I only watch YouTube on my main PC and laptop. Neither of which are 4K and I don’t own a 4K TV. However, many people like to watch YouTube in 4K (especially on their mobile devices) and have been doing so for free. That is likely changing… You might soon need YouTube Premium for more than ditching ads, background playback and trying new features. As MacRumors notes, users on Reddit and Twitter have noticed that YouTube is asking some viewers to upgrade to Premium to watch videos in 4K resolution. It’s not clear which countries, devices or videos are affected, but this won’t be thrilling if you…
Read More
Today is Sunday, October 2nd: time for the weekly roundup of the good, the bad and the ugly tech news of the week! This week’s picks are centered around user privacy. The Good Some browsers (looking at you Chrome) are going out of their way NOT to help protect their user’s privacy. It is a refreshing change to hear Brave, a privacy based browser built off of Chromium will automatically block cookie consent banners/pop-ups in future releases. One of the unfortunate side effects of the EU’s GDPR is those annoying ‘this site uses cookies, please accept them (so our advertisers…
The Brave Browser, a privacy focused browser based off of the Chromium Browser will start blocking those pesky Cookie Consent Banners in an upcoming future release. Those annoying pop-up banners (and yes our sites have them too) are an unfortunate but required side effect of the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) regulations. Not only are these banners annoying but they could be invading your privacy too. In some cases, however, these banners can serve as trackers themselves, as they engage in a privacy-breaching data exchange before the user even has a chance to opt out. Brave will now proactively detect…
Google Inc. 176,80 +2,91 +1,67% Google has pushed back their plans to disabling Manifest V2 based add-ons at least five-months. Previously Google planed to disable Manifest V2 based add-ons in January 2023. I am guessing some add-on developers (especially the Ad Blocking ones) are having trouble getting their add-ons to work user would prefer based on the new Manifest V3 guidelines. An update from the Chrome team says that they will proceed in careful, experimental steps, ensuring a smooth end-user experience during the phase-out of Manifest V2 in June 2023. During that time, Google will support extension developers with guidance…
Spellcheck is a blessing and a curse. On one hand you get instant feedback if you mistype something. On the other hand, it causes people not to know how to correctly spell. However, if users have opted-in to use Chrome’s Enhanced Spellcheck or Microsoft Editor (add-on) in Edge, users could unknowingly be sending Personally Identifiable Information (PII) to Google or Microsoft. Users can check if they opted-in to use Chrome’s Enhanced Spellcheck. by entering: chrome://settings/?search=Enhanced+Spell+Check in the Chrome address bar. Enhanced spell check setting in Chrome needs to be opted-in (BleepingComputer) Now you may be wondering what kind of PII could I…
While Google failed to get Europe’s General Court to overturn the Commission’s ruling on its Android antitrust case, they did manage to get their fine reduced from €4.3 Billion to €4.125 Billion (~$4.121 Billion USD). The Commission previously found that Google acted illegally by making it mandatory for Android manufacturers to pre-install its apps and its search engine. By doing so, the Commission said that the company was able to “cement its dominant position in general internet search.” Approximately 80 percent of smart devices in Europe as of July 2018 were running Android OS, and people tend to be content…
Ever notice how when you search for something on one site, you suddenly start seeing advertisements for that ‘something’ following you around wherever you go on the Internet? May be you don’t even really pay attention anymore because it is so common. Indeed it is very common: Security researchers have found that roughly eight out of ten websites featuring a search bar will leak their visitor’s search terms to online advertisers like Google. This practice has the implication of breaching the users’ privacy and leaking sensitive information to a massive network of third parties who can then use this data…
Windows users world wide are in a panic today as Windows Defender is throwing a false Win32/Hive.ZY Alert when certain popular apps (including Microsoft’s own Edge browser) are opened. A bad Microsoft Defender signature update mistakenly detects Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Discord, and other Electron apps as ‘Win32/Hive.ZY’ each time the apps are opened in Windows. The issue started Sunday morning when Microsoft pushed out Defender signature update 1.373.1508.0 to include two new threat detections, including Behavior:Win32/Hive.ZY. Microsoft is aware of the issue and is pushing out new security intelligence updates. To check for new security intelligence updates Search for and open Windows…
In January 2023 Google Chrome is going to block extensions still using the old Manifest V2 rules. An extension manifest outlines the permissions and abilities a developer includes in an extension for Chrome browser. From Google’s perspective, Manifest V3 comes to enhance user privacy and security by: Limiting extension access to user network requests. Forcing authors to include all functionality within the extension, ending the practice of hosting code remotely. Moving network request modifications from the extensions to the browser. Replacing background pages with dedicated service workers to improve browser performance. The unintended consequences of the new manifest is most of…
Found this absurd pending class-action lawsuit this morning via Linkedin news feeds. Google has been sued in a proposed class-action lawsuit that alleges it violated wiretap laws by collecting information about user behavior on the internet without permission while users were in “private browsing,” or incognito mode. Um…apparently these plaintiff’s don’t understand how “private browsing” or incognito mode is supposed to work. Simply put incognito mode prevents someone else who is also sharing the same device (PC, phone, tablet, etc.) as the user from being able to view your browsing/search history that occurred while in incognito mode. This is done by opening…