Accelerating math accessibility with the use of AI
A year ago, NWEA, now part of HMH, shared their innovative approach to make math more accessible for students. The aim was to identify the biggest challenges and gaps in mathematics for students who use screen readers and refreshable braille devices, because classroom materials are not always adapted to formats such as braille or large print, and materials are not always suitable for a screen-reader navigation, voice input, or a combination of these designs. NWEA developed prototypes that enabled screen readers to interact with equations in a more intuitive way, based on a method called process driven math (PDM).
NWEA continued to innovate and build on their previous research to create different ways of presenting complex math, especially for math taught in grades six to nine. They also worked on different ways of outputting math that included screen-reader functionality and refreshable braille devices in both UEB (Unified English Braille) and Nemeth formats. Moreover, they developed a prototype for a voice-activated chatbot.
To account for the accessibility of math equations, they used two markup languages, HTML and ARIA, to split equations into parts or regions. Each region, as well as the whole equation, had a hidden label that a screen reader would say to users as they explored the equation or expression. When students moved from one region to another, they would hear a word that described the kind of math in that region (for example, “term” or “constant”). Students could then decide to go into the region and hear the exact math, or they could just skip to the next region.
The use of generative AI
By using AI, specifically GPT-4, the team was able to improve both the quality of the math as well as the time required to convert the equations to HTML, and to use code generation to write the code for the first prototype. The model only needed a few examples to learn how to change the initial test set of equations from MathML to the HTML structure that was the most accessible. From there, the model required context to ensure that responses were formatted in the best way for the app.
Demo of using the equations with a screen reader:
Accessible QR Codes: More Than Dots and Dashes
QR codes are ubiquitous in today’s world. From stickers and posters to TV advertisements and billboards, these quick-scan options have been around for nearly 30 years and are used by almost every company to get people to learn more about a product or service.
Companies like Unilever and Coca-Cola are starting to put QR codes at the center of their connected pack strategies. A QR code turns passive product packaging into an always-on digital and direct conversational channel with their end customers both at point of sale and point of use.
But not all QR codes are created equal.
The Power of Accessible QR
According to the World Health Organization, an estimated 2.2 billion people have near or distance vision impairment, and 284 million people are partially sighted, making finding relevant product information in store and at home a significant and everyday challenge.
Accessible QR codes can help people who are blind and partially sighted better access product information. By simply adding a series of dots and dashes around one corner of one side of a standard QR code, it gives people who are visually impaired the ability to tap into apps such as VoiceOver assistance or others that help people better understand the product or service.
An accessible QR code also houses the ability for apps featuring an SDK called Zapvision to recognize these same codes from greater distances and use the accessibility features on the device.
One Code, Accessible to Everyone
According to a recent article on Zappar.com, accessible QR codes benefit brands by:
Being cost effective: Minimizing production costs is crucial, and accessible QR codes use only two colors for printing — reducing overall costs significantly.
Ease of implementation: Accessible QR codes can be rolled out without any additional effort or space because it is already part of digitized packaging.
Little disruption to current brand real estate: Using an accessible QR code keeps packaging simple, streamlined and fully branded — for sighted individuals as well as those who are blind and partially sighted.
How do accessible QR codes work? Here’s a short video from Zappar that shows how an accessible QR code and a simple iPhone app can help those with visual impairments gain valuable product information.This is a win not only for consumers with sight loss but for the brand as well.
The iPhone 15 Pro brings tangible accessibility benefits
What makes an iPhone accessible? Mostly, it’s the software: the operating system and apps that follow guidelines Apple has set for that purpose. If new hardware plays a role, it’s often in the opposite direction. For some with hearing or vision disabilities, the loss of the Home button has made hanging onto an iPhone SE feel worth the struggle.
But this year, there’s another hardware story (and I’m mighty surprised to be writing this): What’s inside Apple’s Pro iPhones is giving an important boost to usability for people with disabilities.
The number and breadth of accessibility features you can quickly enable with the action button are significant, as are the brief descriptions of each.
The Action ButtonTurning the tactile, easy-to-use ring/silent switch into a multifunction button you can use to launch a shortcut, open the camera, or fire up Voice Memos is a fair way of giving back where something’s been taken away. There’s also a whole screen full of accessibility features you can choose to assign to the Action button: everything from turning on the VoiceOver screen reader or Live Captions to adding a color filter or starting AssistiveTouch.
Quick access to most of these options isn’t new: you can use Back Tap or Accessibility Shortcut (a triple-click of the Side button) to summon a lot of them. But particularly if you have a motor disability, the choice between invoking your preferred feature by tapping, triple-clicking, or a press and hold of the Action Button is just one more level of flexibility, not to mention the chance to program quick access to various tools at the same time.
Since you can launch a shortcut with the Action Button (also available via Back Tap), there’s no end to the ways you can customize your own accessibility by doing things more quickly. I have a blind friend who’s using the Action Button to quickly toggle the speed of podcast playback between two favorite settings. Using a shortcut means she need not open Overcast using VoiceOver and then swipe to the speed slider every time she wants to make a change. Sometimes, accessibility means saving steps.
The accessibility options available for the Action Button also come with brief descriptions that could introduce or explain these features to people who have never dived levels deep into Accessibility settings.
Wideband and Precision Finding
Precision finding is great for anyone who’s looking for their phone or for a friend in a crowd. But how great is it when one or more of the parties doing the looking is blind?
Find My was never precise enough to lead anyone to the exact restaurant table or funnel cake booth. But precision finding, powered by the second-generation Ultra Wideband chip, gives guidance with sound and VoiceOver speech.
Intelligent Portrait Mode and Other Photo Magic
If taking photos isn’t a big part of the way you use your phone, an iPhone 15 Pro or Pro Max could seem like overkill. For accessibility-related uses of the camera, like magnification, scanning text, and using AI or human assistants to describe or analyze a scene, an older camera system works just as well as this year’s best. But as cameras get better, so do the machine-learning tools these phones offer to improve your photos.
A visually impaired photographer can use any of the iPhone 15 cameras with more confidence, knowing that after-the-fact portrait mode (and other enhancements to an image he or she has already taken) are available. That’s a kind of accessibility of opportunity masquerading as a mainstream camera feature.
LIDAR
The Magnifier app shows the various detection modes available, on the left. With Door Detection enabled, there’s visual and spoken access to information about what the camera and LIDAR sensor find.
Pro phones have included a LIDAR sensor since the iPhone 12 range. It’s a camera system thing. But like the Ultra Wideband chip, LIDAR can help detect what’s in your environment.In each generation of the Pro phones since the 12, LIDAR has given Pro users access to new detection features. First, you could have what the camera saw described to you: a red car on a dirt road, a wooden table with keys, and a pair of glasses. Then came People Detection, just in time for the mid-pandemic. LIDAR and the Magnifier app let you identify the presence of a person and how far that person is from you. Door Detection was next. Aim your phone at a building or down a hallway and find out not only where doors are located but whether they’re open or closed, wood or glass, have signage or not, and what that signage says.
This year, we got the unfortunately named Point and Speak. It’s not a child’s toy but a tool for reading text labels. Hold your phone up to a microwave, washing machine, or other gadget, and point to where you think a label is located. The phone helps you aim and reads text it finds over or under (you choose) your pointing finger. Great for a microwave, dishwasher, or any device with buttons to be pressed.
None of the detection features is perfect. Point and Speak, in particular, could use some seasoning. But these features give some insight into how Apple teams working on accessibility have been able to weave interesting features with relatively small potential user bases into the ways iPhone hardware uses develop over time.
Is it also proof of concept for greater things to come? You bet. But for at least a few people where accessibility is a main requirement, it’s also reason enough to splurge on an iPhone 15 Pro or Pro Max right now.
[Shelly Brisbin is a radio producer, host of the Parallel podcast, and author of the book iOS Access for All. She’s the host of Lions, Towers & Shields, a podcast about classic movies, on The Incomparable network.]
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https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/blindabilities/22_WellnessWednesday.mp3?dest-id=254899
In this 22nd episode of Wellness Wednesday, Beth Gustin, LPC and Robin Ennis, LCSW, CPC, have a general discussion about blindness awareness. October has a variety of Blindness related awareness campaigns bringing about awareness to the public with White Cane Day, Disability Employment and Blindness Awareness Month all happening in the month of October. Beth and robin talk about the exhaustion of constantly feeling the need to advocate, prove and being the perfect ambassador for the entire community all the time. How the battle of grieving and rebuilding can play out on one’s journey and why asking for help can be a form of independence.
Check out all the Wellness Wednesday episodes.
