Monthly Archives: February 2021

Google is stepping up itshealth-tracking game with a new tool to help consumers monitor key vital signs.

And while Google just closed a deal acquiring Fitbit, it says this new product doesn't need a wearable.

Instead, Google Health, the tech giants health and wellness division, has added new features to its Google Fit app that enables usersto take their pulse just by using their smart phone's camera.

Were working on ways to unlock the potential of everyday smart devices. Were exploring how to leverage sensors that are becoming more ubiquitous to support health and wellness, said Shwetak Patel, director of health technologies at Google Health, during a briefing with reporters Wednesday.

There is a paradigm shift in health measurement. Our team of researchers, engineers, and clinicians are exploring how everyday devices and inexpensive sensors can give people the information and insights they need to take control of their health," he said.

The new features will be available in the Google Fit app for Pixel phones in the next month, with plans to expand to more Android devices, the company said.

RELATED:Apple steps up its focus on health with new blood oxygen sensor, population health initiative in Singapore

The measurements arent meant for medical diagnosis or to evaluate medical conditions but can be useful for people using the Google Fit app to track and improve day-to-day wellness, Patel said. The health tracking tools donot provide any feedback based on users measurements.

Google Health developed a way to measure respiratory rate using a smartphone camera and a computer vision technique called optical flow to detect subtle movements in the chest. Users place their head and upper torso in view of their phones front-facing camera and breathe normally to capture that measurement, the company said.

To detect heart rate, Google Health uses smartphone cameras to detect subtle color changes in the fingertip that happenwhen freshly oxygenated blood flows from the heart through the body, a process called photoplethysmography (PPG). Usersplace their fingers on the rear-facing camera lens to measure heart rate.

Google also isexploring the ability to measure heart rate from color changes in the face.

With the aim of making the features work for as many users as possible, Google said it completed initial clinical validation with people of different health status, in different ambient lighting, different skin tones, as well different heart rate ranges, such as users sitting at rest and users elevating their heart rate by briefly exercising.

RELATED:Google closes $2.1B acquisition of Fitbit as Justice Department probe continues

The company plans to share the results of these studies in a preprint publication in the coming weeks, and is seeking publication in a peer-reviewed journal, company officials said.

For the respiratory rate tracking feature, researchers examined its accuracy among healthy individuals as well as those with respiratory conditions that might impact measurement. Google Healths algorithm is accurate within 1 breath per minute on average on both groups, said Jiening Zhan, technical lead at Google Health.

The heart rate measurement algorithm is accurate within 2% on average, Zhan said.

Were exploring a variety of sensors to bring to bear for health and wellness. The smartphone is a good starting point and were exploring other devices in our product lines, Patel said.

Last month, Google closed its deal to buy fitness tracking giant Fitbit for $2.1 billion.Its not clear how Googles new health-monitoring features will fit into Fitbits business.

RELATED:Google moves into health research with mobile app, starting with respiratory illnesses like COVID-19

Were excited to collaborate with Fitbit and work on health and wellness. Its still very early to figure out how we can align our efforts, Patel said, noting that the acquisition closed just a few weeks ago.

The consumer-facing health monitoring market is crowded with smartwatches and wearables that can monitor steps taken, heart rate, sleep cycles, and blood oxygen levels. Compared to a Fitbit that can continuously track heart rate, Googles health-tracking features require users to actively measure their vitals using the camera.

Patel said smartphones are more ubiquitous than wearables and the accessibility of phone cameras will help more people to monitor their health.

Relatively few people in the U.S. actually have wearables. We know a lot of people in disadvantaged populations dont have wearables and arent benefitting from health tracking. Equity is an important part of Googles mission, he said.

Currently, Google is focused on using the features for general health and wellness but there is the potential to use the technology as part of a medical device, which would require approval from the Food and Drug Administration.

Work in the technology and research community suggests the technology might work for sick patients but there is not enough testing and validation. Were definitely working on those use cases and are exploring that, said Ming Jack Po, product management at Google Health, during the briefing with reporters.

