WEBVTT - Mute might not be what you think on video chat apps 0:00:10.320 --> 0:00:14.360 Elon Musk offers to buy Twitter. Are you really muted 0:00:14.600 --> 0:00:18.599 on your video call? Netflix? Does the double thumbs up? 0:00:19.239 --> 0:00:23.239 Plus your tech questions answered? What's going on? I'm Rich 0:00:23.320 --> 0:00:26.239 Demiro and this is Rich on Tech, the podcast where 0:00:26.280 --> 0:00:28.360 I talk about the tech stuff I think you should 0:00:28.400 --> 0:00:31.320 know about. It's also the place where I answer the 0:00:31.400 --> 0:00:35.400 questions you sent me. I'm the tech reporter at KTLA 0:00:35.520 --> 0:00:39.000 Channel five in Los Angeles. It seems like there is 0:00:39.159 --> 0:00:41.920 never a dull moment in the tech industry these days. 0:00:42.360 --> 0:00:45.879 We've got new phones, we've got new services, You've got 0:00:45.920 --> 0:00:49.440 all kinds of things happening, and the big news this week, 0:00:49.880 --> 0:00:52.120 and by the time you listen to this show, this 0:00:52.159 --> 0:00:55.520 could have changed. Because this is such a dynamic situation. 0:00:56.120 --> 0:01:01.000 But Elon Musk has offered to buy Twitter outright forty 0:01:01.040 --> 0:01:04.880 three billion dollar deal fifty four dollars and twenty cents 0:01:04.920 --> 0:01:10.160 per stock. He is, you know, sort of a this 0:01:10.200 --> 0:01:13.920 is kind of a controversial thing. I mean, the reaction 0:01:14.160 --> 0:01:17.839 I've seen on Twitter has been fast, it's been furious, 0:01:17.920 --> 0:01:20.080 it's been you know, some people think it's going to 0:01:20.160 --> 0:01:21.720 be a good thing. Some people think it's going to 0:01:21.800 --> 0:01:24.760 be a bad thing. But the reality is it's a thing, 0:01:25.760 --> 0:01:30.119 and so again forty three billion dollar deal. Elon Musk 0:01:30.200 --> 0:01:33.840 said that, you know, he wants to buy Twitter because 0:01:33.880 --> 0:01:37.600 he believes in its potential to be the platform for 0:01:37.680 --> 0:01:41.200 free speech around the globe, and he thinks free speech 0:01:41.480 --> 0:01:47.240 is a societal imperative. But he thinks that the company 0:01:47.280 --> 0:01:51.520 cannot survive or thrive. I guess, he says, I realized 0:01:51.560 --> 0:01:54.480 the company will neither thrive nor serve this imperative in 0:01:54.520 --> 0:01:56.560 its current form and needs to be transformed as a 0:01:56.600 --> 0:02:00.640 private company. So he is offering to one hundred percent 0:02:00.680 --> 0:02:03.600 of Twitter. Now, he says that this is his offer. 0:02:03.680 --> 0:02:06.040 Fifty four dollars and twenty cents is a fifty four 0:02:06.080 --> 0:02:08.760 percent premium over the day he began investing in Twitter. 0:02:09.120 --> 0:02:10.919 I'm sure he can look at the filings and see 0:02:10.960 --> 0:02:12.960 when he started investing. I think that was at the 0:02:13.040 --> 0:02:16.600 end of last year, and a thirty eight percent premium 0:02:16.639 --> 0:02:21.160 over the day the investment was publicly announced. Twitter has 0:02:21.200 --> 0:02:25.280 extraordinary potential. I will unlock it. That's what Elon Musk said. Now, 0:02:25.280 --> 0:02:27.480 this has been a roller coaster because we know that 0:02:27.880 --> 0:02:31.560 it was revealed that Elon Musk bought nine percent stock 0:02:31.639 --> 0:02:34.400 in the company then the company offered him a board seat. 0:02:34.720 --> 0:02:36.600 Then he said no, I'm not going to join the board. 0:02:36.680 --> 0:02:39.600 And then he started asking weird questions on Twitter, like, 0:02:40.200 --> 0:02:44.160 you know, does Twitter protect free speech? You know, just 0:02:44.280 --> 0:02:48.600 all these weird kind of odd things, and some things 0:02:48.639 --> 0:02:53.000 got deleted. And it's interesting to watch his rise and 0:02:53.120 --> 0:02:59.760 also the kind of transformation into a very polarizing, controversial person. 0:03:00.960 --> 0:03:03.960 You know, obviously he has very successful company with with Tesla. 