Show Hosts:
Robin Ennis on the web at http://www.robinennislcsw.com
Beth Gustin, LPC, NCC, EMDRIA Approved Consultant, CAGCS, PLGS
Www.transitioningthroughchange.com
You can message Beth and Robin by calling 612-367-6093 or by email. They are looking forward to hearing from you!
https://www.consumerreports.org/electronics-computers/tvs/watching-tv-while-blind-a3393572533/
Watching TV While Blind
Making television accessible to people with vision impairments requires technical and regulatory advances and collaboration to ensure the visual media remains open to allBy Brian VinesOctober 19, 2023
Illustration: Lacey Browne/Consumer Reports
In 1985, there was not a 7-year-old on the planet with a better working knowledge of the goings on in Genoa City, the fictional setting of “The Young and the Restless,” than me.The daytime drama was my grandmother’s favorite. It was my job to watch with her and provide visual commentary, because my grandmother was blind. When the words weren’t enough, I helped her set the scene in her mind by answering her questions. “Were his eyes opened when they kissed?” she’d want to know. “Can anyone in the courtroom tell she’s lying?” We played this game of TV Show and Tell whenever the set was on.
Back then, no one thought much about how to make TV accessible to visually impaired people, or really even considered that it might be an important thing to do. Today the landscape is vastly different. Newer TVs have settings and features designed to help people with limited vision enjoy the boob tube like the rest of us. Still, disability advocates say these assistive technologies leave room for improvement and that laws surrounding their implementation are not keeping pace. At the same time, they say, the need to make devices even better and easier to use by the visually disabled is more pressing than ever.
More on TVs and Assisted Tech
For starters, public health officials say the number of Americans with uncorrectable vision impairment is expected to double by 2050, due to chronic diseases like diabetes and the rapidly aging population. Today, 4 million Americans over 40 have a vision impairment. Of those, 1 million are blind and 3 million have uncorrectable central or peripheral vision loss.
Also a major issue: how screen-centered our world has become. “We live in a visual society,” says Clark Rachfal, director of advocacy and governmental affairs at the American Council of the Blind, an organization made up of blind and visually impaired people. “If you want to be part of your community, if you want to be part of the conversation, you have to have access to the visual media everyone else is using.”
“We’ve got to get over the idea that blind people don’t watch television,” says Chris Danielsen, who in addition to being blind is the director of public relations for the National Federation of the Blind, the nation’s oldest and largest organization of blind Americans. “We do and always have.”
Matthew and Paul Castle, an inter-abled couple living in Seattle, can attest to that. Matthew is sighted while Paul has retinitis pigmentosa, a progressive eye disease that over the years has reduced his vision by more than 90 percent. On their “matthewandpaul” TikTok account, the couple chronicles their life as “Two Guys and a Guide Dog,” sharing everything from pranks to “blind life-hacks” for their 1.5 million followers. In a TikTok video, they share how accessibility tools help them navigate watching TV.
One thing they have yet to share online is their odyssey trying to buy a TV set. The pair bought and returned four until they found an OLED model by LG that had contrast and brightness settings and adjustable onscreen fonts good enough to compensate for Paul’s diminished vision. Their new device is a godsend. “I always breathe a sigh of relief when we get to the end of the day,” says Paul. “We get to just escape and watch something on TV together.”
Regulating Accessibility
That a person like Paul Castle with low or no vision can enjoy television today has been a project decades in the making.
In 1990, the pioneering Americans with Disabilities Act prohibited discrimination on the basis of disability, with a suite of laws covering everything from employment to public accommodations.
But it wasn’t until 2010 that the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act mandated that telecommunications companies and video programmers ensure that new digital, broadband, and mobile innovations adhered to accessibility laws. Among other things, the CVAA required that emergency information be conveyed in a manner accessible to people who are blind or visually impaired and that TVs and other video devices have a button for activating audio descriptions. And yet, more than a decade after that law’s passage, only the largest 90 of the 210 broadcast market areas presently provide audio-described content and emergency notices.
And it wasn’t until 2012 that the Federal Communications Commission required all local broadcasting services in the U.S. to offer a minimum of 4 hours of secondary audio programming (SAP) for visually impaired viewers every week. SAP is an auxiliary audio channel that, in addition to having different languages, provides descriptive audio narration of visual information that can be broadcast or transmitted both over-the-air and by cable television.
Furthermore, the requirements do not apply to video streaming applications, meaning platforms like Hulu or Netflix, both of which do provide accessibility tools by choice, are not bound by regulation to adhere to accessibility requirements. In July, Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), the author of the original CVAA, along with Rep. Anna G. Eshoo (D-Calif.), introduced the Communications, Video, and Technology Accessibility (CVTA) Act, as an effort to update existing accessibility regulations and make them inclusive of technology not conceived of more than a decade ago.
Jeff Wissel, chief accessibility officer at Disability:IN, a nonprofit resource for disability inclusion, is happy to see accessibility requirements continue to advance. “When all these aspects come together, it enhances the experience for those of us with disabilities to fully participate,” he says.
Roadblocks Remain
One barrier to participation expressed by many in the visual disability community is the lack of default accessibility settings for new devices. Rather, most have accessibility settings that must be opted in to, posing a significant challenge to individuals who can’t read a manual or navigate through settings onscreen. A more frictionless option for the visually impaired would be accessibility settings as the default users could choose to disable.
Nearly a decade ago when Danielsen, at the National Federation of the Blind, found himself unable to independently set up his new television, he had to call for backup. “My friend had to come over and help me install it and set it up because I couldn’t walk through the screens,” he says.
Disability:IN’s Wissel says that even today TV manufacturers, as well as content creators, need to do better. “There are many companies that have yet to fully embrace the requirements to ensure their products and services meet the accessibility requirements,” he says.
Still, no one doubts that members of the visually impaired community are reaping huge benefits from the advancements in television technology and content creation we’ve seen. Today, most smart TVs—essentially traditional sets that connect to the internet—allow access to multiple streaming video services, such as Amazon Prime, Netflix, and Hulu, which all have accessibility features like closed captioning and audio description. And many new smart TVs have the added benefit of being voice-enabled, allowing for operation and navigation independent of onscreen menus.
It is important to note that people with visual impairments are not a monolith, and there is no universal solution for how a television may best work for everyone. Whether their disability stems from genetics, age, or incident, an individual’s unique circumstance will define what option is best for them.
But there are certain products that do provide an accessibility edge, and there are things to know about how to use the settings in the TV you presently own—or a new one you plan to buy—to make it work optimally for you. “Fortunately, we’re seeing more TVs that have accessibility settings, and some companies seem genuinely interested in moving beyond what is simply required by law,” says Jim Willcox, CR’s senior electronics editor.
Brian Vines
Brian Vines has been a member of the special projects team at Consumer Reports since 2020, focusing on marketplace inequities. Prior to joining CR, he spent a decade covering public affairs in community media. A Chicago native, he has a passion for social justice and deal hunting. Follow him on Twitter @bvines78.
Cybersecurity 101: Protect your privacy from hackers, spies, and the government
Simple steps can make the difference between losing your online accounts or maintaining what is now a precious commodity: Your privacy.Jan. 21, 2022
“I have nothing to hide” was once the standard response to surveillance programs utilizing cameras, border checks, and casual questioning by law enforcement.
Privacy used to be considered a concept generally respected in many countries with a few changes to rules and regulations here and there often made only in the name of the common good.
SEE: Meet the hackers who earn millions for saving the web, one bug at a time (cover story PDF) (TechRepublic)
Things have changed, and not for the better.
China’s Great Firewall, the UK’s Snooper’s Charter, the US’ mass surveillance and bulk data collection — compliments of the National Security Agency (NSA) and Edward Snowden’s whistleblowing — Russia’s insidious election meddling, and countless censorship and communication blackout schemes across the Middle East are all contributing to a global surveillance state in which privacy is a luxury of the few and not a right of the many.
As surveillance becomes a common factor of our daily lives, privacy is in danger of no longer being considered an intrinsic right — and it seems we, too, are adopting our own personal forms of online digital stalking and spying.
Everything from our web browsing to mobile devices and the Internet of Things (IoT) products installed in our homes has the potential to erode our privacy and personal security, and you cannot depend on vendors or ever-changing surveillance rules to keep them intact.
Having “nothing to hide” doesn’t cut it anymore. We must all do whatever we can to safeguard our personal privacy not only from agencies and companies but also from each other. Taking the steps outlined below can not only give you some sanctuary from spreading surveillance tactics but also help keep you safe from cyberattackers, scam artists, and a new, emerging issue: technological stalking.
See also: Best browser for privacy: Secure web browsing | Navigating data privacy | Gartner predicts privacy law changes, consolidation of cybersecurity services and ransomware laws for next 4 years
Data management is at the heart of privacy
Data is a vague concept and can encompass such a wide range of information that it is worth breaking down different collections before examining how each area is relevant to your privacy and security.
Personally Identifiable Information (PII)
Known as PII, this can include your name, physical home address, email address, telephone numbers, date of birth, marital status, Social Security numbers (US)/National Insurance numbers (UK), and other information relating to your medical status, family members, employment, and education.
Why does it matter? All this data, whether lost in different data breaches or stolen piecemeal through phishing campaigns, can provide attackers with enough information to conduct identity theft, take out loans using your name, and potentially compromise online accounts that rely on security questions being answered correctly. In the wrong hands, this information can also prove to be a gold mine for advertisers lacking a moral backbone.
