How much does Google REALLY know about YOU? Here's how to find out

Ever wondered what information Google is holding about you? Here's how to find - and edit - your account information and personal data

Most of us have come to accept the fact that pretty much everything we do online is tracked and recorded.

And as the world's biggest company, Google probably holds more data about us than anyone else - allowing the search giant to provide advertisers with detailed profiles of its users.
But have you ever wondered exactly what Google really knows about you?
In theory, your age, your gender, your interests, your search habits and your location history - along with any information you have included on your Google+ profile - should provide quite a comprehensive portrait.
However, depending on what permissions and access you have given Google at any given time, this picture could have been heavily distorted.
Here's how to find out exactly who Google thinks you are:

Visit your account page

Open a browser and go to your account page by typing https://myaccount.google.com/ into the search bar.

You will need to make sure you are logged into your Google account to do this. If you're not logged in, click on the circle in the top right hand corner of the screen and enter your sign-in details.
Many people don't realise they have a Google account, but if you use any of Google's services - such as Gmail, Hangouts, Drive or Calendar - then use these account credentials to log in.

Which devices have access to your account?

Over the years, you may have logged into your Google account from many devices, so it's worth checking which still ones still have access and removing any you no longer use from the list.
Click the "Sign-in & security" tab and scroll down to "Device activity & notifications". Here it will show you a list of "Recently used devices", with information on when they were last used to access your account.

If there are any devices on the list that you no longer use, click on them and then click the "Remove" button.
This will sign you out of your Google account and any connected apps on that device.
Read more: 79% people are worried about their online privacy and want more control over their personal data

Which apps are connected to your account?

You can also use the "Sign-in & security" tab to keep track of which apps and sites you have approved to connect to your account, and remove ones you no longer use or trust.
Scroll down to the "Connected apps & sites" section and click on "Manage apps" to see which apps are connected to your account.

For any you no longer use, click on them and then click the "Remove" button.
You can also use this section to check which passwords from Chrome and Android are saved with Google Smart Lock, and remove any you no longer use.

What search data does Google hold on me?

Now comes the juicy stuff. If you want to know what search data Google holds on you, go back to your account home page (https://myaccount.google.com/) and click on "Personal info & privacy".
Scroll down to "Activity controls" and under "Your searches and browsing activity" click "Manage activity".
In the top right hand corner of the "Insights" box, click the arrow next to "last week" and select "all time".

This will give you a chronological list of everything you've searched for on any device, provided you were logged into your Google account at the time.
You can go through and delete specific searches. If you want to stop Google from recording your searches, go back to the "Personal info & privacy" page and under "Activity controls" untoggle "Your searches and browsing activity".
Google warns that pausing this setting will prevent products like Google Now and Google+ from using your web and app activity to improve their suggestions and updates and provide personalised content.

Have your say in the comments below

What does Google know about where I have been?

Many Google apps now use location information to personalise the experience for the user. As a result, Google probably has a fairly good idea where you've been.
If you want to know exactly what location data Google holds on you, go to the "Personal info & privacy" tab, and under "Places you go" click on "Manage activity".
This will bring up a map of where you have been with your signed-in devices, with red dots representing locations you have visited. It may also show your home and work addresses, if you have provided this information.

Clicking on any of the red dots will bring up more information on when you were visited that location, routes you travelled and places you stayed, along with any photos you took along the way.

To delete any of these records, just click on the dustbin icon in the corner of the "Timeline" panel.
You can also prevent Google from recording this information by going back to the "Personal info & privacy" page and untoggling "Places you go".
Once again, Google warned that this limits functionality of some Google products over time, such as Google Maps and Google Now.
Read more: Google accused of spying on children as young as seven via Chromebooks issued to schools

Who does Google think I am?

A good way to find out who Google thinks you are, is to check what information it uses to serve you ads.
You can do this by going back to the "Personal info & privacy" page, scrolling down to Ads settings and clicking "Manage ad settings".
Here you can see what Google has identified as your gender and age, and a list of any interests Google has associated with your profile.

You can edit these interests, if you want to see more relevant ads, or delete them all, if you'd rather Google didn't try to tailor your ad experience.
However, Google says that the ads you see may still be based on your general location (such as city or state) or recent searches.

Download your data

Finally, you can make a copy of the content in your account at any time, and use it for another service or just for your personal records.
Under "Personal info & privacy", scroll down to "Control your content" and under "Download your data" click "Create archive".
This will take you through to a page where you can choose which data to include, and then get a copy emailed to you as a zip file.

Google warns that this may take a long time (hours or possibly days) to create, but that it will email you when the file is ready.

Source: http://www.mirror.co.uk/tech/how-much-google-really-know-7685863

How To Install Extensions In Edge Browser In Windows 10

Microsoft Edge, the new web browser in Windows 10, is one of the best web browsers out there for Windows 10. The Edge browser is fast, offers an easy-to-use layout, works wonderfully on both traditional desktop as well as touch devices and more importantly, it’s miles ahead of Internet Explorer.
The support for extensions was one of features PC users were asking for ever since the release of Windows 10. Microsoft has finally updated the Edge browser to support extensions. The latest build of Windows 10, which is 14291 right now, allows you install extensions for Edge browser. In short, you can now add new features and personalize Edge browser as you wish.
While there are limited number of extensions available for now, the number will get a boost once Microsoft releases a Windows 10 build with Edge extensions support for public.

Install Edge browser extensions

If you can’t wait to install and use extensions, here is how to download and install extensions in Microsoft Edge browser in Windows 10.

Step 1: Open Edge browser. Click the More, (three dots) located top-right of the browser window (see picture below), and then click Extensions.







