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Make Use Of – (and How to Get Rid of It): “If you’ve ever wondered how Google seems to read your mind, the answer lies in its massive and incredibly detailed data collection. You can actually take a look at what Google knows about you—and delete it if you want to clean the slate. It’s …
Washington Post via MSN: “Researchers recently caught Meta using tactics that one expert called similar to those of digital crooks to secretly compile logs of people’s web browsing on Android devices. No one, including Android owner Google, knew that Meta’s Facebook and Instagram apps were siphoning people’s data through a digital back door for months. …
“Silent Push Threat Analysts are tracking a massive “fake marketplace” scam that uses thousands of fake websites to abuse dozens of major brands and buy Facebook ads to promote its scam products. Our team is labeling this group “GhostVendors,” and we suspect they are also purchasing ads on other networks to self-promote their scam sites. …
Proton VPN blog: “Surveillance pricing, also known as personalized or algorithmic pricing, is a practice where companies use your personal data, such as your location, the device you’re using, your browsing history, and even your income, to determine what price to show you. It’s not just about supply and demand — it’s about you as …
“The Federal Trade Commission’s initial findings from its surveillance pricing market study revealed that details like a person’s precise location or browser history can be frequently used to target individual consumers with different prices for the same goods and services. The staff perspective is based on an examination of documents obtained by FTC staff’s 6(b) …
The Atlantic [no paywall] “Inside the world of extreme-privacy consultants, who, for the right fee, will make you and your personal information very hard to find. You could easily mistake Alec Harris for a spy or an escaped prisoner, given all of the tradecraft he devotes to being unfindable. Mail addressed to him goes to …
Cory Doctorow: “Who Broke the Internet, Part IV (permalink) “Kick ‘Em In the Dongle” is the fourth and final episode of “Understood: Who Broke the Internet?”, a podcast series I hosted and co-wrote for the CBC. It’s quite a finale! https://www.cbc.ca/listen/cbc-podcasts/1353-the-naked-emperor/episode/16148346-kick-em-in-the-dongle – The thesis of the series is the same as the thesis of enshittification: that …
WSJ no paywall: “Google is overhauling its iconic search engine to compete more directly with a wave of artificial-intelligence chatbots that threaten its core business. The company has started rolling out on its search page what it calls “AI Mode,” which answers search queries in a chatbot-style conversation without the standard list of blue links. …
United States Postal Service, Office of Inspector General: ” Last mile package theft – commonly referred to as “porch piracy” — is a significant challenge for the entire parcel delivery industry, impacting consumers, retailers, and delivery providers alike. Package theft creates substantial financial burdens and operational disruptions across the delivery and ecommerce ecosystems, and may …
Lifehacker: “The internet is not a private place. Every time you connect to a website, ads and beacons—both visible and invisible—attempt to follow your every move. They’ll even take the anonymized information they collect and build a profile that other trackers can use to identify you as you surf the web. It’s pretty bleak. Luckily, …
“Who Broke the Internet? Part II (permalink) “Understood: Who Broke the Internet?” is my new podcast for CBC about the enshittogenic policy decisions that gave rise to enshittification. Episode two just dropped: “ctrl-ctrl-ctrl“: The thesis of the show is straightforward: the internet wasn’t killed by ideological failings like “greed,” nor by economic concepts like “network …
CNET – “President Donald Trump’s extensive new tariffs are expected to have huge, widespread effects on prices in the US, with more and more companies announcing price hikes for popular products. Recently, Microsoft announced price increases across its Xbox gaming brand, Canon announced that increases for its cameras are coming soon and toymaker Mattel warned of inevitable …
