New Chrome update brings surveillance debate

As you know, you can find the number keys in two spots on your keyboard – one is above the letters while the second one is at the number pad. Recently, a number of users reported not being able to type any numbers on their keyboards while some reported that their keyboards only type numbers. This issue could occur on both sets of the number keys or on the one at the number pad. This is a rare situation and seldom happens to users. So if you are one of the few who experience the same problem then you’ve come to the right place as this post will guide you on what you can do to fix the keyboard issue. This issue is most likely due to a switched-off number pad, outdated or corrupted keyboard drivers, turned on mouse keys or it might have something to do with the physical connections. Whatever the cause is, here are some options you have to try to resolve the problem.

Option 1 – Try to enable Numlock

The first thing you can do to fix the issue with the keyboard is to enable the Numlock since one of the most common reasons for this kind of problem is where the keyboard won’t type numbers because the Numlock key is disabled. Thus, you have to enable this key by pressing it once to enable the number pad.

Option 2 – Turn off the Mouse key

• From the Start Menu, go to Control Panel.
• Navigate to Ease of Access Center.
• Then select the option “Make the keyboard easier to use”.
• Navigate to the option “Control the mouse with keyboard” and then uncheck the “Turn On Mouse Keys” option to turn off the Mouse key.
• Click on Apply and then on OK to save the changes made.

Note: The problem with the keyboard could stem down to a simple issue in its settings so if you have successfully followed the steps for this solution then you should be able to fix the problem.

Option 3 – Reinstall, update or rollback your keyboard driver

Once you’ve determined that the problem is in the software part of the keyboard, it is now time to try to reinstall, update or roll back your keyboard drivers. To reinstall the driver for your keyboard, refer to these steps:

• From the WinX Menu, open the Device Manager.
• In the Device Manager, you should find your laptop’s keyboard under the “Keyboards” option. Right-click on it and select the “Uninstall” option.

Note: If you’re not quite certain about your laptop’s keyboard, you can uninstall all the keyboards if there’s more than one.

• After that, restart your PC and see if the keyboard driver is installing automatically. If not, open the Device Manager again and right-click on Keyboards, and select the option “Scan for hardware changes” to install it.

Once the keyboard driver is installed again, check if your keyboard is now working properly or not.

Option 4 – Try connecting the keyboard to a different USB port or another computer

The problem might have something to do with the USB port that’s currently in use by your keyboard. It could be that it’s not working so it makes sense to unplug it and attach it to another USB port. You can also clean the USB port on both ends to ensure that they are not affected by corrosion. In addition, you can also try connecting the keyboard to a different computer and see if the Shift key works there or not.

Option 5 – Try to check your connections

You can also try checking if the connection mode you are using for your keyboard is functioning properly. For instance, if you are using a Surface 2-in-device, you can clean the connection pins and see if it resolves the problem.

Option 6 – Run the Hardware and Devices Troubleshooters

• The first thing you need to do is click on Start and then on the gear-like icon to pull up the window for Settings.
• After opening Settings, look for the Update and Security option and select it.
• From there, go to the Troubleshoot option located on the left-hand side of the list.
• Next, select Keyboard from the list and open the Troubleshooter and run it. Once it is doing its job, wait for it to complete the process and then restart the system.
• After the system restarts, check if the problem’s now fixed. If not, refer to the next option given below.

If your Windows 10 computer is having problems connecting to a wireless network and it takes too long to respond and only keeps on displaying the “Checking network requirements”, then you’ve come to the right place as this place will walk you through fixing the problem. There are two things that can happen when your computer connects to a wireless network. Windows can either connect to the wireless network successfully or return an error message that says, “Cannot connect to the network. However, if none of these things happened, and it only remains at the “Checking network requirements” message, then it could be due to obsolete or incompatible drivers in your computer, particularly the network adapter drivers. To fix this problem, you can try to update or reinstall these drivers, reset the TCP/IP, or run the Network Adapter troubleshooter, as well as reset the Network. For more information, refer to the given options below.

