Category: News

Facebook changes Live Video policy to the detriment of its users

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

Facebook users have plenty of options to communicate with friends, other Facebook users, and the entire world via the platform.

One of these options is via live video. These are recorded and shown on Facebook. The recorded videos were stored by Facebook indefinitely, but this changes with the new policy.

Here are the details:

  • Live video is stored for 30 days only on Facebook.
  • Any Live video that is older than 30 days will be deleted.
  • This applies to all live videos retroactively.

In other words: Facebook will soon start deleting old live videos from its users en masse.

Thankfully for users, this is not done automatically. Facebook says that it will inform users with live videos about the new ruling by email and in the app. Facebook users have 90 days from that day to download or transfer their content for safekeeping.

Facebook explains that users have several options to save videos. There is a single download option, which is listed under the three-dots menu when selecting Menu > Activity log > Live videos.

This is probably not very practical for most users, unless only a few videos need to be saved.

There is also a bulk download option according to Facebook. Note that this requires the notification that informs you about the deletion of the videos.

Here is how that works:

  1. Click or tap on the notification to get started.
  2. Select “Download live videos”.
  3. Pick a location to download and a date range for the live videos.
  4. Select “Create File”.

There are other options, including transferring videos, e.g., to Google Drive, and to convert parts of live videos to reels.

Facebook explains both options on its website.

Why is Facebook making the change?

    Facebook has a simple explanation for limiting storage of live video on its network:

    People all over the world use Facebook Live to share their experiences with their communities in real time. Because most live video views occur within the first few weeks of broadcasting, we’re updating how long live videos can be stored on Facebook.

    In short: storing live video indefinitely is not financially viable. Facebook has to pay for storage and the earnings from the videos do not justify indefinite storage.

    Closing Words

    If you do broadcast live on Facebook and want to keep your videos, you may want to start downloading or transferring them as soon as you get the notification that the content will be deleted.

    Facebook does not really say when content will get deleted, only that it can be deleted at any time after day 91. Users may also request an extension.

    In about a week, Amazon is removing the ability to download Kindle ebooks to non-Amazon devices

    Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

    Ebooks can be a great alternative to traditional books. They do not weight anything, which means that you can carry around hundreds if not thousands of books effortlessly. They also come with extra features, like the ability to search books.

    If you have bought ebooks in the past, you may know that you do not really own the books. Like most digital content, you get a license to use the book. This license can be revoked at any time and you do not have any say in the matter. If you are lucky, you get a refund. Besides outright removal, rightsholders may also update books at any time.

    You are probably wondering what this has to do with Amazon. Well, Amazon is taking away a fundamental feature of its ebook store that existed for a long time: the ability to download your ebooks to your PC, Mac, and other devices that are not owned by Amazon.

    Here is why that is bad. Currently, you have an option to download any ebook you bought from Amazon to a computer, say, a Windows PC. When you do that, you store the book in a place that Amazon has no control over. It cannot remove the book from the computer nor can it updated the book. Even if the book gets removed from Amazon’s ebook store, you retain that copy on your device.

    This option is removed on February 26, 2025. Means, you only get the option to load ebooks onto Amazon Kindle devices. Amazon does have control over these. It can remove books from Kindle devices or push updates to the devices.

    Another example of why that is bad for you. If you get locked out of your Amazon account, close it, or get banned by Amazon for whatever reason, you will lose access to all of the books that you bought.

    So, if you own Kindle ebooks, you may want to download them before February 26 to a device that Amazon has no control over. You can do that by accessing the Content Library on Amazon’s website, selecting the “more actions” option, and then download & transfer via USB.

    Note that you cannot do so anymore when you buy books after February 26th, as Amazon is removing it.

    Now it is your turn. Do you buy digital content or prefer to buy physical content, if possible? Let us know in the comments.

    Reddit

    Reddit plans to improve search with AI-powered answers

    Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

    Search engines were among the first to push AI answers. These use artificial intelligence to generate answers for user queries and are often placed prominently.

    If you ask me, these are hit or miss. Sometimes, they provide answers that are dead on. At other times, they recommend to eat one rock per day.

    Reddit, which calls itself the homepage of the Internet, has launched its own AI-tool Answers some time ago.

    Answers works like other AI communication tools. You write something and get a response. You may then refine or ask follow-up questions, and get another response.

    In its latest earnings call, Reddit CEO Steve Huffman announced that the company was working on AI-powered search results.

