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Sports teams are using Signal to duck deflategate-like scandals
Facebook isn't the only company struggling over the prospect of end-to-end encryption in messaging apps, as a report from Yahoo Sports cites examples from "every level of sport" turning to encrypted messaging. While Whatsapp and iMessage provide encrypted communications, increasingly the app of choice is turning out to be Signal, which not only protects their message from MITM spying, but can also auto-delete them based on rules. If you're a college coach or athletic director and someone makes a FOIA request, that could reduce the amount of information they get about contacts with recruits and boosters. In the NFL, investigators pursuing the "deflategate" incident famously requested access to Tom Brady's texts, but the quarterback destroyed his phone prior to meeting them -- an act cited in the league's decision to hand down a four game suspension. He stated that breaking or wiping a cell phone when he got a new one was a standard practice, but execs and agents believe a simpler, stronger argument is that if you've set Signal's rules to delete all messages regularly, then investigators can't claim you were trying to hide a particular conversation. The report specifically calls out the NBA, where commissioner Adam Silver has been pushing to reduce "tampering," or contact between players, their representatives and teams about contracts or transactions outside of the approved periods. Marc Stein of the New York Times reported this week that the NBA sent a memo to teams requiring them to keep all contract-related communications for at least a year, while The Athletic explained that could include notes on training, endorsements, player fit with a team and more. The rule seems specifically aimed at cutting off any argument about using Signal as a simple standard practice, and it wouldn't be surprising to see other leagues do something similar, whether or not they'll be able to enforce it.
Google starts rolling out Incognito mode for Maps
Google Maps' Incognito mode is now making its way to all users, just a couple of weeks after it arrived to the app's preview group for testing. Similar to Incognito mode for Chrome and YouTube, turning the feature on means Maps won't be able to save the locations and the directions you look up, or to associate them with your profile. To activate it, you'll simply have to tap on your profile picture and switch modes. That said, you might not be able to use it right now: Google will start rolling the feature out to Android users this month. It's "coming soon" to iOS, but there's no concrete release date for Apple's mobile platform yet.
Amazon adds Auto Delete for Alexa following privacy concerns
As part of its hardware event, Amazon just unveiled a new Auto Delete feature for Alexa that will automatically erase video recordings after three or 18 months. Users will be able to manage their preferences in Amazon's Privacy Hub.
iTunes 6.0.2: Do Not Auto Delete podcasts
The most recent update to iTunes (6.0.2) brought a minor addition that podcast fans have been drooling over for quite some time now: the ability to customize the auto deletion of podcasts. As you can see in the accompanying image, if you right click a podcast in iTunes, you now have a new option near the bottom of the context menu: "Do Not Auto Delete." This can override any settings you've enabled to clean out podcasts after X number of episodes, which can be handy for hanging onto episodes of things like podcast novels such as Ancestor (iTMS link) and EarthCore (iTMS link). Since not all podcasts are time-sensitive episodes about 'what's going on this week,' it's nice to see this flexible level of podcast management arriving in iTunes.
