‘Privacy’ articles

How to get Microsoft Edge back into your Windows Timeline

The new Microsoft Edge doesn’t currently support Windows Timeline. Here’s an extension that reintegrates the browser with Windows Timeline/Task View.

Promote your Onion site with the `Onion-Location` HTTP header

A new HTTP header enables websites to redirect their visitors using the Tor Browser to their more secure Onion site.

How to block web browser-based localhost port-scans

Websites are port-scanning your localhost. Here’s how to stop random websites from knowing what services are running on your device.

First impressions of the Scroll news subscription service

Scroll wants to be your one-stop subscription service for news published all over the web. How does it work? and can one subscription save journalism?

Bluetooth privacy and the FreeStyle Libre 2 glucose monitoring system

The FreeStyle Libre 2 can push critical glucose level alerts to your phone. Great for managing diabetes, but it also makes you trackable out in the world.

How to test if your Bluetooth devices support BLE Privacy

Some Bluetooth Low-energy (BLE) devices support the BLE Privacy extension that makes their location harder to track. How to test if your devices support it.

Google should auto-delete aging user data by default

Users can now opt-in to have some of their personal data be deleted after some months. The GDPR says this should be the default, however.

Safari’s Beacon API problems

You must implement the Beacon API the way WebKit deems to be “the right way” to make it work on iOS, Safari, and WebKit browsers.

My thoughts on Firefox blocking tracking/ad cookies by default

A small AdSense publishers’ perspective on Firefox’s new cookie-blocking policy change.

Goodbye FastMail

The Australian government’s new privacy-unfriendly anti-encryption interception and surveillance law succeeds in undermining trust in Australian tech companies.

New browser extension lets you opt-out of Google AMP

A new browser extension for Firefox and Chrome that gives people the choice to opt-out of Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) in favor of the open web.

Extension enhances privacy of all embedded YouTube videos

Ensure better privacy for YouTube videos embedded around the web with this new Firefox browser extension.

Windows Timeline browser add-on raises few privacy concerns

New browser extension integrates Firefox and Chrome browser histories with Windows Timeline. Well-received by the press despite negatively impacting user privacy.

Personal data should be auto-delete after a few months by default

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) makes it clear that apps and services must delete their customers’ data when it’s no longer useful.

How to detect Brave despite it not having a unique User-Agent

Brave browser pretends to be Google Chrome to avoid being blocked. You can, however, still detect it by analyzing its uniqueness.

GDPR in Practice: Flattr now deletes your history within 3 months

Flattr improves customer privacy protections by automatically deleting collected data when its no longer needed for its core service.

I’d welcome usage reporting in Fedora Linux

Debian and Ubuntu have benefitted from good package reporting and analytics. It’s time Fedora Linux started collecting some more usage metrics.

Feed readers can be uniquely fingerprinted

Your list of RSS subscriptions is unique and it can be used to create a trackable and persistent device fingerprint.

New AdSense APIs for gathering user-consent

A look at the new Google AdSense APIs for obtaining GDPR and ePrivacy consent with custom-built data-sharing consent-screens.

What breaks if you use First-Party Isolation in Firefox

Firefox’s FPI system keeps websites from tracking your movements across websites. This gives excellent privacy protections but at a cost of web compatibility.

How to limit tracking in software downloads

Here is what you can do to protect yourself against websites injecting tracking-code into the software installers you download.

Software downloads now contain unique tracking identifiers

Popular software vendors inject unique tracking identifiers when you download their installers to track you all the from the web and onto the desktop.

Vilfo review: Not designed for security or privacy – Part 3:4

I found several privacy and security issues with the Vilfo VPN router during my week-long review.

On using Coinhive CAPTCHA instead of reCAPTCHA by Google

Google reCAPTCHA has a near-monopoly on CAPTCHAs. Coinhive CAPTCHA wants people to spend a few seconds mining crypto-currencies instead of solving puzzles.

EU GDPR and personal data in web server logs

Web servers store access and error logs by default. These can be a liability as they may contain personal data as per the General Data Protection Regulation.

Reduce the max cookie lifetime from decades to days in Firefox

Improve your privacy by reducing how long Firefox retains cookies. Who needs to store them for decades? Firefox can cap it at a custom interval.

Mozilla celebrates 1M new non-Gecko users

Firefox Focus browser, built on WebKit, for Android has been downloaded 1 million times in a month. Whatever happen to Mozilla’s commitment to GeckoView?

Embed a JavaScript CDN in your web browser with Decentraleyes

Browser extension mirrors popular JavaScript library content delivery networks locally to improve load-performance and your privacy.

Private bug trackers leak data on security and other known issues

Many bug tracking software leak information about your organization’s security problems through HTTP referrer headers.

Fluxfonts 2.0 for Windows 10

Fluxfonts — the open-source anti-font-fingerprinting program — is now available for Windows 10.

Stop it with the aggressive remarketing campaigns already!

Online marketers are being too aggressive with their remarketing campaigns – pushing low-value goods at a loss.

Privacy Badger improves privacy but breaks the web

The EFF’s Privacy Badger extension auto-detects and blocks websites that track you across websites. It also breaks more websites the more you use it.

Fluxfonts – font fingerprint cloaking

Protect against device fingerprinting using installed fonts by automatically cycling through a set of randomly installed fonts.

Photos on the gay dating app Grindr are by no means private

Grindr doesn’t use HTTPS-encryption allowing network operators and attacker-in-the-middle (AITM) attackers to intercept private pics in the app.

CyanogenMod’s one big advantage over stock Android

An Android competitor has much better security and privacy tools than the original Android from Google.

Do you trust Microsoft with all your passwords?

Windows has become your password manager, but it also syncs all your credentials to Microsoft. Should you trust it with the keys to your digital kingdom?

Multiple accounts required to keep Windows private and secure

You shouldn’t use a Windows Administrative account for your everyday use. Setup one basic and one admin account to increase security.

Not all web analytics is bad

First-party analytics on websites generally isn’t a privacy problem. However, third-party analytic platforms tracking you across different websites is.