Microsoft Edge and Google Chrome vs. Firefox

And again it is a customer's question that triggers me to write on this blog. The customer, thank you Steve H, asked simply "What is your opinion of Microsoft Edge vs Firefox?".

Here is my reply:

I strongly advise against using any web browser from Microsoft!

I collected some articles for your enjoyment that can give you some background for my various reasons. The articles quotes are in no particular sequence.

Test Link

Microsoft Edge introduces new security risks in Windows 10     https://betanews.com/2015/07/30/microsoft-edge-introduces-new-security-risks-in-windows-10/

IE, Edge Users at Risk from Serious Browser Security Flaw      https://www.tomsguide.com/us/edge-ie-flaw-no-fix,news-24565.html

Windows 10 users ignore Edge for a reason     https://betanews.com/2015/10/19/windows-10-users-ignore-microsoft-edge-for-a-reason/

Windows 10's new browser Microsoft Edge: Improved but also new risks     https://blog.trendmicro.com/trendlabs-security-intelligence/windows-10s-new-browser-microsoft-edge-improved-but-also-new-risks/

Before you ask let me please preempt the question about Google Chrome vs. Firefox:

So far the main argument for Chrome was "it is faster". That was and is a phony argument that shows a deplorable lack of knowledge by the people using it. I'll give you an example.

Let's assume from the moment you click on a link to having the new web page in front of your eyes it takes all together 10 seconds.

90% of that time is needed to get the many little files that comprise a web page from the server these files reside on to your computer. We and/or the web browser have no way to make that faster.

The last 10% of the time is used by the web browser to "convert " the many little files into the picture we see; this process is called rendering. And that actually was where Chrome was faster.

MS Edge, the new version of Firefox and others have closed and/or eliminated that speed gap.

If Chrome were 30% faster in rendering the web page that would be only 0.3 seconds. Even in a direct A/B comparison we would not be able to experience that difference.

Additionally: The Chrome web store, from where you'd download any browser extension you might want or need, has been plagued by rogue extensions (only one example here, there are many more!). You may find way too late that the extension you downloaded and installed was rogue.

So for me it is clear:

No to Google Chrome and ANY Microsoft browser; IMHO the only well supported alternative is Firefox.


Stay safe.

It's Amazon vs. Google. Did You Know?

Have you ever or are you sometimes watching a YouTube video or two?

Have you ever or are you sometimes looking at something or even buying something on Amazon?

If you can answer any of above questions with Yes then you should read this article.

It shows very clearly why I always say that, no matter what companies say, we, the paying customer, are a voiceless, powerless "necessary evil". They just don't give a hoot about us.

Their talk of "how important" their customers are and how they care for us and how important it is for them "to serve the customer" is nothing but marketing hullabaloo and all too often they just plainly lie to us.

Never the less, I will stick with my Amazon Prime account and I will keep using Google's services.

For now at least.

Stay safe.

WOT and the darned Purists at Mozilla

WOT vanished from many of my customers Firefox web browsers. I got some questions about that so here is my diatribe.

Mozilla, the maker of the Firefox web browser, is a European organization and over there they have a MUCH more narrow view of privacy issues. That is a double-edged sword.

WOT has a few month ago modified their end user license agreement to conform more closely to what the add-on all can do. No surprise to me that they collect some information on the things you search for and where you then click on. Google does that for years and nobody gives a hoot.

WOT finally made it public and Google and Mozilla went ballistic pulling the WOT extension (add-on) from their web sites. I am pretty livid but they don't listen to you or me.

WOT in the meantime has changed the wording of their end user license agreement and you again can get and run WOT in Goggle Chrome.

The Europeans don't seem to see the value of WOT for the normal non-geek end user and remain stubbornly on their negative stance towards WOT. 

And Mozilla even tricks people into disabling or removing WOT - despite the fact that there is no even remotely similar functionality available anywhere else.

It is a shame but I have to tell my customers that they have to use Google Chrome for their web searches if they want the advantages of WOT, naturally with WOT and a good Ad-Blocker installed. These get installed from within the web browser, they are extensions.


