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TIL in 2005, Sony sold music CDs that installed hidden software without notifying users (a rootkit). When this was made public, Sony released an uninstaller, but forced customers to provide an email to be used for marketing purposes. The uninstaller itself exposed users to arbitrary code execution.













LPT: If you don't have Google Maps Timeline enabled, do it now. It may save you in the future.
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LPT: If you don't have Google Maps Timeline enabled, do it now. It may save you in the future.

About 4 years ago, I rented a car for a work trip. I only used the car for about 3 hours. I left the aiport with it, went and did a quick job, came back to the airport and dropped it off. The drop off was after hours, so I took a picture of my mileage and dropped the keys in the dropbox. I had done this about a hundred times for work. Fast forward to about 3 weeks later, I got a bill for a 2 week rental, over $2k charged. I guess some scummy employee decided to take a joyride for a couple weeks and thought they'd get away with it, I don't know.. Well after weeks of emails fighting this, I think what finally got them to back off were screenshots of my google maps timeline, showing exactly where I went, at what times, and how long I spent in the city.

Present day- 3 months ago we took my infant daughter to the hospital. She was then transported to another hospital in an ambulance. I am now getting a $4000 ambulance bill, among other absurd bills. There are several things about this situation that make my blood boil, but one thing that I know I can fight is the mileage charge. The mileage charge was recorded as 45 miles, at $40/mile. I looked back at my Google Timeline, and we only traveled 35 miles that night. That should save me $400.

Tldr- Google Maps timeline basically gives you an alibi when scummy corporations try to get away with fraud because they think you won't be able to fight it.

Edit: for those who just want to come here to insult America, my total effective tax rate for last year was only 10.3%, so I guess it all evens out in the end.