The Federal Trade Commission and Uber announced a settlement today which allows the FTC two decades of privacy and security audits. This announcement is the next step in Uber settling disputes with the FTC - the second settlement they've made this year. In January of this year, Uber agreed to a settlement of $20-million for exaggerating potential earnings in effort to draw in drivers.
There are pros and cons to the way Apple screens apps that go into its App Store and the way Google prefers to rely on automation to preserve the quality and security of Android apps. The latter methods is more efficient and more open to the hundreds of apps submitted to the Google Play Store. Unfortunately, that does mean that some less than innocent apps do slip in through the cracks. Case in point is a family of spyware collectively named “SonicSpy”, which was able to bypass Google’s automated bouncer, allowing infected apps to join the Google Play Store list, potentially infecting unsuspected Android users.
The whole situation with AdUps, the Chinese company that provides affordable firmware update software to countless budget Android phones, has somewhat turned into an ugly mess. Although less dramatic than last year’s knee jerk reaction, the latest report coming from Kryptowire, who broke the news last year, has resulted in BLU’s smartphones being suspended by Amazon once again. BLU already made its defense, which seems to have fallen on deaf ears. So it is now trying again to make it painfully clear that they are, in fact, free of any wrongdoing.
Karma, the company that offers mobile data plans and the hardware to go with them, has announced a new hotspot product designed specifically for those who care a lot about their privacy. Called Karma Black, this upcoming mobile hotspot will feature a built-in VPN to help protect its user's browsing habits, as well as some other features like blacklisting.
T-Mobile is boasting built-in network technology that notifies its customers about suspected spam callers and, if they'd like, blocks them from getting through entirely. That's great if you're a T-Mobile customer, but what if you're on a different network? The same sort of functionality is available to you, but you'll have to download an app to get it. Which one? Any of these five will do.
It will soon be a lot harder for Internet users in Russia to access anything outside of government-sanctioned or region-locked sites and services. Vladimir Putin has just signed into law a bill that makes it illegal to use Internet proxy services, including VPNs or virtual private networks. While the law is primarily aimed at curbing anti-government activities, it also puts other legitimate or excusable uses of proxies at terrible risk.
They say good things never last and bad things last for ages. That seems to be the case with AdUps, a Chinese “technology firm” that was blatantly installing spyware on countless of Android smartphones worldwide. Despite being involved in a scandal that even got the US Homeland Security’s attention, AdUps’ operation continues and its spyware still infects entry-level and budget smartphones, even Blu Product’s own, which was at the heart of that scandal.
A piece of mobile ransomware that mimics the methods of WannaCry malware has leaked online. The source code for the malicious software has been spilled to the web, allowing this "SLocker" to be downloaded and spread ad infinitum. The source code might also give security experts an easy way to ramp up protection against the malicious code - but the potential costs far outweigh the potential benefits.
While there are certain ways to block the internet from seeing what you're viewing, Google's latest update keeps a screenshot for later. Much like how Google Maps remembers everywhere you've ever been so you can find your car, Google (the search engine app) keeps a snapshot history of what you've searched for in Google Search. This search history does not make a significant impact on your smartphone's data storage space as it's all stored with Google on Google's servers.
It's time for Putin's hackers to be on the receiving end of the beatdown stick of digital attacks this week. The folks behind the attack come from Microsoft, and the Russian hacker team goes by the name Fancy Bear. Yes, Fancy Bear, a name that's brought relative shame to the Democratic National Convention's game, also known as the Kremlin's cyber spy team. But Microsoft isn't attacking with "the cyber" - they're attacking with... the law!
Tell me who your friends are and I'll tell you who you are, as the saying goes. Google has apparently taken that age-old adage to heart in trying to protect users from less than conscientious Android apps. Such apps might use permissions and data more than they should, at least compared to other similar apps that behave properly. And while the reasoning behind such peer grouping, Google unsurprisingly injects a pinch of machine learning to make it a less overwhelming task.
Facebook users can't expect the social network to protect their privacy when they're browsing online, a US judge has ruled, throwing out a lawsuit against the social networking behemoth. The case had seen Facebook accused of violating both US federal and Californian laws around privacy and wiretapping, in its use of tracking cookies. However the judge, in a decision made on Friday last week, disagreed.