Read on: The biggest data breaches, hacks
Browsing habits and website visits
Internet activity is monitored by an Internet Service Provider (ISP) and can be hijacked. While there is little consumers can do about attacks at the ISP level, the web pages you visit can also be tracked by cookies, which are small bits of text that are downloaded and stored by your browser. Browser plugins may also track your activity across multiple websites.
Why does it matter? Cookies are used to personalize internet experiences and this can include tailored advertising. However, such tracking can go too far, as shown when the unique identifiers added to a cookie are then used across different services and on various marketing platforms. Such practices are often considered intrusive.
Also: ‘Carpet-bombing’ DDoS attack takes down South African ISP for an entire day | Hackers breached A1 Telekom, Austria’s largest ISP | Here’s how to enable DoH in each browser, ISPs be damned
Message and email content
Our email accounts are often the pathway that can provide a link to all our other valuable accounts, as well as a record of our communication with friends, families, and colleagues. As central hubs to other online services, hackers may try to obtain our passwords through credential stuffing, social engineering, or phishing scams in order to jump to other services.
Why does it matter? If an email account acts as a singular hub for other services, a single compromise can snowball into the hijack of many accounts and services.
Phone numbers
In targeted attacks, fraudsters are using social engineering techniques to impersonate their victims in calls to telephone service providers. They do this in order to transfer a number away from a handset — even if only for a short period of time — and then ‘own’ the number for the time it takes to grab two-factor authentication (2FA) sent to the phone number and to access a target account, whether this is banking, email, or a cryptocurrency wallet.
Why does it matter? If your phone number ends up outside of your control, this means that 2FA codes can be stolen and any online account linked to this number is at risk of being hijacked.
Online purchases, financial information
When you conduct a transaction online, this information may include credentials for financial services such as PayPal, or credit card information including card numbers, expiry dates, and security codes.
Magecart campaigns are not possible to avoid by the average consumer as they take place on vulnerable e-commerce websites, with code injected into payment portals to skim and steal card data input by customers. Past victims of Magecart groups include Ticketmaster, Boom! Mobile, and British Airways.
Why does it matter? Cybercriminals who steal financial services credentials through phishing and fraudulent websites, who eavesdrop on your transactions through Man-in-The-Middle (MiTM) attacks, or who utilize card-skimming malware, can steal these details when they are not secured.
Once this information has been obtained, unauthorized transactions can be made, clone cards may be created, or this data may also be sold on to others in the Dark Web.
A basic guide to diving in to the dark web
Medical records and DNA profiles
Another entrant to the mix, hospitals are now transitioning to electronic records and home DNA services store genetic information belonging to their users, submitted in the quest for health-related queries or tracing family histories.
Why does it matter? The loss of medical information, which is deeply personal, can be upsetting and result in disastrous consequences for everyone involved.
When it comes to DNA, however, the choice is ours whether to release this information — outside of law enforcement demands — and it is often the use of ancestry services that release this data in the first place. Privacy concerns relating to DNA searches have been cited for sales downturns with some popular home ancestry kits.
Also: On the dangers of DNA data: Genealogy tests, Elizabeth Warren, and the end of privacy | Before taking that DNA test: Six things you need to know
What is being done to protect this information?
Businesses that handle data belonging to their customers are being scrutinized more and more with the arrival of regulatory changes such as the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation, designed to create a level playing field and stipulate adequate security measures to protect consumer privacy and data.
Companies will often encrypt your information as part of the process, which is a way to encode information to make it unreadable by unauthorized parties.
One way this is achieved is by using SSL and TLS certificates that support encryption on website domains. Let’s Encrypt offers free SSL/TLS certificates to webmasters who wish to improve their websites’ security. Unfortunately, this has also led to the adoption of SSL by fraudsters.
Apple, Google, and Mozilla have forced TLS certificate lifespans to reduce, with roughly a year becoming an acceptable lifespan for certificates.
End-to-end encryption is also becoming more popular. This form of encryption prevents anyone except those communicating from accessing or reading the content of messages, including vendors themselves.
Following Snowden’s disclosure of the NSA’s mass surveillance activities, end-to-end encryption has been widely adopted by many online communication services — much to the chagrin of government and law enforcement agencies. With a recent shift to working from home practices prompted by COVID-19, this has expanded to include video conferencing tools such as Zoom.
See also: Zoom backtracks and plans to offer end-to-end encryption to all users | Google is adding end-to-end encryption to its Android Messages app | Facebook and Google refuse 1 in 5 Australian law enforcement data access requests
Privacy advocates may cheer, but governments and law enforcement agencies have not rejoiced at the trend — and a political battlefield has emerged between tech vendors and governments that are attempting to enforce the inclusion of deliberate backdoors into encrypted systems.
It is up to us to make use of any privacy-enabling technology we have at hand. Below are some guides with simple steps to get you started.
Also: FBI warning: Crooks are using fake QR codes to steal your passwords and money | Meta and Twitter want a review of Australian government’s social media laws next year | Microsoft: This new browser feature is ‘huge step forward’ against zero-day threats | UK government announces crackdown on cryptocurrency adverts
Browser basics and Tor
Searching the web is a daily activity for many of us, and as such, it is also a hotbed for tracking and potential cyberattacks.
The most commonly used browsers are Google Chrome, Apple Safari, Microsoft Edge, Opera, and Mozilla Firefox. However, you should consider using Tor if you want to truly keep your browsing as private as possible.
The Tor Project is an open-source browser that is privacy-focused. The software creates tunnels rather than establishing direct connections to websites, which prevents users from being tracked through traffic analysis or IP addresses.
Not to be confused with the Dark Web — although required to access it and .onion domains in general — Tor is legal and is often used by the privacy-conscious, including journalists, activists, civil rights groups, and NGOs.
The Tor browser can be slower than traditional browsers, but it is still the best choice for secure browsing. The non-profit has launched a membership program to secure funding and boost integration in third-party products.
Desktop and mobile versions of the Tor browser are also available: desktop (Windows, macOS, Linux), the iOS Onion Browser, and Orbot proxy: Tor for Android.
Also: Best browser for privacy: Secure web browsing | The good and the bad with Chrome web browser’s new security defaults
Secure other browsers
If you are more comfortable using Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Microsoft Edge, or another browser, there are still ways to improve your security without implementing major changes to your surfing habits.
Cookies: Clearing out your cookie caches and browser histories can prevent ad networks from collecting too much information about you. The easiest way to do so is to clear the cache (Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Safari, Edge).
You can also set your preferences to prevent websites from storing cookies at all. In order to do so, check out these guides for Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Safari, and Edge.
HTTP v. HTTPS: When you visit a website address, you will be met with either Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) or Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS). The latter option uses a layer of encryption to enable secure communication between a browser and a server.
The most important thing to remember is while HTTPS is best used by default in general browsing, when it comes to online purchases, it is crucial for protecting your payment details from eavesdropping and theft.
It is still possible for payment details to be stolen on the vendor’s side, but to reduce the risk of theft as much as possible you should not hand over any important information to websites without HTTPS enabled. (It is estimated that shopping cart conversion rates increase by 13 percent with HTTPS enabled, which should encourage webmasters to use the protocol, too.)
To find out whether HTTPS is enabled, look in the address bar for “https://.” Many browsers also show a closed padlock.
Search engines
Google’s search engine, alongside other major options such as Yahoo! and Bing, make use of algorithms based on your data to provide “personalized” experiences. However, browsing histories and search queries can be used to create crossover user profiles detailing our histories, clicks, interests, and more, and may become invasive over time. (Ever purchased a toaster and then see ads for toasters frequently? There’s a reason for that.)
To prevent such data from being logged, consider using an alternative that does not record your search history and blocks advertising trackers. These options include DuckDuckGo, Qwant, Startpage, and the open source Searx engine.
If you wish to stay with your current browser you can also use software that bolts-on to your browser to enhance the privacy and security of your surfing activities.
Browser plugins
HTTPS Everywhere: Available for Firefox, Chrome, and Opera, HTTPS Everywhere is a plugin created by the Tor Project and Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) to expand HTTPS encryption to many websites, improving the security of your communication with them.
NoScript Security Suite: Endorsed by Edward Snowden as a means to combat government surveillance, this plugin has been built for Firefox and other Mozilla-based browsers for the purposes of disabling active content including JavaScript, which may be used to track your online activity. Users can also choose which domains to trust and whitelist.
Disconnect: Another worthy addition to the list, Disconnect provides a visual guide to websites that are tracking your activity. Invisible trackers that monitor you and may also expose you to malicious content can be blocked. Disconnect is available for Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Opera.
Facebook Container: In a time where Facebook has come under fire for its data collection and sharing practices time after time, Mozilla’s Facebook Container application is a worthwhile plugin to download if you are worried about the social media network tracking your visits to other websites. The plugin isolates your Facebook profile and creates a form of browser-based container to prevent third-party advertisers and Facebook tracking outside of the network. While not bulletproof, this add-on is worth considering if you want to separate Facebook from the rest of your browsing activities.
