Internet

Many things about the COVID-19 coronavirus still remain a mystery even for doctors and scientists, let alone ordinary people. During such times of fear and uncertainty, there is no shortage of incomplete or downright misleading information being passed around disguised as truth. Today's messaging technologies have made it all too easy to spread such misinformation. WhatsApp, which was already in hot water for such cases, is now putting some hard limits when forwarding messages due to the COVID-19 situation.

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Video streaming services are on the rise, especially with everyone forced to keep themselves distracted from the urge to go out. Services have expanded their content selection and even their free trial periods but Roku is making an even bigger leap almost literally. It has just crossed the gigantic pond known as the Atlantic and is bringing its catalog of free content to those stuck inside their houses in the UK.

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Facebook says that it is working with Carnegie Mellon University's Delphi Research Center to help track and forecast the potential spread of the infectious disease COVID-19. The effort comes in the form of a survey that some Facebook users will be given the opportunity to take; it'll ask questions related to symptoms and more, which will be used to generate heat maps based on the data.

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Video chats and video conferencing are the hot things in today's locked down world. Services old and new have risen to the challenge of connecting people even when they can't meet face to face physically. Not all of those products, however, can be considered foolproof and trustworthy, no matter how popular they are. In fact, one that has become the most popular is now also the most notorious as the direct and indirect results of Zoom's lax security continue to pile up.

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While some work that has been taken home can often be done solo, employees in more collaborative offices often need more than just email or text messages to communicate. Sometimes even real-time team chats aren't enough, especially for those used to looking for visual cues on their teammates' faces. Video conference services are, of course, a dime a dozen but some claim to be easier to use than others. There is probably nothing easier, though, than just sending a link and nothing more which is exactly what Skype's new feature promises.

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The Internet has taken on a critical role in the past weeks thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic. So, too, is the software that connects us to the Internet and to each other. During these days, it would be difficult to have such technologies break down left and right if it can be helped. That's why Google has been making a few changes to its policies, including rolling back the privacy-related changes it has been enforcing through its SameSite Cookie policy, even if it means leaving users open to such abuses just for a while.

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You're probably tired of hearing it by now but there has been a considerable rise in the use of the Internet these past weeks. Not all of them are for entertainment, of course, as people are forced to come to grips with telecommuting and working from home. Naturally, this has become an opportunity for online collaboration apps and services to shine and a chance for Slack to reclaim its market share from its rivals. And it's doing so, ironically, by lettings its users jump on Microsoft Team Calls easily.

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Almost exactly two years ago, Cloudflare announced what many thought was an April Fools joke. It challenged carriers, ISP providers, and even Google by launching its own public DNS service with claims to being privacy-focused yet also fast. Last year it expanded that to mobile devices with WARP. For this year's "No Joke" announcement, Cloudflare is expanding its coverage not just for routing and locating Internet addresses but also keeping families safe by blocking unwanted and unwelcome content from their home networks.

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The Internet has never become more critical than it has been until these past weeks. Social distancing has forced many interactions and activities to be moved online. Naturally, that means using up more data than you normally would have in a given period. Normally, that leads to higher fees or slower speeds when you hit data caps. Following the lead of major US carriers, Google Fi is now announcing its own changes to its policies, including increasing limits but only temporarily.

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TikTok unsurprisingly saw a sudden surge in new users within the past days but the social network's history hasn't always been bright. After quickly taking over the Internet, its connections to the Chinese government cast it in a less favorable light, at least among the security and privacy-conscious population. Despite that, TikTok continues to thrive mostly because it remains unrivaled. That, however, might soon come to an end with YouTube Shorts.

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On Wednesday, Cloudflare announced that its WARP VPN is now available in beta for Windows and macOS. WARP first launched as an option within Cloudflare's 1.1.1.1 app for iOS and Android, but the company explains that it also wanted to build a WARP client for Windows and macOS, something that users have heavily requested over the past year.

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With all of the attention the coronavirus outbreak has been getting lately, it's been pretty easy to forget that it's a Census year here in the United States. Moreover, today is Census Day, but while that may suggest that this is a deadline for filling out the Census, it actually isn't. April 1st is designated as Census Day because this is the date that the Census references - meaning residents are asked to declare where they live as of April 1st, 2020.

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