More Cards, NicePokemon TCG Pocket's next expansion is Space-Time Smackdown, and apparently Dialga and Palkia are straight-up breaking the universe to get to your deckThey're arriving next week, because even messing with time apparently has its limitations.Image credit: The Pokemon Company. News by Mark Warren Senior Staff Writer Published on Jan. 23, 2025 Desperate for more cards to drop in Pokemon TCG Pocket, because your army of cute soldiers can never be large enough? Well, good news, another new expansion is dropping for it next week, featuring new packs that'll give you a chance to pull Dialga and Palkia, who've apparently been messing with the fabric of the universe. .As outlined in a fresh tweet from the game's official account, the next expansion is Space-Time Smackdown - which is defintely what Space Jam wouldn't been called if it starred The Rock instead of Michael Jordan.To see this content please enable targeting cookies. As the trailer below teases, you can expect the usual bunch of new cards, this time headlined by Dialga and Palkia. Those two will have ex variants, and it sounds like they've earned them. The duo "have bent time and space to rule the battlefield as dimension-altering Pokmon ex" according to the trailer's description. Cool, now come sit next to my 15 thousand Digletts."The Space-Time Smackdown expansion features new cards including exciting Pokemon ex cards, new Trainer cards, and gorgeous immersive cards ready to bring you into the wondrous world of Pokemon," the description adds.Watch on YouTubeSo, when's this expansion dropping? Well, January 30 is the date in both the tweet and trailer descripotion, but the video itself says January 29. One of those two days, then. Either way, trading's finally arriving just before then, on January 28.The Space-Time Smackdown even offers a quick look at what the trading screen will look like right at the end, so make sure to check that out if you're planning on being a top TCG wheeler dealer in order to ditch the 20 million Doduo you've pulled.Let us know how excited you are about this expansion! Also, if you're new or need a refresher, you can consult our huge array of helpful TCG Pocket guides for expert advice on things like getting started and assembling decks based around Pokemon ranging from Alakazam to Vileplume.

Image: Jim Norman / Nintendo LifeUpdate [Thu 23rd Jan 2025, 2:30pm]:Well, that was speedy. The Pokmon Company has announced that reservations for the upcoming pop-up Pokmon Center in London are now fully booked, and it's looking into ways to improve the process in the future.If you were unlucky enough to grace the pop-up's booking site yesterday, then it's likely that you will have seen some of the problems on display. Just minutes after the reservations went live, the site was met with crashes, lengthy load times and a whole host of other issues which meant huge waves of fans were unable to book a slot.Subscribe to Nintendo Life on YouTube794kWatch on YouTube In the meantime, other fans found ways to bypass the website's security and nab tickets that way, leading to a further influx of site visits when the method was shared online.To put it lightly, the community wasn't impressed. In response to the debacle, The Pokmon Company published a statement stating that "some fans will be disappointed that they could not reserve a slot", but pledging that it is "investigating ways to improve our online registration processes".As many have pointed out in response to the above tweet, TPC has struggled with online registrations for years, particularly when it comes to the pop-up Pokmon Centers. We have seen crashes and wait times like this every year in recent memory, so the changes are going to have to be pretty drastic if we actually see some improvements in 2026 and beyond.Until then, congratulations to all those who managed to grab a slot and commiserations to those who were let down by the site rest assured, you were not alone.Original Story: With the Pokmon European International Championships right around the corner, reservations for London's pop-up Pokmon Center are now live.The