Hi-tech dreamcatcher defeats sleep amnesia

The device designed to capture your dreams and offer more creative waking lives.

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Top 10 Best Phones Under 55000 Rs In 2018

Undoubtedly, Android smartphones with great specifications are pleasure to have, but we need to pick the best one which fulfills all our desires. So, today we are about to discuss Best Phones Under 55000 Rs. Below is the list of best smartphone under 55000 which you can buy in india.  Top 10 Best Phones Under 55000 Rs In 2018 Well, if we look nearby, we will find that the era of bezel-less Android phones has just started and manufacturers are now trying hard to adapt the design. Talking about smartphones, users always prefer to choose Android over any other mobile operating system.

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Top 20+ Best File Sharing Websites To Share Large Files Online

As we all know, there are a huge number of mailing services available on the internet. Unfortunately, you can’t send larger file size with them. Therefore, we are going to share twenty best file sharing websites where you can easily send large files to another computer over the internet. Go through the post to discover the sites. In this virtual world, most internet users use email service to send messages and files over the internet. Today there are a huge number of mailing portals available like Gmail, Yahoo, MSN and much more. But the major issue with these emails services is

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Top 10+ Best Web Browsers 2018, You Should Install Right Now

We all know that web browser is probably the most important tool you have installed on your PC. Hence, today we will present a list of 10 best browsers that you should try in 2018,  considering the features they offer. Top 10+ Best Web Browsers 2018, You Should Install Right Now The browser is probably the most important tool you have installed on your PC. In this segment, there are several options, but the market is essentially dominated by Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox. Today we will show you a list of 10 web browsers that you should try in 2018,

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OMG! Samsung Smartphones Are Sending Out Photos On Their Own

We all know very well that the South Korean giant Samsung is well-known for its quality products and devices, however, now according to the latest reports, the South Korean giant Samsung’s smartphones are sending out photos secretly on their own. OMG! Samsung Smartphones Are Sending Out Photos On Their Own On Android, in addition to Google applications, many brands choose to take also their versions, which many users adopt. Unfortunately these also present problems, as is now being reported by many users of Samsung smartphones. Yes, if you have Samsung smartphone then beware, as they are sending picture messages to

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GiGa File Manager Premium APK 1.3.5 Latest Version Download 2018

Giga File Manager APK is a powerful file manager app for Android phone. It’s smart, lightweight, fast and easy to use. It also is a file transfer app helps you share files between devices in easiest way.  GiGa File Manager will help you to organize the files and folders that are stored on your Android smartphone or tablet. GiGa File Manager Premium APK 1.3.5 Latest Version Free Download 2018 If we look around, we will find Android smartphone or tablet on each and every hands. Without any doubt, Android is one of the best mobile operating system ever made. Not only these, Android

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Top 10 Best Phones Under 50000 Rs In 2018

Without any doubt, Android smartphones with great specifications are indeed a pleasure to have, but we need to pick the best one which fulfills all our desires. So, today we are about to discuss Best Phones Under 50000 Rs. Below is the list of best smartphone under 25000 which you can buy in india. Top 10 Best Phones Under 50000 Rs In 2018 If we look around, we will find that almost everyone now wants a smartphone that doesn’t hang a lot. Well on Android, users always love to play games that are high on graphics. If we take a look at

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Electric car buyers claim they were misled by Nissan

Nissan is accused of exaggerating the benefits of its latest Leaf electric car model.

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This WordPress Flaw Gives Attackers Full Control Over Your Site

We all know very well that the WordPress is arguably the free digital content platform most used worldwide. According to the recent data, 30% of all websites available on the internet use WordPress but the platform currently has a security flaw that allows users to delete files that are fundamental to the operation of sites that are based on this platform. This WordPress Flaw Gives Attackers Full Control Over Your Site The WordPress is arguably the free digital content platform most used worldwide. According to the recent data, 30% of all websites available on the internet use WordPress but the

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9 Alternatives to Whatsapp that Actually Respect Your Privacy

Let’s have a look at the 9 Alternatives to Whatsapp 2018 that Actually Respect Your Privacy as these apps are specially designed to secure your peer to peer chat from the attackers as they are working on really some good encryptions that will help you to chat comfortably. So have a look at these apps below. Whatsapp is one of the most popular social media platform using which the people can connect to the others through the mobile number additions. If you have the phone of the registered WhatsApp user in your contacts then you can message and do the conversation

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Apple & Samsung Finally Settle Their Seven-Year-Long Patent Fight

We all know very well that one of the best-known cases that put the tech giant Apple and the South Korean giant Samsung face-to-face is several years old and focuses on the alleged copy of the iPhone’s design. However, now according to the latest reports, the tech giant Apple and the South Korean giant Samsung finally settle their seven-year-long patent fight. Apple & Samsung Finally Settle Their Seven-Year-Long Patent Fight One of the best-known cases that put the tech giant Apple and the South Korean giant Samsung face-to-face is several years old and focuses on the alleged copy of the

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Benchmark’s Mitch Lasky will reportedly step down from Snap’s board of directors

Benchmark partner Mitch Lasky, who has served on Snap’s board of directors since December 2012, is not expected to stand for re-election to Snap’s board of directors and will thus be stepping down, according to a report by The Information.

Early investors stepping down from the board of directors — or at least not seeking re-election — isn’t that uncommon as once-private companies grow into larger public ones. Benchmark partner Peter Fenton did not seek re-election for Twitter’s board of directors in April last year. As Snap continues to navigate its future, especially as it has declined precipitously since going public and now sits at a valuation of around $16.5 billion. Partners with an expertise in the early-stage and later-stage startup life cycle may end up seeing themselves more useful taking a back seat and focusing on other investments. The voting process for board member re-election happens during the company’s annual meeting, so we’ll get more information when an additional proxy filing comes out ahead of the meeting later this year.

Benchmark is, or at least was at the time of going public last year, one of Snap’s biggest shareholders. According to the company’s 424B filing prior to going public in March last year, Benchmark held ownership of 23.1% of Snap’s Class B common stock and 8.2% of Snap’s Class A common stock. Lasky has been with Benchmark since April 2007, and also serves on the boards of a number of gaming companies like Riot Games and thatgamecompany, the creators of PlayStation titles flower and Journey. At the time, Snap said in its filing that Lasky was “qualified to serve as a member of our board of directors due to his extensive experience with social media and technology companies, as well as his experience as a venture capitalist investing in technology companies.”

The timing could be totally coincidental, but an earlier Recode report suggested Lasky had been talking about stepping down in future funds for Benchmark. The firm only recently wrapped up a very public battle with Uber, which ended up with Benchmark selling a significant stake in the company and a new CEO coming in to replace co-founder Travis Kalanick. Benchmark hired its first female general partner, Sarah Tavel, earlier this year.

We’ve reached out to both Snap and a representative from Benchmark for comment and will update the story when we hear back.

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Fortnite: A fortnight in my 40s in Battle Royale

A lapsed gamer is challenged to spend a fortnight playing Fortnite to understand its appeal.

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AI to help tackle fake news in Mexican election

The smart software will help media groups debunk fake news and respond to reports of violence.

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Tinder bolsters its security to ward off hacks and blackmail

This week, Tinder responded to a letter from Oregon Senator Ron Wyden calling for the company to seal up security loopholes in its app that could lead to blackmail and other privacy incursions.