More here:

Google expands into health tracking using smartphone cameras to monitor heart, respiratory rates - FierceHealthcare

M2

I'm switching away from Google for web browsing and communication. Signal and Telegram are, so far, ad free. Duckduck is an excellent browser options.Next to go is the increasingly ad heavy YouTube that's been ruined for important tasks such as acquiring knowledge.

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Smoke and mirrors.

V10719

This is ridiculous. 'Anti tracking'. Oh it's super dupy easy. Just erase the code that actually tracks the user. Just in case the development teams requires some pointer on how to do it.

Wait! They are not erasing anything? They just want to make it harder for anyone else to track the user so their database comes on top....

Now I understand. When google tracks you it is 'improving user experience' or something like that, when anybody else does the same it's old good tracking. Isn't it.

Oh wow, these marketing guys are geniuses

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Remember when Google was sued in the UK for intentionally developing and deploying a work-around to circumvent users *explicit* privacy settings in Safari? Or when they accidentally mapped hotspots all over NA, then refused to delete the data? Or when they decided Dont be evil was too restrictive a motto? Yeah, I trust them about as far as I can throw them.

Google wants other companies to be limited in tracking inside Android while Goigle itself tracks everyone 24/7 without consent. That's privacy ala Google!

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For a moment, I thought I was reading a The Onion article. Thanks for the laughs.

Oh I dunno Google, I have already completely deGoogled my Android phone anyway. Now I use microG and replaced all Google products with their own FOSS alternatives. I don't miss Google Mobile Services at all now.

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Reason, 12 hours agoI've been on them for years about tracking, but it's one of the things in android th... moreIt can never be zero private information. Anti-tracking should be a balance between security, functionality and safety.

Let me put it this way in an extreme case. If a hacker hacks your bank account via the app, no tracking was in place. You scream to your bank, demanding to find who is the culprit.. they shake their heads.. saying tooo bad.. we have no tracking.. your money is stolen by we don't know, it could even be yourself for all we know.

Just like real world, we need to provide peacekeepers the means to track down bad guys. It's a balance, not going to be easy to balance it all.

While I agree tracking for ads and such is kinda bad, but we are also how company learns to improve.. for example, you like product A, but the company did not know and decided to discontinue product A.. You scream at them for being dumb.. but how would they know if you like it? The more personalised the usage, the better companies can provide the service for you. So again, there have to be a balance.

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I trust Google as far as I can throw them.

R

I've been on them for years about tracking, but it's one of the things in android they didn't change. I also proposed a better permissions sandbox scheme and they brought a simple version which automatically grants access to all sorts of tracking features, hiding them out of view. If you go to app permissions and look into the sub listings, you may see all sorts of stuff there you never gave permission to.

The amount of private information they should be allowed is zero. You don't have the guy at the shop you bought bed sheets from come in to your house to watch you while you are asleep, look through your bills and steal their infirmary for the perps records. Stuff around with the plumbing in your house and fill your house with recording equipment and spare magazines. Why should you expect these people to to be allowed to do it! Time for manipulation of the law to finish, and internet companies that do these thins to go broke. We all love 'insert name here's, but if it means supoorting real douchebag, why bother!

s15765

ultimately this is about greed of both apple and google- they simply want to take the money being earned from using tracking information and user data gained from APIs granted to third parties in their respective operating systems; they simply can just sell it themselves to anyone interested, bypassing third parties. algorithms and ai development, which both companies work on, are both founded on the premise of serving the users better targeted information and ads. on one hand there is that benefit that there will be less entities to track and collect user information, but then on the other hand the same amount of information is still being collected from users. targeted ads and information is where content providers/creators earn from, and to serve you these they need your tracking information as well as various personal information, which they obtain from the owners of the platforms. apple fans may defend that they do not serve targeted ads, and that would be an absurd claim. free contents and games/applications you consume will always have to serve you ads in one way or another as, again, it is the only way for their creators to earn money. subscriptions and/or payments for paid services as well is subject to 30% "google tax" and "apple tax" on their respective platforms, and in return they gain tracking and user information for them to make the service or the content better. no such thing as free- in this digital world, you are actually not the user, rather the product being sold.