0:03:04.520 --> 0:03:09.640 He is doing really interesting things with SpaceX, and you know, 0:03:09.760 --> 0:03:13.240 obviously he came from PayPal and made a whole bunch 0:03:13.280 --> 0:03:17.639 of money there and did some interesting things there. He's 0:03:17.680 --> 0:03:22.920 outspoken and he is a forward thinker. But should he 0:03:23.000 --> 0:03:25.240 be in charge of Twitter? A lot of people say no. 0:03:25.560 --> 0:03:29.160 I'm just reading the comments today on tech Meme, they 0:03:29.200 --> 0:03:32.040 linked up a bunch of the tweets. I mean, I 0:03:32.040 --> 0:03:35.760 think more tweets than I've ever seen from anyone or 0:03:35.800 --> 0:03:39.520 any particular story. Just a lot of people, the good, 0:03:39.640 --> 0:03:43.920 the bad, the ugly, and let's be honest, what a 0:03:43.960 --> 0:03:46.440 lot of people are concerned about is this idea of 0:03:46.520 --> 0:03:50.760 free speech on Twitter. Twitter has blocked one of their 0:03:50.880 --> 0:03:56.000 most prolific tweeters. You remember former President Trump and you know, 0:03:56.040 --> 0:03:58.880 Trump had I think he had about eighty million followers. 0:03:58.920 --> 0:04:01.200 And this was another thing that that Elon did. He 0:04:01.720 --> 0:04:04.640 tweeted out a list of people and he said, is 0:04:04.680 --> 0:04:07.160 Twitter dead? You know, these people rarely tweet and they're 0:04:07.200 --> 0:04:10.200 like the top, you know, they have the top followers 0:04:10.240 --> 0:04:15.240 on Twitter. So it's it's really controversial. It's really interesting, 0:04:16.720 --> 0:04:20.920 you know, should Twitter be handled or run by one person? 0:04:21.040 --> 0:04:24.120 Right now? Twitter is a publicly traded company. It's got 0:04:24.120 --> 0:04:28.080 a board. And keep in mind this is a consumer podcast, 0:04:28.120 --> 0:04:30.840 and to be quite honest, I don't talk about Twitter 0:04:30.920 --> 0:04:33.960 a whole lot in this podcast because I don't think 0:04:34.000 --> 0:04:40.719 Twitter is a very consumer oriented company. Like I don't 0:04:40.760 --> 0:04:43.760 think average consumers are on Twitter. And it's clear that, 0:04:43.839 --> 0:04:45.880 you know, if you look at their user base, they've 0:04:45.880 --> 0:04:48.400 got you know, over two hundred million active users daily, 0:04:48.480 --> 0:04:50.880 but only a portion of them are in US, maybe 0:04:50.920 --> 0:04:54.080 something like fifty sixty million of them. So when you 0:04:54.080 --> 0:04:57.680 look at that compared to something like Facebook and Instagram 0:04:57.960 --> 0:05:00.479 and you know these other places out there, you know, 0:05:00.520 --> 0:05:04.799 Twitter is just a blip, and so is Snapchat. Really 0:05:04.839 --> 0:05:08.000 the two big ones are Instagram and Facebook when it 0:05:08.000 --> 0:05:11.880 comes to social media, and so Twitter is small. But 0:05:11.920 --> 0:05:14.760 that's part of the argument is should Twitter be bigger? 0:05:15.040 --> 0:05:17.400 Should Twitter have more of an impact in the US? 0:05:17.440 --> 0:05:20.560 Should it not just be the news folks and the 0:05:20.680 --> 0:05:24.679 entertainment folks. And now, of course TikTok is another huge 0:05:24.680 --> 0:05:29.479 one and growing very fast, so we'll follow this. I 0:05:29.520 --> 0:05:31.760 think that for the average person, I think it really 0:05:32.279 --> 0:05:36.520 the deciding factor if if Elon is in charge, I 0:05:36.560 --> 0:05:40.440 think changes they're feeling about Twitter. There's a lot of 0:05:40.520 --> 0:05:43.400 journalists on Twitter who may not want to support it 0:05:43.440 --> 0:05:46.800 as much anymore. Or there's some people on Twitter, you 0:05:46.839 --> 0:05:49.240 know that that kind of lean left or right that 0:05:49.360 --> 0:05:51.560 may feel like Twitter would become much more of a 0:05:51.640 --> 0:05:56.040 conservative place. So you know, I'm not giving you my 0:05:56.040 --> 0:05:58.800 my feeling on whether that's right or wrong or what 0:05:59.040 --> 0:06:01.640 you know, people should think about. But I'm just giving 0:06:01.640 --> 0:06:04.479 you all the facts and kind of what is what's 0:06:04.520 --> 0:06:08.120 percolating around the community. And that's really what it is, 0:06:07.760 --> 0:06:11.000 is what does this social media network want to be? 0:06:11.760 --> 0:06:13.120 Does it want to be a voice of the right, 0:06:13.200 --> 0:06:14.560 Does it want to be a voice of the left. 0:06:14.560 --> 0:06:16.320 Does it want to be a voice somewhere in the middle. 