Tag Archives: privacy

Samsung’s got a phone with four cameras. Genius or ridiculous? (The 3:59, Ep. 472)

On this podcast, we talk about: Why Samsung felt the need to add four rear cameras to a phone.  AT&T’s tease for a new streaming TV bundle.  Google omitting the camera being a savvy move for the Home Hub. The 3:59 gives you bite-size news and analysis about the top stories of the day, brought …

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Interest surges in Tim Berners

Inrupt, the startup from web creator Tim Berners-Lee, isn’t about to squeeze Facebook off the internet, but it has attracted interest from tens of thousands of people. Inrupt is backing an open-source project from Berners-Lee called Solid that’s designed to let us keep control over own data instead of handing it over to companies like Facebook and Google. Over the …

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Tim Cook says some tech regulation likely needs to happen

There’s more information on our phones than in our homes, Apple CEO Tim Cook said, and we may need government regulations to protect our privacy. Cook, long a vocal proponent of user privacy, noted that our phones know about our relationships, what we look at online and what photos we take. All of that could be at risk if the …

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Mozilla gives Firefox Focus a browser brain transplant on Android

Firefox Focus, Mozilla’s lightweight mobile browser, became a little more like an ordinary browser and a lot more like regular Firefox on Tuesday. Focus is a stripped-down browser initially designed for spur-of-the moment web interactions, blocking ad trackers and keeping no browsing history so you get more privacy. When it first arrived on Android, it used the built-in Google software …

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Over 25,000 Americans sign petition seeking change in Venmo’s privacy settings

Venmo is again pushing aside concerns for its “Public by Default” privacy setting.  More than 25,000 Americans signed a petition asking the digital transaction app to change its default privacy setting from public to private, according to a Thursday blog post from Mozilla, which initiated the campaign in July. Mozilla, the developer of the Firefox browser, delivered the signed petition to Venmo’s …

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Stop apps from accessing your Mac’s camera and microphone

With MacOS Mojave, Apple introduces new security features to Safari that make it harder for shady web trackers to follow you and new privacy controls that let you restrict apps from accessing your Mac’s webcam and microphone.  Previous iterations of MacOS let you set permissions for apps accessing your location, contacts, photos, calendar and reminders. MacOS Mojave adds the camera …

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Brave browser dumps Google search in France, Germany

The ad-blocking Brave web browser startup has landed two blows on Google: It dumped the search engine for rival Qwant in France and Germany, and it lodged a formal complaint in Europe against Google’s ad privacy practices. Brave picked Qwant, which bills itself as “the search engine that respects your privacy,” as part of its effort to capitalize on privacy …

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Brave browser gets Chrome’s extensions starting Thursday with major new version

If you like Brave but also like extensions to fine-tune your web surfing, good news: A new version of the ad-blocking browser arrived Thursday that makes it as customizable as Google’s rival Chrome. Brave Chief Technology Officer Brian Bondy announced the new version, called Brave Core, on Reddit. There’s only an early version geared for developers for now, though, and …

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All Apple iOS apps must have privacy disclosures in the future, reportedly

You probably never click on that “Privacy Policy” link as often as the “In-App Purchases” info that appears above it, especially for apps like Fortnite which you’re going to install not matter what. But for those of us who do, this is good news: Apple has extended its privacy policy disclosure rules to cover all apps, not just those that …

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iOS 12 creates strong passwords to save you time and keep your accounts safe

Since iOS 11, your iPhone has saved your passwords for your various accounts and helpfully offers to fill them in for you when it senses a login screen. With iOS 12, you can continue with your password-saving ways, but now you can let your iPhone ($285 at Amazon) generate strong passwords for your apps and accounts. Because when it’s left …

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