C

LOL, 14 hours agoIt's like a poison trying to create an antidote to itself.Haha, well greatest discription, way better then mine.

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It's like a poison trying to create an antidote to itself.

C

Hah, what a joke. All they need to do is give the people the power to block/allow internet access for apps and well for them selves to stop tracking. They can't do nothing against the world wide web, and they know that... so the "efforts" they talk about is BULL''''t.

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Google can't be trusted

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Anti-tracking for others. Open for Google, partners that pay for the info and obviously NSA, etc. So, at the end, you are still tracked.

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Everything out there is tracking you. Get used to it.

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Google and privacy??? Good luck with that...

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Doubt

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I hope battery life will improve with Android 12

See more here:

Google is working on anti-tracking features for Android - comments - GSMArena.com

The partnerships between automotive and tech powerhouses continue with Ford and Google announcing today that they will enter a new partnership called Team Upshift. Part of the deal is that in 2023, new Ford and Lincoln vehicles will have an infotainment system that uses the Android operating system. On the business side, Ford will also use Googles cloud platform to help with manufacturing, train its artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning systems, and train Ford employees.

As part of the use of the Android operating system, starting in 2023 Fords and Lincolns will have be outfitted with an infotainment system that natively uses Googles voice assistant, Google Maps, and will have access to the Google Play store to add additional applications to the vehicles. While the visible portion of the system will be a uniquely Ford and Lincoln experience according to the automaker, the Android operating system will be the underlying platform. In other words, it wont look like the Android Automotive experience found in the Polestar 2 and Volvo XC40 Recharge.

On the back end, Ford will make Google its preferred cloud partner to help facilitate the training of AI and machine learning to help streamline manufacturing and make it easier to send personalized notifications to customers. The Google Cloud system will also be used to push over-the-air updates to the vehicles outfitted with the Android operating system.

Todays news is part of a trend of automakers partnering with tech companies to help deal with processing issues around AI and over-the-air-updates. In January, GM and Microsoft announced a deal that would make Microsofts Azure cloud platform the automakers preferred platform service to help GM build its autonomous driving platform.

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Ford to Add Google Maps, Voice Assistant to Its Vehicles in 2023 - Car and Driver

FILE PHOTO: A Google sign is pictured on a Google building in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, U.S., October 20, 2020. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri/File Photo

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Texas court considering a state antitrust lawsuit against Alphabet Incs Google is likely to hold a hearing on the companys request to move the trial to California, according to discussions at a status conference on Thursday.

Lawyers at the pretrial conference, which was held in Plano, Texas, discussed Googles motion to move the case to California, where it is fighting similar cases.

Judge Sean Jordan, who was nominated to the court by former U.S. President Donald Trump in 2019, indicated that if either side wanted a hearing on the issue, he would likely schedule one.

Yes, your honor, we will want a hearing, said Paul Yetter, who represents Google in the case. Suggested dates for that hearing were late February or early March.

Texas and nine other states sued the search and advertising company in mid-December, accusing it of breaking antitrust law in how it dominates all steps in placing digital advertising. Publishers complain that one result has been lower revenues. Google has denied wrongdoing.

Yetter also brought up the issue of an unredacted draft of the Texas lawsuit being leaked to major newspapers. The draft discussed a deal struck between Facebook Inc and Google.

Yetter, speaking for Google, said he wanted disclosures of who received confidential information in order to prevent a repeat of the leak.

Speaking for Texas, Mark Lanier pushed back, saying he would be loath to disclose consultants but would agree to having people sign for documents and suffer repercussions in the case of a breach.

