Facebook lets advertisers target users based on sensitive interests

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This article titled “Facebook lets advertisers target users based on sensitive interests” was written by Alex Hern, for theguardian.com on Wednesday 16th May 2018 04.00 UTC

Facebook allows advertisers to target users it thinks are interested in subjects such as homosexuality, Islam or liberalism, despite religion, sexuality and political beliefs explicitly being marked out as sensitive information under new data protection laws.

The social network gathers information about users based on their actions on Facebook and on the wider web, and uses that data to predict on their interests. These can be mundane – football, Manhattan or dogs, for instance – or more esoteric.

A Guardian investigation in conjunction with the Danish Broadcasting Corporation found that Facebook is able to infer extremely personal information about users, which it allows advertisers to use for targeting purposes. Among the interests found in users’ profiles were communism, social democrats, Hinduism and Christianity.

The EU’s general data protection regulation (GDPR), which comes into effect on 25 May, explicitly labels such categories of information as so sensitive, with such a risk of human rights breaches, that it mandates special conditions around how they can be collected and processed. Among those categories are information about a person’s race, ethnic origin, politics, religion, sex life and sexual orientation.

The information commissioner’s office says: “This type of data could create more significant risks to a person’s fundamental rights and freedoms, for example, by putting them at risk of unlawful discrimination.”

Organisations must cite one of 10 special dispensations to process such information, such as “preventive or occupational medicine”, “to protect the vital interests of the data subject”, or “the data subject has given explicit consent to the processing of those personal data for one or more specified purposes”.

Facebook already applies those special categories elsewhere on the site. As part of its GDPR-focused updates, the company asked every user to confirm whether or not “political, religious, and relationship information” they had entered on the site should continue to be stored or displayed. But while it offered those controls for information that users had explicitly given it, it gathered no such consent for information it had inferred about users.

The data means an advertiser can target messages at, for instance, people in the UK who are interested in homosexuality and Hinduism – about 68,000 people, according to the company’s advertising tools.

Facebook does demonstrate some understanding that the information is sensitive and prone to misuse. The company provides advertisers with the ability to exclude users based on their interests, but not for sensitive interests. An advertiser can advertise to people interested in Islam, for instance, but cannot advertise to everyone except those interested in Islam.

The company requires advertisers to agree to a set of policies that, among other things, bar them from “using targeting options to discriminate against, harass, provoke or disparage users, or to engage in predatory advertising practices.”

In a statement, Facebook said classifying a user’s interests was not the same as classifying their personal traits. “Like other internet companies, Facebook shows ads based on topics we think people might be interested in, but without using sensitive personal data. This means that someone could have an ad interest listed as gay pride because they have liked a Pride-associated page or clicked a Pride ad, but it does not reflect any personal characteristics such as gender or sexuality.”

The company also said it provided some controls to users on its ad preferences screen. “People are able to manage their ad preferences tool, which clearly explains how advertising works on Facebook and provides a way to tell us if you want to see ads based on specific interests or not. When interests are removed, we show people the list of removed interests so that they have a record they can access, but these interests are no longer used for ads.”

It added: “Our advertising complies with relevant EU law and, like other companies, we are preparing for the GDPR to ensure we are compliant when it comes into force.”

The findings are reminiscent of Facebook’s previous attempts to skirt the line between profiling users and profiling their interests. In 2016 it was revealed that the company had created a tool for “racial affinity targeting”.

At the time, Facebook repeatedly argued that the tool “is based on affinity, not ethnicity”. Discussing a person who was in the African American affinity group, for instance, the company said: “They like African American content. But we cannot and do not say to advertisers that they are ethnically black.”

Almost a year later, after it was revealed that advertisers could use the ethnic affinity tools to unlawfully discriminate against black Facebook users in housing adverts, Facebook agreed to limit how those tools could be used.

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Google tried to block autoplay videos on Chrome. But it broke apps and games

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This article titled “Google tried to block autoplay videos on Chrome. But it broke apps and games” was written by Samuel Gibbs, for theguardian.com on Wednesday 16th May 2018 09.51 UTC

Google has partially rolled back Chrome’s blocking of autoplaying video with sound after it was found to break a large collection of web apps and games.

The blocking feature was launched in April, and seemed to constitute a big step forward in removing one of the most irritating aspects of the modern web: loud, sudden and unwanted autoplaying videos.

But the update also broke a series of apps, games and interactive art in the process, preventing them from playing audio for alerts and other elements, and causing complaints from developers and users of these interactive web apps.

One of Google’s project managers for Chrome, John Pallett, said: “We’ve updated Chrome 66 to temporarily remove the autoplay policy for the Web Audio API.

“We’re doing this to give Web Audio API developers (eg gaming, audio applications, some RTC features) more time to update their code. The policy will be reapplied to the Web Audio API in Chrome 70 (October).”

The change was greeted with scepticism by developers. Benji Kay, a developer of web games and audio tools, said: “Simply delaying the enacting of this policy doesn’t solve any of the major concerns that have been raised.

