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Google has ditched a feature that could automatically navigate websites and complete forms. The biggest problems with "Duplex on the Web" were that hardly anyone knew about it or needed it. The feature launched in 2019 and was all about automating ... common sequences of actions on a website. The idea was to remove the need for the user to repeatedly click "next" buttons and confirm choices. Among the examples Google gave were ordering food on a restaurant site, buying tickets on a movie theatre website, and checking out of an online store. Google Assistant Control The feature worked with the ... (view more)

A court has ruled a grocery store did not violate the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) by failing to make its website accessible to blind people. The ruling creates a confused national picture that may well end up in the Supreme Court. The ... current case involves a chain called Winn-Dixie. A blind man brought the case forward after finding three features of the website were incompatible with his screen-reading software: online prescription filling, a store locator and a digital coupon tool. Carlos Gil said this had a discriminatory effect as it meant that visits to physical stores in order ... (view more)

Google is testing a new way of showing a web page address in the browser. It hopes that simply showing the domain name will make it easier for users to spot phishing scams - as already happens with some rival browsers. At the moment most browsers ... will show the entire web page address (URL) in the address bar. That's the box near the top of the screen that has a dual purpose in most browsers: it shows the current page address but is also where users type in both addresses and search terms. A study for Google looked at ways scammers can take advantage of the browser bar. One example was the ... (view more)

Google faces a class action lawsuit over claims it "misled users of Chrome's private browsing mode." But suggestions users are in for a $5,000 windfall are premature, to say the least. That's the minimum amount the lawsuit seeks per affected user, ... though for starters that assumes not only that the plaintiffs win the case, but that the court agrees to that amount. It also assumes the amount isn't reduced by lawyer fees and that anyone eligible is able to sign up to the case and provide any necessary proof. The crux of the case, brought in the United States District Court for the ... (view more)

Apple has paid $100,000 reward to a security researcher who discovered a simple but potentially damaging bug. Until it was fixed, the bug could have let hackers take over a user's account. The problem was with "Sign in with Apple" - a system that ... lets users sign up to websites via their Apple account rather than having to create specific login details for each site, or go through an email confirmation process it. As with similar systems from Facebook and Google, it only works on websites that support the "Sign in with Apple" feature. When the user visits the third-party site, it ... (view more)

Google has temporarily reversed a change intended to increase security and privacy in the Chrome browser. It says it can't risk disrupting websites when so many people are more reliant on the Internet than normal. The change was to the way Chrome ... handles third-party cookies . These are small text files placed on a computer when it visits a website. Unlike standard cookies, they aren't accessed by the site in question, but rather a third-party and are often associated with unpopular behavior such tracking a user's activity across the web to build up a profile of their interests to target ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Suzanne V. writes: " Dear Dennis, I have a website that someone created for me a few years ago using the WordPress content management system (CMS). I want to remove social icons from WordPress so that they aren't displayed on my ... main page and other pages. Specifically, I want to remove the Google Plus social icon, as well as the RSS feed icon. I have logged into the WordPress administration page on my website but I cannot find how to disable or remove the social icons. Can you please help? I will hire you to fix this problem. " My response: Suzanne provided me the login ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Renate L. writes: " Dear Dennis, Thank you so much for helping me with my computer with your remote support service. You are life saver! Question: you recently installed Roboform to help me remember my passwords, but I'm afraid ... I've made a mess of things. For example, I somehow managed to save 3 different Roboform logins (passcards) for my online banking site - and none of them work! I'd like to fix this so I have 1 working login, otherwise I'm going to be really confused moving forward. Is it possible for you to put together a brief how-to guide on how to use Roboform? I'd ... (view more)

Mozilla is to make an important change to Firefox browser security. It could reduce risks for users, but has raised concerns among governments and Internet Service Providers (ISPs), as it could limit their tools for filtering and monitoring online ... activity. The change has to do with a feature called DNS-over-HTTPS (DoH), and will first affect users in the US. It's already possible to enable DoH in Chrome, but it takes some technical know-how because the feature currently isn't widely used. DoH is all to do with the DNS (Domain Name System), which is effectively the phone book of the Internet ... (view more)

Chrome and Firefox will stop indicating when websites have received an "extra level of verification" to prove they are in fact genuine. The move is largely due to the fact that most users aren't aware of the Extended Validation SSL (EV SSL) system. ... The Extended Validation SSL (secure socket layer) security certificates go beyond the standard SSL certification scheme, which browsers use to show that data being sent to and from a website is in fact encrypted and secure. This means that communication is encrypted, and that no one can eavesdrop or steal data mid-stream. In other words, ... (view more)