Facebook can’t seem to get through a week quietly. This week, Germany’s antitrust regulator ordered the world’s largest social network to stop combining data from the Facebook accounts of its German users with information it collects about them from other sites unless they give their OK. The Federal Cartel Office’s order covers not only Facebook’s …
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Apple has removed Safari support for a technology called Do Not Track because, perversely, it could actually be used to track your online behavior. The Do Not Track setting in browsers was designed to tell web publishers and advertisers not to track your online behavior. But the effort fizzled as websites largely ignored the setting. And now the mere presence …
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Congressional lawmakers sent a letter Tuesday to Apple CEO Tim Cook asking for more information about a FaceTime bug that allowed users to eavesdrop on each other. The letter — penned by Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. (D-N.J.), chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), chairwoman of the Consumer Protection and Commerce Subcommittee — said …
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Apple has closed the Group FaceTime security bug that put users at risk of eavesdropping. The company said in a statement Friday that it has fixed the vulnerability on its servers and that it will issue a software update to re-enable Group FaceTime next week. The bug had meant that any Apple device — including iPhones, iPads and Macs — …
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Mozilla has joined the list of organizations displeased with Facebook’s new restrictions on outsiders analyzing political ads, lodging a complaint with European regulators that the move blocks its plan to help people understand who’s trying to influence them during coming elections. “Transparency cannot just be on the terms with which the world’s largest, most powerful tech companies are most comfortable,” …
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On this podcast, we talk about: Facebook’s research app that circumvented Apple rules and had the social network paying people as young as 13 years old $20 a month in exchange for personal data. Apple’s iPhone sales collapse. The heist of Tappy the robot‘s arm! The 3:59 gives you bite-size news and analysis about the top stories of the day, …
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Mozilla has released a new version of Firefox that lets you strike a better balance between maintaining privacy and breaking websites. Firefox 65 updates its controls for how the web browser manages content like tracker software and cookies — small text files a website can store on your computer that are handy for things like remembering what’s in your e-commerce …
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Facebook should shut down a messaging app aimed at children under 13 years old, child advocates said Tuesday in a letter to the company. The missive follows a report last week that the social network duped kids into spending their parents’ money on online games. A year ago, the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood and other advocacy groups had asked …
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A newly discovered FaceTime bug could pose an eavesdropping problem, and Apple says it will have a fix out later this week. The bug allows iPhone users to call another device via the FaceTime video chat service and hear audio on the other end before the recipient has answered the call. That is, it can turn any iPhone into a …
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Social media lit up on Monday with reports that a bug with FaceTime had the potential to turn any iPhone or Mac into a hot mic. First reported by 9to5Mac and confirmed by CNET, the bug lets an iPhone user start a FaceTime call and — by adding their own number to the call when the phone is ringing — …
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