John Lister

Google has ditched plans to block third-party cookies in the Chrome browser. It says it will instead let users "make an informed choice" - a change that's upset privacy campaigners. A cookie is a text file placed by a website on a user's computer. ... The site can then retrieve information from the file the next time the user visits, for example to log them into an account or to provide a personalized website experience such as a localized weather forecast. Many cookies are "first party," meaning they only collect and store data about a user's activity on the site which issued the cookies. ... (view more)

Quantum computers could be practical in just three years from now according to a manufacturer. The technology could transform the speed and capability of computers. Oxford Ionics says it has not only produced a quantum computer chip with twice the ... performance of any existing chip, but that it could mass-produce its new design without needing specialist facilities. The idea of quantum computing has been explored for many years and aims to overcome one of the biggest limitations of traditional computing. Ultimately existing computers simply store data as either a 0 or a 1 (a bit), usually ... (view more)

Google has significantly scaled back its use of AI-generated "answers" on its search results page. It's also sourcing less of the "facts" from discussion forums such as Reddit. The changes are to the "AI Overview" feature, which replaced a similar ... feature called "Search Generative Experience". In both cases, it meant Google creating text that appeared at the top of the search results page, ahead of the normal list of links to relevant websites. The feature is primarily designed to answer questions without the need for the user to visit a website. The "answers" are a summary of information on ... (view more)

Reports that hackers have got their hands on 10 billion passwords have been slightly overblown. The file includes passwords up to 20 years old and many may never have been used at all. The "leak" involves an online post of a text file dubbed ... "RockYou 2024" which is said to contain 9,948,575,739 unique passwords, all stored in plain text. It appears to be an update from a similar file published in 2021, with "only" 1.5 billion of the passwords added since that time. Cybernews estimates it contains passwords compiled from around 4,000 databases over the past 20 years. (Source: cybernews.com ) ... (view more)

Microsoft has competition in the market for extending Windows 10 after its scheduled end of life. An independent company is promising simple-to-use security updates - with a cost. Officially, Microsoft will stop issuing free security updates for ... Windows 10 after October 14, 2025, just over 10 years after the system was released. That's not got a great reaction given Microsoft heavily implied there would be no new version after 10, and that it has arguably made Windows 11 an unnecessarily difficult upgrade through new hardware security requirements. If all goes to plan, anyone wanting to keep ... (view more)

Microsoft says Russian hackers accessed its customers' emails during an attack earlier this year. It had previously only said Microsoft's own staff were victims. The company has not yet said how many customers are affected but says it has contacted ... them with details of the attack. Microsoft was breached by a group called Midnight Blizzard, believed to operate from Russia. The government there has not commented on the claims. The new revelations follow a Microsoft announcement in January that a small proportion of its corporate email accounts had been accessed by Midnight Blizzard. The attacks ... (view more)

The next version of Android will make it easier to diagnose performance and hardware issues. It will remove the need to use hidden codes. The changes are coming to Android 15, which is expected to roll out in finished form in August. Google has just ... released the third beta testing version of the update and testers have noticed a new feature in the System section of the Settings app. Labeled "Device diagnostics", the feature has two elements. The first, "Evaluation Mode" reportedly lets users "use one device to assess another device", which sounds more useful for dedicated tech enthusiasts or ... (view more)

Facebook and Instagram's attempts to avoid users being misled by AI-generated photos have backfired. Several users report photographs they took themselves as being falsely labeled as made by AI tools. Meta, which owns both sites plus social ... discussion tool Threads, has started adding a "Made with AI" label to images. In some cases it's there because the users has ticked a box to say they used AI to make the image. In other cases, it's because Meta's detection tools have flagged the image. The site has felt pressure to clearly indicate AI-generated images that could be designed to fool and ... (view more)

A particularly embarrassing bug makes it easy to send emails that appear to be from Microsoft employees. It's bad news for the public as it could make phishing scams appear more credible. The good news is that it only works if the recipient is using ... Outlook, though "good" is a comparative term because there are over 400 million Outlook users worldwide. (Source: cyberdaily.au ) Users Asked to Remain Vigilant Exactly how the bug works and where its found still isn't known, as the security researcher says they do not want to give details that could help potential attackers exploit the bug on a ... (view more)

The makers of a low-tech phone say they want people to use it as little as possible. But they've added a "proper" screen that brings the price up to $399. The third incarnation of the Light Phone continues to raise questions about exactly who the ... intended users are, though the makers say sales have topped 100,000. (Source: techcrunch.com ) Previous versions had virtually no features: the Light Phone 2 made phone calls and accepted text messages, but had no Internet browser or installable apps. Instead it simply performed a few basic built-in tasks such as playing music files, giving driving ... (view more)