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  • TikTok Under Fire for Potential Keylogging, Some Say Concern Is Overblown

    TikTok Under Fire for Potential Keylogging, Some Say Concern Is Overblown

    A security researcher has called out TikTok for inserting code in its in-app browser that could be used to log keystrokes, but not everyone is convinced.

    TikTok is frequently in the news over concerns with its handling of user data and how much influence — and access to that data — Beijing has. In the latest round of concerns, security researcher Felix Krause has highlighted the dangers of apps that have their own in-app web browsers, including TikTok.

    According to Krause, TikTok’s in-app browser injects JavaScript into third-party websites when a user visits them from within the app. The code can be used for a variety of purposes, including logging keystrokes and collecting sensitive information.

    Krause admits that he can’t say for sure how TikTok is using the JavaScript code it’s inserting:

    We can’t know what TikTok uses the subscription for, but from a technical perspective, this is the equivalent of installing a keylogger on third party websites.

    Read more: Oracle Begins Audit of TikTok’s Algorithms for Beijing’s Influence

    Zach Edwards ― the security researcher that discovered some Microsoft trackers were not blocked by DuckDuckGo before the latter fixed the issue — pointed out the dangers of conflating what could happen with what is happening.

    TikTok sent the following statement to Motherboard, strongly denying Krause’s implication:

    The report’s conclusions about TikTok are incorrect and misleading. The researcher specifically says the JavaScript code does not mean our app is doing anything malicious, and admits they have no way to know what kind of data our in-app browser collects. Contrary to the report’s claims, we do not collect keystroke or text inputs through this code, which is solely used for debugging, troubleshooting, and performance monitoring.

    Only time will tell if TikTok is collecting the data people type in the in-app browser, although doing so would likely be the smoking gun regulators would need to crack down on the service. Given how high the stakes are and the lack of any evidence, it seems unlikely that TikTok is guilty of this particular offense.

    At the same time, TikTok remains one of the most controversial apps or services available, with more than its fair share of privacy issues. That alone will make it hard for some people to believe the company isn’t guilty.

  • WhatsApp Releases Standalone Windows App

    WhatsApp Releases Standalone Windows App

    Windows users now have access to a new WhatsApp app that doesn’t require linking to their phone first.

    WhatsApp has existed on the desktop for years, but required linking with the app on a phone first. WhatsApp announced a new update that finally makes the desktop app a standalone option.

    The company outlines the benefits in a FAQ page:

    “WhatsApp Desktop users have been using our web-based desktop app (WhatsApp Desktop) or our browser-based app (WhatsApp Web). As we’re always trying to improve the WhatsApp experience for our users, we’re developing apps native to Windows and Mac operating systems.

    • Advantages of native apps:
    • Increased reliability and speed
    • Designed and optimized for your desktop operating system
    • Continue to receive notifications and messages even when your phone is offline”

    The new version is available via the Microsoft Store.

  • PSA: macOS Users Should Update Zoom Immediately

    PSA: macOS Users Should Update Zoom Immediately

    Zoom has released an update to its macOS client that fixes a severe vulnerability, one that could give a user root access.

    Apple’s macOS is based on BSD Unix, inheriting a root user that has ultimate permissions. According to Zoom, a bug in the app could allow a non-root user to gain root access, representing a major threat to the computer’s security.

    The company has released an update that addresses the issue and all users are advised to update immediately.

    The Zoom Client for Meetings for macOS (Standard and for IT Admin) starting with version 5.7.3 and before 5.11.5 contains a vulnerability in the auto update process. A local low-privileged user could exploit this vulnerability to escalate their privileges to root.

    Users can help keep themselves secure by applying current updates or downloading the latest Zoom software with all current security updates from https://zoom.us/download.

  • DreamWorks Animation Plans to Open Source MoonRay Renderer

    DreamWorks Animation Plans to Open Source MoonRay Renderer

    Dreamworks Animation has announced its intentions to open source its MoonRay renderer.

    The MoonRay renderer has been used in a number of animated hits, including How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World, Croods: A New Age, The Bad Guys, and the upcoming Puss In Boots: The Last Wish. While MoonRay is currently proprietary software, DreamWorks plans to open source, making it available to everyone.