0:06:16.360 --> 0:06:19.120 Should they be censoring people, should they be you know, 0:06:20.320 --> 0:06:23.920 just is it? What should Twitter be? And so those 0:06:23.960 --> 0:06:25.719 are a lot of questions that need to be answered. 0:06:26.480 --> 0:06:29.159 Do I think that Elon Musk is going to finalize 0:06:29.279 --> 0:06:32.599 purchase of Twitter. I'm not really sure. I think that 0:06:32.680 --> 0:06:34.560 a lot of this is is just kind of shaking 0:06:34.640 --> 0:06:37.599 things up a little bit. We'll see. But Twitter's also 0:06:37.640 --> 0:06:40.040 a company they answer to shareholders. This is a lot 0:06:40.040 --> 0:06:42.800 of money, and so it's just kind of one of 0:06:42.839 --> 0:06:45.520 those things that we will follow. And it's quite fun 0:06:45.560 --> 0:06:48.240 to watch. I'll be honest as a tech person, it's 0:06:48.320 --> 0:06:50.880 quite fun to watch. It's fun to see the reactions. 0:06:50.920 --> 0:06:55.680 It's fun to see all of the different positioning of people. 0:06:55.880 --> 0:06:58.800 And anyway, so we'll see what happens. By the time 0:06:58.800 --> 0:07:00.200 you listen to this. It could all be mute. It 0:07:00.200 --> 0:07:02.360 could all be a moot point anyway, because Elon may 0:07:02.720 --> 0:07:06.240 drop out of the contention for purchasing Twitter. He may 0:07:06.240 --> 0:07:10.400 say nevermind, I changed my mind. All right, let's get 0:07:10.400 --> 0:07:14.040 to the first question of the show. Let's see where 0:07:14.040 --> 0:07:16.520 are we? Gina says, I have a question about wi fi. 0:07:16.560 --> 0:07:18.680 If you're at a Starbucks or McDonald's or any other 0:07:18.760 --> 0:07:21.960 retail outlet on their WiFi, how susceptible are you to 0:07:22.080 --> 0:07:25.160 being hacked? Can you safely use Wi Fi at a 0:07:25.200 --> 0:07:28.000 hotel or on a ship? Several years ago, I was 0:07:28.040 --> 0:07:30.400 on a cruise. When we landed, many people got off 0:07:30.400 --> 0:07:32.480 and access their phones through a Wi Fi connection at 0:07:32.520 --> 0:07:35.280 the port. Later that day many were complaining their phones 0:07:35.320 --> 0:07:37.600 had been hacked. So I never use outside Wi Fi. 0:07:37.640 --> 0:07:41.600 Just wondering if Wi Fi is safer. Thanks for responding, Gina. Well, 0:07:41.800 --> 0:07:45.600 you know, everyone has a story of someone who something 0:07:45.720 --> 0:07:48.280 happened to them. The fact that a bunch of these 0:07:48.320 --> 0:07:52.240 people got off at a port and their phone was hacked, 0:07:52.720 --> 0:07:55.880 I'm not really sure that happened. It's kind of like 0:07:55.920 --> 0:07:59.520 this whole idea of you know, everyone has a story 0:07:59.520 --> 0:08:04.240 about something thing, right, And I think that in general 0:08:04.680 --> 0:08:07.680 public Wi Fi is quite safe and I think you'll 0:08:07.680 --> 0:08:11.240 be okay. Starbucks, McDonald's, I mean those companies I think 0:08:11.280 --> 0:08:15.280 are probably the most safe. I mean, the chances of 0:08:15.320 --> 0:08:18.800 someone getting in and messing with McDonald's or Starbucks WiFi 0:08:18.920 --> 0:08:22.440 is pretty pretty low. Now, what I do my banking 0:08:22.520 --> 0:08:24.640 on a Wi Fi network? And the answer is no, 0:08:25.360 --> 0:08:28.200 would I check my email? Probably? I think it'll be fine. 0:08:28.360 --> 0:08:30.760 Don't forget that when you check these services most of 0:08:30.800 --> 0:08:36.360 them are going through a secure layer to access that service, 0:08:36.400 --> 0:08:39.000 So it's not just like flying over the public internet 0:08:39.080 --> 0:08:42.040 to access your information. When you go from your phone 0:08:42.160 --> 0:08:46.960 to Gmail or something like that, it's using a secure 0:08:47.480 --> 0:08:53.120 kind of transmission socket to access that information, So it's 0:08:53.120 --> 0:08:55.719 not just kind of putting your information out there. And 0:08:55.760 --> 0:08:58.679 if someone were to sniff that network, typically as long 0:08:58.679 --> 0:09:00.480 as it's a secure as long as it's over a 0:09:00.480 --> 0:09:04.679 secure connection, you know, from you know, a Gmail or 0:09:04.800 --> 0:09:07.280 encrypted or whatever, it will be fine. They're not gonna 0:09:07.280 --> 0:09:09.439 be able to see what you're doing. Now, are there 0:09:09.440 --> 0:09:12.360 a million and one ways that this could be a problem. Yes, 0:09:12.440 --> 0:09:16.080 of course, someone could could set up a fake network 0:09:17.160 --> 0:09:19.800 and they could just log all the traffic that's happening 0:09:19.800 --> 0:09:23.280 on that network. Someone could log all the unencrypted traffic 0:09:23.320 --> 0:09:26.280 over a network and see what's happening there. But typically 0:09:26.320 --> 0:09:29.240 when you're exchanging passwords and you're logging into things, most 0:09:29.280 --> 0:09:32.360 of that is done over encrypted connections. So I think 0:09:32.360 --> 0:09:35.360 you're gonna be okay. But again I would still err 0:09:35.440 --> 0:09:38.280 on the side of what am I doing on this network? 0:09:38.320 --> 0:09:42.360 So if I'm just doing social media Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, 0:09:42.760 --> 0:09:45.840 you know, watching YouTube, it's gonna be fine. But if 0:09:45.880 --> 0:09:48.880 I'm doing my banking, if I'm doing my budget, if 0:09:48.920 --> 0:09:52.560 I'm doing you know, something that's really really highly secure, 0:09:53.480 --> 0:09:56.200 I would not use a public network in general, but 0:09:56.360 --> 0:09:58.480 for vacation things like that. On a cruise ship, you'll 0:09:58.480 --> 0:10:00.920 probably be fine. Now, if you want, you can step 0:10:01.000 --> 0:10:04.160 up your connection to a VPN, it'll be a little 0:10:04.160 --> 0:10:05.920 bit safer. There's a lot of them out there that 0:10:05.960 --> 0:10:09.120 people like, you know. I would just google top rated 0:10:09.200 --> 0:10:13.160 VPNs and see from a reputable source like Wirecutter or 0:10:13.559 --> 0:10:15.720 you know, PC mag or something like that, and see 0:10:15.720 --> 0:10:18.560 what they recommend. But I think that, you know, if 0:10:18.600 --> 0:10:20.600 you want to step it up to that, that'd be fine. 0:10:20.920 --> 0:10:23.320 But in general, I would make sure that you are 0:10:23.440 --> 0:10:27.840 accessing things over a secure connection when you're you're going 0:10:27.840 --> 0:10:30.600 to a website that requires that. I would also use 0:10:30.760 --> 0:10:32.880 LTE if you can. Now, if you're on a cruise ship, 0:10:32.920 --> 0:10:35.760 you probably can't use your cellular connection, so you're gonna 0:10:35.760 --> 0:10:38.160 be on their Wi Fi. I would just be really 0:10:38.200 --> 0:10:41.160 concerned about the Wi Fi networks that I connect to, 0:10:41.480 --> 0:10:44.720 So typically I do not connect to a lot of 0:10:44.960 --> 0:10:47.880 random Wi Fi networks. Typically I will connect to a 0:10:47.920 --> 0:10:50.720 network if it's trusted, if it's from a place I know, 0:10:50.960 --> 0:10:53.000 or if it's from a provider I know, I don't 0:10:53.040 --> 0:10:55.520 just you know, find an open network. Remember the days 0:10:55.520 --> 0:10:57.600 where you just find an open network and you connect 0:10:57.640 --> 0:10:58.880 to it and you'd be like, oh cool, I found 0:10:58.880 --> 0:11:01.839 free Wi Fi. I think that my privacy is much 0:11:01.880 --> 0:11:05.720 more important than saving a few megabytes of data on 0:11:05.760 --> 0:11:11.600 my plan, so I always default to cellular in general. 