    Reddit’s integrated search feature does not use AI currently. It returns subreddits and posts based on the user’s query. Since it works so-so, some users prefer to use regular search engines instead to find content on Reddit.

    Techcrunch reports that Reddit plans to launch an “upgraded search experience” this year. This is achieved by integrating Answers into search.

    For Huffman, the integration is just the first step to go head-to-head with search engine giant Google.

    He said:

    I think helping the user be able to search directly on Reddit, refine their queries on Reddit, eventually come directly to Reddit for those types of queries, and even integrating search into something like onboarding over time..

    So, instead of going to Google, Bing, or another search engine to find answers, Reddit users might start their searches on Reddit and stay on Reddit. That seems to be the vision of Reddit’s CEO.

    How search engines will react to this remains to be seen. Reddit may be a massive site, but it still pales in comparison to the traffic that Google or Microsoft gets.

    I expect more AI integration in more search tools and more communities going forward. Good news is that these can be ignored largely or removed.

    What is your take on AI-powered search? Something that you use, are interested in, or ignore? Feel free to leave a comment about it below.

    Stellantis testing annoying ads in infotainment systems of cars

    Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

    Most modern cars come with infotainment systems. These control a variety of functions, including the radio, calls, navigation and more.

    It was only a matter of time before some car manufacturers started to play with the idea of displaying ads on those screens to their customers to increase their profit margin.

    Stellantis, the fourth-largest manufacturer of cars, owns brands such as Jeep, Fiat, Maserati, Opel, Peugot, or Chrysler. It seems that someone at Stellantis must have that idea of displaying ads to customers, as owners of Jeeps are now flocking to social media to report that their car’s infotainment system is pestering them with ads.

    Here is what happens: ds are displayed whenever the car stops. They display on the screen and may be closed with a tap on the close icon. Problem is, there does not appear to be a setting to disable the display of ads entirely.

    This means that, whenever an affected owner stops at a red light, an ad is shown. Drivers who want to look a the navigational map or make changes to the radio cannot, unless they close the ad first.

    The ad, interestingly named “Purchase Peace of Mind”, is always shown. There is no variance, and there is no option to get rid of it by saying “no”. The reason for that is simple: the ad uses dark patterns. There is no “I do not want to, please do not bother me again” option.

    The response would probably be better if Stellantis would sell an adblocker called “Peace of Mind” to its customers.

    You can only close it, only to see the exact same thing again on the next stop of the car. Talk about frustrating experiences.

    Here is a video in which the issue is discussed in detail:

    This development may lead to the rise of adblockers for cars or specialized services that block ads in cars or disable online connectivity.

    What is your take on this? Would you buy a car that had an infotainment system with these kind of ads? Feel free to leave a comment down below.

    Brave Browser gets support for injecting scripts into websites

    Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

    Remember userscripts? These little scripts are a useful alternative to browser extensions. They can be used for lots of things, most often for changing something on websites, like removing elements.

    Brave Software announced support for scriplets in the company’s Brave Browser today. These work similarly to userscripts. Users of the browser may add scriptlets to Brave so that they run on selected sites automatically.

    The new feature has landed in Brave 1.75, the current stable version of the browser.

    Good to known: the process is fiddly right now. You need to enable developer mode, add the scriptlets yourself, and assign websites to these scriplets using custom filters.

    Here is how it works in detail:

    1. Load the Content Filters section of the settings. The easiest option is to load this URL: brave://settings/shields/filters
    2. Toggle Developer Mode to turn it on.
    3. Activate the “add new scriplet” button on the same page after enabling developer mode.
    4. Type a name for the scriptlet. You may want to avoid spaces.
    5. Type or paste the code of the script.
    6. Select the Save button.
    7. Now use the following syntax to assign the scriptlet to specific websites: example.com##+js(name-of-your-scriptlet.js)
    8. Select the save changes button.

    Notes:

    • Replace example.com with the hostname of the website, e.g., chipp.in.
    • Replace name-of-your-scriptlet.js with the name that you have specified during creation.

    Brave will execute the script whenever the matching domain is visited.

    You can check out the technical documentation of the feature here.

    Userscripts or Scriptlets?

    Userscript extensions offer some advantages. They may load userscripts easily from various sources, and they may also update them. They also work in all browsers, which is great if you use multiple browsers.

    Brave’s solution supports pasting scripts, but it is still fiddly to link them to specific sites and maintain them.

