Category Archives: Technology

New Zealand’s Stuff newspaper group joins Facebook boycott as ‘experiment’

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Company says it has ‘paused’ its relationship with the social media company as part of global movement against hate speech

New Zealand’s largest newspaper group has temporarily quit Facebook in a bold “experiment” aligning itself with a global boycott of the social media site, which has been condemned for failing to crack down on escalating hate speech.

Stuff is the biggest news media website in New Zealand and owns dozens of newspapers around the country, employing more than 400 journalists.

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$10bn of precious metals dumped each year in electronic waste, says UN

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A fast growing mountain of toxic e-waste is polluting the planet and damaging health, says new report

At least $10bn (£7.9bn) worth of gold, platinum and other precious metals are dumped every year in the growing mountain of electronic waste that is polluting the planet, according to a new UN report.

A record 54m tonnes of “e-waste” was generated worldwide in 2019, up 21% in five years, the UN’s Global E-waste Monitor report found. The 2019 figure is equivalent to 7.3kg for every man, woman and child on Earth, though use is concentrated in richer nations. The amount of e-waste is rising three times faster than the world’s population, and only 17% of it was recycled in 2019.

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Tesla shareholders urged to oust Elon Musk over $55bn pay deal

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Adviser Pirc says Musk’s pay and Twitter outbursts pose ‘serious risk of reputation harm to the company’

Tesla investors are being urged to vote to remove Elon Musk, the electric vehicle company’s founder and chief executive, from the board of the firm as anger mounts over his bonus deal that could pay him a record $55.8bn (£40bn).

Pirc, an influential adviser to shareholders, including the UK’s local authority pension funds, on Tuesday recommended that investors voted against Tesla’s executive pay deal because it “unfairly enriches the chief executive”.

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Third of advertisers may boycott Facebook in hate speech revolt

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‘Stop Hate for Profit’ campaign gathers momentum as ad boycott spreads outside US

Almost a third of advertisers are considering joining a month-long boycott of Facebook as the social network struggles to convince advertisers that it is doing enough to fight hate speech on its platform.

The unprecedented corporate snub has been revealed in survey by the World Federation of Advertisers, whose big-spending members control nearly $100bn (£81bn) in spending.

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How hate speech campaigners found Facebook’s weak spot

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The social network’s crisis has been a long time in the making and shows no sign of going away

It took less than two hours for Facebook to react and it did so for good reason.

At 5pm on Friday, Unilever, one of the world’s largest advertisers, with a portfolio of products that ranges from Marmite to Vaseline, suddenly announced it was pulling all adverts from Facebook, Instagram and Twitter in the US.

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Facebook policy changes fail to quell advertiser revolt as Coca-Cola pulls ads

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Company follows Unilever’s lead after platform announces shift in how it handles hate speech

Facebook has announced changes to its policies around hate speech and voter suppression, but the measures have done little to quell the wave of companies pulling advertising from the platform amid backlash over how the company handles hate speech online.

The CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, on Friday announced tweaks to a number of policies, hours after the multinational Unilever said it would pull its advertisements from the platform for the next six months.

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Google says it will no longer save a complete record of every search

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The firm will now delete its saved records of a new user’s activity after 18 months

Google will no longer save a complete record of every search made by new users, the company says, as it launches a push to promote its privacy credentials against concerted competition from arch-rival Apple.

The company will now automatically delete its saved records of a new user’s activity on the web and in its apps after 18 months, chief executive Sundar Pichai announced on Wednesday. Previously, such information had been kept indefinitely by default, which the company argued was necessary to personalise its services for individual users.

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Lagos distributes free phones in bid to bridge digital and educational divide

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Closure of Nigeria’s schools during lockdown has hit access to learning for poorer children

Like millions of other children in the sprawling Nigerian city of Lagos, 15-year-old Sharifa Umar switched from classroom learning to lessons over radio, TV and the internet when schools were closed in March because of the coronavirus outbreak.

Programmes set up by the city authorities for public schools have aired on television and radio, following statewide timetables. Individual schools have made online classes available. But for disadvantaged students, access to learning throughout the pandemic has been a challenge.

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‘Def worth a trespass’: Instagram users risk it all to frolic in New Zealand infinity pools

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Picturesque but precarious spot on private land has been inundated with trespassers desperate to get the perfect shot

They climb over barbed wire, past “private property” signs and pose precariously on the edge of a 50-metre cliff face – all to get the perfect Instagram shot. A growing number of social media users are trespassing on private property at a beach west of Auckland to frolic in natural “infinity pools” on a cliff top – some in the nude – and driving the owners to despair.

“We’ve absolutely had enough,” said Buzz Kronfeld, part of a family who owns three plots of land at Anawhata Beach, 50km from New Zealand’s largest city, Auckland.

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Segway, personal vehicle known for high-profile crashes, ending production

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Company will retire Segway PT, popular with tourists and police officers, on 15 July

Segway, which boldly claimed its two-wheeled personal transporter would revolutionize the way people get around, is ending production of its namesake vehicle.

The Segway PT, popular with tourists and police officers but perhaps better known for its high-profile crashes, will be retired on 15 July, the company said in a statement.