store will be up and running throughout the event at ExCel London from 20th-23rd February 2025 , and, much like previous years, you need to book a slot if you want to shop.Reservations are now available through the Pokmon EUIC website, where you can now bagsy a slot from 10am GMT on 20th Feb until 5pm GMT on 23rd Feb. As ever, these slots are likely to fill up fast (heck, the site already seems to be struggling with the influx of users), so be sure to get in there sooner rather than later if you have a limited window to grab some merch.We have already had a peek at some of the exclusive merch that will be appearing in the pop-up store this year, but you can expect to see much more when the event officially opens its doors next month.While 2024 saw some improvement in the Pokmon Center's organisation, it's worth bearing in mind that the booking system has been far from seamless in the past remember when attendees were advised to arrive an hour before their reserved slot back in 2022? so be prepared for some serious queues if you are lucky enough to attend. Arriving next monthPlease don't catch 'em allHave you managed to book yourself a Pokmon Center slot? Let us know in the comments.[source pokemoncenter.com, via x.com, x.com]See AlsoShare:01 Jim came to Nintendo Life in 2022 and, despite his insistence that The Minish Cap is the best Zelda game and his unwavering love for the Star Wars prequels (yes, really), he has continued to write news and features on the site ever since. Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...Related ArticlesPokmon Cards Return To U.S. McDonald's Happy Meals TodayScalper no scalpingUK Charts: Donkey Kong Barrels Past The Competition To Claim GoldNo monkeying aroundPokmon Trading Card Game Pocket Details New Trade Feature, Arriving This MonthNew booster packs are also being addedBuckle Up, Animal Crossing Is Heading To 'Sea Life UK' In February'Ello 'ello, got some bells, guv'nor?

We're inclined to agree.Just days after Moon Studios' lead Thomas Mahler expressed his desire to see the Banjo-Kazooie franchise in the hands of a "really talented developer", original composer Grant Kirkhope has taken to social media to say that he has "zero hope" in a potential new entry (thanks, Eurogamer).He then went on to say that a new entry probably wouldn't work anyway, as "die hard fans would instantly hate it and slag it off no matter how good it was". A few hours later, however, he backtracked on this statement and said that "the Banjo fanverse is a wonderful thing".Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Password managers have become commonplace at this point. But businesses often have different needs than consumers. Teams, after all, often have to share credentials to access resources, all while IT and security teams need ways to control who has access to them. Passbolt, which is announcing an $8 million seed round Thursday, aims to become the de facto password manager for small and midsize businesses, with ambitions to serve enterprise customers in the long run.The Passbolt team, led by its France-born CEO Kevin Muller, argues that most organizations are not served well by what he argues are more consumer-oriented tools like Bitwarden or 1Password. You look at Bitwarden, for example, or even 1Password, what they are doing is they have, at one end, a simple password management for the workforce, and then they built a secret manager or they purchased a secret manager for the DevOps teams, and then they build something else for authentication, Muller said. So its quite fragmented. And one of the problems is that these tools, most of the time, cannot talk to each other. They are very much standalone.Image Credits:PassboltMuller previously founded e-learning platform Click on French and ran a web development consultancy in India. He founded Passbolt in 2017, together with Remy Bertot and Cdric Alfonsi, after previously prototyping the opens source community edition for a few years. The service is based, in part, on Keepass, the popular open source password manager, but as Muller stressed, KeePass was never built for them. KeePass