Currently IMHO only Adblock Plus from adblockplus.org and uBlock Origin qualify as "good" ad-blockers.


Supposedly WOT and Mozilla are working on a resolution but that already takes many months.

If you have an affected computer and on the desktop is a folder named "Old Firefox Data" I may be able to resurrect WOT; but that definitely would be a trial and error thing that I can not guarantee. But at least I can do it remotely. 

Stay safe.

NO to Google Chrome - Here is Why

Here is a quote from this article on The Register:

Chrome leads the browser pack with 504 reported vulnerabilities followed by Internet Explorer with 289 and Firefox with 171. Some 1035 flaws were reported across all browsers including Opera and Safari, up from 728 in 2013.

"Reported vulnerabilities" are in layman's terms known weaknesses in the program code of the web browser that have been or could eventually be used to hack through a given web browser into computers.

Why would a person want to willingly live with more risks than less?

This seems to me to be a good time to talk about the most common argument for Google Chrome, at least as far as I hear from my customers. The argument is "Yeah, but Chrome is faster". Mostly I get that from younger people or grandparents who quote family members or friends thereof.

That argument is "true" only to a laughably small effect that IMHO is totally irrelevant.

Every web page is made up of often numerous files; these files have to be transferred from the server computer of that web page into our computer. The time this transfer takes is solely dictated by the real life speed and performance of our Internet connection. Our computer and the web browser have next to no influence on that transfer.

Only after all the files that comprise the web page are on our computer the web browser can begin to build the visible web page on the screen. Yes, in doing this Google Chrome is faster than other browsers but this is maybe 10% of the total time it takes from us clicking on a link to the web page appearing on our screen.

Let me do the math for an extremely slow example: Assumed it takes 10 seconds from click to visible page (which is quite long!). 90% of this time is waiting for the transfer of the file(s), that is 9 out of 10 seconds; only 10% (equals 1 second) is what the browser takes to actually do it's job of giving us something to look at. Even if Google Chrome were 20% faster than another browser that would amount to being 0.2 seconds faster over all. That difference is well below what humans can perceive!

My point is: "Faster" is by no means "better"!

As usual I welcome comments and suggestions right here in the blog. Thank you in advance.

Stay safe.

Yahoo! Get away from there - QUICKLY!

Although I am on vacation this is too important for quite a few of my customers. Here it goes:

If you have a Yahoo email address you need to read this! All others can relax - for now.

It has happened; this ZD-Net article has the details why for some of their users Yahoo has made it impossible to access their emails. Currently for "some users" only but what if this "test" proves successful for Yahoo? They will do it to all accounts! You can bet on that!

Why did these good people with a Yahoo email address get bloaked from accessing their emails? They used an Ad blocker because

1. they could not stand the many obnoxious ads and/or
2. they had heard about the many virus infected ads Yahoo has served in the past or
3. they just happen to be my customers.

My recommendation: Set up a Gmail account with Google. Be careful to give Google only the minimally required info about yourself.

Then set up your new Gmail account to automatically pull all mails from the Yahoo account. Google so far always has been far better at blocking malicious content from the Internet.

Let's hope that Yahoo's attempt to force feed advertisements fizzles out and becomes a big failure.

Passwords - Again --- Updated 12/09/2013

I got this email from a customer:

. . . I heard on the news today that Google is one of many companies whose computers were recently hacked and that passwords were obtained.  I don’t use Google mail on my computer but rather Windows mail. However, in order to have access to Play Store apps, I had to open a Google account on my Samsung smartphone and that password is the same as my computer password. I just closed my Google account on my smartphone. Should I change my password on my computer and if so, how do I do that? I use that same password extensively for other applications. . .

Here is my reply:

You raise a heck of a lot of important questions in your text. Because the issues you are touching on IMHO are very important I will try to reply to every single part separately and interspersed in your text.

I heard on the news today that Google is one of many companies whose computers were recently hacked and that passwords were obtained.

