Articles

Wed
16
Jul
John Lister's picture

'Click to Cancel' Law Blocked

A court has blocked a "click to cancel" rule that would have made it easier to end unwanted memberships and subscriptions. The rule, introduced by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), would have made canceling as easy as signing up in the first ... place, meaning a simple website button in some cases. The rule was scheduled to take effect on July 14, 2025, but was blocked by a federal appeals court. The block wasn't based on the measures themselves, but rather the procedural technicalities of the way the FTC made the rule. Auto-Renewals Restricted Officially titled the Negative Opinion Rule, the ... (view more)

Mon
14
Jul
John Lister's picture

Browser Extensions Laced With Malware

More than two million Chrome and Edge users installed extensions that later turned into malware. The 18 extensions all delivered their advertised functionality but some unwanted bonus features. Extensions (known as add-ons in Edge) are a third-party ... tool for web browsers that interact with the browser to bring additional features. Most have perfectly legitimate uses, for example sending the text of a long article on a web page to the user's Kindle e-reader, or blocking ads. Because the tools have varying levels of access to a user's browser and online activity, security is a must. That's why ... (view more)

Fri
11
Jul
Dennis Faas's picture

No USB-based TPM for Win11? Here's Why it Won't Work

In today's main article, we talked about the need for continuing Windows 10 support because the vast majority of PC's today Windows 11 requires TPM (Trusted Platform Module) but only newer PCs (circa >2018) have it. I've always wondered why a ... tech company couldn't simply create a USB-based TPM device so that older machines would be able to meet the requirements of Windows 11, so I decided to ask ChatGPT some questions. I thought the answers were fascinating, so I decided to put together a Q&A style article. Here's a breakdown of those questions in case you want to skip right to the ... (view more)

Fri
11
Jul
John Lister's picture

Windows 10 Security Patches 'Must Continue'

A campaign group want users to sign a petition calling on Microsoft to automatically extend support for Windows 10. It says existing plans where users can sign up to an extra year of support cheaply or free of charge don't go far enough. The ... petition is the work of the Public Interest Research Group (PIRG), which describes itself as "an advocate for consumers, advancing solutions to problems that affect our health, our safety and our wellbeing." It commonly campaigns on tech topics including the "right to repair" as a way to benefit consumers while reducing environmental waste. Millions Of ... (view more)

Wed
09
Jul
John Lister's picture

Windows 11 Finally Overtakes Windows 10

Windows 11 has finally become more popular than Windows 10 according to one estimate. But there's still a serious amount of work to do to persuade people to upgrade before Windows 10's "end of life" this October. The figures come from Statcounter, ... which says that 51.77 percent of Windows computers are now running Windows 11, ahead of Windows 10 on 45.02 percent. The remaining three percent are running even older systems, including a tiny but measurable user base for Windows XP. (Source: statcounter.com ) Statcounter is a company that helps websites measure and analyze their traffic, so its ... (view more)

Fri
04
Jul
John Lister's picture

Microsoft Praises Teenager for Security Research

A boy who started hunting computer bugs aged 13 has been dubbed Microsoft's youngest security researcher. 'Dylan' is the reason the company lowered its minimum age for officially reporting security vulnerabilities. Everything we know about the boy ... comes from a Microsoft report, which notes he is currently in his junior year at high school. Because of his age, it appears reporters don't consider it appropriate to try to independently verify any of the details. (Source: microsoft.com ) According to Microsoft, Dylan was a tech enthusiast for a young age, but became more interested in security ... (view more)

Wed
02
Jul
John Lister's picture

'Real Life' Adblocker Prototyped

A tech enthusiast has built a prototype of a real-world ad-blocker. It involves a pair of "smart glasses" which detect and block out billboards, newspaper ads and other promotional material. It's the work of Stijn Spanhvove, who explained on social ... media site X that "I've been building an XR app for a real-world ad blocker using Snap @Spectacles. It uses Gemini to detect and block ads in the environment. It's still early and experimental, but it's exciting to imagine a future where you control the physical content you see." (Source: x.com ) The video shows the user's view as they walk round a ... (view more)