Option 1 – Update the Network Adapter drivers

The first thing you can do to resolve the problem is to update the Network Adapter drivers by following these steps:

• Tap the Win + R keys to launch the Run window and then type in the “devmgmt.msc” command and hit Enter to open the Device Manager window.
• Under the Device Manager, you will see a list of drivers. From there, look for the Network Adapters and expand them.
• Look for the Broadcom Network Adapter and right-click on it, as well as other network adapters that have an exclamation icon, and update them all.
• Restart your PC and see if it helped in fixing the problem.

Note: If updating the network drivers didn’t help in fixing the problem, you can also try to uninstall the very same drivers and restart your Windows 10 PC. After that, the system itself will reinstall the drivers you just uninstalled. Alternatively, you can also download and install the drivers from the manufacturer’s website directly. To reinstall the network adapter drivers, refer to these steps:

• Open the Devices Manager from the Win X Menu.
• Then locate the device drivers and right-click on them to open the Properties.
• After that, switch to the Driver tab and click on the Uninstall Device button.
• Follow the screen option to completely uninstall it.
• Finally, restart your computer. It will just reinstall the device drivers automatically.

Option 2 – Try to reset the TCP/IP

As you know, the TCP/IP or the Internet Protocol is the most important thing if you want to use the internet on your computer. That’s why if it ends up getting corrupted, you need to reset the TCP/IP to fix the problem. To reset TCP/IP, refer to these steps:

• In the Windows start the search, type “command prompt” and right-click on Command Prompt from the search results.
• Then select the “Run as administrator” option to open Command Prompt with admin privileges.
• After that, execute this command: netsh int ip reset resettcpip.txt
• Once it’s done, exit Command Prompt and restart your computer and then check if the error is now fixed.

Option 3 – Run the Network Adapter troubleshooter

To run the Network Troubleshooter, refer to these steps:

• Open the Search bar on your computer and type in “troubleshoot” to open the Troubleshoot settings.
• Next, scroll down and select the “Network Adapter” option from the right pane.
• Then click on the Run Troubleshooter” button.
• After that, your computer will check for any possible errors and will pinpoint the root cause of the problem if possible.
• Restart your computer.

Option 4 – Try to perform Network Reset

You can also try to perform a Network Reset to resolve the problem. This will reset the entire network configuration including your IP address. To perform Network Reset, follow these steps:

• Tap the Win + I keys to open Settings.
• From there, go to the Network and Internet section.
• Next, scroll down and look for “Network Reset” under the status pane.
• After that, click on Network Reset and then on Reset now to start resetting the network configuration. Once done, check if it is able to fix the error or not.

There are instances when the Windows 10 installation needs interaction before it reaches the file process. And so if you suddenly encounter the Windows Update Installation Failure 0x80240020 error under the Windows Update History, then you need to get it fixed. When you encounter this kind of Windows Update Error, you will see an error message that says, “The operation did not complete because there is no logged-on interactive user”. This error also indicates the “WU_E_NO_INTERACTIVE_USER” code. To resolve this issue, in this post we’ll walk you through a couple of steps but before you get started, know that you don’t have to run any troubleshooter or delete any file just to fix this error since all you have to do is enable one option that can automatically login with your account and complete the installation for you. With that said, just make sure to only try running Windows Update once you’re told to do so. There are two ways you can enable the option that could resolve the Windows Update Installation Failure 0x80240020 error. One is via Settings while the second one is via Registry Editor.

Option 1 – via Settings

Step 1: Go to Settings > Accounts > Sign-in Options. Step 2: From there, toggle on the “Use my sign-in info to automatically finish setting up my device and reopen my apps after an update or restart” option. Step 3: After that, it will make sure that the interaction part is removed from the Windows Update process. Note: If your device is joined in a domain or if some work or email policies are applied to your device by your company or organization, then you wouldn’t be able to see this option in Settings and that’s where the Registry Editor comes in. Just make sure that you’re logged in as an administrator and that you create a System Restore Point first since registry hacks are sensitive and could highly impact how your computer behaves or functions. Once you have that covered, follow the steps below.

