Neowin News Feed for: Tracking

Tractive GPS collar review: Keeping tabs on your pet's health and location

Christopher White — Mon, 04 Aug 2025 17:00:01 +0000

We all love our pets, but how would you find your fur-baby if it ran off in the night? We take a look at Tractive, a GPS monitor for your pet that also has some health monitoring and game features. Read more...

China throws a wrench into Nvidia's H20 comeback plan

Paul Hill — Thu, 31 Jul 2025 09:08:02 +0000

The Chinese government has summoned Nvidia over concerns that the chipmaker has backdoors in its hardware. Read more...

Report: ByteDance's VS Code fork Trae is a resource hog that spies on you

Usama Jawad — Mon, 28 Jul 2025 05:30:01 +0000

A detailed investigation into the VS Code fork, Trae, developed by TikTok's parent company ByteDance has revealed that the IDE is a resource hog and spies on you even when telemetry is disabled. Read more...

The second-generation Apple AirTag is rumored to be announced next year

Sagar Naresh Bhavsar — Mon, 20 May 2024 06:16:01 +0000

Apple is rumored to be working on the second-generation AirTag and if all goes well, the item tracker could bring improved location tracking and the item tracker may be launched in 2025. Read more...

AirTags stalking lawsuit against Apple expands with dozens of new victims

Omer Dursun — Fri, 13 Oct 2023 11:40:01 +0000

A lawsuit against Apple over AirTag-enabled stalking expanded, with more than three dozen new plaintiffs claiming to be victims of stalking. The expanded lawsuit seeks damages for invasion of privacy. Read more...

Apple details how an iPhone can double up as a pet-tracking camera

Aditya Tiwari — Thu, 08 Jun 2023 08:22:01 +0000

Apple has talked about new tools developers can use to create apps that can monitor the movements of animals. The apps control motorized phone mounts based on the location of the animals. Read more...

Meta to finally allow users to turn off cross-site tracking

Steve Bennett — Wed, 07 Jun 2023 18:58:01 +0000

Meta has announced that it will be introducing a new feature, called the accounts center, which will give users the ability to stop the company from tracking activity across its various apps. Read more...

The White House takes aim at Big Brother bosses

Paul Hill — Mon, 01 May 2023 23:06:01 +0000

The White House wants to limit the amount of tracking employers can deploy against employees. It said such tracking, which has been enabled by technology, poses a risk to physical and mental health. Read more...

ChatGPT lets you go incognito which disables history and the use of your data for training

Paul Hill — Tue, 25 Apr 2023 20:28:01 +0000

OpenAI has made incognito mode available for ChatGPT. It allows you to turn off chat history and stop your conversations from being used to train ChatGPT models. Read on to learn how to enable it. Read more...

Samsung's first ultra-wideband chip boasts 'centimeter-level accuracy' for phones and cars

Taras Buria — Tue, 21 Mar 2023 13:04:01 +0000

Samsung Electronics today announced its first ultra-wideband chip for mobile and automotive devices. Called Exynos Connect U100, the processor promises single-digit centimeter accuracy. Read more...

Huawei under suspicion of tracking and spying on visitors at its MWC 2023 booth

Anushe Fawaz — Mon, 06 Mar 2023 16:48:01 +0000

According to reports, Huawei was allegedly tracking visitors at its booth during the MWC 2023 event. Visitors found the security badges given by the company rather suspicious on further investigation. Read more...

Meta sued for violating Apple's privacy rules

Usama Jawad — Thu, 22 Sep 2022 13:26:01 +0000

Meta has been sued by two Facebook users who claim that the company can track all their activity and collect their data through an embedded web browser inside the Facebook app without their consent. Read more...

U.S. bill could stymie China's digital yuan efforts, in mobile apps anyway

Paul Hill — Thu, 26 May 2022 22:16:01 +0000

A U.S. bill could force apps to strip out digital yuan payment methods if they want to feature in the App Store and Play Store in the United States. Senators are concerned about potential tracking. Read more...