0:11:11.679 --> 0:11:14.400 Now there's another whole thing that I think is actually 0:11:14.440 --> 0:11:17.000 more important here, and that's the Wi Fi at your work. 0:11:17.400 --> 0:11:21.360 So I think that Wi Fi at work everyone connects 0:11:21.400 --> 0:11:24.480 to their Wi Fi at their employer, and a lot 0:11:24.520 --> 0:11:26.679 of times to connect to that Wi Fi, you may 0:11:26.720 --> 0:11:30.600 have to download some sort of security profile to your 0:11:30.640 --> 0:11:33.640 device to be able to get onto that network. And 0:11:33.679 --> 0:11:38.679 I think that that actually has more potential for issues 0:11:39.600 --> 0:11:42.719 than a different network that doesn't require that, because when 0:11:42.760 --> 0:11:45.400 you download one of these trust certificates to your phone 0:11:45.480 --> 0:11:48.760 or to your computer, it's giving that Wi Fi network 0:11:48.800 --> 0:11:51.560 a little bit more free rain on your device than 0:11:52.640 --> 0:11:55.400 a network that doesn't require that. And so what can 0:11:55.440 --> 0:11:57.040 they do at your work, Well, you know, they may 0:11:57.040 --> 0:11:59.080 be able to monitor the websites that you're going to 0:11:59.559 --> 0:12:01.160 they may able to see when you come and go. 0:12:01.800 --> 0:12:03.760 There's a lot they can do, actually, depending on what 0:12:03.800 --> 0:12:05.719 your company wants to do and how they want to 0:12:05.760 --> 0:12:07.960 slice and dicee the data that they're collecting if they 0:12:08.000 --> 0:12:13.240 collect that data. So I personally always am very very 0:12:13.280 --> 0:12:16.120 cautious about when I connect to Wi Fi and why 0:12:16.240 --> 0:12:18.880 and how and for how long and the networks that 0:12:18.920 --> 0:12:20.800 I use. So, Gina, I think it's good that you're 0:12:20.840 --> 0:12:23.120 thinking about this stuff. I think that if you're just 0:12:23.200 --> 0:12:25.920 casually using the Wi Fi network, you'll be fine. But 0:12:26.080 --> 0:12:29.600 anytime that you are just a little bit more critical 0:12:29.640 --> 0:12:33.880 of the network, I think that's a smart thing in general. Well, 0:12:33.920 --> 0:12:37.600 along those lines, let's talk about your video conferencing app. So, 0:12:38.480 --> 0:12:40.240 you know, what do we all do when we go 0:12:40.280 --> 0:12:43.760 on something like Zoom or teams or FaceTime or whatever. 0:12:44.080 --> 0:12:46.400 You know, you mute yourself when you don't want to 0:12:46.440 --> 0:12:48.680 be heard by the person on the other end. But 0:12:48.880 --> 0:12:52.880 did you ever think that perhaps the video conferencing app 0:12:53.000 --> 0:12:55.760 itself might still be listening to you. They're just not 0:12:56.280 --> 0:13:01.120 transmitting that audio to the person on the other end. Interesting, 0:13:01.800 --> 0:13:04.560 So it turns out these video conferencing apps might still 0:13:04.600 --> 0:13:06.680 be listening to you even when your mic is muted. 0:13:07.360 --> 0:13:10.120 This is a study from the University of Wisconsin. Students 0:13:10.120 --> 0:13:12.600 there took a look at how popular video chat apps 0:13:12.640 --> 0:13:16.480 collect data even when the mic is off, and in 0:13:16.520 --> 0:13:19.560 a majority of cases, when you press mute, the apps 0:13:19.720 --> 0:13:24.520 still access your microphone and many still collect audio snippets. 0:13:25.040 --> 0:13:28.440 So to protect your privacy, experts recommend using what's called 0:13:28.440 --> 0:13:31.959 the double mute, and this means muting the app, so 0:13:32.080 --> 0:13:36.640 pressing that mute button on the app, but also pressing 0:13:36.760 --> 0:13:39.520 a mute button on a piece of hardware like on 0:13:39.559 --> 0:13:44.840 your headset or the settings on your computer, pressing mute there. 0:13:44.920 --> 0:13:48.640 So therefore you have muted both access to your microphone 0:13:48.640 --> 0:13:51.320 from your computer at a system level and also through 0:13:51.360 --> 0:13:55.280 the app. Now, the study did not reveal specific app 0:13:55.400 --> 0:13:57.600 names that may be coming later because they're going to 0:13:57.600 --> 0:14:01.520 present these findings at a private conference later this summer. 