Option 2 – via Registry Editor

Step 1: In the Start search, type “Regedit” and hit Enter to open the Registry Editor. Step 2: Navigate to the following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionWindowsUpdateOSUpgrade

Note: If the above-given registry key does not exist, you can simply create it. All you have to do is right-click on the WindowsUpdate key and then select the New Key option and type “OSUpgrade” as its name. Afterward, create a new DWORD (32-bit) Value and name it “AllowOSUpgrade” and set its value to 0x00000001. Step 3: Restart your computer and check if the error is now fixed. And then try to update your Windows 10 computer again and while you’re at it, make sure that you’re around your computer to interact with the prompts needed to complete the installation process.

Recently, several Windows 10 users have reported an issue with the Windows folder sizes in their PCs. If you are one of these affected users, read on as this post will walk you through fixing this issue. For instance, if you have a folder with 100 GB worth of data and when checking its size using its properties, you see the wrong size instead of 100GB. The size displayed will most likely be a random number which can either be bigger or smaller than the real size of the folder. This incorrect folder size issue does not happen to any specific drive or certain kinds of folders as any folder can be affected by this incorrect folder size issue. When you try to rename the affected folder, the size will change but its size still remains to be incorrect. The root cause of this particular issue is in Windows 10 itself. It is a known bug that came along with one of the latest Windows Updates which prevents the File Explorer to accurately read the metadata of a certain folder or file and leads to displaying incorrect and unexpected file sizes and the reason why you might also notice that your drive is also not correct. Since this is brought upon by one of the recent or latest Windows Updates the good thing is that Microsoft will most likely release a fix on its next upcoming updates but until then, you will be left with no choice but to deal with an incorrect folder or file size. To remedy that, here are some suggestions you can try that might fix the problem.

Option 1 – Try using the System File Checker

The System File Checker or SFC is a built-in command utility that helps in restoring corrupted files as well as missing files. It replaces bad and corrupted system files to good system files that might be causing the incorrect folder or file size in Windows 10. To run the SFC command, follow the steps given below.

• Tap Win + R to launch Run.
• Type in cmd in the field and tap Enter.
• After opening Command Prompt, type in sfc /scannow

The command will start a system scan which will take a few whiles before it finishes. Once it’s done, you could get the following results:

1. Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations.
2. Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files and successfully repaired them.
3. Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files but was unable to fix some of them.

Option 2 – Try resetting Windows 10

To fix the folder and file size issue, you can try resetting Windows 10. Doing so won’t get rid of any file in your system – instead of erasing all your media files and documents, this reset option resets all the system settings and files. That way, you won’t have to deal with inaccurate folders or file sizes as you browse and use your files.

Option 3 – Wait for the Windows Update

As mentioned, this is already a known issue and a lot of Windows 10 users have already complained about it to Microsoft so a bug fix will be soon released in the latest Windows Updates.

Windows 11 will bring some old applications in new looks and some will get additional features as well. One of the old apps that will get new stuff is a calculator. The calculator was always a way to go application for quick calculations but Microsoft aims to expand on that and make the calculator a little more useful. The first thing that you will notice is the calculator look, the calculator has now an application theme setting that allows you to change the look of the application. It comes in standard and professional mode as usual but this time calculator will come with features that will enable it to handle some programming and engineering tasks. The new calculator features a full graphing mode that lets you visually analyze a graph to identify key features. It also packs a deep converter that can switch between more than 100 units and currencies.

