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Another week, another online service tried to silently change its data collection and sharing practices by default. The good news is that you still have time to opt out before any of your information gets automatically given away without your consent.

As per PayPal's policy updates page (issued on September 23 for US users), the service is set to exchange your data with third-party merchants "to help improve your shopping experience and make it more personalized for you." Starting in early Summer 2025, the new policy will not just come at the detriment of your privacy – even if you're using the best VPN apps – but PayPal will start gathering data as early as November 27, 2024.

Users appear to be opted in by default (see image below), which may be an issue under some privacy regulations like GDPR. After coming across some US-based accounts complaining about this on Twitter, I decided to check if that was the case also for people in the UK (where I'm based). When I accessed my privacy settings, the option was automatically toggled in.

The screenshots were taken at the time of writing, September 30, 2024. (Image credit: Future)

It's also important to bear in mind that the policy changes will not apply in the same ways across all jurisdictions and users. For instance, in the UK, the new data sharing is set to be enforced on October 10, 2024.

A policy update dated July 8 clarifies that, for the UK market, "merchants are permitted to share customer personal information provided to them by PayPal with their service providers."

I suggest checking your profile settings as soon as possible to reverse the change if you don't wish your data to be shared.

How to opt-out PayPal's new data sharing

Depending on where you're based, you'll find PayPal's new data-sharing option under a different name. Remember, you may not see this at all if you're based in a country that doesn't allow it.

If you're in the US, you should head to your profile Settings and tap on Data & privacy. Under Manage shared info, click on Personalized shopping. You should see the option enabled by default. Toggle off the button at the right to opt-out.

If you are in the UK like me, you'll see something different after you head to your profile Settings and tap on Data & privacy. 

Under Manage your privacy settings, here you'll see an Interest-based marketing tab – click on it. At this point, two options will appear: Interest-based marketing on PayPal and Internet-based marketing on your accounts. You have to tap on each of these and toggle off the button at the right to opt-out. These instructions can also apply if you're based in the EU.

PayPal is updating their ToS to let themselves give your data to merchants starting Nov & they're banking on people not knowing to opt out, SO to opt out before they start: go to Settings >Data & Privacy > Manage shared info >Personalized shopping, & toggle that shit offSeptember 29, 2024

PayPal isn't the first online service to silently activate more invasive data practices without asking for users' consent.

In the most recent of such instances, LinekdIn started training its AI tool on user data by default last week. Again, users had to opt out of this functionality to prevent their personal information and posts from being collected. 

Before the Microsoft-owned social platform, also Facebook, Instagram, and X (formerly known as Twitter) had silently enabled the training of their AI tools on all users' public information.

"We shouldn't have to take a bunch of steps to undo a choice that a company made for all of us," tweeted Rachel Tobac, ethical hacker and CEO of SocialProof Security, at the time to comment on the LinkedIn move. "Organizations think they can get away with auto opt-in because 'everyone does it'. If we come together and demand that organizations allow us to CHOOSE to opt-in, things will hopefully change one day."

While the business models of these platforms are unlikely to change anytime soon, I suggest keeping an eye out for any news or notifications of policy updates from PayPal  – and any other online services you have an account with, for that matter – to know exactly what information you're sharing at all times.

October Prime Day is almost here but the deals are already buzzing, just like this waterproof e-reader designed for kids, now $55 off.

Green Hills Software has announced it has supplied the Trump campaign with "unhackable" communications and computing technologies in order to ‘protect election integrity and defend democracy’.

The company's equipment runs on an operating system subtly named ‘INTEGRITY-178’, currently primarily used in military applications, and in an ever-so-slightly Trumpian statement, claims it, "never fails and can’t be hacked".

Currently supplying both the FBI and US Government, Green Hills says it has ‘stepped forward’ to prevent any further hacking of Presidential campaigns, and added its tech was offered to the Harris campaign, but it's unclear if the team has adopted them.

No more vulnerabilities

In a statement, the firm says ‘all other smartphone operating systems are hacked regularly’ and that foreign actors are exploiting these vulnerabilities. The INTEGRITY-178 OS however, is certified by the NSA as highly robust and capable of protecting high value resources.

“Only a phone running on an operating system that never fails and can’t be hacked can be relied on to keep messages completely confidential. The only phone with this capability is the INTEGRITY-178 phone.” Green Hills Software says.

The Trump campaign was recently the target of a ‘hack-and-leak’ campaign, allegedly carried out by Iranian state sponsored cyber criminals, and the 2024 election cycle has been plagued by cyber attacks and online misinformation.

“Hacking by malicious foreign actors has become all too common in recent years and the time has come to take action to secure our democracy,” observed Green Hill CEO Dan O’Dowd.