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Apple update to allow iPhone users to choose default apps

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Move in autumn will let users set Gmail as default email app and Firefox as main web browser

iPhone users will be able to set Gmail as their default email app, Firefox as their main web browser, and listen to Spotify on their HomePod speakers, after Apple announced concessions to competitors who argue the company is abusing its monopoly.

The new openness will arrive with a wave of software updates in the autumn, Apple said, alongside the other new features the company promised at its Worldwide Developers Conference, held remotely from Cupertino, California, on Monday.

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Israeli spyware used to target Moroccan journalist, Amnesty claims

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Amnesty alleges phone of Omar Radi in Morocco was infected by NSO’s Pegasus software

As NSO Group faced mounting criticism last year that its hacking software was being used illegally against journalists, dissidents and campaigners around the world, the Israeli spyware company unveiled a new policy that it said showed its commitment to human rights.

Now an investigation has alleged that another journalist, Omar Radi in Morocco, was targeted with NSO’s Pegasus software and put under surveillance just days after the company made that promise.

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Microsoft president’s criticism of app stores puts pressure on Apple

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Cut of up to 30% charged by app stores obstructs fair competition, claims Brad Smith

Microsoft has thrown its weight behind calls for an antitrust investigation into App Store monopolies, piling yet more pressure on Apple as the iPhone maker prepares for its annual developer conference on Monday.

Brad Smith, Microsoft’s president, criticised the 30% cut that app stores take from developers this month, and argued that the policy is a far higher burden on fair competition than the issues that led to Microsoft’s antitrust case in the early 2000s.

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BT and Vodafone told to stock up on Huawei kit over US sanctions

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Security officials fear UK telcos could run out of vital parts if US pressure disrupts supplies

British security officials have told telecoms operators to ensure they have adequate stockpiles of Huawei equipment owing to fears that US sanctions will disrupt the Chinese firm’s ability to maintain critical supplies, according to a letter seen by Reuters.

Senior officials at the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), who are studying the impact of new US measures intended to restrict Huawei’s ability to source advanced microchips, wrote to BT and Vodafone last week, said three people familiar with the matter.

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Australia is under cyber-attack from ‘state-based actor’, Scott Morrison says

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Australian prime minister says widespread assault on political and private sector organisations has been going on for months but is increasing in frequency and scale

A wide range of political and private sector organisations in Australia have come under cyber-attack carried out by a “sophisticated state-based cyber actor”, the Australian government has revealed.

Scott Morrison disclosed the far-reaching attacks at a media conference in Canberra on Friday, while his defence minister declared that malicious cyber activity was “increasing in frequency, scale, in sophistication and in its impact”.

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UK abandons contact-tracing app for Apple and Google model

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NHS to switch to alternative design by tech giants, says Matt Hancock in latest U-turn

The government has been forced to abandon a centralised coronavirus contact-tracing app after spending three months and millions of pounds on technology that experts had repeatedly warned would not work.

In an embarrassing U-turn, Matt Hancock said the NHS would switch to an alternative designed by the US tech companies Apple and Google, which is months away from being ready.

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Piloted in May, ditched in June: the failure of England’s Covid-19 app

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How the government came to scrap its contact-tracing app in favour of Apple and Google’s

Designed to be a key component of the test, track and trace programme to forge a way out of lockdown, the NHS Covid-19 app has been beset by problems from day one – despite repeated claims to the contrary.

After a trial on the Isle of Wight at the start of May, the contact-tracing app was meant to be rolled out to the rest of England by the middle of the month. That soon slipped to some time in June. Then on Wednesday it emerged that we would have to wait until the winter. Now – after much behind-the-scenes scrambling, and head-scratching in Westminster – officials have decided to ditch the app entirely in its current form.

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Pacific data cable not safe from China if Hong Kong included, says US

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Justice department says ‘recent actions’ by China towards its territory indicate landing station could expose US communications to spying

The US government wants a high-capacity undersea data cable system proposed by Google and Facebook to bypass Hong Kong, citing potential national security concerns following China’s moves to exert greater control in the territory.

The Pacific Light Cable Network, pending approval by the federal communications commission (FCC), should connect the US, Taiwan and the Philippines but not go through Hong Kong as planned, a US Justice Department committee has recommended.

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Why are Google and Apple dictating how European democracies fight coronavirus? | Ieva Ilves

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In Latvia we wanted to harness smartphone technology for contact tracing. We ran into a Silicon Valley-built brick wall

The Covid-19 pandemic has led to a rush by governments, private companies and digital startups to harness and develop the latest technologies in the fight against the spread of the virus.

To best meet public health needs, digital technology should be able to trace the spread of the virus, identify dangerous Covid-19 clusters and limit further transmission. The essential goal is to register contacts between potential carriers and those who might be infected. This has led to tech solutions using smartphones to perform the otherwise arduous and labour-intensive task of “contact tracing” – determining who has come into contact with a disease carrier and what should be done when a person has had that contact.

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New Zealand government deploys nude ‘porn actors’ in web safety ad

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Government TV ad is latest in a series of striking public service announcements using humour to tackle tricky subjects

It’s a scene out of every parent’s – and teenager’s – worst nightmare: two adult-film actors turn up naked at the front door, to tell a stunned mother: “Hiya … your son’s been watching us online.”

The sudden appearance of a smiling but nude Sue and Derek has become something of a sensation as part on an unusual series of TV ads by the New Zealand government about internet safety for young people.

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