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Online Advertising Transformed: Google's Move Beyond Cookie Dependency

Craig Peterson - Secure Your Business, Your Privacy, and Save Your Sanity

Release Date: 03/02/2024

ShinyHunters Got FBI Records. Craig’s Question Is Which Contractor Was Holding Them. show art ShinyHunters Got FBI Records. Craig’s Question Is Which Contractor Was Holding Them.

Craig Peterson - Secure Your Business, Your Privacy, and Save Your Sanity

A listener asked Matt to ask Craig about the theft of FBI data, and Craig started with who holds it. Much of what the federal government keeps — background-check records, applications to the FBI, even the designs of weapons made by defense contractors — sits with third parties. The group behind this one is called ShinyHunters; its reported leader was arrested by Dutch police the day before the show. Craig’s point was the gap between the government and its vendors: last week every federal agency was required to patch ScreenConnect, a remote-support tool with a serious vulnerability....

info_outline Office 2021 Stops Getting Security Updates on October 13. Windows Update Won’t Tell You What Else Has. show art Office 2021 Stops Getting Security Updates on October 13. Windows Update Won’t Tell You What Else Has.

Craig Peterson - Secure Your Business, Your Privacy, and Save Your Sanity

On October 13, Microsoft ends support for Office 2021 — Word, Excel, Outlook, and PowerPoint stop receiving security patches that day — along with the extended security updates for Windows Server 2012. Danny, sitting in for Jim Polito, asked the obvious follow-up: how does anyone find out what they are running? Craig’s answer started with what people assume covers them. “Most people think, oh, I’ve got antivirus software. I’ve got Windows Update turned on. So, I’m all set. It is not true.” Windows Update does not update all the software on a Windows machine, and antivirus only...

info_outline Senator Warner Wants an AI Oversight Agency. Craig Answers With the Clipper Chip. show art Senator Warner Wants an AI Oversight Agency. Craig Answers With the Clipper Chip.

Craig Peterson - Secure Your Business, Your Privacy, and Save Your Sanity

Sen. Mark Warner went to the Senate floor to call for a government body to oversee AI. Craig read the legislation and the senator’s website before the show, and his objection was that the problem it describes is already illegal. Laws against hacking a computer system have been on the books for almost 30 years; people have gone to jail under them, foreign nationals included. “I think what they’re trying to do is get legislation that protects them from the laws that exist.” Jeff played the other side: if the AI gets loose because of “grossly incompetent nitwits that I chose to...

info_outline Craig Puts It at 60%: The Share of New Web Content Written by AI show art Craig Puts It at 60%: The Share of New Web Content Written by AI

Craig Peterson - Secure Your Business, Your Privacy, and Save Your Sanity

OpenAI launched ChatGPT 6, Sol, and Luna this month, claiming Sol makes about half as many mistakes as the models before it. Matt asked whether that is real progress. Craig’s answer was yes, with a catch: the models are not getting smarter. The companies, Anthropic included, have rewritten the code around them so the AI runs the same prompt again and again from different angles and then votes on the most likely answer. The new models use about twice the tokens of the old ones. “And they get a 50% better answer.” Matt: “There seems to be a correlation here.” The second half was about...

info_outline Websites Collected Driver’s License Photos to Check Ages. Craig Says 150 Million Were Stolen. show art Websites Collected Driver’s License Photos to Check Ages. Craig Says 150 Million Were Stolen.

Craig Peterson - Secure Your Business, Your Privacy, and Save Your Sanity

Jim came into the segment from a morning on Flock license-plate cameras, and Craig took it one step wider. The technology is old and the courts have ruled on it for years; his discomfort is with how much of our information is collected at all. Websites that must verify your age now ask for a photo of your driver’s license or passport, so Facebook “or whomever” holds government ID for millions of people. Craig said 150 million of those records have been stolen. “So now what are they going to do? How am I going to prove who I am when other people have a copy of all of my information?”...

info_outline The AI “Breakouts” Were Given Hacking Instructions and an Internet Connection show art The AI “Breakouts” Were Given Hacking Instructions and an Internet Connection

Craig Peterson - Secure Your Business, Your Privacy, and Save Your Sanity

OpenAI’s model got into Hugging Face. Anthropic said its model had broken into someone first. Then Google said its model had done it before either of them. Jeff wanted to know how these AIs keep “breaking out,” and whether he should picture Robby the Robot fiddling with a lock. Craig spent the previous two weeks reading the published investigations, which go back to May, and said nothing broke out of anything: “These AIs were let loose on networks that had access to the Internet. They were given specific instructions that had 100% to do with hacking and breaking into systems.” The...

info_outline Jeff and Heidi Want a Robot Bartender for Their Home Bar. Craig Says It Runs About $400. show art Jeff and Heidi Want a Robot Bartender for Their Home Bar. Craig Says It Runs About $400.

