Hip hop royalty and fashion trailblazer A$AP Rocky has a swarm of fans who follow his every move.

He has come into his own since around 2014 (before that, he was known to wear the odd scoop-neck T-shirt-cardigan ensemble), championing and being championed by some of the world’s best brands, from Dior and Gucci to Loewe and Balençiaga. Today, he is unquestionably the best-dressed man in hip hop, and some (those who do not support Harry Styles, mind you) may even argue he is the best-dressed living musician on the planet right now.

A$AP Rocky Likes Taking Risks

People admire A$AP Rocky most for his willingness to take risks. What’s the deal with denim on denim? He’ll be doing triple duty. Men decked out in pearls? He’ll be wearing three necklaces and rings. In essence, he serves as a lesson in what the next big trend will be, frequently before it has left – or even been seen – on catwalks around the world.

Below, you will see some of the most remarkable moments up to date.

New York City, July 2021

Rocky and girlfriend Rihanna were spotted wearing neon furs while filming a much-anticipated music video in New York City. Those in question are from Virgil Abloh’s Louis Vuitton Spring/Summer 2022 catwalk collection.

Los Angeles, April 2021

There’s no denying A$AP Rocky doesn’t look good in double leather, whether he’s channeling David Beckham circa 1999 or attempting to land a role as the film industry’s first-ever male Catwoman.

Paris, June 2018

Rocky made the case for lacy undergarments and unstructured suiting at the Dior menswear Spring/Summer 2019 show during Paris Fashion Week in summer 2018, which was Kim Jones’ first at the brand.

About the Artist

So far, A$AP Rocky has two BET Awards, two BET Hip Hop Awards, an MTV Video Music Award Japan, and an MTVU Woodie Award, and has been nominated for two Grammy Awards, six World Music Awards, three MTV Video Music Awards, and two MTV Europe Music Awards. A$AP Rocky has also produced music videos for himself, Danny Brown, and other A$AP Mob members. He is also a well-known record producer who goes by the moniker Lord Flacko.

If you use an Android phone and are concerned about digital privacy, you’ve probably already taken care of the essentials. You’ve deleted the snoopiest of the snoopy apps, opted out of tracking whenever possible, and taken all the other precautions the popular how-to privacy guides have told you to. The bad news is that you may want to take a seat for this. None of those procedures is sufficient to eliminate trackers.

There Is No Hiding from Android!

That is the summary of a news article, recently published by researchers at Trinity College in Dublin, who examined the data-sharing practices of several popular Android OS versions, including those made by Samsung, Xiaomi, and Huawei. According to the researchers, these gadgets would continually pingback device data to the OS’s developers and a slew of selected third parties out of the box and when left idle. Worse yet, consumers frequently can’t opt-out of this data-pinging even if they want to.

As the researchers point out, a large portion of the fault here falls on so-called “system apps.” These are applications that are pre-installed on a device by the hardware manufacturer to provide a specific function: a camera or messaging app are examples. Android apps are often packaged in what is referred to as the device’s “read-only memory” (ROM), which means they cannot be deleted or modified without rooting the device. And until you do, the researchers discovered that they were constantly transmitting device data to their parent firm and many third parties—even if you never launched the app.

Data-Sharing with Third-Party Analytics Providers

Assume you own a Samsung gadget that comes pre-installed with some Microsoft junk, including (gasp) LinkedIn. Even if you’re unlikely to open LinkedIn for any reason, the hard-coded software is constantly pinging Microsoft’s servers with information about your device. It’s what’s known as “telemetry data” in this situation, which includes information such as your device’s unique identity and the number of Microsoft programs loaded on your phone. Additionally, this data is shared with any third-party analytics providers that these apps may have integrated, which is often Google, as Google Analytics is the king of all analytics tools.

With regards to the hard-coded programs that you may occasionally launch, each interaction sends even more data. The researchers discovered that Samsung Pass, for example, shared information with Google Analytics such as timestamps indicating when you used the app and for how long. Likewise for Samsung’s Game Launcher and whenever Bixby, Samsung’s virtual assistant, is invoked.

Of course, Samsung is not alone in this regard. Google’s messaging software, which comes pre-installed on Samsung competitor Xiaomi’s phones, was detected sharing timestamps from each user interaction with Android’s Google Analytics, as well as logs of each text exchanged by that user. Huawei devices were also observed engaging in the same behavior. And on devices pre-installed with Microsoft’s SwiftKey, Microsoft received logs indicating each time the keyboard was used in another app or elsewhere on the device.

What Can Be Done?

To begin, you can arouse legislators’ interest. Today’s privacy legislation, such as GDPR in the EU and the CCPA in the US, is almost entirely focused on how digital businesses handle personally identifiable data, such as your name and address. So-called “anonymous” data, such as the technical specifications of your device or an ad ID, frequently go between the cracks of these rules, even though they can typically be used to identify you regardless. And if we are unable to successfully demand a rewrite of our country’s privacy rules, perhaps one of the numerous enormous antitrust actions Google is currently facing can finally convince the business to rein in some of these intrusive activities, regarding Android devices.