Man gets arrested for tracking girlfriend by attaching an Apple Watch to her car's wheel

Usama Jawad — Mon, 28 Mar 2022 07:30:02 +0000

A man from Nashville, Tennessee has been arrested for tracking his girlfriend's whereabouts by attaching his Apple Watch to her car's wheel and then using the Life360 app to track her location. Read more...

Google makes ‘Privacy Sandbox' for Android stringent but changes could take multiple years

Alap Naik Desai — Wed, 16 Feb 2022 22:02:01 +0000

Google announced that Android will get a plethora of privacy features as part of the Privacy Sandbox initiative. The deployment, however, could take multiple years. The feature is available in Chrome. Read more...

Apple strengthens protections against unwanted AirTag tracking

Paul Hill — Thu, 10 Feb 2022 20:20:01 +0000

Responding to criticism about its AirTag device, Apple is preparing to update its devices so that people are better protected against bad actors who use AirTag trackers to stalk targets. Read more...

Ensuring privacy while still showing personalized ads is a tricky proposition

Usama Jawad — Wed, 26 Jan 2022 18:16:01 +0000

With Google killing off one of its privacy-preserving initiatives "FLoC" and moving to "Topics" instead, it's clear that showing you personalized ads without invading your privacy is a difficult task. Read more...

Google has killed off FLoC, introduces Topics for ad tracking instead

Usama Jawad — Tue, 25 Jan 2022 15:52:01 +0000

Google has announced that it has killed off FLoC, its privacy-preserving method of sharing your data with ad providers. Its replacement is "Topics" coming soon that will work locally on your device. Read more...

Apple AirTags are being exploited to steal cars in Canada

Usama Jawad — Sat, 04 Dec 2021 13:50:01 +0000

According to a report from the York police, car thieves in Canada are reportedly using AirTags in their heists. They are being leveraged to track cars so they can be stolen under conducive conditions. Read more...

Privacy firm DuckDuckGo launches App Tracking Protection for Android in beta

Paul Hill — Fri, 19 Nov 2021 20:10:01 +0000

DuckDuckGo has added App Tracking Protection to its Android app as a beta feature. It prevents hidden trackers in apps from sending back personal data to firms such as Google and Facebook. Read more...

China will allow minors to play video games only for one hour per day on the weekends

Usama Jawad — Mon, 30 Aug 2021 14:40:01 +0000

China has announced a new rule under which people below the age of 18 can only play video games one hour daily from Friday to Sunday. Real-name registration systems will also be implemented. Read more...

Google delays its FLoC efforts "to move at a responsible pace"

Sayan Sen — Thu, 24 Jun 2021 16:32:01 +0000

Google has announced that it is slowing down its FLoC efforts "to move at a responsible pace" as the community doesn't quite seem ready for what Google is offering in order to protect user privacy. Read more...

Google makes it harder for Android apps to track users

Subir Kathuria — Thu, 03 Jun 2021 16:02:02 +0000

Google is attempting to rival Apple in the privacy department. After introducing various privacy-related changes in Android 12, it is now making it more difficult for app developers to track users. Read more...

Here's what you need to know about FLoC: Google's alternative to individual tracking

Usama Jawad — Sat, 06 Mar 2021 10:26:01 +0000

Google recently announced that it will soon stop individual tracking to preserve user privacy. But what does that mean exactly? We take a deep-dive around its proposed FLoC approach to find out. Read more...

Google says it will stop tracking you on the web via ads next year

Usama Jawad — Thu, 04 Mar 2021 09:14:01 +0000

In a surprise announcement, Google has stated that it will soon stop tracking your activity across the web as well as through its products. This is a part of the effort to build a privacy-first web. Read more...

Vodafone successfully trials highly accurate tracking technology

Paul Hill — Tue, 16 Feb 2021 22:48:01 +0000

Vodafone says it has successfully trialled a tracking mechanism that combines space satellites and its IoT platform. The firm said that it can track objects with an accuracy of 10 centimetres. Read more...

