Sofia Elizabella Wyciślik-Wilson

Microsoft has revealed details of a security vulnerability in macOS that could be exploited to gain unathorized access to user data.

The vulnerability, which has been named 'powerdir' and is being tracked as CVE-2021-30970, involves a logic issue in the Transparency, Consent and Control (TCC) security framework. The security and privacy problem was discovered by the Microsoft 365 Defender Research Team and was reported to Apple is mid-July last year.

The European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) has ordered Europol to delete huge quantities of personal data about hundreds of thousands of people. The European Union's police agency has been found to have illegally collected billions of pieces of data about criminals, suspected terrorists and innocent citizens.

The colossal stash of information has been dubbed a "big data ark" by privacy experts, and it includes data gathered by hacking encrypted services and NSA-style grabs. The data store was collected over a period of six years, and the EDPS ruling means that Europol must delete data that has been stored for over six months. The agency also has a year to determine what of the remaining data it may legally continue to hold.

TCFKAF (the company formerly known as Facebook), Meta, has launched Privacy Center, a new way for users to "learn more about our approach to privacy across our apps and technologies". Across five modules -- Security, Sharing, Collection, Use and Ads -- Meta gives users information about privacy across its services.

It also provides links to its endless and scattered collection of tools, settings and options for taking control of privacy and security. The new hub has already come in for criticism, however, as it places onus the burden of responsibility on users rather than hand-holding then through the process of locking down privacy.

While still a long way from being the most popular browser on the market, Microsoft Edge continues to be where some of the most interesting developments are to be found. A great example of this can be seen in the latest Canary build of the browser.

In Edge 99, Microsoft has added a new setting that can be configured to use higher refresh rates only when scrolling. This not only means that scrolling looks nicer, but also that the lower refresh rates used the rest of the time will help to reduce power consumption, thereby improving battery life on laptops.

Microsoft has acknowledged an issue following the installation of the KB5008212 update. The problem causes email searching in Outlook to break, and no fix is currently available.

To let people know about the issue, and to provide details of a workaround, Microsoft has published a support document entitled "Outlook Search not showing recent emails after Windows update KB5008212".

The first PowerToys release of 2022 is here, and it is a strong start to the year. With the release of PowerToys v0.53.1, Microsoft has not only added a new utility in the form of Always On Top, but has also made lots of fixes, changes, additions and improvements to the existing tools in the suite.

Among the other notable additions to this release are new supports options in the File Explorer preview pan, and the arrival of web searching from PowerToys Run. Microsoft says that "the v0.53 release cycle was designed for a maintenance sprint but with some amazing community support, it is loaded with greatness" -- and there certainly is a lot of greatness to explore.

The head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri, has revealed details of tests that are currently underway that will change the way feeds are displayed on the platform. Among the options that are on the way is the much-requested ability to see a chronological feed.

In all, there are three feed viewing options that are undergoing testing -- something Mosseri describes as giving "you more control over your Instagram experience". Of the three views, two of them allow for chronological scrolling through posts.

It has been suggested that Windows 11 shipped as an unfinished product. Microsoft would almost certainly disagree, but it's an idea that is backed up by the fact that bundled apps are being updated -- and not just with minor tweaks, but with major overhauls.

We've already seen a preview version of the redesigned Notepad, and now Microsoft is making this staple app available to more people, complete with a new dark mode option and more. And it doesn't end there. An updated version of Windows Media Player, which replaces Groove Music, is also available to a wider range of users.

There are many names associated with piracy, some old -- think of Kazaa and Limewire -- others more current -- such as the Pirate Bay and endless sites of its ilk. One of the most recent phenomena in the world of piracy has been sites that offer movies and TV shows to stream.

One of the biggest sites of this type is Popcorn Time… or at least it was. The site dubbed the "Netflix of piracy" has passed on, it has ceased to be, it has expired and gone to meet its maker. Popcorn Time is an ex-site. It is dead.

Microsoft has issued an out-of-band update for Windows Server to address a problem with Remote Desktop that can prevent connections to a server.

There are two different updates available at the moment -- KB5010196 for Windows Server 2019, and KB5010215 for Windows Server 2012 R2 -- and Microsoft says that updates will be released for other affected platforms "in the coming days". As these are emergency, out-of-band updates, they are not currently available from Windows Update, and must instead be installed manually.

Microsoft has been quite aggressive in pushing its Edge browser, raising the hackles of many Windows users by ignoring default browser settings. The company's approach means that regardless of which web browser is set as default in Windows 10 and Windows 11, certain types of web content will always open in Edge.

The links of EdgeDeflector and similar tools popped up to intercept such links – such as clicking links in the News widget in Windows 11 – and force them to open in the default browser, but Microsoft has been busily trying to block such activity. One tool that continue to work is MSEdgeRedirect, and it has just been updated to make it even more useful.

The arrival of Android app support in Windows 11 is something that has been met with mixed reactions. While many are happy to be able to use Windows Subsystem for Android to run apps and games, the fact that only the Amazon Appstore is supported has led to people seeking ways to sideload apps.

We've already seen the release of WSATools for this very purpose, and now there is a new open-source option. WSA PacMan is a delightfully accessible tool that makes it easy to sideload apps without the need to battle with ADB commands.

Microsoft Exchange users were hit by a New Year bug that prevented the delivery of emails. The "year 2022" bug in the FIP-FS anti-malware scanner resulted in error messages including "The FIP-FS Scan Process failed initialization. Error: 0x8004005. Error Details: Unspecified Error" and "Error Code: 0x80004005. Error Description: Can't convert "2201010001" to long".

While the bug caused a degree of panic, Microsoft has now released an official fix. Anyone who has encountered the issue can apply the fix manually, or use an automated script to take care of things.

Windows 11 may still have that new OS smell wafting off it, but there is still work to be done. We already know that Microsoft is only planning a single feature update each year, and it looks like the first major update for Windows 11 -- codenamed Sun Valley 2 -- could be available for testing in a matter of months.

Windows 11 22H2, as Sun Valley 2 is also known, is said to be scheduled to be completed in May. The update is expected to be finalized some time in the summer, and then be ready for a full release in the fall. But what can we look forward to in this release?

LastPass users around the world were thrown into a state of panic after the company issued email warning about unauthorized use of master passwords.

The password manager company advised users of suspicious login attempts using the master password associated with their account. This led to concerns that the company has been hacked or that  passwords had been leaked, but LastPass says that the warnings were erroneous.