Step 2: Click Get extensions link to visit the official extensions page.







Step 3: Scroll down the page to see available extensions.
Step 4: Click on the Download button to download to download an extension.




Step 5: Once downloaded, either click on the Run button that appears once the download is completed, or navigate to the folder where the extension is saved and then double-click on the extension to install the same.








Step 6: Once installed, open Edge, click on More (three dots), and then click Extensions.
Step 7: Finally, click Load extension button and then navigate to the folder where the downloaded extension is saved.







Step 8: Select the extension’s folder, and then click Select Folder to load the selected extension. That’s it! Your newly installed Edge extension is now ready to use.









Hope this helps!


Source: http://www.intowindows.com/how-to-install-extensions-in-edge-browser-in-windows-10/

Firefox 45: Find out what is new

By Martin Brinkmann on March 8, 2016 in Firefox - Last Update: March 8, 2016 17

Firefox 45 has been released on March 8, 2016 to the stable channel. The release overview lists all major changes of the release for Firefox desktop and mobile versions.
All Firefox channels get updated at the same time which means that Beta, Developer Edition, Nightly and Firefox ESR releases are also updated on the same day.
This moves Firefox Beta to version 46, the Developer Edition to version 47, Nightly to version 48, and Firefox ESR to 45.0 (with 38.7 offered as well).
The new version marks the beginning of a new Firefox Extended Release Cycle giving companies and individuals 12 weeks to upgrade from version 38.x to the new 45.x branch before version 38.8 is retired.


Executive Summary

1. Firefox ESR 45.0 is available. Firefox Hello and Service Workers are both disabled in Firefox ESR 45.0.
2. Tab Groups are removed in Firefox 45. We recommend the Tab Groups add-on to keep on using the feature in Firefox 45 and beyond.
3. Add-on signing is enforced in Firefox 45 Stable, but it can be disabled in this version but that preference is to be removed with Firefox 46.

Firefox 45 download and update

Firefox 45 has been released and is currently distributed to systems running older versions of the web browser if update checks and automatic updates are enabled on those systems.
You can run a manual check for updates in the following way to speed things up:

1. Tap on the Alt-key on your keyboard, and select Help > About Firefox.
2. This opens information about Firefox and will run a check for updates automatically.
3. If the Firefox 45 update is found, it is either downloaded and installed automatically or on user request.

You may download Firefox directly from Mozilla to install the new version on a system or upgrade existing versions to Firefox 45 or in the case of other Firefox channels their new versions respectively.

1. Firefox Stable download
2. Firefox Beta download
3. Firefox Developer download
4. Nightly download
5. Firefox ESR download

Firefox 45 Changes

Firefox 45 ships with only a few visible changes. Add-on signing is still enforced in the stable version, but it can still be disabled.
Tab Groups removed
Mozilla removed the Tab Groups / Panorama feature from Firefox. It allowed you to create group of tabs and switch between them.
Firefox users who have used the feature may want to check out one of the following extensions for the browser that brings back the feature:

1. Optimal Access for Firefox
2. Simplified Tab Groups
3. Tab Groups

Tab Groups is closest to the original functionality while Optimal Access re-envisions the feature.


Firefox Hello





The decision to change Firefox Hello from a chat service supporting anonymous audio, video and text chat with contacts to one that puts a focus on tab-sharing has been made in December 2015.
Contacts have been removed from Firefox Hello, and tab sharing is enabled by default. What this means is that you share the active tab with others when you use Firefox Hello.
While you can disable the tab sharing, there does not appear to be an option currently in the settings or about:config to disable tab sharing by default.


Synced Tabs






Mozilla added a new Synced Tabs icon to Firefox 45 which you can use to display tabs open on other devices running the browser.
If the button is not displayed by default, click on the Firefox menu button and select customize from the context menu that opens up.
Locate the Synced Tabs button and drag and drop it to the Firefox toolbar.
In addition, Synced Tabs are shown automatically in the list of suggestions when you type in Firefox's address bar.


Other changes

• Fixed a bug that caused audio playback to stutter "due to duration time rounding errors". (see bug 1222866 for additional information)
• A preference has been added to Firefox to block .onion resources at the DNS level. To disable the blocking, set network.dns.blockDotOnion to false.

Developer Changes

• jar protocol support to directly link to files in ZIP archives has been disabled by default. It can be re-enabled by setting the value network.jar.block-remote-files to false on about:config. (see 1215235 for additional information)
• EV certs valid for more than 27 months will be treated as DV certs. The previous period was 39 months. (see 1222903 for more information)
• Page Inspector supports full-text search (document and iframes). (see Page Inspector documentation)
• WebGL implementation extended with support for programs, shaders, uniforms and attributes, Framebuffer and Renderbuffer. (see bugs 1048743, 1048745, 1048732 and 1048733)
• Web Speech Synthesis API implemented for Firefox on desktop. (see bug 1003439 for additional information)
  
  

Firefox for Android

The following list of changes are unique to Firefox for Android. Most changes are shared with the desktop version of Firefox.
Image loading control
Firefox for Android 45 features a new option to control when images get loaded in the browser. Set to always load images by default, it can be set to only load images over Wi-Fi, or never.
To configure the preference do the following:

1. Tap on the three-dots menu at the top and select Settings from the menu.
2. Select Advanced on the main Settings page.
3. Tap on "show images", and select one of the three options: always, only over Wi-Fi, blocked.