The lawsuit is one of three faced by Google. The other two were filed by the U.S. Justice Department and a big group of states. Facebook faces lawsuits from the Federal Trade Commission and another group of states.

Reporting by Diane Bartz in Washington; Editing by Matthew Lewis

See the article here:

Texas court considers hearing on changing venue of Google antitrust case - Reuters

The Sell Sider is a column written for the sell side of the digital media community.

Todays column is written byBrian Weiss, yield and product strategy manager at Freestar.

Publishers battling for the top ranking among the most-searched keywords face a big change to the rules of the game in May 2021, when Google will be updating its search algorithm to incorporate Core Web Vitals (CWV), three new metrics to measure page experience. These changes arent an act of altruism. Google searchs update aims to improve the perceived user experience and overall brand of their browser, where Google is the default search engine.

Google has described CWV as: a set of metrics related to speed, responsiveness and visual stability to help site owners measure user experience on the web. Its rare for Google to be so transparent and proactive about changes in their search algorithms, so when notice is given a year in advance, theres good reason to pay attention

For web users, this set of standards will lead to a more user-friendly browsing experience, one which publishers have allowed to erode over time as more revenue-centric metrics like clicks, viewability, and video completion rate dominate conversations and dashboards. Many publishers have grown out of touch with their audience and how they interact and engage with their websites.

So while Google is forcing change, the industry as a whole stands to benefit from rethinking and adjusting to meet these new standards. Publishers who choose to adapt and be proactive stand to gain from not just increased search traffic, but also more users returning to their websites and spending more time each session.

With implementation just months away, publishers need to begin optimizing for the upcoming algorithm changes.

Core Web Vitals will comprise three of the seven search signals used by Google to determine a webpages page experience score. The score affects a publishers rank on search results and, just as importantly, appearing in what they refer to as rich results or enriched search results. These are the results that appear at the top of the search results page.

Core Web Vitals should make you consider where, how, and what size ads are placed on your page, especially for mobile users. Ad placement and frequency needs to accommodate pages that are narrower in width and thus have a far greater scroll depth.

To capture the full value of a pageview, you first have to fully understand where users are focusing their attention, and then at what size and frequency ads can be placed in those focus points without having a negative impact on user experience.

Clear Up Any Speed Bottlenecks

On mobile devices, users scroll through content far faster than on desktop. That means theres far less time for ads to render and be fully viewable. As a result, the ad placements that are highest up on the page are the hardest to fill.

A great way to measure performance is Google Ad Managers Ad Speed reports. They display a snapshot of your networks ad serving speed and can be segmented by ad unit and device type to determine reasons for non-viewable or non-deliverable ad impressions. Other valuable insights can be gleaned from looking at the tagging speed, which shows ad speed by elapsed time for different periods, including Page navigation to tag loaded time. These reports make it easy to identify and improve the factors contributing to fast or slow load time.

A Worthy Investment

Resilience through periods of great change defines great companies from the rest. Look at this algorithm change as an opportunity to gain an edge on competitors by understanding the right balance between user experience and monetization.

For publishers, now is the time to get to know your audience again. Strengthen your website's foundations so youre prepared to weather whatever storm may lay ahead.

See the rest here:

What Publishers Will Need To Change About Their Ad Experience For Google's Core Web Vitals - AdExchanger

FILE PHOTO: A Google sign is pictured on a Google building in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, U.S., October 20, 2020. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri/File Photo GLOBAL BUSINESS WEEK AHEAD

OAKLAND, Calif. (Reuters) - Alphabet Incs Google will spend $3.8 million, including $2.6 million in back pay, to settle allegations that it underpaid women and unfairly passed over women and Asians for job openings, the U.S. Department of Labor said on Monday.

The allegations stemmed from a routine compliance audit several years ago required by Googles status as a supplier of technology to the federal government.

Google said it was pleased to have resolved the matter.

The Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs had found preliminary indicators that Google from 2014 to 2017 at times underpaid 2,783 women in its software engineering group in Mountain View, California, and the Seattle area.