Privacy Badger: Last but certainly not least, the EFF’s Opera, Firefox, and Chrome-supporting plugin Privacy Badger is focused on preventing ad networks from tracking you. The software monitors third parties that attempt to track users through cookies and digital fingerprinting and will automatically block those which use multiple tracking techniques. The plugin also includes color-coded indicators of domain tracking scripts.
You should also monitor your extensions and plugins lists. Check them often to make sure there is nothing installed you were previously unaware of — any suspicious software could be a sign of a malware infection.
Public Wi-Fi: A security risk?
There is no denying that public Wi-Fi hotspots are convenient, especially in a time when many of us are working outside of the office. However, you may be placing your privacy and security at risk if you choose to use one while on the move without the right precautions.
The problem with them is simple: You have access to them, and so do cyberattackers — and this gives them the opportunity to perform what is known as Man-in-The-Middle (MiTM) attacks in order to eavesdrop on your activities and potentially steal your information, as well as manipulate traffic in a way to send you to malicious websites.
Hackers may be able to access the information you are sending through the Wi-Fi hotspot, including but not limited to emails, financial information, and account credentials. Hackers may also set up their own rogue honeypot Wi-Fi points that appear legitimate whilst only being interested in stealing the data of those who connect to it.
It is best not to use a public, unsecured Wi-Fi connection at all. An alternative and far more secure method is always to use a mobile 4G/5G connection through your own mobile device when possible.
If you need an internet connection for a device other than your smartphone, an easy way to accomplish this is to set up your mobile device as a mobile Wi-Fi hotspot itself. You can usually find this option in your main scroller menu, or under Wi-Fi settings.
There are other precautions you can take to make a public Wi-Fi hotspot safer — but it’s never devoid of risk.
When you connect to a new Wi-Fi hotspot on Windows machines, make sure that you select “Public” when the option appears, as this will enable the operating system to turn off sharing; turn off the Wi-Fi connection when you do not need it, enable firewalls, and try to only visit websites with HTTPS enabled.
In addition, do not use the Wi-Fi hotspot to access anything valuable, such as an online banking service — save that for use with a mobile connection and dedicated mobile applications.
Top tips to stay safe on public Wi-Fi networks
One of the most important layers of security to implement is the use of a virtual private network (VPN) if accessing a public Wi-Fi hotspot — and the use of a trustworthy VPN should be implemented across all your devices, no matter your connection type.
Also: How to fix coffee-shop Wi-Fi | How to set up a satellite Wi-Fi hotspot
VPNs: Why, when, and where?
A virtual private network is a way to create a secure tunnel between browsers and web servers. Data packets are encrypted before they are sent to a destination server, which also results in IP addresses and your location becoming hidden. Many VPNs will also include a ‘kill switch’ that cuts off your internet access temporarily if a connection drops in order to keep your online activity secure.
VPNs have now entered the mainstream. Many users only adopt these services to access geolocation-blocked content — such as websites and apps banned in select countries — for example, a user in the United States could make themselves appear to be located in the United Kingdom, and vice versa.
However, VPNs have also surged in popularity in response to increased surveillance, making their use a popular option for activists or those in countries ruled by censorship. In addition, some organizations will require their employees to now use a VPN when accessing corporate resources remotely, a demand which may now be more common due to employees forced to work from home due to COVID-19.
(For a more detailed look at how VPNs operate, check out our guide.)
VPNs are not a silver bullet for security; far from it, but they can help mask your online presence. It is worth noting, however, that VPN usage is banned in some countries.
Free vs. premium VPNs
Premium, paid services are often more trustworthy. Free options are often slower and will offer limited bandwidth capacity. VPNs cost money to run and so providers will also require users of free services to agree to alternative means for them to turn a profit — and this may include tracking and selling your data.
Remember, when you are using a free service, whether it’s a VPN or Facebook, you are the product and not the customer.
Read on: Why even the best free VPNs are not a risk worth taking | How to find the best VPN service: Your guide to staying safe on the internet | Cybersecurity: Do these things to keep your business safe from hackers, retailers told
(If you’re technically able, you could also set up your own private VPN. A handy set of instructions can be found here.)
Which VPN should I use?
The most important element to consider when deciding on a VPN is trust. Using a VPN requires all your traffic to go through a third-party. If this third-party VPN is unsecured or uses this information for nefarious reasons, then the whole point of using a VPN for additional privacy is negated.
Conflicts of interest, VPN providers being hosted in countries of which governments can demand their data, and sometimes less-than-transparent business practices can all make finding a trustworthy option a complex and convoluted journey.
However, to make this trip easier, see Our top picks: 5 Best VPN Services: Tried-and-true picks for your online privacy
Also: VPN services: The ultimate guide | With everyone working from home, VPN security is now paramount | Best VPN services for your home office: ExpressVPN, NordVPN, and more
Passwords and vaults
This kind of advice is repeated ad nauseam but it is worth saying again: using complex passwords is the first line of defense you have to secure your online accounts.
Many vendors now actively prevent you from using simple combinations that are easy to break, such as QWERTY12345 or PASSWORD123, with dictionary-based and brute-force attacks.
However, we are still making terrible choices when it comes to our passwords. Researchers found in November 2021 that the most common passwords worldwide include 123456, qwerty, password, 1234567890, and local popular names including Liverpool and Tiffany.
It can be difficult to remember complicated password credentials when you are using multiple online services, and this is where password vaults come in.
Password managers are specialized pieces of software used to securely record the credentials required to access your online services. Rather than being required to remember each set of credentials, these systems keep everything in one place, accessed through one master password, and they will use security measures such as AES-256 encryption to prevent exposure.
Read on: Protect your passwords and more on all of your devices for under $2 a month | Forgot password? Five reasons why you need a password manager
Vaults may also generate strong and complex passwords on your behalf, as well as proactively change old and weak ones.
It is true that password managers and vaults may have vulnerable design elements that can be exploited on already-compromised machines, but when you balance risk, it is still recommended to use such software.
Read on: Best password manager: Business & personal use
Enable Two-factor authentication (2FA)
Two-factor authentication (2FA), also known as two-step verification, is a widely-implemented method of adding an extra layer of security to your accounts and services after you have submitted a password.
The most common methods are via an SMS message, a biometric marker such as a fingerprint or iris scan, a PIN number, pattern, or physical fob. Using 2FA creates an additional step to access your accounts and data, and while not foolproof, can help protect your accounts — and password vaults, too.
How to enable 2FA: Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Snapchat | Apple | Google | Microsoft
For an in-depth guide to implementing 2FA, check out ZDNet’s Ed Bott’s explainer.
SIM hijacking:
2FA is a strong security standard, but if you are unlucky enough to become a victim of SIM hijacking, this layer of security means very little. SIM-wapping occurs when a cybercriminal poses as you to a service provider, such as AT&T, using social engineering techniques and information gathered about you to fool employees into transferring ownership of your mobile number.
Once they have secured your phone number, they have a small window of time to hijack online accounts — such as emails, bank accounts, or cryptocurrency wallets — before you notice your service has ended. In this time, attackers may be able to access 2FA codes.
AT&T has become the subject of multiple lawsuits centered around customers who allegedly lost millions in cryptocurrency due to SIM-swap attacks.
This type of fraud is difficult to protect against. However, one way to do so is to connect 2FA telephone numbers to a secondary number that is not publicly known and so could only become subject to a SIM-swap if leaked elsewhere.
Read on: Here’s how I survived a SIM swap attack after T-Mobile failed me – twice
Secure your mobile devices
Mobile devices can act as a secondary means of protection for your online accounts via 2FA, but these endpoints can also be the weak link that completely breaks down your privacy and security.
Both Apple iPhones and mobile devices based on Google’s Android operating system have sold by the millions. Android has maintained the lion’s share of the global smartphone and tablet market for years, but due to its popularity, the majority of mobile malware samples are geared toward this OS.
To combat this, Google runs a bug bounty program and a consistent security patch cycle for vendors.
iOS, in contrast, is a proprietary operating system and iPhones are generally considered more secure. Frequent security updates are issued to users.
Patch, patch, patch
The first and easiest way to keep mobile devices on either platform secure is to accept security updates when they appear over the air. These patches resolve new bugs and security flaws, as well as sometimes provide performance fixes, and can keep your device from being exploited by attackers. The same should also be applied to your browser software.
To check your device is up to date on iOS, go to Settings > General > Software Update. On Android, go to Settings > Software Update.
Lock it down
It sounds simple, but many of us don’t do it — make sure your mobile device is locked in some way to prevent physical compromise.
You can turn on your iPhone or iPad’s Passcode feature to enter a four or six-digit passcode, as well as select the ‘custom’ option to set either a numeric or alphanumeric code. On iPhone X and later, go to Settings > Face ID & Passcode, while on earlier iPhone devices, go to Settings > Touch ID & Passcode. If TouchID is not a feature on your iPhone, the menu option will simply show Passcode.
