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Nearly 1 in 3 Americans Has Been Scammed While Shopping Online – Here’s What to Watch For Intro If you’ve ever clicked a too-good-to-be-true deal on social media or entered payment details on a sketchy website, you’re far from alone. A new survey from the Pew Research Center found that roughly one in three Americans say they have experienced an online shopping scam. The figure underscores how common these schemes have become—and why taking a few extra seconds before hitting “buy” can save you both money and frustration. ...

1 in 3 Americans Have Been Scammed While Shopping Online – Here’s How to Stay Safe If you’ve ever clicked “buy” on a deal that looked too good to be true, then watched the package never arrive, you’re far from alone. A recent Pew Research Center survey found that about a third of American adults say they have experienced an online shopping scam. That’s roughly 80 million people, and the number has been climbing steadily as more of our spending shifts to digital storefronts. ...

Is Your AI Assistant a Double Agent? New Detection Tool Spots Privacy Leaks It’s become routine to let AI assistants read your email, manage your calendar, or summarize documents. But what if those same tools were quietly sharing your data elsewhere—or following instructions you never gave? Researchers at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) have developed a prototype detection tool designed to catch AI agents that act as “double agents,” secretly leaking or misusing user information. While the tool isn’t available for consumers yet, the problem it reveals is very real—and there are steps you can take right now to protect yourself. ...

1 in 3 Americans Got Scammed Shopping Online: Here’s How to Avoid It If you shop online—and most of us do—you’ve probably wondered whether that unbelievable deal or unfamiliar website is legitimate. New data from the Pew Research Center, released in November 2025, suggests that your caution is warranted. According to a national survey conducted in July 2025, about one in three U.S. adults say they have personally experienced an online shopping scam. ...

Your AI assistant could be a double agent — new tool helps you catch it AI assistants like ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, and other “agents” are becoming more autonomous. They can book flights, draft emails, manage calendars, and even make purchases on your behalf. But the same autonomy that makes them useful also makes them risky: an agent could, intentionally or due to a flaw, leak your data, ignore your instructions, or act in ways you never intended. ...

5 Browser Settings to Tweak Now for Better Privacy (No Tech Degree Needed) Your web browser collects a surprising amount of data about you: where you go online, what you click, which ads you linger on, even your physical location. That information gets sold to advertisers and analytics companies, and sometimes leaks to less scrupulous actors. The good news is that you don’t need to install any extra software or become a privacy expert to reduce that tracking. With a few simple settings changes, you can lock down your browser in about ten minutes. ...

Your Browser Is Too Nosy: 5 Settings to Stop Tracking Now (Easy Changes) Introduction Your web browser knows more about you than you probably realize. Every site you visit, every search you make, and even how long you hover over a link gets recorded by default in most major browsers. That data is used for ad targeting, profiling, and sometimes shared with third parties you’ve never heard of. ...

What Grok’s Privacy Ruling Means for AI Image Tool Users Canada’s privacy watchdog recently ruled that Grok, the AI image generator owned by Elon Musk’s xAI, violated the country’s privacy law. The finding is a concrete example of how AI tools can collect and use personal photos without proper consent. For anyone who shares images online—or uses AI image generators—this ruling is worth understanding. ...

Grok AI Image Tool Flagged for Privacy Violations: What It Means for Your Data Canada’s federal privacy watchdog recently ruled that Grok’s AI image generation tool broke the country’s privacy law. The decision does not apply only to one company—it raises questions that affect anyone who has used or considered using an AI image generator. Here is what happened, why it matters for your personal data, and what you can do about it. ...

Stop Your Browser From Tracking Everything You Do: 5 Settings You Should Change Right Now Your web browser knows more about you than you probably realize. Every site you visit, every search you type, and every product you linger on gets recorded—often shared with advertisers and data brokers by default. The good news: you don’t need to be a tech expert to take back some control. Changing a handful of settings in Chrome, Edge, or Firefox will significantly reduce the amount of data your browser sends to Google, Microsoft, and the sites you visit. ...