Internet - CDE News - The Dispatch

Advertisements for more than 400 brands including Coca-Cola to vanish from Facebook

Advertisements for more than 400 brands including Coca-Cola and Starbucks are due to vanish from Facebook on Wednesday, after the failure of last-ditch talks to stop a boycott over hate…

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New Google default wipes users’ location, web history after 18 months

Alphabet Inc's Google announced it will automatically delete some location history after 18 months for new users and make it easier for everyone to access its search, Maps and YouTube…

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U.S. lawmakers ask Zoom to clarify China ties after it suspends accounts of activists

Three U.S. lawmakers asked Zoom Video Communications Inc to clarify its data-collection practices and relationship with the Chinese government after the firm said it had suspended user accounts to meet…

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Battling anti-encryption drive, tech companies pledge new child abuse disclosures

Tech companies including Facebook, Google and Microsoft on Thursday pledged to improve and standardise annual disclosures around online child exploitation, as they fight off moves to limit encryption. The Technology…

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Dimension named Microsoft Mixed Reality Partner to help others create cutting-edge digital experiences

A UK company that has created interactive digital experiences involving Madonna, Michael Bublé and tennis star Andy Murray has become a Microsoft Mixed Reality Partner. Dimension, based in London and…

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India asks internet service providers to block WeTransfer

India has ordered its internet service providers (ISPs) to block file-sharing website WeTransfer at a time when hundreds of millions of people are working from home because of a nationwide…

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Facebook’s Libra appoints HSBC legal chief as CEO, ‘supreme court’ members announced

Libra Association, the entity managing the Facebook Inc-led effort to build global digital currency Libra, named Stuart Levey as its first chief executive officer. Levey is currently serving…

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U.N. security council members to hold online summit

Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said on Monday that other permanent members of the United Nations Security Council have agreed to hold an online five-way summit, proposed by Russian President…

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The Centre Pompidou launches video game that invites the public to discover some its major works

The Centre Pompidou in Paris, France, is launching Prisme7, its first video game, which invites the public to discover some major works from the collection of the Musée national d’art…

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Google to make verification mandatory for all advertisers

Alphabet Inc’s Google said on Thursday all advertisers would have to complete a verification process before buying ad space on its platform, starting this summer, in a bid to make…

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Coronavirus underscores urgency to bridge digital divide

The world is witnessing one of the swiftest organizational transformations in history as governments and businesses rely heavily on the internet to minimize the disruption caused by lockdowns and…

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UK issues guidelines to get the most from your internet

Offices, factories and schools across the world have shut to manage the spread of the coronavirus. And with millions told to "stay at home", this has put pressure on broadband…

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YouTube to reduce its streaming quality in EU and UK to avert internet gridlock

YouTube said on Friday it will reduce its streaming quality in the European Union and the United Kingdom to avert internet gridlock as thousands of people work from home. The…

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Internet giants fight spread of coronavirus untruths

As the new coronavirus spreads globally, the online battle to keep misinformation about the disease is also stepping up. Google, Facebook and other platforms are struggling to keep ahead of…

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UK Google users could lose EU GDPR data protections

Google is to move the data and user accounts of its British users from the EU to the US, placing them outside the strong privacy protections offered by European regulators.…

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UN experts insist comprehensive national strategies are urgently needed to prevent child sexual abuse online

Comprehensive national strategies are urgently needed to prevent child sexual abuse online and other Internet issues for children, independent UN human rights experts said on Tuesday, Safer Internet Day. Maud…

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Google under investigation over location tracking as Tinder faces data probe

Google and Tinder are facing regulatory investigations in the European Union over their use of users' personal data. The investigations were announced by the Irish Data Protection Commissioner (DPC) which…

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Online shopping: European Commission and Consumer Protection authorities urge traders to bring information policy in line with EU law

The European Commission published the results of an EU-wide screening (“sweep”) of nearly 500 e-shops selling clothing and footwear, furniture and household items, and electric appliances. This sweep was carried…

