PC Magazine

Since this is all about speed, we look hard at the Since this is all
averages for download and upload speeds in megabits about speed,
per second. We then combine them and spit them back
out using a formula that takes 80% of the download we look hard at
number and 20% of the upload. That combined rating is the averages
the PCMag Speed Index (PSI). It lets us compare ISPs for download
head to head. and upload
speeds in
You’ll see the PSI referenced in the charts below, megabits per
indicated via the blue bars. They’ll show the top second.
10 ISPs or the top 10 locations based on the PSI,
depending on what we’re trying to convey and how
much data we have available.

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That means they run a wire right up to your house,
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optics, coaxial cable, or copper phone lines. (That last
one is used for DSL, which is slow; you won’t see any
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particular that stands out.

More and more people are using their mobile wireless
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connectors—but this method doesn’t yet have the
throughput to compete for the fastest ISP, despite all
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ISPs with big reach (the signal can cover the whole
country). They tend to be incredibly slow—but read on
to see what the hot new player in the market may be
doing to change that.

Note that for any ISP or location to be included in this
story, it has to receive a minimum of 100 tests. We don’t

even look at an ISP in a given place or look at a given location unless the count
is 100 or more; this keeps comparisons as fair and valid as possible. So your
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that’s your fault, because you and your neighbors didn’t click on the PCMag
Speed Test often enough. (Also, sometimes ISPs overwhelm our test data, which
you can read about below.)

This is the 11th time we’ve run this story with this same methodology (described
below), but one point bears repeating: The data we have is about speed only. We
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DQRWKHU ,Q VRPH FDVHV ZH FDQ¶W HYHQ QHFHVVDULO\ GL̆HUHQWLDWH EHWZHHQ DQ ,63¶V
WHFKQRORJ\ R̆HULQJV²VRPH PLJKW KDYH '6/ VSHHGV PL[HG ZLWK ¿EHU VSHHGV
(that’s on those ISPs to update their information with the GeoIP services out
there, such as MaxMind, that power these tests). In the cases where we can
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can come out well ahead of Verizon Internet, for example, instead of generic
Verizon getting a mediocre speed index.

THE FASTEST ISPs FOR THE US FOR 2021
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number of smaller providers. The CIA World Factbook says the US alone has
over 7,000 ISPs, but that includes every possible permutation; BroadbandNow
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squeezed out the rest, or at least tried. If you’ve got decent broadband from a
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to pick and choose between multiple ISPs, you’re one of the few lucky ones.

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out in our tests, and that’s Fios by Verizon (aka Verizon ninth win of
Fios). This is the ninth win of the decade for Fios, despite the decade for
the fact that its PCMag Speed Index has been decreasing Fios, despite
since 2019. the fact that

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place. But like last year, other vendors—in particular, the Speed Index
big cable providers—are making gains as they upgrade
equipment (at least in some areas where the competition has been
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up from last year’s PSI of 136.0 to 139.6 to hold onto
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coming in with a 124.4 PSI, after not even making it into
the top 10 last year. Back in 2019, its PSI was only 59.8,
so it’s more than doubled its speed in two years. Thanks
to that improvement and a slight dip in RCN’s index
down to 121.7, RCN slipped to fourth place. Rounding out
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to push down AT&T Fiber.

In general, you probably won’t be too upset with the
speeds you receive from any of the above companies. But
the bigger the company (and the fewer competitors it
has), the less likely it is to keep speed increases coming.
(Yet it’ll probably keep those price increases coming!)
That’s why we always recommend that you consider
smaller ISPs, if you have the option—in particular, those
GRLQJ ¿EHU RSWLF LQVWDOOV

To factor in the smaller ISP companies, many of which
are now run by towns and cities or even by local utility
companies, we always look at all the ISPs in our data
(again, assuming we got 100 tests from them). We’ve
given this award in the past to ISPs that serve cities big
and small and even some with a niche reach, such as
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For 2021, the best PCMag Speed Index score goes to a small company doing its
best to wire up a large number of small towns: Empire Access in upstate New
York, with installs reaching from Batavia, NY, down into Pennsylvania. We
didn’t get enough tests to measure any individual town for Empire Access use
alone, but cumulatively pulling down a stellar index of 366.2 on average for over
a year is no small feat. If you’re in one of the locations where Empire competes
(mainly with Spectrum), you’re likely in luck when it comes to the velocity of
your broadband.

