Tag: Data

Yes, Your Router Collects Data on You. Here’s How to Protect Your Privacy

Laurent

This story is part of Home Tips, CNET’s collection of practical advice for getting the most out of your home, inside and out.

Your home’s Wi-Fi router is the central hub of your home internet network, which means that all of the traffic from all of the Wi-Fi devices under your roof passes through it on its way to the cloud. That’s a lot of data — enough so to make privacy a reasonable point of concern when you’re picking one out.

The problem is that it’s next to impossible for the average consumer to glean very much about the privacy practices of the companies that make and sell routers. Data-collection practices are complicated to begin with, and most privacy policies do a poor job of shedding light on them. Working up the will to read through the lengthy legal-speak that fills them is no small task for a single manufacturer, let alone several of them. Even if you make it that far, you’re likely to end up with more questions than answers.

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Fortunately, I have a strong stomach for fine print, and after spending the last few years testing and reviewing routers here on CNET, most manufacturers tend to respond to my emails when I have questions. So, I set out to dig into the details of what these routers are doing with your data — here’s what I found. (You can also find out why your Wi-Fi router may be in the wrong spot, and where to find the best internet speed tests.) 

All of the problems with privacy policies

I combed through about 30,000 words of terms of use and other policy documents as I tried to find answers for this post — but privacy policies typically aren’t written with full transparency in mind.

“All a privacy policy can really do is tell you with some confidence that something bad is not going to happen,” said Bennett Cyphers, a staff technologist with the

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Analyzing the Real-World Impact of Blockchain APIs

Laurent

The real-world impact of blockchain APIs is yet to be fully understood. However, technology is already transforming how many businesses operate and communicate with one another.

Blockchain APIs connect multiple applications and make it easier to share data between them. They can also increase the security of a system by creating an immutable, distributed ledger of all transactions.

Transparency

Blockchain APIs have the potential to improve transparency in supply chain logistics. For instance, they can help businesses track a product’s life cycle. This helps ensure that customers receive authentic products at the right time and place.

Furthermore, it increases customer trust and confidence in an organization. This can help companies grow their business and increase revenue.

The transparency of blockchain APIs can also help organizations fight against counterfeit goods. It allows them to track a product’s life cycle and trace its origins.

Moreover, it will allow customers to see how their product was produced and what the impact of their purchase is on the environment. This will help consumers make more eco-friendly purchasing decisions.

Using blockchain technology to create an open database that tracks every aspect of the production process will help customers know where their products come from, how they are made and their carbon footprint. It will also help companies make their supply chain more transparent, ensuring that all the processes are efficient and dependable.

Security

Security is a significant concern for many companies. Blockchain technology provides a robust and secure solution to these problems.

In addition, it eliminates the need for centralized oracles to store and manage data. This will help reduce the risk of data tampering, theft, or fraud.

For example, blockchain can time-stamp transactions and verify patent filings. This can reduce patent disputes and prevent costly lawsuits.

Similarly, blockchain can be used to track products from production to shipping and storage. This can also eliminate errors and increase efficiency.

As blockchain tech continues to gain traction, more businesses will be able to leverage it for their business operations. In turn, these organizations will achieve greater transparency and interoperability. This will result in a … Read More...

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Data Oriented Programming in Java

Laurent

Key Takeaways

  • Project Amber has brought a number of new features to Java in recent years. While each of these features are self-contained, they are also designed to work together. Specifically, records, sealed classes, and pattern matching work together to enable easier data-oriented programming in Java.

  • OOP encourages us to model complex entities and processes using objects, which combine state and behavior. OOP is at its best when it is defining and defending boundaries. 

  • Java’s strong static typing and class-based modeling can still be tremendously useful for smaller programs, just in different ways.

  • Data-oriented programming encourages us to model data as (immutable) data, and keep the code that embodies the business logic of how we act on that data separately. Records, sealed classes, and pattern matching, make that easier.

  • When we’re modeling complex entities, OO techniques have a lot to offer us. But when we’re modeling simple services that process plain, ad-hoc data, the techniques of data-oriented programming may offer us a straighter path.

  • The techniques of OOP and data-oriented programming are not at odds; they are different tools for different granularities and situations. We can freely mix and match them as we see fit.

Project Amber has brought a number of new features to Java in recent years — local variable type inference, text blocks, records, sealed classes, pattern matching, and more. While each of these features are self-contained, they are also designed to work together. Specifically, records, sealed classes, and pattern matching work together to enable easier data-oriented programming in Java. In this article, we’ll cover what is meant by this term and how it might affect how we program in Java.

Object-oriented programming

The goal of any programming paradigm is to manage complexity. But complexity comes in many forms, and not all paradigms handle all forms of complexity equally well. Most programming paradigms have a one-sentence slogan of the form “Everything is a …”; for OOP, this is obviously “everything is an object.” Functional programming says “everything is a function”; actor-based systems say “everything is an actor”, etc. (Of course,

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Data Doctors: Are extended warranties on computers worth it?

Laurent

Practically anyone selling you a computer will likely try to get you to pay a little extra for a “protection plan” that goes above and beyond the standard factory warranty. Should you go for it?

Q: Are computer extended warranties worth buying?

A: No matter what tech device you buy, practically any retailer will likely try to get you to pay a little extra for a “protection plan” that goes above and beyond the standard factory warranty.

In some cases, it seems like such a small amount of money that you may think, “Why not get the extra coverage?”

But the credit card you made the purchase with may already provide basic protection.

Many of the electronic devices you’ll buy today don’t have the moving parts that would commonly wear out in the past, making the “protection” even less likely to pay off.

In the vast majority of cases, you’re simply improving the profitability of the sale for the retailer — which is why you’re seeing it virtually everywhere.

It’s not covered

When it comes to computers, there are a variety of reasons that buying “extra protection” up front can be a waste of money.

First and foremost, these protection plans generally only cover hardware components, which is rarely what causes aggravating computer problems.

In our 30-plus years of servicing computers, the vast majority of issues that we see are software- or operating system-based, which isn’t covered by most extended warranties or protection plans.

Retailers know most consumers don’t realize this, and won’t take the time to read the fine print. Even when some form of coverage includes the operating system, it means they will return the computer to the factory settings.

That means the stuff you really care about — your programs, data files, browser settings, printer drivers and desktop icons — are all going to be wiped out.

When you get your computer back from this type of “warranty” service, the burden of reloading your programs, restoring your data files (hopefully you had them backed up), reinstalling printer drivers and getting the computer to work the way it

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