    “We are thrilled to share with the industry over 10 years of innovation and development on MoonRay’s vectorized, threaded, parallel, and distributed code base,” said Andrew Pearce, Vice President of Global Technology at DreamWorks. “The appetite for rendering at scale grows each year, and MoonRay is set to meet that need. We expect to see the code base grow stronger with community involvement as DreamWorks continues to demonstrate our commitment to open source.”

    The announcement is good news for the creative and open source community and will give animators of all skill levels access to an industrial-strength rendering platform.

  • Latest OBS Studio Beta Brings Apple Silicon Support

    Latest OBS Studio Beta Brings Apple Silicon Support

    The latest beta of OBS Studio has been released, and it brings native Apple Silicon support.

    OBS Studio is a popular multi-platform video recording and live streaming app. According to the company’s release notes, the latest beta brings native Apple Silicon support, so users won’t have to run the app via Apple’s Rosetta 2 translation layer.

    Here’s the release notes:

    • Native Apple Silicon Support (macOS)
      • Note that many third-party plugins will need to release Apple Silicon versions of their plugins in order for them to work on Apple Silicon builds of OBS

    The company includes the usual disclaimer about this version being beta software and not ready for production.

    This is a test build, not a full release. This build may contain bugs or broken functionality. For production usage, we still recommend using the latest stable build of OBS. If you are willing to test this build, please let us know if you run into any issues.

    Even with the warning, the update is good news for Apple users.

  • Microsoft Teams Finally Gains Native Apple Silicon Support

    Microsoft Teams Finally Gains Native Apple Silicon Support

    Squarely in the ‘better late than never’ camp, Microsoft is finally bringing native Apple Silicon support to Teams.

    Teams is a core part of Microsoft 365 and competes with Slack in the corporate messaging space. Despite its popularity, passing 270 million users in January 2022, the app has not had native Apple Silicon support. Instead, for the past two years, Mac users have had to rely on Apple’s Rosetta 2 translation layer to run the app. While Rosetta 2 is an amazingly competent piece of software, a native version often offers better performance and efficiency.

    Microsoft has finally started rolling out native support for Apple’s chips, as announced in a company blog post:

    We are rolling out a production grade universal binary version of Teams, which means it will run natively on the entire Mac lineup, including those with Apple silicon. For Mac users, this means a significant boost in performance, ensuring efficient use of device resources and an optimized Teams experience even when using multiple high-resolution monitors during calls or meetings.

    The company reaffirmed its commitment to the Mac platform — a source of near-constant worry and speculation among Mac users — and said the update will roll out incrementally in the coming weeks:

    Microsoft is committed to innovation and committed to the Mac, so we’re excited to bring this to our Mac users. The generally available (GA) version of the native Teams app on Mac with Apple silicon is being rolled out to customers in increments over the coming weeks. As soon as the rollout is finished, everyone will be automatically upgraded with their most recent update to Teams, so there isn’t a need to search for download links and manually install Teams. If you wish to speed this up, you can opt-in for Microsoft Teams Preview Program, which will give you faster updates and early access to new features, including Apple M1, where it’s guaranteed for everyone already.

  • DuckDuckGo Adds More Microsoft Tracking Protection, Now Better Than Ever

    DuckDuckGo Adds More Microsoft Tracking Protection, Now Better Than Ever

    DuckDuckGo has added additional protection against Microsoft tracking, addressing concerns that were raised in May.

    DuckDuckGo is one of the leading privacy-oriented companies, providing a suite of apps and services that help users protect their privacy online. Despite blocking the vast majority of Microsoft trackers, researchers discovered in May that a very small percentage of Microsoft’s trackers were not blocked under some circumstances.

    DuckDuckGo has been working hard to address the issue and will be rolling out additional protections over the next week to block even more Microsoft trackers, specifically those loaded by third-party websites.

    CEO Gabriel Weinberg outlined the steps the company is taking:

    Over the next week, we will expand the third-party tracking scripts we block from loading on websites to include scripts from Microsoft in our browsing apps (iOS and Android) and our browser extensions (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge and Opera), with beta apps to follow in the coming month. This expands our 3rd-Party Tracker Loading Protection, which blocks identified tracking scripts from Facebook, Google, and other companies from loading on third-party websites, to now include third-party Microsoft tracking scripts. This web tracking protection is not offered by most other popular browsers by default and sits on top of many other DuckDuckGo protections.

