Depending on how you use Facebook, you may want to keep your profile private. Maybe you don’t want grandma to know about that party you went to, or you don’t want strangers to see what you post.

Whatever the reason, you can make your Facebook profile private so that only your friends see what you post. In fact, Facebook has several privacy options, so you can customize what portions of your profile can be seen by non-friends.

We’ll go over the various privacy options that Facebook has and how to enable them. So if you’re looking to go private on Facebook, check out the options below.

What kind of privacy options does Facebook offer?

Despite the public persona that Facebook, and now Meta, have created, the platform does offer a few substantial privacy options. Users can customize their profiles to create various levels of privacy.

First, users obviously have the option to choose who gets to see their posts. You can make posts viewable to the public, friends, or even just yourself.

READ MORE: How to change your birthday on Facebook

In addition to post privacy, Facebook gives users the option to make their friends list private. By default, any Facebook user can go through the friends list of another user.

However, there is a toggle that lets you change this on your own profile.

You can also make certain profile aspects, such as your job, where you live, and your relationship status private. These settings can be toggled individually, so you can customize your privacy the way you want.

And lastly, you can block your profile from showing up on search engines. With a public profile, anyone can find your Facebook page through a simple Google search. This setting lets you eliminate that option.

So let’s look at the various options you can use to make Facebook private.

How to choose who sees your Facebook posts on desktop

The first setting we will cover here is how you can adjust who sees your posts. Not only can you change your posts from public to friends only, but you can also choose exactly which friends see your posts.

First, we’ll show how it’s done on a computer:

1. Log in to Facebook and select the arrow drop-down menu at the top right

2. Select Settings & Privacy

3. Select Settings

4. Choose the Privacy tab on the left side

5. Scroll down and find Who can see your future posts? and click Edit

6. Click the drop-down menu at the bottom of this section and choose who can see your posts.

From that drop-down menu, you can change your posts from being viewable by the public to being viewable only by friends. Additionally, you have the ability to choose exactly which friends see your posts.

Choose the Friends except… option to stop some of your friends from seeing your posts. Or use the Specific friends option to only let a few of your friends see your posts.

And finally, you can also change who sees your past posts retroactively. Below this section, find the Limit the audience for posts you’ve shared with friends of friends or Public? section.

Click Limit Past Posts to apply similar privacy settings for your previous posts.

How to choose who sees your Facebook posts on mobile

And now, we’ll take a look at how you can limit who sees your post through the Facebook app. On mobile, the settings are a little different.

You’ll actually need to make a post to be able to change the privacy setting for future posts. Here’s what you want to do.

Now, the default setting for your future posts will be whatever you set it to during this post. Using the same method, you can change the setting whenever you’d like.

You can also adjust the setting in the post menu like this on a desktop. But changing the setting won’t change the default you set on your computer.

How to make your Facebook friends list private

Another privacy option that Facebook offers is the ability to make your friends list private.

If you don’t want people going through your list of friends on the platform, then you’ll want to toggle this privacy setting. Here’s how to do it:

1. Log in to Facebook and select the arrow drop-down menu at the top right

2. Select Settings & Privacy

3. Select Settings

4. Choose the Privacy tab on the left side

5. Scroll down and click Edit next to Who can see your friends list?

6. Use the drop-down menu to choose who can see your friends list

This feature gives you the same options as hiding your posts from certain people. You can make your friends list available to everyone or only your friends.

Additionally, you can choose exactly who gets to see the list with the Friends Except and Specific Friends options.

You can also use this How People Find and Contact You section in the Privacy Settings menu to adjust a few other settings.

Within this menu is a feature that lets you limit who sends you friend requests. You can also block or allow users to find your Facebook profile using your phone number or email address.

How to hide your Facebook profile from search engines on a computer

This is also the section you will use to block search engines from showing your Facebook profile. Click Edit on the bottom option labeled “Do you want search engines outside of Facebook to link to your profile?”

Just uncheck the box under that option, and your Facebook page will be blocked on search engine results. This feature is good to turn on if you want your profile safe from people you don’t know.

How to hide your friends list on Facebook mobile

And now, how to do this on a mobile device. Again, the app may look a little different depending on whether you are using an iPhone or an Android (we’re using a Samsung Galaxy S20 for this guide).

But the steps for finding these settings will be almost identical:

1. Tap the hamburger menu button in the top right (bottom left on some versions)

2. Tap the cogwheel to open Settings & Privacy

3. Swipe down to the Audience and Visibility section and select How People FInd and Contact You

4. Tap Who can see your friends list

5. Choose the privacy setting that you prefer

Once you choose your preferred option, you can press the back button to go back to your main page. You don’t have to press any extra buttons to confirm the change.

And that’s how you can adjust the privacy of your friends list on Facebook mobile. Again, this page can be used for other privacy measures.

This menu has the same options as the desktop version. You can adjust who can send you friend requests as well as who can find your profile using your email address or phone number.

Hiding your Facebook profile from search engines on mobile

This is the mobile menu you will want to navigate to hide your profile from search engines. You get to this section in the same way outlined above for making your friends list private.

Just select the bottom option labeled “Do you want search engines outside of Facebook to link to your profile” and uncheck the box to block your profile from outside search engines.

With that box unchecked, your Facebook profile won’t show up on search engine results. This is a significant extra level of privacy that protects you from third-party visits to your profile.

How to make your Facebook profile info private on desktop

If you decide you don’t want to make your posts private, you can still hide some of your profile information.

Various profile information like where you live, where you work, or where you went to school can all be made private through your profile. Here’s what you need to do.

1. Log in to Facebook and click your name in the top left to go to your profile

2. Click Edit Details in the Intro column

3. Toggle off any of the listed options that you only want friends to see then click Save

You can also have a little more control over the privacy of this information if you head to the About tab. The About tab shows you every aspect of your profile in a few lists.

By clicking the icon next to the three-dot menu for a certain item, you can bring up a more in-depth privacy feature for each option.

In addition to making a section private or public, you have the additional option to choose exactly who can see a certain aspect of your profile.

You can build a list using either the Friends except or Specific friends option to choose exactly which friends can see that information.

How to make your Facebook profile information private on mobile

And if you mainly use the Facebook app on your Android or iOS device, don’t worry. You can still edit your profile settings through the mobile app.

Thankfully, it’s just as simple as on a web browser. Here’s what you need to do:

1. Tap your profile picture to head to your profile

2. Select Edit profile

3. Swipe down and select Edit in the Details section

4. Uncheck any boxes for options that you want only friends to see and press Save

And that’s how you adjust the privacy settings for your Facebook profile on mobile. Unfortunately, you don’t have all of the same options available on mobile as you do on desktop.

If you want to use the Friends except or Specific friends option to build specific lists of who can see your profile info, you will have to use a computer and refer to the desktop guide above.

Set your profile up the way you want with Facebook’s privacy settings

Over the years, Facebook’s privacy settings have evolved to become extremely customizable. Now, the platform has tons of privacy settings so you can set up your profile exactly the way you want.

Whether you want to limit who can see your posts or keep people out of your friends list, the options are there. You can hide individual aspects of your profile and even block search engines from showing your profile in search results.

Using the guides above, you can be sure that your Facebook profile is as private as you want it to be. At least, private from other users. The only way to stop Facebook itself from gathering as much data from you as it can is to stop using the platform entirely.

Have any thoughts on this? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

Editors’ Recommendations:

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The post How to make Facebook private appeared first on KnowTechie.

Consumers are often unaware that their location data is being sold and that their past movements can be tracked, according to the commission.

