Usually, if you want to expand how you use the internet and protect your family online, you need a virtual private network. But those can be complicated to use — and expensive to boot.
Alternatively, Control D packs many of the control and safety features of a VPN into a much simpler solution. For a limited time, you can get a two-year subscription to this unique service for just $30 (regularly $48).
Whether you primarily use the internet for casual browsing or work remotely full-time, you have data that needs protection. Unfortunately, even your simple browsing data is worth something to companies and trackers. And without the proper equipment, there’s not much you can do to protect yourself.
The Deeper Connect Pico can block those nosey third parties from observing and stealing your data. And for a limited time, this hardware VPN is on sale for $248.
Apple’s Safari web browser recently topped 1 billion users, a new study indicates, making it the second browser to do so. Even so, it still lags well behind Google Chrome in popularity.
“1,006,232,879 internet users (19.16% of all internet users) now use the Safari browser, making it the second browser with over a billion users,” the Atlas VPN report said.
Cybersecurity is no joke, even if you only use the internet to browse social media and shop online. Without thorough security in place, your personal information is at risk and could be sold or used against you. And targeted ads are just annoying.
The Deeper Connect Mini decentralized VPN and firewall is a simple-to-use hardware virtual private network that can protect your identity online and shield you from threats. And for a limited time, it’s on sale for $349.
Privacy-oriented browser Brave updated its iOS app Wednesday with a new Privacy Hub that summarizes trackers it blocked for a specific website or over a certain period of time, not unlike what Safari’s Privacy Report does.
Whatever you do online, you need a reliable virtual private network to keep your private data secure. Thankfully, you can ensure your privacy forever with a lifetime subscription to FastestVPN for up to 10 devices.
Usually $1,200, it’s discounted to just $24.99. But you can take a further 20% off during Cult of Mac Deals’ VPN Security Sale when you enter the code VPN20 at checkout. That drives the sale price all the way down to $19.99.
However, the extra discount is only available until May 24, 2022. So now’s the time to grab this deal and stay secure for life.
What would you do if you walked into a room to discover a creepy auction of your personal data going on? That’s the premise of a new Apple video.
The goal is to highlight the many privacy tools iPhone offers to prevent online tracking.
Google leads the way among ad tech companies sharing your online behavior and location with advertisers. It happens an average of 747 times a day in the United States and 376 times a day in Europe. That’s according to a new report from a civil liberties group.
Google and others use a process known as real-time bidding to help advertisers target you by behavior and location.
The group behind the report called such sharing “the biggest data breach” in the world.
DuckDuckGo and Brave have started bypassing Google’s Accelerated Mobile Pages. Brave says, “AMP harms users’ privacy, security and internet experience.”
The web browsers will ignore these pages, which are surreptitiously hosted by Google, and give users the original publishers’ webpages instead.
A tweak to iOS privacy settings made in 2021 has already cost Facebook $8.1 billion, and the social-networking company’s losses will increase by another $12.8 billion in 2022, according to an industry report.
Forcing applications to ask permission before tracking their users’ online activity hurt other companies, too. But nowhere near as much as Facebook.
Posting your email on your own website shouldn’t lead to an inbox full of spam. Luckily, there’s a middle ground between giving your audience no way to reach you and handing bots and malware everything to use against you.
The Email Protection WordPress Plugin hides your email from web crawlers that log and use your information, but still makes it easy for your readers to contact you. For a limited time, this one-time purchase is on sale for just $9.99 (regularly $37).
Apple CEO Tim Cook called privacy a key battle of our time during a speech Tuesday. He extolled Apple’s commitment to protecting its users’ data and condemned regulations that would force Cupertino to accept app sideloading on iPhones.
“We are deeply concerned about regulations that would undermine privacy and security in service of some other aim,” he said, referring to legislation that would force Apple to allow apps for its devices to bypass the App Store.
Cook made the comments during a wide-ranging keynote address at the International Association of Privacy Professionals Global Privacy Summit in Washington, D.C.
Read more about what he said and watch video of his speech below.
DuckDuckGo for Mac launched as a public beta on Tuesday. The free web browser makes privacy settings the default, and offers private search, tracker blocking and website encryption.
The Mac version joins the one for iPhone and iPad that’s been out since 2018.