    Interestingly, because of the method used to load Microsoft trackers, the number of additional ads being blocked is very small.

    “Prior to this update, we were already blocking most MSFT scripts from loading and further restricting Microsoft tracking through our other web tracking protections, like blocking Microsoft’s third-party cookies in our browsers,” a company spokesperson told WPN. “Often websites use tag managers to load multiple other scripts, the most popular one is Google Tag manager. Since most Microsoft scripts load through tag managers, those requests were already being blocked by 3rd Party Tracker Loading Protection before this update. In fact, we ran a test to see how much more blocking is happening as a result of this new update and based on the top 1,000 websites we found the increase was only 0.25%.”

    The company’s findings illustrate how effectively it was already blocking Microsoft’s trackers and how overblown the initial concerns were.

    Even so, with these latest rounds of improvements, DuckDuckGo has cemented its reputation, offering better out-of-the-box privacy than Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and others.

  • Uber Receipt Emails Are Crashing Microsoft Outlook and Word

    Uber Receipt Emails Are Crashing Microsoft Outlook and Word

    Microsoft has identified an issue with receipt emails from Uber, as well as some others, that are causing Outlook and Word to hang and/or crash.

    A recent update seems to be the cause of the issue, and will result in Outlook and Word not responding when certain emails are opened. The issue seems to only happen when opening emails with complex tables.

    When opening, replying, or forwarding some emails that include complex tables, Outlook stops responding. The same table contents will also cause Word to stop responding.

    This issue started in Current Channel Version 2206 Build 15330.20196 and higher. It also occurs in current builds of Beta and Current Channel Preview.

    The company has already issued a fix that will be released to the Beta channel soon. In the meantime, users who can’t wait for the fix will need to roll back to the previous version.

  • Latte Dock Developer Steps Away From Popular KDE Project

    Latte Dock Developer Steps Away From Popular KDE Project

    Fans of the popular KDE panel Latte Dock are in for a disappointment, with the developer announcing he will no longer be maintaining the project.

    Latte Dock is a launcher for the KDE Plasma desktop that looks and functions much like the dock in macOS, albeit with more features and customization options. The launcher features prominently in many videos showcasing KDE Plasma and the degree to which it can be customized, including in Nick’s video for The Linux Experiment (below).

    Unfortunately, the latest release of the Plasma desktop broke some of Latte Dock’s core functionality, including the ability to easily rearrange app icons. The developer was working on the next edition of the launcher when he posted a message saying he would no longer be able to continue working on the project.

    Unfortunately I would like to inform kde community that I am stepping away from Latte development. No time,motivation or interest from my part is the main reason. I hope that this will give free space and air for new developers/maintainers to step in and move Latte forward.

    I hoped that I would be able to release Latte v0.11 but unfortunately I can not. Releasing Latte v0.11 it would mean that someone would maintain it afterwards and that is no more the case.

    As he mentions, it’s entirely possible another developer, or group of developers, may pick up the project and continue working on Latte. Unfortunately, as some on Reddit have pointed out, Latte is a complex project that may be challenging for many developers to tackle.

    In the meantime, users looking for an up-to-date launcher that is similar to Latte, although much simpler, should take a look at Plank. The launcher is one of the oldest dock-style launchers for Linux and offers a reliable, no-frills approach.

  • Google Stadia’s Days May Be Numbered

    Google Stadia’s Days May Be Numbered

    A new report suggests Google Stadia may be shut down, potentially ending an ignominious attempt by Google to enter the gaming market.

    Google unveiled its Stadia gaming platform in early 2019 with the goal of revolutionizing the market and lowering barriers to entry for high-end gaming. The company invested heavily, even hiring the God of War lead to head up its new studio. Less than two years after its unveiling, however, Google had shut down its own in-house studio, leaving many to wonder what was in store for Stadia’s future.

