The Internet Patrol

Amazon’s announcement that they are going to start charging Prime customers an additional $3 per month to keep ads out of movies and TV shows has sparked outrage. Of course while most would argue that this move is unfair and takes advantage of loyal subscribers, some Amazon apologists believe it is a justifiable decision for a company that claims to constantly strive to provide the best user experience. (What do you think?)

Have you heard about Clearview AI, the “we can identify anyone who has a picture on the Internet” outfit? Privacy has emerged as a key concern in the era of technology’s ubiquity in our daily lives. Holding a controversial position in this ongoing debate is Clearview AI, a company specializing in facial recognition technology. Pledged to revolutionize law enforcement and security, Clearview AI has sparked apprehension over issues surrounding privacy and the invasive nature of surveillance.

Using an iPhone with a Windows computer can be frustrating, but Intel has now released a new software tool that can make using these together a little more bearable. The new app, named Intel Unison, allows you to transfer photos and files, send messages, sync notifications on your PC, and make a call or view contacts with your PC. This app is currently only available on Windows 11, and despite Intel’s claims that this only works on Intel Evo platform devices, it does work on most Windows 11 machines.

Who laughs last undoubtedly laughs longest. If Fortnite tricked you or your little one into making unauthorized in-game purchases and consequently locked your account for disputing the same, it’s payback time. Ironically, Epic Games, the maker of Fortnite, lost in a legal Battle Royale after the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) compelled the game maker into a $520 million settlement in refunds and penalties. Over 37 million Fortnite players are eligible for a slice of the $245 million refund money.

Ever found yourself in the awkward situation of desperately trying to get those cute cat pictures from one iPhone to another, but iCloud or a computer isn’t an option? Or maybe you’re old school and don’t want to hook your phone up to your computer or the cloud. Yep, been there, done that! But worry not friends, AirDrop is here to save the day. And it’s a total game-changer!

Worried that your partner is cheating on you? Now you can hire a loyalty tester who will put them to the loyalty test by coming on to them online. Maybe you’re here because you heard about the Loyalty Test service on Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me, Or maybe you’re here through a search for “is my partner cheating on me online?” However you arrived here, you’re probably here now because you’re curious about loyalty testing services that put your partner to the loyalty test by having a loyalty tester slide into their online private messages, whether on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, or wherever they are online.

Do you wonder how Facebook’s ‘Take a Break’ from a friend feature works? If you Take a Break from a Facebook friend are they blocked? (No) If you invoke Take a Break on a friend, can they still see your profile? (Yes) Are you tired of seeing updates from certain friends on Facebook? (It happens.) Do you need a break from someone’s constant negative posts? (Who doesn’t?) Will they know that you took a break? (No, not if you don’t tell them.) Here’s everything you need to know about Facebook’s Take a Break feature, including how to do it, and as importantly, how to undo it.

In an alarming move, video conferencing giant Zoom recently updated its Terms of Service (ToS), raising serious concerns about user privacy and data exploitation. The new ToS allows Zoom to collect and use your Zoom audio, video, and chat data to train its artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms. This update has raised eyebrows and sparked a debate regarding the true intentions of the company and the extent to which user privacy is being compromised and user data is being exploited.

Have you ever started watching a television series on Amazon Prime Video, and then wanted to backtrack and start it again, but Amazon keeps taking you to the last episode that you watched, or some episode in the middle, instead of Season 1, Episode 1, because you’ve already watched further into the series? Or maybe you want to re-watch a movie on Amazon Prime, and you have to either rewind it or figure out the ‘start over’ option? Here’s how to delete and reset your Amazon Prime Video watch history.

If you use certain Google publishing products you probably saw the new warning that soon you must use a Google-certified consent management platform (CMP). (But if you’re looking for a list of Google-certified consent management platforms, good luck.) The warning reads “Later this year, Google will require all publishers serving ads to EEA and UK users to use a Google-certified Consent Management Platform (CMP). You can use any Google-certified CMP for this purpose, including Google’s own consent management solution. If you are interested in using Google’s consent management solution, start by setting up your GDPR message.”

Elon Musk has just killed Larry the Twitter bird, and replaced him with the single letter ‘X’.
Musk seems determined to kill Twitter itself, or at least to drag it down to such a spectacular loss that he will be able to greatly reduce his income taxes. That would be the perfect plot for a story about a diabolical genius who both wants to take down Twitter and reduce his taxes on his 2023 or 2024 tax returns, wouldn’t it?

If you’re frustrated trying to figure out how to select and add multiple songs in Amazon Music, either to download them or to add them to a playlist, you are by far not alone. There is no visible check box next to songs in Amazon Music, and in fact no obvious way to select songs other than one at a time. Our instructions will tell you how to select and download several songs at once, or how to select and add multiple songs to an Amazon Music playlist, whether you are logged into Amazon Music on your browse, or using the desktop app (note that we are using the Mac version of the Amazon Music desktop app, it may be different if you are on a PC). This does does not cover how to do it in an iOS or Android app.

Twitter has dominated the scene for years in the short form text category, while Instagram has been known as the place for images and short form videos. However, while Threads may be new to the game, it’s a formidable challenger, offering users an all-in-one platform that combines the best of both worlds. By giving users the ability to post links and images alongside text, Threads has basically turned itself into an Instagram competitor which, unlike Instagram, also allows you to post links.

With the rise of artificial intelligence (AI), it has become increasingly difficult to distinguish between human-generated and AI-generated online content. From social media posts to news articles, AI algorithms are now capable of creating text that is so convincing, it can easily fool unsuspecting readers. However, fear not! In this article, we will guide you through the process of identifying AI-generated online content and unmasking those bots.

With the advent of Threads people are becoming aware of something called ‘the fediverse’ (Threads is the new social network messaging app – think ‘Twitter’ only owned by Facebook Meta). The reason that the release of Threads has people becoming aware of the fediverse is because of this advisory when they sign up for Threads: “Future versions of Threads will work with the fediverse, a new type of social media network that allows people to follow and interact with each other on different platforms, like Mastodon.”