Not bad for a company that’s never made our Fastest ISPs list before. But it did
come in second in our “Best Gaming ISPs of 2021” competition earlier this year,
which is also based on the PCMag Speed Test.

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service, until it slowed expansion plans considerably in 2016. But it’s still in
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year, though it’s number one in many regions of the country. But Google Fiber
hasn’t won a top award since 2016. As of 2020, it’s expanding again, a little, in
West Des Moines, Iowa, and Utah, so maybe it’ll bounce back.

Nextlight keeps it consistent. The provider for the city of Longmont, Colorado,
has stayed in third or fourth place now for years, but its speeds have dropped.
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What of previous winners? Last year’s big winner, Cedar Falls Utilities (CFU),
fell from an astronomically high PSI of 1,350.4 to 213.4. It’s hard to say which
one is the blip until we see numbers again next year. Hopefully, for the folks in
that Iowa town, 2020 was the issue (too many users at home?), and the score
will rise again. That said, CFU is still in our top 10 this year, in a comfy seventh
place. Sonic, the Bay Area provider that was the big winner two years ago at
610.6, has fallen steadily since. This year, its 202.5 score earned it tenth place.

Other services that made our top 10 are familiar, including EPB in Chattanooga,
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mentioning are MonkeyBrains, which is producing some amazing speeds in the
San Francisco Bay Area—enough to come in ninth ahead of direct competitor
Sonic. What’s really amazing is that MonkeyBrains is getting that speed using
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found in a few select “Ting Towns” in six states. It launched in 2012 as an
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FASTEST SATELLITE ISPs
Before we look at the ISPs by region in the US, let’s look at some uniquely
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in the union and beyond—as long as no trees are blocking the signal, and it
isn’t raining.

In the past, there was no need to mention the word “satellite” when it came to
the fastest ISPs in the land, because the technology of the existing satellite
providers has never, ever come close to producing service that anyone would
call speedy. But that might be changing.

SpaceX’s Starlink service has caught on as the next big hope for internet
connectivity, with a reach better than even the mobile network carriers and
speeds that could rival the big broadband providers. But these are early days, so
it remains to be seen whether Starlink (and future competitors, such as
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Speed Test this year to allow us to assign the service a PCMag Speed Index
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Starlink managed a 70.8 PSI. That’s 4.3 times faster than the next satellite

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Spectrum earned a 101.1 nationwide.

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service of any kind. But for the people out there waiting for Starlink to go
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FASTEST ISPS BY REGION
Looking at ISPs nationwide doesn’t help much when some ISPs cover multiple
states and others barely reach around the corner. To narrow things down, we
look at how services compare in six regions of the US where competition has a
better chance.
NORTH CENTRAL
Includes: IA, IL, IN, KS, KY, MI, MN, MO, ND, NE, OH, SD, and WI

Last year, when Cedar Falls Utilities (CFU) earned a 1,350.4 PSI, it was
unbeatable. This year, in its home region, it got thumped. Google Fiber
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back on top this year with 297.4, an excellent showing.

NORTHEAST
Includes: CT, DC, DE, MA, MD, ME, NH, NJ, NY, PA, RI, VA, VT, and WV

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fallen to 108.5 in 2021. Even if it had sustained that speed, it would have fallen
behind the two leaders this year. Empire Access (see above) has the same score
here as it does in our “all ISPs” coverage (a massive 366.2 PSI), since it serves
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Connecticut, with a 193.9 PSI.
NORTHWEST
Includes: CO, ID, MT, OR, UT, WA, and WY

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stretch of states in the northwest. For 2021, scores for both dropped. That gave
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this time. But at the very top, we welcome Ting. Its scores in Colorado and
Idaho alone were enough to put it on top with an index of 300.2. NextLight is
close, though, at 289.1.

SOUTH CENTRAL
Includes: AR, LA, MS, OK, and TX

Google Fiber covers only two cities in Texas (Austin and San Antonio), but
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360.4 PSI it earned is a big leap up from the 277.9 it won the region with last
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SOUTHEAST
Includes: AL, FL, GA, NC, SC, and TN

The southeastern states continue to be a Google Fiber (plus WebPass)
stronghold. This year, the combo took the lead in the region with a score of
288.5, besting previous winner Hotwire, which earned 248.2 this year—a pretty
big drop from last year’s winning PSI of 473.8. Ting also had another good
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SOUTHWEST
Includes: AZ, NM, NV, and CA

The southwest states have become a battleground based entirely in the San
Francisco Bay Area, where multiple vendors compete to provide the best speed
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Suddenlink. But this year, it fell short of beating a newcomer—MonkeyBrains.
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dishes mounted on top of buildings isn’t anything new, but it’s cause for hope
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HAWAII AND ALASKA
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score might become even higher, as the company has committed to bring
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for up to 77% of the population).
Hawaii has a race going between two providers. This year, the winner is
Hawaiian Telecom at 97.0, compared with Spectrum’s 87.6. The PSI scores for
both ISPs had been dropping since 2018, but now each has exceeded that year’s
big numbers with new record highs.

