Cheap late night voice minutes are under threat in Pakistan, after regulators blamed low-cost tariffs for promoting "vulgarity" that are in opposition with the "values of the country." The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority demanded local carriers cease the contentious price "late night packages", the Times of India reports, after complaints around "the promotion of vulgarity" by pushing them through text message adverts.
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‘privacy’ Stories
Pakistan threatens booty calls with off-peak plan prohibition
Facebook to end user voting on privacy issues
If you've been a long-time Facebook user, then you know how controversial some of the privacy updates have been on the social networking site. The company launched its current site governance model in 2009, which gave users the right to vote on privacy policy issues. However, Facebook is now proposing to get rid of that system, saying that Facebook has outgrown the old model.
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Google fined $22.5 million over Safari privacy issue
A judge has given the go-ahead on a $22.5 million fine against Google over privacy issues regarding Safari browser users. It is alleged that Google made contradictory statements, tracking users' web browsing with cookies while assuring them that no such thing was taking place. The settlement was reached by Google and the FTC three months ago and finalized today.
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Egypt must ban internet porn orders legal chief
Egyptian web users will find their XXX entertainment cut off, after the Prosecutor General ordered the government to ban all pornographic content on the internet on religious, moral, and patriotic grounds. Adbel Maguid Mahmoud ruled in favor of an initial ruling in the country three years ago, Almogaz reports, which had argued that the potential for restricting "freedom of expression and public rights" was justified by banning the "venemous and vile" content which disturbed "the fundamentals of religion, morality, and patriotism" of Egyptian citizens.
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United, Delta and OpenTable receive warning over inaccessible privacy policies
The state of California has warned OpenTable, United Continental, and Delta Air Lines over their inaccessible privacy policies for mobile users, according to a source familiar with the issue. Reportedly, the companies were notified via a letter from the California Attorney General that they have 30 days to make their privacy policies "readily accessible." The source declined being named because the happenings aren't public.
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Tech companies launch map-blurring service in Germany due to privacy concerns
Back in May 2010, German authorities poked around the issue of what information Google collected via its Street View cars, eventually leading to the search engine giant's admission that it pulled personal information from unsecured WiFi networks. Thus began what has been an ongoing series of privacy concerns in Germany regarding online map services like Google Maps. To help allay these concerns, several companies have banded together to form a map-blurring service.
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Google must change privacy policy demand EU watchdogs
European data protection regulators have demanded Google change its privacy policy, though the French-led team did not conclude that the search giant's actions amounted to something illegal. The investigation, by the Commission Nationale de l'Informatique (CNIL), argued that Google's decision to condense the privacy policies of over sixty products into a single agreement - and at the same time increase the amount of inter-service data sharing - could leave users unclear as to how different types of information (as varied as search terms, credit card details, or phone numbers) could be used by the company.
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Google faces forced privacy backtrack after Euro scolding
Google faces the challenge of dismantling its unified user accounts, which among other things helps bake its Google+ social network into most aspects of search, under pressure from French regulators. The huge endeavor, backtracking on its integrated privacy policy, will be forced by the French CNIL data protection commissioner, The Guardian reports, with an announcement by the organization expected on Tuesday this week.
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Apple quietly turns on iOS 6 iPhone advert tracking
Apple has quietly enabled a mobile ads tracking system in iOS 6, with unique per-device identifiers that provide advertisers with more user information than ever before. Having blocked developers from using UDID codes - device-specific codes that could be monitored to see if adverts led to app downloads - Apple replaced the unofficial functionality with an official version, IFA/IFDA (Identifier For Advertising) that comes automatically set active, Business Insider reports.
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Taiwan asks for Apple Maps censorship over military bases
Apple Maps is the subject of complaints again, this time from the Taiwanese defense ministry which has voiced its frustrations that secretive military sites are clearly visible in the iOS 6 mapping app. "We'll ask Apple to lower the resolution of satellite images of some confidential military establishments the way we've asked Google in the past" ministry spokesperson David Lo said this week, though Apple is apparently yet to have formally received a request to blur out the installations.
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Google now allows original quality YouTube video downloads
If you've got a collection of videos up on YouTube right this minute that you'd just love to have in a folder in your secure harddrive back home in their original format, Google has just answered your prayers today. In another lovely update to their Takeout menu, the Data Liberation Front has added the ability for users to download the videos they've uploaded to YouTube back down in their original format: "your videos in. your videos out".
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Facebook: private messages never appeared on timelines
Facebook is doing what it can to combat a particularly nasty rumor today, telling the BBC that private messages never appeared on public timelines like some users have claimed. Most of these users were from France, and say that private messages sent between 2007 and 2009 started appearing on their timelines. Your Facebook timeline, as you're hopefully already aware, is open for your friends to see (and everyone else using the service if your privacy settings allow it), so we can see why this would cause some controversy.
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