    According to the Killed by Google Twitter account, a regional manager said, “Google is beginning their exit plan,” with a view to shutting the service down by the end of summer.

    https://twitter.com/killedbygoogle/status/1552658225207693312?s=20&t=9cLm3GB-bklylM4vYUFujA

    The tweet says there are no plans to transfer any services or servers to any competing platforms, with the company looking to follow the same playbook as was used for the Google Play Music shutdown.

    If the rumor is true, chalk Stadia up as another casualty of Google’s failed ambitions. The company is infamous for creating products and services, gaining a user base, and then killing them off just as quickly.

    At this rate, it’s a wonder anyone jumps on board any new service from Google.

  • PSA: Update Google Chrome Immediately

    PSA: Update Google Chrome Immediately

    Google has released a major update to Google Chrome, fixing a number of critical bugs, including ones that could lead to remote takeover.

    The latest version fixes 11 bugs, five of which are rated High severity. The Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) is advising users and companies to upgrade immediately.

    Google has released Chrome version 103.0.5060.134  for Windows, Mac, and Linux. This version addresses vulnerabilities that an attacker could exploit to take control of an affected system.  

    CISA encourages users and administrators to review the Chrome Release Note and apply the necessary updates.

  • Truecaller Debuts Open Doors, a Private Communication App

    Truecaller Debuts Open Doors, a Private Communication App

    TrueCaller is expanding its services with a new app that offers private audio communications.

    TrueCaller is the market leader in caller ID and spam blocking for mobile users. Based in Sweden, the company regularly releases reports on the state of the mobile communication industry and the dangers posed by spam and scam attempts. The company is now leveraging its experience to create a secure, private way of communicating.

    “Thanks to Truecaller being 13 years in the business, we’ve spent a great deal of time learning about how people communicate,” said Nami Zarringhalam, Co-founder of True Software Scandinavia AB. “Our new app Open Doors was born out of a simple question – how can we help people make new connections without being intrusive? And this is what we want to do: to bridge the world using the most natural form of communication, our voices.”

    Users can easily join Open Doors by downloading it for free in the Google Play Store or the Apple App Store. Existing Truecaller users can join by simply tapping the button in their existing app.

    Once installed, Open Doors’ onboarding process is straightforward, only requiring verification of the user’s phone number. In terms of permissions, the app requests only what it needs and nothing more. Specifically, it needs permission to make phone calls and access the user’s contacts.

    Open Doors conversations happen in real-time and are not stored anywhere. This ensures the privacy of communications and eliminates the chance of anyone listening in on conversations without the other participants knowing. As an added privacy feature, conversation participants cannot see each other’s phone numbers.

    Open Doors is counting on a network effect to drive adoption, where each user’s contacts are invited when they join a conversation.

    It’s apparent Truecaller is trying to create the digital equivalent of a normal, everyday conversation, where people can come and go as they please. The company also trusts users to self-moderate rather than having a moderation system in place.

    Given the features Open Doors provides — as well as Truecaller’s history as a company that helps protect user privacy — it’s a safe bet the app will quickly gain a following.

  • YouTube Finally Expands Picture-in-Picture on iOS

    YouTube Finally Expands Picture-in-Picture on iOS

    YouTube has finally expanded a widely requested feature on iPhones and iPads: Picture-in-Picture (PiP).

    PiP is the ability to display a video in a floating window while performing other tasks on the device. YouTube has been one of the last platforms to adopt PiP on Apple devices, only adding it for YouTube TV at the end of March. The company is now [rolling out PiP to more iOS and iPadOS devices](Picture-in-picture expanding to more people and devices – YouTube CommunityPicture-in-picture expanding to more people and devices – YouTube Community) — although with one big caveat: some features will be for Premium members only.

    Picture-in-Picture (PiP) is now rolling out to iPhone and iPad devices (running iOS and iPadOS 15.0 or higher) over the next several days. We recognize this has been a slow roll out for a highly requested feature, and want to thank everyone who shared feedback during experiments (including recently on youtube.com/new), and waited patiently for this moment!

    Despite the limitations, YouTube’s announcement is good news for iOS and iPadOS users.

  • Google Hangouts Is Shutting Down November 2022

    Google Hangouts Is Shutting Down November 2022

    Google is shaking up its messaging efforts yet again, urging users to migrate from Hangouts to Google chat before November 2022.

