cross pond high tech
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cross pond high tech

light views on high tech in both Europe and US
Curated by Philippe J DEWOST
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DuckDuckGo in 2021: Building the Privacy Super App

DuckDuckGo in 2021: Building the Privacy Super App | cross pond high tech | Scoop.it
From spreadprivacy.com - December 23, 2021 1:25 AM

Privacy-centric search engine DuckDuckGo is working on an "everyday" desktop browser, according to CEO Gabriel Weinberg. In a blog post, Weinberg said the company is building a desktop app "from the ground up" using OS-provided rendering engines rather than Chromium, the browser codebase underpinning Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, and other browsers.

 

  • This will allow DuckDuckGo to "strip away a lot of the unnecessary cruft and clutter that's accumulated over the years in major browsers," Weinberg said. 
  • The CEO noted that the browser will have default “robust privacy protection," meaning users won't have to turn it on in security settings.
  • Like its mobile version, the desktop browser will also contain a Fire button to erase stored data, tabs, and browsing history.
  • Early tests have shown the browser is “significantly faster” than Google Chrome, he claimed. It's now in closed beta testing on macOS, with no announced release date yet.
  • Also in the blog post, Weinberg went through the company's achievements in 2021. One of those was reaching 150 million downloads of its privacy apps for iOS and Android and Chromium extensions.
Philippe J DEWOST's insight:

Looks like Chromium is no longer "la coqueluche"...

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Secure Messaging Apps Comparison

Secure Messaging Apps Comparison | cross pond high tech | Scoop.it
From www.securemessagingapps.com - January 13, 2021 2:37 AM

This site compares secure messaging apps from a security & privacy point of view. These include Facebook Messenger, iMessage, Skype, Signal, Google Allo, Threema, Riot, Wire, Telegram, and Wickr. The best secure messaging app?

Philippe J DEWOST's insight:

In the midst of #WhatsAppGate, @Telegram announced 25 million new registrations in the past 72 hours, and more than half a billion active users.

 

Beyond simplistic comparisons buzzing through the #Kommentariat, the offer is much more abundant. Besides, Skype or Viber were not born out of the last rain.

 

While solutions seems to focus on #privacy enforcement, the question of interoperability is another possible avenue : after all, a large number of these apps are based on the open source #XMPP protocol from Jabber (and therefore Orange). Why not enforce some level of interconnection ?

 

Simplicity is the other issue, and there WhatsApp has a huge advantage, given how easy it is to set up a group, whether for a family, project, or circumstantial powwow, and share photos and comments.

 

But simplicity also means not having to remember the application I was using in my last conversation with you !

more...
Philippe J DEWOST's curator insight, January 13, 2021 2:38 AM

En plein #WhatsAppGate, Telegram annonce 25 millions de nouveaux inscrits en 72h et franchit la barre du demi-milliard d'utilisateurs actifs.

Au delà des comparaisons simplistes qui ont fait le buzz dans le Kommentariat, laissant accroire qu'il n'y aurait que l'alternative iMessage, Telegram ou Signal, l'offre est nettement plus abondante. D'ailleurs Skype ou Viber ne sont pas nés de la dernière pluie.

D'autres acteurs ne figurent pas encore dans ce tableau, comme #FireChat (qui fonctionne de proche en proche en mode décentralisé), le français Skred de Pierre Bellanger, Olvid, ou encore la messagerie sécurisée #Tchap développée sur base Riot par les pouvoirs publics.

Au delà du #RGPD se pose la vraie question de l'interopérabilité : après tout, une grande partie de ces apps sont parties du protocole open source #XMPPissu de Jabber (et donc d'Orange).

La simplicité est l'autre enjeu, et WhatsApp garde ici un avantage énorme tant il est facile de monter un groupe qu'il soit familial, projet, ou circonstanciel et d'y partager photos et propos.

Mais la simplicité c'est aussi ne pas avoir à se souvenir de l'application sur laquelle avait lieu ma dernière conversation avec vous !
Philippe J DEWOST's curator insight, January 16, 2021 9:50 AM

WhatsApp and Facebook bend the knee following customer backlash. #WhatsAppGate

https://techcrunch.com/2021/01/15/whatsapp-delays-new-data-sharing-policy-enforcement-to-may-15/
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Your Apps Know Where You Were Last Night, and They’re Not Keeping It Secret - at least 75 companies have access

Your Apps Know Where You Were Last Night, and They’re Not Keeping It Secret - at least 75 companies have access | cross pond high tech | Scoop.it
From www.nytimes.com - December 11, 2018 2:37 AM

Data reviewed by The Times shows over 235 million locations captured from more than 1.2 million unique devices during a three-day period in 2017.

The millions of dots on the map trace highways, side streets and bike trails — each one following the path of an anonymous cellphone user.

One path tracks someone from a home outside Newark to a nearby Planned Parenthood, remaining there for more than an hour. Another represents a person who travels with the mayor of New York during the day and returns to Long Island at night.

Yet another leaves a house in upstate New York at 7 a.m. and travels to a middle school 14 miles away, staying until late afternoon each school day. Only one person makes that trip: Lisa Magrin, a 46-year-old math teacher. Her smartphone goes with her.

An app on the device gathered her location information, which was then sold without her knowledge. It recorded her whereabouts as often as every two seconds, according to a database of more than a million phones in the New York area that was reviewed by The New York Times. While Ms. Magrin’s identity was not disclosed in those records, The Times was able to easily connect her to that dot.

