tracking

The Web is home to a never-ending game of cat and mouse between privacy advocates and a large number of advertisers. Web browsers have finally become more attentive and more forceful in protecting users by marking and even blocking trackers that are often used to identify and keep tabs on them. Some of these trackers, however, may not be enough, efficient, or even unbiased, which is why DuckDuckGo developed its own tracker data set and is now releasing it and its software for everyone and anyone to use to protect themselves online.

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The folks at X, a moonshot company builder, from the folks at Alphabet (who also run Google), made a group called Tidal. This group is different from that of the Tidal you might know from music streaming services - this one's all about fish. It's about tracking fish, working with machine perception to identify how fish are feeding!

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This week Google is "previewing" policy changes to Android and Google Play that'll impact the ways in which developers of apps are able to access location data on smartphones and tablets. This affects background data collection with respect to systems like GPS location tracking, and it all starts in Android 11 / Android R. This is a major move - or it would appear to be a major move - in the smartphone user control realm in reaction to concern about how and when location data is used by apps - both known and unknown and/or malicious.

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In early 2020, an intrepid Wacom drawing tablet user by the name of Robert decided to do some investigative work on his beloved drawing tool. To do this, he employed the help of in-between software - that which allows a user to see what data's being sent from a device to a 3rd-party server via the internet (and vice versa). His findings did not please him.

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Facebook made an update to Privacy options this week that allows users to stop tracking with "off-Facebook activity." If you get to the "Off-Facebook activity" section of your Privacy Settings, you'll see the option to stop "Future off-Facebook activity." That option can be switched OFF, at which point you'll be warned by Facebook that "Your experience may be less personalized and the ads that you see may be less relevant to you."

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In 2019, the LynQ team raised a sizable amount of cash via crowdfunding and sold 20,000 LynQ people compasses. That's LynQ, the "people compass" that works with the ability to "keep groups together without need for phones or connectivity." They shipped thousands of units to early backers, now they've got the device available for commercial shipping for the first time.

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Apple has recently positioned itself as a champion of privacy and has, in a way, marketed that as both a feature and a service. It has consistently added new features or made changes that, at least on the surface, work to protect users especially from tracking. One of the most pervasive forms of tracking has always been location tracking in apps. But while iOS 13 exposed those activities to the user, the persistent warnings it displays may be souring both developers and users to the idea of protecting privacy.

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A new report reveals something that we probably already know, perhaps in jest. Corporations are out to get us and our privacy is pretty much a commodity already. It does, however, demonstrate the implications of that massive covert surveillance and the social and legal structures that empower or at least permit such activities. While it is admittedly difficult to escape that sad reality without shunning technology altogether, there are still a few things you can do to minimize the data that others can gather about you.

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Tile's tracker range is getting a full refresh for 2019, with new Tile Sticker and Tile Slim designs joining revamped Tile Pro and Tile Mate models. The Bluetooth beacon line-up has come a long way from its early days, now with more choice in form-factor, how you can fix it to things you really don't want to lose, and how Tile's crowd-powered locator network will help you track those items down.

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There's a new Snapchat sort of app available starting this week made by the Facebook-owned developers of Instagram. It's the latest attempt by Facebook - via Instagram - to capture the Snapchat-using youth. The kids don't want to share things publicly, so they share to friends on Snapchat. Threads just seems to want to have them share to friends on Instagram instead.

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At its iPhone event last week, there was one particular rumor that Apple didn't bring to life. The company was believed to be working on a product that will rival the popular Tile tracker but that was nowhere to be seen. It might, however, still be on the table and might just be a matter of time before it gets launched. Because according to a new screenshot and text from Apple's Find My app, all the pieces are already in place for its debut.

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So we'd heard rumors of this watch, then on the day the Active2 smartwatch was revealed, there was no info about an Under Armour edition. It didn't seem like that much of a stretch to assume that, maybe at one point there'd been a watch like this in the works but it didn't end up being made - or maybe the original rumor was simply untrue. As it turns out, there IS an Under Armour Edition of the Galaxy Watch Active2 and it is... well...

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