In a letter to Sen. Wyden, Match Group General Counsel Jared Sine describes recent changes to the app, noting that as of June 19, “swipe data has been padded such that all actions are now the same size.” Sine added that images on the mobile app are fully encrypted as of February 6, while images on the web version of Tinder were already encrypted.

The Tinder issues were first called out in a report by a research team at Checkmarx describing the app’s “disturbing vulnerabilities” and their propensity for blackmail:

“The vulnerabilities, found in both the app’s Android and iOS versions, allow an attacker using the same network as the user to monitor the user’s every move on the app. It is also possible for an attacker to take control over the profile pictures the user sees, swapping them for inappropriate content, rogue advertising or other type of malicious content (as demonstrated in the research).

“While no credential theft and no immediate financial impact are involved in this process, an attacker targeting a vulnerable user can blackmail the victim, threatening to expose highly private information from the user’s Tinder profile and actions in the app.”

In February, Wyden called for Tinder to address the vulnerability by encrypting all data that moves between its servers and the app and by padding data to obscure it from hackers. In a statement to TechCrunch at the time, Tinder indicated that it heard Sen. Wyden’s concerns and had recently implemented encryption for profile photos in the interest of moving toward deepening its privacy practices.

“Like every technology company, we are constantly working to improve our defenses in the battle against malicious hackers and cyber criminals” Sine said in the letter. “… Our goal is to have protocols and systems that not only meet, but exceed industry best practices.”

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15 Best Security Apps That You Must Have In your iPhone 2018

Today in the virtual world there are so many security issues like lots of viruses, malware, trojans, and keylogger that can afford your device a lot. It’s time to do some security implementation in your iPhone to secure your data from being illegally accessed. We have shared some of the best Security apps for your iPhone that will help you a lot to secure your privacy. For iPhone users, we are here with 15 Best iPhone Security Apps. Today in the virtual world there are so many security issues like lots of viruses, malware, trojans, and keylogger that can afford your device a

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25+ Best Android Car Racing Games That You Should Try 2018

Today we are going to share an awesome article on gaming. This post is compiled of best Android Car racing Games which you can play on your Android smartphone. The Games are selected according to their user’s rating and popularity. I’m continuing to share Best Free Car Racing Games. We entirely are game fanatics and are insane about playing the Car Racing Games. Nowadays there are numerous Car Racing games available on play store, yet many of them are not so fashionable as their names. So I’ve assembled a list of the best car racing android games by having the overview on many factors like user

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Twitter gets a re-org and new product head

Twitter has a new product manager in the wake of a large re-org of the company announced this week. The changes will see Twitter dividing its business into groups including engineering, product, revenue product, design and research, and more, while also bringing on Kayvon Beykpour, the GM of video and former Periscope CEO, as product head.

Beykpour will replace Ed Ho, vice president of product and engineering, as Ho steps down into a part-time role. In a series of tweets, Ho explains his decision was based on a family loss, and says he hopes to return full-time in the future. He had been on leave from Twitter since May.

Some news!
Starting in early May of this year, I went on leave as @Twitter was really humming along, and it was time for me to take a breather.

— Ed Ho (@mrdonut) June 28, 2018

As Recode noted, these change will make Beykpour the sixth exec to head up product since early 2014.

Meanwhile, Ho’s other role — head of engineering — will now be overseen by Mike Montano, who is stepping up from product engineering.

Twitter CEO’s announcement of the changes, below, was tweeted out on Thursday:

We‘re reorganizing how Twitter is going to work together for the next decade. Sent this note to our team, and sharing with the world, because we want to be more open about how we think and work. This is a small but important step. Experimenting! Let us know what you think. pic.twitter.com/ygaIj9yjQi

— jack (@jack) June 28, 2018

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Tesco trials shopping without tills

The retailer is testing whether shoppers can buy products using an app, rather than visiting a till.

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Link2SD Plus APK 4.3.2 Latest Version Free Download 2018

Link2SD Plus APK is one of the best app available for the Android operating system that allows users to move all their apps from internal to external storage without investing many efforts. This app is meant to free up some phone storage which can lead to better performance. Link2SD Plus APK 4.3.2 Latest Version Free Download 2018 We all now holds an Android smartphone or tablet. However, Android systems have one thing in common, it can fill up quickly as you download new apps, add media files like movies, music etc. Well, now manufacturers are launching smartphones with massive storage. However,

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OMG! This Quiz App Left 120 Million Facebook Users’ Data Exposed

It seems that the problems of the social network giant Facebook and the sharing of user data are endless. As now according to the latest reports, recently, a well-known and popular Quiz application on the social network giant Facebook’s platform accidentally exposed data of 120 million users. OMG! This Quiz App Left 120 Million Facebook Users’ Data Exposed The problems of the social network giant Facebook and the sharing of user data seems to be endless. After all the Cambridge Analytica scandal, and what the company has done to solve it, they insist on creating new worrying situations. The latest

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BAD NEWS! Windows 10’s Clever App Tabs Won’t Ship With The Next Update

We all know very well that even before launching the April Update, the tech giant Microsoft had already started work on Redstone 5, dealing with the news that the next version of its operating system will bring. However, now according to the latest reports, the tech giant Microsoft Windows 10’s clever app tabs feature might not arrive in the next big OS update. BAD NEWS! Windows 10’s Clever App Tabs Won’t Ship With The Next Update Even before launching the April Update, the tech giant Microsoft had already started work on Redstone 5, dealing with the news that the next

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Samsung Galaxy Note 9 – Release Date Officially Confirmed

According to the latest reports, the well-known giant South Korean smartphone manufacturer, of course, Samsung recently confirmed officially the release date of the new flagship smartphone of the brand, of course, I am talking about the Galaxy Note 9. Samsung Galaxy Note 9 – Release Date Officially Confirmed The well-known giant South Korean smartphone manufacturer, of course, Samsung recently unveiled that it will introduce the new smartphone of the brand, Galaxy Note 9, on August 9. Yes, it will be the successor of the South Korean giant, of course, Samsung’s Galaxy Note 8, and it will appear at the event

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Mozilla Just Launched A New Version Of Firefox With Game-Changing New Features

We all know that Firefox is unquestionably one of the best browsers of today. Although not the most used worldwide, this browser has evolved significantly both by performance level and functionality level. Hence, now according to the latest reports, recently Mozilla released the new version of its browser, Firefox 61 with game-changing new features. Mozilla Just Launched A New Version Of Firefox With Game-Changing New Features After several years of performance problems and with fewer and fewer users, Mozilla has decided to re-bet heavily on its browser and now has one of the best on the market. This work has

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Legal bid to throw out US sex trafficking law

The US law is hitting the people it was supposed to protect, argue digital rights campaigners.

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Floating robot Cimon sent to International Space Station

The ball-shaped robot that can move around in zero gravity blasts off to the International Space Station.

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Fake bookings hit Singapore's Ryde Technologies

Ryde Technologies says 2,000 "phantom bookings" have cost its drivers thousands of dollars.