The app tracked her as she went to a Weight Watchers meeting and to her dermatologist’s office for a minor procedure. It followed her hiking with her dog and staying at her ex-boyfriend’s home, information she found disturbing.

“It’s the thought of people finding out those intimate details that you don’t want people to know,” said Ms. Magrin, who allowed The Times to review her location data.

Like many consumers, Ms. Magrin knew that apps could track people’s movements. But as smartphones have become ubiquitous and technology more accurate, an industry of snooping on people’s daily habits has spread and grown more intrusive.

Lisa Magrin is the only person who travels regularly from her home to the school where she works. Her location was recorded more than 800 times there, often in her classroom .

A visit to a doctor’s office is also included. The data is so specific that The Times could determine how long she was there.

Ms. Magrin’s location data shows other often-visited locations, including the gym and Weight Watchers.

In about four months’ of data reviewed by The Times, her location was recorded over 8,600 times — on average, once every 21 minutes.

Philippe J DEWOST's insight:

Who is watching you ?

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Philippe J DEWOST's curator insight, December 10, 2018 3:19 PM

Lots of "brothers" are watching you via apps on your phone and without any of your consent.
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Rescooped by Philippe J DEWOST from Digital Sovereignty & Cyber Security
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Secure Messaging Apps Comparison

Secure Messaging Apps Comparison | cross pond high tech | Scoop.it
From www.securemessagingapps.com - January 16, 2021 9:50 AM

This site compares secure messaging apps from a security & privacy point of view. These include Facebook Messenger, iMessage, Skype, Signal, Google Allo, Threema, Riot, Wire, Telegram, and Wickr. The best secure messaging app?


Via Philippe J DEWOST
Philippe J DEWOST's insight:

WhatsApp and Facebook bend the knee following customer backlash. #WhatsAppGate

https://techcrunch.com/2021/01/15/whatsapp-delays-new-data-sharing-policy-enforcement-to-may-15/

more...
Philippe J DEWOST's curator insight, January 13, 2021 2:37 AM

In the midst of #WhatsAppGate, @Telegram announced 25 million new registrations in the past 72 hours, and more than half a billion active users.

 

Beyond simplistic comparisons buzzing through the #Kommentariat, the offer is much more abundant. Besides, Skype or Viber were not born out of the last rain.

 

While solutions seems to focus on #privacy enforcement, the question of interoperability is another possible avenue : after all, a large number of these apps are based on the open source #XMPP protocol from Jabber (and therefore Orange). Why not enforce some level of interconnection ?

 

Simplicity is the other issue, and there WhatsApp has a huge advantage, given how easy it is to set up a group, whether for a family, project, or circumstantial powwow, and share photos and comments.

 

But simplicity also means not having to remember the application I was using in my last conversation with you !
Philippe J DEWOST's curator insight, January 13, 2021 2:38 AM

En plein #WhatsAppGate, Telegram annonce 25 millions de nouveaux inscrits en 72h et franchit la barre du demi-milliard d'utilisateurs actifs.

Au delà des comparaisons simplistes qui ont fait le buzz dans le Kommentariat, laissant accroire qu'il n'y aurait que l'alternative iMessage, Telegram ou Signal, l'offre est nettement plus abondante. D'ailleurs Skype ou Viber ne sont pas nés de la dernière pluie.

D'autres acteurs ne figurent pas encore dans ce tableau, comme #FireChat (qui fonctionne de proche en proche en mode décentralisé), le français Skred de Pierre Bellanger, Olvid, ou encore la messagerie sécurisée #Tchap développée sur base Riot par les pouvoirs publics.

Au delà du #RGPD se pose la vraie question de l'interopérabilité : après tout, une grande partie de ces apps sont parties du protocole open source #XMPPissu de Jabber (et donc d'Orange).

La simplicité est l'autre enjeu, et WhatsApp garde ici un avantage énorme tant il est facile de monter un groupe qu'il soit familial, projet, ou circonstanciel et d'y partager photos et propos.

Mais la simplicité c'est aussi ne pas avoir à se souvenir de l'application sur laquelle avait lieu ma dernière conversation avec vous !
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DNS-over-HTTPS will eventually roll out in all major browsers, despite ISP opposition

DNS-over-HTTPS will eventually roll out in all major browsers, despite ISP opposition | cross pond high tech | Scoop.it
From www.zdnet.com - November 14, 2019 12:34 PM

All six major browser vendors have plans to support DNS-over-HTTPS (or DoH), a protocol that encrypts DNS traffic and helps improve a user's privacy on the web.

The DoH protocol has been one of the year's hot topics. It's a protocol that, when deployed inside a browser, it allows the browser to hide DNS requests and responses inside regular-looking HTTPS traffic.

Doing this makes a user's DNS traffic invisible to third-party network observers, such as ISPs. But while users love DoH and have deemed it a privacy boon, ISPs, networking operators, and cyber-security vendors hate it.

A UK ISP called Mozilla an "internet villain" for its plans to roll out DoH, and a Comcast-backed lobby group has been caught preparing a misleading document about DoH that they were planning to present to US lawmakers in the hopes of preventing DoH's broader rollout.

However, this may be a little too late. ZDNet has spent the week reaching out to major web browser providers to gauge their future plans regarding DoH, and all vendors plan to ship it, in one form or another.

Philippe J DEWOST's insight:

Moving up the stack and the value chain.

Encrypting DNS traffic into HTTPS helps improve user's #privacy on the Internet, and this rather technical piece explains how to activate it in most major browsers, except Apple's Safari.

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