Other Windows 11 apps

A new snipping tool will be delivered with this latest update as well packed with new functionality. We have covered new features of the snipping tool in another article, if you are interested you can find the article here: https://errortools.com/windows/new-snipping-tool-redesigned-in-windows-11/ Mail and Calendar apps will also get a redesign, sadly all redesign that they will include will be of visual nature to fit in the overall Windows 11 theme, functionality will remain the same.

The win32kfull.sys file is one of the kernel-mode device drivers in your Windows 10 operating system. In case you don’t know, there are two kinds of device drivers – the first ones are the normal drivers that communicate between your hardware and the operating system while the second ones are the kernel-mode drivers. The latter is necessary for booting your OS. And there are times when you encounter the win32kfull.sys error while booting your PC. Here’s the full context of the win32kfull.sys error:

“SYSTEM_SERVICE_EXCEPTION (win32kbase.sys) APC_INDEX_MIXMATCH PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA”

This error could be caused by corrupted or outdated drivers with incomplete files or it could be caused by some driver or software installed on your computer. To fix this error, here are some troubleshooting options you need to check out.

Option 1 – Try updating all the Drivers

As pointed out, the win32kfull.sys error can be due to outdated or corrupted drivers that are not compatible with your hardware. These drivers include but are not limited to display, network, sound, hard drive, and more. If you are not able to access the internet, you can just manually download the update using another PC. To update your drivers, here’s what you need to do:

• Tap the Win + R keys to launch Run.
• Type in devmgmt.msc into the box and tap Enter or click OK to open the Device Manager.
• After that, a list of device drivers will be displayed. If you see a red or yellow sign that shows up against the driver, right-click on the driver’s name and select “Update Driver Software” or “Uninstall”. And if you find any “Unknown device”, you need to update it as well.
• Select the “Search automatically for updated driver software” option and then follow the instructions to complete the process.
• Restart your PC.

Note: You also have the option to go directly to the website of your graphics card manufacturer and check if there’s a new update – if there is, download it. After that, you could also check if there’s a new update of the game you’re getting the issue of the black bar.

Option 2 – Identify and uninstall problematic programs by putting your PC in a Clean Boot State

One of the main causes of BSOD errors like win32kfull.sys is a problematic program that could clash with your existing operating system as well as computer architecture. There are tons of programs that are either incompatible or conflict with the existing drivers or software in your system. To identify such programs, you need to put your PC in a Clean Boot state. How? Follow these steps:

• Log onto your PC as an administrator.
• Type in MSConfig in the Start Search to open the System Configuration utility.
• From there, go to the General tab and click “Selective startup”.
• Clear the “Load Startup items” checkbox and make sure that the “Load System Services” and “Use Original boot configuration” options are checked.
• Next, click the Services tab and select the “Hide All Microsoft Services” checkbox.
• Click Disable all.
• Click on Apply/OK and restart your PC. (This will put your PC into a Clean Boot State. And configure Windows to use the usual startup, just simply undo the changes.)

After putting your PC in a Clean Boot State, try creating a system restore point and see if the problem still occurs. Clean Boot troubleshooting is designed to help you isolate the problem. For you to execute a clean boot troubleshooting, you must do a couple of actions (the steps are given above) and then restart your PC after every action. You might have to disable one third-party app after the other to really isolate the issue. And once you’ve narrowed down the problem, you can either disable the third-party app that’s causing the problem or remove it. Note that you must switch your PC back into the Normal Startup mode after you’re done troubleshooting the problem. Here’s how you can do it:

• From the “Start” menu, go to System Configuration.
• After that, switch to the General tab and click the option for “Normal Startup”.
• Next, go to the Services tab and clear the checkbox for “Hide all Microsoft services”.
• Then find and click “Enable all” and if prompted, you have to confirm.
• Afterward, go to the Task Manager and enable all the Startup programs and confirm the action.
• Restart your PC when prompted.

Once you have identified the program causing the problem, uninstall it right away from your Control Panel.

