Category: 4. Technology

Your router is the gateway between your Local Area Network (LAN) and the wild west of the Internet, and it should be your first line of defense for your privacy. But routers, even custom ones running OPNsense, are set up to get you online, not for your privacy. Even going through a basic checklist of security fixes will get your network more secure, but it only goes part of the way towards making your browsing more private.

For that, there are a few things I like to change every time I set up a new router. The biggest of these is to set up a self-hosted DNS server that enables encrypted DNS. Otherwise, your ISP (or Google) can see what your DNS requests are and use that data for targeted advertising, and nobody likes the thought of that. Some overlap with good security measures, and there are also things you can do on your devices to protect your privacy, like turning off telemetry and using a privacy-focused browser.

4

I host my own DNS server

Privacy by design with no ISP snooping

It should come as no surprise that your ISP is spying on you, as is Google, MSN, and probably every website you visit. It’s concerning, to say the least, how easily our private information is being used for targeted advertising and other things. However, by knowing that, you can plan countermeasures to minimize the amount of identifying information leaked while you use the internet.

That’s why the first thing I change on any router is the DNS servers, specifically to a DNS server that I’m self-hosting. This could be Unbound, Technitium, or Pi-hole set up with DNSCrypt, but it’s non-negotiable because encrypted DNS requests stop the ISP from snooping. If you have an Eero mesh, Eero Secure also gives you encrypted DNS records (that filter all outgoing DNS requests, even those not pointed at the Eero DNS server), but you have to be okay with Amazon being in charge of that, and that’s a dealbreaker for many.

You don’t have to use DNSCrypt; DNS-over-TLS and DNS-over-HTTPS also work if your DNS server supports them. You’ll also want DNSSEC support so your DNS resolver can trust the results it gets back. Without it being encrypted, everyone on your local Wi-Fi network, your ISP, and transit providers can all see the data contained in your DNS queries and responses, which include the UDP port used, the IP addresses and URLs involved, if any HTTPS traffic happened (indicated visiting other pages on that URL), and more.

Unencrypted DNS queries can be hijacked, which is often done by ISPs to redirect users to advertising pages or block content they don’t want them to see. Any firewalls along the route could also intercept, block, or modify DNS traffic, so keeping it encrypted with DoT or DoH is essential for privacy on the web. Services like Cloudflare DNS and Quad9 support encryption while having no-logging policies, so your identity is kept private. And since you’re running the DNS resolver, you can block known trackers, malware domains, and even ads.

3

Disable UPnP, NAT-PMP, and WPS

These vulnerable features could mean your network is no longer private

I don’t know about you, but privacy to me also means not leaving the proverbial door open for attackers to look around. Unfortunately, many consumer routers have features enabled by default that make it trivial for anyone to invade the privacy of your home network, and those are also on my list of things to change.

Thankfully, Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS) doesn’t exist on most newer devices. However, it’s still available and makes an easy way for an attacker to crack your Wi-Fi password, because a six-digit PIN code is several orders of magnitude easier than a long password. Turn that off, then turn off UPnP and NAT-PMP (if your router supports it), because those make it easy for any IoT device inside your network that might have been pulled into a botnet by malware able to open ports to the internet.

2

Isolate the guest network

It shouldn’t be able to talk to the rest of my network or devices

Even if you aren’t running a VLAN for your IoT devices so they can’t access the data on your main computers, you should still be running a guest network for any visitors who may want to use your internet. It’s part of being a good host, but you don’t have to sacrifice your privacy by giving out the password to your Wi-Fi network.

For this to be truly effective, you’ll want to enable Client or AP Isolation (depending on how your router manufacturer names it), so that any of these guest devices won’t be able to see your devices or connect to each other. The guest network is simply so they’re not running down cellular data caps while at your home, and you can add bandwidth limits to ensure all your guests get passable service, and remove the network once everyone goes home, so they can’t connect to your network unless you know they’re using it.

1

Turn off legacy device support

If it’s insecure, I don’t want it on my network

Wi-Fi has evolved substantially since its inception, and your home network isn’t private if you still have legacy devices connected. These legacy protocols include WEP, WPA, and TKIP, and they shouldn’t be used on your home router. The best Wi-Fi security you can use is WPA3 with AES, which you should look for when you next plan a router purchase.