“Most recent US election campaigns have been the victims of hack-and-leak operations. We owe it to our democracy to ensure that our elections are decided by the American people and not by foreign agents who wish harm to our country."

The 2024 election could be the most targeted yet, with potential hostile interference from Iran, Russia, and China reported so far, so security will be a top priority for both teams.

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Epic Games has introduced new time limit controls in Fortnite, allowing parents to restrict their child's playtime.

The studio announced the changes in a new blog post today, confirming that the new tools apply to both the popular battle royale game and Unreal Editor for Fortnite.

According to the new safety guidelines page, with 'Time Limit Controls', parents will have the ability to limit the total amount of time their child can play per day. They can also choose specific time windows when their child can play each day, and set time limits within that window.

After setting a time limit, kids will start seeing in-game banners notifying them when they have 30 minutes left in Fortnite or the Unreal Editor for Fortnite.

(Image credit: Epic Games)

"Once your child reaches their limit, they will not be able to use Fortnite or UEFN until the next day or until a new window begins, unless you choose to add more time," Epic Games explained.

Parents can also grant extra playtime with the 'Request for More Time' setting. When the setting is on, the player can request more time, but if it's turned off, they can't.

"If you have allowed your child to request more time, and they have 30 minutes or less left in their window, your child can request more time from within Fortnite," the developer continued.

An email will be sent from Epic Games to parents with a link where they can add more time for that day, even if requests are disabled, but the additional time must be added through Fortnite's main menu settings.

Epic has also added 'Time Reports', allowing parents to see how much time their child spends in the game, as well as 'Time Reports Email', which will send a weekly email to parents with a report summarizing their child’s time spent getting victory royales.

Time Limit Controls are now accessible across all consoles and devices, including PC, PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch. As long as a player is using the same account across devices, the time limit will be enforced, no matter where the child plays.

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The Devil's Hour season 2 is nearly upon us, and I'm so excited to dive back into the gripping Prime Video thriller series where we'll see dynamics shifting and find out what happened to Gideon (Peter Capaldi) after he escaped into the night in the season one finale. All that and more will be revealed when the series releases on October 18.

A lot happens in this mind bending series so it's understandable if fans have questions – I have plenty of my own, especially since the first season explained the link between Gideon and Lucy (Jessica Raine), and we've now established two co-existing timelines. We've got social worker Lucy and police officer Lucy, thanks to Gideon's time traveling interference, so there are effectively two versions of her. Yeah, you really need to pay attention when you're watching this series, folks.

The trailer answers at least some of these burning questions, and you can take a look below.

What is the plot of The Devil's Hour season 2?

We've come a long way since season one, which saw Lucy waking up at 3:33 AM every night, which falls between the titular "devil's hour" of 3-4 AM. Now, Gideon seems to be begging for Lucy to form an alliance with him, and as unwise as that might be it does seem like their only real choice right now.

We should also expect to learn more about Lucy's son Isaac who is really going through it as he has time hopping abilities of his own and can see things that his mother can't. This series is packed full of drama, and this is only the beginning.

The official synopsis reads: "The Devil’s Hour season two sees Lucy (Jessica Raine) and Gideon (Peter Capaldi) forming an uneasy alliance in order to prevent a recurring tragedy and hunt down an elusive monster. Lucy’s double life sees her torn between family and duty as she finds herself in the crosshairs of her past-life husband, DI Ravi Dhillon (Nikesh Patel). Assisting Dhillon in his investigation is DS Sam Boyd (Saffron Hocking) who was mentored by DI Lucy Chambers in a previous life.

"Meanwhile, Isaac (Benjamin Chivers) is discovering new emotions every day and struggling to keep his balance in a reality that rejects his existence. Fresh mysteries unfold as our stories converge on one explosive moment that will change the fate of our characters for the rest of their ever-recurring lives."

Need something to watch until The Devil's Hour returns? Check out our best Prime Video shows feature for plenty of recommendations.

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Psychological horror deck-building game Inscryption joins the Game Pass library next week, just in time for spooky season.

Amazon Prime has launched its own take on Shark Tank to give entrepreneurs the chance to get their products featured online.

Hosted by actor and comedian JB Smoove, Buy It Now is designed to feature everyday Americans each pitching their own innovative products in front of a live audience and a panel of investors.

Successful pitchers will secure a spot for their product in the exclusive Buy It Now storefront on Amazon, with one entrepreneur from each episode winning a $20,000 prize.

Amazon Prime to take on Shark Tank, Dragon’s Den

Although the programme uses a similar principle to America’s Shank Tank and Britain’s Dragon Den, it will place a bigger emphasis on the audience, referred to as ‘The 100,’ who will vote on whether they like the product before it goes to a panel of celebrity judges and Amazon execs.

