The Chinese government is reportedly forcing foreigners to download malware onto their phones when crossing into the country. The malware downloads people’s text messages, phone logs and calendar entries, and scans the device for around 73,000 other files, according to a joint investigation by The New York Times, the Guardian, Motherboard, Süddeutsche Zeitung and German …
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The UK is examining how social video app TikTok handles children’s data and whether it ensures child safety on its platform, a report says. The investigation follows TikTok paying up $5.7 million to settle US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) charges that it illegally collected personal information from children. TikTok, which was previously known as Musical.ly, allows users to record themselves …
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Apple is being sued for alleged patent infringement tied to its iOS low-power mode, core location and facedown detection across the iPhone and iPad. The lawsuit, spotted earlier by Patently Apple, claims the iPhone maker has benefited from improvements to its devices’ battery life as a result of the alleged infringements. Screenshot by Jason Cipriani/CNET Apple introduced Low Power Mode …
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Government imposter scams are continuing to rise, the US Federal Trade Commission says, with more reports of scam calls in May 2019 than ever before. So far this year, there have been more than 176,000 reports, amounting to $56 million in total losses. The average loss per person is $1,000, the FTC said Monday. In these calls, scammers pretend to …
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Washington, DC, Attorney General Karl Racine has said his court case against Facebook for last year’s Cambridge Analytica data breach will go ahead. Facebook’s second attempt to block the lawsuit has now failed, Racine tweeted Friday. The DC attorney general sued Facebook in December, alleging that the company failed to safeguard the personal data of its users. Facebook’s “lax oversight …
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Don’t worry, Chinese drone maker DJI isn’t automatically sending flight data to China. That’s what the company told a Senate subcommittee Monday, adding that it doesn’t collect or share any drone data, including flight logs, photos or videos, without the consent of its users. DJI has an extensive portfolio, including the DJI Spark and the DJI Mavic Air, which CNET has reviewed …
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The US Commerce Department has blacklisted another five Chinese tech companies, preventing them from buying US-made chips and components. Like Chinese tech giant Huawei last month, the companies were added to the United State’s “entity list” (PDF) due to national security concerns. The filing, spotted earlier Friday by CNBC, blocks China-based Higon, Sugon, Chengdu Haiguang Integrated Circuit, Chengdu Haiguang Microelectronics Technology …
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US presidential alerts sent out as nationwide emergency text messages could be vulnerable to hacks, according to researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder. The university has already alerted US government officials to the security problem. Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) are geographically targeted messages that alert mobile users in the US about missing children (via Amber Alerts), severe weather and presidential …
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T-Mobile and Sprint are nearing a $6 billion payday for their assets in a move to gain regulatory approval for their $26.5 billion merger, with satellite TV provider Dish Network the buyer, a report says. The assets reportedly include the Boost Mobile prepaid wireless service and wireless spectrum. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Ajit Pai greenlit the merger in May, on …
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Chinese mobile phone maker Huawei is set to lose $30 billion this year because of trade problems with the US and other countries around the world. But the company’s CEO, Ren Zhengfei, isn’t stressing out about it, he told CNBC in an interview on Wednesday. Huawei’s original forecast for this year was $130 billion, but at an event on Monday, …
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