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I hope this text finds you content together with your Christmas celebrations and, above all, wholesome and protected. As that is the final version of the Winners and Losers column for 2021, I took the liberty of selecting two matters that signify the ups and downs areas of the yr in expertise: privateness and cybersecurity.This week, the DuckDuckGo staff introduced that they’re engaged on a desktop browser centered on sturdy privateness options, so that they deserve to finish the yr because the winner of this version. The Joker virus, present in a Play Retailer app with over half one million downloads, is the loser.Nevertheless, earlier than we transfer on to the perfect and worst of the previous seven days, try a few of NextPit’s high headlines from the previous week beneath:NextPit’s Tales: The nerd who needed to wreck ChristmasWinner of the week: A really non-public browserIf 2021 was the yr that large tech corporations determined to present us again the prospect to be extra non-public — Apple with App Monitoring Transparency; Google with Privateness Dashboard and Android Personal Compute Core — my expectation is that 2022 would be the yr that our consciousness about information privateness will increase.This week, the DuckDuckGo staff introduced that their privacy-focused desktop browser can be launched in 2022, and it is not primarily based on Chromium. The thought is to help Home windows and macOS, and regardless that the staff makes use of rendering engines offered by these working methods to construct the browser (like WebKit), they may take away pointless objects and make it so simple as doable to make use of the privateness instruments.In keeping with the official announcement, the characteristic set needs to be just like what we’ve immediately in DuckDuckGo Privateness Browser for cellular. And the spotlight right here is that it will likely be doable to make use of the default privateness settings, as we haven’t any advertising gimmicks. Additionally, with only one click on it will likely be doable to rapidly delete shopping exercise and energetic tabs.Furthermore, inside checks have proven that DDG’s non-public browser proved to be sooner than Chrome, which let’s agree just isn’t actually a shock.
DuckDuckGo guarantees to make non-public shopping very simple to make use of / © DuckDuckGo
Why is that this the perfect information of the week in my eyes? Effectively, folks keep away from utilizing what they do not know or perceive. By making shopping in non-public mode less complicated, the DuckDuckGo staff empowers customers who keep away from software program with superior settings and turns into one other ally within the battle in opposition to the exploitation of our shopping information for advertising.Loser of the week: The Joker virusThis yr we additionally noticed an enormous quantity of cyberattacks taking place on a regular basis. From Distributed denial of service (DDoS) assaults to SMS phishing to malware, we had all the pieces. And to shut the yr, this week we had the return of the Joker virus, discovered within the Coloration Message app for Android, which already had greater than half one million installations.
The Joker virus is the final word dangerous joke / © Tero Vesalainen / Shutterstock.com
The Joker malware has been round for 3 years and has kidnapped fairly a couple of apps already. In keeping with my colleague Dustin Porth, this virus may cause harm by simulating clicks and logging you into premium companies. This causes your cell phone invoice to skyrocket, and guess what? Except the app operators reimburse you, you’ll lose cash!Fortunately, the app has been faraway from the Google Play Retailer, however it’s in all probability not the final time we write about the sort of malware. So this week the Joker virus is on the loser’s facet and represents all of the cyberattacks, Trojans and different malware we wish to depart behind in 2022!And that is all for immediately! I want you a contented new yr and write you in 2022! However earlier than saying goodbye, here is a query for you: What did you consider this week’s picks? Share your opinion within the feedback of this text.
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