More than 90 percent of U.S. users of the latest version of Apple s mobile operating system iOS 14.5 are taking advantage of a new feature to block an application s ability to track their activity on their phones. Worldwide, 88 percent of users shut down app tracking on their iPhones. This is bad news for advertisers.
Apr 20, 2021 4:00 AM PT
DuckDuckGo has announced an add-on to the Chrome browser that blocks Google s new scheme to provide marketers with information for targeting advertising at Internet users.
The scheme called FLoC Federated Learning of Cohorts is being tested in Chrome, in some cases without the knowledge of the browser s users. If you re a Google Chrome user, you might be surprised to learn that you could have been entered automatically into Google s new tracking method called Federated Learning of Cohorts (FLoC), DuckDuckGo explained in a post on its website. It groups you based on your interests and demographics, derived from your browsing history, to enable creepy advertising and other content targeting without third-party cookies, it continued.
May 5, 2021 4:00 AM PT
The software industry fueled jobs and GDP growth in the United States in 2020, according to a report released Tuesday by an international software research organization.
The report by Software.org: the BSA Foundation found the software industry supported more than 15.8 million jobs in 2020, a 5.9 percent jump from 2018; and supported $US1.9 billion in total value-added GDP, a 17.1 percent increase over the previous two-year period.
More than 12.5 million of those jobs were outside the tech sector, added the report, which measures software s impact on the U.S. economy with data and analysis from The Economist Intelligence Unit.
It also noted that the industry directly contributed $933 billion to the U.S. economy in 2020, a 15.1 percent over 2018.
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//]]>// >By John P. Mello Jr.
Apr 21, 2021 4:00 AM PT
Apple introduced a new version of its iMac desktop and a powerful upgrade of its iPad Pro tablet at an online event Tuesday. Both new products are based on Apple s new M1 chip. The whole thing about this event is broadening the use of the M1 chip across all Apple s computers now laptops, desktops and iPads, Tim Bajarin, president of Creative Strategies, a technology advisory firm in Campbell, Calif. told TechNewsWorld.
The new iMac is the first computer built by Apple for the M1 chip from the ground up, explained Ross Rubin the principal analyst at Reticle Research, a consumer technology advisory firm in New York City.
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//]]>// >By John P. Mello Jr.
May 19, 2021 4:00 AM PT
Claims of losses from cryptocurrency scams skyrocketed from October 2020 to March 2021, according to a report released Monday by the Federal Trade Commission.
In its Consumer Protection Data Spotlight newsletter, the FTC revealed that during the October to March period nearly 7,000 consumers reported losing US$80 million. That compares to only 570 cryptocurrency scam reports amounting to $7.5 million in losses from October 2019 to March 2020.
The median loss reported was about $1,900, a nearly 1,000 percent increase over the same period a year ago.
The agency noted that as the value of cryptocurrencies like bitcoin continue to soar, new investors are eager to get in on the action, and scammers are more than willing to accommodate them.