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This New Wi-Fi Security Will Save You From Yourself

We all know very well that in 2017 it was discovered that the “powerful” WPA2 protocol, which was already used for more than 14 years, had a serious security flaw and in that sense, it was necessary to develop a substitute. Hence, now according to the latest reports, to enhance the security of our Wi-Fi, recently, Wi-Fi Alliance has just introduced its new powerful and most secure Wi-Fi security standard which will simply save you from yourself. This New Wi-Fi Security Will Save You From Yourself In 2017 it was discovered that the “powerful” WPA2 protocol, which was already used

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Facebook’s Patents Reveals Its Shocking Plans To Collect More Data

The social network giant Facebook is again under fire for collecting people’s essential and personal data for years. Yes, according to the latest reports, the social network giant Facebook’s patents revealed its shocking and creepy plans to collect more data from users. Facebook’s Patents Reveals Its Shocking Plans To Collect More Data The social network giant Facebook over the years has turned out to be a “Machiavellian machine” for the collection of data and private habits of users, with reprehensible behavior as the company, allegedly assumed “responsibility to protect user information”. Since 2008 it has been found that the data

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OMG! Google Ditches AdWords & DoubleClick Brands

We all know very well that AdWords came in 2000 as a system where advertisers paid to appear on certain keywords in Google’s search results. DoubleClick was acquired in 2008 and relaunched as an online advertising service for agencies and vehicles. However, now according to the latest reports, the tech giant Google has just announced that it is shutting down its well-known advertising brands, AdWords and DoubleClick. OMG! Google Ditches AdWords & DoubleClick Brands AdWords came in 2000 as a system where advertisers paid to appear on certain keywords in Google’s search results. DoubleClick was acquired in 2008 and relaunched

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Vivo Unveiled Its New 3D Face ID, 10 Times More Accurate Than Apple’s Face ID

We all know very well that the well-known Chinese smartphone manufacturer Vivo has been standing out in the market of smartphones for bringing new technologies. However, now according to the latest reports, the well-known Chinese smartphone manufacturer Vivo has just unveiled its new 3D Face ID that promises to be much better than the Face ID, used by the tech giant Apple on the iPhone X. Vivo Unveiled Its New 3D Face ID, 10 Times More Accurate Than Apple’s Face ID The well-known Chinese smartphone manufacturer Vivo has been standing out in the market of smartphones for bringing new technologies,

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Twitter launches its Ads Transparency Center, where you can see ads bought by any account

Twitter is unveiling the Ads Transparency Center that it announced back in October.

This comes as Twitter and other online platforms have faced growing political scrutiny around the role they may have played in spreading misinformation, particularly in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

For example, House Democrats recently released thousands of of Russian-funded political Facebook ads, and Facebook will reportedly release its own ad transparency tool this week. (In fact, as this story publishes, I’m at a Facebook press event focused on ad transparency.)

Twitter says that with this tool, you should be able to search for any Twitter handle and bring up all the ad campaigns from that account that have run for the past seven days. For political advertisers in the U.S., there will be additional data, including information around billing, ad spend, impressions per tweet and demographic targeting.

Everyone should be able to access the Ads Transparency Center, no login required.

As part of  the political ad guidelines that Twitter announced last month, the company says it will be visually identifying ads that are tied to federal elections in the United States. Over time, it plans to develop a policy specifically around “issue ads” (i.e., political ads that aren’t explicitly promoting a candidate) and looking for ways to expand these policies internationally.

“We are doing our due diligence to get this right and will have more updates to come,” writes Twitter’s Bruce Falck in a blog post. “We stay committed to iterating and improving our work in this space, and doing what’s right for our community.”

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LinkedIn adds Microsoft-powered translations and QR codes to connect more of its users faster

LinkedIn — the social network with more than 560 million members who connect around work-related topics and job-seeking — continues to add more features, integrating technology from its new owner Microsoft, both to improve engagement on LinkedIn as well as to create deeper data ties between the two businesses.

Today, the company announced two more: users can now instantly view translations of content on the site when it appears in a language that is not the one set as a default; and they can now use QR codes to quickly swap contact details with other LinkedIn members.

In both cases, the features are likely overdue. The lingua franca of LinkedIn seems to be English, but the platform has a large global reach, and as it continues to try to expand to a wider range of later adopters and different categories of users, having a translation feature seems to be a no-brainer. It would also put it in closer line with the likes of Twitter and Facebook, which have had translation options for years.

The QR code generator, meanwhile, has become a key way for people to swap their details when they are not already connected on a network. And with LinkedIn this makes a lot of sense: there are so many people with the same name and it can be a challenge figuring out which “Mark Smith” you might want to connect with after coming across him at an event. And given that LinkedIn has been looking for more ways of making its app useful in in-person situations, this is an obvious way to enable that.

Translations are coming by way of the Microsoft Text Analytics API, the same Azure Cognitive Service  that powers translations on Bing, Skype and Office (as well as third-party services like Twitter). It will be available in more than 60 languages, with more coming soon, LinkedIn says, to a “majority” of members using either the desktop or mobile web versions of LinkedIn.

The company says that it will be coming to LinkedIn’s iOS and Android apps in due course, as well. Users will get the “see translation” link based on a number of signals you’re providing to LinkedIn that include your language setting on the platform, the country where you are accessing content and the language you have used in your profile.

Content covered by the option to translate will include the main feed, the activity section on a person’s profile and posts if you click on them in the feed or share it.

Meanwhile, with QR codes, you trigger the ability to capture one by clicking in the search box on the iOS or Android app. Through that window, you can also pick up your own code to share with others.

LinkedIn suggests that the QR code can effectively become the replacement for the business card for people when they are at in-person events. But another option is that you can use this now in any place where you might want to provide a shortcut to your profile.

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Facebook and Google use 'dark patterns' around privacy settings, report says

Consumer watchdog the Norwegian Consumer Council says the firms give users "an illusion of control".

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CamScanner – Phone PDF Creator APK Latest Version Free Download for Android

CamScanner – Phone PDF Creator APK 2018 is an interesting app which will benefit every people who work at an office. With the help of CamScanner – Phone PDF Creator you can use your phone camera to scan and digitize all kinds of paper documents, receipts, notes, invoices, whiteboard discusses, certificates and much more. CamScanner – Phone PDF Creator APK Latest Version Free Download for Android 2018 We should admit that now everyone holds an Android smartphone. The reason why Android is the most loved operating system is that it’s highly customizable. Android is an open source operating system which is

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Yet another massive Facebook fail: Quiz app leaked data on ~120M users for years

Facebook knows the historical app audit it’s conducting in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica data misuse scandal is going to result in a tsunami of skeletons tumbling out of its closet.

It’s already suspended around 200 apps as a result of the audit — which remains ongoing, with no formal timeline announced for when the process (and any associated investigations that flow from it) will be concluded.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the audit on March 21, writing then that the company would “investigate all apps that had access to large amounts of information before we changed our platform to dramatically reduce data access in 2014, and we will conduct a full audit of any app with suspicious activity”.

But you do have to question how much the audit exercise is, first and foremost, intended to function as PR damage limitation for Facebook’s brand — given the company’s relaxed response to a data abuse report concerning a quiz app with ~120M monthly users, which it received right in the midst of the Cambridge Analytica scandal.

Because despite Facebook being alerted about the risk posed by the leaky quiz apps in late April — via its own data abuse bug bounty program — they were still live on its platform a month later.

It took about a further month for the vulnerability to be fixed.

And, sure, Facebook was certainly busy over that period. Busy dealing with a major privacy scandal.

Perhaps the company was putting rather more effort into pumping out a steady stream of crisis PR — including taking out full page newspaper adverts (where it wrote that: “we have a responsibility to protect your information. If we can’t, we don’t deserve it”) — vs actually ‘locking down the platform’, per its repeat claims, even though the company’s long and rich privacy-hostile history suggests otherwise.

