privacy

The living-room television is supposed to be simple: a large, passive window for moving pictures and sound. Increasingly, it isn't. Over the last year that simple promise has been compromised by a steady industry shift — from displays that show content to platforms that serve content, ads, data...

Paul Thurrott’s short chapter on “De‑Enshittify an Existing Install of Windows 11” is a focused, practical walkthrough that hands users a low‑risk, high‑reward pathway for reclaiming control of an existing Windows 11 installation without wiping the machine. The chapter centers on one...

Microsoft’s latest pushes to weave Copilot into the innermost seams of Windows 11 — now extending deep into File Explorer with right‑click AI actions for summaries, previews and inline edits — have crystallized a familiar debate: is this useful progress or feature creep that breaks the...

The pendulum that moved much personal and enterprise IT into public clouds is swinging back — not because clouds have failed, but because free, self-hosted Linux server platforms are finally mature enough to make on-premises privacy and control practical for households, small teams, and even...

If you’re ready to stop surrendering your documents, calendars, and chat history to distant data centers and start running those services where you control the power button, the network, and the backups, five modern Linux-based server projects give you that option today — and they’re all usable...

Linux still beats Windows 11 in a handful of quietly significant ways — not because it has prettier UI animations or a bigger marketing budget, but because of fundamentals: cost, hardware fit, user control, the absence of baked‑in AI agents, and a privacy model that treats telemetry as optional...

Microsoft’s recent AI-first push for Windows 11 has reopened a debate many thought settled: can an operating system that records and interprets your screen activity ever be trusted with sensitive data? Critics argue the answer is no — and recent reporting, expert tests, and Microsoft’s own...

If you want to leave the public cloud, run key services at home, and regain control of your data without paying subscription fees, you no longer have to assemble a server from scratch and become a full-time sysadmin. A new generation of ready-to-run Linux server projects packages privacy‑first...

Winslop’s latest build doubles down on the project’s promise: a tiny, local, no‑telemetry utility that exposes the exact changes it will make to Windows and gives users simple, reversible controls to remove what the developer calls “system slop.” The 0.50.125 release focuses less on flashy UI...

Stop scrolling for a second — numerology is not a trend, it’s a cultural practice with ancient roots that many people now encounter through apps, viral posts, and the familiar tingle of seeing 11:11 on a clock. Background: what the Yardbarker piece said — and what it really means The Yardbarker...

Google’s Gemini is quietly testing an “Import AI chats” capability that could let users bring entire conversation histories — including images and other attachments — from rival chatbots such as ChatGPT, Claude, Microsoft Copilot and more into Gemini’s interface, a move that would make switching...

Firefox’s next stable release will put a single master switch in users’ hands: a new AI Controls pane that lets you disable built‑in generative AI features — or pick and choose the ones you want to keep — and promises the setting will persist across updates. Background / Overview Mozilla...

Microsoft has quietly pushed another Start menu redesign into the mainstream Windows 11 rollout cycle, and this time the changes are arriving for most regular users as part of the January cumulative update KB5074109 — an extension of the Start overhaul first seeded in the October 2025 preview...

I switched from OneNote to a self‑hosted, privacy‑focused note vault and — after six months of daily use — I can honestly say I haven't looked back: the trade‑offs are real, but for anyone who values control, exportability, and end‑to‑end encryption, the payoff is worth the work. Background /...

Mozilla has given users a one-click way to tell the AI revolution to stay out of their browser: starting with Firefox 148, rolling out February 24, the desktop browser adds an AI Controls panel with a single “Block AI enhancements” master switch that disables current and future generative AI...

Microsoft’s internal posture on Windows 11 has quietly shifted: after pushing Copilot and an “AI‑everywhere” agenda into more and more shell surfaces, the company has reportedly ordered engineering teams to pause new Copilot UI expansions, tighten admin controls, and triage long‑standing...

Linux gives you things Windows won’t — not because Microsoft is malicious, but because the two ecosystems make different trade‑offs. What follows is a practical, verified look at five concrete capabilities you can get on Linux today that are either impossible, impractical, or severely limited on...

I installed a lean, community-curated build of Windows 11 (AtlasOS) on a spare PC, and the result was immediate: fewer background services, a restored classic Start/taskbar layout, a slimmer memory footprint, and an interface that felt like my computer again rather than a constant ad for...

Microsoft’s sudden course correction on visible Windows 11 AI features marks a rare — and consequential — pivot from an all‑in AI rollout toward a more measured, user‑centric approach, with Microsoft reportedly pulling back on Copilot placements in system apps and reassessing the controversial...

Microsoft’s apparent rethink — dialing back the “Copilot everywhere” experiment in Windows 11 and putting several high‑visibility AI surfaces under review — is the clearest sign yet that the company’s desktop AI strategy collided with real user pushback and hard economic realities. the past two...