Browser fingerprinting is everywhere

Google markets its Chrome browser by citing its superior safety features, but according to privacy consultant Alexander Hanff, Chrome does not protect against browser fingerprinting – a method of tracking people online by capturing technical details about their browser.…

Bananas Foster describes itself as "the official non-profit of Banana Ball," the barnstorming baseball league that hosts the Savannah Bananas. Its mission, per executive director Jolie Chabala, is "celebrating the foster care community, while educating and inspiring others to get involved." It's not so sharply defined a mission, but what Bananas Foster has going for it is attention: The Bananas have become a viral sensation, and Banana Ball—soon to be rechristened the Banana Ball Championship League—is set to grow in 2026 by 50 percent, from four to six teams. Bananas Foster is featured prominently on the websites of both the league and its marquee team, and the Bananas run a Bananas Foster promotion at all of their exhibitions, which tend to sell out everywhere they go. Bananas Foster raises funds from individual donors. "We are completely donor-based, meaning that we do not do any type of grant-writing," said Chabala, who proposed that this allows her organization to avoid competing for resources with other non-profits working within the foster system. "I don't want these organizations to feel threatened by Bananas Foster."

The Bananas Foster proposition has it that tens of thousands of people are gathered together in a baseball stadium for a Banana Ball exhibition, and the vast majority of them are not involved in what Chabala calls "the foster care community." Bananas Foster captures that attention and redirects it, and reaps a reward for its cause in the form of tangible engagement. The readiest form of tangible engagement is a donation: Bananas Foster solicits donations from its paying audience during its in-game promotions. For some number of those people—probably a majority—that will be their last charitable interaction with the foster system. For some of them, that act of giving will check the box for Doing Good In The World for some too-long span of time.

Twitter will no longer provide free access to the Twitter API from February 9th. As announced by the official Twitter Developer account late Wednesday night, Elon Musk’s social media hobby will stop supporting free access to the Twitter API and will instead provide a “paid basic tier.” Twitter hasn’t provided any information regarding pricing, but said that it will provide “more details on what you can expect next week.”

“Over the years, hundreds of millions of people have sent over a trillion Tweets, with billions more every week,” said the Twitter Developer account. “Twitter data are among the world’s most powerful data sets. We’re committed to enabling fast & comprehensive access so you can continue to build with us.”

Twitter’s API — abbreviated from Application Programming Interface — allows third parties to retrieve and analyze public Twitter data, which can then be used to create programmable bots and separate applications that connect to the platform, such as Pikaso, Thread Reader, and RemindMe_OfThis. Twitter currently provides limited free access to its API alongside premium, scalable tiers for developers that need to lift restrictions on accessing endpoints and unlock additional enterprise features. Twitter does not publicly disclose the price of its premium API tiers, though it was reported in February last year that fees start from $99 a month and increase depending on the level of access required.

The decision to remove free access to Twitter’s API follows the platform updating its developer rules to ban third-party clients, causing popular third-party Twitter apps like Twitterrific and Tweetbot to abandon the platform.

Many small developers have used Twitter’s free API access to create fun tools and useful bots like novelty weather trackers and black-and-white image colorizers which are not intended to earn income or turn a profit. As a result, it’s likely that many bots and tools utilizing Twitter’s free API access will need to charge a fee or be shut down. It would also impact third parties like students and scientists who use the platform to study online behavior and gather information for research papers.

Twitter CEO Elon Musk has made efforts to increase revenue and boost Twitter monetization since purchasing the platform for $44 billion last year in order to pay off loans and clear a mountain of debt. These include laying off almost two-thirds of Twitter’s staff, locking user verification behind an $8 monthly subscription to Twitter Blue, and even selling off company assets following the closure of Twitter offices, allegedly after also failing to pay rents.

Irish brand planner in London, formerly of Hong Kong. Working in an advertising agency. In former roles I worked in in an oil refinery, manufactured optical fiber, DJed and worked on the line in a meat packing plant. I blog, read, listen to music and take pictures.