The FTC’s suit specified that Kochava’s data can be used to track consumers to sensitive locations, including “to identify which consumers’ mobile devices visited reproductive health clinics.”

When the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade on June 24, 2022, many people seeking abortion care found themselves in legal jeopardy.

Numerous state laws criminalizing abortion thrust the perilous state of personal privacy into the spotlight.

As a cybersecurity and privacy researcher, I’ve seen how readily people’s movements and activities can be tracked.

If people want to travel incognito to an abortion clinic, according to well-meaning advice, they need to plan their trip the way a CIA operative might – and get a burner phone.

Unfortunately, that still wouldn’t be good enough to guarantee privacy.

Using a maps app to plan a route, sending terms to a search engine and chatting online are ways that people actively share their personal data.

But mobile devices share far more data than just what their users say or type.

They share information with the network about whom people contacted, when they did so, how long the communication lasted and what type of device was used. The devices must do so in order to connect a phone call or send an email.

Who’s talking to whom

When NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden disclosed that the National Security Agency was collecting Americans’ telephone call metadata – the Call Detail Records – in bulk in order to track terrorists, there was a great deal of public consternation.

The public was rightly concerned about loss of privacy.

Researchers at Stanford later showed that call detail records plus publicly available information could reveal sensitive information, such as whether someone had a heart problem and their arrhythmia monitoring device was malfunctioning or whether they were considering opening a marijuana dispensary.

Often you don’t have to listen in to know what someone is thinking or planning. Call detail records – who called whom and when – can give it all away.

The transmission information in internet-based communications – IP-packet headers – can reveal even more than call detail records do.

When you make an encrypted voice call over the internet – a Voice over IP call – the contents may be encrypted but information in the packet header can nonetheless sometimes divulge some of the words you’re speaking.

A pocket full of sensors

That’s not the only information given away by your communications device. Smartphones are computers, and they have many sensors.

For your phone to properly display information, it has a gyroscope and an accelerometer; to preserve battery life, it has a power sensor; to provide directions, a magnetometer.

Just as communications metadata can be used to track what you’re doing, these sensors can be used for other purposes.

You might shut off GPS to prevent apps from tracking your location, but data from a phone’s gyroscope, accelerometer and magnetometer can also track where you’re going.

This sensor data could be attractive to businesses.

For example, Facebook has a patent that relies on the different wireless networks near a user to determine when two people might have been close together frequently – at a conference, riding a commuter bus – as a basis for providing an introduction.

Creepy? You bet.

As someone who rode the New York City subways as a young girl, the last thing I want is my phone introducing me to someone who has repeatedly stood too close to me in a subway car.

Uber knows that people really want a ride when their battery power is low. Is the company checking for that data and charging more? Uber claims not, but the possibility is there.

And it’s not just apps that get access to this data trove. Data brokers get this information from the apps, then compile it with other data and provide it to companies and governments to use for their own purposes.

Doing so can circumvent legal protections that require law enforcement to go to court before they obtain this information.

Beyond consent

There’s not a whole lot users can do to protect themselves. Communications metadata and device telemetry – information from the phone sensors – are used to send, deliver and display content.

Not including them is usually not possible. And unlike the search terms or map locations you consciously provide, metadata and telemetry are sent without you even seeing it.

Providing consent isn’t plausible. There’s too much of this data, and it’s too complicated to decide each case. Each application you use – video, chat, web surfing, email – uses metadata and telemetry differently.

Providing truly informed consent that you know what information you’re providing and for what use is effectively impossible.

If you use your mobile phone for anything other than a paperweight, your visit to the cannabis dispensary and your personality – how extroverted you are or whether you’re likely to be on the outs with family since the 2016 election – can be learned from metadata and telemetry and shared.

That’s true even for a burner phone bought with cash, at least if you plan on turning the phone on.

Do so while carrying your regular phone and you’ll have given away that the two phones are associated – and perhaps even that they belong to you.

As few as four location points can identify a user, another way your burner phone can reveal your identity.

If you’re driving with someone else, they’d have to be equally careful or their phone would identify them – and you.

Metadata and telemetry information reveals a remarkable amount about you. But you don’t get to decide who gets that data, or what they do with it.

The reality of technological life

There are some constitutional guarantees to anonymity. For example, the Supreme Court held that the right to associate, guaranteed by the First Amendment, is the right to associate privately, without providing membership lists to the state.

But with smartphones, that’s a right that’s effectively impractical to exercise. it’s nearly impossible to function without a mobile phone. Paper maps and public payphones have virtually disappeared.

If you want to do anything – travel from here to there, make an appointment, order takeout or check the weather – you all but need a smartphone to do so.

It’s not just people who might be seeking abortions whose privacy is at risk from this data that phones shed. It could be your kid applying for a job.

For instance, the company could check location data to see if they are participating in political protests. Or it could be you, when the gyroscope, accelerometer and magnetometer data gives away that you and your co-worker went to the same hotel room at night.

There’s a way to solve this chilling scenario, and that’s for laws or regulations to require that the data you provide to send and receive communications – TikTok, SnapChat, YouTube – is used just for that, and nothing else.

That helps the people going for abortions – and all the rest of us as well.

Have any thoughts on this? Carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

Editors’ Recommendations:

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• Here’s why everyone hates those annoying cookie notifications
• The iPhone turns 15: A look at the device’s past, present, and future

Editor’s Note: This article was written by Susan Landau, Professor of Cyber Security and Policy, Tufts University, and republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

The post FTC lawsuit exposes major privacy risk, and it’s your phone’s fault appeared first on KnowTechie.

It lets you choose a soundtrack for making dinner, reorder a staple product from Amazon, set a timer, or find out information, all without doing anything but uttering the correct commands. 

But, there’s a darker side to how Alexa works. A recent lawsuit alleges that the company uses data from its smart speakers to serve relevant ads to consumers. 

Data allegedly collected without consent

When visiting a website, you can’t get far without seeing pop-up content that asks you to consent to cookies.

It explains how the site owners use data-collection practices and in some cases, lets you make some changes before accepting. However, there’s no way yet to do that on a smart speaker. 

People associated with the lawsuit say they have had targeted ads served to them without consent and that Alexa data was what allowed it to happen.

The invasion of privacy and infringement of personal rights are two of the numerous things the plaintiffs take issue with in the suit. 

Researchers arrived at a similar conclusion

A May 2022 research paper also confirmed the suit’s allegations about unauthorized data collection through Alexa.

The investigation involved 10 people from three universities using nine simulated personas of potential Alexa users.

The researchers made one for someone interested in health and fitness, another for religion and spirituality, and so on. They also built four control personas that did not interact with Alexa skills tied to certain interests. 

The results indicated that Amazon uses Alexa voice data to infer the ads that might interest a person. However, the researchers could not conclude whether the same practice occurred when individuals used certain Alexa skills. 

They found that most developers who create Alexa skills don’t write their privacy policies correctly, so it’s often unclear whether or how the skill collects data.

The researchers said some Alexa personas led to up to 30x higher bids from advertisers. Moreover, Amazon shares user data with as many as 41 ad partners. 

What are the potential implications?

Perhaps you’ve had some online advertising experiences that were genuinely helpful.

Maybe you’d recently searched for a product, then saw an ad afterward that assisted your buying process, enabling you to find and purchase an item you now love. 

Amazon’s practice of collecting voice data might lead to some similar experiences. Maybe it’ll make you aware of a new music track or audiobook you’d enjoy. 

However, it might also mean Amazon learns things about you or someone in your home you’d rather not share.

For example, an estimated 10% of Americans have alcohol use disorder, while 2-3% of adults in the United States meet the criteria for problematic gambling.