The feature can be used to reduce data usage while using the browser which can be useful especially if you are on a tight data plan, or in an area with bad reception.
Camera & Microphone setting for Family accounts
Firefox for Android supports family-friendly profiles on systems running the mobile operating system. It allows an admin to define features that restricted family members have access to. A new addition in Firefox 45 is a control to allow or block the use of camera or microphone on websites that allow real-time communication.
Other Firefox 45 for Android changes

• The url is no longer included when selected text on web pages is shared.
• Super Toasts have been replaced with Snackbar, the latter supporting actions in notifications.
• The app settings were optimized and re-organized.

Security updates / fixes

Security updates are disclosed after the official release. We update the article as soon as they become available.

Additional information / sources

• Firefox 45 release notes
• Firefox 45 Android release notes
• Add-on compatibility for Firefox 45
• Firefox 45 for developers
• Site compatibility for Firefox 45
• Firefox Security Advisories

Source: https://www.ghacks.net/2016/03/08/firefox-45-find-out-what-is-new/

Meet Firefox Hello Video Chat & Firefox Marketplace In The New Firefox 35

This came out a while ago in Firefox 35 (now up to 44) , but it is still an exciting development.  Mozilla’s Firefox, one of our favourite web browsers, brings some nifty new features in its latest update. Firefox 35 introduces a cross-platform video chat service called Firefox Hello, lets users beta-test the new Firefox Marketplace, and also bakes in social sharing on the web.




One Click To Call Them All: Firefox Hello


There are plenty of free alternatives to Skype, but few have the ease of Firefox Hello. It’s so simple, anyone can use it. You click the Hello icon, start a new conversation, and copy-paste the link to anyone whom you want to video chat with. No sign-ups required!



Firefox Hello will remember your conversations and keep those links alive until you delete them, so you can give each chat window a unique name for the people you call often. And yes, you don’t need Firefox to use it, it will work on any web browser that supports WebRTC, like Chrome or Opera.


You can choose to mute the audio or stop the video at any time. Sign in with your Firefox ID and you can import contacts from other services.
That said, Firefox Hello is still missing a few features. Most importantly, you can’t start group video chats, it’s one-to-one conversations only. Also, you can’t share your screen, like with Google Hangouts or Skype. For the same no-signup experience, Appear.in still seems like the most convenient video chat service. But Firefox Hello is pretty nifty for regular one-on-one chats.

 

One Button To Rule Them All: Firefox Share

Browsing and sharing are intertwined, integral parts of the web surfing experience now. Firefox wants to make it easier for you to share content without cluttering up your toolbar. Firefox Share integrates several popular social networks and bookmarking services into a single button.
So whether you want to share an item on Facebook or Twitter, you click the same button in the Firefox toolbar, which will auto-load the content of the page you are viewing. Firefox Share also supports Gmail, LinkedIn, Tumblr and several others. Check out the full list of services—but be warned, some of these are activated in the sidebar (and you’ll see a note for them).
Cleaning up a cluttered toolbar is a great idea, but Firefox Share doesn’t really do a better job than existing services like Buffer. The Buffer extension for Firefox is great for sharing, and you can cross-post to multiple networks simultaneously too. Plus, not all services get compacted into the Share button. For example, the awesome bookmarking service Pocket appears as its own extension icon, defeating the purpose.

 

One Site To Download Them All: Firefox Marketplace

 

Back in 2010, the Chrome Web Store integrated Chrome apps, extensions and themes in one place. Mozilla’s answer is the Firefox Marketplace, currently in beta.
So if you want one of the best Firefox Add-ons, you now have to go to the Marketplace instead of the old Add-ons page. The biggest benefit here seems to be collections of web apps and extensions, like a suite of productivity apps or a curation of “hidden gems” on Firefox. Who knows, you might just discover some more great Firefox extensions that no other browser has!


Get Going With Firefox 44


Firefox 44 also includes built-in support for H.264 (MP4) video on Mac OS X, a new search UI, better performance while resizing high-quality images, and some other improvements. The Android version has improved geolocation services and the Download Manager can now keep track of downloaded files.


Download Firefox 44 for Windows, Mac or Linux


Source: http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/meet-firefox-hello-video-chat-firefox-marketplace-new-firefox-35/

The Ultimate Guide to Making Firefox Faster

If you’ve been using Firefox for a long time, you may have noticed it getting slower as time passed. Maybe it takes a few seconds to start up or takes a bit longer loading webpages. You might start noticing that it takes a second or so to switch between tabs or that the menu option doesn’t pop up instantly.
If your installation of Firefox runs slow or freezes more than you’d care for, there are a lot of different ways to speed things up a bit. In this article, I’m going to go through all the tips and tricks I’ve learned over the years to keep Firefox fast and efficient. Depending on your operating system and system configuration, some tweaks might give you more of a boost than others.
Note that some tweaks require changing the browser settings in about:config. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, read my previous post on backing up and modifying the about:config configuration in Firefox.

 

 

Enable HTTP Cache

There is a new HTTP cache option that can be enabled in Firefox, which will help reduce UI glitches and various other browser crashes. Open about:config and search for the following entry:

browser.cache.use_new_backend

Double-click on it and change the value from 0 to 1. You can then simply close the about:config tab and continue browsing. There is no need to restart the browser or computer, etc. The new cache will be enabled and you should get a speed boost and a smoother browsing experience.

 

 

Refresh Firefox

Firefox has a really cool feature that basically performs an automatic tune up on your Firefox installation. However, you only want to do this after you understand exactly what it does. Firstly, it will keep your browsing history, bookmarks, passwords, cookies, website auto-fill info and personal dictionary.
It will delete extensions and themes, website permissions, added search engines, download history, security settings, plugin settings, toolbar customizations, user styles and social feature. To get to it, you have to type in about:support in the address bar.