A good example of uninformed sensationalist reporting. What literally ALL halfway decent companies stores are NOT passwords but encrypted passwords. That is technically and for hacking purposes a BIG difference.

I don’t use Google mail on my computer but rather Windows mail.

IMHO using ANY Microsoft email program puts your computer at a far greater risk that the stolen Passwords do. "only" two million passwords from together three companies were stolen; these affected companies together have many hundreds of millions of users. That makes the percentage of compromised passwords VERY small.

There were no reports on how these passwords got in the wrong hands. I have no information on this either but I suspect that some gang of miscreants had a well working virus program on many computers world wide and that virus program copied the passwords. Now THAT would be bad because the virus program would get the real and not yet encrypted passwords directly from the keyboard when they are typed.

Update 12/09.1023: I just read that it was actually 154 million accounts that got compromised. Now That's a different thing now.

 However, in order to have access to Play Store apps, I had to open a Google account on my Samsung smartphone and that password is the same as my computer password.

1. Exactly what do you mean with "computer password"? The one you type to log on to your Windows account or one that you use on any web site? The former is no problem, just change it locally on your computer. The latter poses possibly a risk.

2. Using the same password on more than one service is always a risk and should be avoided.

I just closed my Google account on my smartphone.

That does not eliminate risks from stolen passwords.

 Should I change my password on my computer and if so, how do I do that?

That depends on what exactly the password is used for that you mention. If it is for your local user account then google the name of your operating system and change the password; google something like "windows 7 change user password". You will get many pages with descriptions of how to do that.

I use that same password extensively for other applications. . .

That definitely is about the biggest mistake you can make. Please read the following articles on my blog for lots of background information:

    Passwords too simple and what to do about it.
    Hacked Passwords deals mainly with email issues.
    Passwords that are NOT a password
    Passwords the Latest


Especially the last article above has all the nitty gritty. Follow the link in "The article I read is here ".  There you find all the technical background you could possibly want.

Update 12/09.2013: Hackers often like to publish their discoveries, and the databases of hacked, stolen passwords were uploaded for all to see.  This allowed the people behind a rather useful website to create a searchable copy of the list, so that you can check whether your details appear on a list of some 154 million stolen online accounts and email addresses.

To find out whether your details do indeed appear on any of those stolen lists, just head to http://www.haveibeenpwned.com/ and type in your email address on the home page.  If that address is among any of the lists of stolen accounts, you'll be warned straight away.

Above two paragraphs are a literal copy from here.

I hope this long reply helps in addition to giving you a lot of information and confusion. Please keep asking.

As usual I welcome comments and suggestions right here in the blog. Thank you in advance.

Stay safe!

Privacy On The Internet - A Contradiction

Many times I have mentioned one of the more technically oriented info services that I am subscribed to. On that blog I found an IMHO good article about privacy on the internet or, better, the lack thereof. The article is here. I will quote it literally because of a comment I want to add.