Let’s also not forget that, in early April, Facebook quietly confessed to a major security flaw of its own — when it admitted that an account search and recovery feature had been abused by “malicious actors” who, over what must have been a period of several years, had been able to surreptitiously collect personal data on a majority of Facebook’s ~2BN users — and use that intel for whatever they fancied.

So Facebook users already have plenty reasons to doubt the company’s claims to be able to “protect your information”. But this latest data fail facepalm suggests it’s hardly scrambling to make amends for its own stinkingly bad legacy either.

Change will require regulation. And in Europe that has arrived, in the form of the GDPR.

Although it remains to be seen whether Facebook will face any data breach complaints in this specific instance, i.e. for not disclosing to affected users that their information was at risk of being exposed by the leaky quiz apps.

The regulation came into force on May 25 — and the javascript vulnerability was not fixed until June. So there may be grounds for concerned consumers to complain.

Which Facebook data abuse victim am I?

Writing in a Medium post, the security researcher who filed the report — self-styled “hacker” Inti De Ceukelaire — explains he went hunting for data abusers on Facebook’s platform after the company announced a data abuse bounty on April 10, as the company scrambled to present a responsible face to the world following revelations that a quiz app running on its platform had surreptitiously harvested millions of users’ data — data that had been passed to a controversial UK firm which intended to use it to target political ads at US voters.

De Ceukelaire says he began his search by noting down what third party apps his Facebook friends were using — finding quizzes were one of the most popular apps. Plus he already knew quizzes had a reputation for being data-suckers in a distracting wrapper. So he took his first ever Facebook quiz, from a brand called NameTests.com, and quickly realized the company was exposing Facebook users’ data to “any third-party that requested it”.

The issue was that NameTests was displaying the quiz taker’s personal data (such as full name, location, age, birthday) in a javascript file — thereby potentially exposing the identify and other data on logged in Facebook users to any external website they happened to visit.

He also found it was providing an access token that allowed it to grant even more expansive data access permissions to third party websites — such as to users’ Facebook posts, photos and friends.

It’s not clear exactly why — but presumably relates to the quiz app company’s own ad targeting activities. (Its privacy policy states: “We work together with various technological partners who, for example, display advertisements on the basis of user data. We make sure that the user’s data is pseudonymised (e.g. no clear data such as names or e-mail addresses) and that users have simple rights of revocation at their disposal. We also conclude special data protection agreements with our partners, in which they commit themselves to the protection of user data.” — which sounds great until you realize its javascript was just leaking people’s personally identified data… [facepalm])

“Depending on what quizzes you took, the javascript could leak your facebook ID, first name, last name, language, gender, date of birth, profile picture, cover photo, currency, devices you use, when your information was last updated, your posts and statuses, your photos and your friends,” writes De Ceukelaire.

He reckons people’s data had been being publicly exposed since at least the end of 2016.

On Facebook, NameTests describes its purpose thusly: “Our goal is simple: To make people smile!” — adding that its quizzes are intended as a bit of “fun”.

It doesn’t shout so loudly that the ‘price’ for taking one of its quizzes, say to find out what Disney princess you ‘are’, or what you could look like as an oil painting, is not only that it will suck out masses of your personal data (and potentially your friends’ data) from Facebook’s platform for its own ad targeting purposes but was also, until recently, that your and other people’s information could have been exposed to goodness knows who, for goodness knows what nefarious purposes… 

The Facebook-Cambridge Analytica data misuse scandal has underlined that ostensibly frivolous social data can end up being repurposed for all sorts of manipulative and power-grabbing purposes. (And not only can end up, but that quizzes are deliberately built to be data-harvesting tools… So think of that the next time you get a ‘take this quiz’ notification asking ‘what is in your fact file?’ or ‘what has your date of birth imprinted on you’? And hope ads is all you’re being targeted for… )

De Ceukelaire found that NameTests would still reveal Facebook users’ identity even after its app was deleted.

“In order to prevent this from happening, the user would have had to manually delete the cookies on their device, since NameTests.com does not offer a log out functionality,” he writes.

“I would imagine you wouldn’t want any website to know who you are, let alone steal your information or photos. Abusing this flaw, advertisers could have targeted (political) ads based on your Facebook posts and friends. More explicit websites could have abused this flaw to blackmail their visitors, threatening to leak your sneaky search history to your friends,” he adds, fleshing out the risks for affected Facebook users.

As well as alerting Facebook to the vulnerability, De Ceukelaire says he contacted NameTests — and they claimed to have found no evidence of abuse by a third party. They also said they would make changes to fix the issue.

We’ve reached out to NameTests’ parent company — a German firm called Social Sweethearts — for comment. Its website touts a “data-driven approach” — and claims its portfolio of products achieve “a global organic reach of several billion page views per month”.

After De Ceukelaire reported the problem to Facebook, he says he received an initial response from the company on April 30 saying they were looking into it. Then, hearing nothing for some weeks, he sent a follow up email, on May 14, asking whether they had contacted the app developers.

A week later Facebook replied saying it could take three to six months to investigate the issue (i.e. the same timeframe mentioned in their initial automated reply), adding they would keep him in the loop.

Yet at that time — which was a month after his original report — the leaky NameTests quizzes were still up and running,  meaning Facebook users’ data was still being exposed and at risk. And Facebook knew about the risk.

The next development came on June 25, when De Ceukelaire says he noticed NameTests had changed the way they process data to close down the access they had been exposing to third parties.

Two days later Facebook also confirmed the flaw in writing, admitting: “[T]his could have allowed an attacker to determine the details of a logged-in user to Facebook’s platform.”

It also told him it had confirmed with NameTests the issue had been fixed. And its apps continue to be available on Facebook’s platform — suggesting Facebook did not find the kind of suspicious activity that has led it to suspend other third party apps. (At least, assuming it conducted an investigation.)

Facebook paid out a $4,000 x2 bounty to a charity under the terms of its data abuse bug bounty program — and per De Ceukelaire’s request.

We asked it what took it so long to respond to the data abuse report, especially given the issue was so topical when De Ceukelaire filed the report. But Facebook declined to answer specific questions.

Instead it sent us the following statement, attributed to Ime Archibong, its VP of product partnerships:

A researcher brought the issue with the nametests.com website to our attention through our Data Abuse Bounty Program that we launched in April to encourage reports involving Facebook data. We worked with nametests.com to resolve the vulnerability on their website, which was completed in June.

Facebook also claims it received De Ceukelaire’s report on April 27, rather than April 22, as he recounts it. Though it’s possible the former date is when Facebook’s own staff retrieved the report from its systems. 

Beyond displaying a disturbingly relaxed attitude to other people’s privacy — which risks getting Facebook into regulatory trouble, given GDPR’s strict requirements around breach disclosure, for example — the other core issue of concern here is the company’s apparent failure to enforce its own developer policy. 

The underlying issue is whether or not Facebook performs any checks on apps running on its platform. It’s no good having T&Cs if you don’t have any active processes to enforce your T&Cs. Rules without enforcement aren’t worth the paper they’re written on.

Historical evidence suggests Facebook did not actively enforce its developer T&Cs — even if it’s now “locking down the platform”, as it claims, as a result of so many privacy scandals. 

The quiz app developer at the center of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, Aleksandr Kogan — who harvested and sold/passed Facebook user data to third parties — has accused Facebook of essentially not having a policy. He contends it is therefore Facebook who is responsible for the massive data abuses that have played out on its platform — only a portion of which have so far come to light. 

