Facebook and Instagram Try to Scare iOS Users Into Accepting Tracking

Facebook and Instagram are resorting to scare tactics to convince iOS users to allow the companies to track them.

PSA: Beware of FedEx Tracking Texting Scam

Gizmodo is warning of a new scam involving text messages posing as FedEx tracking notifications. Android and iOS users (including this writer) have received text messages including what purports to be a FedEx tracking number and a link to set…

Google Restricting Cookies In Chrome To Improve Privacy

The days of cookies may be coming to an end as Google announces its plans to phase out third-party cookies within two years. The first indications of Google’s plans came in August when the company announced a new initiative called…

Millions of Child-Tracking Smartwatches Exposed In Flaw

TechCrunch has reported on a vulnerability in GPS-enabled smartwatches for kids that could allow anyone to track them. In an exclusive release to TechCrunch, security firm Pen Test Partners detailed their findings. The researchers found a vulnerability in the cloud…

Facebook Defends Tracking Users Even They Opt Out

According to The Hill, Facebook has admitted to senators that it ignores users’ settings and continues to track their location in order to profit off of that information. Senators Christopher Coons (D-Del.) and Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) had questioned how the…

Google Reminds You It’s Tracking Your Every Move with Creepy, Somewhat Useful New Maps Feature

Here’s the thing: We all know that Google knows everything about us – and of course that includes where you are and where you’ve been. But seeing all of that tracking in a neat little timeline is a tad disconcerting.…

Facebook Says Its Intentions Were Pure with Those Rainbow Profile Pics

When the Supreme Court ruled in favor of same sex marriage, Facebook was ablaze with status updates, link shares, and photo uploads. If you were on Facebook in the hours following the landmark decision, it sure seemed like the entire…

Google Launches Upgraded URLs For AdWords Ads

Google announced the launch of new “Upgraded URLs” for AdWords Ads, which enable advertisers to spend less time managing tracking updates while reducing crawl and load times for their websites. They also come with new ValueTrack parameters, which provide new…

Twitter Wants to Track Which Apps You Have on Your Phone; Here’s How to Stop It

Twitter has just added a section to its security & privacy terms that explains how the company is about the start “collecting and occasionally updating the list of apps installed on your mobile device”. Re/code first spotted the updated page,…

Google Pays $17 Million To States Over ‘Safari-Gate’

Last year, Google was handed the largest fine for a single company in FTC history when it was penalized to the tune of $22.5 million in relation to the tracking of Safari users. Critics felt the fine didn’t go far…

Google Adds Auto-Event Tracking To Tag Manager

Google announced on Thursday that it has launched Auto-Event Tracking for Google Tag Manager, enabling users to measure events happening on the page without HTML or Javascript. You can use the Event Listener tag to tell Tag Manger when you…

Senator Al Franken’s Privacy Bill Is Approved By Senate Committee

We brought you word earlier this month that Sen. Al Franken was trying his hand at passing a privacy bill again. The Location Privacy Protection Act would require any and all app makers to request permission to track users before…

Archify Is A Tool You Might Actually Want Tracking Everything You Do Online

Sometimes people actually wish everything they did was tracked online. That may be a hard concept for some to swallow, but surely you’ve encountered an experience where you ran across some piece of online content, but then want to see…

Google Tag Manager Lets You Consolidate Site Tags Into One Snippet Of Code

Google has announced the launch of Google Tag Manager, a new tool to consolidate the various tags you may use for your site into one snippet of code, and to manage from a single web interface. Users can add and…

IBM’s New Augmented Reality App Will Track Your Grocery Shopping

If you simply can’t get enough targeted advertising into your life, IBM’s new augmented reality mobile shopping app is probably for you. IBM research scientists today announced the app, which will allow customers to scan store shelves with their smartphone…

Googler: Nobody Wants To Be Tracked Online

Last week, Google launched Google Consumer Surveys. These were designed both as a way for publishers to potentially make a bit of revenue, as well as a way to easily and cheaply collect market research. So far, at least Googlers…

Twitter Sells Past Tweets For Reference

Twitter is now offering access to 30 days of historical tweets through Gnip. The service, called 30-Day Replay, would be a handy tool for companies that already keep an eye on their social media presence but need to do some…

Is Facebook Tracking Everywhere You Go Online?

Is it possible that Facebook is tracking your web browsing activity, even when you are logged out? According to Australian hacker and writer Nik Cubrilovic, Facebook could know that you are reading this article, simply because we, like most sites…

South Park Does Steve Jobs Tonight, Looks Promising

Historically, it’s not exactly been an honor to make a cameo on South Park.  Just ask Barbara Streisand, immortalized as MechaStreisand, a giant malevolent robot that hid a special crystal in its giant nose. Or ask Ben Affleck, who was…