Other addictions, such as food, shopping, sex, or smoking, are more common than many people may realize. What if Amazon uses those issues against the people experiencing them to target ads and products?

Even considering the fact that not all targeted ads are necessarily bad, many users may still consider Amazon’s smart speaker usage a breach of privacy.

By 2025, a projected 130 million Echo speakers are set to be shipped globally — out of these millions of users who are voluntarily bringing Alexa into their home, most probably don’t realize they’re unwittingly ad targeted through their device.

Amazon has changed its ad-targeting stance

Back in 2019, when questioned about whether Amazon used its smart speakers for advertising, a company representative said it did not.

However, things have changed because the researchers in the study mentioned above reached out to Amazon to get some clarifications. In that instance, an Amazon representative stated:

“Similar to what you’d experience if you made a purchase on Amazon.com or requested a song through Amazon Music, if you ask Alexa to order paper towels or to play a song on Amazon Music, the record of that purchase or song play may inform relevant ads shown on Amazon or other sites where Amazon places ads. Customers can opt-out of interest-based ads from Amazon at any time on our website.” 

The company also confirmed that this targeted advertising could occur during smart speaker usage. The representative continued:

“Customers may receive interest-based ads when they use ad-supported premium content ⁠— like music, radio or news streams.”

How to turn off Amazon’s ad-targeting

NOTE: You’ll still get advertisements, but not ones personalized to you. 

Awareness helps you use the internet and connected speakers carefully

Amazon is certainly not the only company engaging in ad targeting.

However, what people took issue with most regarding this recent case is that it happened without consent.

Think of this as a valuable reminder to always read privacy policies carefully and to be careful when you use the internet and Wi-Fi-enabled gadgets.

Even if you don’t realize it, companies may use your interactions to shape the ads you receive.

Have any thoughts on this? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

Editors’ Recommendations:

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The post Amazon uses Alexa to target ads, lawsuit claims appeared first on KnowTechie.

People who do read the notifications carefully will find that they have the option to say no to some or all cookies.

The problem is, without careful attention those notifications become an annoyance and a subtle reminder that your online activity can be tracked.

As a researcher who studies online surveillance, I’ve found that failing to read the notifications thoroughly can lead to negative emotions and affect what people do online.

How cookies work

Browser cookies are not new. They were developed in 1994 by a Netscape programmer in order to optimize browsing experiences by exchanging users’ data with specific websites.

These small text files allowed websites to remember your passwords for easier logins and keep items in your virtual shopping cart for later purchases.

READ MORE: Instagram and Facebook track you on other websites – here’s how

But over the past three decades, cookies have evolved to track users across websites and devices.

This is how items in your Amazon shopping cart on your phone can be used to tailor the ads you see on Hulu and Twitter on your laptop. One study found that 35 of 50 popular websites use website cookies illegally.

European regulations require websites to receive your permission before using cookies. You can avoid this type of third-party tracking with website cookies by carefully reading platforms’ privacy policies and opting out of cookies, but people generally aren’t doing that.

One study found that, on average, internet users spend just 13 seconds reading a website’s terms of service statements before they consent to cookies and other outrageous terms, such as, as the study included, exchanging their first-born child for service on the platform.

These terms-of-service provisions are cumbersome and intended to create friction.

Friction is a technique used to slow down internet users, either to maintain governmental control or reduce customer service loads.

Autocratic governments that want to maintain control via state surveillance without jeopardizing their public legitimacy frequently use this technique.

Friction involves building frustrating experiences into website and app design so that users who are trying to avoid monitoring or censorship become so inconvenienced that they ultimately give up.

How cookies affect you

My newest research sought to understand how website cookie notifications are used in the U.S. to create friction and influence user behavior.

To do this research, I looked to the concept of mindless compliance, an idea made infamous by Yale psychologist Stanley Milgram. 

Milgram’s experiments – now considered a radical breach of research ethics – asked participants to administer electric shocks to fellow study takers in order to test obedience to authority.

Milgram’s research demonstrated that people often consent to a request by authority without first deliberating on whether it’s the right thing to do. In a much more routine case, I suspected this is also what was happening with website cookies.

I conducted a large, nationally representative experiment that presented users with a boilerplate browser cookie pop-up message, similar to one you may have encountered on your way to read this article.

I evaluated whether the cookie message triggered an emotional response – either anger or fear, which are both expected responses to online friction. And then I assessed how these cookie notifications influenced internet users’ willingness to express themselves online.

Online expression is central to democratic life, and various types of internet monitoring are known to suppress it.

The results showed that cookie notifications triggered strong feelings of anger and fear, suggesting that website cookies are no longer perceived as the helpful online tool they were designed to be.

Instead, they are a hindrance to accessing information and making informed choices about one’s privacy permissions.

And, as suspected, cookie notifications also reduced people’s stated desire to express opinions, search for information and go against the status quo.

Cookie solutions

Legislation regulating cookie notifications like the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation and California Consumer Privacy Act were designed with the public in mind. But notification of online tracking is creating an unintentional boomerang effect.

There are three design choices that could help. First, making consent to cookies more mindful, so people are more aware of which data will be collected and how it will be used.

This will involve changing the default of website cookies from opt-out to opt-in so that people who want to use cookies to improve their experience can voluntarily do so.

Second, cookie permissions change regularly, and what data is being requested and how it will be used should be front and center.

And third, U.S. internet users should possess the right to be forgotten, or the right to remove online information about themselves that is harmful or not used for its original intent, including the data collected by tracking cookies.

This is a provision granted in the General Data Protection Regulation but does not extend to U.S. internet users.

In the meantime, I recommend that people read the terms and conditions of cookie use and accept only what’s necessary.

Editor’s Note: This article was written by Elizabeth Stoycheff, Associate Professor of Communication, Wayne State University, and republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Have any thoughts on this? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

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The post Here’s why everyone hates those annoying cookie notifications appeared first on KnowTechie.

With this newly updated feature, not only could your children talk to strangers, but they could also unknowingly disclose their exact location, down to the street address, and even the exact house number,

Now, if that sounds spooky, that’s because it is. In addition to disclosing their exact location, Snapchat now estimates how long it’ll take to drive there using Google Maps.

What is Snap Map and why are parents worried?

READ MORE: Snap launched a desktop version of its mobile app

Snap Map requires users to enable location sharing. Snapchat uses this to offer real-time location tracking.

Users’ location is shared with Snapchat friends, then used to search for nearby Snaps. It is also shared with other Snap Map users across the world. Each shared live location update disappears after four hours. 

Health and beauty brand, Ethan Thomas Collection, shared this hint in a now-deleted Facebook post that has since gone viral. It posted 

READ MORE: Snapchat now has its own ‘dual-camera’ feature similar to BeReal

“Click the drive icon which will open google maps and it gives you their precise address. Even the house number!  ‘If you have kids, turn their location off or put it in ghost mode.”

Although this feature is opt-in and can be disabled in the settings by turning off Precise Location, not many parents or their children may know how to do this. 

Snapchat+ also shares users’ location data

Snapchat’s new subscription service, Snapchat+, brings exclusive data insights including the ability to see your friends’ location history in the last 24 hours and rewatch their Stories. This is almost similar to Google’s Location History and Google Map Timeline features.

If you’re concerned about sharing your location with others, you should turn off Precise Location and enable Ghost Mode to prevent location sharing. You should also educate your teens on the dangers of cyberstalking by other Snapchat users.

Have any thoughts on this? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

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The post A new Snapchat update lets other users see your precise location appeared first on KnowTechie.