Click on the Refresh Firefox button at the top right to get started. I have used this feature a several times and it works great. It does take a bit of time reinstalling a few add-ons, but I’ve found that it helps me get rid of the add-ons I never used in the first place.

 

 

Enable Safe Mode

Firefox has a nice feature called Safe mode that disables extensions and themes in order to determine whether an extension is causing problems. Since Firefox is all about extensions, you’ll definitely run into some with poorly written code that can cause a lot of grief.
If you find that browsing in safe mode is super fast compared to normal browsing, then you can almost guarantee that it’s an extension causing the slowdown. You can restart Firefox in safe mode by clicking on the menu icon and then clicking on the help icon.





Now choose Restart with Add-ons Disabled to get into safe mode.



Safe mode will also turn off hardware acceleration and will reset toolbar and button customizations. Everything will go back to normal when you restart Firefox normally so don’t think you’ve lost any customizations you might have made.
Also, when you restart, it’ll ask you to Start in Safe Mode or Refresh Firefox, which is the the other tip I already mentioned above.





It’s best to disable all add-ons and then enable them one by one to see which one is causing Firefox to slow down, freeze or crash. You can see all the add-ons and plugins by clicking on the Firefox menu and clicking on Add-ons.





The more add-ons and plugins you disable or delete, the faster Firefox will run. Some plugins will be set to Ask to Activate, which is ok. You want to check all the ones that are set to Always Activate and see which ones can be switched to Ask to Activate.

 

 

Minimize Memory Usage

Firefox has quite a few of these built-in performance tricks and another one is to minimize the memory usage. Go ahead and type in about:memory into the address bar and you can get detailed memory usage information about Firefox.





You’ll see a button under Free Memory called Minimize memory usage. Click on that and it will try to free up memory immediately and therefore make Firefox run faster. This is a good option to use if you had a bunch of tabs open in Firefox and you recently closed out a lot of them. Any memory being previously held by those tabs and still being used by Firefox will be freed.

 

 

Clear Cache

Another easy way to make Firefox faster is to periodically clear the cache. By default, Firefox will cache the contents of most websites you visit, so that they load faster when you visit them again. In the short term, this works well and does speed up browsing, however, once the cache becomes very large, it can start to slow things down.
If you click on the Firefox menu, click Options and then click on Advanced, you’ll see a Network tab that lets you clear the cache.





I don’t suggest clearing the cache very often, as that will slow down browsing. The best thing to do is to check every few months or to check the Override automatic cache management box and set the value depending on what type of hard drive you have. Since this cache is accessed via disk, it can be pretty slow if you have a slow hard drive.
However, if you have an extremely fast SSD drive, then using the cache can be more beneficial. So keep it small (<250 MB) if you hard drive is slow and leave it alone if you have a very fast hard disk.

 

 

Firefox Pipelining

If you have used Firefox for a long time, you have probably come across this hack on many blogs. Pipelining is a feature that basically lets Firefox open multiple connections to a server, theoretically loading pages faster. I’ve had mixed results with this setting, so it’s best to test it yourself first to see whether it’s worth keeping enabled.
There are different views on what value should be set for the max number of connections, but the consensus from most diehard Firefox fans is 8. In order to enable pipelining, go to about:config and type in network.http.pipe in the filter box and you’ll see several settings.





The values you need to change are shown in the image above. I have also listed them below if it’s not clear.

network.http.pipelining – true
network.http.pipelining.aggressive – true
network.http.pipelining.maxrequests – 8
network.http.pipelining.ssl – true

 

 

Other Settings

There are a couple of more obscure settings that could possibly speed up your Firefox browsing, but results are not guaranteed. It’s best to test these and see if there is any noticeable difference.

network.dns.disableIPv6 – true
browser.tabs.animate – false
browser.display.show_image_placeholders – false

Hopefully, your installation of Firefox is running a bit faster. I don’t recommend using add-ons like FasterFox because they only change the settings we have talked about above and adding more add-ons to speed up Firefox just doesn’t make any sense. If you have your own tip for speeding up Firefox, let us know in the comments. Enjoy!

Source: http://www.online-tech-tips.com/computer-tips/speed-up-mozilla-firefox/

How To Force HTML5 Videos Instead of Flash in Chrome and Firefox

It’s no secret that Steve Jobs hated Flash; he was singlehandedly responsible for its downfall. His reasons, all valid, can be read in this excellent essay. On the web, yes, Flash lost. HTML, CSS, JavaScript won. The web was no longer filled with ugly and slow splashes of Flash based websites. The web is a lot prettier than it used to be.

Flash is still prevalent when it comes to videos though. While front end languages were ready to take over the interactive elements of the website, HTML and video playback still weren’t best pals.

It’s much better now, with the HTML5 spec being finalized and browser support at a plateau. What I’m getting at is that while many websites still like to squeeze Flash videos down the internet cables, they really don’t have to. And though YouTube is moving a lot of its videos to the HTML5 format, we’re clearly not all the way there.
In this guide, we’ll focus on how to force HTML5 videos on websites like YouTube and Vimeo (as much as we can).

Why Would You Want To Do This?

We know Flash on the whole is bad, but why would you want to switch from Flash video to HTML5?

• HTML5 videos are less resource intensive. They load up faster.
• They don’t take nearly as much power to run, which means your laptop’s battery lasts longer.
• To me, and I have no scientific way of proving this, HTML5 videos look crisper played at 720p resolution on my Retina MacBook Pro.

And of course, there are downsides as well. For the most part, HTML5 videos don’t support 1080p resolution. If you’re addicted to full HD playback, this solution might not be for you. Again, in my opinion, the 720p HTML5 playback is really nice.

