Twitter is starting to test a new feature that will give users the ability to control just who can reply to their tweets.
·
Apple and Google have started the release of their COVID-19 Exposure Notifications system that could allow governments across the globe to help track the spread of COVID-19 with smartphone apps
New Android malware puts all Android users at risk as it invades devices without the user noticing it. What’s worse is that the said threat has the capability to access confidential applications and even bypass the two-factor authentication.
·
Schools struggling with staff working from home during the Coronavirus pandemic, while their IT systems remain on site, are being offered a free lifeline from a UK IT company.
The UK Government has announced the infrastructure for a contract tracing app has been put in place, and has been undergoing testing with a view to rolling it out on a large scale "within weeks".
MobileIron today announced a new partnership with Adeya to empower today's global workforce with private, end-to-end encrypted real-time voice and video calls, conference calls, SMS, instant messages, group chats and file exchanges on any device.
·
Zencargo and DHL have announced a collaboration with doctor-founded crowdfunding campaign Masks For NHS Heroes, creating a brand new supply chain for procuring life-saving Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for frontline NHS staff.
OPPO is to license its worldwide 3G and 4G standard-essential patents to the IoT and automotive markets through patent licensing platform Avanci.
·
Apple and Google are teaming up to enable the use of Bluetooth technology to help governments and health agencies reduce the spread of the virus, with user privacy and security central to the design.
Earlier today, Netflix announced it was reducing video quality on its services in Europe for the next 30 days in an attempt to alleviate the strain on internet service providers. Amazon and YouTube have both now confirmed that they will join Netflix by reducing the quality of their streams.
Netflix is to reduce the video quality on its services in Europe for the next 30 days in an attempt to alleviate the strain on internet service providers.
Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Microsoft, Reddit, Twitter and YouTube have taken the unusual step of issuing a joint statement promising to disinfect their platforms of contagiously incorrect COVID-19 content.
·
AirConsole has announced that they will provide everyone with free access to all of their video games during the Covid-19 lockdowns.
·
Microsoft Teams is currently down as the company struggles to handle the surge in use as many countries in Europe begin working from home.
Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has stepped down from the company's board of directors to devote more time to his philanthropic projects. Gates will continue to serve as technology adviser to CEO Satya Nadella and others.
Europol has arrested more than two dozen people running a SIM swapping ring that is suspected of draining bank accounts by hijacking victims’ phone numbers via SIM-swap fraud.
·
A council employee has been fined £400 for an offence under the Freedom of Information (FOI) regulations, marking the first ever successful conviction under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Nicola Young, town clerk of Whitchurch Town Council, was convicted under Section 77 of the FOIA of deliberately obstructing records with the intent to prevent disclosure.
OnePlus is to invest almost USD 30 million to scale up 5G research and development labs. Having started 5G research as early as 2016, OnePlus plans to extend its plans to push 5G research and development forward.
Ofcom has fined BT £245,000 after an investigation found that the company overcharged EE’s mobile customers for making calls to 118 directory enquiries services.
Virgin Media has revealed that a Virgin Media database containing the personal details of 900,000 people was left unsecured and accessible online for 10 months.
Three UK today announced that Dave Dyson has informed the company of his intention to step down from his role as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) for personal reasons. Dave will be succeeded by Robert Finnegan, who is currently CEO of Three Ireland.
In the United States, T-Mobile has announced a data breach caused by an email vendor being hacked that exposed the personal and financial information for some of its customers.
Cathay Pacific Airways Limited has been fined £500,000 by The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) for failing to protect the security of its customers’ personal data.
·
O2 plans to reduce carbon emissions across its business by 2025, giving UK consumers and businesses a mobile network where calls, texts and data are powered by cleaner, greener energy.
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has fined CRDNN Limited with the maximum £500,000 fine for making more than 193 million automated nuisance calls.
InterSystems is partnering with Imprivata to give clinicians secure access to patient and clinical data. Healthcare providers using InterSystems TrakCare will be able to select their preferred method of user authentication from the options of ‘tap and go’ proximity cards, swipe card or biometric authentication.
·
Samsung has begun mass producing the industry’s first 16-gigabyte (GB) LPDDR5 mobile DRAM package for next-generation premium smartphones.
Digital identity company for healthcare, Imprivita, has today announced the extension to its Identity and Access Management (IAM) solutions with Imprivata Identity Governance, is now available in the UK.
Cisco today unveiled a new Cloud-Native Platform, Cisco SecureX, incorporating its security products into a single, cloud-native security platform.
·
Vodafone UK has launched 5G and unlimited data to all Pay As You Go (PAYG) customers.
Anker Innovations today announced that its charging solutions will be available as a network exclusive on O2.
The UK government has invested £1.2bn to develop and run "the world's most powerful weather and climate supercomputer".
Mobile World Congress (MWC 2020), has been cancelled due to coronavirus concerns. The GSM Association (GSMA), which organizes the show, have officially confirmed the cancellation.
·
Virgin Money has announced new partnerships with The SSE Hydro in Glasgow and The O2 in London and as part of its repositioning of the brand in the UK.
As each day passes, more and more companies are withdrawing entirely from Mobile World Congress (MWC 2020).