Investigators also found hiring rate differences that disadvantaged women and Asian candidates during the year ended Aug. 31, 2017, for software engineering roles in San Francisco, Sunnyvale, California, and Kirkland, Washington.

The settlement includes $2.6 million in back pay to 5,500 employees and job candidates and calls on Google to review hiring and salary practices.

Google also will set aside $1.25 million for pay adjustments for engineers in Mountain View, Kirkland, Seattle and New York over the next five years, according to the settlement. Any unused funds will be spent on diversity efforts at Google.

The company already conducts annual pay audits, but like other big tech companies, it remains under public scrutiny for a workforce that does not reflect the countrys makeup in terms of race and gender.

The company said in a statement, We believe everyone should be paid based upon the work they do, not who they are, and invest heavily to make our hiring and compensation processes fair and unbiased.

Reporting by Paresh Dave in Oakland, Calif.; Editing by Leslie Adler and Matthew Lewis

Excerpt from:

Google to spend $3.8 million to settle accusations of hiring, pay biases - Reuters

On Jan. 8, the U.K.s Competition and Markets Authority launched an investigation into whether Googles proposals for replacing third-party cookies through an effort Google has branded Privacy Sandbox could cause advertising spend to become even more concentrated on Googles ecosystem at the expense of its competitors, according to a CMA announcement about the investigation.

Under pressure from governments and consumers over data privacy infringement concerns, Google a year ago said it will disable third-party cookies by 2022 in its Chrome browser, which is used by more than 60% of the worlds web users. The move will effectively disable a primary way that ads are targeted and content is personalized on publishers sites. By extension, it could compromise publishers abilities to make money from online advertising and push people, their data and along with them ad dollars further within the walls of Googles already dominant properties, according to ad tech and publishing executives.

Googles decision to disable the third-party cookie has been referenced as examples of anti-competitive behavior in recent antitrust suits against the company, too. A multi-state antitrust suit filed in December claimed Google uses its massive information advantage strategically to harm any publisher who refuses to use its intermediaries. Another recent antitrust suit filed on behalf of publishers claimed that Googles cookie decision was exclusionary. Federal lawmakers also highlighted antitrust concerns over Googles third-party cookie plans in a 2020 report from the U.S. House Subcommittee on Antitrust.

Through its Privacy Sandbox initiative, Google has proposed an evolving collection of ad targeting and measurement methods for replacing third-party cookies. The sandbox project is open to participation from other ad tech firms who can join in through an online forum, the Worldwide Web Consortium. However, ad tech providers and publishers are wary of how open Google actually is to their participation.

Privacy Sandbox is trying to replace an open and interoperable technology with one that is Google controlled, wrote James Rosewell, director of Marketers for an Open Web a group whose complaints against Google helped prompt the CMA investigation. This will force more marketers into their walled garden and will spell the end of the independent and Open Web. Rosewell is CEO of 51 Degrees, a mobile ad and publishing tech firm.

Critics question Googles commitment to a collaborative cookie replacement processDespite the seemingly collaborative setting, Googles Privacy Sandbox is under increasing scrutiny throughout the digital media industry and now from the U.K. government because Privacy Sandbox is under Googles control.

Google has magnanimously allowed the industry to play a role, said Alan Chapell, president of privacy law firm Chapell and Associates, with some sarcasm. Google should not be allowed to call this an industry consensus project.

A Google executive defended the firm in light of the CMA investigation. The Privacy Sandbox has been an open initiative since the beginning and we welcome the CMAs involvement as we work to develop new proposals to underpin a healthy, ad-supported web without third-party cookies, said Chetna Bindra,group product manager, user trust and privacy at Google, in a statement.

In regards to the Privacy Sandbox investigation, Andrea Coscelli, chief executive of the U.K.s CMA said in a statement last month the agency has an open mind and has not reached any conclusions at this stage as to whether or not competition law has been infringed. He also said that the agency will continue to engage with Google and other market participants to ensure that both privacy and competition concerns can be addressed as the proposals are developed.

