Author: Staff Writer

Spotify New Tests of Explicit Song Blocker

Staff Writer
Spotify

Spotify, the UK’s biggest music streaming service, has started testing a way of filtering out songs which have explicit lyrics. The feature has been introduced on its iPhone and iPad apps – six years after being requested on its online forums. But some users have told BBC Radio 5 live: that the feature does not have enough controls. Rivals such as Apple Music already have password-protected parental controls to skip explicit tracks. Since 2011, streaming music providers have been expected to display the word “explicit” next to tracks that record…

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Google New Confirms Its Services Are Casualties Of A Russian Blockage Due To The Recent Telegram Ban

Staff Writer

A shower of paper airplanes were darted through the skies of Moscow and other towns in Russia as users answered the call of entrepreneur Pavel Durov to send the blank missives out of their windows at a pre-appointed time in support of Telegram, a messaging app he founded that was blocked last week by Russian regulator Roskomnadzor (RKN) that uses a paper airplane icon. RKN believes the service is violating national laws by failing to provide it with encryption keys to access messages on the service (Telegram has refused to comply).…

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Wikipedia Adds New Page Reviews for Easier Surfing

Staff Writer

Wikipedia added a useful new feature earlier this week: page previews. The Wikimedia foundation says that it’s “one of the largest changes to desktop Wikipedia made in recent years,” and provides readers with a popup window that provides a bit of additional context for the article behind the link. Reading through any Wikipedia page can turn into a rabbit hole that can take you to places you never expected. That exploration can be a fun, informative adventure, but it can also be a distraction, especially if the article you click…

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Google’s New Chat Messaging Service is Ready to Launch

Staff Writer

Google has started the global roll-out of its new Chat messaging service, which is designed to replace SMS text messages on Android phones. Chat has features such as group texts, videos, typing indicators and read receipts, which are not available when sending SMS texts. Chat will be integrated with the default messages app on Android phones. However, it will be up to mobile operators to enable the service and it does not offer encrypted messages. The new system has been in development for several years, but is now beginning to…

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Google Gets Rid of New Fake Chrome Ad Blockers

Staff Writer

Research unearths five malicious ad-blocker extensions on the Chrome Web Store that were installed by 20 million Chrome users before Google removed them. The bogus ad blockers were discovered by researchers at AdGuard, a Moscow-based maker of ad-blocking and anti-tracking tech. Following AdGuard’s report on the fake ad blockers in the Chrome Web Store, Google removed the suspect extensions, which have been installed on 20 million Chrome instances over the past year. The most popular fake ad blocker was AdRemover for Google Chrome, which had over 10 million users, putting…

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Facebook New calls out to Google, Amazon and Twitter for also harvesting user data

Staff Writer

Facebook wants users to know that it’s not the only one tracking their every move on the internet. The social media giant pointed a finger at Google, Amazon, Twitter and other platforms for using many of the same data collection practices that some privacy advocates are referring to as invasive. In a blog post published Monday, the firm described in depth all the ways it gathers information on you around the web — even if you’re not a Facebook member or are logged out of your account. Facebook has been…

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Facebook seeks New facial recognition consent in EU and Canada

Staff Writer

Facebook has started asking European and Canadian users to let it use facial recognition technology to identify them in photos and videos. Facebook originally began face-matching users outside Canada in 2011, but stopped doing so for EU citizens the following year after protests from regulators and privacy campaigners. The new request is one of several opt-in permissions being rolled out in advance of a new data privacy law. The move is likely to be controversial. The company is currently embroiled in a privacy scandal related to the use of its…

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Gmail.com New redesign includes self-destructing emails

Staff Writer
Google Meet Gmail

Gmail.com is soon getting its first redesign in seven years, and with that new look comes some new features. There has been new side panels for Google Calendar, Google Keep, and Google Tasks, and now we’re getting word of another new feature: self-destructing emails. TechCrunch has screenshots detailing the feature from the pre-release version of Gmail. In the compose window, there’s a new lock icon called “Confidential Mode.” When clicked, a message pops up saying, “Options to forward, download or copy this email’s contents and attachments will be disabled.” The…

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Russia New Request to block Telegram app over encryption

Staff Writer
Telegram

A court in Moscow has approved a request from the Russian media regulator to block the Telegram messaging app immediately. The media regulator sought to block the app because the firm had refused to hand over encryption keys used to scramble messages. Security officials say they need to monitor potential terrorists. But the company said the way the service was built meant it had no access to customers’ encryption keys. Telegram had missed a deadline of 4 April to hand over the keys. Advertisement Russia’s main security agency, the FSB,…

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Uber expands New privacy settlement with FTC

Staff Writer

Uber is expanding the proposed settlement it made with the Federal Trade Commission last August pertaining to data mishandling, privacy and security complaints that date back to 2014 and 2015. In August, Uber agreed to 20 years of privacy audits. That proposed settlement happened prior to Uber’s disclosure of the massive 2016 data breach that affected some 57 million riders and drivers. Now, Uber will be subject to “additional requirements,” according to the FTC. “After misleading consumers about its privacy and security practices, Uber compounded its misconduct by failing to…

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