Android News and Tips
It seems like WhatsApp is getting some of the privacy features from Facebook. The instant messaging app has just been updated with a feature that gives you more control over who can add you to groups. You can choose “Everyone”, “My contacts”, or “My contacts except” which lets you individually select people from within your
Privacy and security have grown to become very big concerns in today’s highly-connected world. With a considerable part of the world’s population owning a mobile device, it’s likely that these devices are also being used to keep track of our whereabouts, too. There has been quite some buzz about government agencies spying on calls and
This just in: If you’re using a Samsung Galaxy smartphone or tablet, your device might just contain a backdoor that could let attackers remotely control your device or access data stored in it. According to Paul Kocialkowski, a developer for custom ROM Replicant, the backdoor basically involves protocols used by the Radio Interface Layer (RIL)
We earlier reported on Google’s acquisition of Nest for $3.2 billion. Nest, which creates thermostats that automatically adjust temperature based on a user’s proximity, interfaces with devices like smartphones and via the web. Nest also has proximity sensors that can sense whether there is someone about, and will adjust the heat accordingly. Three billion is
Google Play’s app permission system is meant to inform users of how far into our data and device an application will be able to access before we install an app, or before updating an app with revised permissions. But most users are not likely to bother reading the entire thing, which means we may already
Earlier this year, NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden gave us a peek into how far-reaching the agency’s digital spying activities are. US and foreign citizens alike decried how the NSA’s PRISM program can hone in on supposed enemies of the state and pick up relevant conversations — all in the name of national security, of course.
Digital privacy is perhaps the biggest issue of 2013, and this is likely to extend far beyond the new year. With whistleblowers leaking information that government agencies are spying on our conversations, who would not be paranoid? And if it’s not government, it’s the multitude of service providers that use our personal information — brand
Vint Cerf, one of the fathers of the Internet, has said that privacy may actually be “an anomaly.” He says this in the context of an increasingly connected world. We now take things like instant messaging, email and social networking for granted, when only a few decades ago many households relied on public-switch telephone networks
Have you ever lost a mobile phone? Or, worse, have you had a mobile phone stolen from you? I have experienced being pick-pocketed firsthand, although I was able to recover the device later on. It wasn’t a pleasant experience, and I made sure to better secure my devices from that point on. With tracking apps
You don’t have to be German Chancellor Angela Merkel to be concerned about the privacy and security of your phone conversations. If you’re worried that someone might be recording your calls or reading your messages, then you share the sentiments of the 60 percent or so of the American public that has decried the National
A new device called the FortressFone promises to keep your private data from being accessed by unauthorized persons. It is a timely solution to the growing concern caused by recent security-related issues. FortressFone is described as an 256-bit AES encrypted device using professional-grade standards defined by the NSA. It is based on the Samsung Galaxy
Apple maintained its commitment to customer privacy in a fresh statement regarding the company’s implication in the NSA issue about customer data requests from government agencies. Apple said that it came to know about the government’s PRISM program around the beginning of the month when news organizations questioned them about it. However, the company denied
We first heard word of Verizon and their order to hand over millions of the network user’s call records, but it seems this month that the ‘Verizon order’ is just the start. A new PRISM government scheme is a program that, according to other sources, will allow the NSA and FBI to have access to
Google will not approve facial recognition apps for Google Glass, at least for the moment, until it ensures that strict privacy protections are established. Thus, such facial recognition apps still have hope of getting approved once the Mountain View, California-based technology giant is able to guarantee that they may not be used in privacy abuses.
Avast a consumer antivirus maker has just acquires the Facebook-focuesd security startup Secure.me in a move to widen there reach both to the online users and the users that just worry about their immediate systems. Secure.me was launched to the public in November of 2011 as a way that parents could see their children’s Facebook
A private photo posted by Randi Zuckerberg on her Facebook account was posted by one of her subscribers using Twitter making it public for the world to see. The sister of Facebook’s CEO was not pleased by it calling the act “uncool.” According to her tweet, she posted the photo on Facebook exclusive to her
It seems that everyone is upset with Google’s new blanket privacy policy that went into effect the first of this month. Just the other day we reported that the French Data Protection Agency CNIL served a questionnaire to Google’s CEO with 69 questions on it. Google is also facing complaints from around the U.S. as
Google has been served with a letter from the National Commission For Computing and Civil Liberties (CNIL) in France. It seems that French government had some issues with Google’s new blanketed privacy policy that took effect on March 1, 2012. After initially reviewing the proposed changes to Google’s policy, CNIL let Google know that they
Earlier this year when Path came under fire for uploading the entire contents of users mobile address books (contacts) to their private servers, it launched a myriad of individual lawsuits. This week we’re hearing that 13 of those plaintiffs are seeking to build a class against a group of well known apps. The new class
Social networking Giant Facebook has updated their Statement of Rights & Responsibilities for the first time since April 2011. Facebook’s “Statement of Rights & Responsibilities” is the governing document between Facebook users and the company itself. As a user of Facebook, accessing the site means that you agree to this statement, as you would a