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March
Fridd yy
NEXTISSSSUEON SALE
W
henyouuseanydevice,
fromyourlaptoptoyour
phone,youleavetraces.
Thesecanbephysical
- greasyfingerprintsona screenmight
leada cleverattackertodecipheryour
PINcode– butthey’remostlikely
invisible.Manylargecompanies
(includingthelikesofGoogle,Microsoft
andAmazon)incorporatetinytrackers
intojustabouteverywebsiteyouvisit,
offeringhelpfulservicestowebsite
ownersinexchange
fora littleinformation
onwhatyou’vebeen
upto.If you’veever
wonderedjusthow
Amazoncanshowyou
a month’sworthof
toasteradvertsafter
youoncelookedup
thetemperatureof
bread,that’swhy.
Manytrackersare
notjustonline;unlessyouopt
otherwise,Microsoftwillkeep
informationonthewayyouuse
Windows10,Googlewillremember
yoursearchhistory,andAmazonis
lookingatfarmorethanjustyour
shoppingpreferences.If youusea
Kindle,forexample,it turnsout
Amazonwillkeepa recordofliterally
everytapyoumakeonthescreen.The
companysaysthisis inaneffortboth
toimproveitssoftware– it noticedthat
peoplewereflickingbackandforth
betweenpagestoreferenceprevious
material,andhasintroduceda new
featuretomakethiseasier– andto
keepitsWhispersyncvirtualbookmark
serviceinline.It’llalsostoreyourAlexa
activitywhich,if you’rea userofan
Echodevice,youcancheckoutat
amazon.co.uk/alexaprivacysettings.
Crucially,we’veagreedtomuchof
thistracking,whether
deliberatelyornot.
Whena website
flashesupthat
annoying‘weuse
cookies’button,that’s
notbychoice.Legally
thosesitesareforced
totellyouthey’re
trackingyou,andyou
shouldbeabletodive
inandfindanoption
throughwhichyoucandisagreetoany
termsyou’renothappywith.When
you’resettingupa newdevice,ora
newcopyofWindows,youalsogetthe
optiontoswitchoffthosethingswhich
makeyouuncomfortable.Whilethese
companieskeepdoingit – andthey
will– we’llkeeptalkingaboutit;
trackingisn’tassinisterasit sounds,
butit is,forthemostpart,optional.
Howmuchdataarecompaniesstoringabout
you– andwhatexactlyaretheydoingwithit?
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1
Visiting video.com
will lead you to which
company’s website?
A Disney
B YouTube
C BBC
2
Where does visiting
windows.org
lead you?
A Microsoft
B Autoglass
C Saint James Chapel,
Chicago
3
Let’s try another
- where does
go.com lead?
A Go Compare
B Go Outdoors
C Disney again
4
Sticking with a
theme, where do
you end up if you visit
wallet.com?
A PayPal
B Google Pay
C Apple Pay
5
Which company
owns the
web address
microsoft.sucks?
A Microsoft
B Apple
C Google
6
Lastly, which of these
takes you to the
Amazon website?
A awake.us
B awake.com
C awake.org
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7+(6(&ǖǕ'ƹƾ,=
1A 2C 3C 4B 5A 6BAnswers
Big time online tracking
Everything
http://www.voidtools.com
There are times when you’re desperate to
find a specific file and Windows’ own
search function is more interested in
showing you a web link to something
irrelevant. Voidtools’ Everything is a neat
alternative – it starts (after a little grunting
and groaning to update its index) by
showing you every single file on your PC,
then narrows down its results as you type.
You’ll need to know a little about the
filename you want to find if you expect to
find it quickly, but you can use the search
term ‘content:’ to dig through the content
of documents if you need a little more
granular searching and don’t mind
waiting a while for the results. Really,
that’s not the point: Everything is a tiny
program that makes absolutely minimal
impact on your system, and it does a
much better job of searching than the
built-in tool.
SO MUCH Everything really does mean
everything – prepare to be overwhelmed.
8 |^ |^ March 2020