YouTube has its own HTML5 videos page: YouTube’s own HTML5 video page just states that whenever possible, it will load HTML5 videos but it gives no details about which ones.

Chrome Extensions

HTML5ify

HTML5ify will block Flash content wherever it can and replace it with HTML5. Besides YouTube, it will force HTML5 players in Vimeo as well (if you’ve viewed more than a couple of Vimeo videos, you know the built-in player is unnecessarily complicated).

HTML5 video for YouTube

HTML5 Video for YouTube does pretty much the same thing as HTML5ify, except it adds a strip of UI below every video. HTML5 support for high definition videos is still tricky. So you might have to make do with 720p resolution. The dropdown menu below the video player gives you options for selecting the quality.

Firefox Add-ons

YouTube ALL HTML5

YouTube ALL HTML5 adds a button that switches the current video to HTML5 format.

YouTube HTML5 Video

YouTube HTML5 Video is a simple add-on that inserts “&html5=1” at the end of each YouTube URL forcing the video to load in HTML5. If you’ve got 100% confidence in HTML5 videos and don’t want to click a button every time, use this add-on to basically automate the process.

YouTube HTML5 Player

YouTube HTML5 Player is much like YouTube ALL HTML5. It presents you with a button that when pressed, switches from Flash to HTML5 video.

Flash Or HTML5?

It’s your turn now. Flash or HTML5 – which is your preferred online video playback format? Let us know in the comments below.

Source: http://www.guidingtech.com/35075/force-html5-videos/

Six Alternative, Useful Browsers Based On Google Chrome

Chrome is the most popular browser around, but even with its large extension library, one size does not fit all. Thankfully, there's a treasure trove of web browser brilliance built on Chrome's solid, open-source foundation—from browsers aimed at the security conscious to the multimedia hobbyists. Here are four Chrome-based alternatives worth checking out.

Why Switch to a Different Chrome?

If you're already using Chrome, chances are you're pretty happy with it and don't feel any urgency to switch. And if it's a basic browsing experience that you're looking for, there may not be any massive need to swap over.

When developers start climbing its open source Chromium framework, they generally aren't looking to create another Chrome, however. Each one has its own particular nuance, and if that purpose aligns with your net-surfing preferences, you'll find yourself with a browser that gives the web a delicious new flavor.

The good news is that, being from the same code as Chrome, you can still sync your profile and use all the same extensions and add-ons as Google's original, so you'll never be giving anything up by testing out one of these great alternatives.

And hey! There are no rules that say you can only have one of these installed a time. Why not combine them depending on what you're doing on the net today?

For the Privacy Conscious: SRWare Iron

Like most browsers, and pretty much anything else with an Internet connection these days, Chrome sometimes comes under fire for privacy issues. Not that it's giving your data away, but it might not always camouflage it as much as you'd like. So SRWare created the Iron web browser as a privacy-conscious alternative.

Much of Iron's privacy tactics are derived from removing Chrome functions, rather than adding to them, which at first glance may appear like you're getting a reduced experience. However, it's mostly working to stem the flow of information from your computer to Google's. For example, it doesn't deliver suggestions direct to the address bar, nor does it contact Google for automatic updates or error reporting. There's even a built-in ad-blocker. (You can check out a full list of differences here).

A nice side effect of this streamlined Chrome alternative is that it also runs noticeably faster, since it's not using up brain power reporting every little click and search back to Google, and instead dedicates itself purely to shepherding you around the net. This is a good option for anyone who wants to retain the Chrome experience in an app that works straight out of the box, but is using a low-speed net connection and/or has growing concerns about online privacy.

There aren't any bells or whistles about this browser, so don't expect a feature-rich experience. To some this might sound a little off-putting, but many will appreciate its minimalist, safe approach. This is the browser I've actually settled on lately, and it's fast, cheerful and rock solid. We've become very firm friends.

Update: A lot of you have noted that Iron's features are not as privacy-conscious as they would have you believe, and that its developer's intentions are less than noble. This post does a good job of summing up some info on the subject. So if you want a browser focused on privacy, you can likely skip Iron and go with Chrome or Firefox.

For the Security Focused: Comodo Dragon

Targeted more toward the tech-savvy, experienced surfer, Comodo Dragon comes to us from security collective Comodo. As you'd expect from the Comodo Group, which has its entire corporate focus on web security, this web window offers a frontline defense as you wander the digital wilds.

Your home computer can probably handle the occasional kick in the ribs from a bit of malware, spyware or even a semi-malicious piece of code, but a business or work computer can't always dismiss those risks so lightly. When you first install Comodo Dragon, it gives you the option of routing your web browsing through Comodo's highly secure DNS servers. Indeed, if you're particularly paranoid, it'll even help you route all your traffic through these servers.

Additional checks are performed on SSL digital certificates and the browser reports back to you on how strong it feels secure websites really are. There's also an on-demand site inspector that checks pages for malicious code before you saunter into digital quicksand. On top of all this, it offers some similar privacy blocks as Iron, and has its own update system built in to keep you on the latest version.

It's not perfect, of course. There are times when Dragon feels to be toeing the company line a little too hard, pushing you toward Comodo's products and services by way of light (and mostly well-intentioned) scare tactics. You'd be forgiven if this eventually turned into a deal breaker for you, but this level of built-in paranoia could prove to be your savior if you frequent the darker corners of the web.

Oh, and if you're a Firefox fan rather than Chrome, Comodo offers much the same features in its IceDragon package.