However, it’s also important to look for any devices you may have that cannot use WPA3. Anything that uses WEP or TKIP encryption lulls you into a false sense of security because Wi-Fi cracking tools can brute-force these in minutes. WPA3 includes features that eliminate the way attackers can figure out passwords based on handshake data or force devices off the network to continually get the handshake data they need.

Enabling WPA3 on any new Wi-Fi router is one of the first things I’ll do, and it’s easy to handle because it’s done at the same time as adding Wi-Fi passwords and which wireless bands are being used. I’ll also turn off support for 802.11a/b/g/n because almost every device on my network uses Wi-Fi 5 or newer, and I’ve replaced most of the devices that only use 2.4GHz. That doesn’t make it more private, but it does show me which older devices I really should replace, as they’re often using insecure methods that slow down the rest of my network.

These steps are just the start of keeping your information private online

Keeping your data and network private is a never-ending task as companies and individuals create new ways to access our data. It’s essential to know the why behind turning off default settings or installing new software, as the tools change, but the basic tenets don’t. Encryption is good, but it needs to be used in every part of the chain, from web browsers to DNS requests, and every network segment in between. Physical privacy methods also have digital counterparts, and finding the ones that work for you is more important than using the most popular options. And above all, regular check-ins to see if new digital fingerprinting methods have been developed and how to outwit them.

When journalists Lily Canter, a contributor to the South China Morning Post, and Emma Wilkinson started running together in ultra races – ones that take six hours or more to finish – in 2020, they noticed that there were few women. Those women that did take part, though, did remarkably well.

When the pair started to look into it, they realised this was true for other endurance sports, too.

In their new book Ultra Women: The Trailblazers Defying Sexism in Sport, they delve into the science of sporting performance to explore the differences between the sexes.

They ask questions like: could fat stores and muscle type give women an edge over men in ultra distances? And what roles do pace, preparation and motherhood play?

Speaking to elite athletes and scientists, they reveal the largely unknown past of female endurance.

The book introduces poverty-stricken Greek mother Stamata Revithi, who sneaked into the 1896 Athens Olympics marathon; 1980s swimming pioneer Lynne Cox – who crossed the world’s coldest oceans in just a swimsuit; and Jasmin Paris, a British veterinarian who ran almost non-stop to win a 268-mile (431km) mountain race, the 2019 Montane Winter Spine Race along the Pennine Way in the UK – while breastfeeding.

TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 is back at Moscone West in San Francisco this October 27–29, bringing together 10,000+ startup and VC leaders to dig into what’s next in tech. And when it comes to artificial intelligence, the conversations aren’t just technical — they’re creative, cinematic, and boundary-pushing. That’s why Nikola Todorovic is headed to the AI Stage.

A visual effects veteran turned AI entrepreneur, Todorovic is the co-founder of Wonder Dynamics, now an Autodesk company. Alongside actor and producer Tye Sheridan, he helped launch Autodesk Flow Studio (formerly Wonder Studio), a groundbreaking AI platform that allows creators to seamlessly integrate 3D characters into live-action scenes. The platform uses cloud-based tools to automate complex processes like lighting, animation, and composition, giving filmmakers a radically faster and more accessible path to high-end visual effects.

Todorovic’s journey to this moment wasn’t traditional, but that’s exactly the point. As an award-winning filmmaker and VFX supervisor, he spent years working at the intersection of storytelling and technology. That experience led to Wonder Dynamics, where the mission has always been to empower artists, not replace them. The company’s acquisition by Autodesk in 2024 marked a major validation of that vision, and now Todorovic is helping shape the future of creative AI inside one of the industry’s biggest ecosystems.

At Disrupt, he’ll join other AI industry leaders for a wide-ranging panel on what’s coming next — from generative tools to ethical design to the future of creator workflows. Stay tuned to the fast-growing Disrupt agenda page for the latest updates. Expect a conversation in Todorovic’s session that spans beyond buzzwords and dives into the real-world impact of AI in media and beyond.

