Miscellaneous Tech News
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Scotland's Covid contact tracing app downloaded half a million times
More than 500,000 people have downloaded Scotland's new contact tracing app since it went live.
It became available to download free onto a smart phone from Apple's App Store or Google Play on Thursday. The Protect Scotland app lets people know if they have been in close contact with someone who later tests positive. The Scottish government has said the software will support the Test and Protect system and is "another tool in the fight against Covid-19". Up until now, contact tracing has been done manually using a method followed for years to help control the spread of infectious diseases. -
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TikTok: Oracle confirms being picked by Bytedance to be app's partner
US tech firm Oracle has confirmed that TikTok's owner has formally proposed it become a "trusted technology partner" to the video-sharing app.
Full details of the tie-up have yet to be disclosed, but the aim is to avoid President Trump's threat to shut down the Chinese-owned service in the US. Trump has cited national security concerns, suggesting users' data could be accessed by Beijing under current arrangements. Current owner Bytedance denies this. It says it has taken "extraordinary measures to protect the privacy and security of TikTok's US user data", which is stored in the States and Singapore.Oracle is a database specialist without experience of running a social media app targeted at the general public. -
Facebook staffer sends 'blood on my hands' memo
Fake accounts have been undermining elections around the world, an ex-Facebook employee has claimed.
In a 6,600-word internal memo to fellow workers, data scientist Sophie Zhang said she made decisions "that affected national presidents" without oversight. "I have blood on my hands," she wrote in the memo, parts of which were published by Buzzfeed. In response, Facebook said it was working hard to stop bad actors and inauthentic behaviour. In her memo, parts of which were published by Buzzfeed without her permission, Ms Zhang said: "In the three years I've spent at Facebook, I've found multiple blatant attempts by foreign national governments to abuse our platform on vast scales to mislead their own citizenry, and caused international news on multiple occasions. -
A bug in Joe Biden’s campaign app gave anyone access to millions of voter files
A privacy bug in Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden’s official campaign app allowed anyone to look up sensitive voter information on millions of Americans, a security researcher has found.
The campaign app, Vote Joe, allows Biden supporters to encourage friends and family members to vote in the upcoming U.S. presidential election by uploading their phone’s contact lists to see if their friends and family members are registered to vote. The app uploads and matches the user’s contacts with voter data supplied from TargetSmart, a political marketing firm that claims to have files on more than 191 million Americans.
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@mlnews said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
Facebook staffer sends 'blood on my hands' memo
Fake accounts have been undermining elections around the world, an ex-Facebook employee has claimed.
In a 6,600-word internal memo to fellow workers, data scientist Sophie Zhang said she made decisions "that affected national presidents" without oversight. "I have blood on my hands," she wrote in the memo, parts of which were published by Buzzfeed. In response, Facebook said it was working hard to stop bad actors and inauthentic behaviour. In her memo, parts of which were published by Buzzfeed without her permission, Ms Zhang said: "In the three years I've spent at Facebook, I've found multiple blatant attempts by foreign national governments to abuse our platform on vast scales to mislead their own citizenry, and caused international news on multiple occasions.Not much difference, other than speed, between FB/Social Media and another form of communication for hundreds of years.
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'Unexpected' iPhone and iPad update threatens app glitches
Owners of iPhones and iPads are being warned that some apps may experience glitches because Apple only gave a day's notice of the release of a major update to its mobile operating systems.
Chief executive Tim Cook revealed on Tuesday that iOS 14 and iPadOS 14 would launch on Wednesday. Last year, Apple announced the release date more than a week in advance.
Developers have complained they do not have enough time to check for bugs and submit their products to the App Store. They include big names such as Nintendo, which has warned gamers that its Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp app will not launch after the update. -
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Twitter investigates racial bias in image previews
Twitter is investigating after users discovered its picture-cropping algorithm sometimes prefers white faces to black ones.
Users noticed when two photos - one of a black face the other of a white one - were in the same post, Twitter often showed only the white face on mobile. Twitter said it had tested for racial and gender bias during the algorithm's development. But it added: "It's clear that we've got more analysis to do." Twitter's chief technology officer, Parag Agrawal, tweeted: "We did analysis on our model when we shipped it - but [it] needs continuous improvement. "Love this public, open, and rigorous test - and eager to learn from this." -
Dark web drugs raid leads to 179 arrests
Police forces around the world have seized more than $6.5m (£5m) in cash and virtual currencies, as well as drugs and guns in a co-ordinated raid on dark web marketplaces.
Some 179 people were arrested across Europe and the US, and 500kg (1,102lb) of drugs and 64 guns confiscated. It ends the "golden age" of these underground marketplaces, Europol said. "The hidden internet is no longer hidden", said Edvardas Sileris, head of Europol's cyber-crime centre. The operation, known as DisrupTor, was a joint effort between the Department of Justice and Europol. It is believed that the criminals engaged in tens of thousands of sales of illicit goods and services across the US and Europe. Drugs seized including fentanyl, oxycodone, methamphetamine, heroin, cocaine, ecstasy and MDMA. -
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Internet: Old TV caused village broadband outages for 18 months
The mystery of why an entire village lost its broadband every morning at 7am was solved when engineers discovered an old television was to blame.An unnamed householder in Aberhosan, Powys, was unaware the old set would emit a signal which would interfere with the entire village's broadband.