Googles approach could favor its browser business, say critics

Ad tech firms are participating in the Google sandbox effort. But some, including Criteo, are leery of an approach they say has been too centered around the browser.

Chromes proposalsremain very much browser-centric, which Criteo has shared in the past our concerns about, Arnaud Blanchard, senior analytics and product managerat Criteo, told Digiday.

If parts of the ad operation happen inside the device at the browser level, the data storage and processing demands will be too burdensome and possibly even discriminatory against people with limited data plans, Blanchard said.

One of Criteos proposals to provide more balance in the cookieless targeting and measurement process is to set up an independent gatekeeper such as a cloud service provider or SSP to providepeoplemore control and transparency, said Blanchard.

In response to concerns around browser-centric control, Google recently unveiled its latest targeting method, FLEDGE, which incorporates what it calls a trusted server that stores information about an ad campaigns bids and budgets.

When asked what qualities determine whether a server is trustworthy, and whether Google or some other entity would control such a trusted server, Bindra told Digiday those issues would be determined through public forum discussions with those participating in development of Privacy Sandbox ad methods. FLEDGE does not specify or expect any particular entity to run a trusted server,'she said.

An issue of trust

Trust in Google or lack thereof is at the core of most complaints about the Privacy Sandbox process. At the end of the day, said Chapell, people need to trust that Chrome will do whats best for users, that Googles numbers are accurate, that Google will itself employ the approach it is devising for the open web and that other ad tech firms have a genuine ability to compete once it is in place.

Any method that could give Google even more control over the ad process has advertisers, publishers and ad tech firms raising eyebrows.

It certainly would be a step in the right direction if it were an independent entity, said Chapell. Anybody but Google is a step in the right direction.

https://digiday.com/?p=392014

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Why Googles approach to replacing the cookie is drawing antitrust scrutiny - Digiday

Ecosia

Ecosia is a not-for-profit search engine that uses advertising revenue gained from searches to plant trees. It doesnt have the privacy-focus of DuckDuckGo, nor does it have the search results of Google. But it does have a unique mission.

This search engine is getting bigger and more widely recognized. For example, starting with Apples iOS 14 and iPadOS 14, Ecosia is one of the few options you can use as your default search engine in Safari. Google Chrome also includes it as a built-in option.

Ecosia is a not-for-profit search engine that aims to help the environment by planting trees. The search engines mission is to absorb as much CO2 as possible by planting trees to try and reduce the impact of climate change. This is done for the planet, for people, and for animals.

The service acknowledges that trees can help empower and lift vulnerable populations out of poverty through the regeneration of depleted soils and agroforestry food-growing programs. The search engine is also concerned with the plight of animals around the world that are losing their habitats to deforestation.

Ecosia is currently committed to 20 tree-planting projects in 15 countries all around the world, from South American countries like Peru and Brazil to Madagascar and Ethiopia in Africa, and other countries, including Spain and Indonesia.

These efforts are focused mostly on biodiversity hotspots, which only make up around 2.3% of the earths surface, but nevertheless account for half of all unique plant species and over 40% of birds, mammals, reptiles, and amphibians. Trees are also planted in some of the poorest agricultural regions in the world to help restore soil, increase biodiversity, and provide alternatives to monoculture crops.

Ecosia is transparent about its revenue and tree-planting activities. The search engine regularly posts financial reports on its blogto disclose total monthly revenue and identify what percentage was used to plant trees. In November of 2020, the search engine generated over 1.8 million ($2.2 million) and financed over 650,000 trees.

To break down the spending, Ecosia spent 40% of its revenue from this period on trees, with a further 10% going to green investments like solar plants and regenerative agriculture. A total of 47% of revenue was used on taxes and operational costs, while 3% was used for advertising purposes.