itself is already widely popular with technical teams, but it essentially creates a single static file where credentials are securely stored, he noted. This can easily be shared among team members, but because of that, there is no way to easily control who has access to it and there is no way to audit access (or revoke it), among other things. What we wanted was more collaboration, more security, and more control, Muller said. With control I mean: How do we install it behind our firewall on a server that we manage? How do we have it interoperable? How do we share passwords, secrets, and all types of credentials granularly?Image Credits:PassboltOver the course of the last few years, the team added features like native desktop apps, password expiry and rotations, a tool for getting two-factor authentication codes, and role-based access controls for using Passbolts own user interface. One of the next features on the horizon is support for managing passkeys. In the long run, the Passbolt team would also like to challenge the more enterprise-centric Privileged Access Management (PAM) services like CyberArk, Muller told me.Today, Passbolt offers a free community edition that users can self-host, as well as a self-hosted Pro edition ($49/month for 10 seats) with additional features like LDAP provisioning, single-sign-on support, activity logs, and more. Like so many other open source projects, Passbolt also offers a hosted solution (starting at $54 per month for 10 seats.About 38,000 teams use the free version, with 2,000 paying for Passbolts services. The majority of users (75%) opt to self-host.As Muller stressed, the code is regularly audited, and Passbolt is SOC2 Type II certified.Passbolt, which is based in Luxembourg and currently has about 30 employees, actually reached profitability in the summer of 2024. But the team still decided to raise in order to capitalize on the current growth and to keep up with feature requests from its users. The companys Series A round was led by Netherlands-based Airbridge Equity Partners. Existing investors Expon Capitals Digital TechFund,ScaleFund,Seeder,Dedicated, Bondi Capital, Carricha Capital, andLBANalso participated, along with angel investors like Christophe Bianco (co-founder of Excellium Services) and Xavier Buck (co-founder of Datacenter Luxembourg).Legacy password managers like KeePass or Bitwarden and Privileged Access Management solutions such as CyberArk fall short for todays cross-functional, distributed and agile teams, said Rick van Boekel, managing partner at Airbridge Equity Partners. Passbolts organic traction across various industries confirms the demand for a more collaborative, enterprise-grade solution, and their impressive SaaS metrics prove that Passbolt users are delighted with the solution offered.

In BriefPosted:7:37 AM PST January 23, 2025Image Credits:Harri Weber for TechCrunchHackers found a way to remotely unlock, start, and track millions of SubarusA year ago, two security researchers discovered vulnerabilities in a Subaru web portal that allowed them to hijack car controls and track driver location data, according to a Wired report.Subaru has since fixed the vulnerabilities after the researchers Sam Curry and Shubham Shah reported their findings to the Japanese automaker. But the two warn that finding and fixing security flaws in cars with connected technology only puts a bandage on a more pervasive security issue.The researchers in this case hacked a test car through a web portal for employees, which not only allowed them to do things like remotely start the car, but also to track the location of the vehicle in real-time and see a years worth of location data. Whether somebodys cheating on their wife or getting an abortion or part of some political group, there are a million scenarios where you could weaponize this against someone, Curry told Wired. As long as employees have access to such data, that information is vulnerable to evolving methods of hacking. The researchers also noted that this is an industry-wide problem. The same web-based flaws also affect other carmakers like Acura, Genesis, Honda, Hyundai, Infiniti, Kia, and Toyota.Topics

