Category: Tech News

Tim Cook says tech’s dark side is real and is hurting people and strong regulations are needed to protect user privacy, Apple said in a speech in Brussels on Wednesday.

Details: As promised, Cook praised Europe for passing its GDPR protections. He also called on the U.S. to enact “a comprehensive federal privacy law” consisting of at least 4 key planks:

Cook also took aim at the companies that are profiting off the collection of user information, calling it a “data industrial complex.” He warned of the privacy implications of mass data collection, and criticized tech and government leaders who downplay tech’s negative impact on society.

Key quotes:

“Our own information, from the everyday to the deeply personal, is being weaponized against us with military efficiency. … Taken to its extreme, this process creates an enduring digital profile that lets companies know you better than you may know yourself.”

“Rogue actors and even governments have taken advantage of user trust to deepen divisions, incite violence, and even undermine our shared sense of what is true and what is false. This crisis is real. It is not imagined, or exaggerated, or ‘crazy.'”

“If we get this wrong, the dangers are profound. … We can achieve both great artificial intelligence and great privacy standards. It’s not only a possibility, it is a responsibility. In the pursuit of artificial intelligence, we should not sacrifice the humanity, creativity, and ingenuity that define our human intelligence.”

Yes, but: The “data industrial complex” Cook refers to pays for much of the modern internet, helping Google, Facebook, and many other companies target ads and keep their services free.

The bottom line: Supporters of meaningful privacy regulations can count on Apple’s backing, as the company continues to try to stand apart from other tech giants, particularly Google and Facebook.

Facebook to Pay $67.5 Million in Fees in Suit Over Shares. Facebook Inc. agreed to pay $67.5 million in legal fees so co-founder Mark Zuckerberg won’t have to explain in court why he dropped a plan to create non-voting shares to further his charitable efforts.

Lawyers for a group of Facebook investors, who sought $129 million in fees for challenging the new share class, agreed to cut their demand by about half to resolve the case, according to a Delaware Chancery Court filing. The settlement may be paid by the company’s insurers, the filing shows.

Zuckerberg was criticized for asking directors to create a class of non-voting shares so he could sell most of his Facebook stake to fund charitable works while still keeping control of the world’s largest social-media company. The board approved the new stock and a majority of all the company’s shareholders had backed the move before Zuckerberg decided to drop the effort last year.

Zuckerberg was scheduled testify next month in Delaware about his reasons for dropping the plan to help a judge decide the value of investors’ efforts in fending off the move. Vanessa Chan, a spokeswoman for Facebook, declined to comment Wednesday on the accord over the fees.

Investors’ Interests

Objecting investors claimed victory after Zuckerberg nixed the proposal. They said they “challenged the reclassification in this hard-fought litigation’’ and deserved to be rewarded for achieving “the outcome they were seeking at trial.’’ Stuart Grant, one of the investors’ lawyers, declined to comment on the fee settlement.

Earlier this year, a pension fund sued Facebook directors for being too accommodating to Zuckerberg’s non-voting share gambit and not working diligently enough to protect other Facebook investors’ interests.

According to that suit, Zuckerberg, during a meeting with a special board committee considering the proposal, got real-time texts from director Marc Andreessen giving him a heads up on which of his arguments were gaining traction.

“This line of argument is not helping,’’ Andreessen warned in one text. “The committee wants to do this. You don’t need to question that.’’ In another, the venture capitalist noted “NOW WE’RE COOKING WITH GAS.’’

Those kinds of actions by supposedly neutral directors made the committee’s evaluation of the proposal “a charade that was designed to appease’’ Zuckerberg, the fund’s lawyers said in the suit against directors.

The fee dispute was In re Facebook Inc. Class C Reclassification Litigation No. 12286, Delaware Chancery Court (Wilmington). The new investor case is United Food and Commercial Workers Union and Participating Employers Tri-State Pension Fund v. Zuckerberg, 2018-0671, Delaware Chancery Court (Wilmington).

YouTube May Have To Ban People From Uploading Videos Due To New EU Rule.  YouTube has said that new EU copyright rules may mean it has to start banning people from uploading their own videos – in turn potentially ‘drastically’ changing the internet we know today.

The EU’s new copyright directive, which is known as Article 13, will see platforms like YouTube forced to scan through content in order to ensure nothing includes anything copyrighted.

The same legislation has also been dubbed the ‘meme ban‘, as it also means other websites could be made to filter out text, audio, photos, and video – all, of course, fundamental elements to the meme culture we love.

YouTube CEO Suasn Wojcicki has spoken out about the ban, calling on creators to openly voice their opinons and rally against the proposed rules.

In a blog post, she wrote: “Article 13 as written threatens to shut down the ability of millions of people – from creators like you to everyday users – to upload content to platforms like YouTube.”