On Android, you can choose to set a pattern, PIN number, or password with a minimum of four digits. You can choose by tapping Settings > Security & location/Security > Lock Screen.
Biometrics
Face recognition, iris scanning, and fingerprints are biometric authentication options found on modern iPhones and Android devices. These services can be convenient, although it is worth noting that in the US, law enforcement may be able to force you to unlock your devices as biometrics are under question when it comes to the Fifth Amendment.
Find your phone
We want to stop ourselves from being monitored without consent, but some technologies can be beneficial for tracking down our own lost or stolen property.
Find my iPhone is a security feature for iOS devices that you can enable to allow you to track your device through iCloud. The system also includes a remote lock to prevent others from using your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch in the case of theft.
In order to enable Find my iPhone, go to Settings > [your name] > iCloud. Scroll to the bottom to tap Find my iPhone, and slide to turn on.
Google’s Find My Device can be used to ring a missing device, remotely secure your smartphone, and also wipe all content on your stolen property. The service is automatically made available by default once a Google account is connected to your device but it does require the device to be turned on, to have an active internet connection, and to have both location and the Find My Device feature enabled.
In order to do so, open Settings > Security & Location/Security > Find My Device.
Other privacy settings
For the iPhone
USB Restricted Mode: A handy security feature introduced in iOS 11.4.1, USB Restricted Mode prevents USB accessories from automatically being able to connect to an iPhone if an hour has elapsed since the last time it was unlocked. In order to enable, go to Settings > Touch ID/Face ID > USB Accessories.
Android
Disable the option to enable unknown developers/apps: If there have been apps you simply had to install outside of Google Play, make sure the “Unknown Sources” or “Install Unknown Apps” option is not left open afterward. Sideloading isn’t necessarily a problem on occasion but leaving this avenue open could result in malicious .APKs making their way onto your smartphone.
To disable it, select Settings > Security > Unknown Sources. On the later Android models, the option is usually found in Settings > Apps > Top-right corner > Special access.
Encryption: Depending on your smartphone’s model, you may have to enable device encryption, or some will be encrypted by default once a password, PIN, or lock screen option is in place. If you have such a device you can generally encrypt your smartphone through Settings > Security > Encrypt Device.
Some smartphone models do not have this option as encryption is enabled by default but you can choose to encrypt accompanying SD cards by going to Settings > Security > Encrypt SD card.
You can also choose to enable the Secure Folder option in the same settings area to protect individual folders and files.
Also: The 10 best ways to secure your Android phone
Jailbreaking
Rooting your device to allow the installation of software that has not been verified by vendors or made available in official app stores has security ramifications. You may not only invalidate your warranty but also open up your device to malware, malicious apps, and data theft.
An example of this is KeyRaider, a malicious campaign uncovered by Palo Alto Networks in 2015. The malware specifically targeted jailbroken iOS devices, leading to the theft of 225,000 Apple accounts and their passwords. A new iOS jailbreak method was released in May.
Also: iOS 15.2’s App Privacy Report: How to turn it on, and what it all means
Encrypt your messages
There was once a time when Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) was one of only a handful of options available to secure and encrypt your online communication that existed. PGP is a program that can be used for cryptographic protection, however, PGP is complicated to set up and use and there are other options out there that are more palatable to the average user.
If you still wish to use PGP, the Electronic Frontier Foundation has useful guides on its implementation for Windows, macOS, and Linux.
Keybase.io, an open-source app built based on PGP for mobile and desktop systems available for macOS/iOS, Android, Linux, and Windows, is another option for making use of PGP and end-to-end encryption without the technical difficulties usually involved.
There are a number of encrypted messaging applications:
Signal
Signal is widely regarded as the most accessible, secure messaging service in existence today. Available for Android, iOS, macOS, and Windows, the free app — developed by Open Whisper Systems — implements end-to-end encryption and no data is stored by the company’s servers, which means that none of your conversations can be seized or read by law enforcement or hackers.
In order to use the service, you will need to tie a phone number to the app. You can also use Signal to replace traditional SMS messaging, but the same encryption and protections do not apply unless both recipients are using the app.
WhatsApp is a messaging app that completed a rollout of end-to-end encryption across all compatible devices in 2016.
Available for Android, iOS, Windows Phone, macOS, Windows, and desktop, the messaging app is a simple and secure means to conduct chats between either a single recipient or a group. To tighten things up, make sure you visit the Chat Backup option in “Chats” and turn it off.
iMessage
Apple’s iMessage, a communications platform that comes with Mac and iOS products, is another option if you want to secure and protect your digital communications.
Messages are encrypted on your devices via a private key and cannot be accessed without a passcode. However, if you choose to back up your data to iCloud, a copy of the key protecting these conversations is also stored.
In order to keep your messages truly private, turn off the backup option. Apple will then generate an on-device key to protect your messages and this is not stored by the company.
In addition, only conversations taking place between iPhones — rather than an iPhone and Android device, for example — are encrypted. 2FA must be implemented to use end-to-end encryption.
Facebook Messenger
Facebook Messenger is not encrypted by default, and the social media giant says rolling out encryption could take years. The chat service does, however, have a feature called “Secret Conversations” on iOS and Android — but not the standard web domain — which is end-to-end encrypted.
In order to start a secret conversation, go to the chat bubble, tap the “write” icon, tap “Secret,” and select who you want to message. You can also choose to set a timer for messages to vanish.
Telegram
Telegram is another popular chat application. Available for Android, iOS, Windows Phone, macOS, Linux, Windows, and desktop, Telegram has a “Secret Chat” option that is end-to-end encrypted and kept away from the Telegram cloud. These particular chats are device-specific and include a self-destruct option.
Also: Why social media fatigue is spreading | The hacker’s paradise: Social networks
Mobile application sources and permissions
No matter which mobile operating system you have adopted, downloading apps from verified, trusted sources such as Google Play and Apple’s App store is always the best option to maintain your security and privacy.
However, the permissions you give an installed app are also important.
Apps can request a variety of permissions including sensor data, call logs, camera and microphone access, location, storage, and contact lists. While many legitimate apps do require access to certain features, you should always make sure you are aware of what apps can access what data to prevent unnecessary security risks or information leaks.
Research published in January 2020 suggests that 14% of all Android apps contain contradictions in-app data collection policies.
To be on the safe side, any time you no longer need an application, you should simply uninstall it.
Mobile malware
Mobile malware is far from as popular as malicious software that targets desktop machines but with these variants infecting Android, iOS, and sometimes make their way into official app repositories. A common technique used by malware developers is to submit a mobile application that appears to be legitimate, and then upload malicious functions after a user base has been established, such as in the case of an Android app containing the Cerberus Trojan infiltrating Google Play.
The types of malware that can hit your mobile device are varied, from Trojans and backdoors to malicious code that focuses on the theft of valuable information, such as online banking credentials.
The most common way that such malware can infiltrate your smartphone is through the installation of malicious apps, which may actually be malware, spyware, or adware in disguise.
It’s recommended that you download and install an antivirus software solution for your mobile device, however, you will probably be safe enough as long as you do not jailbreak your phone and you only download app .APKs from trusted sources, rather than third-party repositories.
Also: Android security: Malicious apps sneak back into Google Play | Are enterprise app users growing more security savvy? | Fleeceware apps discovered on the iOS App Store |
How to discover and destroy spyware on your smartphone (in pictures)
Secure email
Many email providers now encrypt email in transit using TLS, but there are few email services, if any, which you can truly consider 100% “secure” due to government laws, law enforcement powers, and the difficulty of truly implementing strong encryption in email inboxes beyond using PGP to sign messages.
However, ProtonMail is worth considering. The open-source email system is based in Switzerland and therefore protected under the country’s strict data protection laws. Emails are end-to-end encrypted which prevents ProtonMail — or law enforcement — from reading them. In addition, no personal information is required to open an account.
Another way to send emails without tracking is to use a temporary, throwaway email address. These can be generated through services including Temp Mail and EmailOnDeck.
Also: What is phishing? Everything you need to know to protect yourself from scam emails and more | Phishing scams: The new hotspots for fraud gangs | This worm phishing campaign is a game-changer in password theft, account takeovers
Reduce your online footprint
Now that you’ve begun to take control of your devices, it is time to consider what data is floating around the internet that belongs to you — and what you can do to prevent future leaks.
One of the first places to travel to is Troy Hunt’s Have I Been Pwned service. The free search engine (of sorts) can be used to check your email accounts and linked online services for the exposure of credentials caused by data leaks. If you find you have been ‘pwned,’ stop using all the password combinations involved immediately — not only in the case of the compromised account but across the board.
Google privacy checks
If you are a user of Google services, the Privacy Check up function can be used to stop Google from saving your search results, YouTube histories, device information, location check-ins and for you to decide whether you are happy for the tech giant to tailor advertising based on your data.