0:14:02.040 --> 0:14:04.640 But this is one of those things that it's kind 0:14:04.679 --> 0:14:07.960 of like the stuff that you wonder about when you 0:14:08.080 --> 0:14:10.640 use these apps, like, Okay, well I'm muted to the 0:14:10.760 --> 0:14:13.160 person on the other side, but the app never said 0:14:13.160 --> 0:14:15.560 that I was muted to them. And so with this 0:14:15.600 --> 0:14:17.600 study found is that yeah, a lot of these apps 0:14:17.640 --> 0:14:20.680 are still collecting little snippets here and there. Some of 0:14:20.720 --> 0:14:23.000 them are still collecting a bunch of information about your 0:14:23.000 --> 0:14:26.480 audio even when you're muted. And so it's kind of 0:14:27.840 --> 0:14:31.800 concerning that when you think your privacy is intact, it 0:14:31.880 --> 0:14:34.200 may not be. And now this study actually took it 0:14:34.240 --> 0:14:38.200 a step step further. They analyzed some of the audio 0:14:38.320 --> 0:14:41.000 using a pretty crude algorithm to see if they could 0:14:41.000 --> 0:14:43.520 figure out what you were doing in the background, like 0:14:44.160 --> 0:14:48.320 washing dishes or watching TV or whatever. And their algorithm 0:14:48.360 --> 0:14:51.400 was able to figure out what you were doing in many, 0:14:51.440 --> 0:14:55.960 many cases. And so again when you think about someone 0:14:56.040 --> 0:15:00.760 like Facebook or or you know, Zoom whatever, you know 0:15:01.320 --> 0:15:05.280 they have very sophisticated systems and computers and people, and 0:15:05.360 --> 0:15:08.560 so what could they do with this audio? They could say, well, 0:15:08.600 --> 0:15:11.800 we know that ninety seven percent of people are washing dishes, 0:15:11.920 --> 0:15:14.440 that the audio sounds like this, so let's send them 0:15:14.760 --> 0:15:18.840 some ads about dishwashing detergent. Who knows. I mean, look, 0:15:18.880 --> 0:15:22.160 these programs are free in the majority of cases. If 0:15:22.200 --> 0:15:24.320 you're not paying for it, you know that you're the product. 0:15:24.400 --> 0:15:27.280 So I found this study to be really interesting. I 0:15:27.320 --> 0:15:31.120 think it's it needs They kind of threw it out 0:15:31.120 --> 0:15:35.000 there without a ton of like background data. Like they 0:15:35.000 --> 0:15:37.720 didn't really say which apps this could be they test, 0:15:37.800 --> 0:15:39.920 I mean they said they tested, like, well, they test. 0:15:39.960 --> 0:15:43.280 I think it said like two hundred apps they tested. 0:15:43.800 --> 0:15:46.400 Oh no, they asked two hundred and twenty three video 0:15:46.400 --> 0:15:49.480 conferencing users. Okay, but they didn't say which apps. But 0:15:49.520 --> 0:15:52.120 they tried out many different video conferencing apps on major 0:15:52.160 --> 0:15:56.160 operating systems including iOS, Android, Windows, and Mac checking to 0:15:56.160 --> 0:15:58.200 see if the app still access to microphone when it 0:15:58.240 --> 0:16:01.400 was muted. Now, if you have an eye iPhone or 0:16:01.600 --> 0:16:06.600 an Android on Android, they now have a system wide 0:16:06.640 --> 0:16:09.760 toggle in the settings to cut off access to your microphone, 0:16:10.360 --> 0:16:13.920 which you know you can do by you know, dragging 0:16:13.960 --> 0:16:17.960 down your notification bar. On iOS, it will tell you 0:16:18.000 --> 0:16:21.120 when it's accessing your microphone, but it doesn't necessarily let 0:16:21.160 --> 0:16:23.320 you turn off access unless you go into the settings 0:16:23.320 --> 0:16:24.920 for the app. But that would be kind of a 0:16:24.920 --> 0:16:27.600 problem because you'd never be able to use the app. 0:16:27.640 --> 0:16:30.280 So I guess my advice if you're really, really truly 0:16:30.320 --> 0:16:33.520 concerned about your privacy is to use a pair of 0:16:33.560 --> 0:16:38.000 plug in headphones for your computer or your phone that 0:16:38.080 --> 0:16:40.720 has a physical mute button as well. That way you know, 0:16:40.760 --> 0:16:44.200 you're muting your audio at the source, at the microphone 0:16:44.200 --> 0:16:51.920 and also through the app itself. All right, Kenneth writes 0:16:51.960 --> 0:16:56.120 in when I joined cal State Northridge Alumni Association, one 0:16:56.120 --> 0:16:58.240 of the benefits was to allow me to have a 0:16:58.320 --> 0:17:02.920 school related email addrect Thus at my CSUN dot edu. 0:17:03.240 --> 0:17:06.000 I've had that as my primary email address for several years. 