Option 3 – Perform an SFC scan

The SFC or System File Checker scan could detect and automatically repair damaged system files that could be causing the win32kfull.sys error. SFC is a built-in command utility that helps in restoring corrupted files as well as missing files. It replaces bad and corrupted system files to good system files. To run the SFC command, follow the steps given below.

• Tap Win + R to launch Run.
• Type in cmd in the field and tap Enter.
• After opening Command Prompt, type in sfc /scannow

The command will start a system scan which will take a few whiles before it finishes. Once it’s done, you could get the following results:

1. Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations.
2. Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files and successfully repaired them.
3. Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files but was unable to fix some of them.

Error Code 0x8024402f What is it?

Error code 0x8024402f is a Windows Update error indicating some sort of connectivity issue. Windows may show you the Error 0x8024402f in Windows 10 whenever you try to download and install new updates. This error is caused by small interruptions in communications between the computer to be updated and the update to be downloaded. These issues usually resolve themselves. Windows Firewall settings may also be blamed for this problem. Common symptoms

• Error code 0x8024402f prevents you from installing the latest version of Windows 10
• This Error prevents you from downloading new and latest updates from Microsoft

Solution

Error Causes

• This error is caused by a problem with the Microsoft .NET Framework 4 Client Profile.
• This error can occur even if no changes are made to network settings.
• Your Firewall settings may cause this problem.
• A high number of update requests on the Windows Update server may cause this problem.

More Information and Manual Repair

Method 1:

1. Exit Windows Update. Wait for 10 to 15 minutes, and then restart Windows Update to check for updates. OR
2. Turn on Windows Automatic Update so that updates are installed automatically every 24 hours.

Method 2:

Uninstall the Microsoft .NET Framework 4 Client Profile:

1. Click Start>Control Panel>Programs and Features
2. Locate the Microsoft .NET Framework 4 Client Profile
3. Right-click and then select Uninstall/Change
4. Confirm that you want this component to be uninstalled. This may take a few minutes.
5. Reboot your computer
6. When the system has restarted, re-run Windows Update as you normally would.

Method 3:

Check your internet connection: As mentioned earlier the error code 0x8024402f is related to connection problems with Windows Update. It means that your computer isn’t able to connect with the Microsoft Update server; therefore you’re unable to receive any new updates. So, you either have a problem with the internet connection or the Microsoft Update server is corrupted. If the problem is caused by the Microsoft Update server, you just need to wait a while because Microsoft staff will most probably solve the problem quickly.

Method 4:

But, if the issue isn’t related to your internet connection, you should perform the following method:

1. Got to Search and enter Identify and Repair
2. Open Identify and repair network problems
3. Click on the Search Result.
4. It should automatically Start the identifying process
5. If your network has any issue then it will show you and ask you to fix it.

Now, establish your internet connection. The problem 0x8024402 should be solved by now and you’ll be able to update your Windows 10 Technical Preview to the latest 10049 builds.

Method 5:

Turn on Windows Firewall: If you have some anti-malware or antivirus on your Windows 10 PC, then it might turn off Windows Firewall on its own or create its own Firewall as default. If this is the case, you will need to turn on Windows Firewall.

• Search for "Firewall" OR
• Click on Windows Firewall from Control Panel.
• On the left pane, Click on Turn Windows Firewall ON or OFF.
• Click on Turn on Windows Firewall then Click Ok.
• That is it. Now, try again and see if you are still getting Windows Update Error 0x8024402f in your Windows 10.

Method 6:

This is an advanced method:

• If the above steps fail, then you might surely want to try this advanced method, which is Enabling ActiveX in your Router Firewall settings.
• If you had turned off ActiveX in your Router Firewall settings then this must be the culprit and so Error 0x8024402f is shown whenever you try to get Windows Update.
• All you need to do is Enable ActiveX by going to your Router Firewall settings and that should do it. The Error should be gone for good now and you will be easily able to install the Updates in your Windows 10.

If you do not possess the technical expertise required to accomplish this yourself or do not feel comfortable doing so, download and install a powerful automated tool to get the job done.