Nominations for the 97th Academy Awards were announced this morning, via a livestream from the Academys Samuel Goldwyn Theater hosted by Rachel Sennott and Bowen Yang. Voting for the winners by active Academy members runs February 11-18; the 97th Oscars will be held on Sunday, March 2, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood and will be televised live on ABC and in more than 200 territories worldwide.Among the animated films in the mix, The Wild Robot garnered three nominations including Best Animated Feature and Best Score, while Flow was nominated for Best Animated Feature as well as Best International Feature. Inside Out 2, Memoir of a Snail, and Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most FowlOn the VFX front, Wicked was nominated in 10 categories including Best Visual Effects, Best Production Design, and Best Feature, while Dune: Part Two scored five noms including Best Visual Effects and Best Production Design. Alien: Romulus, Better Man, and Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes were also nominated for Best Visual Effects.Nominees for Best Animated Short Film are Beautiful Men, In the Shadow of the Cypress, Magic Candies, Wander to Wonder, Yuck!.Congratulations to all the nominees!See the full list of nominations for the 97th Academy Awards below:Nominations for the 97th Academy AwardsPerformance by an actor in a leading roleAdrien Brody in The BrutalistTimothe Chalamet in A Complete UnknownColman Domingo in Sing SingRalph Fiennes in ConclaveSebastian Stan in The ApprenticePerformance by an actor in a supporting roleYura Borisov in AnoraKieran Culkin in A Real PainEdward Norton in A Complete UnknownGuy Pearce in The BrutalistJeremy Strong in The ApprenticePerformance by an actress in a leading roleCynthia Erivo in WickedKarla Sofa Gascn in Emilia PrezMikey Madison in AnoraDemi Moore in The SubstanceFernanda Torres in I'm Still HerePerformance by an actress in a supporting roleMonica Barbaro in A Complete UnknownAriana Grande in WickedFelicity Jones in The BrutalistIsabella Rossellini in ConclaveZoe Saldaa in Emilia PrezBest animated feature film of the yearFlow - Nominees to be determinedInside Out 2 - Kelsey Mann and Mark NielsenMemoir of a Snail - Adam Elliot and Liz KearneyWallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl - Nominees to be determinedThe Wild Robot - Chris Sanders and Jeff HermannAchievement in cinematographyThe Brutalist - Lol CrawleyDune: Part Two - Greig FraserEmilia Prez - Paul GuilhaumeMaria - Ed LachmanNosferatu - Jarin BlaschkeAchievement in costume designA Complete Unknown - Arianne PhillipsConclave - Lisy ChristlGladiator II - Janty Yates and Dave CrossmanNosferatu - Linda MuirWicked - Paul TazewellAchievement in directingAnora - Sean BakerThe Brutalist - Brady CorbetA Complete Unknown - James MangoldEmilia Prez - Jacques AudiardThe Substance - Coralie FargeatBest documentary feature filmBlack Box Diaries - Shiori Ito, Eric Nyari and Hanna AqvilinNo Other Land - Basel Adra, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal and Yuval AbrahamPorcelain War - Brendan Bellomo, Slava Leontyev, Aniela Sidorska and Paula DuPre' PesmenSoundtrack to a Coup d'Etat - Johan Grimonprez, Daan Milius and Rmi GrelletySugarcane - Nominees to be determinedBest documentary short filmDeath by Numbers - Kim A. Snyder and Janique L. RobillardI Am Ready, Warden - Smriti Mundhra and Maya GnypIncident - Bill Morrison and Jamie KalvenInstruments of a Beating Heart - Ema Ryan Yamazaki and Eric NyariThe Only Girl in the Orchestra - Molly OBrien and Lisa RemingtonAchievement in film editingAnora - Sean BakerThe Brutalist - David JancsoConclave - Nick EmersonEmilia Prez - Juliette WelflingWicked Myron KersteinBest international feature film of the yearBrazil - I'm Still HereDenmark - The Girl with the NeedleFrance - Emilia PrezGermany - The Seed of the Sacred FigLatvia - FlowAchievement in makeup and hairstylingA Different Man - Mike Marino, David Presto and Crystal JuradoEmilia Prez - Julia Floch Carbonel, Emmanuel Janvier and Jean-Christophe