Gartner: 10% of workers to trick AI overlords by 2023

Paul Hill — Mon, 08 Feb 2021 13:52:01 +0000

Gartner has predicted that workers will try to evade AI tracking tools deployed by their employer. By 2023, it said as many as 10% of employees will try to find holes in the tracking systems. Read more...

iOS App Tracking Transparency will roll out in the spring

João Carrasqueira — Thu, 28 Jan 2021 10:31:46 +0000

Apple has announced a timeframe for the rollout of App Tracking Transparency, a new iOS feature that will give users control over which apps can track their activities across apps and websites. Read more...

Open letter asks tech firms to stop targeting ads at users under 18

Paul Hill — Fri, 18 Sep 2020 18:16:02 +0000

Google and Facebook have been asked to stop behavioural advertising and the tracking of people under the age of 18. Signatories argue kids don't understand how their data is being used. Read more...

Google announces plans to phase out support for third-party cookies in Chrome

Paul Hill — Tue, 14 Jan 2020 19:28:01 +0000

Google has announced that it will phase out support for third-party cookies in Chrome within the next two years. It will work with other web bodies to develop viable privacy-friendly alternatives. Read more...

Save 80% off a lifetime subscription to Mailcastr - now only $59

News Staff — Mon, 09 Sep 2019 15:46:01 +0000

With today's highlighted deal, know when your emails are opened with Mailcastr email tracker for Gmail and G Suite, even the device and location they are opened! Save big with neowin Deals. Read more...

Facebook adds new tool that helps you control its off-site stalking

João Carrasqueira — Tue, 20 Aug 2019 18:10:01 +0000

As part of its efforts to become a more privacy-conscious company, Facebook has announced a new tool which will let users manage how the social network tracks them outside its own website. Read more...

Microsoft President says it's “cruel” to not give governments facial recognition tech

Paul Hill — Sun, 03 Feb 2019 23:22:02 +0000

Microsoft President, Brad Smith, has spoken out against activists who asked Microsoft not to sell facial recognition technologies to governments. He responded saying they should, but cautiously. Read more...

Firefox 65 launches with new online privacy controls, plus support for WebP and AV1

Paul Hill — Wed, 30 Jan 2019 00:16:01 +0000

Mozilla has released the next version of its Firefox web browser. In Firefox 65, users can better control their online privacy and gain access to newly introduced support for WebP and the AV1 codec. Read more...

Firefox will block some trackers by default in the future

João Carrasqueira — Thu, 30 Aug 2018 18:10:01 +0000

Mozilla today announced that it will change Firefox's behavior in regards to user tracking, blocking especially harmful trackers by default to improve speed and security while using the browser. Read more...

Google alters wording of controversial policy regarding user location tracking

Sharath Ravishankar — Sat, 18 Aug 2018 00:50:01 +0000

Google, in an attempt to appease its users and critics, has altered the wording on a policy that states that even if one chooses to turn off location history tracking it can continue to track them. Read more...

Mozilla Fellows develop extension to let you learn about and thwart targeted ads

Paul Hill — Thu, 16 Aug 2018 12:20:01 +0000

Several Mozilla Fellows have released a new extension called Fuzzify.me. The add-on will collect up all the ads you see on Facebook and let you know why you are being shown those specific ads. Read more...

Mozilla Fellow's research reveals widespread mobile tracking

Paul Hill — Wed, 14 Mar 2018 18:28:01 +0000

A new study has been conducted based on data from 11,000 anonymous Android users. It found that mobile tracking is much more widespread than previously believed. 233 trackers were not on blacklists. Read more...

Facebook told to stop tracking non-users in Belgium

Paul Hill — Fri, 16 Feb 2018 19:24:02 +0000

Facebook has been told by a Belgian court that it must stop tracking non-users around the web and immediately destroy their data. Facebook faces daily fines if it refuses to comply. Read more...

Amazon awarded employee-tracking wristband patents

Paul Hill — Thu, 01 Feb 2018 09:34:02 +0000

Amazon has been awarded two patents which will let it track employees around the building while also guiding them to the packages they've been assigned to collect and get shipped to customers. Read more...