Incognito mode doesn't do what you might think

On the Edge: Microsoft yanked away Edge version 122.0.2365.63 faster than a toupee in a hurricane. (Sorry.) Why? An “out-of-memory” error left users’ browsers crashing all over the place. The culprit? Enhanced Web Protection defaulting to Strict mode.

It’ll disappear from Facebook in the U.S. and Australia in April. After regulators said Meta would have to start paying publishers for news stories, the Big Tech powerhouse is routing its money into content like short-form videos.

22 million views … and it’s fake: I’m talking about a viral photo of a guy smoking a cigarette in a McDonald’s in what appears to be the ‘80s. I knew right away it was AI-generated — look at his hands! The guy in the background is warped, too. FYI, X added a disclaimer to the photo, finally.

Start saving: GoDaddy and 101domain say their new tool, GlobalBlock, is the best thing for your company’s site since sliced bread. It’s built to stop homograph attacks — aka when someone creates a URL that’s very close to yours (often a typo). Hold on to your wallet; prices for GlobalBlock range from $5,999 to $8,999 a year.

DocuSign is using customer data — you know, confidential contracts — to train AI bots. They say the data is anonymized, and there’s no way to opt out. Not cool. DocuSign has always been a top pick (I use it and have recommended it to you in the past), but this stinks. 

No one is surprised: A new study found AI is spreading phony election information more than half the time. Answers range from incomplete to straight-up wrong. Meta’s Llama 2, for instance, said California voters can vote by text message. Folks, look elsewhere for election info.

And one-third of us open our phones within one minute! I usually talk about avoiding phone use at night as the reason to keep your phone out of your bedroom, but let’s add this to the list.

Big Tech’s “contribution” to the U.S. workforce so far in 2024. Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Discord, Salesforce, eBay and PayPal have all cut jobs, even as the overall economy is booming. So far, this number just about tracks with last year’s total tech layoffs — 263,000. Ouch.

So much for security: Big, bad news from a tech company that routes millions of two-factor authentication SMS texts every day. A database was exposed and spilled 2FA codes for sites like Facebook, Google and TikTok. If you’ve requested a 2FA code recently, change your password for that site.

Charge up, Ford fans: Drive a Mustang Mach-E or an F-150 Lightning? Ford and Tesla are teaming up to give you access to 15,000 EV chargers across the U.S. and Canada. Snag a free adapter through Ford’s site or the FordPass app (iOS and Android) before the end of June. Hurry — the chargers will cost $230 apiece starting July 1.