Booking.com discovered that hackers got into some customer accounts and changed their security PINs, which could let the thieves make fake bookings or steal refunds. This matters because your travel plans and payment information could be at risk if someone gains control of your account. Worth knowing: check your Booking.com account soon, change your password to something unique, and consider using a PIN or two-step verification if the site offers it.
Google is cracking down on websites that deliberately make it hard for you to go back to where you came from—a frustrating trick some sites use to keep you trapped on their pages. Starting in June, Google will reduce how often these problematic websites appear in search results, which means you'll encounter them less often and have an easier time navigating the web.
Google is creating a new feature in Chrome that remembers your favorite AI instructions and tricks, so you can use them again and again without typing them out each time. Worth knowing: if you regularly ask AI to help with things like writing emails or summarizing articles, this could save you time by letting Chrome remember what you usually ask for.
Freecash, a popular rewards app that promised to pay users for completing simple tasks, was caught deceiving customers and has now been removed from Apple's App Store following an investigation. The app relied on fake reviews and misleading promises to climb to the top of the rankings, taking money from people who thought they'd earn easy cash but rarely saw any real payments.
You can protect yourself by being skeptical of apps that promise quick money with minimal effort—if it sounds too good to be true, it usually is.
Starting in June, Google will punish websites that trick your back button—a sneaky practice where clicking "back" doesn't actually take you to where you came from, but instead keeps you trapped on the site to see more ads or content. This matters because many websites you visit daily (including some you might recognize) use this trick to squeeze extra views, which wastes your time and can be frustrating when you're trying to navigate away. Worth knowing: if a site's back button suddenly stops working properly this summer, it might be under Google's penalty, and you can always open a new tab or close your browser window entirely to escape rather than fighting with the back button.
Google is launching a new feature called Gemini in India that learns about you through your email and photos to give you personalized help—like reminding you about important messages or organizing your memories. For people over 50 who juggle multiple email accounts and photo libraries, this could save real time by having an AI assistant that actually knows your life rather than giving generic answers.
Adobe has just fixed a serious security hole in its PDF reader that hackers have been quietly exploiting to break into people's computers since at least last November. You can protect yourself by updating your Adobe software right away if you haven't already, and be cautious about opening PDF files from unknown sources until you're sure your system is fully patched.
Some websites deliberately trap you when you try to leave by showing extra ads or pop-ups before letting your back button work—a frustrating trick called "back button hijacking." Google has now decided to punish these annoying sites by ranking them lower in search results, treating them the same way they treat spam and malware.
You can watch out for this frustration when browsing, and it's reassuring to know Google is cracking down on it, though websites have until mid-June to clean up their act.
The FBI has shut down a major criminal operation that used fake websites to trick over 17,000 people into giving away their passwords and security codes. Criminals were using this scheme to break into people's email, banking, and social media accounts — the very tools you rely on to manage your finances and stay connected.
Worth knowing: if you ever receive an urgent-sounding email asking you to "verify" your password or sign in through a link, stop and contact the company directly using a phone number or website you know is real rather than clicking the email link.
Booking.com has confirmed that hackers got into their system and may have seen customers' personal information like names, email addresses, phone numbers, and home addresses. If you've used Booking.com to reserve hotels or flights, your details could have been caught up in this breach, so it's worth keeping an eye on your email and phone for any suspicious activity—scammers sometimes use stolen information to target people directly.
Google has packed its AI assistant Gemini into nearly all its apps—Gmail, Sheets, Chrome and others—and if you find it distracting rather than helpful, you can turn it off through your settings. Removing Gemini involves disabling "smart features" in two places: first in Gmail's general settings, and then in your Workspace account settings, though be aware this will also remove some helpful older features like spelling checks and email priority sorting. Worth knowing: you'll need to use Gmail's web version on a computer to make these changes, and if you're in Europe or certain other regions, these features are already turned off by default.
When you download Meta's new AI app, Instagram automatically tells your friends what you're doing—so they'll see a notification about it whether you want them to or not. If privacy matters to you, it's worth knowing that Meta shares this kind of activity information by default, so you might want to check your notification settings before downloading new apps from them.
