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Whether weather is always on your radar or merely a passing front of occasional interest, having an on-demand eye on the world around you is one of the most powerful slices of sorcery you can set your sights on today. And this week, I want to introduce you to a worthwhile new weather app I recently encountered thats decidedly different from the others. It isnt meant to replace whatever weather app youre already using, whether thats the one that came preinstalled on your phone or another favorite youve found over time (maybe even one that serves up the forecast with a hilarious side of sass?). Rather, it serves one super-specific purposeand serves it impressively well. And it might just be worth your while to keep around as a complement to whatever other weather wesource resource youre using. Be the first to find all sorts of little-known tech treasures with my free Cool Tools newsletter from The Intelligence. One useful new discovery in your inbox every Wednesday! Your personal precipitation station Most weather apps aim to do it allto be your one-stop spot for every manner of weather info you could possibly wonder about. This weeks Cool Tool is more of a specialist. It does just one extremely specific weather-related thing, but good golly, does it do it well. The app is called Precip. Any guesses about its purpose? If you said it knits you sweaters whilst preparing delightfully steamy stews, (a) excellent guessbut (b) unfortunately, that isnt correct. Precip, as perhaps mightve been your next guess following sweaters n stew, measures the rain and other precipitation around you. It isnt offering up a forecast like most weather apps, in other words. Its actually telling you how much moisture came down in any given areaover any time period you want. And it lets you zoom into a narrow area for supremely detailed and precise info, too, even going down as far as to a specific address. Precip shows you precise precipitation totals for any area you open. Theres just one asterisk: Precips data is limited to the U.S. and Canada, at least for the time being. (Sorry, international pals!) If youre in one of those areas, though, itll take you all of a single minute to start using: For the best and most robust experience, youll want to snag the mobile appavailable on Android as well as on iOS. You can also check rainfall totals by zip code on the Precip website, but you wont be able to zoom in any further to exact locations or to access any of the more advanced data. In the apps, you can search by city, zip code, or street address, and you can see rain totals from the past 12, 24, or 48 hours. You can also save specific locations and then easily track their rain totals over time. You can track rain totals from locations down to a specific street address. Precip offers even more info as a part of its premium subscription, for 20 bucks a year and up. But the apps free version is plenty powerful, and odds are, itll be all you need. (That version also doesnt even seem to have any ads present, as far as Ive seen so far.) Its like having your own personal rain gauge on the groundonly it exists entirely in your purse or pocket, all inside your favorite device. Not too shabby, Id say. Precip is available on the web in a limited form or in a native Android app and iOS app for a more complete experience. Its free at its base level, with optional subscriptions starting at $20-a-year for a variety of extra abilities. The apps do require you to sign in with an email address to use many of their features, but they dont require any other personal infoand the developers say they dont share any data with anyone. Check out my free Cool Tools newsletter for even more useful software surprisesstarting with a standout audio app thatll tune up your days in some delightful ways.
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E-Commerce
Leadership used to be a role people aspired to. But today, employees are increasingly avoiding leadership positions or even stepping out of leadership roles. In fact, 40% of leaders have considered leaving their role to improve their work-life balance and well-being according to a survey of almost 11,000 leaders by DDI. A comprehensive survey by Rand across 34 countries involving 27,000 adults found that 39% didnt want career progression and 57% would reject a job if they thought it would have negative effects on their work-life balance. And according to a separate survey by DDI, Gen Z is 1.7 times more likely than other generations to consider leaving leadership roles because they want to protect their well-being. However, there are still compelling reasons to seek leadership. And there are great reasons to stick with it if youre already in a leadership role. 1. Making a positive impact Leadership is the most direct route for making a positive impact on an organization. Leaders have a broader range of influence, because of the number of people who report to them, the practices they adopt, and the decisions they make. Leaders also have a big impact on others. Demonstrating respect and empathy, focusing on well-being, and inspiring performance and results can all have positive outcomes for people. And these leadership behaviors can have a ripple effect in terms of how people treat each other and hold each other accountable in the organization and the community. As a leader, youre likely to work on issues that are more strategic than tactical, which can have a domino effect on the business. For example, decisions by the product leader can impact how the brand team markets the product and the sales team positions it with customers. 2. Pay and marketability Another reason to lead is because of the rewards. Leadership is worth the effort because it pays you back in tangible ways. In most companies, leadership responsibility is still the fastest way to increase your pay and advance your career. But in addition, youll also be likely to amplify your personal brand and increase your marketability. Leadership is one of the most sought-after skills among hiring managers and organizations. When youre able to demonstrate that you have experience with leadership and youre skilled in directing, coaching, decision-making, inspiring, and motivating others, youll set yourself up to shine in future roles. And youll be able to advance within your current organization or in a new company. Its an excellent time to pursue leadership since fewer people are interested, meaning theres less competition and more opportunities. 3. Autonomy No matter what your role, you have to answer to someone. Even senior leaders or founders of companies have to answer to boards of directors or customers. But in leadership roles, you typically make decisions about what gets done and how its prioritized. You may also benefit from greater variety in your work, and less redundancy. Youll have more control over what you do, which can be empowering. Having choice and control can be especially fulfilling, and it can also reduce stress. In two separate studies by Indiana University in 2016 and 2020, people who were in jobs that were very stressful and who had little decision-making power tended to be less healthy and had reduced longevity. On the other hand, when people were in stressful jobs but had more autonomy and control over how they did their work, they didnt have the same negative health outcomes. 4. Growth Another great reason to lead is the opportunity for growth. The process of learning new things is significantly correlated with happiness, according to a study published in the Journal of Happiness Studies. Leadership challenges your capabilities as you navigate all the needs of the team, the organization, and the competitive environment. As a leader, you may be called on to do new projects, take on additional initiatives, or expand your responsibilities. All of these are great ways to build your skills for your current job and your next job to create a career thats satisfying and meaningful.