As you know, Windows 10 supports a variety of peripherals which includes a long list of printers. However, a number of users reported that they encountered a glitch on their Windows 10 computers where they receive Can’t print a file and a prompt to save the Word, PDF file, and so on each time they try to print the file. This kind of issue is not common and could be due to various reasons like the malfunctioning of device drivers, misconfiguration of the printer’s settings, and so on. There are several options you can check out to resolve the problem. You can try to run the built-in troubleshooter or check the configuration of the printer, as well as update or reinstall the driver for printers or reset the printer. For more details, refer to each one of the options provided below and make sure to follow them carefully.

Option 1 – Run the Printer Troubleshooter

One of the first basic troubleshooting you can perform to resolve the printer issue is running the Printer Troubleshooter. This built-in troubleshooter can detect and automatically fix the problem for you. To use it, follow these steps:

• Tap the Win + R keys to open the Run dialog box.
• Next, type “exe /id PrinterDiagnostic” in the field and click OK or hit Enter to open the Printer Troubleshooter.
• Then click the Next button and follow the next on-screen instructions to fix the issue with the printer.

Option 2 – Try checking the printer’s configuration

The next thing you can do to fix the problem is to check the configuration of the printer since there are instances when there could be some misconfiguration with the settings of the printer that may result in several issues like this one.

• First, you need to open Control Panel and from there, look for the option Devices and printers and open it.
• After that, right-click on the entry of your printer that you want to use in printing documents and select the Set as a default printer option.
• You could also try to open PDF and then go to the Print dialog box and uncheck the Print to file option.

Option 3 – Try to update or reinstall the printer driver

The problem with your printer might also be caused by corrupted or outdated drivers. Thus, you can try to either update or reinstall it. How? Follow the steps below.

• First, click the Start button and type “device manager”.
• Then click on the “Device Manager” from the search results to open it.
• From there, look for the USB Composite Device option and right-click on it, and select the Update Driver from the options.
• Restart your PC and then click the “Search automatically for updated driver software” option.
• Now uninstall and remove the printer driver software and reinstall it then refresh.

Option 4 – Try to reset the settings of the Printer or reinstall it

If none of the three options given above worked, you can try to either reset the printer settings or reinstall the printer so that it can go back to its default state. However, if it doesn’t work, you can try to uninstall the printer as well as its related drivers. To do so, follow these steps:

• First, go to Settings > Devices > Printer and Scanners.
• After that, select the printer and select the Remove Device option.
• Once done, restart your computer and check again and see if the error is now fixed.

Device drivers serve as a connection between the hardware in your computer and the operating system. So if any of the device drivers fail, the concerned hardware will stop communicating with Windows. And when you encounter some network-related issues, you can run the Network Adapter troubleshooter to fix them. However, this built-in troubleshooter does not work all the time as there are still problems that it can’t fix on its own and you’ll see the following error message:

“Windows could not find a driver for your network adapter.”

If you encounter this kind of error, read on as this post will help you in fixing the problem but before you get started in troubleshooting the problem, try running the Network Adapter Troubleshooter again.

• Open the Search bar on your computer and type in “troubleshoot” to open the Troubleshoot settings.
• Next, scroll down and select the “Network Adapter” option from the right pane.
• Then click on the Run Troubleshooter” button.
• After that, your computer will check for any possible errors and will pinpoint the root cause of the problem if possible.

Refer to each one of the solutions given below to get started:

Option 1 – Update the Network Adapter drivers

Of course, the first thing you can try to do is to update the Network Adapter drivers to resolve the error.

• Tap the Win + R keys to launch the Run window and then type in the “devmgmt.msc” command and hit Enter to open the Device Manager window.
• Under the Device Manager, you will see a list of drivers. From there, look for the Network Adapters and expand it.
• Then right-click on each one of the Network drivers and update them all.
• Restart your PC and see if it helped in fixing the BSOD error.