US STATES WITH THE FASTEST INTERNET
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rapid internet speeds.

On the map, the darker the shade of blue, the faster the internet speed. Florida
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and Georgia is in third.

Last year, Georgia and Florida topped this list, all because of one ISP: Hotwire.
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apartments and condos—is fast. But considering that its tests don’t beat any
services in our other matchups above, it becomes clear that the overwhelming
number of Hotwire tests for those two states are skewing the scores. The
number of Hotwire tests in Florida alone is almost double that of every other
ISP there in total. Right now, as stands, Florida’s PCMag Speed Index this year
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users, the state drops to 22nd place with a 106.2 PSI. Georgia similarly would
slide from third to 14th place.

Sure, it’s possible that any ISP with an egregiously large or small speed index
can skew the average for the whole state. What’s more, statewide (and
countrywide) tests include every result we’ve got, so that means businesses,
college dorms, and so on, some of which may have very fast connections—all get
factored in. But usually, it evens out: The number of tests we see is typically
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&RPFDVW ;¿QLW\ H[LVWV LWV XVHUV SURYLGH WKH PRVW WHVWV²EHFDXVH LW KDV WKH PRVW
users. That is not the case with Florida and Georgia for the last two years. It’s
likely that Hotwire has set up the PCMag Speed Test as the default speed test
for its customers to use. While we appreciate the company spreading the word,
the concentration of tests hasn’t necessarily done the provider any favors.

US CITIES WITH THE FASTEST INTERNET
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have 100 tests sounds straightforward, but remember—there are 34 states in
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Naples we’re talking about, we narrowed down speeds to the following top 10
cities this year.

But let us throw another Hotwire caveat in here. The numbers you see for those
top three cities include a preponderance of Hotwire tests. Factor out Hotwire
and the top three cities don’t make the new top 10. In fact, Stone Mountain,
Georgia, doesn’t even get to 100 tests and is excluded.

Again, that’s not to say that the average speed for Stone Number one
Mountain doesn’t count any less. We wouldn’t say you in the world,
shouldn’t look at Austin, Texas, since it has killer Google according to
Fiber service. But in Austin, you have a better chance of
living somewhere that Google provides service, whereas our data,
Hotwire’s very limited access makes it a lot harder to is the region
obtain. The spread favoring Hotwire comes from an
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include it because the test itself probably isn’t spoofed. the ‘Las
Vegas of
Cities minus Hotwire in the top 10 start with McAllen, Asia.’
Texas, which is, somewhat surprisingly, a Spectrum
town. Malden, Massachusetts, takes the silver—that’s a
Fios town. Shannon, Alabama, features Google Fiber.
Other ISPs leading the way in the top towns include
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Lone Tree, Colorado; and our big winner, Empire Access,
killing it in Big Flats, New York.

US INTERNET SPEED VS. THE WORLD
Perhaps you’re curious where the US lands compared
with the rest of the world when it comes to broadband
internet speeds. This year, using our usual criteria—100
tests minimum over the course of the year—we did the
calculation. Not surprisingly, the US is far from the top
of the list. For the past 14 months, the US managed only
a 117.2 PCMag Speed Index across every single test run
on the PCMag Speed Test. That’s 402,944 tests (because
our main audience is in the US). But that score puts the
US in 17th place.

Number one in the world, according to our data, is the
region of Macau—the “Las Vegas of Asia,” across the
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country from China—got second place with a score of
233.7. China is at 32nd place, at 89.1.

Other countries besting the US include Thailand (209.4), Iceland (189.7),
Singapore (173.2), Chile (165.0), and Denmark (160.2). Canada’s in ninth place,
at 140.4. Italy (118.8) and Spain (118.5) are also ahead of us.

