Internet

Internet providers have been accused of misleading claims as to where they offer service. The apparently false information could affect which areas benefit from a $42 billion government fund to get more homes online. Internet service providers have ... supplied data to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for coverage maps as part of the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment Program. That will help fund broadband networks in areas that don't currently have access, usually because they are too remote or sparsely populated to make it commercially worthwhile for companies to install new ... (view more)

The average US broadband subscriber uses almost 600GB a month according to new estimates. The figures also show people on an affordable connection program are making the most of it. The figures come from OpenVault, a company that provides technology ... for "optimizing networks," which naturally means it has an interest in showing broadband networks are under strain. According to the report, the average use was 586.7GB a month, up almost 10 percent last year. That includes both uploads and downloads, which remain in roughly the same proportion as last year. The averages are certainly being driven ... (view more)

A new, unofficial version of Windows 11 runs on older machines with extremely limited memory and storage. In practice, though, Tiny11 is more for enthusiasts than the average user. Officially Windows 11 needs at least 4GB of RAM and 64GB of hard ... drive space. The specs are a big increase from Windows 10 following several previous Windows editions where the minimum specs either increased slowly or remained steady. That prompted debate about what elements of Windows boost the memory and storage requirements and whether those elements are really necessary or desirable. Now a Romanian tech ... (view more)

Chrome users on Android devices may soon have an "emergency" button to delete the last 15 minutes of browsing history. It's a simplified version of existing settings and follows a similar tool for search history. The search delete tool has been ... available for nearly a year now, but doesn't appear to be widely known about. It's not on the Chrome browser app but rather the dedicated search tool that's accessible on many devices by swiping right from the home screen. Users simply need to click on their profile picture and then select the "Delete last 15 minutes" option. Now it appears a ... (view more)

Facebook's oversight board says it should rethink its rules on topless images. Tech experts believe the current rules can't be effectively enforced with automated moderation anyway. The ruling comes from the independent body that looks into cases ... where people believe Facebook has wrongly moderated content. The idea is to concentrate on cases where Facebook's rules may need clarifying. In this situation, the board looked at two connected cases. Both involved posts on Instagram, which is owned by the same company as Facebook. The two services share content rules set by parent company Meta. The ... (view more)

Facebook's oversight board says the site was wrong to delete a post protesting against the government in Iran. It's another example of the difficulties of moderating content online. The ruling came from an independent body that reviews a selection ... of decisions made by Facebook moderators. In a very loose sense, the body works a little like the Supreme Court in that it looks at specific cases but its rulings set wider precedents. In this case, a user had made a post which included the phrase "marg bar Khameni." Literally translates, that means "death to Khameni" and refers to Iran's Supreme ... (view more)

Windows 11 may soon show whether or not users are connected to a VPN. It's a simple feature, but it's significant since the technology is getting such mainstream acknowledgement. VPN stands for virtual private network, a feature that has three main ... benefits. The first is that it creates an "encrypted tunnel" for data going back and forth between the user and the Internet. One analogy is that ordinary Internet traffic works like a glass tube, while a VPN is more like a totally enclosed road tunnel. In simplistic terms, it means nobody else can see what is happening as data is sent and received ... (view more)

Nine in ten Americans are now online according to new figures. But it's the United Kingdom that is "most online" and least subject to Internet restrictions. The figures come from Proxyrack, a company with a clear interest in places where users may ... want to disguise their identity of location. It wanted to see if there was any connection between how widespread Internet use was and how freely people could use the Internet. (Source: proxyrack.com ) The usage figures came from Statista and shows 99,231 out of every 100,000 people in the UK had used the internet recently. That was followed by Japan ... (view more)

Internet users who find themselves distracted online can pay up to $9 a month to block certain websites. The service has some obvious limitations but does prompt debate about Internet addiction. The Freedom service offers users four types of block: ... block all Internet access, block specific websites, block specific apps, or block all sites except those the user has specifically listed. It can cover computers, phones and tablets. After a free trial of seven "block sessions" users must pay for some features. This includes use on an unlimited devices and scheduling. This carries a subscription ... (view more)

Fujitsu has proposed an "endorsement layer" on top of the Internet to tackle bogus information. It's an idea that would certainly face both technological and societal challenges. The idea comes in a white paper (a report designed to provoke ... discussion) written alongside Keio University in Japan. It explores the idea of a "trustable Internet in which people can use information securely." (Source: kaeio.ac.jp ) The concept is simple, if abstract. The writers propose a system that "overlays a layer on the Internet, which has a mechanism to confirm the credibility of the ... (view more)