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PayPal rolls out support for passkeys on Apple devices • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 24, 2022Posted in Apple, Apps, iPad, iPhone, mac, PayPal, SecurityNo Comments

PayPal is making it easier to log in to its services — if you’re an Apple device user, that is. The payments giant today announced that it’s adding passkeys as a log in method for PayPal accounts, allowing iPhone, iPad and Mac users on PayPal.com to sign in without using a password. Passkeys are a relatively new industry standard created by the FIDO Alliance and the World Wide Web Consortium — in partnership with Apple, Google and Microsoft — that are designed to replace passwords with bits of data called cryptographic key pairs. (To make matters somewhat confusing, Apple announced its own version of the passkey standard called Passkey in June.) The pairs consist of a public key stored in the cloud and a private key stored locally on users’ devices, separated to ensure that a compromised server won’t give an attacker access to account credentials. Passkeys have the added benefit of supporting a range of authentication techniques including fingerprint scanning, face recognition, PIN codes and even swipe patterns. One downside is that, because passkeys reside on local devices, it can be harder to log into an app or service with them if you’re using someone else’s phone or laptop. But in this way, passkeys are undeniably more secure than your typical password. Image Credits: PayPal With PayPal, Apple device users running iOS 16, iPadOS 16.1 or macOS Ventura can create a passkey by logging into the PayPal website on desktop or mobile, typing their username and password and selecting the “Create a passkey” option. They’ll be prompted to authenticate with Apple Face ID or Touch ID to create the passkey, which will then be synced with Apple’s iCloud Keychain service. Users with devices that don’t support passkeys can still tap an iPhone to log in with a PayPal passkey, but they’ll have to scan a QR code that appears after they enter their username. PayPal passkeys begin rolling out today for users in the U.S. Passkeys will become available in additional countries starting early in 2023, PayPal says, and on platforms beyond iOS, iPadOS and macOS “as they add support for passkeys.”

DuckDuckGo’s beta Mac app is open to public with new features • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 18, 2022Posted in DuckDuckGo, mac, online privacy, Privacy, web browserNo Comments

DuckDuckGo’s web browser for Mac is now available as an open beta test, the Internet privacy company announced today. Six months after the web browsing app rolled out as a closed beta, DuckDuckGo added new features to version 0.30, including a “Duck Player” to defend users from targeted ads and cookies when they watch YouTube videos. With the new Duck Player, YouTube will still register views, however, none of the videos will contribute to a user’s YouTube advertising profile, so they don’t see personalized ads. Other new features include pinned tabs, a bookmark bar, the ability to view locally stored browsing history, immediate access to built-in email protection, and password protection from the open-source password manager Bitwarden. The company also revealed an improved Cookie Consent Pop-Up Manager, claiming it can automatically handle cookie pop-ups on “significantly more sites,” DuckDuckGo wrote in its blog. Another upgrade to DuckDuckGo for Mac is that when it blocks ads, the whitespace that’s left behind is now removed. DuckDuckGo aims to be an all-in-one privacy solution that’s easy-to-use for everyday browsing. In June, its mobile app took the No. 2 spot for search engines in the U.S., Canada, Australia and the Netherlands. “Since announcing the waitlist beta in April, we’ve been listening to beta testers’ feedback and making even more improvements to meet your needs,” the company wrote. DuckDuckGo noted that more built-in features would be added over time. DuckDuckGo for Windows is launching a private waitlist beta in the coming months.