Craig Peterson - Secure Your Business, Your Privacy, and Save Your Sanity

Jeff and Heidi hold happy hour at the bar in their house at 6:03, and Heidi has decided what it is missing: a robot bartender. Jeff’s terms were that he picks how it looks and she picks what it says. Craig’s answer was that the hardware already exists. Bars now have table-top machines that check your ID card and make any drink you order; those start around $30,000, and home versions run about $400. The conversation half is ChatGPT or Claude, spoken rather than typed. It started with a more serious question. Elon Musk and Sam Altman both say AI development should slow down, so why not...

info_outline Chinese Ships Are Stopping in Canada’s Northern Straits to Map the Sea Floor show art Chinese Ships Are Stopping in Canada’s Northern Straits to Map the Sea Floor

Craig Peterson - Secure Your Business, Your Privacy, and Save Your Sanity

Craig’s wife sent him an article the morning of the show: Chinese ships moving through the straits of northern Canada are not just passing through. International agreements allow transit through territorial waters at a reasonable pace, but these ships are stopping, and it looks like they are measuring the sea floor. Russia is doing it too. The route used to be frozen; now it can be navigated in summer. Craig used it to explain why the U.S. wants a foothold in the North. It was the last stop in a long Canada conversation. Jim opened on British Columbia’s three-year experiment...

info_outline Microsoft Shipped Almost 700 Patches in One Patch Tuesday — Six Times a Normal Month show art Microsoft Shipped Almost 700 Patches in One Patch Tuesday — Six Times a Normal Month

Craig Peterson - Secure Your Business, Your Privacy, and Save Your Sanity

This was the biggest Patch Tuesday on record: Microsoft pushed close to 700 patches in a single month, roughly six times the usual volume. Craig's follow-up question is the one that actually decides whether a machine is exposed. Microsoft is patching Microsoft. Who is patching everything else? Windows Update never touches third-party software — it barely updates Windows itself, Craig said, and it does nothing for the average of 62 other programs sitting on a typical computer, many of which are being actively exploited right now. He named Adobe Reader and WinZip specifically: the current...

info_outline Craig Left Quebec in the 1970s, When a Driver's License Ran $300 and Registering the Family Wagon Ran $3,000 show art Craig Left Quebec in the 1970s, When a Driver's License Ran $300 and Registering the Family Wagon Ran $3,000

Craig Peterson - Secure Your Business, Your Privacy, and Save Your Sanity

Craig grew up in Canada and left in the 1970s, and this week he put numbers on why. A driver's license in Quebec cost $300 a year. Registration on the family station wagon cost $3,000 a year. Both figures in 1970s dollars. Auto insurance, by contrast, was free — which Craig turned into the sharpest point of the segment: his father remarried, his stepmother got her license at 26, and she totaled three cars. Craig's question was not about her driving. It was about what happens to the premium. "How much does insurance go up? How much is the risk? Zero, of course, because there is no insurance....

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Hold onto your hats, tech enthusiasts! 🎩💻 Get ready for a seismic shift in the digital landscape as Google bids farewell to cookies, ushering in a new era where privacy is more than just wishful thinking. Say goodbye to the cookie craze! 🍪🚫 In my latest deep dive, "Digital Clean Up: Navigating Google's Game-Changing Shift in Online Advertising," I'm unraveling the intricacies of this groundbreaking move and what it means for all of us navigating the vast realms of the internet. 🌐🔍

Here's what you can expect in this enlightening journey:

  • Advertising Evolution: Explore the implications of Google's pivot on advertisers desperately seeking new strategies in a cookie-free world.
  • Apple's Impact: Delve into how Apple's stance on privacy has influenced this shift and what it means for the tech giant's ongoing rivalry.
  • Chrome Browser Unveiled: Uncover the role of Chrome Browser in this digital cleanup and how it's reshaping our online experiences.
  • The Lowdown on Cookies: Bid adieu to the cookie era and understand the nitty-gritty details behind this game-changing decision.
  • FLoC Unveiled: Get the inside scoop on FLoC (Federated Learning of Cohorts) and how it's set to revolutionize online advertising.
  • Google vs. Microsoft: Peek into the competition between tech titans Google and Microsoft in the quest for a more private digital space.
  • Privacy Pioneers: Understand the broader implications of this shift in digital privacy and what it means for users worldwide.
  • Tracking Trends: Examine the evolving trends in online tracking and how this shift addresses concerns about user data security.
  • Website Revolution: Explore how websites are adapting to the new normal and reshaping their strategies to align with enhanced privacy standards.
  • Online Privacy Check: Dive into the practical side with tips and checklists to keep your digital footprint secure in this evolving online landscape.

If you're itching to know how these changes will impact your online journey or curious about the future of internet browsing and advertising, this is your go-to resource. Don't stay in the dark—head over to my article, "Digital Clean Up: Navigating Google's Game-Changing Shift in Online Advertising," and equip yourself with the insights you need for this digital evolution.

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You can also catch Craig at the following stations and channels:

With Jim Polito at 0836 on Tuesdays
WTAG AM 580 - FM 94.9 
Talk 1200
News Radio 920 & 104.7 FM WHJJ
NewsRadio 560 WHYN
WXTK
Craigs Show Airs 0600 Saturday and Sunday

With  Jeff Katz 1630 - Tuesdays
WRVA 96.1 FM, 1140 AM  

WGAN 
Matt Gagnon 0730 Wednesdays
Craigs Show Airs 1700 Saturday 

WGIR 610 & News Radio 96.7
Chris Ryan 0730 Mondays 
Craigs Show Airs 1130 Saturday 

On the Internet:
Tune-In (WGAN)
Radio.com (WRVA)
iHeartRadio (WGIR, WTAG, and other stations)