Urging YouTubers to use the hashtag #SaveYourInternet, Wojcicki argued that the legislation threatens to ‘block users in the EU from viewing content that is already live on the channels of creators everywhere. That includes educational content like language classes, physics tutorials, and other how-to videos.

Wojcicki also said that it could threaten ‘hundreds of thousands of jobs’, referring to everyone from EU-based content creators through to businesses and artists.

She continued: “The proposal could force platforms, like YouTube, to allow only content from a small number of large companies. It would be too risky for platforms to host content from smaller original content creators, because the platforms would now be directly liable for that content.

“We realise the importance of all rights holders being fairly compensated, which is why we built Content ID, and a platform to pay out all types of content owners. But the unintended consequences of article 13 will put this ecosystem at risk.”

Wojcicki added: “We are committed to working with the industry to find a better way. This language could be finalized by the end of the year, so it’s important to speak up now.”

The Save Your Internet campaign is calling for people to email, ring, or tweet their MEP and provide a draft message to send.

The website says: “Should Article 13 of the Copyright Directive be adopted, it will impose widespread censorship of all the content you share online.”

Over 11,000 MikroTik router users at risk of cyber attacks. A security flaw in MikroTik WiFi routers has left thousands in the subcontinent at risk of cyber attacks ranging from eavesdropping to cryptomining.

HYDERABAD: A security flaw in MikroTik WiFi routers has left thousands in the subcontinent at risk of cyber attacks ranging from eavesdropping to cryptomining. India is among the 10 countries worst affected by the cryptomining campaign and Reliane Jio Infocomm has the highest number of infected routers in the country, according to a report by Avast.

The anti-virus company’s research on its user base found that 11,809 routers were infected in India, putting it on the seventh position of countries with compromised routers.

At the top is Brazil with a staggering 85,230 infected routers targeted by crypto mining campaign JS:InfectedMikroTik.The campaign allows cybercriminals to exploit a vulnerability in MikroTik and inject scripts that further allow them to run software illegally. The software, in turn, can take over the computer’s resources and use them for cryptocurrency mining.

Researchers Martin Hron and David Jursa who are studying infected routers said, “When you try to reach any URL starting with http:// on an infected router, you will get HTTP error code 403 Forbidden via a custom error page which contains the above HTML code.”  However, they found that the HTML code was, in fact, a script which launches a javascript cryptocurrency miner that runs in your browser. All this happens in the background while the user browses content, the report said.

Apart from this, the researchers noted that routers could have been targeted as owners did not change their default credentials or create strong passwords.

There is a need to take a closer look into the issue because just 5 per cent of MikroTik users in Avast’s database has the latest version of the firmware. Upgrading to the latest software will secure users from MikroTik’s vulnerability.Another reason is that, according to the researchers, the campaign not just affects the router, but also all computers connected to it. “The bigger concern is that once the router is compromised, you are not really sure how else it might be abused. It could be used for sniffing traffic, serving you malicious pages etc,” they said. The report recommended installing proper antivirus software to check if routers were infected or not. In the case of infected routers, Hron and Jursa urged users to reset them to factory settings and update firmware immediately.

Instagram’s Future as a Social Commerce App Looks Murkier Than Ever. Experts are feeling it will become another facebook and the dream of it become where people can buy and sell is not clear.

Eight years ago, Instagram was nothing more than a new social media app designed to share grainy photos of food, friends and family. A billion-dollar acquisition and several years later, Instagram is turning into a leading contender in the social commerce space, with the platform evolving from a place for influencers and normals to one where brands can thrive and create whole businesses.

Although most business in the world especially starts feel they don’t need a website with facebook and instagram as where they put up pictures of their products and just add a contact number for people who are interested making it look as if the platform will becoming commerce social media app but the vision not yet clear.

Only time will tell as we wait to see where the drive will take the platform to if it will meets it aim or it will turn something else, we will keep you posted if new development arise.

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Google warns politicians to protect their personal accounts while person account has being the target.  Phishing attacks are targeting personal, as well as professional, accounts.

Campaign managers and staff for politicians watch vigilantly over their business email, monitoring their accounts for phishing attacks from potential hackers. But security experts say their personal accounts pose an even bigger risk.

Consider 2016 presidential election cyberattacks. John Podesta, Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman, had 50,000 emails stolen from his personal Gmail account, not his campaign staff email.

Attacks over email are one of the most common methods hackers use to infiltrate an organization. Phishing attacks are designed to trick victims into clicking on malicious links and giving up their account passwords. The attacks are much more sophisticated when hackers target high-profile people, such as politicians and candidates running for public office.

Campaign hacking has continued despite mounting awareness. Sen. Claire McCaskill, a Democrat from Missouri, was the target of a phishing attack in July. And Microsoft said it stopped phishing campaigns targeting three unnamed election candidates.

