Criminals seek rich pickings as viewers stuck at home flock to TV streaming sites Hackers have created more than 700 fake websites mimicking Netflix and Disney+ sign-up pages, as cyber-criminals seek to harvest personal information from consumers during the coronavirus lockdown streaming boom. Netflix, which is expected to smash ... Read More »
Apple and Google team up in bid to use smartphones to track coronavirus spread
The app will use a Bluetooth technology to trace every phone a person comes in contact with, raising concerns over privacy Apple and Google announced on Friday an unprecedented collaboration to leverage smartphone technology to help trace and contain the spread of coronavirus. The collaboration will open up their ... Read More »
Facebook proposes ‘rules for the internet’ as it calls for more regulation for itself
Facebook has suggested “new rules for the internet” as it continues to insist it must be regulated. The company and other social networks have faced criticism for the kinds of content they allow to be published on their platform. Politicians and experts around the world have criticised the site over ... Read More »
WhatsApp says it has two billion users
WhatsApp has two billion users, it has said in a new announcement. It means that more than a quarter of the world’s population are on the chat app. WhatsApp used the announcement to stress its commitment to security – a position that has led to criticism from lawmakers and politicians ... Read More »
Instagram update tells users who they don’t like to make it easier to unfollow
Instagram has added a new feature to let you find out who you don’t like. The tool is intended to allow users to clean up their news feeds by unfollowing accounts they don’t interact with or want to see less of. It comes alongside another tool that lets people see ... Read More »
Apple fined £21m for deliberately slowing down older iPhones
Apple has been fined €25 million (£21m) for secretly slowing down older iPhones. The penalty was imposed by France’s competition and fraud watchdog, which found customers were not warned about the measure. iPhone users, the watchdog DGCCRF said, “were not informed that installing iOS updates (10.2.1 and 11.2) could slow down their devices”. ... Read More »
Google finds Apple Safari anti-tracking feature actually enabled tracking
Apple’s Intelligent Tracking Prevention technology posed risks to privacy and security, a research paper concluded. Apple focuses on privacy protections as a major selling point for its products, but a feature designed to protect your privacy when using its Safari browser also created vulnerabilities that put your data and privacy ... Read More »
Technology in 2050: will it save humanity – or destroy us?
Futurism is a mug’s game: if you’re right, it seems banal; if you’re wrong, you look like the founder of IBM, Thomas Watson, when he declared in 1943 that there is room in the world “for maybe five computers”. David Adams knew these risks when he wrote about the future ... Read More »
Project Nightingale: Google secretly given access to medical data of millions of Americans
Technology giant says access to private medical records through deal with Ascension is ‘standard practice’ Google has secretly amassed the health records of millions of patients in the US through a partnership with the country’s second largest healthcare provider. The initiative, dubbed “Project Nightingale,” gives the technology giant access ... Read More »
How big tech is dragging us towards the next financial crash
Like the big banks, big tech uses its lobbying muscle to avoid regulation, and thinks it should play by different rules. And like the banks, it could be about to wreak financial havoc on us all. By Rana Foroohar In every major economic downturn in US history, the ‘villains’ have ... Read More »