Make sure you also take a look at your main Google Account to review security settings and privacy measures. The Security Check up page also shows which third-party apps have access to your account and you can revoke access as necessary.
An important feature on this page is activated if you are saving passwords in the Google Chrome browser. Google will check to see if these passwords have been compromised in a data breach, and if so, will alert you and urge you to change them immediately. To make this easier, each alert will link to the impacted domain or service so you can quickly log in and change your details.
Social networks
Social networks can be valuable communication tools but they can also be major sources of data leaks. It is not just friends and family that might be stalking you across social media — prospective employers or shady characters may be doing so, too, and so it is important for you to lock down your accounts to make sure only the information you want to be public, is public.
Read on: Hook, line and sinker: How I fell victim to phishing attacks – again and again
To begin locking down your account, go to the top-right corner, click the downward arrow, and choose “Settings,” which is where the majority of your options for privacy and account safety are based.
Security and login
Under this tab, you can choose to enable 2FA protection, view the devices in which your account is actively logged on, and choose whether to receive alerts relating to unrecognized attempts to log in. If you wish, you can also nominate three to five friends who can help if you are locked out of your account.
Your Facebook information
Review activities: Under Activity Log, you can review all your activity across the social network, including posts published, messages posted to other timelines, likes, and event management. You can use the “edit” button to allow something on a timeline, hide it, or delete it outright — a handy function for wiping clean your older timeline.
Download data: Under this tab, you can choose to download all the data Facebook holds on you.
Privacy Settings and Tools: Here, you can choose who can see your future posts. For the sake of privacy, it is best to set this to friends only, unless you are happy for such content to automatically be made public.
How people can find and contact you: You can tighten up your account by also limiting who can send you friend requests, who can see your friend lists, and whether people are able to use your provided email address or phone number to find your profile. A particular feature you may want to turn off is the ability for search engines outside of the network to link to your Facebook profile.
Location: Turn off this to prevent Facebook from gathering a log of your location history.
Face recognition: Another feature you should consider turning off — it’s unnecessary.
Apps and websites: Under this tab, you can see a list of third-party services that have been logged into using your Facebook credentials and whether they are active.
Ad Preferences, advertisers: A settings option that has been heavily expanded upon since the Cambridge Analytica scandal, in this section, you can review what Facebook believes are your interests, a list of advertisers that “are running ads using a contact list that they or their partner uploaded which includes information about you,” and you can manage personalized ad settings — at least, to a point.
Your interests: If you select this tab you will see topics, such as property, finance, food, and education, which are collated based on ads or promotional material you have previously clicked on. In order to remove a topic, hover over the option and select the “X” in the top right. The same principle applies to the “Advertisers” tab.
Your information: There are two tabs here that are both relevant to your online privacy and security. The first tab, “About you,” allows you to choose whether Facebook can use your relationship status, employer, job title, or education in targeted advertising. The second tab, “Your categories,” includes automatically generated lists of topics that the social network believes are relevant for ad placement — all of which can be hovered over and removed.
Ad Settings: To further thwart targeted ads, consider saying no to all the options below.
Another section to mention is under the “About Me” tab in Facebook’s main account menu. Here, you can choose whether to make information public (whether globally or to your friends), or only available to you. This information includes your date of birth, relationship status, contact information, and where you’ve lived.
Under the “Settings and privacy” tab there is a variety of options and changes you should implement to improve the security of your account.
Login verification: After you log in, Twitter will ask you for additional information to confirm your identity to mitigate the risk of your account being compromised.
Password reset verification: For added security, this requires you to confirm your email or phone number while resetting your password.
Privacy and safety: You can deselect location tracking and stop your locations from being posted at the same time you send out a tweet, and there is also an option for removing all past location data from published tweets in your history.
In this section, you will also come across “Personalization and data,” which allows you to control — to an extent — how the social network personalizes content, collects data, and what information is shared with third parties. You have the option to choose not to view personalized adverts, but the main setting you need to be aware of is for sharing.
Apps and sessions: Under this tab, you can see what third-party services, if any, are connected to your account, as well as what devices your Twitter account is actively logged into.
There is also an interesting section under “Your Twitter data.” Once you have entered your password, you can see Twitter’s compiled collection of interests and advertising partners based on your activities.
It is also possible to request your full data archive under the main Settings tab.
To give your Instagram account a privacy boost, there are a few changes you can implement.
By default, anyone can view the photos and videos on your Instagram account. By going to Settings and then Account Privacy, you can change this to ensure only those you approve of can see your content.
If your account is public, then anyone can view and comment on your images and videos. However, you can block people you would rather not interact with.
Also: Nonplussed: Why I’ll miss Google+ | Picture password: Are squiggles the future of security? | Facebook open-sources one of Instagram’s security tools
The Internet of Things
The Internet of Things (IoT) started off with mobile devices, including our smartphones, tablets, and smartwatches. Now, IoT encompasses everything from smart lights to voice-controlled smart speakers and home hubs, such as Google Home and the Amazon Echo.
Here are some tips to improve the security of your connected home and prevent your products from being compromised, your information stolen, or your IoT products from being added to botnets:
Keep IoT devices password protected. Default credentials — unfortunately often still in play when it comes to IoT vendors — are an easy way for hackers to compromise a device. The first and easiest way to protect your devices is to change these credentials ASAP.
Making sure your IoT device firmware, as well as your router software, is up-to-date is also a key factor.
Consider running all your IoT devices on a separate home network. Therefore, in the case of compromise, the damage can be limited.
If your IoT device does not require an internet connection to run, then disable it. (Unfortunately, this is rare nowadays)
If you no longer need an IoT device or have upgraded, perform a factory reset and remove older devices from your network.
Always check the default settings on new products. It may be that default options — such as the implied consent for usage data and metrics to be sent to the vendor — will benefit the vendor, but not your privacy.
Stalking through tracking devicesA new and potential threat to our privacy has now revealed itself in the form of tracker devices. Products such as Tile and Apple’s AirTag are convenient ways to monitor your pets, luggage, keys, and other belongings – but the Bluetooth technology and networks that facilitate this useful service can also be abused.
There have been reports potentially linking tracker devices to everything from stalking to car theft. As these products are small and can easily be slipped in a bag, clothing, or affixed to a vehicle, they may not be detected by a victim – and even if they are, if you can’t find the device, what can you do?
Solutions are still being tested and rolled out. Tile intends to launch a local scanner option in its app soon to detect any unknown Tiles in your immediate area, whereas Apple iOS users (14.5+) are already alerted to their presence via notifications and sound. You can also download the Tracker Detect app if you are an Android user.
Read on: How tech is a weapon in modern domestic abuse — and how to protect yourself
Just do it
The threats to our privacy and security are ever-evolving and within a few short years, things can change for the better — or for the worse. It is a constant game of push-and-pull between governments and technology giants when the conversation turns to encryption; cyberattackers are evolving and inventing new ways to exploit us daily, some countries would rather suppress the idea of individual privacy than protect it; and now threat actors are taking advantage of the disruption caused by COVID-19 to launch salvos against corporations and individuals alike.
In a world where many of us have been asked to rapidly change our working practices and to do our jobs from home, research suggests cyber incidents are on the rise with many of us “oblivious” to security best practices, and if we don’t take basic precautions, we may be risking not only our personal devices but also company systems.
Thankfully, the threat to our privacy has now been acknowledged by technology companies. Many organizations, both for- and non-profit, have taken it upon themselves to develop tools for users to improve our personal security — and it is now up to us to do so.
Dictation Not Working on iPhone/iPad? Try These 10 Fixes
Whether you’re jotting down notes, sending a message, or drafting an email, Dictation takes the tedium out of typing on the iPhone by converting speech to text in real-time. Starting iOS 16, it’s also faster, works for longer, and functions without an internet connection. However, the feature isn’t without issues.
If Dictation is missing on your keyboard, fails to activate, or refuses to recognize what you speak, this troubleshooting guide will show you how to fix that. The instructions below also apply to the iPad.
Table of Contents
1. Restart iPhone/iPadIf Dictation on your iPhone randomly stops working, consider giving your device a quick reboot. This simple action can resolve minor system hiccups that interfere with the feature. To do that:
Open the Settings app via the Home Screen or App Library.
Tap General and select Shutdown.
Drag the Power icon to the right.
Wait 30 seconds.
Press and hold the Side button until you see the Apple logo.
2. Use the Native Apple KeyboardDictation works with third-party keyboards like Gboard and SwiftKey, but it’s always best to switch back to the native Apple keyboard if the feature malfunctions despite restarting the iPhone.
To do that, tap the Globe icon, select English, and check if Dictation starts working correctly. If it does, consider updating the non-Apple keyboard apps via the App Store before using Dictation alongside them.
Note: If you see an Emoji icon on the lower right corner of the keyboard, your iPhone does not have any third-party keyboards installed.