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all our southern neighbors, including Mexico (61.4). Our own territories, such
as Puerto Rico (60.2) and the US Virgin Islands (83.8), don’t fare much better.
Countries with enough PCMag Speed Tests to make the list but with truly
terrible index ratings in the single digits include mostly African countries, along
with Venezuela and Honduras.

METHODOLOGY
The results in this article were taken from 622,681 individual tests completed
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the PCMag Speed Test. The test works on any secure browser, including those
on mobile devices. We narrowed results down to 402,944 tests taken in the
United States alone.

The PCMag Speed Test collected download and upload speeds for each test,
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megabits per second (Mbps) by dividing each test result by 1,000. From there,
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downloads count for 80% and uploads 20%. For an ISP or location (or an ISP in
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tests, except where indicated.

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WHVWLQJ WKH XSORDG DQG GRZQORDG VSHHG RI D VLQJOH ¿OH LW XVHV PXOWLSOH
broadband threads (the broadband applications that can be used by a browser)
to measure the total capacity of the “pipe.” This leads to numbers higher than
some other internet speed tests out there, sometimes even higher than the rate
of broadband speed you’re paying for.

Tests for wireless carriers do appear in our results, but for more advanced
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the Fastest Mobile Networks—coming in August.

PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION I SUBSCRIBE I JULY 2021



W ikipedia is a fascinating corner of the web—a font of knowledge
that leads to unexpected places. But as any teacher or professor
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but scroll to the bottom and seek out original sources for the “truth.”

Is that really fair, though? Is Wikipedia indeed a repository for half-truths? It’s
a topic that Professor Amy Bruckman from the Georgia Institute of
Technology’s School of Interactive Computing has researched extensively and
examines in her book Should You Believe Wikipedia?, coming out in 2022 from
Cambridge University Press.

Her conclusions may surprise you. Ahead of a September keynote at IntelliSys
2021, we spoke to Professor Bruckman, a Harvard grad who holds a PhD from
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and existence—in an era of misinformation.

PCMag: Before we get to Wikipedia, your wider research focuses on
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3URIHVVRU $P\ %UXFNPDQ Around 1990, I was a grad student at the MIT
Media Lab, and my friend Mike Travers showed me a model of MIT in a multi-
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Lab, walk across campus to a classroom, and deliver a lecture at the correct time
Tuesdays and Thursdays, reading a chapter of his book, Society of Mind. It was
magic. I was hooked.

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Yes, that was when I built MediaMOO, a multi-user text-based world designed
to be a professional community for media researchers. Then my dissertation
project was a virtual world for kids called MOOSE Crossing, where kids built
the world together and learned object-oriented programming and practiced
their creative writing.

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Well, this was before the invention of the web, and we were using computers
running the UNIX operating system. The internet wasn’t yet a mass medium,
but we could see that it would be, and the potential was exciting.

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The answer to, “Should you believe Wikipedia?” isn’t simple. In my book, I
argue that the content of a popular Wikipedia page is actually the most reliable
form of information ever created. Think about it—a peer-reviewed journal
article is reviewed by three experts (who may or may not actually check every
detail), and then is set in stone. The contents of a popular Wikipedia page might
be reviewed by thousands of people. If something changes, it is updated. Those
people have varying levels of expertise, but if they support their work with
reliable citations, the results are solid. On the other hand, a less popular
Wikipedia page might not be reliable at all.
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In my book and my talk at Intellisys, I try to teach I argue that
everyone a bit of basic epistemology, and show how that the content of
helps us better understand the internet. I believe ideas
like virtue epistemology can help us to improve the a popular
quality of the internet going forwards. Wikipedia page

Professor Amy Bruckman is actually the
most reliable
form of
information
ever created.

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Virtue epistemology suggests that knowledge is a
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epistemic virtues: ‘curiosity, intellectual autonomy,
intellectual humility, attentiveness, intellectual
carefulness, intellectual thoroughness, open-
mindedness, intellectual courage and intellectual
tenacity.’ Being someone who is careful with
knowledge is a lifelong quest, and trying to embody
those virtues helps.

