41% say Next Car Will Be EV; DuckDuckGo Email Protection; Apple Pushes Back Return to Office; NSO Spyware-No Prob for You- Android Apps-Well, Yes

A full 41% of auto consumers in 13 countries say their next car will be electric. Arstechnica.com reports that the survey was run by EY, and covered 9,000 people in Australia, Canada, China, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea, Sweden, the UK, and the US just last month. Their previous survey was last September, and only showed 30% ready to switch to EV. The US is lagging in this group…only 28% of Americans want an EV at this point…America’s love affair with the over 100 year old internal combustion engine is taking some time to break.

DuckDuckGo has made its name on browsing tech that doesn’t track you everywhere. Now, according to theverge.com, they are offering up an email privacy service that will help shield your email inbox from prying companies. The new email protection feature gives you a free ‘@duck.com’ email address which will forward email to your regular inbox after analyzing the content for trackers and stripping them away. In addition, they are offering disposable forwarding addresses that can be generated from their mobile browser or via desktop browser extensions. DuckDuckGo envisions you giving your personal email to your contacts and friends, while the disposable ones can be used for newsletters, free trials, or any other situation where you think the source might sell your information. The anti-tracking features are similar to Apple’s in iOS 14 and 15, but Duck’s can be integrated into iOS, Android, and all major web browsers. 

With the spread of the Delta variant of COVID-19, Apple has now backed off on their plan to bring everyone back to the office in September. Engadgetr.com says that right now, Apple is pushing things back to October at the soonest. Google has already gone to a hybrid home/office plan, but expects 20% of the workforce to stick with WFH full time. Facebook says it expects about half the workforce to work from home in the next 5 to 10 years. Apple had taken a harder line on returning to the office, or implementing their hybrid plan. 

We haven’t covered the NSO Group spy software scandal out of Israel, since it has been well covered in mainstream news. While it’s terrible that governments and others have been hacking phones and spying, it’s all focused on government officials, reporters, and activists. HERE is something that should give you pause. ZDnet.com says that over 60% of Android apps have security vulnerabilities…with the average number of bugs at a stunning 39 vulnerabilities! These figures are based on data presented by Atlas VPN, and data based on a report by CyRC, which analyzed the security of open-source software components of 3,335 free and paid mobile applications on the Google Play store as of Q1 2021. This includes banking and payment apps! As you might think, the most contaminated apps are free games….96% have vulnerabilities. Almost all the bugs are fixable…let’s home shedding some light on them will prod at least the banks and payment apps to clean things up!