The Tech That Was Fixed in 2018 and the Tech That Still Needs Fixing

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From Facebook to creepy online ads, the worst tech of the year made the internet feel like an unsafe place to hang out. Yet there were some products that were fixed, our personal tech critic writes. Personal technology was so awful this year that nobody would think you were paranoid if you dug a hole and buried your computer, phone and smart speaker under six feet of earth. Facebook made headlines week after week for failing to protect our privacy and for spreading misinformation. Juul, the e-cigarette company under investigation for marketing products to teenagers, emerged as the Joe Camel of the digital era. And don’t get me started on just how intrusive online advertising has become. On the other hand, there was good technology this year that improved how we live, like parental controls to curb smartphone addiction and a web browser with built-in privacy protections. For the last two years, I’ve reviewed the tech that needed the most fixing and the tech t...
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The worst passwords of 2018 are just as dumb as you'd expect

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"Password" will never be a good password. Period.






It doesn't look like we're getting any smarter about our passwords. 
On Thursday, software company SplashData released its annual list of the Top 100 worst passwords, and it includes some pretty obvious blunders. Coming in at No. 1 is, you guessed it, "123456," and in second place is, yup, "password." This is the fifth year in a row these passwords have held the top two spots. 
Newcomers to the list include "666666" (No. 14), "princess" (No. 11) and "donald" (No. 23).
"Sorry, Mr. President, but this is not fake news -- using your name or any common name as a password is a dangerous decision," SplashData CEO Morgan Slain said in a release. "Hackers have great success using celebrity names, terms from pop culture and sports, and simple keyboard patterns to break into accounts online, because they know so many people are using those easy-to-remember combinations."
To compile its list, SplashData evaluated more than 5 million leaked passwords, mostly from users in North America and Western Europe. The company estimates that about 10 percent of people have used at least one of the Top 25 worst passwords, and about 3 percent have used "123456."
"It's a real head-scratcher that with all the risks known, and with so many highly publicized hacks, such as Marriott and the National Republican Congressional Committee, that people continue putting themselves at such risk year after year," Slain said.
Celebrities and government officials aren't immune to choosing terrible passwords, a Wednesday report from Dashlane made plain. The top offender on that list was Kanye West, who revealed at an October meeting with President Donald Trump that his iPhone passcode is "000000."
Here are the 25 worst passwords of 2018, according to SplashData:
1) 123456
2) password
3) 123456789
4) 12345678
5) 12345
6) 111111
7) 1234567
8) sunshine
9) qwerty
10) iloveyou
11) princess
12) admin
13) welcome
14) 666666
15) abc123
16) football
17) 123123
18) monkey
19) 654321
20) !@#$%^&*
21) charlie
22) aa123456
23) donald
24) password1
25) qwerty123

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