Today is Sunday, October 9th: time for the weekly roundup of the good, the bad and the ugly tech news of the week! The Good Finally some good news with the Windows 11 2022 Update (22H2). Coming later this month….(may be as early as this ‘Patch Tuesday’ the 11th?) are the additional set of experiences for Windows 11. Two big features/experiences for those who have already upgrade to the 22H2 update will include the Tabbed File Explorer and improved taskbar. The Bad Google Chrome is one of the most popular browsers for non-mobile users. Unfortunately, that popularity makes it a…
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Google Inc. 189,70 -0,45 -0,24% Chrome is the most popular browser amongst non-mobile users. With that being said so far in 2022 there have been a lot of vulnerabilities (303 to be exact). Yes, that is a lot. However, given Chrome is the most popular browser it is only natural hackers/scammers are going to go out of their way to find exploits to maximize their profits. This is the same reason Microsoft Corporation 454,46 +2,87 +0,64% Window’s has always been the primary target for OS exploits because of the larger user base. When the World Wide Web took off in…
Another day and another tech company getting a slap on the wrist punishment for illegal user tracking and other privacy violations. This time around it’s Google’s turn with the state of Arizona fining Google Inc. 189,70 -0,45 -0,24% a measly $85 million dollars. I say measly because Google/Alphabet’s revenue in Fiscal Year 2021 was $258 Billion or $64.5 Billion Quarterly or $21.5 Billion Monthly. $85 million works out to three one-hundredths of a percent (.03%) of their annual revenue. Recall Google’s Android division failed to overturn an EU anti-trust ruling and ended up with a reduced fine of around $4…
Just as Microsoft launched a new deployment phase for the Windows 11 2022 feature update (22H2) whereas all users on ‘eligible devices’ can now get the 2022 update comes reports of more issues. This times involves using the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) on machines with Windows 11 22H2 installed Installing the Windows 11 22H2 feature update will cause Remote Desktop clients not to connect, randomly disconnect, or freeze unexpectedly. “We have found that there is a bug in the Remote Desktop client so that it is only trying the UDP connection and not trying TCP connection. We only allow the…
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. 189,70 -0,45 -0,24% 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…
Three Facebook, Inc. 196,64 +0,99 +0,51% Facebook and Apple Inc. 251,04 +2,91 +1,17% Apple iOS users have filed class action lawsuits against Meta (parent company of Facebook) accusing of them of bypassing Apple’s updated privacy rules from 2021. These rule changes caused so many people to have opted out that the Electronic Frontier Foundation reported that Meta lost $10 billion in revenue over the next year. To ‘work-around’ this Meta updated the coding of their Facebook and Instagram apps so that links users clicked on were opened in an app browser instead of the user’s default browser. This action was…
A new security feature (though this is not enabled by default) has been introduced in the newly released Windows 11 22H2 update. Enhanced Phishing Protection is more targeted towards enterprise users as phishing attacks are the most common way hackers/attackers breach corporate networks. In some cases, simply typing your password in a phishing login form, and not submitting them, is enough for them to be stolen by threat actors. To combat this behavior, Microsoft introduced a new feature called ‘Enhanced Phishing Protection’ that warns users when they enter their Windows password on a website or enter it into an insecure application. When enabled, Microsoft…
It is Sunday, September 25th and time for a new weekly feature where we look back at the tech news this past week and highlight one each of the: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. This week as a bit of a slow week even with Microsoft’s Windows 11 22H2 update. The Good There has been much talk these days about slowing down climate change and reducing C02 emissions by getting people to ditch their ICE vehicles in favor of battery Electric Vehicles (EVs). However, the effects of climate change (extreme heat/cold) are taking its toll on the US…