EFF – “Cover Your Tracks is two things: a tool for users to understand how unique and identifiable their browser makes them online, and a research project to uncover the tools and techniques of online trackers and test the efficacy of privacy add-ons. Cover Your Tracks researches both how unique your browser is and how effective tracker blockers are. We analyze how well you are protected against online tracking by checking the privacy protections you have in place. The test simulates loading of various types of trackers, and determines your level of protection based on if the trackers load or not. Even if your privacy add-ons are working well, you may still be vulnerable if your browser fingerprint is unique. So we also analyze the uniqueness of your browser and let you know how it stacks up to other visitors we’ve observed recently. We generate a report about your tracker protections and browser fingerprint for your own use, and we’ll use anonymous results from your test when generating uniqueness results for others when they take the test…”
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Category Archives: Internet
Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, December 21, 2024
Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, December 21, 2024 – Privacy and cybersecurity issues impact every aspect of our lives – home, work, travel, education, finance, health and medical records – to name but a few. On a weekly basis Pete Weiss highlights articles and information that focus on the increasingly complex… Continue Reading
How I Use My RSS Feed for Bluesky and Mastodon
Lifehacker: “It’s understandable if you’re a little burnt out on social media at the moment. I put off setting up a Bluesky account for years, mostly because I didn’t want yet another service to think about. At the same time, though, a lot of interesting people have shifted their posting to alternative sites like Bluesky… Continue Reading
Mac Option Key Is the Most Important Key You Don’t Know About
How to Geek: The Option key on a Mac is a modifier key that is used to change the functions of menus and keyboard shortcuts. Use Option key to do things like force quit unresponsive apps, fine-tune the volume and brightness, bypass confirmation when shutting down or deleting files, and more. Try the Option key… Continue Reading
AI has taken over Google Search and Image results
Android Trends: “A recent study shows that AI has taken over a big part of Google’s search results. AI-generated summaries now appear in almost half of all searches, taking up a lot of space on both desktop and mobile screens. This is changing the way people experience Google search. Also, Google Image Search now shows… Continue Reading
The Breachies 2024: The Worst, Weirdest, Most Impactful Data Breaches of the Year
EFF: “Every year, countless emails hit our inboxes telling us that our personal information was accessed, shared, or stolen in a data breach. In many cases, there is little we can do. Most of us can assume that at least our phone numbers, emails, addresses, credit card numbers, and social security numbers are all available… Continue Reading
What is your digital footprint and how can you protect it?
Proton VPN Blog: “Whenever you do something online, you leave a trail of information behind that can be used to uniquely identify and track you. This is your digital footprint(new window). In this article, we’ll look at: What is a digital footprint? Digital footprint examples Why does your digital footprint matter? How to check your… Continue Reading
Feds Warn SMS Authentication Is Unsafe After ‘Worst Hack in Our Nation’s History’
Gizmodo: “Do you use text messages for multi-factor authentication? You should probably switch to a different method, especially with everything we’re learning about a recent hack that’s been dubbed the “worst in our nation’s history.” Even the federal government is putting out warnings now, including a call for government officials to only use encrypted apps… Continue Reading
Your Smart TV is Watching What You Watch
UC Davis – “If you’re thinking of buying a “smart” TV for the holidays, you ought to know that your new device is constantly capturing snapshots of what’s on screen and sending them back to the manufacturer — even if you are using the device as a computer monitor and not watching TV at all.… Continue Reading
Logging Off: The Tech That Died in 2024
PC Mag – “Out with the old, and in with the new. From the Ring Car Cam and Fossil smartwatches to ICQ and Twitter’s ‘like’ tab, this is the tech that bowed out this year. The tech graveyard is ending 2024 with a few new inhabitants. Throughout the year, companies put aging products out to… Continue Reading
New research shows how many important links on the web get lost to time
The Verge [unpaywalled]: “A quarter of the deep links in The New York Times’ articles are now rotten, leading to completely inaccessible pages, according to a team of researchers from Harvard Law School, who worked with the Times’ digital team. They found that this problem affected over half of the articles containing links in the… Continue Reading
Amazon Privacy Hacks: How I Keep My Shopping History to Myself
Make Use Of Quick Links Make Your Profile and Wish Lists Private Disable Interest-Based Ads Disable Amazon Search History Use a Private Browser Shopping on Amazon is awesome until you realize third parties can pry into your shopping habits. Thankfully, there are a few ways to protect your privacy on the world’s largest e-commerce platform. Continue Reading