Fresh examples such as NameTests’ leaky quiz apps merely bolster the case Kogan made for Facebook being the guilty party where data misuse is concerned. After all, if you built some stables without any doors at all would you really blame your horses for bolting?

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Ticketmaster 'warned of hack attack in April by Monzo'

Digital bank Monzo claims it warned Ticketmaster that data had been compromised three months ago.

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'Dancing baby' YouTube copyright case settled after 11 years

The clip of baby Holden, now aged 12, has been viewed more than 1.9 million times.

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New Fortnite practice mode quickly taken offline

The new mode, called Playground, let players practise their skills in the popular video game Fortnite.

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Elon Musk accused of stealing farting unicorn image

Technology entrepreneur engages in a fresh Twitter argument over pottery of a mythical animal.

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AI India

India's vast engineering workforce and burgeoning start-up scene are among the advantages it enjoys.

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Dr Dre hit with $25m bill for Beats headphones

The rapper and his business partner Jimmy Iovine lose a case over headphone royalties.

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Top 10 Best Ways To Avoid Becoming A Victim Of Keyloggers

Keylogger is a type of surveillance software that has the capability to record each keystroke you make to a log file, usually encrypted. Today we are here with a method for How to Protect Yourself From Keyloggers. We had mentioned 10 tricks that will surely protect you from Dangerous keyloggers A keylogger is a type of surveillance software that has the capability to record each keystroke you make to a log file, usually encrypted. Every type of keylogger is dangerous as they can register your keystrokes, tracks your activity and can record the open sites. By this, your any account can be readily hacked

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Ticketmaster admits personal data stolen in hack attack

Up to 40,000 UK customers may have had data stolen, the BBC understands.

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AVG Antivirus Pro APK 6.7.1 Latest Version Free Download 2018

AVG Antivirus Pro 6.7.1 APK is one of the best Antivirus app available for Android smartphone or tablet. This is an all-in-one mobile security and virus protection app available for your Android smartphone or tablet. The antivirus tool is known for providing the proactive protection for smartphones and tablets to help you enjoy the powerful potential of mobile. AVG Antivirus Pro APK 6.7.1 Latest Version Free Download 2018 If we look around, we will find that every 8 out of 10 people now holds an Android smartphone. Android is an open source operating system which is based on Linux. Because of its open

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Google Just Added An Extraordinary New Feature To Google Earth

In addition to Google Maps, the search giant, of course, the tech giant Google has other offers in this area, which can give a little more help to users. Yes, now according to the latest reports, the tech giant Google just added an extraordinary new feature to one of its well-known services, of course, the Google Earth. Google Just Added An Extraordinary New Feature To Google Earth In addition to Google Maps, the search giant, of course, the tech giant Google has other offers in this area, which can give a little more help to users. What stands out most,

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This Electronic Skin Allows User Of Prosthetic Hand To Feel Pain

We all know very well that the use of a prosthesis was not so advantageous when referring to the twentieth century. However, now according to the latest reports, recently researchers have discovered an electronic skin that allows users of prosthetic hand feel real pain. This Electronic Skin Allows User Of Prosthetic Hand To Feel Pain The use of a prosthesis was not so advantageous when referring to the twentieth century. Most of the time, the prostheses consisted of heavy wood, falling far short of the naturalness that was supposed. Thanks to 3D printing and a lot of technology developed, this

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Swann home security camera sends video to wrong user

Swann Security acknowledges it sent clips from inside a family's home to the wrong person's app.

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Facebook tests 30-day keyword snoozing to fight spoilers, triggers

Don’t want to know the ending to a World Cup game or Avengers movie until you’ve watched it, or just need to quiet an exhausting political topic like “Trump”? Facebook is now testing the option to “snooze” specific keywords so you won’t see them for 30 days in News Feed or Groups. The feature is rolling out to a small percentage of users today. It could make people both more comfortable browsing the social network when they’re trying to avoid something, and not feel guilty posting about sensitive topics.

The feature was first spotted in the Facebook’s app’s code by Chris Messina on Sunday, who told TechCrunch he found a string for “snooze keywords for 30 days”. We reached out to Facebook on Monday, which didn’t initially respond, but last night provided details we could publish at 5am this morning ahead of an official announcement later today. The test follows the roll out of snoozing people, Pages, and Groups from last December.

To snooze a keyword, you first have to find a post that includes it. That kind of defeats the whole purpose since you might run into the spoiler you didn’t want to see. But when asked about that problem, a Facebook spokesperson told me the company is looking into adding a preemptive snooze option in the next few weeks, potentially in News Feed Preferences. It’s also considering a recurring snooze list so you could easily re-enable hiding your favorite sports team before any game you’ll have to watch on delay.

For now, though, when you see the word you can hit the drop-down arrow on the post which will reveal an option to “snooze keywords in this post”. Tapping that reveals a list of nouns from the post you might want to nix, without common words like “the” in the way. So if you used the feature on a post that said “England won its World Cup game against Tunisia! Yes!”, the feature would pull out “World Cup”, “England”, and “Tunisia”. Select all that you want to snooze, and posts containing them will be hidden for a month. Currently, the feature only works on text, not images, and won’t suggest synonyms you might want to snooze as well.

The spokesperson says the feature “was something that kept coming up” in Facebook interviews with users. The option applies to any organic content, but you can’t block ads with it, so if you snoozed “Deadpool” you wouldn’t see posts from friends about the movie but still might see ads to buy tickets. Facebook’s excuse for this is that ads belong to a “a separate team, separate algorithm” but surely it just doesn’t want to open itself up to users mass-blocking its revenue driver. The spokesperson also said that snoozing isn’t currently being used for other content and ad targeting purposes.

We asked why users can’t permanently mute keywords like Twitter launched in November 2016, or the way Instagram launched keyword blocking for your posts’ comments in September 2016. Facebook says “If we’re hearing from people that they want more or less time” that might get added as the feature rolls out beyond a test. There is some sense to defaulting to only temporary muting, as users might simply forget they blocked their favorite sports team before a big game, and then wouldn’t see it mentioned forever after.

But when it comes to abuse, permanent muting is something Facebook really should offer. Instead it’s relied on users flagging abuse like racial slurs, and it recently revealed its content moderation guidelines. Some topics that are fine for others could be tough for certain people to see, though, and helping users prevent trauma probably deserves to be prioritized above stopping reality TV spoilers.

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Top 10 Best Android Phones Under Rs. 45,000 In 2018

Well, if you are looking for high-end Android Phones Under 45000 that comes with a premium look and offers conventional configuration, then this post might help you to pick the best one out of the crowd. Below, we are going to list down 10 best phone under 45000. Top 10 Best Android Phones Under Rs. 45,000 In 2018 If we take a look at the marketplace, we will find that manufacturers are busy making high-end smartphones. Well, this year we have seen some high-end smartphones, and some are yet to arrive in upcoming time. In this crowded marketplace, it becomes really

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Social SafeGuard scores $11M to sell alerts for brand-damaging fakes

Social SafeGuard, a 2014-founded U.S. startup which sells security services to enterprises aimed at mitigating a range of digital risks that lie outside the corporate firewall, has closed an $11 million Series B funding round, from AllegisCyber and NightDragon Security.

It’s hoping to ride the surge in awareness around social media fakery — putting the new funding towards sales and marketing, plus some product dev.

“As one of the few dedicated cybersecurity venture firms, we know how big this challenge has become for today’s security executives,” said Spencer Tall, MD of AllegisCyber, in a supporting statement. Tall is joining the Social SafeGuard board.