    With that said, it may be interesting to advanced users who prefer to avoid extensions whenever possible.

    I cannot really say how Brave’s integrated solution compares to userscripts. It is more powerful, equally powerful, or less?

    What is your take on the integration? Good move by Brave?

    Google Chrome is getting an automatic picture-in-picture mode

    Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

    Google plans to roll out an automatic picture-in-picture mode in Chrome 134. The browser will be released next month. When it does, Chrome may continue to show video content on certain sites when the user scrolls away from the video content.

    This feature works for the most part identical to that of Mozilla Firefox, which has had the feature for some time now.

    Google has added a few safeguards to the feature. In particular, automatic picture-in-picture kicks only in if..

    • The site uses a secure connection (https).
    • Media is playing in the active window / tab.
    • Media played with sound for at least two seconds.
    • The media player needs to have set a handler for picture-in-picture.
    • Google uses heuristics next to that using media engagement, unless you explicitly allow a site to enable the mode.

    Chrome users may allow or disallow automatic picture-in-picture mode, which gives them control over the feature.

    Enable or disable Chrome’s auto picture-in-picture feature

    You can give it a try in Chrome 134 or newer by following these instructions:

    1. Load chrome://flags/#auto-picture-in-picture-for-video-playback in the Chrome 134 or newer address bar.
    2. Set the value of the feature to enabled.
    3. Restart Google Chrome.

    Note: the feature won’t be available on all sites at the time of writing. It does not work on YouTube for instance.

    If you do not need the feature, you could set the value of the experimental flag to disabled to block it. This flag will be removed in the future though, which means that you do need to make changes to the settings in Chrome at that point to disable automatic picture-in-picture mode in Google Chrome.

    Since it launches in Chrome, it is likely that it will also launch in other Chromium-based browsers in the future.

    What is your take on this feature in general? Do you use it in another browser already? Feel free to leave a comment down below.

    Hide Gemini removes Google AI features on the Internet

    Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

    Google, just like Microsoft, puts lots of effort into adding its Gemini AI to its products. AI is changing the Internet as we know it.

    There is the AI Overviews feature, which gives searches an AI generated answer on Google Search. Other examples include the Gemini button on properties such as Gmail or Google Docs.

    Hide Gemini is a browser extension that removes Google AI features on Google sites. It does away with AI Overviews and most / all Gemini buttons that Google has added to its services.

    The extension is available for Chromium-based browsers, including Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Brave, Vivaldi, and Opera, and also Mozilla Firefox and Firefox-based browsers such as Mullvad Browser or Tor Browser.

    Hide Gemini works automatically in the background. All you have to do is install it in your browser of choice. It either removes the AI content or uses CSS to hide it, so that it is not visible anymore when you access Google services such as Search or Gmail.

    The developer notes that some AI content may still show up. One example is the “help we write” feature on Google Docs, which shows up in the canvas area. Temporary promotions that Google adds to its services may also be visible, even with the extension installed.

    Extensions like Hide Gemini work well most of the time, but they work only when code is not changed by Google. Any change that Google makes to its sites may result in AI content being shown again, even with the extension installed.

    This is only a temporary nuisance, provided that the developer reacts quickly and updates the extension to take the changes into account.

    What is your take on AI features plastered on the web? Is that something that you use regularly or try to avoid as best as you can? Feel free to leave a comment down below.

    Windows 10

    Microsoft cancels a Defender feature that gave subscribers a free VPN

    Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

    Microsoft introduced a new feature that it called Privacy Protection less than two years ago to Microsoft 365 Home and Family plans. The feature gave subscribers access to a VPN service along with 50 gigabytes of traffic per month.

    Microsoft limited the feature to the Microsoft Defender app, subscribers, and users from a handful of countries only.

    At this moment, Microsoft is sending out emails to users of the VPN that it is being cancelled.

    The details:

    • The service will be pulled on February 28, 2025.
    • It affects Home and Family subscribers only.

    About Privacy Protection: reason for its removal

    I reviewed Privacy Protection back in 2024 on Ghacks. While bare bones, it was still miles ahead of Google’s offering, which I called the most basic VPN one could get. Interestingly enough, Google did shut down its Google One VPN in mid 2024 for many customers.

    Microsoft explains on a support page that its goal is to ensure that subscribers “remain safer online” and that it decided to pull the feature after evaluation of its usage and effectiveness.

    The company says that Windows, iOS, and macOS users do not need to take any action. Android users, who have used the feature, need to remove its VPN profile manually from their device.

