the ground up to be privacy first, with end-to-end encryption, expiring links, watermarks, locked documents, and more.
Address Protection
Many creators receive gifts from their supporters regularly. Throne is a wish-list for creators/influencers to get items and gifts without exposing their address.
Companies can have treasure troves of data, but that data is worthless if they don’t know how to analyze it. That’s why Mixpanel is partnering with Product School, the leader in Product Management training, to bring you a free online Products Analytics Certification course so anyone can master the “ins and outs” of product analytics. This self-paced course will teach you how to build behavioral metrics from scratch and unpack complex topics like acquisition metrics, retention metrics, and product experimentation.
Yesterday, we wrote about the evolution of Startup as a Service and Start is another new service helping startups launch more easily by managing the back operations for them.
With a monthly subscription to Start, founders can “launch and run a US business from anywhere in the world. We handle all your back-office operations: LLC formation, registered agent, EIN, business bank account, monthly bookkeeping, accounting, and taxes (prep, filing, payment)."