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The Committee on Liberatory Information Technology has announced a long-standing Chromebook bug that could reveal user location history. Evidently already on the radar of Google, the platform has a feature allowing anyone with physical access to your device to connect as a guest and view your Wi-Fi logs. Of course, once said intruder has accessed these logs, they would then need the technical knowhow to make sense of them. However, if they are skilled enough, they may be able to track your place history by viewing your Wi-Fi network access over the past seven days. It turns out the bug...

If you're experiencing a bunch of apps suddenly crashing on your recent Samsung phone, you're not alone. This afternoon US time, reports from dozens, then hundreds of users on the Samsung subreddit started coming in, complaining of apps crashing on their phones, constantly and seemingly at random. It's causing some major headaches.

Google appeared to remove nearly 100,000 negative reviews for the Robinhood app after outraged investors bombarded the stock-trading startup with complaints. Amateur traders urged each other online to leave negative reviews for the app in the Google Play Store after Robinhood froze trading on shares of GameStop and other stocks whose prices have exploded this week. The campaign appeared to work — Robinhood’s Android app had a one-star rating based on nearly 275,000 reviews on Thursday, according to a screenshot captured by 9to5Google. But that number had fallen to just over 176,000 by midday Friday as Google apparently purged the...

Google controls what the vast majority of the world finds on the internet. Being put at the top of the Google results for search is not only immensely lucrative, it is also almost mind-bogglingly powerful in global affairs. Since 2016, according to multiple reports, Google’s algorithm has been increasingly manipulated to bury and elevate specific information, especially politically charged information. This appears to have strong effects on what people believe and therefore how they vote and respond to polls that inform what politicians do with their power. A 2018 Wall Street Journal investigation concluded, “The internet giant uses blacklists, algorithm...

Booting up your new phone and going through everything in there is always a special experience, but this ritual is often soured by the presence of bloatware and unnecessary third-party apps.

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.) (IEEPA), the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.), and section 301 of title 3, United States Code,I, DONALD J. TRUMP, President of the United States of America, find that additional steps must be taken to deal with the national emergency with respect to the information and communications technology and services supply chain declared in Executive Order 13873 of May 15, 2019 (Securing the Information and Communications...

TO THE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES:Pursuant to the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.) (IEEPA), the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.), and section 301 of title 3, United States Code, I hereby report that I have issued an Executive Order declaring additional steps to be taken concerning the national emergency with respect to the information and communications technology and services supply chain declared in Executive Order 13873 of May 15, 2019 (Securing the Information and Communications Technology and Services Supply Chain) to deal with the threat posed by applications and other software...

Today, President Donald J. Trump signed an executive order addressing the continuing threat posed by Chinese software applications. The Chinese government requires that all commercial companies, big and small, support the Chinese Communist Party’s political objectives as Chinese regulators have recently demonstrated. China’s Military-Civil Fusion strategy explicitly aims to co-opt or coerce civilian enterprises into assisting the People’s Liberation Army. This executive order tasks the Secretary of Commerce to identify prohibited transactions involving eight Chinese software applications, including payment services; directs the Secretary of Commerce to identify and take appropriate action against other software applications; and develops a program to...

Google has just banned the Parler social media app from the Google Play Store. However, you can still download and install Parler onto your Android phone from other sources. ... We’ve included a couple links below that you can use to download Parler onto your Android phone. ... Google is going to tell you that this type of file can harm your device. However, APKpure has guaranteed that this Parler APK file is safe.

Ad giant sued after mobile allowances eaten by hidden transfers Google on Thursday was sued for allegedly stealing Android users' cellular data allowances though unapproved, undisclosed transmissions to the web giant's servers. "Google’s misappropriation of Plaintiffs’ cellular data allowances through passive transfers occurs in the background, does not result from Plaintiffs’ direct engagement with Google’s apps and properties on their devices, and happens without Plaintiffs’ consent." The device, stationary, with all apps closed, transferred data to Google about 16 times an hour, or about 389 times in 24 hours. Assuming even half of that data is outgoing, Google would receive...

Google’s high-handed tactics with US regulators have come back to haunt it, with critics saying the tech giant set the stage for a dramatic showdown with the Department of Justice nearly a decade ago. The DOJ last week sued Google, accusing it of using anti-competitive tactics to maintain its search engine’s dominance over rivals. The focus of the suit — massive cash payments to smartphone makers like Apple and Samsung to make Google’s search engine the default option on their devices — is a fresh one. But industry sources say the Silicon Valley giant has nevertheless made itself vulnerable to...