0:17:06.400 --> 0:17:08.679 I have that as my identifying name on many different 0:17:08.680 --> 0:17:12.600 providers like Walmart and Amazon. Yesterday, I was informed by 0:17:12.640 --> 0:17:16.240 it that SASUN by the end of June, the email 0:17:16.280 --> 0:17:20.240 account will be terminated. As such, all alumni member accounts 0:17:20.280 --> 0:17:22.760 will be terminated. Only current students and faculty will be 0:17:22.760 --> 0:17:25.720 able to continue with those school accounts. This is due 0:17:25.760 --> 0:17:28.159 to a reduction in the storage space that Google is 0:17:28.200 --> 0:17:34.119 allowing universities. Yes, Google, when it first arrived said free, free, free, forever, 0:17:34.280 --> 0:17:38.880 will continue to increase your storage space forever. And then 0:17:38.920 --> 0:17:41.479 forever came and they said, oh, never mind, let's not 0:17:41.520 --> 0:17:44.000 do that anymore. Let's charge you after fifteen gigabytes. That 0:17:44.080 --> 0:17:47.959 happened a couple years ago. As such, I wrote that 0:17:48.000 --> 0:17:50.480 he didn't write that as such, that was just an aside. 0:17:51.119 --> 0:17:53.000 As such, he says, I'm going to have to jump 0:17:53.000 --> 0:17:55.080 through a lot of hoops, get a new Gmail address, 0:17:55.119 --> 0:17:57.280 download my stuff to that address, and then contact all 0:17:57.320 --> 0:18:00.240 the others with whom I use my former address. So 0:18:00.720 --> 0:18:03.520 Kenneth did not actually ask a question in here, You 0:18:03.640 --> 0:18:05.399 just kind of left a comment. And I guess this 0:18:05.520 --> 0:18:08.760 is kind of a warning to other people that, yeah, 0:18:08.800 --> 0:18:11.160 you need to be careful when you choose your email address, 0:18:11.320 --> 0:18:15.000 because if you're going with a provider that is maybe 0:18:15.040 --> 0:18:17.800 not going to be there in the future, you might 0:18:17.840 --> 0:18:22.639 want to rethink. So the safest thing to do is 0:18:22.680 --> 0:18:25.680 probably to get your own domain and pay for email 0:18:25.720 --> 0:18:29.320 through that because you can continually do that, and you 0:18:29.359 --> 0:18:31.960 know kind of if you're paying for it, you're gonna 0:18:31.960 --> 0:18:35.600 be able to get that hosted. Obviously, I think Gmail 0:18:35.680 --> 0:18:40.520 is pretty safe. I think Outlook is pretty safe. Yahoo 0:18:40.720 --> 0:18:43.040 and not so much. I probably wouldn't choose them at 0:18:43.040 --> 0:18:46.719 this point. But a lot of people also have similar 0:18:46.760 --> 0:18:49.600 problems with their cable company. So they will use their 0:18:49.640 --> 0:18:52.880 cable company's email address, and next thing you know, they 0:18:52.960 --> 0:18:55.840 move or they switch providers, and now what do you 0:18:55.920 --> 0:18:57.720 do Because you've got all your stuff linked in and 0:18:57.720 --> 0:19:00.760 the problem with the email addresses is that they are 0:19:01.000 --> 0:19:04.560 your recovery email address for many many accounts, and so 0:19:04.600 --> 0:19:07.280 if you forget your password, oh hey, let's just email 0:19:07.320 --> 0:19:09.879 you a password or your a temporary link to your 0:19:09.920 --> 0:19:12.639 email address. And if that email address is not in 0:19:12.760 --> 0:19:14.640 use anymore, well now you're kind of out of luck. 0:19:14.720 --> 0:19:19.040 Because some of the bigger companies give you alternative recovery methods, 0:19:19.080 --> 0:19:21.120 but a lot of the other ones just don't. It's 0:19:21.160 --> 0:19:23.879 