Heena Sharma Blog

  Apple is delaying a new privacy feature in the next version of its iPhone operating system that will make it more difficult for app makers to track people online to help sell digital ads. The decision outlined on Thursday affects iOS 14 , which is expected to be released as a free software upgrade to roughly a billion iPhone users later this month. Apple intended iOS 14 to automatically block tracking as soon as it came out, but the company now says it will hold back the tool until early next year. The same safeguard was supposed be in the next operating systems for iPads and Apple TVs, too. The feature would require apps to explicitly ask users to permission to collect and share data about their online behavior through a unique code that identifies every iPhone. Read More                 

Facebook has clearly told US Attorney General William Barr that the social networking giant will neither remove encryption from its messaging apps nor will provide law enforcement agencies access to its encrypted services. "As a company that supports 2.7 billion users around the world, it is our responsibility to use the very best technology available to protect their privacy. Encrypted messaging is the leading form of online communication and the vast majority of the billions of online messages that are sent daily, including on WhatsApp, iMessage, and Signal, are already protected with end-to-end encryption," said WhatsApp head Will Cathcart and Facebook Messenger's chief Stan Chudnovsky, in a letter to Barr on Tuesday. "The 'backdoor' access you are demanding for law enforcement would be a gift to criminals, hackers and repressive regimes, creating a way for them to enter our systems and leaving every person on our platforms more vulnerable to re...

Not content with monitoring almost everything you do online, Facebook now wants to read your mind as well. The social media giant recently announced a breakthrough in its plan to create a device that reads people’s brainwaves to allow them to type just by thinking. And Elon Musk wants to go even further. One of the Tesla boss’ other companies, Neuralink, is developing a brain implant to connect people’s minds directly to a computer. Musk admits that he takes inspiration from science fiction, and that he wants to make sure humans can “keep up” with artificial intelligence. He seems to have missed the part of sci-fi that acts as a warning for the implications of technology. These mind-reading systems could affect our privacy, security, identity, equality and personal safety. Do we really want all that left to companies with philosophies such as that of Facebook’s former mantra, “move fast and break things”? Though they sound futuristic, the technologies needed to make brainwa...

Facebook’s new gadgets, Portal and Portal Plus , are meant to bring people closer together. So we — Mike Isaac and Farhad Manjoo, two technology writers for The New York Times — took the $199 and $349 devices for a test run over the last week to see if they could make us feel more connected to each other. We both installed the Portal, which starts shipping on Thursday, in our homes (our bedrooms, to be exact). The devices are video-calling machines that people can use to talk through a screen to other Facebook users . They have a 12-megapixel camera with high-definition video and artificial intelligence software; the camera follows people about as they move around. The Portal has raised some privacy concerns, especially since Facebook has been scrutinized for how much information it already has on users. Were we worried about what these always-on devices might collect on us? Here’s how it played out. Read Complete Article Business Standard

Privacy violations under the DNA Bill cannot be addressed under the draft data protection bill Current Affairs News : Following close on the heels of the release of the draft Personal Data Protection Bill, 2018 (PDP Bill) release, is the proposed DNA Technology (Use and Application) Regulation Bill, 2018 (DNA Bill), which was introduced in parliament this monsoon session. This DNA Bill is the latest in a series that originated as the “DNA Profiling Bill” in 2007. Since then, the proposed law has gone through multiple iterations – with each version raising privacy concerns, such as the lack of adequate standards for consent, notice, retention and security of data. Chief amongst these privacy concerns is the fact that each of these iterations seems to grant near-sweeping powers to the state for the collection of DNA samples, with very few safeguards to protect citizens. Unfortunately, the present DNA Bill does little to address these concerns. For instance, the Bill...

An investigation found that many Google services on Android devices and iPhones store your location data even if you've used privacy settings that say they will prevent it from doing so Technology News : Google wants to know where you go so badly that it records your movements even when you explicitly tell it not to. An Associated Press investigation found that many Google services on Android devices and iPhones store your location data even if you've used privacy settings that say they will prevent it from doing so. Computer-science researchers at Princeton confirmed these findings at the AP's request. For the most part, Google is upfront about asking permission to use your location information. An app like Google Maps will remind you to allow access to location if you use it for navigating. If you agree to let it record your location over time, Google Maps will display that history for you in a "timeline" that maps out your daily move...