In a brief update shared before the weekend, Riot Games outlined what’s going to happen. On July 13, the voice evaluation system is going live in North America, but only for English communications.

This update is only going live for Valorant, not other Riot games. The system will then start using reported voice comms to train its language model.

Riot wants to launch the voice evaluation system as a beta later this year. The publisher says that it won’t be using the voice evaluation from the July test for follow-through on reports.

They want to make sure the system works, before rolling it out more widely.

“Voice evaluation during this period will not be used for disruptive behavior reports. That will only begin with the future beta. And we know that before we can even think of expanding this tool, we’ll have to be confident it’s effective, and if mistakes happen, we have systems in place to make sure we can correct any false positives (or negatives for that matter),” from Riot’s blog post.

This is all possible because Riot updated its Privacy Notice and Terms of Service last year. That update allowed for recording of voice communications. Recording is also only allowed after a report is made.

Toxicity is a big issue for online gaming. Most games don’t even give you an option to report toxic players until you’ve either died, or the match is over. That’s too late. By the point, your gaming session is already ruined.

This isn’t the only multiplayer game recording voice chat. Back 4 Blood also records all voice chats. Again, the publisher is using it for moderation tasks.

We’re not saying that these AI-powered tools are the only way to fix toxicity in gaming. That seems more of a societal thing and expecting publishers to fix it is a tall challenge.

We’re just glad that Valorant, and others, are deciding to fix the issues with voice chat moderation.

Have any thoughts on this? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

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The post PSA: Valorant is listening to your voice chats appeared first on KnowTechie.

And according to a new report, several internal recordings have revealed that the company’s employees based in China have consistently had access to US user data.

Buzzfeed News recently obtained audio from tons of internal TikTok meetings. And in those meetings, there were 14 statements claiming that Chinese employees have had access to US TikTok user data.

“We know we’re among the most scrutinized platforms from a security standpoint, and we aim to remove any doubt about the security of US user data. That’s why we hire experts in their fields, continually work to validate our security standards, and bring in reputable, independent third parties to test our defenses,” says TikTok spokesperson Maureen Shanahan in response to these recordings.

READ MORE: FCC commissioner urges Apple and Google to ban TikTok

China essentially sees everything, said one member of TikTok’s Trust and Safety department. In the past, the platform has seen tons of scrutiny over its potential data harvesting practices.

Additionally, Former President Donald Trump even attempted to ban the platform a couple of years ago.

TikTok is trying to address this problem

READ MORE: TikTok finally adds ‘content levels’ to limit what kids see on the app

The majority of recordings regarding China’s access to US user data revolves around TikTok’s efforts to limit Chinese access. In fact, the platform is currently working to protect US user data in an effort called Project Texas.

Project Texas is an effort from TikTok to migrate US “protected” user data to a data center managed by Oracle. Of course, it’s unclear exactly what TikTok considers to be “protected” data. But this is a key effort from TikTok to limit China’s influence on its business in the United States.

So it seems like TikTok is at least trying to protect its US users’ data from Chinese employees.

READ MORE: New TikTok hack reportedly exposes source code and user data

In fact, the majority of recordings gathered confirming Chinese access to US user data were from discussions about how to stop China’s data access. But at the end of the day, it seems like ByteDance still holds all the power.

“It remains to be seen if at some point product and engineering can still figure out how to get access because, at the end of the day, it’s their tools,” said one employee in a September 2021 meeting. “They built them all in China.”

Have any thoughts on this? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

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• Facebook is redesigning its feed to keep up with TikTok
• TikTok now lets you limit your own time on the app
• TikTok Avatars let you show the world the ‘real’ you
• TikTok is now testing in-app video games

The post Leaked TikTok meetings show China accesses US user data appeared first on KnowTechie.

In fact, you can opt-in for the private account on Instagram but you will still risk being seen when:

• You view someone’s stories
• You follow someone (you will be listed as one of their followers)
• You send someone a private message that they can screenshot and make public

Here are three ways to minimize the footprint you are leaving when using Instagram:

1. Watch Someone’s Stories Anonymously

READ MORE: How to collect feedback from your blog readers

Would you like to watch a story without letting the story author know that you did?

There’s a tool for that.

Here’s a detailed tutorial on how to watch Instagram Stories anonymously, i.e. by using tools like InstaStories and StoriesDown.

Word of caution: Stay away from any tools that need your Instagram login in order to operate.

Here’s also a detailed tutorial on how to hide your Instagram Stories from people you don’t like.

2. Follow Someone on Instagram without Clicking the “Follow” button

Whenever you follow someone on Instagram, other people can see your profile picture and name in the list of their followers.

In many cases, you would like to follow an Instagram account without being its public follower. For example, you need to know what a political opponent is posting without being associated with that profile.

Or you don’t want to be considered someone’s fan or supporter. Or you want to spy on your competitors (and their storytelling tactics) without them knowing you are listening.

READ MORE: How to bulk delete Instagram posts, comments, and interactions

Creating an anonymous Instagram account to follow people you don’t want to be associated with is a good idea. Yet, even an anonymous account can be traced back to you.

Overall, to prevent identity theft, minimize the number of sites you give your private data to, so maintaining several profiles is not a perfect solution. 

Visual Ping is a better idea here as you will be notified by email when a new post appears on the Instagram account you are tracking. You will also be notified of any bio changes that occur on that account. 

READ MORE: 10 easy tools for beginner bloggers

This way you will know when an Instagram account you are interested in will have something important happening in life.

Simply by following someone on Instagram you won’t be aware of bio changes which usually signal something crucial going on.

It is also a great way to avoid being the target of remarketing when an advertiser re-targets followers of a certain celebrity account.

READ MORE: How to create effective social media ads

Be careful not to leave more traces, i.e. don’t like new updates unless you want others to see that you liked them. Whether your account is set to private or not, any Instagram user will be able to see you among people that liked an update.

3. Send Disappearing Messages They Cannot Screenshot

When you send a private message on Instagram, there’s always a chance the recipient will make a screenshot and make it public.

Until you know someone can be trusted, consider sending a disappearing message to them on Instagram.

READ MORE: Three digital marketing tools that use machine learning

A disappearing message is the only way for you to know if your recipient has a bad habit of making screenshots of your DMs on Instagram.

To send a disappearing text, photo, or video:

• Go to that profile page
• Tap “message” to end the private chat section
• Swipe up from the bottom in the chat until you you see the back screen called “Vanish mode”
• Send as many messages as you want.

All of your messages will only be available until your friend opens the chat. Once they are read, all of those messages will disappear forever. You will also be notified if your friend makes a screenshot of those messages.

Conclusion

Obviously, no matter which precautions you take, you risk your privacy when you join any social media network. There’s always a chance of a data breach exposing your private details like email, password, and phone number. 

So anytime you join a social media network, keep that possible risk in mind. However using the above hacks, you can minimize privacy surprises and be of better control of where you can be seen.

READ MORE: Can you see who views your Instagram Stories?

In other words, if you have reasons to believe someone may be spying on you online, these hacks will make it much harder for them.

To further protect your privacy, consider one of these identity theft protection services which keep an eye on your online accounts and alert you of anything suspicious going on.

Have any thoughts on this? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

Editors’ Recommendations:

• Instagram adds Amber Alerts for missing kids in your feed
• How to turn on Instagram captions
• This iPhone trick takes your Instagram Stories to the next level
• How to post on Instagram from a desktop

The post 3 privacy-enhancing Instagram hacks appeared first on KnowTechie.

Michelle Chang, Google’s Global Policy Lead for Search, went into detail about the new option in a blog post on Google’s product updates site. Here’s what it means for users. 

