Smart glasses privacy reckoning: NY ban meets Meta's fix

Brave Says This is Not a Privacy Feature, But Using Containers Has Its Perks

Trình duyệt Brave 1.92 bổ sung tính năng Containers (thùng chứa) tích hợp, giúp cô lập cookie và dữ liệu trang web theo từng tab. Bốn loại container mặc định (Cá nhân, Làm việc, Mạng xã hội, Học tập) được cung cấp sẵn, kèm tùy chọn tạo container tùy chỉnh hoặc tạm thời.

Lập trình viên nên đọc bài này để hiểu cách tích hợp và tối ưu hóa các tính năng mới trong Brave Browser như Containers, giúp phát triển ứng dụng web có thể tương tác hiệu quả với các chế độ riêng biệt của người dùng, từ đó nâng cao trải nghiệm và bảo mật cho người dùng cuối.

Meta wants its AI glasses to seem less creepy. Its AI strategy says otherwise.

Meta announced a new safeguard for its AI glasses that disables the camera if the recording LED light is tampered with, responding to concerns about covert surveillance. However, the move is undercut by Meta's broader AI data strategy: on the same day, the company announced that Meta AI can use anyone's public Instagram photos to generate AI images unless users opt out. Meta is also reportedly testing glasses that continuously record audio and take photos every few seconds, faces lawsuits over AI glasses privacy violations, records employee keystrokes to train AI, and plans to sell targeted ads based on AI chat data. Critics argue the LED safeguard is a cosmetic fix that does little to address Meta's systemic pattern of expanding data collection and eroding user privacy.

Supreme Court won't block Texas app-store age check

The US Supreme Court declined to block Texas's App Store Accountability Act, allowing the law to remain in effect while legal challenges continue in lower courts. The law requires Apple and Google to verify users' ages when setting up accounts, categorizing them into age bands, and mandating parental consent for anyone under 18 before downloading apps or making in-app purchases. The challenge was brought by a student group and the Computer and Communications Industry Association on First Amendment grounds. The ruling positions app stores as the primary age-verification checkpoint for internet access, a model Apple and Google have supported. Critics warn that reliable age checks require collecting more personal data, raising privacy concerns. Similar laws are emerging globally, including in the UK and Australia.

This open-source app does what Google Keep refuses to — and it's free

Notesnook is a free, open-source, end-to-end encrypted note-taking app that addresses the key shortcomings of Google Keep. Unlike Keep, it offers flexible editing (rich text and Markdown), robust organization via Notebooks and tags, and strong privacy through zero-knowledge encryption — even for free users. The author switched from Google Keep after finding its limited editing tools, poor organization for large note collections, and Google's data practices unsatisfactory. Notesnook supports checklists, tables, attachments, and biometric-locked notes, making it a capable alternative for users who want more than basic sticky notes without sacrificing privacy.

CodeUtilityKit: 100+ private developer tools that run in your browser

CodeUtilityKit is a free collection of 100+ browser-based developer utilities covering everyday tasks like JSON formatting, JWT decoding, Base64 encoding/decoding, SHA256 generation, CSV/JSON conversion, password generation, UUID generation, regex testing, QR code generation, and timestamp conversion. All tools run locally in the browser, ensuring sensitive data like API keys, tokens, and passwords never leave the user's device.

Predatorgate victims sue spyware maker Intellexa

Eight victims of Greece's Predatorgate wiretapping scandal have filed an €8 million lawsuit against Athens-based surveillance firm Intellexa and 13 individuals, including Israeli founder Tal Dilian. The plaintiffs, whose phones were infected with Predator spyware in 2020–21, are each seeking €1 million in moral damages for unlawful violations of their private life, communications, and personal data. The criminal case has already resulted in convictions, with Dilian sentenced to a nominal 126 years (capped at eight under Greek law), though he plans to appeal. The civil suit, to be heard in April, is seen as a test of whether spyware vendors — not just the states that deploy their tools — can be held financially liable. The case comes amid broader European spyware scandals involving Pegasus and growing calls for EU-level accountability.

I replaced Google Calendar with a free self-hosted app, and I'm not going back

A personal account of replacing Google Calendar with Nextcloud Calendar as part of a broader de-Googling and self-hosting journey. The author highlights privacy concerns with Google Calendar, including ad profiling and automatic event creation from Gmail. Nextcloud Calendar integrates with Nextcloud Tasks and Deck for task management, supports multi-user event sharing via contacts, and connects with Home Assistant via CalDAV for home automation triggers like dimming lights for movie nights. The author notes the setup is straightforward despite initial appearances.