“This is no longer a fringe need that can be ignored or deferred. Digital risk protection should be on the shortlist of corporate security priorities for the next decade,” he adds.

Social SafeGuard’s SaaS platform is designed to alert customers to risks that might cause damage to a business or brand’s reputation — such as brand impersonation, compliance issues or even the spread of fake news — as well as more pure-play security threats, such as social phishing, malware, spam and fake accounts.

Its platform uses machine learning and a customized policy engine to offer real-time monitoring of 50 digital and social channels (integrating via an API hub) — including social media platforms, mobile messaging apps, IM tools like Slack, unified comms platforms (Skype for business etc), clouds apps like Office365, blogs and news sites, and the dark web.

The types of threats the platform is trained to look out for include malicious message content, inappropriate images, malicious links, account takeover attempts and brand impersonation.

“Digital risks to any enterprise are twofold: internal or external — from employees communicating in non-compliant ways that expose a business to regulatory danger to more typical cyber threats like phishing, malware, account hacks or brand impersonation. Social SafeGuard helps mitigate all of these new digital risks by giving companies the tools to detect threats and defend against them, so they can adopt new technologies without fear,” says founder and CEO Jim Zuffoletti.

As well as threat detection and real-time notification, the platform includes built in take-down requests and follow-through — “to make threat management as responsive as possible”, as he puts it.

Social SafeGuard’s software also does risk scoring to aid the rapid triage of potential threats, and uses AI to try to anticipate “potential attacks and identify known bad actors” — so it’s responding to a wider security industry shift from purely defensive, reactive actions towards pro-active detection and response.

On the compliance front, the platform includes a governance and customizable policy engine that enterprises can use to monitor employee and partner communications for regulatory violations.

“For compliance-focused clients, messages are archived with automated audit trails that provide transparency and clarity,” notes Zuffoletti.

The platform has around 50 customers at this stage. Zuffoletti says its biggest customers are in the financial services and life sciences sectors — but says high tech is its fastest-growing sector.

Examples of the kinds of attacks its tools have been used to prevent include account takeovers, malware attacks, financial regulations violations, and FCPA and HIPAA violations.

“In one recent example, we were able to perform a forensic analysis of an online securities fraud scheme, which also posed brand reputation issues for one of our clients,” he adds. “Our platform is adaptable to evolving hybrid threats, too.”

On the competitive front, Zuffoletti namechecks the likes of Proofpoint and RiskIQ.

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Twitter puts a tighter squeeze on spambots

Twitter has announced a range of actions intended to bolster efforts to fight spam and “malicious automation” (aka bad bots) on its platform — including increased security measures around account verification and sign-up; running a historical audit to catch spammers who signed up when its systems were more lax; and taking a more proactive approach to identifying spam activity to reduce its ability to make an impact.

It says the new steps build on previously announced measures to fight abuse and trolls, and new policies on hateful conduct and violent extremism.

The company has also recently been publicly seeking new technology and staff to fight spam and abuse.

All of which is attempting to turn around Twitter’s reputation for being awful at tackling abuse.

“Our focus is increasingly on proactively identifying problematic accounts and behavior rather than waiting until we receive a report,” Twitter’s Yoel Roth and Del Harvey write in the latest blog update. “We focus on developing machine learning tools that identify and take action on networks of spammy or automated accounts automatically. This lets us tackle attempts to manipulate conversations on Twitter at scale, across languages and time zones, without relying on reactive reports.”

“Platform manipulation and spam are challenges we continue to face and which continue to evolve, and we’re striving to be more transparent with you about our work,” they add, after giving a progress update on the performance of its anti-spambot systems, saying they picked up more than 9.9M “potentially spammy or automated accounts” per week in May, up from 6.4M in December 2017 and 3.2M in September.

Among the welcome — if VERY long overdue — changes is an incoming requirement for new accounts to confirm either an email address or phone number when they sign up, in order to make it harder for people to register spam accounts.

“This is an important change to defend against people who try to take advantage of our openness,” they write. “We will be working closely with our Trust & Safety Council and other expert NGOs to ensure this change does not hurt someone in a high-risk environment where anonymity is important. Look for this to roll out later this year.”

The company has also been wading into its own inglorious legacy of spam failure by conducting historical audits of some legacy sign-up systems to try to clear bad actors off the platform.

Well, better late than never as they say.

Twitter says it’s already identified “a large number” of suspected spam accounts as a result of investigating misuse of an old part of its signup flow — saying these are “primarily follow spammers”, i.e. spambots who automatically or bulk followed verified or other high-profile accounts at the point of sign up.

And it says it will be challenging these accounts to prove its ‘spammer’ classification wrong.

As a result of this it warns that some users may see a drop in their follow counts.

“When we challenge an account, follows originating from that account are hidden until the account owner passes that challenge. This does not mean accounts appearing to lose followers did anything wrong; they were the targets of spam that we are now cleaning up,” it writes. “We’ve recently been taking more steps to clean up spam and automated activity and close the loopholes they’d exploited, and are working to be more transparent about these kinds of actions.”

“Our goal is to ensure that every account created on Twitter has passed some simple, automatic security checks designed to prevent automated signups. The new protections we’ve developed as a result of this audit have already helped us prevent more than 50,000 spammy signups per day,” it adds.

As part of this shift in approach to reduce the visibility and power of spambots by impacting their ability to bogusly influence genuine users, Twitter has also tweaked how it displays follower and like counts across its platform — saying it’s now updating account metrics in “near-real time”.

So it warns users they may notice their accounts metrics changing more regularly.

“But we think this is an important shift in how we display Tweet and account information to ensure that malicious actors aren’t able to artificially boost an account’s credibility permanently by inflating metrics like the number of followers,” it adds — noting also that it’s taking additional steps to reduce spammer visibility which it will have more to say about “in the coming weeks”.

Another change Twitter is flagging up now is an expansion of its malicious behavior detection systems. On this it says it’s automating some processes where it sees suspicious account activity — such as “exceptionally high-volume tweeting with the same hashtag, or using the same @handle without a reply from the account you’re mentioning”.

And while that’s clearly great news for anyone who hates high volume spam — and the damage spamming can very evidently do — it’s also a crying shame it’s taken Twitter this long to take these kinds of obvious problems seriously.

Better late than never is pretty cold comfort when you consider the ugly social divisions that malicious entities have fueled by being so freely able to misappropriate the amplification power of social media. Because tech CEOs were essentially asleep at the wheel — and deaf to the warnings being sounded about their tools for years.

There’s clearly a human cost to platforms prioritizing growth at the expense of wider societal responsibilities, as Facebook has also been realizing of late.

And while both these companies may be trying to clean house now they have no quick fixes for mending rips in the social fabric which were exacerbated as a consequence of the at-scale spreading of fake news and worse enabled by their own platforms.

Though, in March, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey put out a call for ideas to help it capture, measure and evaluate healthy interactions on its platform and the health of public conversations generally — saying: “Ultimately we want to have a measurement of how it affects the broader society and public health, but also individual health, as well.”

So a differently stripped, more civically minded Twitter is seeking to emerge from the bushes.

Twitter users who fall foul of its new automated malicious behavior checks can expect to have to pass some sort of ‘no, actually I am human’ test — which it says will “vary in intensity”, giving examples such as a simple reCAPTCHA process, at the lowest friction end, or a slightly more arduous password reset request.

“More complex cases are automatically passed to our team for review,” it adds.