Mon
30
Jun
John Lister's picture

How to Get Win10 Security Updates Without $30 Fee

Microsoft has announced Windows 10 users won't have to pay for updates for the first year after its "end of life". It's the most significant move yet away from a potential security nightmare. This October will still be the official point at which ... Microsoft no longer offers any updates. With previous systems, that meant a complete end to security updates for consumers, with businesses able to pay a significant fee (doubling every year) to get the patches through a three-year Extended Security Updates program. Microsoft had already announced that for the first time, consumers would be eligible ... (view more)

Fri
27
Jun
John Lister's picture

AI Makers Get Thumbs Up to Use Books Without Permission

An AI company acted lawfully by training its models on published books without the author's consent, a judge has ruled. But Anthropic will be on the hook for downloading more than seven million pirated books to use in the training data. The case was ... brought by three authors who said Anthropic had breached their copyright by adding the text of their books to a training database for Claude. That's a large language model (LLM), which works a little like autocorrect on a phone's texting tool. The difference, other than the speed and power, is that the LLM doesn't predict words based on one person ... (view more)

Wed
25
Jun
John Lister's picture

Three New Windows 11 Features Unveiled

Microsoft has started public testing on a range of new Windows 11 features. They deal with a nagging display annoyance, the controversial Recall technology, and touchscreen interfaces. The changes have been unveiled in the Dev Channel. That's one of ... four options for people who join the Windows Insider program and is the one where most new features roll out to the public for the first time. If something's in the Dev Channel, Microsoft usually intends to make it part of Windows but may withdraw it if the testing goes badly. The most useful change for the average user is arguably a minor ... (view more)

Mon
23
Jun
John Lister's picture

16 Billion Passwords Leaked

A collection of 16 billion login credentials has been discovered by security researchers. Despite the huge number, the researcher say the real problem is just how commonly records appear online. The discovery was made by Cybernews which assigned ... researchers to trawl as many online locations as possible to discover records. They found 30 datasets, of which just one had been widely known about and reported in the media. (Source: cybernews.com ) The datasets ranged from one of "just" 16 million records to one, apparently made up of details of Portuguese speakers, which had 3.5 billion records. ... (view more)

Fri
20
Jun
John Lister's picture

Windows 11 Upgrade Gets Easier

Microsoft is to release a tool to make it easier to move to a new computer when upgrading from Windows 10 to Windows 11. It removes a minor headache but won't necessarily overcome the main reasons people are passing on the upgrade. With some recent ... estimates saying the majority of Windows PCs are still running Windows 10, time is running out for the end-of-life deadline in October. After that, Windows 10 will get no new features and no free security patches. Businesses can pay for security patches for three more years (with the price doubling each year), while consumers can pay $30 for one ... (view more)

Wed
18
Jun
John Lister's picture

Windows Hello Gets Less Convenient

Microsoft will no longer let users "sign in" with their face in a darkened room. It's a deliberate choice of security over convenience. The change affects the Windows Hello feature that lets users sign into their Windows device using something other ... than a password. This includes a PIN (which can only work on a specific device) or biometric logins such as a fingerprint or facial recognition. One lesser-known limitation is that an ordinary webcam won't work for the feature. Instead, it must have an infrared capability that means it has depth perception. This effectively means it can scan a ... (view more)

Mon
16
Jun
John Lister's picture

Facebook Uses Tracking Exploit to Bypass Cookie Block

Facebook and Instagram owner Meta has been accused of tracking users even when they are using VPNs or incognito mode. They have now stopped using a technique that may have breached Google's rules for Android apps, raising serious questions about how ... far companies are willing to go to bypass privacy controls. The controversial activity was discovered by computer scientists from Belgium, Spain, and the Netherlands. Their findings revealed that both Meta and Russian search engine Yandex used a similar method to monitor users without consent, even when standard privacy measures were in place. ... (view more)

Fri
13
Jun
John Lister's picture

Android 16 Arrives Early

Android 16 has been released much earlier than expected. Although it has some notable new features, it's biggest design overhaul won't be arriving till September. Normally a new Android release is expected in August or September. Google hasn't ... officially said why version 16 is earlier, other than that it "ensures you get the latest updates as soon as possible on your devices." One theory is that Google wants to give a boost to sales of Android phones by letting manufacturers start preloading the system onto new handsets for sale in the fall. As usual with Android, the new version is debuting ... (view more)

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