After 18 months engineers began an investigation after a cable replacement programme failed to fix the issue.
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@hobbit666 said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
Internet: Old TV caused village broadband outages for 18 months
The mystery of why an entire village lost its broadband every morning at 7am was solved when engineers discovered an old television was to blame.An unnamed householder in Aberhosan, Powys, was unaware the old set would emit a signal which would interfere with the entire village's broadband.
After 18 months engineers began an investigation after a cable replacement programme failed to fix the issue.
Yep - I had a similar issue. Our faxes started failing at an exponential rate. After 3+ months, they found at least one neighbor who had cable to TVs with faults. replaced those and the problem went away. -
@mlnews said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
Dark web drugs raid leads to 179 arrests
Police forces around the world have seized more than $6.5m (£5m) in cash and virtual currencies, as well as drugs and guns in a co-ordinated raid on dark web marketplaces.
Some 179 people were arrested across Europe and the US, and 500kg (1,102lb) of drugs and 64 guns confiscated. It ends the "golden age" of these underground marketplaces, Europol said. "The hidden internet is no longer hidden", said Edvardas Sileris, head of Europol's cyber-crime centre. The operation, known as DisrupTor, was a joint effort between the Department of Justice and Europol. It is believed that the criminals engaged in tens of thousands of sales of illicit goods and services across the US and Europe. Drugs seized including fentanyl, oxycodone, methamphetamine, heroin, cocaine, ecstasy and MDMA.That's a lot of people for the amount seized. You would think there'd be more cash or actual drugs. It seems like a lot of effort for little reward.
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@Grey said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
@mlnews said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
Dark web drugs raid leads to 179 arrests
Police forces around the world have seized more than $6.5m (£5m) in cash and virtual currencies, as well as drugs and guns in a co-ordinated raid on dark web marketplaces.
Some 179 people were arrested across Europe and the US, and 500kg (1,102lb) of drugs and 64 guns confiscated. It ends the "golden age" of these underground marketplaces, Europol said. "The hidden internet is no longer hidden", said Edvardas Sileris, head of Europol's cyber-crime centre. The operation, known as DisrupTor, was a joint effort between the Department of Justice and Europol. It is believed that the criminals engaged in tens of thousands of sales of illicit goods and services across the US and Europe. Drugs seized including fentanyl, oxycodone, methamphetamine, heroin, cocaine, ecstasy and MDMA.That's a lot of people for the amount seized. You would think there'd be more cash or actual drugs. It seems like a lot of effort for little reward.
Pandemic affects all markets apparently.
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Facebook shuts down 150 fake Chinese accounts
Facebook has shut down a network of more than 150 fake profiles linked to China for "co-ordinated" interference in political discussions.
While mainly concerned with backing China's interests, some also posted about the US presidential election. It is only the second time that Facebook has identified such fake accounts as originating in China. The network had about 130,000 followers - although very few of these were in the US. The accounts starting appearing in 2016, and most of the information was related to China's influence in the Philippines and South-East Asia. They were traced back to individuals based in Fujan province, who were beginning to pay for advertisements in Chinese yuan, Facebook said. Much of the content was in support of the Chinese state - such as promoting its interests in the disputed South China Sea. -
@mlnews said in Miscellaneous Tech News:
Facebook shuts down 150 fake Chinese accounts
Facebook has shut down a network of more than 150 fake profiles linked to China for "co-ordinated" interference in political discussions.
While mainly concerned with backing China's interests, some also posted about the US presidential election. It is only the second time that Facebook has identified such fake accounts as originating in China. The network had about 130,000 followers - although very few of these were in the US. The accounts starting appearing in 2016, and most of the information was related to China's influence in the Philippines and South-East Asia. They were traced back to individuals based in Fujan province, who were beginning to pay for advertisements in Chinese yuan, Facebook said. Much of the content was in support of the Chinese state - such as promoting its interests in the disputed South China Sea.So they weren't really Chinese?
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Apple App Store faces coalition of unhappy developers
Several major developers have formed a coalition to fight Apple over its app store policies.
The Coalition for App Fairness counts Spotify, Epic Games and Tinder owner Match Group among its founding members. It claims Apple "taxes consumers and crushes innovation", criticising what it calls anti-competitive policies. Apple, which is embroiled in legal action with some of the members, has long denied these accusations. Google, which runs the Play app store on Android, is not mentioned in the group's launch statement but is named elsewhere on its website, and accused of similar policies. The coalition has been established as an independent non-profit organisation, and is open to other developers - regardless of size - to join. -
European Commission to challenge Apple tax bill verdict
The European Commission plans to appeal against a ruling that Apple does not have to pay 13bn euros (£11.6bn) in back taxes to Ireland.
The EU's General Court had ruled in July there was no evidence Apple had broken any rules on tax paid there. Ireland never disputed the arrangement but the European Commission, which brought the case, argued it enabled Apple to avoid taxes on EU revenues. The EU said paying the correct amount of tax was "a top priority". In 2016, a court ruled that Apple had indeed been given illegal tax breaks by Dublin - but this was overturned in July 2020.