There’s also an appeals process for users who believe they have been incorrectly IDed by one of the automated spam detection systems — letting them request a case review.

Another welcome if tardy addition: Twitter has added support for stronger two-factor authentication as Twitter users will now be able to use a USB security key (using the U2F open authentication standard) for login verification when signing into Twitter.

Starting today, you can use a security key for login verification when you sign in to https://t.co/I6k1ntZlAv.https://t.co/Cu3PUyBsxz

— Twitter Safety (@TwitterSafety) June 26, 2018

It urges users to enable 2FA if they haven’t already, and regularly review third party apps attached to their account to revoke access they no longer wish to grant.

The company finishes by saying it will continue to invest “across the board” to try to tackle spam and malicious automated activity, including by “leveraging machine learning technology and partnerships with third parties” — saying: “These issues are felt around the world, from elections to emergency events and high-profile public conversations. As we have stated in recent announcements, the public health of the conversation on Twitter is a critical metric by which we will measure our success in these areas.”

The results of a Request for Proposals for public health metrics research which Twitter called for earlier this year will be announced soon, it adds.

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Migrate ATMs From Windows XP Or Face Penalty, RBI Tells Banks

Recently, in India, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has notified all local financial institutions to exchange the operating system of the ATMs that still run Windows XP. Yes, RBI has ordered all the Indian banks to migrate ATMs from Windows XP or simply face penalty. Migrate ATMs From Windows XP Or Face Penalty, RBI Tells Banks The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has notified all local financial institutions to exchange the operating system of the ATMs that still run Windows XP. They will be subject to regulatory sanctions if they do not meet the deadline – by June 2019.

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BBC releases computer history archive

Computing 1980s-style is to be shown off in BBC archive intended to inspire new generation of coders.

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Adobe Using This AI To Spot Photoshopped Photos In Seconds

We all know very well that when the subject is image editing tool, there is a great chance that Photoshop will be the first name to come to our mind, right? Of course, Adobe programs are so popular that they have become almost synonymous with this type of task. However, according to the latest reports, the well-known American multinational computer software company, of course, Adobe is using this new AI to spot photoshopped photos in seconds. Adobe Using This AI To Spot Photoshopped Photos In Seconds When the subject is image editing tool, there is a great chance that Photoshop

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How to Install and Run Chrome Apps & Extensions on Android

Let’s have a look at the guide for How to Install and Run Chrome Apps & Extensions on Android that seems almost impossible for many users but now that is possible with simple steps by which you can avail functionality of any chrome extension right on your android. So have a look at the complete guide that will help you to implement this on your android phone. Google Chrome or simply the Chrome is one of the most popular and advanced web browsers that are available for the Desktop, Smartphones and tablet devices. Now for the different platforms or the devices,

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Exclusive: Samsung To Launch Its First Android Go Smartphone

We all know very well that there are several indications that the South Korean giant Samsung should launch a smartphone with Android Go, lighter version of the operating system created by the tech giant Google. Yes, according to the latest reports, the South Korean giant, of course, Samsung to launch its very first Android Go smartphone. Exclusive: Samsung To Launch Its First Android Go Smartphone There are several indications that the South Korean giant Samsung should launch a smartphone with Android Go, lighter version of the operating system created by the tech giant Google. It takes up less space and

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Man shot after 'home attack' of girl met online

The girl's mother shot the man after he smashed his way into their house with a brick, police say.

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Instagram now lets you 4-way group video chat as you browse

Instagram’s latest assault on Snapchat, FaceTime, and Houseparty launches today. TechCrunch scooped back in March that Instagram would launch video calling, and the feature was officially announced in at F8 in May. Now it’s actually rolling out to everyone on iOS and Android, allowing up to four friends to group video call together through Instagram Direct.

With the feed, Stories, messaging, Live, IGTV, and now video calling, Instagram is hoping to become a one-stop-shop for its 1 billion users’ social needs. This massive expansion in functionality over the past two years is paying off according to SimilarWeb, which estimates that the average US user has gone from spending 29 minutes per day on the app in September 2017 to 55 minutes today. More time spent means more potential ad views and revenue for the Facebook subsidiary that a Bloomberg analyst just valued at $100 billion after it was bought for less than $1 billion in 2012.

One cool feature of Instagram Video Calling is that you can minimize the window and bounce around the rest of Instagram without ending the call. That opens new opportunities for co-browsing with friends as if you were hanging out together. More friends can join an Instagram call in progress, though you can mute them if you don’t want to get more call invites. You’re allowed to call anyone you can Direct message by hitting the video button in a chat, and blocked people can’t call you.

Here’s how Instagram’s group video calling stacks up to the alternatives:

• Instagram – 4-way plus simultaneous browsing
• Snapchat – 16-way
• FaceTime – 32-way (coming in iOS 12 this fall)
• Houseparty – 8-way per room with limitless parallel rooms
• Facebook Messenger – 6-way with up to 50 people listening via audio

Instagram is also rolling out two more features promised at F8. The Explore page will now be segmented to show a variety of topic channels that reveal associated content below. Previously, Explore’s 200 million daily users just saw a random mish-mash of popular content related to their interests, with just a single “Videos You Might Like” section separated.

Now users will see a horizontal tray of channels atop Explore, including an algorithmically personalized For You collection, plus ones like Art, Beauty, Sports, and Fashion depending on what content you regularly interact with. Users can swipe between the categories to browse, and then scroll up to view more posts from any they enjoy. A list of sub-hashtags appears when you open a category, like #MoGraph (motion graphics) or #Typeface when you open art. And if you’re sick of seeing a category, you can mute it. Strangely, Instagram has stripped Stories out of Explore entirely, but when asked, the team told us it plans to bring Stories back in the near future.

The enhanced Explore page could make it easier for people to discover new creators. Growing the audience of these content makers is critical to Instagram as it strives to be their favorite app amongst competition. Snapchat lacks a dedicated Explore section or other fan base-growing opportunities, which has alienated some creators, while the new Instagram topic channels is reminiscent of YouTube’s mobile Trending page.

Instagram’s new Explore Channels (left) vs YouTube’s Trending page (right)

Finally, Instagram is rolling out Camera Effects design by partners, starting with Ariana Grande, BuzzFeed, Liz Koshy, Baby Ariel, and the NBA. If you’re following these accounts, you’ll see their effect in the Stories camera, and you can hit Try It On if you spot a friend using one you like. This opens the door to accounts all offering their own augmented reality and 2D filters without the Stories camera becoming overstuffed with lenses you don’t care about.

Instagram’s new partner-made camera effects

What’s peculiar is that all of these features are designed to boost the amount of time you spend on Instagram just as it’s preparing to launch a Usage Insights dashboard for tracking if you’re becoming addicted to the app. At least the video calling and camera effects promote active usage, but Explore definitely encourages passive consumption that research shows can be unhealthy.

Therein lies the rub of Instagram’s mission and business model with its commitment to user wellbeing. Despite CEO Kevin Systrom’s stated intention that  “any time [spent on his app] should be positive and intentional“ and that he wants Instagram to “be part of the solution”, the company earns more by keeping people glued to the screen rather than present in their lives.

First look at Instagram’s self-policing Time Well Spent tool

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Uber overturns ban on operating in London

The taxi hailing firm has been granted a 15-month licence to operate in the capital.

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Scammers abuse multilingual domain names

Millions of scam sites use characters that look like English letters, research into international domains reveals.