Guemmy Kim, Google’s head of Account Security Initiatives, said Google often warns political candidates if it believes they are being targeted by hackers. She declined to name specific individuals, but indicated the search giant’s warnings have gone to politicians and candidates in Washington, DC.

Kim says campaign members often think their personal accounts are safe because they aren’t used for work purposes. But Kim says those accounts hold a lot of important information, like social media passwords and financial information.

“They tell us, ‘I don’t need it, I don’t use my Gmail,'” Kim said. “And we ask, ‘What is the email that is associated with your Twitter and Facebook accounts?'”

Maciej Ceglowski, the founder of Tech Solidarity, stresses the same point when he briefs campaigns on security measures.

Ceglowski found that campaign security trainings often stress making sure their professional email accounts are safe, but rarely mention securing personal accounts.

“The way government is structured, they have very bright lines between what is campaign-related and what is personal,” he said in an interview last month. “And the security training needs to cross those boundaries.”

Kim noted several vulnerabilities that personal email accounts have but professional ones don’t. Professional accounts often have an organization tied to them, which usually means resources, like an IT staff and built-n protection.

With personal accounts, you’re more likely to be on your own, she said.

“Everyone expects that your professional account is the one that’s going to be attacked. But that’s the one that’s going to be more protected,” Kim said. “The more vulnerable account is your personal account because nobody is watching out for it.”

Google has several tools for protecting personal accounts, like artificial intelligence to tell if someone suspicious is logged on. For example, if someone logs on and immediately starts searching for sensitive information, like Social Security numbers and credit card records, Google will log it as suspicious activity and warn the account holder.

Kim recommends signing up for Google’s Advanced Protection Program if you believe your account is at risk for phishing attacks. You have to sign up for it separately for your personal account.

Instagram says it will now detect bullying in photos is continuing its efforts to combat bullying on the platform.

On Tuesday 9th of October 2018, the company said it is starting to use new machine learning technology to proactively detect bullying in photos and captions. Those posts will be sent to Instagram’s Community Operations team for human review.”Online bullying is complex, and we know we have more work to do to further limit bullying and spread kindness on Instagram,” Adam Mosseri, the new head of Instagram, said in a blog post.Mosseri was named Instagram’s chief last week following the exit of co-founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger.

This is Mosseri’s first announcement in his new role.An Instagram spokesperson said the technology can detect bullying and harassment such as attacks on a person’s appearance or character and threats to someone’s wellbeing or health.For example, the tech can identify bullying tactics such as comparing, ranking and rating images and captions, such as a split-screen image in which a person is compared to someone else in a negative way.

It’s unclear what else the technology can detect and whether it would work on images without captions.This feature has started to roll out and will continue to in the coming weeks.

The company, owned by Facebook, is also launching a “Kindness Camera Effect” in partnership with dancer Maddie Ziegler. Anyone who follows Ziegler will have the camera effect automatically. In selfie mode, hearts will appear on the screen. In rear mode, kind comments in different languages will appear. You can tag friends, too.Earlier this year, Instagram announced it would filter out bullying comments that aim to harass or upset users. That feature built on a tool introduced last year that blocks offensive comments, and a filter that removes spam in comments.

Starting Tuesday, the bullying comment filter will also apply to Live Videos on Instagram.Users can also turn off comments on individual Instagram posts and block posts with certain keywords.

Microsoft pulls Windows 10 October 2018 Update for missing document. Some Windows 10 immediately noticed their documents were being deleted after upgrading.

Microsoft has stopped distributing its latest Windows 10 October 2018 Update. The software giant started rolling out the update during the company’s Surface event earlier this week, but some Windows 10 immediately noticed their documents were being deleted. “We have paused the rollout of the Windows 10 October 2018 Update (version 1809) for all users as we investigate isolated reports of users missing some files after updating,” says Microsoft on its support site for Windows Update.

Microsoft is now recommending that affected users contact the company directly, and if you’ve manually downloaded the October update then “please don’t install it and wait until new media is available.” Other Windows 10 users have been complaining that the Microsoft Edge browser and other store apps have been unable to connect to the internet after the October 2018 Update, and the update was even blocked on certain PCs due to Intel driver incompatibilities.

It’s not clear how many Windows 10 users are affected by the problem, but even if it’s a small percentage it’s still surprising this issue was never picked up during Microsoft’s vast testing of the October update. Millions of people help Microsoft test Windows 10, but the company has struggled with the quality of Windows updates recently. Microsoft delayed its Windows 10 April 2018 Update earlier this year over Blue Screen of Death issues, but those problems were picked up before the update reached regular consumers and businesses.

Microsoft was planning to push the latest October update out to all Windows 10 users next Tuesday, but that’s now likely to be put on hold while investigations continue into this major deletion problem.

