News briefs for July 3, 2018.
The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday[1] that Gmail allows data companies and developers to see users' email and private details, and read entire messages. According to a related story on The Verge[2], while some email apps "do need to receive user consent, the consent form isn't exactly clear that it would allow humans—and not just computers—to read your emails." In addition, Google told The Verge that it gives data only to "vetted third-party developers and with users' explicit consent" and also that Google employees may read your email, but only in "very specific cases where you ask us to and give consent, or where we need to for security purposes, such as investigating a bug or abuse".
There's a new distro called Bodhi Linux Media[3], derived from Bodhi Linux, "a lightweight, Ubuntu-based distro that includes only a browser, a terminal emulator, and a few other system tools". For Bodhi Linux Media, creator Giuseppe Torre customized the desktop interface, "capitalizing on the fact that the operating system is fast and lean (with no random stuff running in the background)" and curated the software specifically for artists in many different digital art fields. The software includes Adobe alternatives (GIMP, Inkscape, Natron, Scribus and Synfig Studio), Ardour, Arduino IDE, Atom, Audacity, Blender, Firefox, Krita, LibreOffice, MuseScore, Open Broadcaster, Processing, Pure Data, SuperCollider and VLC. See Giuseppe's article on opensource.com[4] for more details.
Mozilla has announced its Featured Extensions for July[5]. This month's extensions include Midnight Lizard[6], which lets you "customize readability of the web in granular detail", and Black Menu for Google[7], which provides "easy access to Google services like Search, Translate, Google+, and more without leaving the webpage you're on". The other extensions are Authenticator[8] for two-step verification security; Turbo Download Manager[9]