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Eset Mobile Security & Antivirus APK Latest Version Free Download 2018

Eset Mobile Security & Antivirus APK 2018 will safeguard your Android smartphone or tablet against ransomware, adware, phishing and other malware while checking your emails, downloading files and simply browsing the web. This is one of the powerful and reliable security apps you can have on your Android smartphone or tablet. Eset Mobile Security & Antivirus APK Latest Version Free Download 2018 If we look around, we will only find that smartphones and computers have taken an integral part of our lives. Talking about smartphones, people now don’t use their phones just for communication. Instead, it’s now users to store the most

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4 of the Best Third-Party YouTube Apps for Android You Should Try

Let’s have a look at the 4 of the Best Third-Party YouTube Apps for Android You Should Try as they are packed with some of the amazing features that you might not find in the official Youtube app and you may also look for some of the change in your media streaming apps. And these apps are perfect then. So have a look at complete guide discussed below to proceed. Youtube is the infamous video sharing platform where the people from all around the world can share their created videos. This platform consists of innumerable videos for various categories. Now, this

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E-sports team banned for using programmable mouse

The team was close to qualifying for a lucrative tournament when it was hit with the ban.

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European readers still blocked from some US news sites

Major outlets including the LA Times and the New York Daily News remain inaccessible to Europeans, a month after GDPR came into effect.

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Digital campaigning vs democracy: UK election regulator calls for urgent law changes

A report by the UK’s Electoral Commission has called for urgent changes in the law to increase transparency about how digital tools are being used for political campaigning, warning that an atmosphere of mistrust is threatening the democratic process.

The oversight body, which also regulates campaign spending, has spent the past year examining how digital campaigning was used in the UK’s 2016 EU referendum and 2017 general election — as well as researching public opinion to get voters’ views on digital campaigning issues.

Among the changes the Commission wants to see is greater clarity around election spending to try to prevent foreign entities pouring money into domestic campaigns, and beefed up financial regulations including bigger penalties for breaking election spending rules.

It also has an ongoing investigation into whether pro-Brexit campaigns — including the official Vote Leave campaign — broke spending rules. And last week the BBC reported on a leaked draft of the report suggesting the Commission will find the campaigns broke the law.

Last month the Leave.EU Brexit campaign was also fined £70,000 after a Commission investigation found it had breached multiple counts of electoral law during the referendum.

Given the far larger sums now routinely being spent on elections — another pro-Brexit group, Vote Leave, had a £7M spending limit (though it has also been accused of exceeding that) — it’s clear the Commission needs far larger teeth if it’s to have any hope of enforcing the law.

Digital tools have lowered the barrier of entry for election fiddling, while also helping to ramp up democratic participation.

“On digital campaigning, our starting point is that elections depend on participation, which is why we welcome the positive value of online communications. New ways of reaching voters are good for everyone, and we must be careful not to undermine free speech in our search to protect voters. But we also fully recognise the worries of many, the atmosphere of mistrust which is being created, and the urgent need for action to tackle this,” writes commission chair John Holmes.

“Funding of online campaigning is already covered by the laws on election spending and donations. But the laws need to ensure more clarity about who is spending what, and where and how, and bigger sanctions for those who break the rules.

“This report is therefore a call to action for the UK’s governments and parliaments to change the rules to make it easier for voters to know who is targeting them online, and to make unacceptable behaviour harder. The public opinion research we publish alongside this report demonstrates the level of concern and confusion amongst voters and the will for new action.”

The Commission’s key recommendations are:

• Each of the UK’s governments and legislatures should change the law so that digital material must have an imprint saying who is behind the campaign and who created it

• Each of the UK’s governments and legislatures should amend the rules for reporting spending. They should make campaigners sub-divide their spending returns into different types of spending. These categories should give more information about the money spent on digital campaigns

• Campaigners should be required to provide more detailed and meaningful invoices from their digital suppliers to improve transparency

• Social media companies should work with us to improve their policies on campaign material and advertising for elections and referendums in the UK

• UK election and referendum adverts on social media platforms should be labelled to make the source clear. Their online databases of political adverts should follow the UK’s rules for elections and referendums

• Each of the UK’s governments and legislatures should clarify that spending on election or referendum campaigns by foreign organisations or individuals is not allowed. They would need to consider how it could be enforced and the impact on free speech

• We will make proposals to campaigners and each of the UK’s governments about how to improve the rules and deadlines for reporting spending. We want information to be available to voters and us more quickly after a campaign, or during
• Each of the UK’s governments and legislatures should increase the maximum fine we can sanction campaigners for breaking the rules, and strengthen our powers to obtain information outside of an investigation

The recommendations follow revelations by Chris Wylie, the Cambridge Analytica whistleblower (pictured at the top of this post) — who has detailed to journalists and regulators how Facebook users’ personal data was obtained and passed to the now defunct political consultancy for political campaigning activity without people’s knowledge or consent.

In addition to the Cambridge Analytica data misuse scandal, Facebook has also been rocked by earlier revelations of how extensively Kremlin-backed agents used its ad targeting tools to try to sew social division at scale — including targeting the 2016 US presidential election.

The Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg, has since been called before US and EU lawmakers to answer questions about how his platform operates and the risks it’s posing to democratic processes.

The company has announced a series of changes intended to make it more difficult for third parties to obtain user data, and to increase transparency around political advertising — adding a requirement for such ads to continue details of how has paid for them, for example, and also offering a searchable archive.

Although critics question whether the company is going far enough — asking, for example, how it intends to determine what is and is not a political advert.

Facebook is not offering a searchable archive for all ads on its platform, for example.

Zuckerberg has also been accused of equivocating in the face of lawmakers’ concerns, with politicians on both sides of the Atlantic calling him out for providing evasive, misleading or intentionally obfuscating responses to concerns and questions around how his platform operates.

The Electoral Commission makes a direct call for social media firms to do more to increase transparency around digital political advertising and remove messages which “do not meet the right standards”.

“If this turns out to be insufficient, the UK’s governments and parliaments should be ready to consider direct regulation,” it also warns. 

We’ve reached out to Facebook comment and will update this post with any response.

A Cabinet Office spokeswoman told us it would send the government response to the Electoral Commission report shortly — so we’ll also update this post when we have that.

The UK’s data protection watchdog, the ICO, has an ongoing investigating into the use of social media data for political campaigning — and commissioner Elizabeth Denham recently made a call for stronger disclosure rules around political ads and a code of conduct for social media firms. The body is expected to publish the results of its long-running investigation shortly.

At the same time, a DCMS committee has been running an inquiry into the impact of fake news and disinformation online, including examining the impact on the political process. Though Zuckerberg has declined its requests for him to personally testify — sending a number of minions in his place, including CTO Mike Schroepfer who was grilled for around five hours by irate MPs and his answers still left them dissatisfied.

The committee will set out the results of this inquiry in another report touching on the impact of big tech on democratic processes — likely in the coming months. Committee chair Damian Collins tweeted today to say the inquiry has “also highlighted how out of date our election laws are in a world increasingly dominated by big tech media”.

On its forthcoming Brexit campaign spending report, an Electoral Commission spokesperson told us: “In accordance with its Enforcement Policy, the Electoral Commission has written to Vote Leave, Mr Darren Grimes and Veterans for Britain to advise each campaigner of the outcome of the investigation announced on 20 November 2017. The campaigners have 28 days to make representations before final decisions are taken. The Commission will announce the outcome of the investigation and publish an investigation report once this final decision has been taken.”

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