New technology can improve our lives, but it can also come with unforeseen pitfalls. Cameras are now smaller, better and smarter than ever before, and that, warns the American Civil Liberties Union, could be an issue in the future. The nearly 50 million surveillance cameras in the US could be used to police people as …
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Huawei exclusion from 5G sends ‘bad signal,’ Chinese ambassador warns UK
China’s ambassador to the UK has warned Britain’s government that barring the use of Huawei equipment from the country’s 5G network could hurt trade relations and investment. It’s yet another twist in the international relations saga as the US puts pressure on its allies to avoid dealing with the telecommunications equipment maker. “It will send a very bad message not …
Read More »Google says Chrome isn’t killing ad
Google isn’t trying to kill ad blockers. That’s the message in a pair of Google blog posts published Wednesday in response to criticism of the search giant’s plan to improve extensions in its Chrome web browser. “We are not preventing the development of ad blockers or stopping users from blocking ads,” said Devlin Cronin in a post on the Google …
Read More »Samsung The Wall Luxury Micro LED TV coming in July for rich people
Samsung’s The Wall TV is finally going to be available for consumers to purchase. At least those wealthy enough to afford its still unknown, but likely insanely expensive, price tag. Available globally in July, The Wall Luxury is Samsung’s first consumer Micro LED display. The scalable, modular technology can be configured and customized to a variety of sizes, from 73-inches in …
Read More »Facebook, YouTube, Twitter must team up to fight threat from deepfakes, experts say
Social media companies like Facebook, YouTube and Twitter weren’t anywhere near a US House hearing on deepfakes Thursday, but they were still the stars of the show. The hearing, which focused on how manipulated media like deepfakes could threaten democracy, repeatedly harped on the social networks’ role in the threat, with experts suggesting policies sure to give those companies pause. One crucial suggestion? …
Read More »Telegram blames China for cyberattack coinciding with Hong Kong protests
The distributed denial of service attack that hit Telegram Wednesday came from China, the secure messaging app’s founder said. Pavel Durov’s tweet suggested that the country’s government may have done it to disrupt protests in Hong Kong. In a DDoS attack, an online service gets bombarded with traffic from networks of bots, to the point where it’s overwhelmed and legit …
Read More »Google says Apple’s new sign
At its annual WWDC event last week, Apple unveiled a new privacy tool called Sign in with Apple, an alternative to single sign-on services offered by Facebook and Google. Apple appeared to take a shot at its competitors by saying that even free services need to respect privacy. Google’s Mark Risher reportedly wasn’t pleased about the jab but thinks the technology will make …
Read More »YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter have a dark side. Here’s how to report abuse
Social networks like YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat and TikTok have the power to reach billions of people and make connections. But there’s also a dark side rife with cyberbullying, hate speech or other abusive behavior that can have real-world consequences. Young people who have been cyberbullied are twice as likely to harm themselves or attempt suicide, according to a 2018 …
Read More »Instagram is back after outage
Instagram looks to be back online after an outage hit the social media platform for more than an hour on Thursday afternoon. Previously, checking it on the Instagram mobile app brought up a “couldn’t refresh feed” message, while attempting to use the desktop website came up with a Facebook logo and a “Sorry, something went wrong” message. “Earlier today, a …
Read More »Twitter pulls down thousands of accounts tied to Iranian government
Twitter said Thursday it removed 4,779 accounts linked to the Iranian government and will add more data from account takedowns to a public database. That includes content from four fake accounts that Twitter removed that were tied to a Russian troll farm called the Internet Research Agency along with the takedowns of 130 accounts tied to Spain and Venezuela. The …
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