    Google has been working to replace Hangouts for the last couple of years but is now telling customers it will shutter the service in November 2022. Google already moved its Workspace customers over to chat in March 2022, but the November deadline will impact anyone still using the defunct service.

    “For most people, conversations are automatically migrated from Hangouts to Chat, so it’s easy to pick up where you left off,” writes Ravi Kanneganti, Product Manager, Google Chat. “However, we encourage users who wish to keep a copy of their Hangouts data to use Google Takeout to download their data before Hangouts is no longer available in November 2022 by following these instructions. You can visit the Help Center for more information on the differences between Chat and Hangouts, the migration timelines, and why we recommend downloading your Hangouts data.”

    Google may hold a world record for the number of chat and messaging apps developed (and abandoned) by a single company.

    When discussing Google’s “decade and a half of instability” in the messaging space, Ars Technica Ron Amadeo made this comment:

    Because no single company has ever failed at something this badly, for this long, with this many different products (and because it has barely been a month since the rollout of Google Chat), the time has come to outline the history of Google messaging. Prepare yourselves, dear readers, for a non-stop rollercoaster of new product launches, neglected established products, unexpected shut-downs, and legions of confused, frustrated, and exiled users.

    Only time will tell if Chat will fare any better than Google’s previous messaging efforts. In the meantime, users are left to make yet another transition from one product to another.

  • GitHub Is ‘Sunsetting’ Atom in Favor of Microsoft VS Code

    GitHub Is ‘Sunsetting’ Atom in Favor of Microsoft VS Code

    GitHub has announced it is “sunsetting,” aka killing off, its popular Atom text editor with a view to replacing it with Microsoft Visual Studio Code (VS Code).

    GitHub first introduced Atom in 2014, with the app serving as the foundation of the Electron framework. The app quickly became popular among developers for its extensible nature and cross-platform design. GitHub was acquired by Microsoft in 2018, and the latter has been aggressively pushing its own VS Code. GitHub is now throwing its weight behind VS Code.

    “When we formally introduced Atom in 2014, we set out to give developers a text editor that was deeply customizable but also easy to use—one that made it possible for more people to build software,” the company writes in a blog post. “While that goal of growing the software creator community remains, we’ve decided to retire Atom in order to further our commitment to bringing fast and reliable software development to the cloud via Microsoft Visual Studio Code and GitHub Codespaces.”

    GitHub says, despite making the announcement now, it will not archive the project until December 15, 2022, in an effort to give developers time to make the switch.

    Given Atom’s popularity, it’s a safe bet the project will be forked and live on in some form or another. Only time will tell if it ever achieves the popularity it once had.

  • Goodbye and Good Riddance: Internet Explorer Is Officially History

    Goodbye and Good Riddance: Internet Explorer Is Officially History

    Microsoft has officially retired Internet Explorer, ending support for the web browser that was instrumental in helping the company defeat Netscape.

    Internet Explorer has been on the scene for nearly 27 years, and was Microsoft’s answer to Netscape. Netscape helped popularize the web browser and was poised to help the browser become a platform of its own, one that could pose a threat to Windows. Microsoft went on the attack, using Internet Explorer, and ultimately won the first Browser Wars.

    Fast-forward more than two decades and Internet Explorer is barely a footnote, long since replaced with Microsoft Edge and eclipsed by Google Chrome, Apple’s Safari, and Netscape’s successor, Mozilla Firefox. Microsoft has been working to move users toward Edge, and has now ended all support for Internet Explorer.

    Read more: Microsoft Edge Has Worst Default Privacy Settings

    “After 25+ years of helping people use and experience the web, Internet Explorer (IE) is officially retired and out of support as of today, June 15, 2022,” writes Sean Lyndersay, General Manager, Microsoft Edge Enterprise. “To many millions of you, thank you for using Internet Explorer as your gateway to the internet.”

    For those who remember how awful it was to support Internet Explorer when creating websites, trying to make them compatible with the browser’s horrible standards support — goodbye and good riddance. You won’t be missed.

  • Unrelenting Spam Forces Google to Suspend RCS in India

    Unrelenting Spam Forces Google to Suspend RCS in India

    Google may be throwing its full weight behind RCS messaging, but it’s been forced to suspend the feature in India due to businesses abusing it to spam users.