·
AT&T, Cisco, Facebook and Sprint have become the latest companies to withdraw from the MWC 2020 trade show due to concerns over the coronavirus outbreak.
·
EE has announced it has become the exclusive mobile partner for the streaming service BritBox and is now offering customers a six-month BritBox subscription.
Intel, Vivo, and NTT Docomo have become the latest companies to withdraw from the MWC 2020 trade show due to concerns over the coronavirus outbreak.
·
TCL has become the latest company to reduce its presence for the MWC 2020 trade show due to concerns over the coronavirus outbreak.
·
Vodafone has unveiled a new partnership with The SSE Hydro Arena in Glasgow in what the company says is a further commitment to the city.
The British Legal Technology Forum 2020 has revealed the full line up of speakers for the highly anticipated event with Event Partner Oracle
Sony is the latest company to withdraw from MWC2020 due to the outbreak of the Coronavirus.
·
Due to the outbreak of the Coronavirus Amazon has taken the decision to withdraw from Mobile World Congress 2020 (MWC2020).
NVIDIA has revealed that it will not be attending Mobile World Congress 2020 this year over concerns about the ongoing coronavirus outbreak.
·
Due to the outbreak of the Coronavirus Ericsson has taken the decision to withdraw from Mobile World Congress 2020 (MWC2020) as the company says that the health and safety of employees and customers cannot be ensured.
·
Samsung has received 61 awards, including two gold awards, at the world-renowned International Forum(iF) Design Award 2020.
The European Parliament has voted in favour of a common charger between manufacturers .
·
Pulse Secure has announced that Alex Thurber is joining the executive team as Chief Revenue Officer.
·
The UK government has decided to allow technology from Huawei to be used in the country’s 5G network.
An investigation by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) of the Ring doorbell app for Android found it to be packed with third-party trackers
·
The UK Government is due to make their decision on 5G this week and the US has intensified the pressure as US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Sunday said that the UK's sovereignty is at risk if Huawei is allowed to develop 5G infrastructure in the country.
The United States Department of Commerce has put on hold a rule aimed at further reducing sales to Huawei amid push-back from the US Department of Defense.
Chelsea Football Club have announced a three-year principal partnership with Three UK.
Samsung has appointed Roh Tae-moon, their youngest-ever president at 51, as mobile chief as part of a management reshuffle.
Ofcom has fined Post Office £175,000 after an investigation found the company overcharged people with hearing or speech impairments who made telephone calls using a relay service.
OnePlus has once again cooperated with Samsung Display to tailor a unique AMOLED display with the most rigorous specs in the industry, including a breathtakingly smooth 120 Hz refresh rate.
·
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has fined DSG Retail (DSG) £500,000 after a ‘point of sale’ computer system was compromised as a result of a cyber-attack, affecting at least 14 million people.
It's official! Samsung has sent out the invites for its Unpacked event taking place on February 11 in San Francisco at 11:00 PST, where the company is expected to possibly unveil three Galaxy smartphones.
OnePlus is to offer a bug bounty offering up to $7,000 USD to security experts who discover and report potential threats to OnePlus’ systems. The company has also partnered with HackerOne, a hacker-powered security platform as part of its efforts to better protect users from cyber threats.
·
Pornhub has published its 7th annual Year in Review, and in amongst a wealth of stats for 2019, they include a look mobile OS versions.
·
At OPPO INNO DAY 2019 in Shenzhen , OPPO showcased a variety of smart devices including smart watches, smart headphones, 5G CPE, AR glasses along with key technological breakthroughs in areas such as flash charging, 5G, imaging and software optimisation.
·
O2 has today launched 'O2 extras', enabling customers to choose from a broad range of digital perks. With O2 extras, customers can take customisation further by choosing Amazon Prime Video and getting access to a range of top films and Amazon Original TV shows like The Grand Tour, Good Omens, The Boys and exclusive Premier League matches in December; or choosing Amazon Music to enjoy unlimited access to more than 50 million songs, ad-free ; or choosing the world’s largest selection of audiobooks and original podcasts with Audible; or access to hundreds of the UK’s most popular magazines with Cafeyn.
Amazon workers across the UK have gone on strike, in a protest timed to coincide with Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Workers are demanding an end to what they claim to be ‘appalling’ working conditions.
Google is partnering with three cybersecurity companies to flag malicious apps before they’re published on the Play Store. Google is calling this collaboration the App Defense Alliance.
Amazon today announced a range of Amazon Small Business Academy programs in the US to help small businesses harness the power of the internet to reach more customers, build their brand, and grow sales. The initiatives includes in-person seminars, community college courses, and webinars.
Facebook has agreed to pay a £500,000 fine to the Information Commissioner’s Office ("ICO") over the Cambridge Analytica scandal, ending more than a year of litigation between the regulator and social network.
O2 has unveiled a new experimental store format in partnership with retailer, NEXT. The pilot, known by O2 as Shop-in-Shop, will see four new O2 stores opened within NEXT stores across the country, with ambitions to roll out more widely in the coming months.