“Come October, any existing software which utilises sound and which is not or cannot be any longer maintained will be broken.”

Pallett said that the change will not affect Chrome’s silencing of most autoplaying video and audio on the web. But whether this loophole will end up being abused to autoplay video with sound and get developers to update their apps to avoid them being muted remains to be seen.

The original muting of the nuisance videos within Chrome was designed to remove one of the annoyances that might have pushed users to install adblocking or other software, something Google wants to avoid as advertising is the primary source of the company’s revenue.

But as Chrome is the dominant browser on the internet, claiming a 57.4% share of online users in April across desktop and mobile according data from StatCounter, any changes have a significant impact on the way the web works.

• Google turns on default adblocker within Chrome

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How can I stop an unexpected Windows 10 update?

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This article titled “How can I stop an unexpected Windows 10 update?” was written by Jack Schofield, for theguardian.com on Thursday 17th May 2018 11.05 UTC

Yesterday, I intended to take my laptop to visit a client, but when I was about to set off, yup, I couldn’t turn it off without allowing Microsoft to do its upgrades. We all know how long that takes, and I had a train to catch, so I ended up having to wing the whole presentation.

The infuriating thing is that I knew there was an upgrade around, so I had checked the power settings that morning to see if one was waiting to be installed. There was no update at 9am. Somehow Microsoft snuck it in without my noticing.

I do understand that people need to install updates, but can’t Microsoft give us an escape route? This is my computer and my software and my business, so please can you trust me, just this once? Celia

It’s easy to be caught out by Windows updates, and I once left the house carrying an open laptop, confident that the update would finish long before the battery ran down.

However, there is a fundamental divide between consumer and business versions of Windows. With consumer versions, such as Windows 10 Home, Microsoft takes a paternalistic view of updates: it tries to do what’s best for people who don’t know what they are doing. Business versions – Windows 10 Pro and the Enterprise and Education editions – are designed to allow IT departments and knowledgeable customers more control. That includes ways to defer some updates for a week, a month or even a year.

Many update problems stem from business people using consumer version of Windows, and this is understandable for sole traders and companies that are too small to employ IT staff. I don’t even think the extra features in Windows 10 Pro – BitLocker, Hyper-V, Remote Desktop etc – would be much use to people in your position. However, it doesn’t cost much to upgrade, and could be worth it if being able to delay upgrades helped you win a new client.

Otherwise, Microsoft has a Windows Update FAQ and a help page with a troubleshooter that you can download to help fix update problems.

Update strategy

Your PC may appear to be up-to-date, but a search may find updates marked ‘pending install’ or ‘pending restart’. Photograph: Microsoft

Laptops that are only used intermittently seem more likely to receive forced updates. Microsoft tries to download updates in the background without users being interrupted or even aware that it’s happening. If you have an always-on desktop PC, the process is almost completely reliable. If you use a laptop for intense work then shut it down when you stop, there aren’t many gaps for updates to be downloaded and installed. You can help by setting your laptop to stay awake for an hour or two while it’s charging.

You can also pre-empt some inconvenient upgrades by looking for them.

Set aside an hour each week to clean up your PC, tidy away files, check your backups and perhaps run an extra virus scan with something like Malwarebytes Free. During your housekeeping session, run the Settings (cogwheel) app, click “Update & Security” and see if any updates are pending. If there are, you can either install them or click “Advanced options” and pick a time and date when you want them installed. If there aren’t, click the button that says “Check for updates” and see if it finds any.

Your PC may appear to be up-to-date, but a search may find updates marked “pending install” or “pending restart”. After you’ve installed those, check again, because there may be even more updates to install. If you need a lot of updates, they tend to come in batches, not all at once.

Pay particular attention after the second Tuesday of each month – “Patch Tuesday” – when Microsoft usually releases security fixes.

Microsoft is updating almost 700m PCs running Windows 10, and it doesn’t try to update all of them at once. By checking for updates, you can jump the queue and install them at your preferred time, not when Microsoft’s update servers get around to it.

Schedule a restart

When you have a restart pending, the Settings app provides two options: “Restart now” and “Schedule the restart”. Choose to schedule it and you can enter a date and time for the restart, which means you can put it off for up to six days.

Also click on “Advanced options” on the same Settings screen, and select the last option: “We’ll show a reminder when we’re going to restart. If you want to see more notifications about restarting, turn this on.” Instead of simply restarting at the time you entered, Windows 10 will ask again, enabling you to delay it again.

Active hours

Windows 10’s ‘Active hours’ functionality. Photograph: Microsoft

Windows 10 lets you set “Active hours” in the Windows Update section of the Settings app. Click on “Change active hours” to set the times when you usually use your PC. You can reserve 18 hours out of 24 for work. Microsoft will generally not update your PC during these times.

If you are using your PC, you should get a “Heads up” notification to tell you that a restart is pending. You can either hit “Restart now” or “View settings” and select a time and date for the restart.

