Discord halts age verification amid user backlash
Discord has officially confirmed this Rollout of age verification delayed Globally following user feedback. The messaging platform had planned to introduce the system in March, but community reaction was negative. Discord co-founder and CTO Stanislav Vishnevsky admitted in an article published on the company’s blog that Discord was aware that the age verification system was controversial, and that people would react strongly to it.
He also mentioned that many users had come to believe that this process required a facial scan and ID photo to use Discord, and they were concerned about their privacy. Wisniewski says 90% of Discord users will not need to verify their age to use the platform. Discord has an internal security system that is used to automatically determine the age of many adult users. If a user falls into the other 10%, Discord will provide them with options designed to share their age with the company, but not the user’s identity. Users can choose not to verify their age, which will still allow them to continue using the platform, access their friends list, DMs, voice chat, etc., but unverified users will not be able to access certain age-restricted content or modify certain default security settings that are used to protect younger users.
Memories of the recent security breach in October 2025 are fresh in the minds of users, who reported that Discord’s provider had exposed thousands of government ID photos. Discord plans to restart its age verification rollout in the second half of the year, after adding more verification options.
YouTube Premium adds Lite background plays and downloads
YouTube has announced two new features for the Premium Lite subscription. Users with an active subscription can now play videos in the background or download them for offline access. While these are welcome changes, the experience between the Premium and Lite tiers is quite different.
Unlike YouTube Premium, which costs $14 per month, the Premium Lite subscription only costs $8 per month, but it’s still not completely devoid of ads. This will display ads On music videos, shorts, and even when you search for something, or browse the platform. Background play and downloads for shorts or music videos, or music partners’ videos are not supported. Background play and downloads are available in all markets where YouTube Premium Lite is available.
NATO approves iPhone and iPad for handling classified data
Apple has revealed this NATO approved iPhone and iPad To handle classified data. The devices can be used up to NATO restricted levels without any special software or settings. This means that a brand new phone at the mentioned security level can be used to handle restricted data without any tampering required by an administrator. Apple noted that its security protections such as encryption, biometric authentication with Face ID, memory integrity enforcement are now recognized as meeting stringent government and international security requirements for restricted data.
The Cupertino company says Germany’s Federal Information Security Office (BSI) conducted a comprehensive assessment to check whether the devices met standards, after which the iPhone and iPad were given clearance from the government to handle classified information. Expanding on this, BSI has given permission for Apple devices running iOS 26, iPadOS 26 in all NATO countries.
Amazon Fire TV’s new user interface is here
Amazon has started rolling out a New UI for Fire TV. The company says the update makes the OS faster than ever, with a 20 to 30% speed increase thanks to new underlying code. The interface is designed to help users quickly find what they want. Browsing to a specific type of media, such as movies, will list titles from all apps. The Menu button now lets you switch to Games, Art & Photos, and Ambient Experience.
Amazon’s new UI for Fire TV comes with an improved layout, rounded corners, redesigned color gradients, updated typography, and more optimized spacing. Users can pin up to 20 apps to the home screen, whereas earlier the number was only 6. The Fire TV mobile app has also been revamped, with users now able to browse content, manage their watchlists and use it to play titles on their TV.
The new Fire TV interface is currently being released in the US for the Fire TV Stick 4K Plus, Fire TV Stick 4K Max (2nd generation), and Fire TV Omni Mini-LED series. Amazon says it will expand the new design to more countries and more devices this spring.
Mozilla Firefox 148.0 released with AI kill switch
Mozilla has released Firefox 148.0 update For Windows, MacOS and Linux. One of the main changes brought by the update is the AI control page. Users can access it from Settings > AI Controls, or by going to about:preferences#ai in a new tab. At the top of this section, there is the AI kill switch that Mozilla recently announced. This is a one-click toggle that disables all AI features in the browser. Alternatively, users can customize their experience by disabling features they don’t want to use, and keeping the ones they do like. The list is quite short at the moment, it includes automatic translation of web pages, image alt text in the Firefox PDF viewer, tab group suggestions, highlights in link previews, and the ability to choose a chatbot for the sidebar.
Mozilla no longer requires users to opt into telemetry to receive remote fixes. Users can now choose to share their data and still access the feature. Firefox can now translate text into Traditional Chinese and Vietnamese. Windows 10 users who have enabled the “Clear history when Firefox closes” option can access Firefox backups. The browser has improved support for accessing mathematical formulas embedded in PDF through a screen reader.
On a side note, Mozilla has ended support for Firefox for Windows 7, 8 and 8.1 and macOS 10.12 to 10.14. Users can continue to use Firefox 115.33.0 ESR on older operating systems, but it will no longer receive security updates.
