GoKawiil
Tech News
Proton VPN is promoting its free plan as offering unlimited data and speeds with no ads, no activity logging, and protection under Swiss privacy law. The free tier is limited to one device and lacks streaming-optimized servers and the Stealth protocol, which remain reserved for paid subscribers.
Meta has reached a proposed settlement with dozens of states over allegations that it built Facebook and Instagram to be addictive to minors and improperly collected children's data. The deal, still pending court approval and involving no admission of wrongdoing, requires Meta to impose default two-hour daily time limits for under-18 users, overnight app blackouts, and periodic screen-time reminders, while paying up to $18 billion over a decade to fund youth online safety programs.
Meta has settled litigation brought by attorneys general across 52 US states, territories and Washington DC over allegations that Facebook and Instagram harmed young users' mental health. The company will pay up to roughly $16.68bn in annual installments over a decade, funding youth online safety programs, while denying any wrongdoing. As part of the deal, Meta must add teen safety features like night-time blocks, school-hours access limits, stronger parental controls and age verification.
Apple has started rolling out advertisements within its Maps app in the US and Canada, appearing both in suggested places before a search and within relevant search results. The company says the ads are privacy-preserving, with no user location data tied to Apple accounts or shared with advertisers, and the rollout will reach all users in both countries within weeks.
Meta has reached a settlement with attorneys general from 29 states, ending litigation that covered claims from 47 states and several territories over harms to young users. The company agreed to build an independently tested age-verification system, let teens disable personalized feeds, cap daily app usage at two hours, and pause notifications overnight and during school hours. Meta will pay $17.1 billion over a decade, with $5.3 billion contingent on YouTube and TikTok adopting similar time limits and matching payments.
Microsoft has begun testing a feature in Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26340.9233 that lets users control camera, microphone, and precise location access separately for each desktop application. Previously, these permissions were governed by a single device-wide toggle covering all desktop apps at once. The new controls are accessible via Settings > Privacy & security, with individual switches for each app.
In testimony from an ongoing lawsuit filed by 29 states against Meta, a former company data scientist revealed that only about 0.165% to 0.2% of teens actually used Instagram's Take a Break feature when it was opt-in, despite Meta previously claiming 90% adoption. The tool, meant to nudge users to pause after extended app use, is now enabled by default for teen accounts following the criticism.
Apple has started rolling out advertisements inside the Apple Maps app for users in the US and Canada, following through on a plan announced earlier this year. The ads appear as suggested places before a search and within search results afterward, marked with a small blue 'Ad' badge alongside regular business listings.
Anthropic has merged the memory systems behind its Claude chatbot and Claude Cowork productivity tool, so information learned in one now carries over to the other automatically as users interact with either. Memory updates continuously during conversations and includes controls for handling sensitive data, while Claude Code remains unaffected by this change. Users can opt out of the shared memory feature if they prefer their sessions to stay isolated.
Apple has scrapped a June proposal to shift new Hide My Email addresses from the standard @icloud.com domain to a separate @private.icloud.com domain. The change would have let websites instantly identify and potentially block masked addresses, undermining the privacy tool's core purpose. Apple confirmed the reversal in a developer note, though it gave no public explanation, while reports point to internal objections from its own Hide My Email team and user backlash.
Apple has abandoned its plan to shift Hide My Email addresses from the @icloud.com domain to @private.icloud.com. The company confirmed Monday that masked email addresses will stay on @icloud.com, reversing an earlier decision announced this year.
DuckDuckGo's new survey of nearly 2,000 U.S. adults found that almost a third of respondents have confided something to an AI chatbot they wouldn't tell friends, family or doctors, with the figure jumping to 56% among self-identified AI enthusiasts. The survey also found that most respondents didn't know chatbot conversations are typically used for training by default, and only a quarter knew such chats could be subpoenaed by law enforcement.