Ecosia makes money like most other search engines: through advertisements. Just like DuckDuckGo, affiliate ads that are displayed alongside search results enable the search engine to turn a profit. This profit is then used to fund the planting of trees.

According to Ecosia, it takes about 45 searches to fund the planting of one new tree. This number could be reduced dramatically depending on other factors, like whether you click on an advert and how valuable the search term is in terms of advertisement payout.

The search engine also has an affiliate program with HotelsCombined called Ecosia Travel. Including the word hotel in your searches reveals a new search box at the top of results through which you can book accommodation. When you do this, Ecosia claims to plant around 25 trees, depending on the value of your booking.

Ecosia also has the Ecosia Shop,which sells merchandise like T-shirts, hoodies, and bags. T-shirts are designed to be sent back, recycled, and reworked into new products after being used, further demonstrating Ecosias commitment to sustainability.

Search engines like Google have a poor track record when it comes to privacy, storing your search history in a profile that is used to serve you more relevant advertisements.

As a result, many have ditched Google in favor of privacy-conscious search engines like DuckDuckGo. While Ecosia is arguably also a privacy-respecting search engine in some ways, its primary mission is to plant trees.In comparison, DuckDuckGo is entirely focused on privacyin all aspects of its operation.

Ecosia states that it will never share your searches with anyone except services that are directly involved in answering your search request, like Bing. Ecosia is powered by the Yahoo! and Bing search algorithms. DuckDuckGo also uses Bing for its searches, but explicitly states that this information isnt collected or passed on in the first place.

For the service to function, some information must be passed to Bing. According to Ecosia, this includes your IP address (obfuscated), user agent string, search term, and some settings like your country and language setting. By default, Ecosia sets a Bing-specific identifier to improve search results, a feature that is disabled if your browser has the Do Not Track flag enabled.

This behavior isnt quite as private as DuckDuckGo, which, according to its privacy policy, doesnt collect or store any information. DuckDuckGo doesnt even store an obfuscated IP address or your user agent string. DuckDuckGo also uses no trackers whatsoevernot even its own internal trackers.

Ecosia promises not to allow third-party trackers on their searches. This means that advertisers cannot track and link your Ecosia search activity to an existing profile. We tested this using both Safari and DuckDuckGos iPhone app and found no third-party trackers. Both browsers had Do Not Track enabled, which suggests that the search enginedoes respect this setting.

For your search data, Ecosia promises not to store personal profiles of search habits. Ecosia claims that all searches are anonymized within a week of having made them, and says that there are no agreements in place to sell this search data to third-party companies. Your searches also use HTTPS encryption by default, which has become the standard even on Google and Bing.

Ecosia works like any search engine thats powered by the Yahoo! and Bing algorithm, including DuckDuckGo. While the results often arent quite as numerous or relevant as Googles, theyre usually good enough to get you where you want to go. While DuckDuckGo uses Bing for most of its results, it also gets additional results from other search engines, whereas Ecosia does not.

Whether you get better results from DuckDuckGo, as a result, is up for debate. It likely depends on what youre searching for.

Like Google, Ecosia allows you to filter your results by media, including images and videos. You can click the News filter to see only recent articles. The Maps filter allows you to choose from Google Maps and Bing Maps, sending you off-site for directions and local search results. For comparison, DuckDuckGo built its own mapping solution using Apples MapKit API due to its tight privacy policy that doesnt require the disclosure of the end users personal information.

DuckDuckGo has a popular feature called Bangs, which allows you to search other websites right from the DuckDuckGo search field. Ecosia has search tags that work in the same way, allowing you to add tags like #videos to search videos, #gimages to search Google Images, or #wolfram to search Wolfram Alpha. See the full list of search tags here.

On Ecosia, theres support for rudimentary unit conversions (2 oz in g) and sums (2+2), but no support for currency conversion. You can translate words fairly easily (hello in japanese), but its no Google Translate. At any point, you can click on Filters to filter results by time or click Settings to change region and safe search settings.