The company has already confirmed panel appearances from Gwyneth Paltrow, Anthony Anderson, Tony Hawk and Tabitha Brown. Execs like Jenny Freshwater, VP of Amazon Fashion & Fitness, and Jamie Siminoff, founder of Ring, will also make an appearance.

Besides being on the bandwagon of a popular show format, Amazon’s move will also draw a closer link between the company’s ecommerce and entertainment businesses by featuring winning products on the dedicated storefront.

Following an initial launch of three episodes on October 30, Buy It Now will stream for a further 13 weeks until January 8.

Amazon has also planned to run a secondary weekly show – This is Small Business: Behind the Buy. The behind-the-scenes episodes will offer insights from winning entrepreneurs and other not-seen-before content.

As consumers battle rising subscription fees globally, Amazon’s efforts to intertwine two of its core businesses and create a do-it-all ecosystem, similar to Musk’s ambitions with X, could bode well for it.

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Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati said his country was facing “one of the most dangerous phases of its history” amid Israel’s ground incursion into southern Lebanon, which began late Monday.

(Image credit: Hassan Ammar)

Shailaja Paik faced prejudice because of her family's Dalit caste and her gender. As a historian she's written ground-breaking books on India's Dalits and is now a MacArthur 'genius grant' awardee.

(Image credit: MacArthur Fellows Program)

This year, filmmaker Sterlin Harjo, poet Jericho Brown and disability rights activist Alice Wong are among the recipients of the so-called "genius grants." Each fellow receives $800,000.

Pep Guardiola's men travel to Slovakia for this Gameweek 2 clash.

Barca host the Swiss Super League champions at the Estadi Olímpic.

The pick of Tuesday's UCL ties sees the Gunners host the French giants in north London.

Two weeks ago we reported on a leak that said Sony was about to expand its weird and wonderful LinkBuds range of headphones. And now it's official, and even more interesting than the leak suggested: in addition to two new sets of LinkBuds headphones, there's a LinkBuds speaker too.

The new Linkbuds range features the new LinkBuds Fit (which replaces the Sony LinkBuds S), the new LinkBuds Open (replacing the original Sony LinkBuds), and the new LinkBuds Speaker. They're all keenly priced, with the LinkBuds Fit and LinkBuds Open at $199.99 / £179, and the LinkBuds Speaker at $179.99 / £139. 

All three products are available to order now and will ship during October. Here's what's new.

Sony LinkBuds Fit, LinkBuds Open: key features

(Image credit: Sony)

Both pairs of LinkBuds earbuds come in new colors and a wide range of custom cases and have been made with comfort in mind, with a teardrop shape and a squishy 'supporter' to really hold them in your ear. The LinkBuds Fit have a new eartips too, which are slightly shallower than those in the Sony WF-1000XM5, again improving comfort compared to many of the best wireless earbuds – something we praised the LinkBud S for.

The LinkBuds Open still have an iconic circular design to their driver, so they're closer to the best open-ear headphones, allowing outside sound in naturally. 

As expected, the Fit are water and sweat resistant with an IPX4 rating. The Open earbuds have the same certification – though the cases aren't IP certified.

Sony says that the LinkBuds Fit have Sony's best ambient sound and auto adjustment, with an automatic noise canceling optimizer and a new app to configure it all. There's a new transparency mode that's more like what you get on AirPods Pro 2, where it adjusts exactly how much sound is allowed in depending on the ambient volume. Sony gave us the example of wanting lots of fine sound in if you're out in a quiet park and someone calls your name, compared to needing some control over the sound if you're at a train station.

They also support a new Background Music mode, which changes how music sounds to feel more like a speaker at the back of the room, rather than pumping right into your ears, with the aim of making it easier to concentrate if that's useful. Bluetooth is 5.3 with multi-point and LDAC hi-res audio, plus DSEE upscaling.

(Image credit: Sony)

The LinkBuds Open have the same Bluetooth 5.3 with multi-point, and Sony claims both louder sound and richer bass than before thanks to a new circular driver. Battery life is longer – 8 hours from the buds and 22 hours via the case – and charging is faster than before. They also support Background Music mode, and have DSEE upscaling to improve low-quality streaming music. There's no LDAC support here, though.

Both the LinkBuds Fit and Open also have option silicon covers for their case and buds, meaning that you can add in more colors than they initially come with, and can mix and match tones. The covers cost a little extra: $10 / £10 each for earbuds covers, or $20 / £20 for a case cover.

Sony LinkBuds speaker: key features

(Image credit: Sony)

The LinkBuds Speaker was designed based around data that 70% of younger headphones users have a Bluetooth speaker as well, and many would love to be able to flow from one to the other with no hassle. So the centerpiece here is an auto-switching feature that means your music will move automatically from the speaker to your headphones when you put them on, or will switch back to the speaker when you come home.