For Extra Conveniences: CoolNovo

You may remember CoolNovo from back when it was called Chrome Plus. Its name has been changed for obvious legal reasons, but the end product hasn't been altered in any way, other than some great new updates and added features.

This browser is all about convenience, and works hard to make your online experience as simple and seamless as possible. It's still got some privacy tweaks like we've seen in the others, so safety hasn't been sacrificed in the name of CoolNovo's functionality, but it's more focused on enhancing your digital journey. It's becoming less and less of an issue, but there are still one or two sites that still work better with Internet Explorer. With one click, you can load the page in "IE Mode" right in a CoolNovo tab.

Similarly, it adds things like automatic translation, customizable mouse gestures, and other shortcuts like double-clicking a tab to close it. Top this off with a range of file download tools and "Super Drag," which lets you open links just by dropping the text onto the window, and you've got a great browser that's packed with operational extras.

This is a community-run project, however, and support for CoolNovo is sketchy at best. It's mainly based out of China, so there are one or two cultural and language barriers that stand in the way if you find yourself having any difficulties. So long as it works straight out of the box, you've nothing to worry about. But it could be put to the sword pretty quickly if you ever encounter any problems.

For the Multimedia Guru: Torch Browser

As the web becomes more and more a place where we store our files and find entertainment content, web browsers need to keep up with the increasingly busy two-way street of multimedia consumption. Torch Browser makes a significant move into this realm by lighting a fire under Chromium's sharing, downloading and multimedia functions.

One of the first of such features you'll come across is its tile-based drag-and-drop interface. This is a very unique and powerful feature that lets you simply drop a link, some text, a photo or whatever else you want to share (or search for) onto a relevant tile, and Torch Browser takes care of the rest. This might be Facebook, for example, or YouTube, and whatever you threw onto the browser window is automatically put to that particular tile's purpose. It also has a built-in torrent client.

Similarly, it also has a media grabber built-in, which saves embedded music and videos as a file on your computer. Downloading from the web is given a shot in the arm by way of the browser's download accelerator, which you can turn on and off as required. It even has Hola built-in, so you can access region-locked music and videos.

Ultimately this Chrome alternative targets the heavy social and multimedia user with pinpoint accuracy, all while delivering Chromium's usual smooth and user-friendly browsing experience. But no matter how we dress it up, there's no avoiding Torch Browser's likely appeal to the more...pirate-like among us, which might switch some people off if it begins to weigh on their conscience. For the rest, its interface may be a little cluttered, but it's got a good amount of useful tools built-in if you're willing to explore it.

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These aren't the only browsers based off Chrome, of course, but they're some solid ones worth looking at (many of which you guys have mentioned before). If you've got needs Chrome can't service out of the box, they might be worth a look.

Title image remixed from pixelparticle (Shutterstock).Source: http://lifehacker.com/four-alternative-useful-browsers-based-off-of-google-c-1558525397

Source: http://lifehacker.com/four-alternative-useful-browsers-based-off-of-google-c-1558525397?commerce_insets_disclosure=on&utm_expid=66866090-48.Ej9760cOTJCPS_Bq4mjoww.2&utm_referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com

An honorable mention: Chromium


Chromium - Open Source




The first place to start is the one closest to home. The open source core of Chrome, Chromium is what the browser is before Google adds its branding and integration features. These include things like user metrics (the sending of browsing stats back to Google), crash reporting, the built-in Flash player and PDF viewer, multimedia codecs (MP3, AAC), and the auto-updating system. Folks who lambast Google over privacy issues often recommend using Chromium, which lacks the user tracking features they dislike in Chrome.
Browsing in Chromium is virtually the same experience as using Chrome itself, in big part because many of the missing pieces are made up for in other ways. The lack of the internal Flash plug-in isn't a problem, for instance, because Chromium can make use of whatever copy of Flash is already installed in Windows.
One potential hurdle is that Chromium isn't distributed in the same manner as Chrome itself. There are automated builds of Chromium in the maze of directories for Google's Chromium site, and anywhere from four to five builds a day are created automatically from the latest source code. But because Chromium doesn't have Chrome's auto-updater, you need to upgrade Chromium manually.
Another problem is Chromium's inherent instability. If you simply pick a build, there's no guarantee it will run properly, so you may have to do some research ferreting out a reasonably stable one. Fortunately, some people have done a little of this legwork for you. For instance, the CRportable project repackages reasonably stable Chromium builds in the PortableApps format, so you can run the browser from a USB key or portable hard drive.

Chromium

Okay, Chromium isn’t technically based on Google Chrome — it’s the other way around; Chrome is based on Chromium. Chromium is the completely open-source version of Google Chrome. Chromium lacks many features found in Chrome, including the Google Updater, the bundled Flash plugin, the service that optionally sends usage data to Google, and non-free codecs like MP3 and AAC. Without the update service, you’ll have to update Chromium yourself.

Google doesn’t release stable builds of Chromium. If you want to use Chromium, check out the Chromium Portable website.

By Martin Brinkmann on September 6, 2013 in Internet 27

Epic Browser is not the first nor will it be the last Chromium-based web browser that aims to improve user privacy. When Google Chrome was released years ago, third party Chromium-based browsers appeared shortly thereafter that offered most of what Chrome had to offer, but without several of the tracking or privacy-invading features that Google's browser shipped with.
The majority of those browsers are still around, and Epic Browser will have to compete against them and Chrome, and probably other web browsers as well.
The homepage of Epic Browser focuses on privacy, first explaining how you are being tracked on the Internet, and then how Epic Browser helps you protect yourself when you are browsing the Internet.

 

Epic Browser


According to that page, it fixes 11 potential leaks that may reveal information about you and your browsing habits to Internet companies such as Google.