    RCS is the successor to SMS, adding many of the features that have come to define other messaging platforms, such as Apple’s iMessage and WhatsApp. RCS adds in group administration, read receipts, file sharing, end-to-end encryption and much more. Google has been aggressively pushing the tech for some time, but it is now pulling back in the Indian market after uses complained of unrelenting spam messages.

    Read more: Google SVP Wants to Help Apple Support RCS Messaging

    “Google Messages is becoming the worst possible Google app. The amount of ads its sending is crazy, multiple every day. Yes, these are NOT messages, these are ads being pushed by the app to Indian users. It’s the default messaging app on most Android phones here.”

    — Ishan Agarwal (@ishanagarwal24), May 16, 2022

    According to TechCrunch, the complaints have led Google to suspend RCS in India for the time being.

    “Some businesses are abusing our anti-spam policies to send promotional messages to users in India,” Google said in a statement. Google is disabling the feature while it “works with the industry to improve the experience for users.”

    RCS is a major step forward for messaging, and it’s a shame that businesses have ruined the experience to such a degree that Google had to take these measures. Hopefully the company will be able to put adequate safeguards in place to prevent this from happening in the future and pave the way for a return of RCS.

  • Application Security: Why it’s the Weakest Link, How it Can be Improved

    Application Security: Why it’s the Weakest Link, How it Can be Improved

    It is not so much that application security is the weakest link in the security chain, but rather it is the most overlooked one. Not taking the proper actions to secure the systems will leave them packed with vulnerabilities. For this reason, applications are frequently targeted by malicious attackers. The best way to protect your app from a cyber attack is to perform application security with testing and eliminate the vulnerabilities.

    Why Is Application Security Important?

    The importance of application security has been growing in recent years, and this trend will continue into the future. Nowadays, most applications are connected to the cloud. This makes them easy to access over several different networks and increases their vulnerability levels through the roof. While securing the networks is critical, application security is even more important, as most hackers try to breach data by finding exploits in the apps.

    How Can Application Security Be Improved With Testing

    Testing is a vital step in ensuring your application is secure. There are many different types of testing tools used to identify vulnerabilities in different stages of the SDLC. For best results, it is recommended you combine multiple tools to enforce application security from the beginning to the end. Here are short summaries of some of the most important application testing tools.

    SAST

    Static application security testing tools are used to detect vulnerabilities before the app is live and running. Even before the code is compiled, these tools scan the source code to identify any exploits that hackers might use for a breach. When the tool finds a weakness in the code it reports it to the developer and suggests a possible remediation path.

    This method of testing is also known as white-box testing. It allows testing the inner structure of software and it is a great way to check the integration capabilities with external systems.

    Most developers only worry about performance and how fast the application executes operations, neglecting the security aspect. SAST tools are just what they need to balance these two areas out.

    DAST

    Dynamic application security testing tools are used for detecting vulnerabilities in web apps while they are in production. Contrary to SAST tools, they identify weaknesses in running applications, but they can also be implemented early in the SDLC. Most organizations use the tools in the QA and testing phases.

    The method of testing that DAST tools perform is called black-box testing. Namely, DAST tools cannot access the source code – they must test the application from the outside. Once they detect a vulnerability they report it to the security team and advise immediate remediation.

    The idea of DAST tools is to allow you to see the app’s behavior from the point of view of a hacker. This way you can take action to improve the app’s weaknesses before an attacker has a chance to exploit them.

    IAST

    Interactive application security testing tools, just like DAST tools, can test applications while they are running. However, they are considered an upgrade on DAST tools because they can test both web and mobile applications.

    In addition, just like SAST tools, they can test the source code. For this reason, their method is called gray-box testing. As you can already guess, IAST tools combine the best of both worlds and provide more accurate results than SAST and DAST. This is largely thanks to reason – they use multiple sources of data to confirm a vulnerability. This makes them suitable for use in any stage of the SDLC, even in production. The only downside to them is that they are much harder to implement than the other two.