Join 10,000 other tech and VC leaders on the AI Stage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 to hear from Nikola Todorovic and other top voices driving the future of artificial intelligence. It’s all happening October 27–29 at Moscone West in San Francisco. Lock in your spot today and save up to $675 before prices go up.

When you’re not using your iPhone, the Lock Screen is what you see most often. Liquid Glass is everywhere in iOS 26, and it starts right when you pick up your device. The Lock Screen got a Liquid Glass overhaul, plus a few other new features.

Here’s what you’ll see first when you upgrade to ‌iOS 26‌.

Liquid Glass

The two customizable control buttons on the Lock Screen are larger and have a floating, glass-like appearance like the other Liquid Glass interface options in ‌iOS 26‌. The clock has a frosted glass appearance with the new “Glass” option, using lighting effects to make it look like glass in the real world.

Glass can be selected for any of the clock fonts, and you can choose a color to tint the glass. Apple has multiple preset options, or you can select your own.

When you tilt your ‌iPhone‌, light reflects and glints with the movement, for a realistic glass effect.

Notifications that are on your Lock Screen have a Liquid Glass aesthetic with a frosted glass look that leaves your wallpaper visible behind them.

Clock

In addition to having a Liquid Glass aesthetic, the clock can be resized to better match your ‌iPhone‌’s wallpaper using a new adaptive feature. When you’re customizing your Lock Screen, you can grab the corner of the time and drag it down to expand it.

Adjusting the size of the time only works with the first font option, and only with the standard Arabic, Western numbering.

With photo wallpapers, the time can automatically expand to fill in missing space, and it can change based on the image if you have Photo Shuffle set. The subject in photo wallpapers is meant to always be visible, and can overlap the time in unique ways in ‌iOS 26‌.

There is a Photos watch face for the Apple Watch that also supports time that changes size and position based on the wallpaper.

Wallpaper

There is a new default wallpaper that was designed for ‌iOS 26‌. It’s multiple shades of blue, with the same floating glass aesthetic that the rest of ‌iOS 26‌ features. The wallpaper can subtly shift with ‌iPhone‌ movement.

It’s a small detail, but the icons for selecting different wallpaper categories have been updated to better match the Liquid Glass design.

Spatial Scenes

Aside from the Liquid Glass time, Spatial Scenes are the biggest change to the Lock Screen. 2D photos that you set as wallpaper can be turned into 3D spatial images that separate the subject of the photo from the background using depth information.

When you move your ‌iPhone‌, Spatial Scenes shift and move along with it, making the images feel alive. Spatial Scenes is a feature in the ‌Photos‌ app too, and it can be added to any image that you’ve taken with your ‌iPhone‌, including older ones.

Tap on the small icon with a mountain and a sun to activate the Spatial Scenes setting when choosing a photo wallpaper.

Lock Screen widgets can be placed on the top of the display under the time, or at the bottom of the display. In earlier versions of iOS, you could only put widgets at the top of the screen. With the adaptive clock and new wallpaper options, widgets can also shift down automatically to ensure the subject of an image is always visible.

Apple Music

Apple added a new Lock Screen widget for Apple Music search, but there are no other new Lock Screen widget options. What is new, though, is a new full screen Now Playing interface that shows album art. Artwork expands and animates right on the Lock Screen.

Read More

We have a dedicated iOS 26 roundup that goes into detail on all of the new features that are available in the update.

It’s nearly the end of the road for Warcraft Rumble. Blizzard has announced that it will no longer be developing new content for the free-to-play mobile strategy game, and instead focus on “regular, systemic in-game events and bug fixes.” The change comes as the rest of Microsoft’s business is in upheaval: The company is laying off as many as 9,000 employees across its global workforce.

Blizzard’s statement doesn’t get into the details of what motivated the decision, but is clear that Warcraft Rumble hasn’t been living up to expectations. The game “struggled to find its footing” relative to Blizzard’s ambitions, prompting the studio to explore different options to improve it over the last few years. “Some of that work showed signs of progress, but ultimately wasn’t enough to put the game on a path to sustainability,” Blizzard writes.

