I wanted to swap over to Merlin last year but my router isn't supported. Grrrr!

Nasty. Thanks for the heads up.

As I've heard someone say last year: "I wish Reddit a happy Digg.com"

Enlightening read and explained very well.

As for the Apple bug bringing back old photos from an erased data partition; non-applicable if I recall. Apple identified the bug having to do with restoring devices from backups. Backup data contained the presumed deleted content.

This article is therefore correct that deleted photos from reset devices (and not restored from backup) could not be recovered from the data partition.

Look up the IRS's ID.me verification. That's a nasty 3rd party IMO.

Ha! I gave up that fight long ago. I just try not to make it easy for them.

Just sort of pointing out this tracking network (like many others already running) is happening whether you opt out or not.

The opt out part is just security theater for your peace of mind.

Keep in mind they (Google, Apple, Amazon, etc) must still comply with government warrants. Probably pre-encryption.

Does opting out actually stop you from being tracked or simply prevent you from seeing results of that data?

From what I understand, and I am likely wrong, there is no way to mask your devices from other users who have joined.

Google saw neat idea, built cool software, users happy. Replace cars to generate map data with phones for utmost accuracy. Trends of maximizing profit from cool technology makes users sad and services suck like other popular sites. Host begs Google not to make maps suck next.