All of my opinions are italicized and sources are in blue.
These 25 car companies include all of the major brands that you most likely heard of, such as Ford or Tesla. Mozilla found that car companies were the worst category of products for privacy that they have ever reviewed.
Mozilla found three main categories based on how much data they collect, how much they sell or share your data, and how much control you have over your data. They also included some not so fun facts about specific car companies.
In the first category, Mozilla found that all of the car companies they reviewed collect too much data then they need. For context, 63% of the mental health apps (another product category that stinks at privacy) have this issue. They can collect personal information from how you interact with your car, the connected services you use in your car, the car’s app (which provides a gateway to information on your phone), and can gather even more information about you from third party sources like Sirius XM or Google Maps. Some go further, from your medical information, your genetic information, to your “sex life” (seriously), to how fast you drive, where you drive, and what songs you play in your car.
In the second category, Mozilla found 84% of them share or sell your data. They may share it with service providers, data brokers, and other businesses you know little or nothing about. Worse, nineteen (76%) say they can sell your personal data. 56% also say they can share your information with the government or law enforcement in response to a “request.” Not a high bar court order, but something as easy as an “informal request”.
In the third category, Mozilla found 92% give drivers little to no control over their personal data. The only two car brands, Renault and Dacia (which are owned by the same parent company) say that all drivers have the right to have their personal data deleted. It’s probably no coincidence though that these cars are only available in Europe — which is protected by the robust General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) privacy law. In other words: car brands often do whatever they can legally get away with to your personal data.
Now for the “fun” facts that Mozilla included near the end of their blog post. Nissan earned its second-to-last spot for collecting some of the creepiest categories. It’s worth reading the review in full, but you should know it includes your “sexual activity.” Not to be out done, Kia also mentions they can collect information about your “sex life” in their privacy policy. Oh, and six car companies say they can collect your “genetic information” or “genetic characteristics”.
Hyundai goes above and beyond. In their privacy policy, it says they will comply with “lawful requests, whether formal or informal”.
To see how your car stands in the mix, Mozilla did individual reviews of the companies individually and included a chart with a general summary in their article.
Just like all of the current generation GPUs, the performance improvement is only about 5-10% compared to last gen. Compared to NVIDIA’s 40-series, AMD’s 7000 series is fairly priced. But when compared to last gen, the value falls apart. In most cases, it makes more sense to buy a second-hand, higher class card, than to buy a brand new one. Sadly, this is still true for AMD.
In terms of gaming performance, these two GPUs are faster than similarly priced NVIDIA GPUs. The 7800XT is on par with the 4070, which is $100 more, in non-ray-traced games. Both the 7800/7700 XT place significantly higher than the 4060 Ti. While the 8GB version of the 4060 Ti is $400, the 16GB variant is $450, which is the same price as the 7700XT. Since it is obvious that AMD blows NVIDIA out of the water this generation, the only company they are competing with is themselves. While it may seem that the 7800XT is the current gen equivalent to the 6800 XT, it is more comparable to the 6800 non-XT. When you throw the 6800 XT into the mix, the results change.
While the 6800 XT is very slightly less performant in games, it is more performant in productivity applications. While this does vary based on the application, on a level playing field, the 6800 XT has a slight edge. While the 6800 XT is the same price as the 7800 XT at $500, that price will drop since it is a last gen card.
The overall verdict is to consider what your use cases are. If you use your gpu for gaming, then the 7800 XT makes more sense. If you do some productivity work, the 6800 XT may be the best option. But make sure to look at performance charts for your specific application, because some companies favor NVIDIA. This is especially obvious in Blender, where the 4060 beats the 7800 XT. If what you have still works, then I would suggest waiting for something better to appear.
Microsoft will finally stop forcing Windows 11 users in Europe into Edge if they click a link from the Windows Widgets panel or from search results. The software giant has started testing the changes to Windows 11 in recent test builds of the operating system, but the changes are restricted to countries within the European Economic Area (EEA).
“In the European Economic Area (EEA), Windows system components use the default browser to open links,” reads a change note from a Windows 11 test build released to Dev Channel testers last month.
Microsoft has been ignoring default browser choices in its search experience in Windows 10 and the taskbar widget that forces users into Edge if they click a link instead of their default browser. Windows 11 continued this trend, with search still forcing users into Edge and a new dedicated widgets area that also ignores the default browser setting.
It’s not clear if the Windows 11 changes are related to an EU investigation or whether Microsoft has faced further complaints from rivals about the behavior of its default apps in Windows. Microsoft initially made it difficult to switch default browsers in Windows 11, triggering complaints from rivals before the company eventually backed down.
Matías S. Zavia, a writer at Gizmodo en Español, posted that the publication was shut down on August 29th and that it would now publish automatically translated articles. Gizmodo en Español previously had a small staff who wrote original stories and created Spanish-language adaptations of pieces from the English-language Gizmodo.
New articles posted on Gizmodo en Español now feature a disclaimer at the bottom in Spanish saying that its “contents have been automatically translated from the original. Due to the nuances of machine translation, there can be slight differences.”
The transition to AI translation has not been smooth, though. Readers posted on X, formerly Twitter, that some articles will start in Spanish and then suddenly change to English.