Warcraft Rumble was announced in 2019 as Warcraft Arclight Rumble. Much like Hearthstone, the game was a high-profile attempt to translate a popular Blizzard franchise into something that works on smartphones and tablets. Warcraft Rumble plays like a more flexible version of Clash Royale, where miniaturized armies face off in PVP or singe-player challenges, and the biggest strategic choices are when and where characters are placed.

Aftermath reports that winding down Warcraft Rumble is a direct result of the wider Microsoft layoffs effecting Blizzard. While some of the team who created new content for Rumble will be given new roles at the studio, others will be let go, according to a staff email sent by Blizzard president Johanna Fairies that Aftermath viewed. Blizzard’s public statement doesn’t acknowledge these layoffs beyond a mention that the studio is “focused on supporting [its] teammates,” which is telling in context.

While Warcraft Rumble will live on for now in a diminished state, some future Xbox games have been outright cancelled as a result of Microsoft’s restructuring, including Everwild and Perfect Dark. The bigger damage is the loss of talent. Greg Mayles, the lead designer on Donkey Kong Country and creative director of Sea of Thieves, is leaving Rare, according to Video Game Chronicle. ZeniMax Online Studios shared on X that director Matt Firor is also making an exit following the cancellation of the studio’s next MMO.

Microsoft’s layoff of roughly 9,000 employees is continuing to have downstream effects at the company’s subsidiaries. Aftermath reports that as many as 100 developers at Blizzard have been impacted, and as a result the studio is winding down development on its mobile tower defense game Warcraft Rumble.

In an announcement, Blizzard wrote that while the game will not be abandoned entirely, the company will cease development on any new content. “Moving forward, we’ll continue supporting Rumble with updates focused on regular, systemic in-game events and bug fixes, but no new content. ”

Blizzard continued, saying Rumble, “struggled to find its footing relative to our ambition for its long-term success.” And while its developers worked to respond to player feedback that, “ultimately wasn’t enough to put the game on a path to sustainability.”

Warcraft Rumble was the first mobile focused game in the Warcraft Universe. It launched in 2023 after nine years in development and was originally one of two mobile games Blizzard was working on, the other being Blizzard’s take on Pokémon Go. That game was never officially announced by Blizzard and cancelled sometime in 2022. Warcraft Rumble joins a handful of other Blizzard games in development stasis along with Starcraft II and Heroes of the Storm.

Smart glasses are among the latest and most interesting tech developments. They suit an audience of tech enthusiasts and photographers and can even help bridge the gap for those with visual impairment. Amazon took its stab at them, introducing the Echo Frames in 2019 and updating them periodically since. 

Also: The best Prime Day tech deals live now 

Luckily, Amazon is offering an early Prime exclusive bundle deal — even days ahead of Prime Day, which starts on July 8. For only $130, you can get the third generation of Echo Frames in any color, plus an Echo Spot. That’s an excellent offer, considering Amazon is selling the Echo Frames alone for $270. Amazon is also offering another Prime exclusive bundle at a discount. The Echo Frames and Echo Show 8 are on sale together for $240. 

A good way to describe the Echo Frames is as headphones with a little more utility. Besides wearing them for the aesthetic, the glasses offer many different features that substitute devices like your headphones or Bluetooth speaker and your Alexa devices.

Also: These smart glasses beat the Meta Ray-Bans in a few key ways

The glasses are still extremely capable. An Alexa assistant is available, and you can use it to listen to books, music, and podcasts, as the open-ear speakers direct sound to your ear while minimizing it for others around you. 

These frames are a good entry point into smart glasses, as the price is fair. However, the features are minimal compared to their competitors. For instance, the Echo Frames do not have a built-in camera. 

Also: The best Prime Day Echo device deals 

You can make calls, though, which would be a selling point for business professionals or those on the go. The glasses can also be used for controlling Alexa devices, like the Echo Spot, Amazon’s Alexa-enabled alarm clock, which comes with this bundle. 

Also: I took my Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses fly fishing, and they beat GoPro in several surprising ways

ZDNET expert Kerry Wan tested the Echo Frames and thought they were very convenient for daily use, especially for tasks like calling or listening to music while walking.

