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Of all the things Apple announced yesterday, the most interesting one was a small feature they casually dropped - an Apple-branded SSO or their own version of a ‘social login’. While it seems similar to the Facebook or Google login buttons you see on many sites, this third-party login doesn’t share your email address with the service providers you use it to register with and goes so far as to generate and maintain separate unique alias email addresses.

The service providers get access to the relevant information they need to provide you with whatever service they offer but it’s up to you to share your name or email address. At face value, this is almost too good to be true because it shifts the locus of control to the user. In true Apple fashion, they’ve made this mandatory for developers that use third-party logins.

I’m cautiously optimistic and excited about Apple’s pivot to a privacy-conscious organisation but as with all these things, the detail is in the fine print.

There have been some great books these last few years that I’ve finally managed to get around to. Here are some of my favourites so far.

Eating Animals by Jonathan Safron Foer - Ever since we got a dog, I’ve been somewhat queasy about eating meat, especially the four-legged variety. While the book can put off the more avid meat-eaters among us, there are some compellingly documented reasons to be wary of of factory farming, the cruelty it inflicts on animals and it’s impact on the environment. There’s an interesting counterpoint to ‘nature is cruel’ argument as well that I found particularly insightful. If anything, the book has been directly responsible for me giving up KFC and staying away from lamb, beef and pork over the last few months.

The People vs Tech by Jamie Bartlett - Technology giants are an easy target and writing about evil algorithms and smartphone addiction is in vogue and lucrative; however, the point needs to be hammered home. I found Bartlett’s book a bit too on-the-nose but still riveting - he paints a picture of how we got here and how our reverence for technology has blinded us to it’s impact on democracy. It’s bleak and provides little hope much like another book I read this year.

The Uninhabitable Earth by David Wallace Wells - This is both one of the best and worst books I’ve read in the last few years. Wells paints a bleak picture of the horrors of climate change and how we’re programmed to ignore slow decimation. He tackles the unfairness of climate change - the countries that shoulder the most ‘climate guilt’ will see the least impact and the best case scenario that he (and the IPCC) paints isn’t ideal - a 2.5 degrees increase is still catastrophic - but the worst case scenario is downright depressing. There are some optimistic takeaways but they’re mostly relegated to the last few pages. I’d say this was essential reading especially for those that believe the invisible hand of the market or increased awareness will save us.

Exhalation by Ted Chiang - Chiang returns with a book of science fiction short stories (following Stories of Your Life) that are entertaining and mind-expanding. There are some genuinely excellent stories here especially, ‘The Lifecycle of Software Objects’ and ‘Anxiety is the Dizziness of Feeling’.

The Overstory by Richard Powers - This book is full of such rich detail, especially the first half where it paints elaborate portraits of its varied protagonists. As with most books I’ve read this year, the environment and our impact on it is a major theme.

I’ve flirted with the idea of scrubbing my social media presence for a while now - aside from being a time-suck, we’re entering an era where these giant conglomerates aren’t just ethically ambiguous anymore, they’re starting to seem downright morally bankrupt.

Jaron Lanier has a new book where he outlines why everyone should delete their social media accounts (right now!) that I found particularly good at articulating why I eventually bit the bullet and deleted all my social media profiles.

• Argument 1: You are losing your free will.

• Argument 2: Quitting social media is the most finely targeted way to resist the insanity of our times.

• Argument 3: Social media is making you into an asshole.

• Argument 4: Social media is undermining truth.

• Argument 5: Social media is making what you say meaningless.

• Argument 6: Social media is ruining your capacity for empathy.

• Argument 7: Social media is making you unhappy.

• Argument 8: Social media doesn’t want you to have economic dignity.

• Argument 9: Social media is making politics impossible.

• Argument 10: Social media hates your soul.

Recommended reading: Do You Have a Moral Duty to Leave Facebook?