- There's never been a time in
history where mobile security
is more important than it is here in 2018.
Today, I want to tell
you about a new service
that keeps your mobile data
secure both from hackers
and from companies that look to gain
an advantage from accessing your data.
What's going on tech squad?
Andru Edwards here,
editor-in-chief at gearlive.com.
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As I said today, I want to talk to you
about mobile security, and specifically
about a new upcoming service that aims
to help you keep your data
and personal details secure,
both from hackers, and from
seemingly legitimate companies
that try to gain an advantage
by accessing things like your contacts.
The new app I want to tell you about
is from a company called Shuffle.
They've been around for a few years.
If you're unaware, Shuffle makes an app
that you can download
today which allows you
to create additional
disposable phone numbers
that you can use to
call or text, as well as
receive voicemails through
right from your iPhone.
It's a separate number
from your main number,
so it allows you to keep
your real phone number safe.
Especially when you're dealing with people
who you may not trust or know.
By the way, big shoutout to
Shuffle for their concern
about user privacy, and
for sponsoring this video,
so I can share their message with you.
Now, that app is similar
to some others out there,
like Burner which give
you extra phone numbers.
The difference with Shuffle's app is
that it also gives you
temporary email addresses
that you can use as well,
for when you don't want
to give out your main email.
It's not unusual for people
today to only have one phone.
A mobile phone that often functions
as their work number, their home phone,
and also their mobile number
when they're on the go.
But sharing that one phone
number with work colleagues,
and friends, to the random dude trying
to buy your old sofa on
Craigslist doesn't really make
a lot of sense in this day and age.
And that's where apps like Shuffle
have historically been able to help.
Instead of posting your
private cellphone number
on websites like Craigslist,
or sharing it with other people
who you may have only just met,
instead you can give them
a temporary phone number,
keeping your private number safe.
So, again, Shuffle creates
these virtual phone numbers
that you can use, so you can text,
make and receive phone
calls, and send emails
without giving up your privacy
and private information.
But that is not the app that
we're talking about today.
Shuffle's actually taking
things to the next level
with its new app and
service called PrivateLine.
PrivateLine is their upcoming
second phone number app
that aims to massively
improve mobile privacy.
Now, PrivateLine is
currently in development
and planned for release in early 2018,
but if you want a chance to get
in on the early access beta,
be sure to hit the link down
in the description below.
Shuffle didn't want to give too much away,
but at a high level they're
using the latest in AI
and machine learning power technologies
to not only let you know
who's calling you, but also
why they're calling you
before you answer the phone.
They also automatically block
unwanted calls from scammers,
telemarketers, spammers,
and fraudulent callers
before they even make it
to ringing your phone.
So, again, the main Shuffle app,
which you can get right now, is for people
who want temporary numbers
and email addresses.
While PrivateLine caters to people
who want a longer term
second phone number,
along with those other advanced features.
Now, again, PrivateLine
isn't launching until 2018.
I personally can't wait to
get it here on my device
because let's be real, in 2017
the robocalls were going through the roof.
In fact, there were over
2.7 billion robocalls
in November alone, and I feel like
at least half of those rang to my phone.
Again, that's another
thing that PrivateLine
is aiming to make a thing of the past.
Now another thing I want
to commend Shuffle for,
both with PrivateLine, and
with the current Shuffle app,
is the fact that they aren't
crowdsourcing your data.
That is a huge issue that most people
don't realize is happening.
You can actually try this
out for yourself right now,
and prove if a company is using your data,
and crowdsourcing it, and
sharing it with other people.
Two examples of this are the
apps Hiya and Truecaller.
If you go on your phone right now,
and create a new contact, and
give it a ridiculous name,
so some ridiculous first name,
some ridiculous last name
that you just made up right now,
that you're pretty confident
no one else is gonna have,
put that into your phone
and give it the phone number
for a contact who you know very well.
One of your friends, your
spouse, whatever, sibling,
then, download either Hiya or Truecaller.
Set up an account, and when it asks you
if they can access your
contact list, say yes.
If you say yes, it's going
to import your contacts,
including the fake contact
that you just created.
Give it about a day, 24
hours after they've collected
your address book, and have that person
who you saved to your
phone give you a call.
So again, whether it's your spouse,
or your best friend,
sibling, whoever it is,
who you saved under a ridiculous name.
Have them call you on your
Hiya or Truecaller account.
What you're going to find is that
the ridiculous name that you saved them as
is gonna pop up under the caller ID.
And that's how a lot of these companies
are building their caller ID data bases.
By basically harvesting all your data,
and then sharing it out with others.
So if that person calls
someone else's Hiya
or Truecaller account, that
same name that you gave them
in your phone is gonna pop up.
That is a privacy issue
because these companies
aren't telling you that when
they grab your address book,
it's not for your own personal use,
it's actually for the use of
everybody using their service.
And there's nothing stopping
that information from
being tied back to you.
And I assume when you add
someone to your address book,
it's not your intention
that their personal details
that you're saving to
your device are then meant
to be used by a company
to grow their business.
That's just my assumption.
It's certainly not what I would want
to happen with the data
that I save to my devices.
So, again, big shoutout to Shuffle
for how they're handling
privacy in this day and age.
If you're interested in PrivateLine,
or mobile security and privacy in general,
there's a great blog post
that Shuffle just put up,
I will link that down in
the description as well.
And again, if you want to get
in on the beta early access
to PrivateLine, I'll also leave a link
to that in the description as well.
There you have it guys, now
I want to hear from you.
What do you think about mobile
privacy in this day and age?
Do you think consumers are
aware of best practices,
or do you think most people
are just giving up their data
without even realizing
that they're doing it?
Sound off in the comments below.
I'll meet you there
for further discussion.
Thanks so much for
watching as always, guys.
If you haven't done so already,
please do hit the like button
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Again, thanks so much for watching.
As always, I appreciate your support.
I'm Andru Edwards. And I'll
catch you in the next video.
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