Thanks to “data inference” technology, companies know more about you than you disclose. Think You’re Discreet Online? Think Again. By Zeynep Tufekci for The New York Times on April 21, 2019 People concerned about privacy often try to be “careful” online. They stay off social media, or if they’re on it, they post cautiously. They… [Read more]
Technology
Is the Apple era over?
Apple’s warning on Wednesday about weak iPhone demand in the holiday quarter is a serious deal for Wall Street, and the tech industry in general. Kara Swisher explains … Is This the End of the Age of Apple? By Kara Swisher for The New York Times / January 3, 2019 … some other terrible news… [Read more]
Navigating the future of technology
A funny thing’s happened in the last few years; most technology has gotten pretty good. Almost gone are the days of crummy smartphones with indecipherable interfaces and desktop operating systems overrun with crapware. So with most popular tech products at parity, how do you choose one over the other? Farhad Manjoo of The New York… [Read more]
How to control your browser
A terrific article appeared on Wired the other day about how to protect your computer from the prying eyes of the web. The story explores privacy and cookie settings for the following browsers: Google Chrome Mozilla Firefox Microsoft Edge Apple Safari How to lock down what websites can access on your computer Written by David… [Read more]
Facebook uses AI to decipher memes
Ever get the following nasty message when trying to post a seemingly harmless image to your Facebook timeline? We removed this post because it looks like spam and doesn’t follow our Community Standards. If your image contains text of any kind, it could be that Facebook dislikes the message. And chances are it wasn’t rejected… [Read more]
Facebook bungles single sign-on
By now you’ve most likely heard about the Facebook security breach that allowed hackers to not only take over the accounts of at least 50 million users, but also access third-party websites those users logged into with their Facebook credentials. The service that got compromised is an authentication process called “single sign-on” that allows a… [Read more]
Blocking bad trackers
By default, future versions of the Firefox browser will automatically block tracking codes placed by third-party advertisers and networks. In addition, Firefox users will be offered a clear set of options to control what information they share with websites. This is a good thing. Firefox’s new browser will keep brands from stalking you Written for… [Read more]
A slow death for Flash
Loathed by web purists, but loved by graphic artists who couldn’t code, Adobe Flash inches closer to obscurity. Adobe Flash is a once-dominant multimedia software platform used for the production of animations, applications, games, and web browser video players. It is also an insecure, ubiquitous resource hog that has put users at risk since 1999…. [Read more]
What the hell is AMP?
The Accelerated Mobile Pages project (AMP) is a website publishing technology developed by Google to help improve the performance of web content and advertisements. AMP is a direct competitor to Facebook’s Instant Articles, and includes several other large search, social and web publishing platforms around the world. Google first began showing the AMP versions of web… [Read more]
Digital privacy in California
Consumer privacy law coming in 2020 On June 28 California passed a digital privacy law granting consumers more control over, and insight into, their online personal information. Though not as expansive as the European Union’s recently enacted General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the new law is one of the most significant regulations to watch over… [Read more]