    These are the steps according to Microsoft:

    1. Go to your phone’s Settings app.
    2. Search for ‘VPN’ in the settings.
    3. If you’ve onboarded to privacy protection, you should see a ‘Microsoft Defender’ VPN profile in the list of VPN profiles.
    4. Use the info icon to tap on it and remove it.

    Microsoft Edge Secure Network, a browser VPN integrated into Edge by Microsoft, does not appear to be affected by the change.

    Closing Words

    VPN solutions, like Microsoft’s Privacy Protection or Google’s One VPN feature, offered basic functionality when compared to dedicated VPN solutions. Heck, Google did not even support options like selecting a server to connect to.

    Major features, like dual-hop connections, selecting different protocols, using obfuscation techniques, or kill switch functionality, were never supported.

    This does not mean that the basic VPN solutions were useless. Users could still use the VPNs to protect their Internet traffic, especially in public places.

    Now it is your turn. Do you use a VPN service sometimes or regularly? If so, which one is your favorite and why?

    Brave personalized search

    Brave Search: raise or discard domains in search for custom results

    Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

    Brave launched a new search feature today that introduces reranking options. The core idea is to give users of the search engine an option to see more results of websites they like or prefer, and less or nothing at all of sites that they do not like or want to see.

    This is especially useful if you come upon sites that you do not value highly regularly, or miss articles or information from a site that you do value.

    Brave notes that rerank only applies to the current user. It has no impact on a site’s presence on the search engine, other than for the user who made the change. The feature does not require an account, which is another plus.

    Denoted sites do not appear in search results any longer on Brave Search. This works similarly to the extension uBlacklist, which works on Google Search only though.

    Raised sites get a new ranking signal that boost their ranking. While they may still not be shown in the first few spots in the results, their rank should be higher than before.

    Brave Search’s AI component takes the new signals into account, which means that you should see sites mentioned more often or less there as well.

    Good to know: the feature uses Brave Goggles, a feature that Brave introduced in 2022. It allows users to create custom filters that change search result rankings.

    How to use the new feature on Brave Search

    You can access the new feature after you run a search. Click on the new rerank icon in the top right corner to display the options. There you may:

    • Raise any listed site to strengthen it in Brave Search.
    • Discard any site to make sure it won’t show up in the search results anymore.

    The listing changes when you switch pages in the results.

    There is no option currently to add custom sites. If you want to get rid of a site or promote one, you need to run a search that includes it. The best way to do that is to search for the name of the site, as it will likely appear in the results in that case.

    The finetuning applies to any search. If you raise a site, it will rank higher regardless of search term. That’s important to note, as it may catapult sites that cover anything to the top of the results regularly, if you raise them.

    A click on the edit button displays options to remove sites again.

    Closing Words

    Rerank is an excellent feature that may improve Brave Search for users who use it. While I wish it would include an option to add a site manually, it is possible that it will come at a later point.

    It is still possible to run default searches using a browser’s private browsing mode.

    You can read more about the new feature on the Brave website.

    Firefox 134.0.2

    Firefox 134.0.2 is here with a few non-security corrections

    Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

    Mozilla plans to release a second point update for Firefox 134 later today. Firefox 134.0.2 is another non-security update that addresses a few pressing problems in the browser that had to be fixed early.

    Most Firefox installations will be upgraded automatically once the update is released. As this does not happen in real-time, some users may want to trigger the update manually instead.

    How to update Firefox: One easy way of doing so is to select Menu > Help > About Firefox. The browser displays the current version and runs a check for updates. It should pick up the latest, download it and install it. A restart is required to complete the process.

    Good to know: Firefox 134.0.1, released last week, fixed an issue on YouTube and a crash issue.

    Firefox 134.0.2: the changes

    The official release notes are not available yet. Mozilla will publish them later today on this page.

    Here is a quick overview of the included fixes:

    • After a crash, the crash reporter was not displayed for some localized builds.
    • Anchored links in HTML framesets pointing to local files did not work.
    • Network requests could not be resend in the Developer Tools when debugging extensions.
    • Data consumption from service works could unexpectedly halt.

    Most Firefox users should not be affected by any of these issues, as they apply mostly to edge cases or development related cases.

    Suggested course of action: Since the release does not fix any security issues, most users should not feel pressed to install the update immediately.

    The next major release happens on February 4th, which is about two weeks from today.