Wednesday Newsbytes: TurboTax Ripoff Refunds Coming; Google’s Passwordless Future is Here; Microsoft Sticking More Ads in Windows 11; Microsoft Releases Vital Security Upgrade; Apple Co-Founder “Woz” Warns about AI… and more!
Every day we scan the tech world for interesting news in the world of technology and sometimes from outside the world of technology. Every Wednesday, we feature news articles that grabbed our attention over the past week. We hope you find this week’s ‘Wednesday Newsbytes’ informative and interesting!
States Prepare to Send Checks to Consumers Tricked Into Paying for TurboTax
A year after a $141 million settlement with Intuit, the maker of TurboTax, that emerged from an investigation sparked by ProPublica’s reporting, 4.4 million customers will receive compensation.
One year ago, all 50 states and the District of Columbia announced a $141 million settlement with Intuit, the maker of TurboTax. The investigation, led by New York Attorney General Letitia James, centered on how the company had steered customers into paying for tax preparation even though they qualified for a free government program. The attorney general said the probe was sparked by ProPublica’s reporting in 2019.
About 4.4 million low-income Americans will receive payments under the agreement. On Thursday, James announced that the process of actually mailing checks to all those people will begin next week…
You no longer need a password to sign in to your Google account
Your Google account now supports passkeys to replace your password and 2FA.
Google’s next step into a passwordless future is here with the announcement that passkeys — a new cryptographic keys solution that requires a preauthenticated device — are coming to Google accounts on all major platforms. Starting today, Google users can switch to passkeys and ditch their passwords and two-step verification codes entirely when signing in.
Passkeys are a safer, more convenient alternative to passwords being pushed by Google, Apple, Microsoft, and other tech companies aligned with the FIDO Alliance. They can replace traditional passwords and other sign-in systems like 2FA or SMS verification with a local PIN or a device’s own biometric authentication — such as a fingerprint or Face ID. This biometric data isn’t shared with Google (or any other third party), and passkeys only exist on your devices, which provides greater security and protection since there’s no password that could be stolen in a phishing attack.
Google accounts will request your passkey to sign in or verify your identity when it detects sensitive activity
When you add a passkey to a Google account…
Microsoft Tests Sticking Ads in Windows 11 Settings Menu
Early Windows 11 beta features show Microsoft really wants users to try 365 and OneDrive, bombarding them with messages in the Start and Settings menus.
Microsoft is treating Windows 11 more and more like a billboard bus, finding ways to stick advertisements for its services along every surface and armpit of its operating system. In addition to ads in the Start menu, the latest test build for Windows 11 includes notices for a Microsoft 365 trial and more in the Settings menu.
On Friday, Windows beta user and routine leaker Albacore shared several screenshots of the latest Insider Preview build 23451. These shots come from the ultra-early Canary test build, and show a new “Home” tab in Settings that includes a notice to “Try Microsoft 365.” This appears to link to a free trial of the company’s office apps suite. There’s also a notice for OneDrive and another to ask users to finish setting up a Microsoft account, advertising users can use the 365 apps and its cloud storage on desktop. Another notice in the Accounts tab also blasts users with a request to sign in to their Microsoft account.
Microsoft reveals small but vital security upgrade – so patch your devices now
May’s Microsoft Patch Tuesday is upon us, with some crucial fixes
Microsoft has released this month’s cumulative cybersecurity update known as Patch Tuesday. It’s one of the smallest updates in terms of the number of flaws addressed, but it has still fixed some important vulnerabilities, so make sure to apply the patch as soon as possible.
In a follow-up security advisory, Microsoft said that it fixed a total of 38 vulnerabilities this month (not including the 11 Microsoft Edge browser flaws fixed a week ago).
Among them are three zero-days, and six “critical” flaws allowing for remote code execution (RCE)…
Over 600,000 Android users infected with malware on Google Play — delete these apps now
Subscription trojans can sign you up for paid services in the background without your knowledge
Although malicious apps normally try to install malware or adware on your smartphone, a new batch of bad apps has been discovered that’s actually signing users up for premium subscription services instead.
According to a new report(opens in new tab) from the cybersecurity firm Kaspersky, subscription trojans are being added to seemingly harmless Android apps in an attempt to defraud unsuspecting users.
We’ve seen this before with the infamous Joker and Harly malware, both of which used similar tactics to secretly subscribe users to paid services. This new subscription trojan has been dubbed “Fleckpe” by Kaspersky’s researchers and it’s currently being spread through photo editing apps, smartphone wallpaper packs and other utilities for the best Android phones.
According to Kaspersky, this subscription trojan has been active since last year and so far, it has been installed on over 620,000 devices. What makes Fleckpe and other subscription trojans so dangerous though is that you might not even realize your smartphone has been infected and that you’ve been subscribed to a paid service without your knowledge.
Delete these apps right now
Fortunately, all of the apps listed below have since been removed from the Google Play Store. However, if you have one of them installed on your smartphone, you will need to manually delete it.
Apple’s famed cofounder Steve Wozniak has made no secret of his anxieties around emerging A.I. technologies.
The multimillionaire—a college dropout who established Apple with Steve Jobs in the 1970s—has spoken out about the potential of artificial intelligence to be misused in a string of recent interviews.
In March, he cosigned an open letter with Elon Musk and more than 1,000 others to call for a six-month ban on creating powerful A.I. tools.
In an interview with the BBC on Monday, Wozniak—known in the tech world by the nickname “Woz”—reiterated his concerns that the technology could be hijacked and used for malicious purposes if it falls into the wrong hands.
He argued that A.I. is now so intelligent that it will make it easier for “bad actors” to trick others about who they are.
Microsoft Bing AI chatbot and Edge browser get massive AI upgrades. See the list.
Microsoft’s big AI revamp takes shape.
It’s only been three months since Microsoft launched AI-powered versions of Bing and the Edge browser. Ever since the tech company boldly staked a claim for a bigger piece of the search pie, it’s been a wild ride. AI-enhanced Bing said some weird things, posed a serious threat to Google’s AI developments, and gained 100 million daily users. It’s small potatoes compared to Google search marketshare, with users numbering in the billions, but as Microsoft’s corporate vice president Yusuf Mehdi said, “it feels good to be at the dance.” Now, Microsoft isn’t just at the dance, but leading the conga line.
Thursday’s announcement marks the next chapter of Microsoft’s plans to make Bing and Edge as useful as possible with AI. With the new Bing and Edge updates you can do multimedia search, maintain your chat history as you browse the internet, export and share conversations, and use a new feature called “actions” to help you complete tasks. Plus, previously in limited preview, Bing is now available to everyone.
Read on for the full breakdown of all of the new Bing and Edge announcements…
Thanks for reading this week’s Wednesday Newbytes. We hope you found these articles informative, interesting, fun, and helpful. Darcy & TC