3. Enable the Dictation Feature
If Dictation’s microphone icon is missing on the on-screen keyboard, you must check your keyboard settings and make sure that it’s enabled. Here’s how:
Open the iPhone Settings.
Go to General > Keyboard.
Enable the switch next to Enable Dictation if inactive.
4. Check for Screen Time RestrictionsScreen Time can block certain iPhone features, including Dictation. If the Enable Dictation option above is unavailable within your Keyboard settings, you must check and lift the restriction. To do that:
Open the Settings app and tap Screen Time.
Select Content & Privacy Restrictions.
Tap Allowed Apps.
Enter your Screen Time passcode. You can reset your Screen Time passcode with your Apple ID or iCloud account credentials if you’ve forgotten it.
Enable the switch next to Siri & Dictation.
5. Disable and Enable SiriDictation is interlinked with Siri, so another way to fix persistent Dictation issues is to disable and re-enable Siri. To do that:
Open Settings.
Tap Siri & Search.
Disable the switches next to Listen for “Hey Siri” and Press Side Button for Siri.
Restart your iPhone.
Return to Settings > Siri & Search, activate the switches next to Listen for “Hey Siri” and Press Side Button for Siri, and set up Siri from scratch.
6. Add Dictation LanguagesBesides English, Dictation supports multiple other languages, such as French, Spanish, and German—check this feature availability page by Apple for a complete list of compatible languages.
However, before you can use Dictation in any other language, you must add the language as a keyboard and switch to it. Here’s how:
Go to Settings and tap General.
Go to Keyboard > Keyboards.
Select Add New Keyboard and select the language.
To use Dictation in the language, tap the Globe icon after invoking the on-screen keyboard, select the language, and tap the Microphone icon.7. Clean the Microphone
If Dictation constantly converts voice to text inaccurately, it’s a good idea to inspect and clean your iPhone’s microphone. Dust, dirt, and grime can prevent it from picking up your voice.
You can test the microphone by attempting to compose a voice memo. If the recording isn’t clear, gently use a toothpick to pry out any stuck particles on the front-facing earpiece and the bottom right vent.
8. Disable Low Power Mode
Low Power Mode limits various features and functionalities to conserve battery life on the iPhone, which can adversely affect Dictation. To disable the feature:
Open the Settings app and tap Battery.
Toggle off the Low Power Mode switch if it’s active.
9. Install the Latest Version of iOS/iPadOSDictation issues can be specific to the system software version on your iPhone. Look for any pending iOS updates, install them, and check if that resolves the problem. Here’s how:
Open Settings.
Go to General > Software Update.
Select Download and Install to update to the latest iOS version.
Conversely, upgrading to a newer iteration of iOS—e.g., from iOS 16 to iOS 17—can introduce feature-breaking bugs and glitches. If the problem occurs immediately after a recent update, it’s possible to downgrade to the previous system software version.10. Reset All Settings in iOS/iPadOS
Restoring your iPhone’s network, accessibility, and privacy preferences to their defaults is an excellent method to fix recurring problems with Dictation. Don’t worry—you won’t lose personal data or apps except for saved Wi-Fi networks and passwords by doing that.
If you’d like to go ahead with an all-settings reset:
Open Settings.
Go to General > Transfer or Reset iPhone.
Select Reset.
Choose Reset All Settings.
Enter your device passcode to authenticate the action.
Time to Dictate As Usual AgainDictation makes routine activities like text messaging a breeze, and taking the time to sort out problems with the feature is worth the effort. If none of the fixes above help, reach out to Apple Support for assistance.
Apple confirms swiping apps closed causes iPhones to slow down and lose battery life
Tech company Apple has explained why forcing apps to close can have a greater impact than leaving them ‘open’ in the background
— Read on www.unilad.com/technology/news/iphone-closing-apps-lose-battery-life-apple-confirms-361587-20231018
8 ways we’re making task’s more accessible
https://blog.google/outreach-initiatives/accessibility/making-daily-tasks-accessible/
8 ways we’re making daily tasks more accessible
Oct 17, 2023
5 min read
New accessibility updates come to Maps, Search, Chrome and more.
Today we’re rolling out new accessibility features and updates that make accomplishing daily tasks faster and easier — like taking selfies, getting walking directions or searching the web. We recently launched Lookout image Q&A mode and accessibility updates on Android 14 and Wear OS 4. Now we have even more accessible features across our products that are built with and for people with disabilities.
Easily find and support disabled-own businesses in Maps and Search
LeGrand Coffee House displays the disabled-owned attribute
A new identity attribute for the disability community is now available on Google Maps and Search, giving customers more details about a business and providing merchants an option to self-identify as a member of the community. We worked with members of the disability community, such as Lavant Consulting and our internal Disability Alliance Employee Resource Group throughout this launch, including around naming and icon design. When businesses choose to identify as disabled-owned in their Business Profile, the attribute will appear on their listings in Maps and Search. This update builds on our existing business attributes, including Asian-owned, Black-owned, Latino-owned, LGBTQ+ owned, veteran-owned, and women-owned.
Use screen reader capabilities with Lens in Maps
Lens in Maps (formerly known as Search with Live View) uses AI and augmented reality to help people use their phone’s camera to orient themselves in an unfamiliar neighborhood and discover new places around them like ATMs, restaurants or transit stations. To make this more accessible and useful for people who are blind or low-vision, screen reader capabilities in Lens in Maps will be coming to iOS starting today, and to Android later this year. Just tap the camera icon in the search bar and lift your phone. If your screen reader is enabled, you’ll receive auditory feedback of the places around you with helpful information like the name and category of a place and how far away it is.
Get around more easily with accessible walking routes in Google Maps
With the option to request wheelchair-accessible walking routes rolling out globally on iOS and Android wherever we have data available, you can get stair-free routes when you request walking directions in Maps. Not only is this helpful for people who use wheelchairs, but it’s also useful for people traveling with things like luggage or strollers.
This feature builds on the wheelchair-accessible transit navigation option in Maps that shows you step-free transit routes. If you’ve already selected the wheelchair-accessible option in your transit preferences, we’ll automatically apply this to walking routes as well. If you haven’t, just tap the three dots at the top of the screen when you request walking directions, and toggle “wheelchair-accessible” on under route options to receive stair-free directions.
See wheelchair-accessible information in more places
Earlier this year, we made it easy for everyone to find wheelchair-accessible places on Google Maps for Android and iOS. Now we’re starting to bring that information to business and place pages on Maps for Android Auto and cars with Google built in, helping you travel with more confidence. When you search for a place in Google Maps and click on it, a wheelchair icon will appear if the destination has a step-free entrance, accessible restrooms, parking or seating.
Customize your Assistant Routines with more options
Every day, people use Assistant Routines to get useful information or to automate daily tasks. Now, you’ll be able to customize those routines even more with additional functionality inspired by Action Blocks. You can now select your Routines shortcut style, customize it with your own images and adjust the size of the shortcut on your homescreen. Research has shown that this personalization can be particularly helpful for people with cognitive differences and disabilities and we hope it will bring the helpfulness of Assistant Routines to even more people.
Screenshots showing a home screen configured with custom shortcuts and the different configuration options available.
Search faster in the Chrome address bar
Earlier this year, we introduced a new feature in the Chrome address bar that detects typos and displays suggested websites based on what Chrome thinks you meant. This will help people with dyslexia, language learners or anyone who makes typos get to the content they’re looking for faster. Today, this feature is expanding to Chrome on Android and iOS, so you have the same experience across all your devices.
A more accessible camera for your Pixel
We heard from the low-vision community that people love using their cameras to better see the world around them. With Magnifier, you can use your camera to zoom in on something — as you would using a physical magnifying glass. This camera-based app, which was designed in collaboration with trusted partners at the Royal National Institute of Blind People and National Federation of the Blind, is helpful for seeing things with detail up close — whether reading small text or sewing, viewing street signs at a distance, or even zooming in on a concert mainstage from afar. The app can also improve the legibility of text whether you’re reading a menu or a document with the ability to adjust controls, including color filters, brightness and contrast. Magnifier is available on Google Play for Pixel 5 and up, excluding the Pixel Fold.
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Earlier this month, we also rolled out the newest version of Guided Frame, which uses a combination of audio cues, high-contrast animations and haptic (tactile) feedback to make it easier for people who are blind or low-vision to take beautiful selfies. With this update, Guided Frame now recognizes more than just faces, so you can use your front and rear-facing camera to take photos of your pets, dinner or even documents. This update is already available on Pixel 8 and 8 Pro and rolling out to Pixel 6+ later this year.
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We remain committed to building products with and for people with disabilities and hope these new features are helpful for the community. To stay up to date on new accessibility products, please check out our What’s New in Google Accessibility series, and for any help with our products visit our Disability Support team.
Dell vs. HP: Which laptop brand is best for your needs?
