Is Apple's HomePod Always Listening to You? If you've ever had that uncanny moment where you mention a brand out loud and then see an ad for it on social media hours later, you may be a little suspicious any mics in earshot already. It's happened to me at least a half-dozen times, each time a different brand. Maybe it's coincidence! But even if the eavesdropping isn't happening, it certainly could happen. Facebook and Google and Amazon swear up and down they are not doing this, but it wouldn't be impossible. Apple, it's worth noting, is actually probably the least likely to do such a thing.
A directory of direct links to delete your account from web services. Can't find what you're looking for? Help make justdelete.me better. easy No Info Available Reasons not to use Discord The Discord communications system requires running a nonfree client program. That alone is reason to refuse to use it. The program reportedly collects lots of data about users. The developer denies the claim that Discord reports which processes are running on the user's machine. I have no way of determining the facts about this specific point. 4 ways to make Google Meet more engaging Get four quick Google Meet tips in this tutorial: Learn how and why to choose a custom background, draw your ideas, manage Q&A, and poll participants. Most people who use Google Meet now have access to two very visual features: Custom backgrounds and Jamboards. Choose a blurred background to preserve a bit of privacy, or select a custom background image to highlight a personal picture, reinforce a brand, feature a fun photo, or convey your mood. For people who like to sketch ideas, Jamboard provides a collaborative board, or series of boards, where one or more people may draw, insert images, or type text. Meeting owners may initiate Activities, which include Poll and Q&A tools.
Choose better passwords with the help of science August 30, 2017 11.32am BST For years, computer users have been told they should have complicated passwords, including numbers, punctuation marks and other symbols, and upper- and lowercase letters. Despite those being hard to remember, people were told not to write their passwords down, and forced to make up new ones quite frequently. Users dutifully complied – by capitalizing the first letter of their passwords, adding a “1” or their birth year, or perhaps ending their password with an exclamation point. Most people couldn’t actually remember lots of passwords without writing them down, so instead they reused a small number of passwords over and over again.
McAfee WebAdvisor by Intel Security Security Check Checks to see if your firewall and anti-virus are activated before you surf Password Advisor Let's you know if your password is too weak or easy to guess Safer Download Scans your downloads and alerts you if there's a known risk Edward Snowden’s new app turns any Android phone into a surveillance system NSA Whistleblower Edward Snowden is among the backers of a new surveillance app that helps guard against computer hijackings. Haven is an open source app that will run on any Android phone, particularly inexpensive and older devices. It operates like a surveillance system, using the device’s camera, audio recording capability and even accelerometer to detect movement and notify a user. The idea is that, even with the best encryption in the world, a device is vulnerability to physical, in-person tampering — also known as “evil maid” because literally a hotel maid could access it. The app was developed by The Guardian Project, Freedom Of The Press and Snowden to offer eyes and ears to prevent, or at least increase awareness, of whether a device has been tampered with. So, for example, you’d set up a burner Android device in a hotel safe alongside your laptop.
This App Tells You The Name Of Plants From A Picture - The Vocal I’m not good at identifying types of things. I’m in awe of people who can look at birds, any bird at all, and tell you exactly the type of bird it is. I look at dogs and all I see is a dog, and when people tell me it’s a half Charles Spaniel, half beagle, I literally nod and smile, imagining that the dog is Prince Charles, because this means nothing to me. People who look at plants and can list off an impressive knowledge of them? I worship those people. Is there such a thing as online privacy? 7 essential reads Over the course of 2017, people in the U.S. and around the world became increasingly concerned about how their digital data are transmitted, stored and analyzed. As news broke that every Yahoo email account had been compromised, as well as the financial information of nearly every adult in the U.S., the true scale of how much data private companies have about people became clearer than ever. This, of course, brings them enormous profits, but comes with significant social and individual risks. Many scholars are researching aspects of this issue, both describing the problem in greater detail and identifying ways people can reclaim power over the data their lives and online activity generate. Here we spotlight seven examples from our 2017 archives. 1.
evidence of offline life Offliberty lets you access any online content without a permanent Internet connection. Today many websites offer nice content but most are difficult to browse offline. If you have limited access to the Internet you can use Offliberty to browse any content later - being offline. Farewell, Android Pay. We hardly tapped you “Android Pay” is no more, as Google attempts to unify its disparate transaction options under one brand. The redesigned, rebranded Google Pay app – which supersedes Android Pay – is already in the Google Play Store. Google has folded some of the functionality from its wallet app (creatively named, er, Google Wallet) into its payment app, so the new Google Pay app now hosts both credit and debit cards, as well as loyalty cards and vouchers. But Google Pay does not do everything Google Wallet used to do – or at least, not yet. Wallet allowed you to fling money to other Google Wallet users, but that feature has yet to find its way into the new Google Pay. Google has renamed the old Wallet as Google Pay Send.