I suspect that Microsoft did once restart my PC during my active hours, after I left it unattended for a couple of hours, so always save any work-in-progress beforehand. It takes less than a second to hit Ctrl-S.

Metered connections

Microsoft knows that not everyone has unlimited broadband, so it allows for “metered connections”. By default, Windows 10 sets ethernet wired and wireless networks to non-metered, and mobile connections to metered. People who have capped broadband and unlimited mobile broadband could switch these around, but the defaults suit most users.

If you have a metered connection, Windows Update will only download priority updates automatically, so it will be up to you to download the others. Setting both connections to metered will limit the amount of data Microsoft downloads, making you less likely to get a major update when you don’t expect one.

To set metered connections, run the Settings app, click on “Network & Internet” and then select “Change connection properties”.

Frankly, I don’t think setting metered connections offers enough benefits to be worth the effort, but some people may find it useful.

Windows 10 Pro

The business and professional versions of Windows 10 provide more control, even to people who are not IT experts. For example, the advanced options page in the Settings app includes an extra control, Pause Updates. This prevents any updates from being installed for the next week, though when the time is up, you cannot pause it again.

If you have Windows 10 Pro, this is the simplest solution to the Windows update problem. You can simply install all available updates on (say) a Sunday then pause updates during your working week.

The business versions of Windows also include Group Policies, which allow IT managers to control how their fleets of PCs work. However, you can edit them manually. Type edit group policy in the Windows search box and run the editor (gpedit.msc), then look for Windows Update in the Administrative Templates section, under Computer Configuration. The default setting is “3 – Download the updates automatically and notify when they are ready to be installed”. You can change it to “2 – Notify for download and notify for install”. That will reduce the chances of Windows 10 installing downloads when you’re not ready for them.

GPEdit also allows you to defer “quality updates” for up to 30 days, and “feature updates” for up to 365 days. This is useful for businesses that need to test applications before installing updates. It doesn’t prevent your PC from restarting to install security updates, but usually this doesn’t take very long.

Disable updates

Windows geeks know that you can do all sorts of things with its Administrative Tools. For example, double-click Services, and find Windows Update in the list. Yes, you can control how this service starts up, and you can stop it from running until you next reboot Windows. People shouldn’t mess with Services unless they know what they are doing. However, a small utility called Winaero Tweaker provides easy access to all sorts of tweaks, one of which is Disable Windows 10 Updates. This is not something I recommend, but there are times when it could be a useful short-term expedient.

At least Winaero Tweaker is safer than people changing Services or editing the Windows registry directly, where ignorance can lead to unfortunate results.

Have you got a question? Email it to Ask.Jack@theguardian.com

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What are all these GDPR emails filling up your inbox?

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This article titled “What are all these GDPR emails filling up your inbox?” was written by Gavin Haynes, for The Guardian on Wednesday 16th May 2018 15.55 UTC

‘Hey there Field Left Blank. So listen, budski, my man, my main man … I know we’ve been sending you spammy emails about cheap holiday deals five days a week. For the last five years. Yeah, maybe we took a few liberties with that. Mistakes were made. IDK. But I’m here, today, to tell you we value you as a customer, Field Left Blank. So …. um, was wondering, would you be interested in maybe opting in? Please. Please?”

So goes every third email in your inbox this week, as a change in the law heads towards its final 24 May deadline, with even such well-established email beggars as the Guardian getting in on the act. But what exactly is GDPR?

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is the EU’s biggest personal data shake-up since 1995. And the US tech giants are not exempt, which is why Facebook quietly decided to move 70% of its global users’ data back from its Irish headquarters to the US, outside the reach of GDPR.

The regulation has been billed as a gamechanger in rebalancing consumer rights. The emails are the front door to that. Companies that have an “existing relationship” and valid consent with you might not need to reaffirm consent (there’s a measure of grey here), but all those half-dormant relationships are about to get a massive spring clean. Click the opt-in button, or hear only silence, for ever. With opt-in rates apparently running at about 10%, many companies are resorting to prizes or draws to incentivise those consumer clicks.

From 25 May, pre-ticked boxes can no longer be used to indicate consent to a company’s terms and conditions. Plus, a request for consent cannot be buried under pages and pages of terms. You can request a copy of any personal information held, and you can ask a company to delete all the data they have on you.

The law also promises users “data portability”, which is designed to force operators to allow you to take your old data to the new company you prefer, preventing lock-in. If it works (many are sceptical), it could hugely boost competition, loosening the vast data monopolies of the big players. After a phase of hacks against everyone from LinkedIn to Ashley Madison, regulators have demanded “pseudonymisation” or “tokenisation” of user accounts. Meaning that even if user data leaks, it shouldn’t be personally identifiable.

It might be good for the consumer, but businesses are already grumbling about the cost of enforcement, with companies of more than 250 employees required to hire a data protection officer. That may prove to be money well spent. The maximum fine for non-compliance with the new rules is €20m (it was £500,000 under the old system) or 4% of annual global turnover – whichever is bigger.

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