SpadacciniNosferatu - David White, Traci Loader and Suzanne Stokes-MuntonThe Substance - Pierre-Olivier Persin, Stphanie Guillon and Marilyne ScarselliWicked - Frances Hannon, Laura Blount and Sarah NuthAchievement in music written for motion pictures (Original score)The Brutalist - Daniel BlumbergConclave - Volker BertelmannEmilia Prez - Clment Ducol and CamilleWicked - John Powell and Stephen SchwartzThe Wild Robot - Kris BowersAchievement in music written for motion pictures (Original song)El Mal from Emilia Prez; Music by Clment Ducol and Camille; Lyric by Clment Ducol, Camille and Jacques AudiardThe Journey from The Six Triple Eight; Music and Lyric by Diane WarrenLike A Bird from Sing Sing; Music and Lyric by Abraham Alexander and Adrian QuesadaMi Camino from Emilia Prez; Music and Lyric by Camille and Clment DucolNever Too Late from Elton John: Never Too Late; Music and Lyric by Elton John, Brandi Carlile, Andrew Watt and Bernie TaupinBest motion picture of the yearAnora - Alex Coco, Samantha Quan and Sean Baker, ProducersThe Brutalist - Nominees to be determinedA Complete Unknown - Fred Berger, James Mangold and Alex Heineman, ProducersConclave - Tessa Ross, Juliette Howell and Michael A. Jackman, ProducersDune: Part Two - Mary Parent, Cale Boyter, Tanya Lapointe and Denis Villeneuve, ProducersEmilia Prez - Nominees to be determinedI'm Still Here - Nominees to be determinedNickel Boys - Nominees to be determinedThe Substance - Nominees to be determinedWicked - Marc Platt, ProducerAchievement in production designThe Brutalist - Production Design: Judy Becker; Set Decoration: Patricia CucciaConclave - Production Design: Suzie Davies; Set Decoration: Cynthia SleiterDune: Part Two - Production Design: Patrice Vermette; Set Decoration: Shane VieauNosferatu - Production Design: Craig Lathrop; Set Decoration: Beatrice BrentnerovWicked - Production Design: Nathan Crowley; Set Decoration: Lee SandalesBest animated short filmBeautiful Men - Nicolas Keppens and Brecht Van ElslandeIn the Shadow of the Cypress - Shirin Sohani and Hossein MolayemiMagic Candies - Daisuke Nishio and Takashi WashioWander to Wonder - Nina Gantz and Stienette BosklopperYuck! - Loc Espuche and Juliette MarquetBest live action short filmA Lien - Sam Cutler-Kreutz and David Cutler-KreutzAnuja - Adam J. Graves and Suchitra MattaiI'm Not a Robot - Victoria Warmerdam and TrentThe Last Ranger - Cindy Lee and Darwin ShawThe Man Who Could Not Remain Silent - Neboja Slijepevi and Danijel PekAchievement in soundA Complete Unknown - Tod A. Maitland, Donald Sylvester, Ted Caplan, Paul Massey and David GiammarcoDune: Part Two - Gareth John, Richard King, Ron Bartlett and Doug HemphillEmilia Prez - Erwan Kerzanet, Aymeric Devoldre, Maxence Dussre, Cyril Holtz and Niels BarlettaWicked - Simon Hayes, Nancy Nugent Title, Jack Dolman, Andy Nelson and John MarquisThe Wild Robot - Randy Thom, Brian Chumney, Gary A. Rizzo and Leff LeffertsAchievement in visual effectsAlien: Romulus - Eric Barba, Nelson Sepulveda-Fauser, Daniel Macarin and Shane MahanBetter Man - Luke Millar, David Clayton, Keith Herft and Peter StubbsDune: Part Two - Paul Lambert, Stephen James, Rhys Salcombe and Gerd NefzerKingdom of the Planet of the Apes - Erik Winquist, Stephen Unterfranz, Paul Story and Rodney BurkeWicked - Pablo Helman, Jonathan Fawkner, David Shirk and Paul CorbouldAdapted screenplayA Complete Unknown - Screenplay by James Mangold and Jay CocksConclave - Screenplay by Peter StraughanEmilia Prez - Screenplay by Jacques Audiard; In collaboration with Thomas Bidegain, La Mysius and Nicolas LivecchiNickel Boys - Screenplay by RaMell Ross & Joslyn BarnesSing Sing - Screenplay by Clint Bentley, Greg Kwedar; Story by Clint Bentley, Greg Kwedar, Clarence Maclin, John "Divine G" WhitfieldOriginal screenplayAnora - Written by Sean BakerThe Brutalist - Written by Brady Corbet, Mona FastvoldA Real Pain - Written by Jesse EisenbergSeptember 5 - Written by Moritz Binder, Tim Fehlbaum; Co-Written by Alex DavidThe Substance - Written by Coralie Fargeat Dan Sarto is Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Animation World Network.