This feature will work with the both new LinkBuds models, plus the LinkBuds S, the Sony WF-1000XM5 earbuds, and the Sony WH-1000XM5 over-ears. Sadly, it won't work with the five-star Sony WF-C700N or the brand-new and excellent Sony WF-C510.

The LinkBuds Speaker is small, and comes with a separate charging base and grabbable design with a loop on the back. The speaker is IPX4 splash resistant and promises up to 25 hours of play time with quick charging.

There's a woofer and tweeter facing forward, with a passive radiator on each side to help provide oomph. It'll have a 5-band audio equalizer, adjustable from the app. There's also a built-in microphone so you can use it for calls.

Sony has upgraded its second-gen LinkBuds earbuds with improved designs and performance.

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The changes make it impossible for moderators to lock subreddits to the outside world as a means of sitewide protest.

It's unclear what caused the PSN outage, which left gamers unable to play online across multiple consoles or to access PlayStation account management.

After solidifying its position as TechRadar's #1 best VPN service following a successful new round of testing, NordVPN has just kicked off the post-quantum transition.

The provider has implemented quantum-safe encryption on its WireGuard-based NordLynx protocol for its Linux VPN app. This soft launch will allow Nord's engineering team to gather essential performance data, such as the impact on connection times and speed, said the company. The team expects to roll out post-quantum support across all applications by March 2025 at the latest.

The need for post-quantum VPNs

The era of quantum computers may still be a few years away, but these machines are improving quickly, meaning it's just a matter of time before traditional RSA encryption methods – like those used by VPNs – become obsolete.

This is because quantum computers are expected to process computations, that today's computers can't handle, within minutes. Worse still, cybercriminals are already tailoring their attacks with this in mind.

"Trends show that cybercriminals are intensifying what is known as 'harvest now, decrypt later' attacks. Simply put, they are trying to accumulate huge quantities of encrypted data and decrypt them once quantum technology is developed," said  Marijus Briedis, CTO at NordVPN.

This is exactly why, according to Briedis, the VPN industry must now enter the PQ transition to protect users' data against future quantum computing threats. He said: "With this launch, we start a major transition to new-generation encryption of all our applications providing long-term security for our users." 

(Image credit: Getty Images)

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) officially released the first three quantum-resistant encryption standards on August 13, 2024, after over a decade of testing more than 80 algorithms and beginning a new era for VPN security in the process.

The team of engineers at NordVPN based their new PQ approach on the NIST's standards. Specifically, they added the ML-KEM algorithm (formerly known as CRYSTALS-Kyber) to the NordLynx protocol. This is the primary standard for cryptographic key exchanges needed to protect the exchange of information across a public network like in the case of VPNs.

Being just the beginning of PQ cryptography, there is the risk these new algorithms may come with security vulnerabilities. This is why, like other providers, Nord opted for a hybrid approach that sees quantum-resistant algorithms working alongside classic encryption methods.    

Explaining how this works in practice, Briedis told me: "Initially, we establish a standard WireGuard session and within this session, we perform a protocol-defined pre-shared key (PSK) exchange using ML-KEM. After the PSK exchange, both client and server use a non-zero-fill 32-byte PSK to add a quantum secure layer to session encryption."

Did you know?

(Image credit: Shutterstock)

A VPN (virtual private network) uses encryption to secure all your internet connections. Put simply, it scrambles all the data leaving your device into an unreadable form to prevent third parties from intercepting the information in transit.

Implementing post-quantum encryption in today's VPN software is anything but easy, though. 

The main challenge is especially to find a balance between security and performance. That's because PQ algorithms typically require much larger key sizes and signatures than traditional ones, which could negatively affect VPN speed and reliability.

This is exactly why, as mentioned earlier, NordVPN has only implemented quantum-safe encryption for its Linux VPN app at the time of writing. Briedis explains the team picked precisely this platform as its users tend to be more tech-savvy and proactive in flagging potential issues or aspects to improve.

"These insights will help us fine-tune the implementation of post-quantum cryptography and guide our future rollout across all platforms," Briedis told me. "By starting with Linux, we’re laying the groundwork for a seamless transition to quantum-resistant encryption methods, ensuring long-term security for all our users."

Wider PQ support is expected to be released in the first months of 2025. 

NordVPN has now joined a small group of providers already offering quantum-safe protections. These include Windscribe, ExpressVPN, PureVPN, and Mullvad, which recently added post-quantum encryption also for iPhones.

The Iranian attack comes in the wake of an Israeli ground incursion against the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.

(Image credit: Menahem Kahana)