Personal Tech Has Changed. So Must Our Coverage of It.

It's time to turn off your icloud backups. This piece of advice was repeated all over the web last year after Apple announced a new tool that would allow it to find child sexual abuse imagery in photos of its mobile devices.

It was not an complete solution to turn off iCloud backups. In my column last year, I said that people have sacrificed ownership and control of their data. Most of us back up our data to a company-owned server, and we no longer store data on local devices.

My suggestion was to use a hybrid approach of backing up data to both the cloud and local devices in order to regain ownership and independence. If a company does something bad, we can just remove our data from its server and take it somewhere else.

For the last seven years, I have been writing Tech Fix for The New York Times, which is half of my previous reporting on the industry. In the mid-2000s, people were interested in reading about new consumer tech. Tech journalism has moved into stories about Big Tech. I have made changes to my writing to serve our readers.

It is time for another change.

When we started Tech Fix in 2015, we focused on how to solve the frustrating issues created by technology, because we felt people would care about that more than anything else. Some of the popular problem-solving columns include tips on how to fix slow wi-fi and how to save money on phone bills.

Tech companies have grown at a rapid rate over the years, with millions of us now hooked on their products. We can't resolve our problems by following a few steps.

Your feedback shows that you care about tech's impact on your life. The comments section of last year's column about data ownership and backups was lively. In the event of a flood or fire, you should keep an extra copy on a flash drive with a friend or in storage, according to some of you. Some questioned if Apple's tool was a valid way to fight child sexual abuse imagery. The release of the scanning device was put on hold in response to the backlash.

These are important conversations. They help us to think about how we use our tech and how we can keep control of it. Tech Fix will be looking at tech's impact on society and how we can stay in control.

On Wednesday, we looked at Ring and whether they do more harm than good. We will be writing about how our behavior around buying phones can change for the better in the coming weeks. We will look at websites and stores that ask for our phone numbers and email addresses.

The things you love about the column aren't going away. Tech problems that annoy us and reviews of products that are new will still be provided. The way we think and write about tech also needs to be updated. We are always happy to receive feedback.