Technology firm’s Ad Exchange processing of users’ personal data being investigated
The Irish data protection commission has opened an investigation into Google over suspected infringements of European Union privacy rules.
The statutory inquiry will probe whether Google’s online Ad Exchange violated general data protection regulations (GDPR) covering the sharing of personal data of internet users, the watchdog said in a statement on Wednesday.
Continue reading...Digi Police enables victims of molesters to notify fellow passengers of harassment
Almost two decades after the introduction of women-only train carriages, female commuters in Japan are turning to technology to tackle molesters on packed rush-hour trains.
The Digi Police app enables victims of groping to activate a voice shouting “Stop it!” at ear-piercing volume or bring up a full-screen message reading, “There is a molester. Please help” that they can show to other passengers.
Continue reading...Avaaz uncovers 500 accounts using fake news to spread white supremacy message
A web of far-right Facebook accounts spreading fake news and hate speech to millions of people across Europe has been uncovered by the campaign group Avaaz.
Facebook, which is struggling to clean up the platform and salvage its reputation, has already taken down accounts with about 6 million followers before voting in the European elections begins on Thursday. It was still investigating hundreds of other accounts with an additional 26 million followers, Avaaz said.
Continue reading...Female-voiced tech often gives submissive responses to queries, Unesco report finds
Assigning female genders to digital assistants such as Apple’s Siri and Amazon’s Alexa is helping entrench harmful gender biases, according to a UN agency.
Research released by Unesco claims that the often submissive and flirty responses offered by the systems to many queries – including outright abusive ones – reinforce ideas of women as subservient.
Continue reading...Trade wars, like real ones, are very much easier to start than to stop. The decision by Google to withhold its software from future Huawei smartphones, even if it will continue to support those presently on the market, comes after considerable pressure from the US government. Even so, it is a move that all parties will regret.
The pain for Huawei is obvious. Although it has been stockpiling chips and, presumably, preparing other defences, there is nothing it can sell to consumers outside China that does not depend on American software, and little that does not depend on American chips. As much as half of its global market could disappear, and that is without counting the 5G networking equipment which was the proximate cause of this quarrel. The ultimate cause, of course, is the American fear of losing its position of global pre-eminence, and the Chinese determination to realise that fear.
Continue reading...Top executive says dispute is about trade, not security, after Trump issued order aimed at cutting off firm from US supplies
The US ban on sharing technology with Huawei was a “cynically timed” blow in the escalating trade war between the US and China, the Chinese firm’s top executive in the UK has said.
Huawei denounced Donald Trump’s ban on the sharing of US tech with “foreign adversaries”, after a string of US tech companies followed Google in restricting the company’s access to their products on Monday.
Continue reading...Reported move could hit Huawei Technologies’ ability to run phone operating system
Google has suspended Huawei’s access to updates of its Android operating system and chipmakers have reportedly cut off supplies to the Chinese telecoms company, complying with orders from the US government as it seeks to blacklist Huawei around the world.
In a fresh blow to Huawei, Google said it was complying with Donald Trump’s executive order and was reviewing the “implications”, after Reuters initially reported the story.
Continue reading...The Chinese-owned app does pose data risks – but wrongly framing such fears can fuel racism and homophobia
For years, American leaders claimed that the internet would bring free markets and liberal democracy to China. Today, they are more likely to express worry about how Chinese power and Chinese money are reshaping American tech. Conventional strategic areas, like artificial intelligence and cybersecurity, have received the most scrutiny. But this week the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US (CFIUS) reached an agreement after an investigation of a different kind of target: the popular gay social networking app Grindr.
Grindr is based in West Hollywood and boasts more than 27 million users. The Chinese gaming firm Beijing Kunlun Tech Company acquired it over two years, purchasing a 60% stake in January 2016 and the remaining 40% in January 2018.
Continue reading...Amnesty International fears its staff may be ‘surveilled via NSO Pegasus software’
The Israeli firm linked to this week’s WhatsApp hack is facing a lawsuit backed by Amnesty International, which says it fears its staff may be under surveillance from spyware installed via the messaging service.
Related: WhatsApp urges users to update app after discovering spyware vulnerability
Continue reading...‘Appalled’ Democrat urges action after Guardian revealed Google has given $150,000 in free ads to opaque anti-abortion group
Google is facing pressure in Washington to immediately remove online advertisements for “fake medical clinics” that are designed to “mislead” women who are seeking an abortion.