While a decision in Google v. Oracle isn’t expected for a few months, the justices’ pointed questioning at the Big Tech giant indicates Google broke the law to get ahead. Michael J. PappasBy Michael J. Pappas OCTOBER 14, 2020 The Supreme Court heard oral arguments for Google v. Oracle on Oct. 7. The case involves several legal issues, all of which boil down to one principal question: Did Google cheat and steal its way to the top? 

While a decision on the case isn’t expected for a few months, the justices’ pointed questioning at the Big Tech giant points to...

TikTok has reached an agreement to partner with software giant Oracle, a landmark deal that could redefine how the U.S. and China square off over the reach of their homegrown technology companies. The deal, which was confirmed Sunday by a source with direct knowledge, comes after the Trump administration pressured TikTok to sell its U.S. business over concerns about the threat to national security. The administration alleged that the company's ties to China through its parent company, ByteDance, meant it would have to hand over data about Americans if asked by China's government. TikTok has denied that it would hand...

A recent report from the Wall Street Journal alleges that the Chinese-owned social media app TikTok circumvented a privacy safeguard in Google’s Android operating system to collect user data. The Wall Street Journal reports that the Chinese-owned social media app TikTok, which has come under fire from the Trump administration over national security concerns, circumvented a privacy safeguard in Google’s Android operating system to collect unique identifiers from millions of users that would allow the app to track users online without letting them opt-out. Mobile-phone security experts told the WSJ that the tactic used by TikTok was concealed through an...

Hackers have started launching attacks against F5 BIG-IP networking devices, ZDNet has learned.Attacks have been spotted today by Rich Warren, a security researcher for the NCC Group.In an interview earlier today, Warren told ZDNet the attacks are malicious in nature, and hackers are attempting to steal administrator passwords from the hacked devices.SUMMARY: BIG-IP AND CVE-2020-5902 These attacks are targeting BIG-IP, a multi-purpose networking device manufactured by F5 Networks. BIG-IP devices can be configured to work as traffic shaping systems, load balancers, firewalls, access gateways, rate limiters, or SSL middleware.These devices are some of the most popular networking products in use today, and...

Evina, a French cybersecurity firm, disclosed this news in recent weeks, with its report that a single threat group developed the batch of apps that were made to look like everything from wallpaper and flashlight apps to mobile games. However, all the apps had the same goal, as Evina explains in its report of the fraud. “When an application is launched on your phone, the malware queries the application name,” the company explains. “If it is a Facebook application, the malware will launch a browser that loads Facebook at the same time. The browser is displayed in the foreground which...

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Comedian and podcast host Joe Rogan has signed a multiyear licensing deal with music streaming service Spotify reported to be worth more than $100 million to move his podcast exclusively to Spotify’s platform. Variety reports that Joe Rogan, popular comedian and host of the Joe Rogan Experience, has signed a deal with Spotify to move his podcast exclusively to the Spotify platform. The podcast will debut on Spotify on September 1 on a non-exclusive basis but will become exclusive to the Spotify platform later in the year under the multiyear licensing deal. Rogan’s podcast currently ranks as the second most...

Rwanda’s Mara Group has grand ambitions. The company hopes to help turn Rwanda into a regional tech hub, and it just got one step closer to completing that mission. This week, the company released two smartphones, earning Mara Group the title of the first smartphone manufacturer in Africa. advertisement Rwanda President Paul Kagame has announced Africa’s “first high tech smartphone factory,” CNN reported. While smartphones are assembled in other African nations (Egypt, Algeria, and South Africa all have assembly plants), according to Reuters, those companies all import the components. But at Mara, they manufacture the phones from the motherboards to the packaging,...

ToTok, an Emirati messaging app that has been downloaded to millions of phones, is the latest escalation of a digital arms race. IMAGE: The Aldar Building in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, where the Emirates’ signals intelligence agency and Pax AI, a data mining firm linked to ToTok, have their offices.  Photo Credit...Ben Job/ReutersWASHINGTON — It is billed as an easy and secure way to chat by video or text message with friends and family, even in a country that has restricted popular messaging services like WhatsApp and Skype.But the service, ToTok, is actually a spying tool, according to American officials...