newsletter
This week: your phone wasn't listening, but your TV is
Also: what a breach number actually counts, Ring's new encryption default, and the Snipping Tool button you have never pressed.
Joel Folgner
IT Manager, consultant, and tech curator based in Molalla, Oregon. I’m Joel Folgner, and I created Fresh From Cache to distill the noise of the tech industry into clear, practical insights.
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You already use the Snipping Tool. Look at what it does now.
Two keys, drag a box, and the picture is on your clipboard. That part hasn't changed. What's new is everything sitting behind the buttons across the top, and most people have never pressed any of them.
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Your smart TV can track what you watch.
Your TV can recognize what is on its own screen, including whatever comes in over HDMI. What the setting is called on each brand, and where to find it.
News
Also this week: a false antivirus warning, an FTC lawsuit over Amazon's ad prices, and 19 browser add-ons gone bad
A Windows pop-up is wrong about your antivirus. The FTC says Amazon padded its ad prices. Nineteen browser add-ons turned on their users. Android 17 shuts a door scammers use.
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Cox Media Group told advertisers it was listening to you. The FTC says it never was.
The FTC fined Cox Media Group and two partners $930,000 over Active Listening, a service they said could pick up conversations from phones, TVs and smart speakers. It never collected a second of audio, and the tracking that really explains those eerie ads is duller and harder to escape.
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Who is ShinyHunters, and why is that name in every breach letter?
A hacking group said it took millions of customer records. Somebody opened the file and counted. The first big number in a breach story is a count of rows, not people.
newsletter
This week: a price built just for you
Also: laptop specs, slow Wi-Fi, GTA VI malware, plus Google watching Search for your address.
News
Ring is throwing away its key to your videos
Ring's next encryption default destroys its copy of your video keys after 24 hours. That closes a door Ring left open for years. It stops at the moment an owner shares a clip.
Blog
Does technology make us lonely?
Loneliness gets compared to smoking fifteen cigarettes a day. The researcher behind that number keeps a page on her own website correcting how people quote it. Here is where it came from, who is loneliest, and what the evidence says about your phone.
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Google will tell you when your address shows up in its search results
Google's Results about you tool watches Search for your address, your phone number, and since February your driver's license and Social Security numbers. Here is what it pulls down and what it will not touch.
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Are you paying a different price than your neighbor?
Congress never gave the FTC the power to ban personalized pricing. What it can do is make stores admit to it, and it is taking comments until September 18.
News
Also this week: pricier Amazon devices, a $17 billion Meta settlement, and a check from Disney
Amazon raised the list price on its own devices. Meta settled the teen social media case for $17 billion. Disney owes streaming subscribers a check by September 8. And a gas alarm sold under 18 names on Amazon can stay silent.