Designed by a prominent architect,Willard T. Sears, the Lincoln Buildingat Lincoln and Essex streets, is a handsome example of a late 19th century mercantile structure consisting of stores, office & loft space, serving as an important visual anchor the almost uninterrupted neighborhood of the Leather District of Boston. The building is the second of its name, with the first Lincoln Building succumbing to theLincoln Street Fire of 1893, which started as a small fire in a restroom of a toy wholesaler, eventually spreading to a storage room full of fireworks, which exploded,eventually killing at least five, and forced many others to jump from buildings to seek safety. The replacement building is Renaissance Revival in style with a stone base and classically decorated facades. The recessed entrances set within arches and the series of columned bays at the ground floor are truly special. The building was long-occupied by leather dealers and companies, but was converted to residential use in 2006 with condos on the upper floors and retail spaces on the street.

Insects and crustaceans. Image licensed from the Perkins School for the Blind ArchivesTurn-of-the-Century Tactile Graphics Illustrate Nature for People Who Are BlindJanuary 23, 2025Kate MothesIn the Alsace-Lorraine region, bordering northeastern France and western Germany, the town of Illzach was once home to an institute for the blind. Martin Kunz (1847-1923) directed the school at the turn of the century and produce a remarkable series of embossed graphics that visually impaired students could use to learn about nature and geography.Accompanied by braille descriptions, Kunzs educational aids depict a wide range of plants, animals, and maps. To create each page, he hand-carved two wood pieces that formed a mold, into which he sandwiched paper to produce raised illustrations.Crocodile chasing a man. Image licensed from Perkins School for the Blind ArchivesThe material was typically thick, and Kunz soaked it in water before placing it between the blocks so that the natural fibers would soften and stretch into shape. Leaves, fish, herons, crocodiles, crustaceans, and more comprise a wide array of designs that he mass-produced and made available to blind students all over the world.The library of the Perkins School for the Blind holds a collection of dozens of Kunzs late-19th and early-20th-century tactile graphics, and you can explore more examples from the collection on the Perkins Librarys Flickr. Below, learn more about Kunzs process in a video from the Museum of the American Printing House for the Blind, presented by director Mike Hudson. And keep an eye on the APHs website for news about The Dot Experience, the organizations museum expansion set to open in 2026 in Louisville, Kentucky, that applies inclusive design standards and brings disability access to the fore.Various plants. Image licensed from Perkins School for the Blind ArchivesBirds. Image licensed from Perkins School for the Blind ArchivesFlying fish. Image licensed from Perkins School for the Blind ArchivesTuna and swordfish. Image licensed from Perkins School for the Blind ArchivesSquid. Image licensed from Perkins School for the Blind ArchivesBirds. Image licensed from Perkins School for the Blind ArchivesNext article

close New tech can help save money on healthcare A new high-tech solution aims to help save money at the pharmacy with inflation remaining high. If your healthcare data hasn't been breached in 2024, then you either don't know it yet or should consider yourself very lucky.That's because 2024 was a nightmare year for healthcare institutions and patients in the U.S. A total of184,111,469 records were breached. That's 53% of the 2024 population of the United States.This staggering figure represents a significant increase from previous years, setting a new and alarming record in healthcare data breaches.The healthcare sector faced unprecedented challenges in cybersecurity, with attacks becoming more frequent, sophisticated and damaging than ever before. Illustration of a hacker at work stealing healthcare data (Kurt "CyberGuy" Knutsson)Health check or data leak?Being admitted to a hospital is stressful enough. It caused additional stress for the100 million clients of Change Healthcare, whose data was exposed following a breach orchestrated by the BlackCat ransomware group. Not only did the breach expose sensitive health information, but it also caused widespread disruptions in claims processing. Patients and providers across the country faced chaos as the breach impacted their ability to access and pay for healthcare services.The second significant breach occurred at Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, where the personal data of13.4 million individuals was compromised. This breach involved unauthorized access and the use of tracking technologies that transmitted user interactions to third parties. Illustration of healthcare data needing to be locked up (Kurt "CyberGuy" Knutsson)Your health data gets breached, so what?Youll receive a notification letter, although be aware that it may take months before it reaches you (as was the case for victims of theAscension Health data breach). The consequences are real and can be very painful. Medical