SMCJB 

@xplorer wow that's scary, but unfortunately probably the way we are going at least in the US.

Hi SMCJB,

Yes, it's extremely scary and, you're right, this seems the going rate in the US.

I said before that in my view the US has lax policies around data protection, although there have been sporadic improvements. But even here in Europe these companies (especially US-based) are lobbying heavily for curbs to privacy protection.

Quoting 

Why is 'DD' banned here?

From the site's Terms:

We disallow  'DD' links due to abuse by vendors, using them as a way to pitch to our membership and bypass our site rules. This means that across the board we disallow 'DD' links, even if the  'DD' was established for completely innocent purposes. Sorry, you can thank abusive vendors for this.

Microsoft to auto-launch Copilot in Edge whenever you click a link from Outlook

Whac-A-Mole season continues as Redmond finds yet another corner to stuff its 21st century Clippy

Microsoft has announced that its Edge browser will automatically open the Copilot side pane when users open links from Outlook.

The feature appeared on the Microsoft 365 roadmap on February 25, with a rollout due to start in May 2026. According to Microsoft, the update will "provide contextual insights and actionable suggestion chips [sic] based on email and destination content."

It added: "This experience helps users quickly understand content, take action with fewer steps, and get more value from Copilot while extending productive browsing time in Edge."

The update is consistent with Microsoft's current Copilot-everywhere strategy and will roll out worldwide to standard multi-tenant cloud instances.

Whether it will be opt-in or opt-out remains unconfirmed, though users hoping for a conveniently placed off switch may be disappointed. Microsoft is keen to put its AI assistant in front of as many users as possible.


Of note from the article:

Quoting 

"Considering how sensitive corporate emails can be, the last thing you want is them being snooped on by an LLM hosted who knows where.

Article on The Register

Your Photos Are Probably Giving Away Your Location. Here’s How to Stop That

Take a photo on any digital camera or smartphone and it's not just the pixels that are saved. The image also gets a bunch of metadata appended to it, also known as EXIF (Exchangeable Image File Format) data, including details of when it was taken, the device that was used to capture it, and the camera settings that were used.

If your phone or camera has a GPS chip and is tracking your location, then this gets invisibly stamped on to the photo as well. That's good if you want to look back at all the pictures you've ever taken in New York City or at Lizard Point, but not so good if you're sharing pictures of your pets and don't want to give away your home address at the same time.

Any time a photo goes beyond the audience of just you, it’s important to think about the metadata attached to it—and if needed, you should delete the location stamp.


Full article on Wired

Update from the land of the free

xplorer 

Update from the land of the free

What an interestingly slippery slope, we want to review social media to see if someone is publicily posting they want to pose harm, but how long until social sentiment about leaders is the new denial reason

Report: US demands Reddit unmask ICE critic, summons firm to grand jury

The Trump administration has stepped up an effort to unmask a Reddit user who criticized Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). After failing to obtain information through a summons issued to Reddit, the government reportedly issued a subpoena demanding that Reddit provide the information and appear before a grand jury in Washington, DC.

The Intercept described the subpoena today. “According to a subpoena obtained by The Intercept, Reddit has until April 14 to provide a wide range of personal data on one of its users, whom US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have been trying unsuccessfully to identify for more than a month,” the article said.


Article on ArsTechnica