Google’s new steps to protect privacy

As of Google’s April 2022 announcement, all Google users now have the option to submit a request for their personal information to be removed from search results.

This includes personal contact information such as phone numbers, email addresses, and physical addresses. 

Before the update, users were already able to request more sensitive data to be removed, such as social security numbers or financial information.

Google updated privacy options for users under 18, as well. Minors or their parents or guardians can also request that photos of them be removed from search results in addition to personal information. 

How to use Google’s new policy

Google has a page set up in their official help center where users can submit a request for their information to be removed from search results.

In that form, users can specify what info they want to be removed and where they saw it online, such as the page where the info was posted. 

Google does clarify in their announcement that a request to remove information does not guarantee it will be removed. 

In order to keep people from abusing the option, Google has to thoroughly review each request before taking requested information down from search results.

If the information in question is part of something like a news article or other generally useful content including the public record, Google may reject the request. 

It is also important to remember that Google can remove personal information from search results but not from the entire internet.

Individual pages outside of Google may still have users’ personal information on them — those pages just won’t appear in Google search results. 

How the new privacy updates impact users

Consumers lost an estimated $5.8 billion to fraud in 2021 alone — a 70% increase from 2020 statistics. Google’s new privacy options may help to protect users from this growing fraud and scamming issue.

If personal information is not so easily accessible online, scammers will have a harder time building contact lists for potential victims. 

Scammers tend to target specific types of people if possible, so the more information they have, the more likely they are to try to scam someone. 

Many common types of scams rely on the use of personal information.

For example, a scammer who knows that someone lives around an area that recently experienced a natural disaster or other tragedy could abuse that knowledge with a fake charity appeal, while experts warn veterans to beware of mortgage scammers claiming to be from the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Other types of scams may target countless different groups, such as elderly individuals or people using dating apps. 

Google’s new privacy options can also help protect content creators and social media users from the growing threat of “doxxing” and “swatting.”

These two similar forms of cyberbullying involve posting or sharing a user’s personal information, such as their home address.

Even worse, swatting involves prank-calling emergency services to have a SWAT team sent to a user’s leaked home address. 

Even well-known content creators continue to face this issue because their personal information is so easily accessible and circulated online.  

Protecting privacy online

Google is taking important steps to improve privacy protection. The April 2022 policy update gives users more control over what personal information is publicly available online.

As more users utilize Google’s new privacy option, online scams and harassment may see a decline in the months and years ahead. 

Have any thoughts on this? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

Editors’ Recommendations:

• Google Search is improving local results and image search
• 5 low-key tips to getting better Google Search results
• Everything to know about removing web results from Google Search
• Google upgrades its “about this result” feature to show how it found your search results

The post Google can now remove your personal information from search results appeared first on KnowTechie.

That’s not a good look for the privacy-focused browser. Security researcher Zack Edwards noticed that something weird was happening in an audit of both the iOS and Android versions of the DuckDuckGo browser.

He noticed that, while the browser was stopping data tracking out to Facebook or Google, that wasn’t happening for Microsoft-owned sites like Bing and LinkedIn. That’s against the whole spirit of the DuckDuckGo Privacy Browser, and requires some explanation from the company.

READ MORE: DuckDuckGo now offers free email protection for everyone

READ MORE: Tim Hortons, a Canadian treasure, has been spying on everyone

The company was quick to respond to the claim, saying that yes, Microsoft does have some sort of special treatment.

That’s because DuckDuckGo uses Bing as a fallback for search in case its own crawler doesn’t find enough relevant results. The resulting agreement with Microsoft means that it can’t block every Microsoft tracker.

READ MORE: TikTok’s in-app browser can track every tap you make

DuckDuckGo’s CEO Gabriel Weinberg says that they’ve been trying to change these requirements.

“We have always been extremely careful to never promise anonymity when browsing, because that frankly isn’t possible given how quickly trackers change how they work to evade protections and the tools we currently offer. When most other browsers on the market talk about tracking protection, they are usually referring to 3rd-party cookie protection and fingerprinting protection, and our browsers for iOS, Android, and our new Mac beta, impose these restrictions on third-party tracking scripts, including those from Microsoft,” says Weinberg in a statement to BleepingComputer.

If you use the DuckDuckGo search engine on desktop, you’re not subject to the same issues. Only the DuckDuckGo Privacy Browser has hardcoded exemptions to Microsoft tracking.

UPDATE 5/26/2022 12:33 PM: DuckDuckGo’s Gabriel Weinberg responded to our tweet for this post. You can find it below.

Have any thoughts on this? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

Editors’ Recommendations:

• Google Chrome on desktop now has a better image search option
• Microsoft Edge is now the second most popular desktop browser
• Google Search is improving local results and image search
• Websites share your data with advertisers 100s of times per day

The post DuckDuckGo is tracking you even though it is a ‘private’ browser appeared first on KnowTechie.

But for older adults who are wary of the prevalence of scams targeting their demographic, such an email can be particularly alarming since they have been told that the SSA never sends emails.

From our research designing cybersecurity safeguards for older adults, we believe there is legitimate cause for alarm.

This population has been schooled in a tactical approach to online safety grounded in fear and mistrust – even of themselves – and focused on specific threats rather than developing strategies that enable them to be online safely.

Elders have been taught this approach by organizations they tend to trust, including nonprofits that teach older adults how to use technology.

These organizations present a view of older adults as highly vulnerable and encourage them to defend themselves in ways that could put them at risk. As information technology researchers, we believe it doesn’t need to be this way.

Older adults and online safety

Older adults may be at heightened risk of cybersecurity breaches and fraudulent behavior because they lack experience with internet technology and represent a financially attractive target.

Older adults may also be more susceptible because they struggle with their confidence in using technology even as they recognize its benefits.

We have been developing technology tools that help aging Americans maintain their own online safety no matter what challenges they may face, including cognitive decline.

To do so, we needed to understand what and how the people we study are learning about cybersecurity threats and what strategies they are being taught to reduce their vulnerabilities.

We have found that older adults attempt to draw on personal experience to develop strategies to reduce privacy violations and security threats.

For the most part, they are successful at detecting threats by being on the lookout for activities they did not initiate – for example, an account they do not have. However, outside experts have an inordinate amount of influence on those with less perceived ability or experience with technology.

What ‘experts’ are telling older Americans

Unfortunately, the guidance that older adults are getting from those who presumably have authority on the matter is less than ideal.

Perhaps the loudest of those voices is AARP, a U.S. advocacy group that has been carrying out a mission to “empower” individuals as they age for over six decades. In that time, it has established a commanding print and online presence. Its magazine reached over 38 million mailboxes in 2017, and it is an effective advocacy group.

What we found was that the AARP communiqués on cybersecurity use storytelling to create cartoonish folktales of internet deception. A regularly featured diet of sensational titles like “Grandparent Gotchas,” “Sweepstakes Swindles” and “Devilish Diagnoses” depict current and emerging threats.

These scenarios appeal to readers the way crime shows have historically appealed to TV audiences: by using narrative devices to alarm and thrill.

Ultimately they also delude viewers by leaving them with the misconception that they can use what they’ve learned in those stories to defend themselves against criminal threats.

Folktales and foibles

One job of folktales is to spell out the hazards that a culture wants its members to learn in childhood. But by presenting cyber-risk as a set of ever-evolving stories that focuses on particular risks, the AARP advisories shift attention away from basic principles to anecdotes.

This requires readers to compare their online experiences with specific stories, which puts themselves at the center of the narrative.