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Microsoft shares new technique to address online grooming of children for sexual purposes

Online child exploitation is a horrific crime that requires a whole-of-society approach. Microsoft has a long-standing commitment to child online protection. First and foremost, as a technology company, we have…

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Facebook and eBay pledge to combat trading in fake reviews

In a win for online shoppers, Facebook and eBay have signed up to agreements to better identify, investigate and respond to fake and misleading reviews after the Competition and Markets…

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Microsoft research shows teens and adults hope for more civil online discourse in new decade

It’s a new year and a new decade, and teens and adults around the world hope that respect, safety and freedom will define online life in the 2020s, new Microsoft…

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Russia plans ‘sovereign internet’ tests to combat external threats

Russia will carry out tests on Monday on the reliability of its domestic internet infrastructure in the event that the country is disconnected from the worldwide web, the communications ministry…

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Microsoft cooperated with three British schoolgirls to create a tool to tackle bullying and loneliness

Three schoolgirls from the UK have worked with Microsoft to create an app that tackles bullying and loneliness. Twelve-year-old Kaja and 13-year-olds Eylem and Wiktoria, from Gladesmore Community School in…

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Africa-Europe Alliance: EU boosts pan-African Internet connectivity with €30 million

The EU has announced additional €30 million for the project “AfricaConnect”, that will provide affordable, high-capacity Internet for research and education networks across Africa. Commissioner for International Partnerships, Jutta…

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Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee unveils plan to save the internet

Tim Berners-Lee, a British engineer credited with having invented the World Wide Web in 1989, has released an ambitious plan detailing steps for better online governance, addressing problems like misinformation,…

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Google to restrict political adverts worldwide

Google will no longer allow political campaigns to target advertising at people based on their supposed political leanings. Campaigns will also be unable to match their own database of prospective…

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The 2019 Web Summit in Lisbon

CEO and co-founder of Web Summit Paddy Cosgrave speaks during the third day of the Web Summit in Lisbon, Portugal, 06 November 2019. More the 70,000 participants from 163 countries…

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New Russian controls on the internet

A law introducing new controls on the internet has come into force in Russia amid concerns it may be used by the government to silence its critics. The so-called "sovereign…

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Facebook agrees to pay UK fine over Cambridge Analytica scandal

Facebook has agreed to pay a 500,000-pound fine for breaches of data protection law related to the harvesting of data by consultancy Cambridge Analytica, Britain’s information rights regulator said on…

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Australia takes Google to court over geolocation practices

Australia is taking Google to court over geolocation data-collection practices. The Australian Consumer Commission (ACC) has filed a lawsuit on allegations that the electronics behemoth misleads the public on how…

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World Internet Conference in China

Visitors at the 6th World Internet Conference, also known as Wuzhen Summit, in Wuzhen, China, on Monday 21 October 2019. As many as more than 600 internet enterprises from…

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Reports that Google made large contributions to climate change deniers

The Guardian reports that Google has made “substantial” contributions to some of the most notorious climate deniers in Washington despite its insistence that it supports political action on the climate…

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Twitter suffers global outrage

Twitter said that the social media website and its dashboard management platform TweetDeck was hit with an outage on Tuesday, with thousands of global users left in the dark. Outage…

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U.N. appeals so that countries make ‘digital world’ safer for children

Rising Internet connectivity has the potential to transform children’s lives for the better, but also makes them vulnerable to sexual abuse, online harassment and bullying, recruitment by extremist groups, and…

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EU court rules Google doesn’t have to forget you

The US search engine Google has won a European Union court battle against plans to impose a global “right to be forgotten” law, which has tipped the balance in favour…

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France fines Google nearly €1 billion

The French government and Google have reached a €945 billion settlement over tax fraud allegations, concluding investigations by authorities that have been ongoing for years. A Paris court approved the penalty on Thursday of €500…

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Paedophiles turning their attention to Instagram