identity theft directly affects patients' health and safety. It happens when criminals use stolen personal health information to obtain medical services or medications under another persons name. It can result in incorrect medical records being created that can include inaccurate diagnoses, allergies or treatments.And as you may have guessed, it can also result in financial repercussions, such as patients getting fraudulent claims and bills for services they did not receive. Resolving these issues with insurers and healthcare providers takes time and mental strength. And youre probably not in a hurry to see your breached healthcare provider ever again. Thats normal. A study has shown thatup to 54% of patients consider switching providers after a data breach.WHAT IS ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI)? A doctor looking at healthcare data on a screen (Kurt "CyberGuy" Knutsson)When health data gets into the hands of data brokersSensitive health information can easily be combined with personal identifiers from data brokers, creating comprehensive profiles that criminals can exploit. As a reminder, data brokers are companies that specialize in collecting, processing and selling personal information from various sources, including public records, online activities and social media.They aggregate this data to create detailed consumer profiles that can be sold to marketers, insurance companies and other entities for various purposes. The more detailed the profile, the higher the chance of identity theft and potential discrimination in employment and insurance. Employers might make hiring decisions based on perceived health risks, while insurers could deny coverage or increase premiums.GET FOX BUSINESS ON THE GO BY CLICKING HERE A doctor and patient in a healthcare facility (Kurt "CyberGuy" Knutsson)Wash your hands, remove your dataYou cant prevent a data breach, but you can minimize its consequences by reducing your digital footprint overall.1. Set your social media to private:Restrict access to your personal information and limit what strangers can see about your life and potentially your health status. Ensure your privacy settings are robust and regularly updated to prevent unauthorized data collection.2. Remove your personal data from data brokers databases: Either by searching for your name on people search sites and requesting removals, one by one, or by using a data removal service. Data removal services automate data removal for you and let you track where exactly your data has been found and whether it was removed, not only on people search sites, which are public data brokers, but also on hidden, private databases where you cant look yourself up (and these are the worst).Once your data is removed, data removal services monitor data brokers for your data and remove it again as needed (because it has a tendency to be re-listed after a while). This way, you prevent data broker companies from compiling a full profile on you and selling it to the first bidder, whether thats a hacker, a marketing agency or an insurance company.Check out my top picks for data removal services here.3. Delete all unused apps on your phone: Unused applications can be hidden gateways for data leakage and potential security vulnerabilities. Regularly audit andremove apps that you no longer use or need.4. Check the permissions of the ones you want to keep: Review each app'saccess to your personal data, location and device features to ensure you're not inadvertently sharing more information than necessary. Be particularly cautious with health and fitness tracking applications.5. Use a VPN (virtual private network) when browsing: Encrypt your online activities and mask your digital location to add an extra layer of anonymity and protection. A reliableVPN can help shield your personal information from potential interceptors and data miners.Kurt's key takeawaysThe reality of healthcare data breaches is daunting, but its not entirely out of your control. While you cant prevent breaches from happening, you can take steps to minimize the risks and protect your personal information. Think of it as adding locks to your digital doors: set your social media to private, use a VPN and clean up unused apps. Remember, the less information you leave out there, the harder it is for bad actors to exploit it. Stay vigilant and dont let your data become someone elses advantage.CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APPHow do you feel about the growing risks to your personal information, and what steps have you taken to protect your data? Let us know by writing us at Cyberguy.com/Contact.For more of my tech tips and security alerts, subscribe to my free CyberGuy Report Newsletter by heading to Cyberguy.com/Newsletter.Follow Kurt on his social channels:Answers to the most asked CyberGuy questions:New from Kurt:Copyright 2025 CyberGuy.com.All rights reserved. Kurt "CyberGuy" Knutsson is an award-winning tech journalist who has a deep love of technology, gear and gadgets that make life better with his contributions for Fox News & FOX Business beginning mornings on "FOX & Friends." Got a tech question? Get Kurts free CyberGuy Newsletter, share your voice, a story idea or comment at CyberGuy.com.

