Security expert Ben Edelman has done some digging, and he’s discovered that Google toolbar keeps tracking your browsing even after you disable that option. He’s also noticed that Google makes it easier to enable than disable certain tracking features, all of which make the Google toolbar a somewhat shady affair if you’re concerned about your privacy.
A very detailed explanation can be found on Edelman’s blog. In addition to the problems named above, he also quotes some bits from Google Toolbar’s installation and privacy disclosures, which seem to have worsened over time.
Google (
) has recently taken a very big step towards protecting their users’ security and privacy by refusing to operate under some of China’s rules. But it makes it easy to forget that Google itself has a history of privacy issues, some of which seemingly still haven’t been resolved.
Google Toolbar Keeps Tracking Your Browsing Even After You Choose Disable?
Augmented Reality Turns Shoes Into Game Controllers
Augmented reality has made for some uniquely enhanced objects and applications of late, from meta-iPhones to music videos to new experiments in print publishing.
Enter Adidas and its take on AR technology: augmented reality footwear. The Originals AR Game Pack is a series of five shoe styles that will have an AR code built in to the tongue. When held in front of a webcam, the code will unlock access to an area on Adidas’s website with a series of interactive games in which your shoe actually becomes the game controller.
New games will launch once per month between February and April, with the whole series kicking off February 10. The shoes themselves are available already in UK and select other countries, with a U.S. debut coming February 15.
We’ve already seen a number of innovative uses of AR in product marketing, and this example shows promise — although it will come down to how interesting the actual games themselves are. Would you be interested in a sneaker that transforms into a game controller for your next pair of kicks?
[via The Consumerist]
More Security Flaws Found in Internet Explorer
It’s been a rough few weeks for the Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. First, Google revealed that Chinese hackers have used an undocumented security flaw in IE to access personal data of some of their employees. Microsoft did not immediately issue a fix, which prompted both the German and the French government to warn against using Microsoft’s browser.
Now, when they’ve finally fixed that hole, a set of new serious security flaws has emerged.
The new flaws were found by Core Security Technologies; each of the vulnerabilities is not very serious by itself, but if an attacker manages to exploit several of them at once he/she could take control of the victim’s computer.
Microsoft gave Ars Technica their standard response: “Microsoft is investigating a responsibly disclosed vulnerability in Internet Explorer (). We’re currently unaware of any attacks trying to use the vulnerability or of customer impact, and believe customers are at reduced risk due to responsible disclosure.” Still, although Internet Explorer 8 has improved a lot compared to the security Swiss cheese that was IE6, these latest flaws make us remember the bad old days when Internet Explorer 6 was the dominant browser and when new security flaws in it were found almost on a daily basis.
How To Connect Two Computers Using Blue Tooth?
Overview
Bluetooth is the technology for creating a Wireless Personal Area Network to connect up to eight computers or other devices such as mobile phone and PDA (i.e. one device acts as a master with up to 7 active slaves) in an ad-hoc network (piconet). In a Personal Area Network (PAN), computers can share resources, i.e. files/folders, drives, printer, and Internet connection. PAN is a quick solution to enable direct connection between two Bluetooth-enabled computers. With a pair of Bluetooth USB adapters, you can try a direct Bluetooth connection between two computers (desktop, laptop, or handheld). If the adapters support Bluetooth version 2.0+EDR, the maximum connection speed is 3.0 Mbps, while previous versions can enable data transfer rate of up to 1.0 Mbps. However, as with other wireless technologies, due to overheads and other factors you can't expect those stated speeds in a real world network. The maximum distance between the two computers depends on the adapters power class, i.e. 10 - 100 meters. Throughput decreases as distance between the two computers increases. Besides, although Bluetooth is a radio technology that doesn't require LOS (line-of-sight) between devices, solid/metal obstructions and to a lesser extent interference from other wireless systems sharing the ISM band (such as Wi-Fi, cordless phone, baby monitor) may reduce Bluetooth reach.
There are three types of PAN services, i.e. NAP (Network Access Point), GN (Group ad hoc Network), and PANU (PAN User). Your computer ability to join or create a PAN depends on the type of Bluetooth stack (software) that accompanies your Bluetooth adapter. The latest version of some popular Bluetooth stacks can be used to enable a computer to join or create a PAN. But you must examine what type of PAN services supported by the Bluetooth stack you have. In Windows XP (SP2), the built-in Microsoft Bluetooth stack only provides PANU service. The TOSHIBA Bluetooth stack that was also used in this test can provide PANU and GN services. We can hardly find a fine Bluetooth stack for Windows XP with NAP service. If NAP is supported by the Bluetooth stack that comes with your adapter, then your computer can be used as a Bluetooth access point.
This tutorial was created with one computer running Windows XP SP2 with Microsoft Bluetooth stack and the other computer running Windows XP SP1 with TOSHIBA Bluetooth stack. You can also install TOSHIBA or another third party Bluetooth stack on a computer running Windows XP SP2. It will override the Microsoft stack. In this case, if you want to get back to the Microsoft stack, just uninstall it from your computer or update the driver with the built-in stack. Two Billionton Bluetooth adapters that support Bluetooth v2.0+EDR were used. The first computer with PANU service initiated the connection to the second computer with GNservice. Similar result was achieved when both computers were running the same third party stack.