Sexual grooming crimes have soared by a third in a year as paedophiles turn to Instagram to target children as young as 11, the National Society for the Prevention of…

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Yahoo mail down as site crashes

Yahoo Mail users across the world are unable to access their emails after the site crashed. Reports of problems began early on Thursday, as customers took to social media to say…

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Facebook confirms 419 million phone numbers exposed in latest privacy lapse

Hundreds of millions of Facebook users’ phone numbers were exposed in an open online database, the company confirmed Wednesday, in the latest example of Facebook’s past privacy lapses coming back to haunt…

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A third of young people polled by UN, report being a victim of online bullying

Around one-in-three young people across 30 countries say they have been bullied online, while one-in-five report that they have skipped school because of it. Those are some of the key…

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YouTube to pay $170M fine after violating children’s privacy law

Google will pay $170 million to settle allegations its YouTube video service collected personal data on children without their parents’ consent. The company agreed to work with video creators to…

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Facebook brings face recognition to all users

Facebook is opening its face recognition technology to all users with an option to opt out, the social media company said on Tuesday, as it discontinued a related feature called…

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Facebook expands ‘Local Alert’ tool

Facebook announced on Tuesday that it was rolling out a tool that aims to provide users with potentially life-saving information in emergencies, as it seeks to improve its public image…

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German police smash child pornography ring on darknet

German cybercrime experts brought down a child pornography platform on the darknet following months of intensive investigation, authorities in the German state of the Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania announced. German police were first…

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Canada hints at penalties for internet firms that allow child exploitation

Internet companies that do not actively combat the online exploitation of children should face financial consequences, Canada’s public safety minister hinted after announcing an increase in police funding to fight…

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Microsoft announces IoT Signals research report on state of IoT adoption

Microsoft Corp. announced IoT Signals, a new research report designed to provide a global overview of the IoT landscape. Microsoft surveyed over 3,000 IoT decision-makers in enterprise organizations in order…

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US to open antitrust review of big tech firms

The United States Justice Department said on Tuesday that it was opening a large-scale antitrust investigation of big US tech firms. The probe will look into "whether and how market-leading online…

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Global businesses – including Google and Microsoft – back UK to block cyber threats with new tech

Major businesses including Google and Microsoft are backing the UK to become a world leader in tackling the most damaging cyber security threats, helping to ensure the UK remains one…

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Financial records of nearly every Bulgarian exposed

A 20-year-old cybersecurity worker has been arrested in Bulgaria and charged with hacking the personal and financial records of millions of taxpayers in the country’s biggest ever data breach. Bulgaria’s…

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Google suspends ticket site Viagogo from advertising

Google has suspended Viagogo as an advertiser, after claims touts resell tickets at inflated prices on the site. The search engine’s surprise decision, which was welcomed by campaign groups and…

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FBI asked to investigate Faceapp

Chuck Schumer, the leading Democratic senator and Senate Minority Leader, called on the U.S. FBI and FTC – the Federal Trade Commission that protects American consumers - to launch…

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Instagram starts hiding the number of likes on posts in several countries

Instagram is hiding the number of likes on posts in several countries, including Australia and Japan, in order to "remove pressure" on users. The trial which begins Thursday, means users…

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Privacy concerns as Faceapp challenge goes viral

Everyone’s suddenly posting pictures of what they might look like when they’re old. People are posting results on Twitter, and it’s provided a few good laughs in our work chat.…

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Second Chinese cybersecurity centre opens in Brussels

China’s ZTE is opening a cybersecurity centre in Brussels, four months after a similar move by Huawei. ZTE said in a press release that its “lab” will be installed…

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Denmark plans regulation of influencers

Denmark announced it is to regulate popular influencers after an Instagram star posted a suicide note online. The influencer, Fie Laursen, posted the note on Instagram, where she has more…

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More U.S. towns falling victims to hackers

A town in Florida ended up paying $500,000 to hackers after a ransomware attack on its computer system. The total paid by Florida municipalities over ransomware in the last two…

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