“Besides the smart features, I’ve also enjoyed listening to podcasts and making calls during my evening walks. Perhaps it’s the ability to listen to my on-device audio while staying aware of my surroundings, or the fact that the speakers on the Echo Frames favor the mid and high frequencies more than the bassy, engulfing lows,” he said. 

The Echo Frames are a great entry point into the world of smart glasses, and right now they’re much cheaper than a pair of Meta Ray-Bans. 

Looking for the next best product? Get expert reviews and editor favorites with ZDNET Recommends.

How I rated this deal 

With this deal you’re getting the Echo Frames at a significant discount, plus a free Echo Spot. We have factored in the 63% bundle discount, and have given this deal a 5/5 Editor’s deal rating. Not only is this a newer product with a price slash, but it also includes a compatible Alexa device. This deal would be great for those who want to try out new variations of tech without breaking the bank. 

There’s good news and bad news: The bad news is that Meta’s continued development of generative AI has led it to add a privacy nightmare setting to its Facebook app. The good news is that, in a big departure from Meta’s status quo, you have control over whether you participate.

It’s all about whether the company and its AI get access to your camera roll and all the pictures there, even the ones you haven’t posted anywhere.

Meta, Facebook’s parent company, has been trying to keep up with AI heavyweights for the past few years in an ultracompetitive race to make the most advanced AI models. Meta distinguished itself by adding its AI to its social media apps, including Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp and Messenger. Nowadays, most of us who use those apps have to interact with Meta AI, even if we don’t want to. 

The company also uses the social media posts that its adult users publicly share to train its AI. There is no way to opt out of training, though European users can object to their data being used thanks to more stringent privacy laws protecting them. For those of us who are concerned about AI systems eating up the content we share online, it’s been a nonstop headache.

So it’s not totally surprising to see this feature on Facebook. It’s called camera roll cloud processing, and Facebook says it’s a way to get more creative help when you share photos and videos. It pulls from your newer pictures, from the last 30 days or so, and recommends the best options, makes AI edits or entirely reimagines your photos with AI. It can also pull from your older photos for themed compilations like travel highlights, monthly recaps and birthday and special event content. You also get more ways to sort your photos and videos by topic and suggestions from Meta about the best photos to share.

Before you opt in, you need to understand the privacy implications.

Meta’s AI terms and how to access camera roll cloud processing

When you allow camera roll cloud processing, Meta can “automatically upload your photos and videos to our cloud so that we can create personalized creative ideas for you.” This is not the same as allowing Meta access to your camera roll so you can post photos and videos you took. If you enable this additional setting, Meta can upload your content to its cloud “on a regular basis to create ideas for you with machine learning and AI models.” Meaning Meta will have continual access to your photos, even if you don’t post them on Facebook or post the newly created suggestions.

A Meta spokesperson said, “We’re exploring ways to make content sharing easier for people on Facebook by testing suggestions of ready-to-share and curated content from a person’s camera roll. These suggestions are opt-in only and only shown to you — unless you decide to share them — and can be turned off at any time. Camera roll media may be used to improve these suggestions, but are not used to improve AI models in this test.”

The mobile app help page says that enabling this feature means you agree to Meta’s AI terms, and it says your photos won’t be used for advertising targeting. The feature is in early stages of testing for US- and- Canada based users, but it won’t be available for folks who live in Illinois or Texas. Your suggested photo won’t be shared automatically unless you choose to.

Here’s how to access the setting:

1. Open the Facebook app and tap Menu at the bottom right corner.
2. Tap the gear icon in the upper right corner. You can also scroll down to Settings & privacy and then navigate to Settings.
3. Tap Camera roll sharing suggestions.
4. Scroll to Get creative ideas made for you by allowing camera roll cloud processing.

This feature is currently only available on the iPhone or Android mobile apps. If you have this setting enabled but then change your mind, Meta’s help page says it will remove your content from its cloud after 30 days. There’s no way to confirm its removal, though.

For more, check out how to stay relatively safe while using AI models.