online

Infopackets Reader Franco I. writes: " Dear Dennis, Please help - someone is threatening to share a video of me (in the buff) on Facebook! A few days ago, I met a girl on Omegle (a chat website). We had lots of shared interests and seemed to hit it ... off pretty good. After some back and forth, things escalated to the point where she started sharing pictures of herself scantily dressed. She asked for my phone number, then wanted to do a video call using Google Chat . As soon as I answered, she was already unclothed with toys in hand. She claimed her microphone was broken, so I never got to ... (view more)

Four months after the end of a subsidy program for home broadband, individual states are figuring out if and how they can expand access. Meanwhile the debate over the value and impact of the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) continues to rage. ... The program launched in 2021 as part of a wider infrastructure package. It was available to households earning up to double the federal poverty level or with somebody in a government assistance program. Under the program, households would get a government-funded discount of up to $30 a month on broadband services and a one-off discount of $100 for a ... (view more)

Dear Infopackets Readers, I would like to introduce the launch of an exciting, new video-based tech support Q ... (view more)

Two proposed laws to boost online privacy and security for children have received widespread backing in the Senate. Whether the measures will make it into law remains unclear. The laws are the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) and the Children and ... Teen's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA 2.0). They've now been combined into a single package for administrative and voting purposes. 86 Senators agreed the laws should be considered by the Senate while just one voted against. That means they will go to a final approval vote after further discussion. (Source: ctmirror.org ) Greater Parental Controls ... (view more)

It's no secret that advertisers and other groups buy and sell data about people's Internet use. But a new report says the information is far more detailed and specific than realized. The Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) says it's much easier ... than people realized to identify specific individuals, in some cases threatening national security. The data isn't hacked or stolen, but rather made available to people bidding for online advertising slots and trying to reach a particular auction. The basics of how this work are well known. Legitimate online businesses track users online but don't ... (view more)

Google has launched sets of two legal cases against scammers. The cases involve artificial intelligence tools and copyright claims, though could have wider implications for malicious online activity as a whole. The first case is against scammers who ... are trying to take advantage of interest in generative AI tools that can "create" text and images. They've made online posts and ads encouraging people to download Google's AI tool, Bard. The problem is that Bard isn't something you've downloaded, but rather an online service accessed through a website. What victims are actually downloading is ... (view more)

More than four in ten people are addicted to Internet use, according to a university study. The researchers put respondents into five categories on what they are calling an "Internet addition spectrum." Researchers at the University of Surrey in the ... United Kingdom asked 796 participants a range of questions about the way they use the Internet, including their emotions and motivations. They then looked for similarities between respondents to come up with the categories. (Source: tandfonline.com ) Growing Unease The first category, Casual Users, covered 14.86 percent of respondents. They mainly ... (view more)

Nine in ten Americans are now online according to new figures. But it's the United Kingdom that is "most online" and least subject to Internet restrictions. The figures come from Proxyrack, a company with a clear interest in places where users may ... want to disguise their identity of location. It wanted to see if there was any connection between how widespread Internet use was and how freely people could use the Internet. (Source: proxyrack.com ) The usage figures came from Statista and shows 99,231 out of every 100,000 people in the UK had used the internet recently. That was followed by Japan ... (view more)

Internet users who find themselves distracted online can pay up to $9 a month to block certain websites. The service has some obvious limitations but does prompt debate about Internet addiction. The Freedom service offers users four types of block: ... block all Internet access, block specific websites, block specific apps, or block all sites except those the user has specifically listed. It can cover computers, phones and tablets. After a free trial of seven "block sessions" users must pay for some features. This includes use on an unlimited devices and scheduling. This carries a subscription ... (view more)

A US official has beaten a Russian opponent to become head of a major Internet body. The result could make a big difference to online technology, particularly on the issue of blocks and censorship. Doreen Bogdan-Martin beat out Rashid Ismailov to ... lead the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). She prevailed 139-25 in an election where every country had one vote. (Source: politico.eu ) The ITU is a United Nations agency that started in 1865 as a way to make sure telegraph systems in different countries could use a compatible system. It now oversees many cross-border tech issues, ... (view more)