1. No address bar suggest
2. No URL checks
3. Auto-translate has been removed.
4. No URL Tracker
5. Installation ID removed
6. RLZ-Tracking number removed
7. Default Updater removed.
8. Installation time stamp removed.
9. No alternate error pages.
10. No navigation error suggestions
11. No error reporting

In addition to that, it more or less defaults to private browsing mode by preventing the recording of history, caches, passwords, pre-fetching and other features that may reveal information about the user.
That is however still not enough. It clears all browsing data on exit by default, making sure that any information that were needed during the session are removed from the system in the process.
As you may have noticed, this may impact how you work with the browser as you cannot make use of features that you may have come to rely on.
The developers of Epic Browser have added features to the browser that neither Chrome nor Chromium ship with. This includes a one-click US proxy server (powered by Spotflux) that users can make use of to hide their original IP address when they are browsing on the Internet (yes, this includes access to US-only services such as Hulu), integrated ad blocking and tracker blocking, automatic blocking of third party cookies, and automatic use of https versions of websites if provided.
It is interesting to note that Epic will enable the proxy by default on Google to prevent the tracking of your IP address on the site. What more? It blocks the sending of the referral header when you use the search engine so that third party websites do not know what your search term was that led you to their website.
Another interesting feature is the umbrella icon that you can use for quick access to several core features such as ad and third party cookie blocking.

Downsides

You are probably wondering about downsides of using the browser. The first thing that comes to mind are the features that you cannot use, like spell checking, auto-translation or session restore. Some features are left for the user to decide, like the saving of passwords in the browser, while others cannot be altered in any form or way.
The address bar search provider is set to epicsearch.in. According to the developers, revenue generated here is used to support the browser and services it provides. They furthermore state that the ads displayed here are only based on a user's search query and a rough location check.

Closing Words

It is too early to tell if Epic Browser will make a big splash or remain a niche browser that appeals to a privacy-focused audience.
I wish it would provide users with choice in regards to some of the features as it would improve the browser's usability. It would then be the user's decision to sacrifice some privacy for convenience.
The developers have promised to release the source code of the browser soon. For now though, it is not available.
Source: http://www.ghacks.net/2013/09/06/epic-browser-privacy-focused-web-browser-based-chromium/

How to Stop Avast Injecting Signatures Into Your Emails

Written by Ben Stegner January 25, 2016
Avast is a great antivirus program, but it has some annoying features that may be enabled without your knowledge. From irritating sounds to tracking your every move, even this good antivirus solution is flawed.

Somehow @avast_antivirus just started adding an email signature to my gmail, and I never approved or set that up. Extremely not okay.

— Troy Crosby (@troycroz) December 23, 2015

Avast quietly introduced a new annoyance last month, when it started appending signatures to your outgoing emails — without telling you. Yes, you wouldn’t even know the program was doing this unless someone told you, or if you saw an email from someone else and made the connection.
Even worse, they put this crap into all your outgoing emails whether you’re using desktop mail with Outlook or Thunderbird, or a web-based client like Gmail or Yahoo! mail.
You’ve probably worked hard to craft an email signature that leaves the right impression, and having Avast hijack it without telling you is both a violation of trust and makes you look silly when sending important emails. If you decide this isn’t worth ditching Avast over, it’s easy to disable.


Open Avast by double-clicking the orange sphere icon in your notification area, or just search in the Start menu for Avast. Once in the program, click the gear icon in the top-right; you’ll be in the General tab. Now, just uncheck Enable Avast email signature to be rid of this nuisance.


There’s one other place you may want to check to ensure this is totally disabled. Switch to the Active Protection tab in the settings, then click Customize next to Mail Shield. Under the Behavior tab, uncheck Insert note into clean message (outgoing) (and you might as well uncheck the box for incoming clean messages, too, since it’s useless).

@avast_antivirus you're asking to be uninstalled with that automated email signature. I know I can disable it, but it's stupid to begin with

— timscribbles (@itstimscribbles) January 13, 2016

Did you notice this email signature on any of your emails? Will this make you stop using Avast? Let me know what you think of this scenario below!
Source: http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/stop-annoying-avast-email-signatures/

How To Stop Videos From Auto-Playing in Your Browser

Whether it’s a music clip on YouTube, a Flash ad on a news site or the latest viral sensation on Facebook, most videos you come across on today’s web want to get going without any input from you—and that can cause problems with bandwidth as well as audio output you weren’t expecting. Here’s how to tackle the issue in your browser of choice.

One of the difficulties in addressing the problem is we’re right in the middle of a transition between old and clunky Flash and the new, streamlined HTML5 as far as video formats go. The momentum is definitely behind the latter, but you’re still going to come across plenty of sites using Flash, so you really need to block both types to be safe.
After following the steps below, the problem should be minimized for the most part. But even after applying these changes, you can’t be completely sure you one or two videos won’t slip by—some publishers use custom-made code to fool your browser into thinking it isn’t dealing with a video.

Google Chrome

As far as HTML5 is concerned, you’re going to need some third-party help to stop playback. From the extensions we’ve seen, Disable HTML5 Autoplay seems to be the most comprehensive and effective option, though a small number of users report that it doesn’t work. It effectively stopped clips from playing on YouTube and Facebook when we tested it.

For the older Flash technology, you can block this at source, as it’s built into Chrome. Head to the Settings tab, open the advanced settings selection, and then click on the Content settings button. Under the Plugins heading, tick the checkbox next to “Let me choose when to run plugin content”.