Our analysis of hundreds of blog posts issued by AARP from 2004 to 2020, as well as our ongoing research on older couples over the last four years, shows that this narrative approach can encourage engagement. We used discourse analysis, which is a common social science technique for analyzing the meaning of text, to assess the themes people were exposed to and posit what the effects might be.

Readers are implicitly encouraged to assess the plausibility of particular scenarios with questions like, Is it possible that I have any unpaid back taxes? And, Do I actually have an extended warranty?

It requires people to catalogue each of these stories and then work out for themselves each time whether an unsolicited message is a real threat based on its content, rather than the person’s circumstances.

No, it’s not personal

Through this inventory of stories and characters, we also found that the AARP was personalizing what is, at root, a set of structural threats, impersonal by nature. The stories often characterize scammers as people in the reader’s very midst who use local news to manipulate older adults.

Real threats are not “sweepstake swindlers” or “Facebook unfriendlies,” with a live scam artist sensitive to the needs and foibles of each intended victim.

There is rarely a human relationship between the cyber-scammer and the victim – no con artists behind the notorious “grandparents scam.” The AARP bulletins and advisories imply that there is – or, at least, implicitly foster that old-fashioned view of a direct relationship between swindler and victim.

Don’t engage

Perhaps even more worrisome, according to our analysis of 162 AARP blog posts randomly selected from 518 relevant articles about internet security and privacy, AARP advisories appear to encourage investigation into scenarios, when engagement of any sort puts people at risk.

In one post alerting people to “8 Military-Themed Imposter Scams,” they discuss “prices too good to be true,” when the very concept of buying a car on Craigslist, or an “active-duty service member” urgently selling a car, should be a red flag discouraging any form of engagement.

Internet users of any age, but especially more vulnerable populations, should be urged to withdraw from threats, not be cast as sleuths in their own suspense stories.

Protecting older adults in the age of surveillance capitalism

In order to reduce everyone’s risk while online, we believe it’s important to provide a set of well-curated principles rather than presenting people with a set of stories to learn.

Everyone exposed to threats online, but especially those most at risk, needs a checklist of cautions and strong rules against engagement whenever there is doubt.

In short, the best strategy is to simply ignore unsolicited outreach altogether, particularly from organizations you don’t do business with. People need to be reminded that their own context, behaviors and relationships are all that matter.

Because, in the end, it’s not just about tools, it’s about worldview. Ultimately, for everyone to make effective, consistent use of security tools, people need a theory of the online world that educates them about the rudiments of surveillance capitalism.

We believe people should be taught to see their online selves as reconstructions made out of data, as unreal as bots.

This is admittedly a difficult idea because people have a hard time imagining themselves as separate from the data they generate, and recognizing that their online lives are affected by algorithms that analyze and act on that data.

But it is an important concept – and one that we see older adults embracing in our research when they tell us that while they are frustrated with receiving spam, they are learning to ignore the communications that reflect “selves” they don’t identify with.

Editor’s Note: This article was written by Nora McDonald, Assistant Professor of Information Technology, University of Cincinnati, and Helena M. Mentis, Professor of Information Systems, University of Maryland, and republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Have any thoughts on this? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

Editors’ Recommendations:

• Drunk driving tech is coming soon to a car near you
• There’s a reason why your kid never puts down their smartphone
• Organized crime outfits are scamming millions out of users on dating apps — here’s how they do it
• 7 ways to avoid becoming a misinformation superspreader

The post Older Americans are getting bad internet safety advice from AARP appeared first on KnowTechie.

Wozniak was recently a guest on “Steve-O’s Wild Ride!” podcast and revealed that he’s no longer a Facebook user due to the fact how the company handles data and privacy. “Of all Big Tech, Facebook is probably No. 1 that I don’t like,” Wozniak tells Steve-O.

The reasoning behind this statement points back to a 2018 blog post written by a former product manager for Facebook. The post outlines how the company and its partners collect data on users, even for those without accounts.

“I read how it can still grab data and [send it] to Facebook, even when you’re not using the [platform],” Wozniak said. “I don’t believe this is right, because you should [be] honest, [so that] that every person who uses it knows what they’re doing.”

READ MORE: Apple and Meta handed over data to hackers pretending to be police

But to be fair, data collection isn’t why he left the platform. Instead, he attributes it to its addicting nature. “I started looking at Facebook because I kind of like little videos of dogs … and the dogs being saved by people,” he said. “It became so habit forming … and I don’t like habits, because that’s addiction.”

So what does Wozniak use in place of Facebook these days? Wozniak claims he tries to avoid social media whenever possible but says he still uses TikTok to watch dog videos. However, TikTok’s data collection practices have recently come under the gun, as well.

Coincidently, Wozniak says Apple services, specifically iCloud, are his primary platform for keeping up with friends and family.

“We share photos in our families on iCloud,” Wozniak said. “It costs $2 a month, right? You share photos with albums, and other friends of the families can be in on it, and it’s protected. It’s private. Nobody can take the data and find out everything you’re doing.”

Wozniak speculates that if Apple can offer that service for $2 a month, Facebook should create a similar way for friends to communicate privately.

Both Steve-O and Wozniak discuss a wide range of topics during the podcast. So, if this is something that interests you, make sure to check out the full episode here.

Have any thoughts on this? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

Editors’ Recommendations:

• How to make Facebook private
• Facebook research shows that the platform can cause loneliness
• Apple will rip $10 billion from Facebook’s pockets this year
• For the first time ever, Facebook user numbers actually dropped

The post Apple co-founder, Steve Wozniak, doesn’t like Facebook appeared first on KnowTechie.

On the face of it, this seems like a perfectly sane option to limit the torrents of anonymous trolls on any social media platform. The UK government’s proposal has two main points.

One makes it so popular social platforms have to provide a way for every user to verify their account. The platform would also have to add more ways to block content from unverified users.

The second part would force platforms to create tools to block “legal but harmful content.” That could be vaccine misinformation, racist abuse, or other hateful but not technically illegal things.

“Tech firms have a responsibility to stop anonymous trolls polluting their platforms,” says UK digital Minister Nadine Dorries

The thing is, this proposal as it stands would create more issues than it fixes. Verification is not a fix for online hate. Look at Facebook, and all of the hateful content posted by people using their real names.

Internet safety for me, but not for thee

The ability to block non-verified accounts from interacting with verified ones also creates a two-tier internet. Maybe even a three-tier internet, considering this would only compel tech companies to verify UK users.

While it does limit anonymous trolls, it also limits anyone who has to use an unverified account for their own safety.

That includes victims of domestic violence, LGBTQ+, and activists in countries with authoritarian governments. Oh, so anyone in the UK if this bill is to pass.

This isn’t the only piece of legislation the UK is trying to ram through to limit the internet. It’s also trying to make porn sites verify users through a credit card, cellular provider, or passport data.

This type of verification just doesn’t work. It’s moralistic handwringing for the digital age and creates more issues than it solves.

It seems like every other week that we see news stories about another major data breach. The number of serious data breaches is only going to increase if these bills pass, or the overarching Online Safety Bill that the UK government wants to implement.

It’s not internet safety that the UK is trying to promote here, instead, it’s a stranglehold on the open internet.

Have any thoughts on this? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

Editors’ Recommendations:

• UK lawmakers want to hold big tech responsible for unwanted dick pics
• Apple App Store subscriptions raked in twice as much money as the Google Play Store in 2021
• New lawsuits claim Google tracked you even when you told it to stop
• Meta spirals from the top-10 list of most valuable companies

The post The UK thinks all social media accounts should be verified – that’s not a good thing appeared first on KnowTechie.