The inventor of the World Wide Web has unveiled a plan for a new secure internet but they are still looking at the economic value of it but it will give power to the people who own their data and not to the internet giants. From what he is saying, it will allow people who want to access or share your pictures to ask you first then you decides either to grant it or not.

Why it matters: The internet is not what its founder, Tim Berners-Lee, wanted it to be. It has finally exploded into his dream of an open resource that everyone can see and interact with, purchase things, connect and innovate on. But that’s come with something no one saw coming back when the internet was in its infancy: unwanted control and manipulation of our data.

For several years Sir Tim Berners-Lee and his team at MIT have been developing a decentralized platform designed to give every internet user full control over their data: Solid(Social Linked Data). This week he is revealing the first start-up to take advantage of the Solid platform, called Inrupt. Berners-Lee and his partner John Bruce will lead a small team of inspired developers to take the power back from the internet giants.

“The intent is world domination. We are not talking to Facebook and Google about whether or not to introduce a complete change where all their business models are completely upended overnight. We are not asking their permission.”

Berners-Lee says that Facebook’s continuous failure to protect its users is something that drives him: “We have to do it now. It’s a historical moment.”

I think we can all agree a change is sorely needed; only two days ago it was revealed that 50 million Facebook accounts may have been compromised. Berners-Lee says that Facebook’s continuous failure to protect its users is something that drives him: “We have to do it now. It’s a historical moment.”

Solid works through something called a Solid POD, a Personal Online Data storage system. A POD is simply a file that contains all your data: videos, images, calendar, address, preferences, friend lists – everything from where you work to the name of your Labrador. The Solid development team is working on software that creates and manages a POD, and once it is fully complete (soon, we’re told) companies and individuals will be able to create and use their own POD servers. What this means is that you can store your own POD on an internet-connected device or simply pay a company to store it for you.

Any and all sites or apps that want access to information about you simply ask your POD for it – depending on your choices, it will say yes or no. For example, a social media platform may ask your POD for your name, age, phone number and any images you might want to share. But the social media platform doesn’t control the information: by disabling the platform’s access to your POD the information is removed.

This is where Inrupt enters the fray: it allows you to create a POD on Inrupt’s servers, and it will create apps and assist other companies to create apps using Solid. Technically, you can create a POD right now on their website and play around with calendar and note-taking apps, but, to be frank, the interface is dreadful and nowhere near ready for use. Inrupt is currently funded by Glasswing Ventures, who specialize in AI and other technology start-ups, but Inrupt is pursuing further funding.

The Solid platform is a good idea with good goals. Solid PODs are a good and technologically feasible execution of that idea. But will it get its feet off the ground?

We can look at this in two ways. The first is the perspective of an up-and-coming platform. It’s brilliant; the next big thing. Like pretty much all platforms, ad-revenue is an important aspect. The platform’s creators are faced with a choice: use PODs to protect users’ data and make less money, or trust that they can protect users’ data themselves and make more money. The creators will likely have good intentions (think WhatsApp or Telegram) but it is hard to find investors who’ll agree to make less money.

The second perspective is of an established platform. Take YouTube as an example. It would be extremely difficult for them to switch over to PODs even if they wanted to: shareholders would not be impressed by suddenly switching over to a less profitable business model (e.g. non-targeted ads). Particularly when they can easily just continue with their current business model.

The bottom line is, the Solid platform is a brilliant idea but because it doesn’t make economic sense, it’s hard to envisage widespread adoption. Unless Inrupt can somehow make PODs profitable for companies to adopt, or create their own platforms to rival Google and Facebook, our data will remain in the hands of the corporate giants.

MPs demand answer from Facebook boss over hack shock and have demanded that Mark Zuckerberg travels to the UK to face questions about his “terrible disrespect” for the data of citizens, following last week’s data breach at Facebook that resulted in 50 million user accounts being ­exposed to hackers.

They want answers from the Facebook boss after millions of users were left vulnerable to identity fraud in the biggest cyber attack on the social media giant since it was created in 2004.

Questions over the company’s “cavalier attitude” to data security are to be asked by the digital, culture, media and sport select committee.

On Friday, Facebook revealed that hackers had been able to access ­accounts due to a security flaw that had remained open for more than a year.

Damian Collins, who chairs the select committee, said: “Facebook’s latest data breach demonstrates more clearly than ever why Mark Zuckerberg should face public scrutiny about the practices and policies his company employs to keep British users’ data safe.”

Mr Zuckerberg was summoned by Parliament earlier this year to be questioned over its investigation into fake news on Facebook and has three times refused to attend the select committee.

But he has, however, agreed to be scrutinised by US legislators in Washington and EU politicians in Brussels earlier this year. Julian Knight, a committee member, said: “It would be helpful to hear from Mr Zuckerberg, but I won’t be holding my breath.”

Facebook has more than 2.2 billion monthly users around the world and 40 million in the UK. Facebook ­declined to comment.