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The real world exists but is only knowable through our the knower,
fallible senses. But that doesn’t mean that reality is but social
subjective. Am I sitting on a chair? You see it with your
senses and I with mine, but we agree that there is consensus is
something called a “chair,” and I am sitting on one. The our best way of
high degree of correlation between my subjective
perceptions and your subjective perceptions is caused figuring out
by the fact that the world exists—there’s really a chair. what that
The more people agree on something, the more we can truth is.
be sure of it. And the more those people possess what
we would call “reliable cognitive processes,” the more
we can be sure of it. So let’s pick a harder example than
my chair: Is human activity changing the climate? We
know the answer is yes, because a large number of
people with reliable cognitive processes agree. Truth
exists independent of the knower, but social consensus
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I’m not actually a climate scientist. I know that human
activity is changing the climate because I have chosen
sources I trust. And I interact with a community of
people (in person and online) who share my views.
When everyone around me believes that human activity
is changing the climate, it’s easier for me to decide that
it’s worth extra money to buy a car with a hybrid engine.
I live in a bubble of like-minded folks. That’s good most
of the time. I don’t have to go get a degree in
climatology before I go car shopping. But there are
growing numbers of bubbles of people who share false
beliefs, and reinforce those beliefs in one another.
That’s a problem for the internet in general.

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Maybe the biggest surprise of the internet to me is that biggest
false bubbles generally are corrected on Wikipedia.
Even if you pick a controversial topic like climate surprise of the
change or vaccination, the Wikipedia page typically internet to me
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about Wikipedia is working better than the rest of the is that false
internet, and I think we can learn from it as a positive bubbles
model.
generally are
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Metadata is critical to the future of the internet. We all
need help deciding what to believe. It would help a lot if Wikipedia.
information came with a reliability rating. But there’s
nothing easy about creating those ratings. We need both
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model to pay for the process of creating those labels.

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You need an intermediate layer—interpretation of
primary sources by a Holocaust scholar. That’s the
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encyclopedia. The job of a historian is to synthesize
primary sources and form an interpretation. The job of
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give you a list of links to go read if you want to learn
more.

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Editing Wikipedia can be a lot of fun. I used to help with technology are
the page on trash cans. The group of people working on
the page had a long conversation about the words “bin” a surprisingly
versus “can” and how the name for a waste receptacle good fit
varies around the world. There’s a mini-golf course near for how
my parents’ house, and the trash can is shaped like a
dolphin. I added a picture of it to the article, and the knowledge is
next time I visited I showed the owner that his trash can constructed.
was famous. The photo was there for a decade or so.
Someone has since taken it down, sadly. But I enjoy
contributing to something meaningful. Sometimes even
things less silly than trash cans.

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knowledge is constructed. I think we can learn a lot
from success stories like Wikipedia. And maybe apply
those lessons to the design of the rest of the internet.

PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION I SUBSCRIBE I JULY 2021

TIPS & HOW TOS Photo credit: omakoma/shutterstock.com

PRIVACY

What Is Amazon Sidewalk,
and How Do You Disable It?

BY ERIC GRIFFITH

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PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION I SUBSCRIBE I JULY 2021

TIPS & HOW TOS Photo credit: Mr.Whiskey

WEB SERVICES

How to See Who’s Using
Your Streaming Passwords

BY JASON COHEN

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PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION I SUBSCRIBE I JULY 2021

WHAT’S NEW NOW

THE WHY AXIS

These Apps Collect the
Most Personal Data BYJASON COHEN

Astudy by pCloud concluded that social media and food delivery apps
sell the most personal data to third-party advertisers. But a recent
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invasive data collection, what are the best alternatives?
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services harvest the most data in a given category and which apps actually leave
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disappearing messages app Dust are great alternatives all 32 segments
for business and personal use, because neither service
collects any data. of personal
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collects no data at all. Cryptominers, avoid Coinbase
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PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION I SUBSCRIBE I JULY 2021

MASTHEAD

EDITORIAL

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, PC MAGAZINE NETWORK Dan Costa

EDITOR Wendy Sheehan Donnell
MANAGING EDITOR, DIGITAL EDITIONS Carol Mangis
PRODUCTION DESIGNER José Ruiz

NEWS & FEATURES

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(software, gaming), Steven Winkelman (mobile)
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ART, MEDIA, & PRODUCTION

SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGER Pete Haas
STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Molly Flores
PRODUCER Emily Zoda
SENIOR VIDEO PRODUCER Weston Almond
VIDEO PRODUCER Raffi Paul

CONTRIBUTORS

John R. Delaney, Jill Duffy, Tim Gideon, Ben Z. Gottesman, Eric Grevstad, William Harrel, Edward Mendelson,
Stephanie Mlot, M. David Stone, Lance Whitney, Kathy Yakal

PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION I SUBSCRIBE I JULY 2021

MASTHEAD

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