TikTok users find themselves scrolling through the seemingly endless stream of short videos for hours on end, which is one of the reasons it’s become so popular.

However, the app has also come under fire for collecting vast amounts of user data, not being transparent about sharing it, and not revealing what third parties have access to it.

Recently, two studies have shown that TikTok has bypassed important privacy protections that essentially allow its parent company, ByteDance, to fully access user data.

Here are the results of these two studies, how this affects TikTok users, and what they can do to protect their privacy while using the application on their smartphones. 

Two Major Studies Certified by The Wrap

The Wrap, an entertainment news outlet, recently confirmed the results of two studies that found TikTok can circumvent security protections in the Google and Apple app stores.

This allows the app to have full access to user data. TikTok can avoid code audits on the Apple App Store and the Google Play store, which is alarming. 

READ MORE: TikTok is being investigated for its effects on teens and kids

Additionally, the studies performed by whitehat cybersecurity experts found that TikTok can change the app’s behavior as it pleases without notifying users. It can utilize device tracking to gain an all-access pass to user data, including sensitive information, such as demographics.

Why does this matter? These are important findings that show how TikTok is operating a bit differently from most social media platforms in the United States. It even exceeds the abilities of Facebook, Instagram and other apps. 

Experts say the app’s code is hard to monitor — but TikTok believes its methods are standard. Russ Jowell, a mobile development expert at BestApp.com, believes ByteDance has gone to great lengths to conceal the inner workings of TikTok.

These studies come when millennials and Gen Zers are spending more time on their smartphones watching videos than ever before. In fact, 48% of millennials only watch videos on their mobile devices. 

Overall, these two studies examined TikTok’s source code and assessed how the app collects:

• Data on contacts
• Device ID
• Clipboard actions
• Data concealed when sent back and forth to TikTok’s servers 

While these studies are recent, this is not the first time TikTok has been questioned about its privacy, what it does with user data and how safe people are regarding their cybersecurity. 

Is TikTok Safe to Use?

Unfortunately, there is no short answer to this question — TikTok is generally a safe app. Still, it does track specific data that users may not like.

For example, TikTok will track what videos users watch and for how long. The contents of your messages are also followed, as well as country location, IP address and what device you’re using.

TikTok can collect information about your exact location, phone contacts and other social media information, age, phone number, and even payment methods. This builds a picture of you to support its ad-targeting practices. 

There are ways to protect your privacy while using TikTok, such as ensuring your profile is private, setting a strong password, using two-factor authentication and disabling password saving. Users can also download their data and determine what information is being collected. 

To download data from TikTok, visit Profile, tap the three horizontal lines in the upper right corner and visit the Privacy section. From there, tap Download Your Data and then Request Data.

A link with the information will appear within four days in that section. You can review what data TikTok regularly collects. 

However, your data will only be available for four days after the link has appeared. 

TikTok and User Privacy

These studies highlight how TikTok can avoid running code audits and access user data. Of course, it’s your choice whether or not to use the app, depending on what information you’re willing to share.

It would be wise to exercise caution and use best cybersecurity practices to protect yourself, regardless of what social media apps you use.

Have any thoughts on this? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

Editors’ Recommendations:

• TikTok is now testing Snapchat-like stories because nothing is sacred
• Microsoft CEO says the failed TikTok deal was the ‘strangest thing I’ve ever worked on’
• TikTok is testing a paid subscription feature for creators
• Twitter is trying its hand at videos again with a new TikTok-like feature

The post Does TikTok really know everything? Studies say, yes appeared first on KnowTechie.

Earlier this week, we published a pretty serious news story on how a Safari bug potentially leaked user data like browsing history and Google data. Apple promised a fix, and it is now pushing out an iOS 15.3 RC update and macOS Monterey 12.2 RC update to developers and beta users, reports 9to5Mac.  

Initially discovered by FingerprintJS, the new bug showed up in Safari 15 and involved the Indexed Database API (IndexedDB). IndexedDB essentially stores data on certain websites directly on your device so that the sites might load faster in the future.

If you’re not a developer, this may not make any sense to you – there’s a lot of technical jargon thrown around, but the gist of it is that the bug causes the API to expose all of the data that it has collected to any website that users visit.

READ MORE: Safari is now used by over a billion people

For a clearer understanding, FingerprintJS built a staging site that shows how the bug works. The site will show your recent browsing history along with details of your Google account. 

According to FingerprintJS, this only affects Safari users on iOS 15. iOS 14 users have nothing to worry about. The same is also true for people still using Safari 14 on older versions of the Mac. 

Apple hasn’t publicly announced when it will officially release iOS 15.3 and macOS Monterey 12.2 to the public, but we should expect to see it go live sometime within the next week. If developers already have their hands on it, chances are we’ll get it soon too. 

Until this update gets officially pushed out to the public, for the time being, use a different browser other than Safari.

UPDATE 1/27/2022 10:31 AM ET: Apple officially released iOS 15.3. The update brings a few important security updates, including one that fixes the Safari bug that could leak your data to websites.

Have any thoughts on this? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

Editors’ Recommendations:

• Hate the new iOS 15 version of Safari? Here’s how to change it back
• Google wants you to know Apple’s Safari web browser isn’t as private as they say it is
• Ad trackers are constantly uploading your data – here’s how to block them on iPhones
• Safari’s latest update now blocks all third-party cookies by default

The post Apple pushes out a fix to a Safari bug that was leaking browsing history and Google data appeared first on KnowTechie.

That’s a pretty bold statement to call out a competitor like that publically. What does he know that we don’t? Well, a lot. Thankfully he breaks it down below.

The gist of the Twitter thread boils down to this. Marlinspike doesn’t appreciate it when the media lumps Signal in the same conversation as Telegram and claims the app isn’t truly encrypted, as the app leads us to believe.

Marlinspike explains it better than I ever could, so let’s just take a look at the thread and see what he has to say about all of this: 

Marlinspike’s beef with Telegram lies mainly in how the media covers them. The company markets its app like any other app out there to sign up new users. But is Marlinspike’s claims about Telegram’s encryption valid?

As one Twitter user notes in reply to Marlinspike, “Before ranting on the competition instead of actually improving your stagnant product, you should probably give the full story,” Twitter user @AllStars101X writes in a tweet. “Although telegram doesn’t have complete e2e, it does have some level of client-server encryption (enough to prevent major exploration of data).”

Marlinspike’s Twitter thread certainly ruffled some feathers. One Twitter user replied to Marlinspike, “Make Signal better instead of attacking the competitors. Lame.” Others shared the same sentiment in the list of replies to the Twitter thread.

The thread goes on and on, and so do the replies to the original thread. Finally, in response to a reply in how Signal could improve its app vs. bashing its competitors, in closing, Marlinespike offered this response:

“Plenty of people use and love Signal, and there’s a great team working hard every day to make it better. This thread is not about Signal or what people “should” value or use. It’s about calling something that doesn’t provide encrypted communication an “encrypted messenger.”

Have any thoughts on this? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

Editors’ Recommendations:

• How to make all Signal messages disappear after a certain amount of time
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• How to send uncompressed photos and videos in Telegram
• Telegram will now let you livestream to an unlimited number of people

The post Signal founder reveals Telegram’s failure as an encrypted messenger in an explosive Twitter thread appeared first on KnowTechie.

In a blog post from earlier this week, the company reviewed some of the progress that it made this year. DuckDuckGo improved its mobile app this year with email protection and an expansion to Android devices. The big news, however, was a look at the new desktop web browser.