Dell and HP are on our list of the best laptop brands for a reason. In recent years, both of these laptop manufacturers have consistently produced some of the most well-designed machines you can buy. So it’s understandable if you’re shopping for a new laptop, and you’re having trouble deciding between these two huge, highly-rated brands. Both have a lot to offer and it can be overwhelming to sift through all of the cool features, price points, and other factors you might want to consider before purchasing a laptop from either of these manufacturers.
And if you do need help picking the right laptop brand for yourself, you’ve come to the right place. In this comparison guide, we’ll show you everything you need to know about the differences between HP’s best laptops and Dell’s best laptops. Specifically, we’ll go over how they differ in design, their respective features, their price ranges, and which brands are best for certain use cases like school, business, video editing, and gaming.
Design
Arif Bacchus / Digital Trends
Laptop brands are defined by their flagships, so for HP in 2023, that’s its Elite Dragonfly Notebook G4 for business users and the Spectre x360 13.5 for consumers. The Dragonfly range of laptops are all exceedingly lightweight (the Elite Dragonfly G4 is just 2.2 pounds) with a solid magnesium alloy build and a display with a mix of thick and thin bezels. But you’ll also get a laptop that packs in a lot of interesting features in an ultra-portable package, such as a webcam cover, a dedicated keyboard button for the microphone, a high-resolution 5MP webcam, comfortably-sized keycaps, and a port selection that includes Thunderbolt 4 and HDMI 2.0.The Spectre x360 line also has its own unique contributions to HP’s laptop design innovations. Looking at the HP Spectre x360 13.5, you’ll notice that the laptop is outfitted with features such as an easy-to-open yet firm dual-zone hinge, a display with a 3:2 aspect ratio, an infrared camera, and an OLED display.
But the Spectre x360 13.5 also shares features with the Dragonfly series, including a fingerprint reader, a spacious keyboard and touchpad, and dedicated buttons and shutter features to turn off microphones and cover webcams. Those 2-in-1 designs are also light and portable, facilitating their use as a tablet when needed.
Dell’s best-known laptops are the XPS line of laptops and its gaming laptop offerings, like its Alienware brand. With the XPS, you can generally expect to see a sleek and streamlined aluminum chassis, ultra-thin bezels on all four sides of its display, a backlit keyboard, a port selection that includes Thunderbolt 4 ports, and a 16:10 aspect ratio display. The XPS 13 Plus adds more advanced features than we’ve seen on XPS laptops before, including an edge-to-edge keyboard, LED function keys, and a hidden haptic touchpad. The XPS 13 9315, on the other hand, is now positioned as a budget laptop to undercut Apple’s MacBook Air. The XPS 13 Plus and XPS 13 9315 are the smallest XPS laptops. If you want to upsize, you’ll get excellent laptops in the XPS 15 and XPS 17.
Dell’s Alienware brand offers specialized, heavy-duty gaming laptops and comes with its own distinctive features to optimize your gaming experience. Features such as Nvidia G-SYNC technology, dual fan design for better cooling, a customizable lighting system called AlienFX, a wide variety of ports (including Thunderbolt 4, a headset jack, and HDMI 2.1), a magnesium alloy chassis, programmable keyboards (for gaming shortcuts), and eye tracking tools.
Use cases
Both brands have laptops that top some of our best-of lists, with Dell outperforming HP in certain categories and HP outshining Dell in others. In this sense, picking the right laptop for yourself really does come down to how you plan to use it.
There are all sorts of ways you might choose to use your new laptop, but let’s take a look at a few of the most common uses for them, namely: for business and work, for school, for content creation (like video editing), or gaming.
Business
Mark Coppock / Digital Trends
With HP, you have four great business laptop options, including the HP Elite Dragonfly, HP ZBook Studio, and the HP Envy x360. With Dell, the XPS range is a fantastic alternative, but there isn’t the same breadth of choice.The HP Elite Dragonfly has been listed as the “best business laptop” in our Best Laptops list, a distinction that it currently doesn’t hold. Nevertheless, it’s perfect for remote workers and those who travel frequently for business. This laptop features a sleek, lightweight design, a high-res display, a privacy screen to help keep what you’re working on away from prying eyes, a quiet keyboard, a stylus, and an office-ready port selection that includes USB-A, HDMI, USB-C 3.1, and Thunderbolt 4.
If you need a beast of a workstation that can power through tasks like video editing and 3D modeling, then look no further than the HP ZBook Studio . If you still want the robustness of a Windows PC but still prefer the lightweight and easier-to-use Chrome OS, HP’s premier Chromebook offering, the Dragonfly Pro Chromebook, might be your best bet. And rounding out our HP business laptop picks is the HP Envy x360, which is best for those who need a 2-in-1 business laptop at a budget-friendly price. With a 13th-gen processor and 16GB of RAM, you’re not exactly sacrificing power and speed for a cheaper business laptop. You’re actually getting the best of both worlds.
If you’re still keen on getting a Dell for your work setup, there are some excellent choices in the Latitude lineup. These machines span a range from 14- and 15.6-inch clamshell laptops to convertible 2-in-1s, all of which are packed full of the features business users need. If you want a more mainstream choice, then we do have one recommendation: the Dell XPS 13 Plus. It’s not a true “business laptop,” but it is a fantastic all-purpose laptop that’s perfect for those who need portability above all else. Plus, because it’s designed for general use, it can easily be the laptop that enhances your productivity and helps you relax when the work day is done. (Especially when you have a display that features Dolby Vision.)
School
HP
Like business, school laptops can be varied, depending on the type of work you want to do on them. Both HP and Dell have excellent laptops for all sorts of ages and abilities.For college students, our favorite Dell laptop is the G15 Gaming Laptop. It’s an affordable and powerful machine that can handle homework without a problem while keeping a student entertained during downtime. For around $1,000, the college student in your life will get a laptop with a 45-watt 12th generation Intel Core processor, plenty of RAM and storage, up to an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 Ti GPU, Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.1 connectivity, and a wide variety of ports. The Dell Inspiron 14 is another option, and while it isn’t the most powerful laptop, it does have everything you need for school assignments, browsing the internet, and streaming your favorite shows and movies.
For high school students, HP has a great option with its Chromebook 14. It’s an exceedingly affordable, lightweight, and easy-to-use laptop thanks to the simplicity of Chrome OS. If your high school student doesn’t require any non-Chrome OS and non-Android apps to complete their assignments, access their online classes, or collaborate with their peers, then the HP Chromebook 14 is a solid option. For just $300, your high schooler will get a laptop with a 14-inch non-touch HD display, an Intel Celeron N4000 processor, 4GB of RAM, 32GB of eMMC storage, an HP Wide Vision HD webcam, and Wi-Fi 5 and Bluetooth 5 connectivity.
Video Editing
Mark Coppock/Digital Trends / Digital Trends
Video editing is an intensive task, so the Dell XPS 17 is our top pick overall because it pairs a huge display with high-end hardware. This laptop has a jumbo-sized display at 17 inches and features 45-watt 13th-generation Intel Core processors, 16GB of RAM (it can be upgraded up to 64GB), a roomy 512GB of SSD storage (which can also be upgraded to 8TB), and up to an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 video card. It also sports a fingerprint reader, four Thunderbolt 4 ports, a full-size SD card reader, and Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2 connectivity.When we reviewed the XPS 17, we were particularly impressed with its “incredible” performance, its “nearly perfect screen,” and its “spacious and responsive touchpad.” We even went so far as to say that the XPS 17 competes with Apple’s MacBook Pro.
If you still need a powerful laptop for video editing but would rather stick with HP, a comparable pick would be the HP Envy 15. The Envy 15 is great for those who need strong performance at a lower price point. When reviewing the HP Envy 16, our review unit was configured with a 13th-generation Intel Core i9 processor, 1TBGB of SSD storage, 16GB of RAM, a WQXGA IPS display, and an RTX 4060. Overall, this laptop received a glowing review from us as we praised its performance, its build quality, and its excellent keyboard and touchpad. The main drawbacks we saw were that it was on the heavy side and that its battery life was below average.
Gaming
Jacob Roach / Digital Trends
Our current list of the Best Gaming Laptops includes the HP Victus 16, a solid 1080p gaming machine for less than $1,500. The machine offers fast components and a solid build quality, making it a good budget gaming choice.The Dell G15 gaming laptop may not be the best gaming laptop you can buy (that honor goes to the Lenovo Legion Pro 5), but it’s a solid entry-level option for beginner gamers and gamers on a budget. What it lacks in style, it makes up for in value. The Dell G15 gaming laptop has an Intel Core processor, 8GB of RAM, a 256GB SSD, and up to an RTX 4060 GPU, with a starting price of $730.
If you have a bigger budget to work with, Dell’s Alienware x14 R2 is worth a look. It features an Intel Core i7-13620H CPU, 16GB of RAM, a 1TB SSD, a 14-inch WQXGA display running at up to 165Hz, and an RTX 4060 graphics card. It’s a relatively portable gaming laptop in every sense of the word, including its actual weight: a little over 4 pounds. Think of it as a highly mobile replacement for a desktop setup.
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