just your email. So I think that this is a 0:19:23.960 --> 0:19:30.520 good kind of just warning to not use random email addresses, 0:19:30.560 --> 0:19:33.159 as good as they may seem at the time, for 0:19:33.320 --> 0:19:36.400 future reference. So I know that I have an alumni 0:19:36.480 --> 0:19:39.920 email address as well. I've used that. I did use 0:19:39.960 --> 0:19:43.480 it pretty much exclusively is my email for a very 0:19:43.520 --> 0:19:46.439 long time, and then the writing was kind of on 0:19:46.480 --> 0:19:49.679 the wall that I didn't really want to use that 0:19:49.720 --> 0:19:52.119 anymore after Gmail came out. And of course I always 0:19:52.119 --> 0:19:55.280 have my hesitation with Gmail, because you know, it is Google, 0:19:55.440 --> 0:19:57.920 and so you're kind of showing your allegiance to one 0:19:58.440 --> 0:20:01.399 major corporation, and so I didn't like that idea. But 0:20:01.560 --> 0:20:05.640 Gmail seems to be a really good email provider. It's 0:20:05.680 --> 0:20:07.520 worked for me for many years, so I do use 0:20:07.560 --> 0:20:10.520 that one as well. As a couple others. I've I've 0:20:10.520 --> 0:20:13.920 got some help self hosted emails as well. But at 0:20:13.920 --> 0:20:15.800 the end of the day, I think that you go 0:20:15.880 --> 0:20:17.880 with a provider that's pretty big so that you don't 0:20:17.880 --> 0:20:20.280 get stuck in one of these in one of these 0:20:20.320 --> 0:20:22.440 situations where you kind of have to back yourself out. 0:20:22.480 --> 0:20:28.040 And so I think outlook, let's see largest email providers. 0:20:28.720 --> 0:20:31.760 So I think there's like proton Mail is a big one. 0:20:32.960 --> 0:20:34.720 Let's see what else do we have here? Oh gosh, 0:20:34.800 --> 0:20:37.919 this is from twenty sixteen. Come on, you've got to 0:20:37.920 --> 0:20:45.760 have a better provider than that, Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, Oh, AOL, 0:20:45.920 --> 0:20:49.200 Oh gosh. I wouldn't have AOL, that's for sure. Let's 0:20:49.200 --> 0:20:51.679 see what else is there. I remember when there was 0:20:51.880 --> 0:20:55.679 an email called Juno, and this was back kind of 0:20:55.720 --> 0:20:58.120 back in the day when I think AOL was king 0:20:58.680 --> 0:21:02.119 and AOL cast money, and so if you had an 0:21:02.160 --> 0:21:05.280 AOL account, fine, that was great. But Juno came along 0:21:05.400 --> 0:21:08.240 and it was free email and it had a little 0:21:08.280 --> 0:21:10.920 tagline at the bottom, and I think ads on the 0:21:10.960 --> 0:21:14.719 web service, like the actual app that you downloaded your 0:21:14.720 --> 0:21:18.879 computer had ads on it, and so Juno, I thought, 0:21:19.040 --> 0:21:21.879 was like the best email in the world, because I 0:21:21.880 --> 0:21:25.320 was like, I get this for free. It works outside AOL, 0:21:25.760 --> 0:21:28.960 It's never gonna change. It's so great. I had like 0:21:29.000 --> 0:21:31.000 an awesome email address because I was like one of 0:21:31.000 --> 0:21:33.479 the first users. So my email was like super easy, 0:21:33.600 --> 0:21:37.000 like richdat Juno dot com or something like that, and 0:21:37.040 --> 0:21:41.280 so I just loved it. And then of course that evolved. 0:21:41.280 --> 0:21:43.080 It got bought by I think net zero. Do you 0:21:43.119 --> 0:21:48.320 remember that name? Man, all these things net zero? I 0:21:48.359 --> 0:21:52.439 think is that even around anymore? I don't know. Let's see, 0:21:55.040 --> 0:21:58.720 no net zero brings you to Norton three sixty so 0:21:58.880 --> 0:22:02.480 net zero is gone. Wow, just so wild? How all 0:22:02.560 --> 0:22:05.320 these things? Oh my gosh, it brought me to the 0:22:05.359 --> 0:22:09.199 net zero search page, like a search But yeah, that 0:22:09.359 --> 0:22:11.920 was there. I mean, there was a lot of stuff 0:22:11.960 --> 0:22:13.840 in the early days of the Internet that kind of 0:22:14.400 --> 0:22:16.879 was available and then it went away. Another one that 0:22:17.000 --> 0:22:19.480