Day: November 18, 2020

Google Will Make It a bit Easier to Turn Off Smart Features which track you, Slightly Harder for Regulators to Break Up Google

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Soon, Google will present you with a clear choice to disable smart features, like Google assistant reminders to pay your bills and predictive text in Gmail. Whether you like the Gmail mindreader function that autofills “all the best” and “reaching out,” or have long dreaded the arrival of the machine staring back from the void,: Read more about Google Will Make It a bit Easier to Turn Off Smart Features which track you, Slightly Harder for Regulators to Break Up Google[…]

Apple hits back at European activist lawsuit against unauthorised tracking installs – says it doesn’t use it… but 3rd parties do

Posted on by Robin Edgar

The group, led by campaigner Max Schrems, filed complaints with data protection watchdogs in Germany and Spain alleging that the tracking tool illegally enabled the $2 trillion U.S. tech giant to store users’ data without their consent. Apple directly rebutted the claims filed by Noyb, the digital rights group founded by Schrems, saying they were Read more about Apple hits back at European activist lawsuit against unauthorised tracking installs – says it doesn’t use it… but 3rd parties do[…]

How the U.S. Military Buys Location Data from Ordinary Apps

Posted on by Robin Edgar

The U.S. military is buying the granular movement data of people around the world, harvested from innocuous-seeming apps, Motherboard has learned. The most popular app among a group Motherboard analyzed connected to this sort of data sale is a Muslim prayer and Quran app that has more than 98 million downloads worldwide. Others include a Read more about How the U.S. Military Buys Location Data from Ordinary Apps[…]

Bumble Left Daters’ Location Data Up For Grabs For Over Six Months

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Bumble, the dating app behemoth that’s allegedly headed to a major IPO as soon as next year, apparently took over half a year to deal with major security flaws that left sensitive information its millions of users vulnerable. That’s according to new research posted over the weekend by cybersecurity firm Independent Security Evaluators (ISE) detailing Read more about Bumble Left Daters’ Location Data Up For Grabs For Over Six Months[…]

GitHub Restores YouTube Downloader Following DMCA Takedown, starts to protect developers from DMCA misuse

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Last month, GitHub removed a popular tool that is used to download videos from websites like YouTube after it received a DMCA takedown notice from the Recording Industry Association of America. For a moment, it seemed that GitHub might throw developers under the bus in the same fashion that Twitch has recently treated its streamers. Read more about GitHub Restores YouTube Downloader Following DMCA Takedown, starts to protect developers from DMCA misuse[…]

Worn-out NAND flash blamed for Tesla vehicle gremlins, such as rearview cam failures and silenced audio alerts

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Worn-out NAND memory chips can cause a whole host of problems with some Tesla cars, ranging from the failure of the rearview camera to an absence of turn signal chimes and other audio alerts, a watchdog warned this month. Some 159,000 Tesla Model S and Model X vehicles built between 2012 and 2018 are at Read more about Worn-out NAND flash blamed for Tesla vehicle gremlins, such as rearview cam failures and silenced audio alerts[…]

NSA Spied On Denmark As It Chose Its Future Fighter Aircraft: Report – also FR, NL, DE, NO, SE

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Reports in the Danish media allege that the United States spied on the country’s government and its defense industry, as well as other European defense contractors, in an attempt to gain information on its fighter acquisition program. The revelations, published online by DR, Denmark’s Danish public-service broadcaster, concern the run-up to the fighter competition that Read more about NSA Spied On Denmark As It Chose Its Future Fighter Aircraft: Report – also FR, NL, DE, NO, SE[…]

Army Hires Company To Develop Cyber Defenses For Its Strykers After They Were Hacked

Posted on by Robin Edgar

On Nov. 16, 2020, Virginia-based cybersecurity firm Shift5, Inc. announced that it had received a $2.6 million contract from the Army’s Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office (RCCTO) to “provide unified cybersecurity prototype kits designed to help protect the operational technology of the Army’s Stryker combat vehicle platform.” The company says it first pitched its Read more about Army Hires Company To Develop Cyber Defenses For Its Strykers After They Were Hacked[…]