Note: If updating the network drivers didn’t help in fixing the “Windows could not find a driver for your network adapter” error, you can also try to uninstall the very same drivers and restart your Windows 10 PC. After that, the system itself will reinstall the drivers you just uninstalled. Alternatively, you can also download and install the drivers from the manufacturer’s website directly. To reinstall the network adapter driver, refer to these steps:

• Open the Devices Manager from the Win X Menu.
• Then locate the device drivers and right-click on them to open the Properties.
• After that, switch to the Driver tab and click on the Uninstall Device button.
• Follow the screen option to completely uninstall it.
• Finally, restart your computer. It will just reinstall the device drivers automatically.

Option 2 – Try running the Hardware and Devices Troubleshooter

Apart from the Network Adapter Troubleshooter, you can also run another built-in troubleshooter in Windows, the Hardware and Devices Troubleshooter, as it can also help you in resolving the “Windows could not find a driver for your network adapter” error.

• The first thing you need to do is click on Start and then on the gear-like icon to pull up the window for Settings.
• After opening Settings, look for the Update and Security option and select it.
• From there, go to the Troubleshoot option located on the left-hand side of the list.
• Next, select Hardware and Devices from the list and open the Troubleshooter and run it. Once it is doing its job, wait for it to complete the process and then restart the system.
• After the system restarts, check if the problem’s now fixed. If not, refer to the next option given below.

Option 3 – Try performing a System Restore

You might also want to perform a System Restore that might help you in fixing the error. You can do this option either by booting into Safe Mode or in System Restore. If you are already in the Advanced Startup Options, just directly select System Restore and proceed with the next steps. And if you have just booted your PC into Safe Mode, refer to the steps below.

• Tap the Win + R keys to open the Run dialog box.
• After that, type in “sysdm.cpl” in the field and tap Enter.
• Next, go to the System Protection tab then click the System Restore button. This will open a new window where you have to select your preferred System Restore point.
• After that, follow the on-screen instructions to finish the process and then restart your computer and check if the problem is fixed or not.

Google Chrome 94 is here and it has introduced a controversial idle detection API. For those people that do not know what idle detection API is, well basically Chrome can be asked by a website to report when a user of the site has a site open and is idle on the device. The issue that people have with this is that this particular feature can be used to report when the user is not using a computer at all. Good thing is that website or web application will prompt you to allow it to use this feature like when a site/application wants to use your microphone or web camera. Developers are on board with this feature since it can provide them with more telemetric data on how users are interacting with their website/application but there are some that are strongly voicing against this. Tantek Çelik, Mozilla Standards Lead, commented on GitHub, saying:

As it is currently specified, I consider the Idle Detection API too tempting of an opportunity for surveillance capitalism motivated websites to invade an aspect of the user’s physical privacy, keep long-term records of physical user behaviors, discerning daily rhythms (e.g. lunchtime), and using that for proactive psychological manipulation (e.g. hunger, emotion, choice)… Thus I propose labeling this API harmful and encourage further incubation, perhaps reconsidering simpler, less-invasive alternative approaches to solve the motivating use-cases.

Others who have spoken against this feature are people from the WebKit development team inside Apple. Ryosuke Niwa, an Apple software engineer who works on WebKit said:

That doesn’t seem like a strong enough use case for this API. For starters, there is no guarantee that the user won’t immediately come back to the device. Also, who is such a service supposed to know what another device user might be using at any given point? We’re definitely not going to let a website know all the devices a given user might be using at any given point. That’s a very serious breach of the said user’s privacy. It seems to me that such a suppression/distribution mechanism is best left for the underlying operating systems/web browsers to handle.

Of course, technology itself as always can be used for good or for bad and time will tell if this feature has brought good stuff or it has paved another brick in surveillance and privacy manipulation. As said for now option will prompt for agreement and let's hope that it will be used for good causes from this day into the future.