Apple dropped out of a privacy trade group that pushes increasingly “industry-friendly data privacy laws.” The move comes ahead of Apple CEO Tim Cook headlining the International Association of Privacy Professionals Global Privacy Summit next Tuesday.
Cupertino confirmed it will leave the trade group, known as the State Privacy and Security Coalition, through a spokesperson following an initial report about it in Politico.
Facebook parent company Meta is still bemoaning App Tracking Transparency, the “harmful” feature Apple introduced last year in iOS 14.5 to bolster the privacy of iPhone and iPad users.
The change is “making it harder and more expensive” for businesses to reach their customers, Meta said as advertisers reportedly slash their spending on Facebook and Instagram and turn to rivals like Amazon and Google instead.
New York’s attorney general issued a warning Wednesday about AirTags being used to secretly track people. And this is only the latest in a growing controversy over misuse of Apple’s tracking tags.
Perhaps Apple should drop the item tracker completely. At the very least, the functionality needs to be scaled way back.
Zoom issued a quick fix for its native macOS app over the weekend to address a concerning bug that left microphones active when they shouldn’t have been.
It comes after many Mac users complained the app was still listening in after calls had ended. It is the second time Zoom has attempted to eliminate this issue, so here’s to hoping this update actually does its job.
Just a day after Apple touted its beefed-up privacy precautions for AirTags — in the wake of criminal incidents involving the tracking devices — an article in The New York Times on Friday showed their superiority to Tile and GPS trackers.
A reporter tracked her husband using all three kinds of devices. She found the AirTags not only better at tracking him in an urban area, but also better at tipping him off to the tracking.
An increasing number of Mac users say Zoom is using their machine’s microphone even when the app is not in use.
Zoom rolled out an update last December for its native Mac app that supposedly resolved “an issue regarding the microphone light indicator being triggered when not in a meeting.” But it doesn’t appear to have worked.
Apple said in a statement Thursday it will update AirTags item trackers with new privacy warnings, better warning sounds and smarter Find My tracking. The efforts comes as the company tries to improve security in the wake of criminal activity involving the devices, such as theft and stalking.
It’s the latest of several privacy updates Cupertino announced for AirTags since releasing them last year.
Facebook parent company Meta has warned investors that it will lose around $10 billion in 2022 as a result of Apple’s bolstered privacy protections.
The company has been whinging about the improvements, which include App Tracking Transparency, since they were introduced in iOS 14. Its shares dipped more than 20% on Wednesday after it reported its latest disappointing earnings.
DuckDuckGo, the search engine that prides itself on protecting your privacy, is building its very own web browser for Mac. It promises to be simple and fast, with robust privacy features enabled by default.
The browser will feature DuckDuckGo’s popular “Fire Button,” which quickly wipes all your private data in just one click. It also will be built to use native browser technologies, rather than relying on third-party engines.
UPDATE 12/16: Apple has told The Verge that its CSAM photo-scanning plan is still on hold, and that plans to roll it out later haven’t changed.
Apple has quietly removed all references to its controversial plan to scan iCloud Photos libraries for child sexual abuse material from its website. Back in August, Cupertino announced its intention to trawl through users’ pictures to detect CSAM material.
However, after encountering significant criticism from experts, rights groups and even its own employees, Apple shelved the feature. The company said in September that it had “decided to take additional time” to collect input and make improvements to the feature. But it’s now unclear whether it will go ahead with CSAM photo scanning at all.
iPhone users can now upgrade to iOS 15.2. The update adds a cheaper Apple Music option, plus there’s a new App Privacy Report, and parents will be alerted if their children send or receive nudes.
iPadOS 15.2 is also available with these same updates. And there’s overlap with the just-released watchOS 8.3 and macOS Monterey 12.1.
If you use an iPhone on Verizon, there’s a good chance your carrier has been tracking everything you do when you’re connected to its cellular network. This includes the websites you visit, the apps you use, your location and more.
It’s all part Verizon’s “Custom Experience” and “Custom Experience Plus” programs, which are designed to “personalize” the carrier’s communications with its customers. In other words, it’s to build a profile about you so Verizon can better serve you targeted ads. (According to Verizon’s typo-riddled website, “The Custom Experience programs help us personalize communications, recommandations [sic] and offers to make them more relevant to you.”
There’s nothing Apple can do to stop this — despite its new privacy protections baked into iOS — because its tracking does not require an app installed on your iPhone. But there is something you can do to prevent it. We’ll show you how.