1. There is no such thing as 100% privacy on the Internet.
   You can take steps to lessen the intrusions into your privacy but there is no way to guarantee that nothing can be learned about you and your affairs. Learn to live with this reality and act accordingly.
2. Like it or not, you have to trust somebody.
   Anything you do on the Internet has to go through numerous intermediaries, routers, networks, etc. Ultimately, you have to trust the security of your ISP and other services that you use.  VPNs and proxy servers can increase your security but they are not foolproof. 
3. Privacy comes at the cost of convenience.
   The more measures to increase privacy that you use, the more cumbersome using the Internet becomes. Locked doors are harder to use than open ones. The correct trade-off between privacy measures and convenience depends on how you use the Internet. If you like to live dangerously, you may need a lot of privacy measures. If you are a casual web surfer and send harmless emails, not so much. Choose the level of privacy appropriate to your Internet usage.
4. There are innumerable ways to spy on wireless or cell connections.
   There is no standard encryption that can’t be broken and deciphered but using a strong version of WPA encryption on your wireless router is better than not. Avoid using public hot-spots for private business.
5. Assume that all email that you send is public.
   If you must use email to send sensitive material, use some form of strong encryption. Send the encryption key to the recipient by some other means than email.
6. Deleted email is probably still there somewhere.
   You may delete an embarrassing or private email but it may very well still be on the email servers or on the other party's computer.
7. Everything you do or say on the Internet is recorded somewhere, usually in numerous places.
   You can take measures to make it hard to trace your Internet actions back to you personally but there is always the chance that a persistent and technically adept person or agency can track you down. However, most of us aren't important enough to warrant that kind of effort.
8. What you post on social sites might as well be on a public bulletin board.
   Privacy measures at Facebook and other social sites are full of holes. Assume that anybody can see what you post.
9. Be careful what you reveal on the Internet
   Use disposable email addresses and pseudonyms as much as possible. Don't reveal anything you don't have to when signing up for some service. Assume any information you reveal on one site gets shared or sold.
10. It is almost impossible to remove all traces of something once it is on the Internet.
    Those pictures of yourself that you posted when drunk can come back to haunt you years later.
11. Advertisers want to track you.
    Advertisers want to know as much as possible about your activities so they can target their ads for you. They keep developing more and better methods to track your Internet activities. Gizmo’s has many articles about ad blocking and control of tracking cookies. 
12. Monitor your credit cards and bank accounts daily.
    Personal records stored in company databases are stolen all the time. If you have online credit card accounts, monitor them for unauthorized activity daily. Also monitor any online banking or financial accounts daily.

Especially to points numbers 7 through 10 I want to add: Everything you ever put out on the internet will never go away. Clever sleuthing will bring it to the light of the day no matter how firmly you believe that "deleted" items or accounts should be gone for good. Usually they are not gone, you just can't access them anymore.

As usual I welcome suggestions and comments right here in the blog.

Click here for a categorized Table Of Contents.

Cloud Storage?

If you want to know what "cloud storage" is please read this explanation on Wikipedia.

I get asked quite often for my opinion on cloud storage including backup solutions "in the cloud". The following begins with a real life experience that some lady had with Google. 

I know from my own attempts to try cloud storage that other services are not that much different - and the legal underpinnings are the same for all anyway. Here we go:

One recent Thursday morning, a dedicated Google user logged into her email and made an alarming discovery. Instead of opening the Inbox, Google directed her to a notice:

[Your] Account has been disabled . . . . In most cases, accounts are disabled if we believe you have violated either the Google Terms of Service, product-specific Terms of Service . . . . or product-specific policies . . . . it might be possible to regain access to your account.

• the terms and policies offered no clues
• no phone numbers to call, no tickets to request help

Google -

• - manages a whopping 343 million active Google+ accounts
• - operates in 130 languages
• - strategically avoids the crush of users by offering little direct customer service.
• - reserves the right to “terminate your account at any time, for any reason, with or without notice.”
• Phone calls to Mountain View [Google HQ] land in a labyrinth of recorded messages that inevitably lead to one of a man, sounding quite exasperated shutting the call down with a “Thank-you-goodbye”.
• - is a company with $50 billion in revenues
• - has the modest aim to “organize the world’s information”
• It seems implicit that in allowing Google to use one's data we should rely on Google to hold on to it and to give it back.

Reality -

• - Google assumes no responsibility over user data
• - Google is not required by law to do so 
• - Google limits its total liability for stolen data, lost data, anything, “TO THE AMOUNT YOU PAID US TO USE THE SERVICES” (yes, in all caps), which might mean as much as nothing for the most commonly used free accounts.
• - Google reserves the right to take away or vaporize our data for any reason
• - Google also reserves the right to discontinue services, the means to prohibit any access to the data, whenever it wants.

Consequently:

• users are easily discarded
• Google’s priority is preventing data from falling into the wrong hands, not ensuring it is always available to the right hands

My personal conclusion: I don't use cloud storage.

Naturally your mileage may vary. But I recommend you really thoroughly and together with your lawyer work through the details of all applicable Terms Of Service, End User License Agreements and the like.

As usual I welcome comments and suggestions right here in the blog. Thank you in advance.

Click here for a categorized Table Of Contents.