ra2 studio - stock.adobe.comNewsApple and Google app stores come under CMA scrutinyThe Competition and Markets Authority in the UK is looking at whether the Play Store and App Store support innovation and are pro-competitionByCliff Saran,Managing EditorPublished: 23 Jan 2025 15:52 The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has begun an investigation of the Apple and Google mobile ecosystems.This is the second strategic market status (SMS) investigation that separately covers Apple and Google. Earlier in January, the CMA said it has started an investigation seeking to determine if Google has strategic market status in search and search advertising activities, and whether these services are delivering good outcomes for people and businesses in the UK.The CMA said that it is now looking at the two mobile tech giants because virtually all mobile devices sold in the UK are pre-installed with either Apple iOS or Google Android. Apples App Store and Google Play on Android devices have, the CMA said, either exclusive or leading positions on their platforms compared to alternative products and services.This means Apple and Google are also able to exert considerable influence over much of the content, services and technological development provided on a mobile device, the CMA said.The CMAs investigation is looking at whether there is effective competition to ensure consumers and businesses are treated fairly by Apple and Google in relation to the terms and conditions they impose.Computer Weekly previously spoke to a number of app developers who complained about the unfair pricing and technology restrictions Apple and Google imposed on them. With effective competition, the CMA said, businesses could deliver a range of content, services and technological developments to mobile device users.Among the areas the CMA plans to look into is whether Apple or Google are requiring app developers to sign up to unfair terms and conditions as a condition of distributing their apps on Apples and Googles app stores.Other areas covered by the investigation include Apples and Googles market power into other activities. The CMA said this will look at whether Apple or Google are using their position in operating systems, app distribution or browsers to favour their own apps and services, which often come pre-installed and prominently placed on iOS and Android devices. The CMA also plans to assess whether there is sufficient competition between the two rival mobile ecosystem providers.Sarah Cardell, chief executive of the CMA, said: More competitive mobile ecosystems could foster new innovations and new opportunities across a range of services that millions of people use, be they app stores, browsers or operating systems. Cardell believes the UK economy benefits if businesses are not prevented from offering new and innovative types of products and services on Apples and Googles platforms.Commenting on the CMAs latest investigations, Alex Haffner, a competition partner at Fladgate, noted that since the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumer (DMCC) Act 2024 was passed into legislation, the tech giants have fallen under the CMAs regulatory remit.What is more interesting is how this fits into the current sea change which is engulfing the broader organisation of the CMA and, in particular, the very clear steer it is getting from central government to ensure that regulation is consistently applied with its pro-growth agenda, he said.We can expect this to feature heavily once the CMA gets its teeth stuck into the specifics of the DMCC regime and its dealings with the tech companies involved.Read more stores about Apple and Google mobile ecosystemsCMA gets ready to take on Apple and Google over mobile browsing: Preliminary investigation finds a lack of fairness and choice of mobile browsing on iOS devices like the iPhone is holding back innovation.Google to appeal Play Store ruling: Googles ongoing fight with Epic Games is game-over, after a judge ruled in favour of the developer to open up access to Android apps.In The Current Issue:Can the UK government achieve its ambition to become an AI powerhouse?A guide to DORA complianceDownload Current IssueQdrant squares up for real-time AI apps with GPU-accelerated vector indexing Open Source InsiderData engineering - Pryon: Turning chaos into clarity CW Developer NetworkView All Blogs