To understand how ACR works, imagine a constant, real-time Shazam-like service running in the background while your TV is on. It identifies content displayed on your screen, including programs from cable TV boxes, streaming services, or gaming consoles. ACR does this by capturing continuous screenshots and cross-referencing them with a vast database of media content and advertisements. According to The Markup, ACR can capture and identify up to 7,200 images per hour, or approximately two images every second.
After consulting Post lawyers, I developed what we felt was the safest possible sourcing system. If I planned to use someone in a story, I asked them to send me a picture of their government ID, then tried to forget it. I kept notes from reporting conversations in an encrypted drive, never writing down anyone's name. To Google-check facts and identities, I used a private browser with no search history. I retitled every Signal chat by agency - "Transportation Employee," "FDA Reviewer," "EPA Scientist" -
I do not want AI in my web browser. I just don't. I also don't want companies collecting information about me, or sponsored content and product integrations. All those bits make me want to pull my hair out. I like my privacy and want to browse, you know, the old-fashioned way. I do use AI (on occasion), but only locally-installed AI and only for specific purposes (such as learning Python or researching a topic when I don't want to use a standard search engine).
The links are sent to people seeking a range of services, including those offering insurance quotes, job listings, and referrals for pet sitters and tutors. To eliminate the hassle of collecting usernames and passwords-and for users to create and enter them-many such services instead require users to provide a cell phone number when signing up for an account. The services then send authentication links or passcodes by SMS when the users want to log in.
Within a couple of years of ChatGPT coming out, I had come to rely on the artificial-intelligence tool, for my work as a professor of plant sciences at the University of Cologne in Germany. Having signed up for OpenAI's subscription plan, ChatGPT Plus, I used it as an assistant every day - to write e-mails, draft course descriptions, structure grant applications, revise publications, prepare lectures, create exams and analyse student responses, and even as an interactive tool as part of my teaching.
The FreedomBox project, kicked off by original FSF legal boffin Eben Moglen, aims to make it easy to run your own private server, and get your files, photos, email, and other data out of the enfolding pseudopodia of giant cloud providers (mostly based in the USA) and into your own home. You can buy hardware with the software preinstalled, or download installation media, but there's another and maybe more appealing option: one of Debian's built-in Blends.
OpenAI has added age prediction features to ChatGPT, meant to identify and bolster protections for underage users. These age detection plans were announced in December alongside updated guidelines for interacting with teens, and follow a rise in similar age-gating efforts from online platforms, including Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, and Roblox. ChatGPT's age prediction model works by examining behavioral and account-level signals, including a user's stated age, how old the account is, when the user is active, and usage patterns over time.
Modern digital teams depend on reliable data flows - whether that's monitoring search visibility, validating ads, testing apps across regions, or running automated QA at scale. In all of these cases, a proxy layer can help businesses manage IP rotation, session control, and traffic distribution in a way that's more predictable than relying on "best effort" network conditions. This review looks at Proxys.io from a practical, business-first angle:
If you're at all concerned about privacy, the rise of AI personal assistants can feel alarming. It's difficult to use one without sharing personal information, which is retained by the model's parent company. With OpenAI already testing advertising, it's easy to imagine the same data collection that fuels Facebook and Google creeping into your chatbot conversations. A new project, launched in December by Signal co-founder Moxie Marlinspike, is showing what a privacy-conscious AI service might look like.
Google this week announced the public rollout of a beta Gemini feature called Personal Intelligence. It gives Gemini access to your Gmail, Google Photos, YouTube, and Google Search data, if you grant permission, which you can do individually (for example, you can grant permission for YouTube access but not Gmail). The rollout will take place over the coming weeks, and the feature is exclusive to English-speaking Google AI Pro or AI Ultra plan holders in the U.S.
If you track your children's location using tech, you're not alone. A 2024 survey by Pew Research Center found that one in four parents monitor their kids' whereabouts using GPS. But is that private data safe? Consumer Reports evaluated 15 popular kid-tracking devices, and here's what they found. Overall, Apple's AirTags and Apple Watches, eufy's SmartTrack Link, and Garmin's Bounce performed well when it came to privacy and data security.
