Technologies

Stop ads from following you across the web with this iPhone setting

You can boost your privacy and throw ad-trackers off your trail with Apple’s App Tracking Transparency feature on iPhone.

We’ve all had the creepy experience where a brief moment of online shoe shopping turns into weeks of being followed around by ads for that same footwear on every site you visit. But there’s a feature on your iPhone that can help you boost your online privacy by giving you the option to easily disable ad tracking within the apps you use. (For more, check out all the new features in the latest iOS 15 release.)

Apple’s App Tracking Transparency feature gives you more control over which apps can track you on your iPhone, and how. Unless you give an app explicit permission to track you (including those made by Apple), it can’t use your data for targeted ads, share your location data with advertisers or share your advertising ID or any other identifiers with third parties. This change — first unveiled at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference in June 2020 and rolled out with the iOS 14.5 update — drew support from privacy advocates and criticism from companies such as Facebook, which said it will hurt its ad business.

The move came alongside other efforts from Apple to increase transparency and privacy, which CEO Tim Cook called a «fundamental human right.» With the release of iOS 14.3, users began seeing app «nutrition labels» informing them of the categories of data an app requests before downloading it from the App Store.

Here’s how to use the new App Tracking Transparency feature to control which apps are able to track you.

How to turn off app tracking on new apps

When you download and open a new app, you’ll get a notification that asks if you want to let the app track your activity across other companies’ apps and websites. You’ll also see information about what the app would track. You can tap Ask App not to Track to block that activity or Allow.

You can also opt out of app tracking across every app you download by going to Settings > Privacy > Tracking, and toggling off Allow Apps to Request to Track. This means any app that tries to ask for your permission will be automatically blocked from asking and informed that you have requested not to be tracked. And all apps (other than those you’ve given permission to track in the past) will be blocked from accessing your device’s information used for advertising, according to Apple.

It’s important to note that this doesn’t mean ads will disappear. It just means that you’ll be more likely to see generic ads, not one for that pair of shoes you clicked on one time.

How to turn off app tracking on already-downloaded apps

For apps that you’ve already downloaded and may have tracking permissions set up for, you can still turn those permissions on or off on a per-app basis.

Under Settings, tap an app, and then tap to turn off Allow Tracking. Or go to Settings > Privacy > Tracking, and tap to turn on or off each app you’ll see in the list of apps that have requested permission to track your activity.

All app developers are required to ask for permission for tracking. If Apple learns a developer is tracking users who asked not to be tracked, they will need to either update their tracking practices, or else potentially face rejection from the app store.

Apple believes that privacy features like these are a differentiator for its products. Cook has said that because the company’s business model isn’t built on selling ads, it can focus on privacy.

Even so, it’s important to bear in mind that when you ask apps not to track you, all you’re essentially doing is prohibiting app developers from accessing the identifier for advertisers (IDFA) on your iPhone. Developers use your device’s IDFA to track you for targeted advertising purposes. Denying access to your iPhone’s IDFA doesn’t necessarily mean app developers won’t track you through other means, so it’s critical to be mindful of the apps you use and how you interact with them.

For more, check out browser privacy settings you should change immediately, and CNET’s picks for the best VPNs of 2021.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Strands Hints, Answers and Help for June 9, #463

Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle No. 463 for June 9.

Looking for the most recent Strands answer? Click here for our daily Strands hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Todays NYT Strands puzzle features a bunch of mysterious words. Some are a bit difficult to unscramble so if you need hints and answers, read on.

I go into depth about the rules for Strands in this story.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections and Mini Crossword answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: NYT Connections Turns 1: These Are the 5 Toughest Puzzles So Far

Hint for today’s Strands puzzle

Today’s Strands theme is: What you see isn’t what you get

If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: Hiding in plain sight

Clue words to unlock in-game hints

Your goal is to find hidden words that fit the puzzle’s theme. If you’re stuck, find any words you can. Every time you find three words of four letters or more, Strands will reveal one of the theme words. These are the words I used to get those hints but any words of four or more letters that you find will work:

CALL, CALLS, FALL, FALLS, SAME, SEAM, LAND, ROSE, COVE, CANE, CANES, FLUME, FLUMES, DIGS, MEAL, COLA, CARD, CASE

Answers for today’s Strands puzzle

These are the answers that tie into the theme. The goal of the puzzle is to find them all, including the spangram, a theme word that reaches from one side of the puzzle to the other. When you have all of them (I originally thought there were always eight but learned that the number can vary), every letter on the board will be used. Here are the nonspangram answers:

MASK, CLOAK, COVER, FACADE, DISGUISE, CAMOUFLAGE

Today’s Strands spangram

Today’s Strands spangram is FALSEFRONT. To find it, start with the F that’s two rows over from the far left and two letters down. Wind around into a question mark.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections Hints, Answers and Help for June 9, #729

Here are some hints and the answers for Connections for June 9, No. 729.

Looking for the most recent Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles.

Do you play the NYT Spelling Bee? If you do, you should be able to ace the purple category in today’s NYT Connections puzzle. Read on for clues and today’s Connections answers.

The Times now has a Connections Bot, like the one for Wordle. Go there after you play to receive a numeric score and to have the program analyze your answers. Players who are registered with the Times Games section can now nerd out by following their progress, including number of puzzles completed, win rate, number of times they nabbed a perfect score and their win streak.

Read more: Hints, Tips and Strategies to Help You Win at NYT Connections Every Time

Hints for today’s Connections groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group, to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: Control-C.

Green group hint: Don’t wait till the last minute.

Blue group hint: Pals to plan a heist.

Purple group hint: Think another NYT online game.

Answers for today’s Connections groups

Yellow group: Keyboard shortcut commands.

Green group: Secure in advance.

Blue group: Crime organization.

Purple group: Spellling Bee ranks minus a letter.

Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words

What are today’s Connections answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is keyboard shortcut commands. The four answers are paste, print, quit and save.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is secure in advance. The four answers are book, order, request and reserve.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is crime organization. The four answers are crew, family, ring and syndicate.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is Spelling Bee ranks minus a letter. The four answers are genus, goo, mazing and slid. (Genius, good, amazing and solid.)

Technologies

I Made Google Translate My Default on iPhone Before a Trip and It Saved Me More Than Once

Google Translate supports far more languages than Apple’s app, and it’s easy to make the switch.

If you’re traveling overseas this summer, the Google Translate app can come in handy to quickly translate a road sign or conversation. The latest Google Translate update allows you to pick the app as your default translation app for Apple iPhones and iPads running iOS and iPadOS 18.4 and later. Previously, you were limited to the built-in Apple option.

Google began leveraging AI to boost Google Translate’s offerings, adding 110 languages last year to increase its total support for 249 languages. Compare that to Apple Translate, which supports 19 languages. Neither Google nor Apple responded to a request for comment.

Both apps offer voice and text translation, including a camera feature that lets you instantly translate by pointing your camera at text. Both also allow you to use translation features without an internet connection, which can come in particularly handy when traveling to more remote locations.

After using both, I found that the Google Translate picked up speech a little quicker so I didn’t have to constantly repeat myself, and the audio pronunciations were a little easier to understand than on Apple Translate. I switched to Google Translate as the default on my iPhone, and here’s how you can, too.