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E-Commerce
The U.S. House of Representatives Chief Administrative Officer (CAO), Catherine Szpindor, informed congressional staffers this week that WhatsApp is now banned from government phones. The move came after the CAOs Office of Cybersecurity deemed the Meta-owned app to be high-risk to usersa claim that WhatsApp quickly rebutted. But the CAO is correct. While WhatsApp is one of the more secure messaging apps out there, it does have some privacy and security risks. Users can mitigate some of these risks, but others are beyond their control. Heres why WhatsApp is now banned in the U.S. House of Representatives and how you can make the app more secure on your phone. What the Office of Cybersecurity said, exactly The news that the CAOs Office of Cybersecurity had announced a ban on WhatsApp this week came from Axios. On Tuesday, the publication published parts of an internal CAO memo it received, which was sent to congressional staffers on Monday, announcing that WhatsApp was now verboten on government phones. The memo stipulated that “House staff are NOT allowed to download or keep the WhatsApp application on any House device, including any mobile, desktop, or web browser versions of its products. It went on to add: “If you have a WhatsApp application on your House-managed device, you will be contacted to remove it. The reason? According to the memo, “The Office of Cybersecurity has deemed WhatsApp a high-risk to users due to the lack of transparency in how it protects user data, absence of stored data encryption, and potential security risks involved with its use. The CAO didnt provide further details in the memo regarding the above risks. Still, it’s easy to interpret some of the things that may have made the CAO leery about the continued use of WhatsApp by Congressional staffers. WhatsApp’s transparency issue WhatsApp, like competing secure messaging apps including Apples iMessages and Signal, is end-to-end encrypted, meaning that no parties other than the ones in the chat, even including Meta, can read the chat messages. But WhatsApp collects a lot more metadata from each chat than other secure messaging apps do, and it sends this info to Meta A chats metadata includes information such as the identities of the chat participants, IP addresses, phone numbers, and the timestamps of messages. No one knows exactly what Meta does with this metadata. Still, it is shared with Metas other platforms, including Instagram and Facebook. It is likely used to help the company build social graphs of users, leveraged for advertising purposes, and analyzed by the company to understand who is using their apps, and when and where. This opaqueness is likely some of the lack of transparency risk that the CAO was referring to. As for the absence of stored data encryption, the CAO may have been referring to the default method by which WhatsApp backs up a users chats. While WhatsApp chats are end-to-end encrypted, if a user backs up those chats to the cloud, the backup itself is not end-to-end encrypted by default. This means that if a bad actor gains access to a WhatsApp users cloud backup, they could read all of that users messages. Its no wonder the CAOs Office of Cybersecurity finds this worrying. WhatsApp also doesnt have other privacy and security features on by default, including the ability to lock the app behind biometrics and requiring two-step verification when a WhatsApp account is installed on another phone. If you dont work in the House of Representatives, you can still keep WhatsApp on your phone. But you might want to mitigate its privacy and security risks. Heres how. How to make WhatsApp more secure on your phone Unfortunately, theres nothing you can do about WhatsApps metadata problem. Meta designs WhatsApp so that the metadata of your chats is sent directly to the company. Theres no way you can turn this data collection off. But you can make the app more secure on your phone by following some simple steps, including: End-to-end encrypt your WhatsApp backups: In WhatsApp, go to Settings>Chats>Chat Backup>End-to-End Encrypted Backup and turn this option on. Now your chat backups saved in the cloud will be end-to-end encrypted. Lock WhatsApp: You can set WhatsApp to refuse to open without further authentication by locking the app. This means that even if someone has access to your unlocked phone, they wont be able to open WhatsApp unless they know your phones PIN, or have your face or fingerprint. To lock WhatsApp, go to WhatsApps Settings>Privacy>App Lock and toggle the feature on. Enable two-step verification: If someone logs into your WhatsApp account on their phone, theyll be able to see your messages. Thats why you should set up two-step verification for your account. This will require a PIN that you set to be entered whenever an attempt is made to log into your WhatsApp account on a new device. If the PIN isnt entered correctly, the new device wont have access to your account. To enable two-step verification, go to WhatsApps Settings>Account>Two-Step Verification and toggle the feature on. Apps the CAO suggests using instead When reached for comment on the CAOs decision to ban WhatsApp, the organization’s chief administrative officer, Catherine Szpindor, told Fast Company, “Protecting the People’s House is our topmost priority, and we are always monitoring and analyzing for potential cybersecurity risks that could endanger the data of House Members and staff. We routinely review the list of House-authorized apps and will amend the list as deemed appropriate.” In the past, the CAO has banned or imposed partial bans on various foreign apps, including those from ByteDance, such as TikTok. But the CAO has also previously announced bans or restrictions on apps made by American companies, including Microsoft Copilot and the free versions of ChatGPT. As for Meta, a company spokesperson told Fast Company that it disagrees with the CAOs characterization of WhatsApp in the strongest possible terms. The spokesperson also asserted that, when it comes to end-to-end encryption, WhatsApp offers “a higher level of security than most of the apps on the CAOs approved list that do not offer that protection.” In the Office of Cybersecurity’s memo, the agency provided guidance on alternative secure messaging apps that House staffers could use now that WhatsApp had been banned. According to Axios, those apps include Apples iMessage and FaceTime, Microsoft Teams, Wickr, and Signal. House workers have no choice in the matter, but you still do. If you decide to continue using WhatsApp, consider enhancing the privacy and security it already offers by enabling the optional protections described above.
Category:
E-Commerce
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