DuckDuckGo’s new privacy-focused web browser boasts “no complicated settings, no misleading warnings, no ‘levels’ of protection – just robust privacy protection.” Users won’t have to worry about toggling on certain privacy settings. Just load the browser up, and you know you’re taking advantage of DuckDuckGo’s privacy features.

READ MORE: DuckDuckGo is tracking you even though it is a ‘private’ browser

The company says that, just like the mobile apps, the desktop app is built around “OS-provided rendering engines.”

READ MORE: DuckDuckGo’s private web browser is now available on Mac

This has allowed the company to get rid of “a lot of the unnecessary cruft and clutter that’s accumulated over the years in major browsers.” It said that early tests have even found the DuckDuckGo browser to be “significantly faster” than Google Chrome.

For now, the app is still in a closed beta period, and this post didn’t reveal any kind of potential release date for the app. But if this app can consistently perform faster than Chrome while offering much better privacy features, then it will have the potential to steal some of Chrome’s users.

READ MORE: DuckDuckGo now offers free email protection for everyone

Have any thoughts on this? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

Editors’ Recommendations:

• DuckDuckGo is offering an iPhone-like feature for Android that stops companies from tracking you
• DuckDuckGo is now getting more than 100 million searches per day
• Microsoft is adding a Grammarly-like feature to the Edge browser
• Update Google Chrome right now – there are five new security issues

The post DuckDuckGo is planning to launch its own desktop browser appeared first on KnowTechie.

First spotted by MacRumors, it looks like Apple has completely removed any material about its potential CSAM scanning from the Child Protection page on its website.

The company had previously delayed the feature after privacy groups spoke out against the potential privacy risk. Advocacy groups and users alike argued that a feature like this could open up a “backdoor” for bad actors to take advantage of and cause harm to Apple’s customers.

Despite this pushback from just about everyone, it looks like Apple hasn’t quite given up on the feature. A spokesperson spoke with The Verge about the potential new feature after news broke about CSAM information being removed from the website.

Apple spokesperson Shane Bauer said the company’s stance on the feature has not changed since its update in September:

“Based on feedback from customers, advocacy groups, researchers, and others, we have decided to take additional time over the coming months to collect input and make improvements before releasing these critically important child safety features.” – Apple’s September statement on its new CSAM feature

So, it looks like Apple is still moving forward on this new feature. Despite the setbacks to this particular child safety feature, the company has added a couple of other features aimed at protecting children on Apple devices.

Will the upcoming CSAM detection feature be a major privacy risk? Let us know what you think.

Have any thoughts on this? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

Editors’ Recommendations:

• iOS 15.2 blurs nude images for kids using the Messages app
• Your WhatsApp messages aren’t actually private – moderators can read them
• Apple will let you pick who gets your iCloud data if (when) you die. Here’s how to set it up
• Apple’s new Android app will sniff out hidden AirTags

The post Is Apple’s controversial CSAM photo detection feature dead in the water? appeared first on KnowTechie.

That last feature launched but didn’t let you see what apps were doing. With iOS 15.2 and newer, you can see the feature’s results.

It transparently shows you what the apps on your iPhone are doing, and it’s awesome.

Now you can easily see which sensors and hardware your apps are accessing and the myriad web domains they talk to. That last point is important, as it was difficult to do it alone.

Those web domains are probably being used to build up advertising profiles on you, so you can see why you’d want to know about them.

Thankfully, Apple’s iOS App Privacy Report is here to help.

Here’s how to set up the iOS App Privacy Report on your iPhone

You need to know a few things about the data in the report. First, only the last seven days are shown with Apple not keeping any older data.

You’ll get data on four main categories:

• Data & Sensor Access: This shows which apps access sensors or hardware on your iPhone.
• App Network Activity: Any internet domains your apps are dialing out to will appear here. It’ll probably be mostly advertising domains and big players like Facebook.
• Website Network Activity: This shows which domains your browsing has visited.
• Most Contacted Domains: The most frequently accessed domains from your apps or web browsing will appear here.

Every entry in the report is tappable, so you can see exactly what each app is up to.

If you see something you don’t want happening, like an app accessing Location or Microphone data that it shouldn’t be, you can go to the app in Settings and revoke its access.

The report also shows you the third-party domains your apps are accessing, which is very useful. If you want any of them to be blocked, you can do some other things.

Some options include blocking them at your router or getting popular firewall devices like Firewalla to block things before they hit your device.

Apple’s App Privacy Report is now available in iOS 15.2 and iPadOS 15.2, and every version of iOS since.

Have any thoughts on this? Let us know down below in the comments, or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

Editors’ Recommendations:

• Apple will let you pick who gets your iCloud data if (when) you die. Here’s how to set it up
• Apple’s new Android app will sniff out hidden AirTags
• 6 best iOS home screen widgets for news
• You can now use dark mode on the iOS version of Google Maps – here’s how

Just a heads up, if you buy something through our links, we may get a small share of the sale. It’s one of the ways we keep the lights on here. Click here for more.

The post How to enable the iPhone’s App Privacy Report in iOS 15.2 appeared first on KnowTechie.

Alternatively, have you ever stumbled across some information about yourself on a website that you really don’t want to be there? Sensitive information like financials, explicit images, or doxxing content can be super dangerous if left alone to show up on any and every Google Search.

Fortunately, Google offers some tools that can help site owners and individuals remove unwanted content from the platform’s results. Let’s check out some of the tools that Google offers.

Removing content as a non-site owner

For non-site owners, the options are a little more limited, but Google still offers some help in certain instances.

READ MORE: 5 low-key tips to getting better Google Search results

First, you can use the Remove outdated content tool for content that no longer contains your information but still shows up in search results. Use this method to stop sites from showing on search results when they no longer contain your information.

Google will also remove certain sensitive personal content from search results if the content fits under certain categories. Content like non-consensual explicit images, financial or medical information, and images of minors can be removed upon request through this page.

Finally, Google offers a way for you to request the removal of content if you believe that it violates the law. Dangerous or illegal content such as phishing, violence, or explicit content can be removed if it’s found to be illegal using this request page.

Removing Google Search results for site owners

When you’re running a website, it’s important that Google sees the pages you want it to see. You also want to make sure that a page turns up in relevant searches when updated, instead of reverting to outdated content. Google offers a couple of ways to manage and remove search results for your site.

READ MORE: Google now lets you remove personal info from search results

First, you can use the company’s Removals tool to quickly and temporarily block search results from your site. This is a temporary block, but it can be used quickly when you want to ultimately block a page permanently.

For permanent blocks, the process is a little more complex. But there’s no need to worry. Google offers a full explanation of how you can permanently remove information, including images, from Google Search results. While we won’t go into specifics, and highly recommend checking out the link above, much of it involves “noindex” tags.

Lastly, the company offers step-by-step instructions for how to ask Google to recrawl your URLs whenever you update a page. Recrawling is super important when updating a page with new information, and there are a couple of different ways to do it. Follow Google’s instructions here whenever you wish to re-index an updated page.

And there you have it. Fortunately, Google offers several ways that users can manually request for certain content to be taken down.

Whether you are a site owner looking to improve your search results or an individual looking to remove your own sensitive information or content from Google Search, the company offers a few different tools and options that can help you.

Have any thoughts on this? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

Editors’ Recommendations:

• If you’re under 18 and images of you are in Google Search, you can now ask Google to remove them
• With the Pixel 6, Google is trying to emulate Apple’s business plan and success
• Google Search on mobile will now let you mindlessly scroll forever
• Apple is seriously cashing in on its push for privacy

The post Everything to know about removing web results from Google Search appeared first on KnowTechie.