Like a cat, the Test Pilot program has had many lives. It originally started as an Add-on before we relaunched it three years ago. Then in January, we announced that we were evolving our culture of experimentation, and as a result we closed the Test Pilot program to give us time to further explore what was next. We learned a lot from the Test...
Researchers found a clicker Trojan bundled with over 33 apps distributed through the Google Play Store and downloaded by Android users over 100 million times. The malware was designed as a malicious module added to seemingly harmless applications such as audio players, barcode scanners, dictionaries, and a host of other various types of ordinary software most people would install on their Android devices. These...
Privacy has been a renewed focus with Apple’s next operating system update. One new iOS 13 privacy feature could have sweeping consequences for messaging and online call apps. In iOS 13, Apple will not allow apps to run voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) in the background when the programs are not actively in use. Many apps that offer VoIP services currently run in the background,...
Your web browser should never act as surveillance software. Unfortunately Google Chrome’s surveillance methods make it highly insecure by allowing trackers to follow you around the web. Over a recent week of Web surfing, I peered under the hood of Google Chrome and found it brought along a few thousand friends. Shopping, news and even government sites quietly tagged my browser to let ad...
Firefox (referred to as Fx) is a free and open source browser developed by the Mozilla Foundation. Mozilla’s team continues to focus on fixing bugs and adding useful features. Improving the user experience is especially important to the team. Users will enjoy that Firefox 67 focuses on speed, privacy, and security. In fact, you’ll get all of these things straight out of the box....
Mozilla is scheduled to add a new user anti-fingerprinting technique to Firefox with the release of version 67, scheduled for mid-May this year. Advertising networks often sniff certain browser features, such as the window size to create user profiles and track users as they resize their browser and move across new URLs and browser tabs. Called “letterboxing,” this new technique adds “gray spaces” to...
Google is urging users to update Chrome across all platforms after a critical vulnerability was discovered and patched. The vulnerability exploits a security flaw known as CVE-2019-5786. The security flaw is a memory management issue in Chrome’s FileReader which gives hackers the opportunity to inject and execute malicious code. Security researchers at Google and Microsoft have observed attackers using a combination of a patched...
When Facebook users learned last March about Facebook trackers and that the social media giant had given their sensitive information to political-data firm Cambridge Analytica, Mozilla (parent company of the security-focused browser Firefox) reacted fast: Within eight hours, the product team had built a browser extension called the Facebook Container. The plug-in, now the most popular browser extension Mozilla has ever built (1.5 million...
Firefox parent Mozilla is returning to back the Tor Project, its long-time ally, after it committed to matching all donations made to fund Tor, the open source initiative to improve online privacy which has just started its annual end of year funding drive. Tor announced Mozilla’s support today, extending the pair’s partnership which last year helped Tor raise over $400,000 from a similar campaign last...
Facebook and Google have both been hit with lawsuits claiming that the Silicon Valley giants secretly track their users’ locations against their will and use the information to pad its advertising business. The class action complaint against Facebook, which was filed by Brett Heeger last Friday in San Francisco federal court, said the social network tracks its users even after they’ve opted out of...
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