Facebook parent Meta announced today it’s further centralizing various user settings across its suite of apps — Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger. As a result, several existing settings will be relocated to Meta’s “Accounts Center” feature, first launched in 2020. Specifically, the changes will see Meta moving settings related to personal details, passwords, security options and ad preferences to this area, which is accessible from the Settings page within each app.
Source:
- https://techcrunch.com/2023/01/19/meta-centralizes-more-user-and-privacy-settings-across-its-apps-announces-changes-to-ads-controls/
Uber is rolling out a targeted ad system that will let companies serve ads to people in the Uber app based on the specific places they have been, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal. The announcement raises serious privacy concerns given the Uber app hoovers location data, knows exactly the destination people travel to using its app, and its service is often used for trips when people cannot drive themselves such as to doctors offices, abortion clinics, religious or cultural centers, and a host of other potentially sensitive places.
Source:
- https://www.vice.com/en/article/v7vxv8/uber-will-start-serving-you-targeted-ads-based-on-where-you-go
This week Meta revealed the Meta Quest Pro, a new virtual reality headset that costs about as much as a pre-inflation mortgage payment. It’s a sleek device, with upgraded hardware, advanced features—and cameras that point inward to track your eyes and face. Eye tracking data could be used “in order to understand whether people engage with an advertisement or not,” said Meta’s head of global affair Nick Clegg in an interview with the Financial Times. (Meta didn’t respond to Gizmodo’s request for comment.)
Source:
- https://gizmodo.com/meta-quest-pro-vr-headset-track-eyes-ads-facebook-1849654424
Proton has announced that they will be unifying and rebranding all their products with the company being called "Proton" instead of "ProtonMail". Now, they will start offering plans with all of their services—mail, calendar, VPN, and online drive—in a single package. This includes a package with maximum of 500 GB of storage on the drive and mail. Also, they have updated their UI as well as their main website URL to proton.me from protonmail.com.
Source:
- https://proton.me/news/updated-proton?ref=pme-notbar
A report puts in check the company’s privacy focus due to a search agreement with Microsoft that let the Redmond company continue tracking users on the browser.
As reported by Bleeping Computer, security researcher Zach Edwards posted on Twitter that “while DuckDuckGo blocks Google and Facebook trackers, it allowed Microsoft trackers to continue running.” The company explains that “this issue is occurring on browsers and only pertains to non-DuckDuckGo websites.”
Source:
- https://9to5mac.com/2022/05/25/duckduckgo-privacy-microsoft-permission-tracking/