    Conclusion

    Ensuring application security must be a top priority for any organization. Cyber-attacks are too big of a risk to overlook that can cost your business irreparable damage in terms of money and reputation. This is why you need to take advantage of every tool at your disposal to protect your system and prevent data breaches. Application security testing tools can do wonders to improve the way you protect your apps. As a final note, keep in mind that these tools aren’t a replacement for all security practices – they are just a part of the joint effort to stay secure.

  • Automation Leads to 10% Cut in TomTom’s Workforce

    Automation Leads to 10% Cut in TomTom’s Workforce

    Mapmaker TomTom is working to increase its level of automation, with a 10% reduction in its workforce being the result.

    Companies across industries are working to automate processes and leverage AI to accomplish tasks faster. TomTom is no exception as the company looks to automated mapmaking technologies. Unfortunately, according to Reuters, that automation comes at the expense of 10% of its roughly 500 Maps employees.

    “Regrettably, this will have an intended impact on approximately 500 employees in our Maps unit,” the company said in a statement. “The full assessment of the financial implications of the reset of the Maps unit is ongoing.”

    Despite the news, TomTom believes automated mapmaking tools will help the company build better maps and increase its reach.

  • Microsoft Telling Customers to Roll Back the Latest Windows 11 Update Over Issues

    Microsoft Telling Customers to Roll Back the Latest Windows 11 Update Over Issues

    Microsoft is encouraging its users roll back the latest optional Windows 11 update, as a result of issues it caused for some users.

    Microsoft released update KB5012643 on April 25, but some users experienced issues with .NET framework 3.5 apps.

    After installing KB5012643, some .NET Framework 3.5 apps might have issues or might fail to open. Affected apps are using certain optional components in .NET Framework 3.5, such as Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) and Windows Workflow (WWF) components.

    The company is suggesting impacted users uninstall the update.

    Workaround: To mitigate this issue, you can uninstall KB5012643. To do this, select the Start button and type, Windows Update Settings, and select it. On the Windows Update settings window, select View Update History then select Uninstall Update. Find KB5012643 in the list and select it, then select Uninstall.

  • Brave and DuckDuckGo Push Back Against Google AMP

    Brave and DuckDuckGo Push Back Against Google AMP

    Brave and DuckDuckGo are pushing back against Google’s Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP), bypassing the technology in their browsers and apps.

    AMP is a framework developed and deployed by Google under the guise of helping webpages load faster, especially for mobile devices. When a user clicks on a search result, Google essentially pre-loads the web content, optimizes it, and then presents it to the user, with no visual indication the page is being served from Google’s servers instead of the publisher’s. Both Brave and DuckDuckGo’s web browsers will now work to de-AMP web pages, serving up the publisher’s original site instead of Google’s AMP version.

    Brave outlines their approach in a blog post:

    Brave will protect users from AMP in several ways. Where possible, De-AMP will rewrite links and URLs to prevent users from visiting AMP pages altogether. And in cases where that is not possible, Brave will watch as pages are being fetched and redirect users away from AMP pages before the page is even rendered, preventing AMP/Google code from being loaded and executed.

    DuckDuckGo is taking similar measures with their web browser, as well as all of their apps and browser extensions:

    NEW: our apps & extensions now protect against Google AMP tracking. When you load or share a Google AMP page anywhere from DuckDuckGo apps (iOS/Android/Mac) or extensions (Firefox/Chrome), the original publisher’s webpage will be used in place of the Google AMP version.

    DuckDuckGo (@DuckDuckGo), April 19, 2022

    There are a number of reasons why both companies are pushing back and adopting this approach. First and foremost, privacy is one of the biggest casualties of AMP, as Brave points out:

    AMP gives Google an even broader view of which pages people view on the Web, and how people interact with them. AMP encourages developers to more tightly integrate with Google servers and systems, and penalizes publishers with decreased search rankings and placements if they don’t, further allowing Google to track and profile users.

    AMP is also a security nightmare since users aren’t clearly informed that they are browsing a website from Google’s servers, and not from the site’s publishers. This, in turn, gives Google far more control, increasing their monopolization of the web. As Brave points out, AMP doesn’t even deliver the performance improvements Google touts.

    It’s hard not to see AMP, and its upcoming successor, as an unabashed attempt by Google to further control the future of the web. Thankfully, companies like Brave and DuckDuckGo are continuing to fight back.