Related: Google has given $150,000 in free ads to deceptive anti-abortion group
Continue reading...Finance ministers say Europe is increasingly dependent on Chinese and US technology
It boasts the world’s second biggest economy, a huge consumer market of about 500 million people and prodigious pools of talent and capital, not to mention two of the world’s most important financial centres.
But Europe is struggling to match its great rivals, the US and China, in creating the kind of global firms that increasingly dominate the 21st-century marketplace.
Continue reading...The New York police department’s use of celebrity doppelgänger photos calls their use of a facial recognition system into question
The New York police department used a photo of Woody Harrelson in its facial recognition program in an attempt to identify a beer thief who looked like the actor, according to a report published on Thursday.
Georgetown University’s Center on Privacy and Technology highlighted the April 2017 episode in “Garbage In, Garbage Out”, a report on what it says are flawed practices in law enforcement’s use of facial recognition.
Continue reading...Chinese firm says ban on tech from ‘foreign adversaries’ will harm US consumers
Huawei has hit back at Donald Trump’s administration after it declared a national emergency to ban technology from “foreign adversaries” and subjected the Chinese telecommunications company to strict export controls.
An executive order issued by the US president on Wednesday declared a national economic emergency that empowers the government to ban the technology and services of “foreign adversaries” deemed to pose “unacceptable risks” to national security, including from cyber-espionage and sabotage.
Continue reading...Jacinda Ardern and Emmanuel Macron met companies and G7 nations in Paris for Christchurch Call summit
World leaders and heads of global technology companies have pledged at a Paris summit to tackle terrorist and extremist violence online in what they described as an “unprecedented agreement”.
Wednesday’s event, organised two months to the day since the Christchurch massacre in New Zealand, drew up a “plan of action” to be adopted by countries and companies to prevent extreme material going viral on the internet.
Continue reading...Police investigating after she asked her followers to choose death or life and 69% voted for death
A 16 year-old girl has reportedly killed herself in Malaysia, after posting a poll on her Instagram account asking followers if she should die or not, and 69% of responders voting that she should.
Police in the east Malaysia state Sarawak said the girl, who has not been named, posted the poll on the photo sharing app with the message: “Really Important, Help Me Choose D/L”. After most responders voted for “death”, she killed herself.
Continue reading...Supervisors vote eight to one to restrict surveillance: ‘We can have security without being a security state’
San Francisco supervisors voted to make the city the first in the United States to ban police and other government agencies from using facial recognition technology.
Supervisors voted eight to one in favor of the “Stop Secret Surveillance Ordinance”, which will also strengthen existing oversight measures and will require city agencies to disclose current inventories of surveillance technology.
Continue reading...NSO Group technology reportedly used against lawyer involved in civil case against the Israeli surveillance firm
The UK lawyer whose phone was targeted by spyware that exploits a WhatsApp vulnerability said it appeared to be a desperate attempt by someone to covertly find out the details of his human rights work.
The lawyer, who asked not to be named, is involved in a civil case brought against the Israeli surveillance company NSO Group whose sophisticated Pegasus malware has reportedly been used against Mexican journalists, and a prominent Saudi dissident living in Canada.
Continue reading...Obria Group’s ads suggest it provides abortion services, when in fact it tries to persuade women not to terminate pregnancies
Google has given tens of thousands of dollars in free advertising to an anti-abortion group that runs ads suggesting it provides abortion services at its medical clinics, but actually seeks to deter “abortion-minded women” from terminating their pregnancies.
Related: Abortion: judge strikes down Kentucky restriction but governor to appeal
Continue reading...Stock traded considerably lower than $100bn the ride-hailing app had hoped to achieve
Uber’s hopes of a surge in the price of its shares have fallen flat, as investors gave the taxi-hailing app’s eagerly anticipated stock market float a frosty reception by sending the shares below their launch price.
Uber put a price of $45 on its shares valuing the company at $80bn (£61.4bn) – well below the $100bn it had once hoped to achieve – amid jitters among investors at the lacklustre performance of shares in rival Lyft since its recent float.
Continue reading...Lawyers fighting executive’s deportation from Canada to US say president’s comments prove case is politically motivated
Huawei’s chief financial officer intends to seek a stay on extradition proceedings, in part based on statements by Donald Trump about the case that her lawyers say disqualifies the United States from pursuing the matter in Canada.
Meng Wanzhou, 47, who faces charges related to Iran sanctions violations, was appearing at a Vancouver courthouse on Wednesday to set a timetable for her upcoming extradition hearing.
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