Tech Help and Discussions

From tech giant Facebook Inc. to libraries and schools, organizations are now subject to the world’s most far-reaching data privacy regulation in a crackdown aimed at protecting people from losing control over their personal information. It’s occupied thousands of lawyers, taken years of planning and triggered billions of emails. Mess up now and you can expect very little tolerance, warns Andrea Jelinek, the Austrian in charge of policing the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR, which took effect on May 25. “If there are reasons to warn we will warn; if there are reasons to reprimand we will do that; and if we have reasons to fine, we are g…

On Tuesday, Facebook took yet another stab at transparency in these days of users’ and politicians’ outrage. It came in the form of the first release of the company’s Community Standards Enforcement Report, and it was stuffed with the type of detail that Mark Zuckerberg told so many Congresspeople he’d need to get back to them on when he was first lightly sautéed and then flame-grilled in two days of testimony. For years, Facebook has had Community Standards that explain “what stays up and what comes down.” Last month, for the first time, Facebook published the internal guidelines it follows to enforce those standards. Tuesday’s release of the first ever Commu…

In March, 49-year-old Elaine Herzberg became what’s believed to be the first pedestrian killed by a self-driving car. It was one of Uber’s prototypes that struck Herzberg as she walked her bicycle across a street in Tempe, Arizona on a Saturday night. There was a human test driver behind the wheel, but video from the car’s dash cam published by SF Chronicle shows that they were looking down, not at the road, in the seconds leading up to the crash. Police say that the car didn’t try to avoid hitting the woman. The SF Chronicle reports that Uber’s self-driving car was equipped with sensors, including video cameras, radar and lidar, a laser form of radar. Given that…

I think the Pixel 3 comes out in Oct. and Essential-PH3 in September. I lean towards the Pixel from Google but may need to buy before those dates. Considering frequency of updates, do you have a choice if I bought now?

A spike infections follows an update to the password and cryptocurrency-stealing malware. A form of malware which uses fake Facebook Messenger messages to spread has suddenly surged back into life and has developed new tricks to steal passwords, steal cryptocurrency and engage in cryptojacking. First uncovered in August last year, the malware used phishing messages over Facebook Messenger to direct victims to fake versions of websites like YouTube, at which point they are encouraged to download a malicious Chrome extension. The malware has remained under the radar since then, at least until April when it appears to have suddenly spiked in activity, targeting …

I could not find you by searching or with my bookmark, so I deleted you from my list of forums and passwords; glad to see you are back.

Several times per day gmail requires me to sign into my gmail account. Is there a means of permanently signing in without the sign-in repetition? I'm on a desktop, windows 7, internet explorer.

I have a web site at GoDaddy. A couple of weeks ago, they sent me the following notice. There were 7 files listed, all with a php extension. These files have the same names as other files on my site, but only with the php extension. For instance, I have a file called bfile0506.pdf. In the same directory, there is now a new file, that I didn’t create called fbile0506.php. Then yesterday, GoDaddy called me about this possible malware. They were trying to sell me protection. Anyway, I scanned 4 of the 11 files that GoDaddy suspected with Virus Total. They were all clean. I didn't waste any more time scanning the rest. I then replied to GoDaddy’s email asking what pr…

YouTube is illegally making “substantial profits” from children’s personal data, according to a group of 23 child advocacy, consumer and privacy groups that have filed a complaint asking the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to make it stop. Kids are on the platform en masse, the group said, citing a study that found that 96% of children aged 6-12 are aware of YouTube and that 83% of children that know the brand use it daily. In fact, last year, YouTube topped the list of favorite online kid brands, according to the study: No wonder kids have come to adore YouTube: the Google-owned company has been working hard to get their love and their little eyeballs on adve…

Below each poster is the OS and browser used. On other forums, it is like pulling teeth to get someone to tell you what OS they are using and browser with the version. This saves a lot of posts getting the information - especially from people new to forums who say help my computer doesn't work.

Revelations that data belonging to as many 87 million Facebook Inc. users and their friends may have been misused became a game changer in the world of data protection as regulators are looking to raise awareness about how to protect information. Revelations that data belonging to as many 87 million Facebook Inc. users and their friends may have been misused became a game changer in the world of data protection as regulators are looking to raise awareness about how to protect information. Elizabeth Denham, the U.K. privacy regulator leading the European investigations into how user data ended up in the hands of consulting firm Cambridge Analytica, will say in a s…

Intel revealed that it will not be issuing Spectre patches to a number of older Intel processor families, potentially leaving many customers vulnerable to the security exploit. Intel claims the processors affected are mostly implemented as closed systems, so they aren’t at risk from the Spectre exploit, and that the age of these processors means they have limited commercial availability. The processors which Intel won’t be patching include four lines from 2007, Penryn, Yorkfield, and Wolfdale, along with Bloomfield (2009), Clarksfield (2009), Jasper Forest (2010) and the Intel Atom SoFIA processors from 2015. According to Tom’s Hardware, Intel’s decision not to patch the…

Newsflash! Hold onto your hoodies! Mozilla, the makers of Firefox, is less than impressed with Facebook. Last week, Mozilla announced that it was suspending all of its Facebook advertising - citing concerns that the social network’s current default privacy settings are not protecting users well enough. And now Mozilla has announced a new Firefox add-on - called Facebook Container - that “isolates your Facebook identity from the rest of your web activity.” Here’s what Facebook Container does in Mozilla’s own words: Facebook Container works by isolating your Facebook identity into a separate container that makes it harder for Facebook to track your visits to o…

Happy Birthday, Bob! I hope that you have an awesome day.

iPhone users are still vulnerable to being tricked into handing over passwords. Apple knows it — but won't do anything about it. iPhone or iPad users, if you update to iOS 11.3 now, you'll have new features and a bunch of security updates. But you'll still be just as vulnerable to on-device phishing attacks as you ever were. A long-expected privacy icon debuts in the software update out Thursday which help users identify when Apple requests more of their personal information. The update doesn't change how much data Apple collects, but it helps show what data will be collected when Apple apps and features are used for the first time. "You won't see this …

Monero-mining Android malware will exhaust your phone in its quest for cash. A new strain of Android malware will continuously use an infected device's CPU to mine the Monero cryptocurrency until the device is exhausted or even breaks down. Security company Trend Micro has named the malware HiddenMiner because of the techniques it uses to protect itself from discovery and removal. Like most cryptocurrency-mining software, HiddenMiner uses the device's CPU power to mine Monero. But Trend Micro said that because there is no switch, controller, or optimizer in HiddenMiner's code it will continuously mine Monero until the device's resources are exhausted. "G…