Tech giant Apple has unveiled the new iOS 16 system, offering new features that bring iMessage up to speed with other popular messaging apps, during its annual Worldwide Developers Conference on Monday. Set for release this fall on all iPhones models 8 and up, the operating system upgrades iMessage to …
Read More »Facebook restricts EU users’ access to RT and Sputnik
Social media behemoth Meta will restrict access to Russian state-backed media outlets on its Facebook and Instagram platforms throughout Europe, the company’s vice president Nick Clegg announced Monday, citing “requests from a number of governments.” “Given the exceptional nature of the current situation, we will be restricting access to RT …
Read More »WhatsApp helps US govt spy on users, no questions asked
WhatsApp was ordered by a US government agency to spy on several foreign nationals, even though the agency had no evidence the users had committed a crime or even knew their names. A recently unsealed search warrant from November 2021 shows that the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) had ordered …
Read More »Google & Facebook fined for spying on users
France’s online privacy regulator has ordered Google and Facebook to cough up some €210 million ($237 million) between them, fining the firms for their questionable use of data-tracking ‘cookies’ on their sites. The French National Commission on Informatics and Liberty (CNIL) announced the move in a statement on Thursday, saying …
Read More »Meta asks users to send nudes
The tool is for “adults over 18 years old who think an intimate image of them may be shared, or has already been shared, without their consent,” Meta said in a blogpost on Thursday. The new platform, which Meta developed together with the UK Revenge Porn Helpline and 50 other …
Read More »Apple lets users scan vicinity to find sneaky AirTags
The tech giant announced a second version of its iOS 15.2 beta OS, with better control of data being one of the major selling points. It uses the recently-developed ‘tags’ feature, which allows the user to track lost devices, and beefs up security slightly in an effort to avoid the …
Read More »Google won’t pay for spying on UK iPhone users
On Wednesday, a bench of Supreme Court judges blocked a move to sue Google in one of the most highly anticipated cases in modern legal history. Richard Lloyd, the former executive director of consumer-choice publication Which? Magazine, launched his class-action over allegations that the tech giant had unlawfully harvested web-browsing …
Read More »Facebook leaks: Network knew it radicalized users, was too slow to root out QAnon and anti-vaxxers, critics say
The Silicon Valley giant doesn’t do enough to protect society from various ills, its critics, including some employees, believe. Meanwhile, Facebook is working on new ways to curb the growth of certain groups through manipulation rather than blanket bans. ‘Carol Smith’, a self-identified politically conservative mother from Wilmington, North Carolina …
Read More »Twitter feature to warn users that certain conversations could become ‘heated or intense’
“Ever want to know the vibe of a conversation before you join in? We’re testing prompts on Android and iOS that give you a heads up if the convo you’re about to enter could get heated or intense,” Twitter revealed on Wednesday, explaining that the new feature was an attempt …
Read More »Telegram’s popularity surges amid Facebook outage as 70mn new users flock to messaging app
Telegram founder Pavel Durov took to the platform on Tuesday to congratulate his employees on a job well done, noting that not only had Telegram “welcomed over 70 million refugees from other platforms in one day” but that the platform had worked “flawlessly for the vast majority of our users” …
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