On some sites, this should be enough, but we found plenty of adverts getting through the net. To completely stop the flow, click Manage individual plugins... and untick the “Always allowed to run” entry next to Adobe Flash Player
This does mean you’ll have to activate Flash on sites that rely on it to work (like Rdio, for example), but this should be a one-time thing you can take care of via the blocked plugin icon that appears in the address bar—it’s a small price to pay for some peace and quiet. You can always go nuclear and disable Flash completely if you prefer.

Mozilla Firefox

In Firefox, HTML5 that can be disabled through the browser’s own settings. Type “about:config” into the address bar, click through the warning and search for “autoplay” options—double-click on media.autoplay.embed and the value changes to false.

As for Flash, open up the Firefox menu and choose Add-ons; if you click on Plugins from the subsequent screen you can select Ask to Activate from the drop-down menu next to Shockwave Flash. Any Flash videos will then need to be clicked on before they play (as with Chrome, this may interfere with some perfectly useful sites as well).

That should be enough to stop videos from playing, but sites and advertisers change their code on a constant basis and browsers don’t always manage to keep up. A variety of third-party extensions are available for Firefox too, from FlashStopper to Stop YouTube HTML5. The former replaces both Flash and HTML5 content with a thumbnail, and you may prefer it to the rather rudimentary blocking features in Firefox itself.

Microsoft Edge and Internet Explorer

With Microsoft Edge still at such an early stage in its development—and with third-party extensions not yet supported—there doesn’t appear to be any way yet for you to stop video content from automatically playing. If you go into the advanced settings for the browser, you can supposedly turn off Adobe Flash Player, but it had no effect on the sites we visited (your mileage may vary).



As for the old-school joys of Internet Explorer, you can choose Safety and tick ActiveX Filtering to block some kinds of content; another option is to choose Tools then Manage add-ons to get access to the Shockwave Flash plugin. Right-click to disable it, or choose More information to remove it from one site in particular.
The steps for IE described above are the ones most commonly recommended, and they stopped some auto-playing content, but plenty still got through—it seems that Chrome and Firefox are much more effective at blocking this behavior than either the old or new browsers from Microsoft. If you know of a foolproof way that works, let us know.
[Header image courtesy of dolphfyn/Shutterstock.com]

16 Hidden Chrome Settings Worth Tweaking

The chrome://flags page is a strange and wonderful trove of hidden settings for Google’s browser. It lets you peek under the hood of the application and tinker around with some experimental options not yet ready for prime time. Here are 16 of the most useful flag settings you might want to tweak.

It’s worth re-emphasizing that these are experimental features—they might not work correctly and they might crash your browser. “We make absolutely no guarantees about what may happen if you turn one of these experiments on, and your browser may even spontaneously combust,” reads the official Google disclaimer on the flags page, a message we echo.
A browser restart is usually required to apply the changes, and you can use the Relaunch Now button at the bottom for the job. If you get into trouble, use the Reset all to default button at the top of the flags list, or uninstall Chrome and reinstall a fresh copy from the web.

1. Enable automatic spelling correction: Instead of just having Chrome suggest a spelling change while you type, you can have it just go ahead and make the alteration while you continue to tap away.
2. Enable multilingual spellchecker: Speaking of spell checking, the Chrome flags page includes an option that tells the browser to look for mistakes in multiple languages at once.
3. Enable download resumption: A fairly straightforward one—this gives you the ability to resume downloads that have been unexpectedly interrupted. Handy if you regularly deal with large files and flaky wifi.




4. Download status in Notification Center: Gives you a pop-up desktop notification in Chrome whenever a new download starts, complete with shortcuts for pausing, resuming, and canceling the download.
5. Enable password generation: Tired of the same old combinations of letters and numbers? Have Chrome suggest passwords for you (via a key icon) whenever it detects that you’re on a new sign up page.
6. Enable fast tab/window close: Separates Chrome’s JavaScript handler from its Graphical User Interface, which should in theory enable you to close tabs more quickly. Remember though that all these flags are experiments...
7. Save passwords automatically: By default, Chrome asks you if you want to save passwords for each site. But by enabling this flag, you can have it automatically store this information without prompting.

8. Material design in the browser’s top chrome: Add some of Android’s material design to your desktop. There are also separate flags for the Settings and Downloads pages, with the latter having the most dramatic effect on the visuals.
9. Smooth scrolling: An experimental feature that performs some behind-the-scenes wizardry to help pages flow smoothly from top to bottom even when the system is struggling. Integrated into Chrome OS.
10. Enable extension toolbar redesign: Want to see Google’s plans for the extension bar? Enable this flag, which puts icons for hidden extensions at the top of the Chrome menu for (slightly) easier access.
11. Enable large icons on the New Tab page: Google’s also busy redesigning the New Tab page with some bigger icons that make better use of the space—enable this flag if you want to take a look in advance.




12. Show settings in a window: Having the Chrome Settings in its own browser tab is perfectly convenient most of the time, but you might prefer it in a separate window, something this flag makes possible.
13. Emphasize titles in the omnibox dropdown: If you’ve ever found yourself wishing that the Chrome omnibox would show more search suggestions and fewer URLs when you type, this is the flag for you.
14. FPS counter: See the frame rate of a page (in frames-per-second) when hardware acceleration is enabled, via a small box overlay in the corner. More of a developer-centric option, but fun to try out nevertheless.
15. Enable tab discarding: Part of Google’s efforts to cut down on Chrome’s memory use, this abandons the contents of unused tabs when memory is low. The tab entry remains and the page reloads when you click it.
16. Enable Save Password Bubble UI: Another password-related flag, this one displays the prompt to save passwords in a pop-up bubble rather than a drop-down info bar. A small change but one you might like.