How youll get on with Ecosia depends on how you use a search engine and how willing you are to sacrifice features to contribute to a sustainability project. Or to look at it another way: If Ecosia is fine for 90% of your searches, are you willing to go out of your way and visit Google or Bing for the other 10%?

RELATED: What Is DuckDuckGo? Meet the Google Alternative for Privacy

Ecosia, like DuckDuckGo, has already found its way into some of the most popular browsers on the web. This includes Google Chrome and Safari for iOS 14. Other browsers that include an option to search with Ecosia include Adblock Browser, Maxthon, and Brave.

To search with Ecosia by default, launch Google Chrome and click on the three dots ellipsis icon in the top-right corner of the window. Choose Settings, then click on Search engine in the menu on the left.

Now, click on the drop-down box under Search engine and choose Ecosia.

On iPhone or iPad, launch the Settings app and navigate to Safari > Search Engine. Pick Ecosia from the list to set it as your default search engine.

(If you dont see Ecosia in the list, make sure youre running iOS 14 or later by updating your iPhone or iPad.)

Most other major browsers are supported through an Ecosia add-on. Try visiting Ecosia.orgin your browser of choice and look for the blue bar that says Add Ecosia to (Browser) and click on it.

There are also Ecosia add-ons for Safari (Mac), Firefox, andEdge.

Ecosia provides a real alternative to Google with an environmentally friendly twist.

If you like the idea of ditching Google, but you demand a bit more functionality and a strong emphasis on privacy, consider switching to DuckDuckGo.

RELATED: What Is DuckDuckGo? Meet the Google Alternative for Privacy

Excerpt from:

What Is Ecosia? Meet a Google Alternative That Plants Trees - How-To Geek

Microsoft just updated OneDrive adding playback support for Samsung Motion Photo and 8K video from the Galaxy S20, S21 and Note20 series.

Up until now OneDrive could store the files, but not play them back. In the case of Samsung's Motion Photo, which adds a couple of seconds of video and sound to a still shot, OneDrive will only show the still image. OneDrive now supports up to 250GB files, which works nicely for those large 8K videos. The app also features a new home screen layout with quick access to recent and offline files and a new "On This Day" with photos taken on this day years ago.

Google Photos doesn't support playback for Motion Photos, which gives OneDrive the upper hand here.

Samsung and Microsoft have had a good partnership for years now. Samsung preloads Microsoft apps to its Galaxy phones, Microsoft chose Samsung to preview is xCloud cloud gaming service, the YourPhone app launches many of its features on Samsung phones first.

Source | Via

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OneDrive one-ups Google Photos with Samsung Motion Photo and 8K video support - GSMArena.com news - GSMArena.com

Google

Privacy and security are big concerns when it comes to web browsers. Google has some built-in tools in Chrome that attempt to make browsing safer. Enhanced Safe Browsing is one such tool,and well show you how to use it.

Safe Browsing is a list of dangerous URLs thats maintained by Google and used to protect users from malicious sites. Enhanced Safe Browsing builds upon this feature with some additional tools.

WithEnhanced Safe Browsing enabled, Chrome shares even more browsing data with Google. This allows for threat assessments to be more accurate and proactive, though it does present a privacy concern in itself.

RELATED: Why Does Google Say Chrome Is More Secure Than Edge?

From Googles description, Enhanced Safe Browsing enables the following:

Enhanced Safe Browsing is available for Chrome on desktop and Android. Its not available for iPhone and iPad. The process for enabling it is very similar on both platforms.

First, select the three-dot menu icon in the top-right corner of the Google Chrome web browser and choose Settings from the menu.

Next, go to the Privacy and Security section of the Settings.

On the desktop, click Security. On Android, its called Safe Browsing.

Select the radio button to enable Enhanced Protection.

Thats it! You wont notice anything different in your everyday browsing, but youll now have better protection. In the event that something is amiss, Google Chrome will give you a warning.

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How to Turn on Enhanced Safe Browsing in Google Chrome - How-To Geek