Amazon and other leading technology companies today announced the Voice Interoperability Initiative, a new program to ensure voice-enabled products provide customers with choice and flexibility through multiple, interoperable voice services. The initiative aims to have multiple voice assistants work next to each other on devices, rather than having customers have to lock themselves into one voice ecosystem.
The ICO has urged businesses to “prepare for all scenarios” as it publishes dedicated guidance to help small and medium sized organisations prepare for the possibility that the UK leaves the European Union with no deal.
Google and Apple's latest operating systems allow you more control over how your location information is shared, giving give users the ability to limit what apps can do with your personal information.
·
Xiaomi today announced the Inter-Transfer Alliance group. Joined by Oppo, and Vivo, the three are teaming up on a cross-platform file transfer protocol, similar to Apple’s AirDrop.
NTT Security has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Europol’s European Cybercrime Centre (EC3). This latest move forms part of its commitment to sharing its strategic threat intelligence with industry partners and law enforcement agencies to prevent cybercrime globally.
·
The UK has become one of the first countries in Europe where people will be able to receive flood alerts on their computer, phone or personal device through the Google Public Alerts map. Flood warnings issued by the Environment Agency will now appear on Google Search and the Google Public Alerts map with live alerts becoming visible on personal devices in a matter of seconds once they have been issued.
HTC has suspended the sale of its smartphones in the UK, as part of an ongoing patent dispute.
Non-practising entity IPCom claimed that, as a result of its claim of patent infringement, HTC had indicated it would suspend the sale and importation of the recently launched Desire 12 handset to the UK market, in addition to taking steps to stop sales of all of its mobile devices in the UK.
Equifax will pay up to $700 million to settle with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and others over the 2017 data breach that exposed the private data of nearly 150 million people.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has voted to approve a £4bn ($5bn) settlement with Facebook over the Cambridge Analytica scandal. The fine is the largest-ever imposed by the FTC for violating an order and is in line with what the company said it expected to pay in its quarterly report in April.
In July, the ICO issued a Notice of Intent to fine Facebook as part of a wide ranging investigation into the use of data analytics for political purposes.
US hotel group Marriott International is facing a fine of £99.2M for a data breach that took place in 2014 but was only discovered in 2018.
British Airways faces a record fine of £183.39 million for a data breach which happened last year. Following an extensive investigation the ICO has issued a notice of its intention to fine British Airways £183.39M for infringements of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
New Text to Switch rules from Ofcom come into effect in the UK today, allowing users to quickly switch plans or network provider, and let them keep their existing phone number as well - all with a simple text.
Samsung has launched the Bixby Marketplace in US and Korea. The Bixby Marketplace is a one-stop shop for users to browse and add a wide range of services (known as capsules) to enhance their Bixby experience.
EE have excluded Millions of Apple and Android users from accessing EE TV's replacement. Under the old platform customers of EE’s Broadband service paid an extra £8 a month to receive the box, which gave them access to all of the usual Freeview TV channels, PVR features, an app and access to premium on-demand content.
The Information Commissioners Office (ICO) has today imposed a £100,000 fine on BT-owned mobile operator EE after the company sent over 2.5 million direct marketing messages (texts) to its customers during early 2019, without gaining their consent to do so.
FedEx has filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Commerce to stop it from enforcing certain export restrictions against the company. In a statement, FedEx didn’t name Huawei specifically but the filing comes after the company has botched Huawei-related shipments on at least two occasions.
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has fined Smart Home Protection Ltd £90,000 for making nuisance calls to people registered with the Telephone Preference Service (TPS).
A former customer services officer at Stockport Homes Limited (SHL) has been found guilty of unlawfully accessing personal data without a legitimate reason to do so.
The UK government will legislate to create a new independent Consumer Advocate which will have the power to stand up for consumers, ensuring they get the right treatment from mobile, broadband, pay-TV, and landline providers.
Ireland’s Data Protection Commission (DPC) has opened an investigation into whether Google’s online advertising exchange illegally uses sensitive personal information about internet users, such as their race, health and political opinions.
Chris Hughes, one of Facebook’s co-founders, has called for the social network to be broken up by regulators, arguing that Mark Zuckerberg’s “unchecked power” has created a monopoly and given him “unilateral control over speech”.
·
Smartphone shipments in North America dropped 18 percent in Q1 2019 to a five-year low of 36.4 million units.While the region’s biggest ever recorded fall in smartphone sales is being credited primarily to Apple’s lacklustre performance, the iPhone maker remained the clear leader despite suffering a regional decline of 19%.
Google has made it easier for users to manage their Location History and Web & App Activity data. The company collects this data to improve the experience of its services and provide ads, but it can also be used to track users’ each and every move and build behavioural patterns.
A hack discovered by us-based firm vpnMentor that has exposed a database of 80 million (nearly 65 percent) American households. The unprotected 24GB database, hosted on Microsoft Cloud servers, includes the number of people living in each household with their full names, their marital status, income bracket, age, and more. While some information is available freely, other data like title, gender, etc are coded.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock has announced plans to upgrade every hospital, GP practice and community care service to full fibre connectivity.Almost 40% of NHS organisations are using slow and unreliable internet supplied through copper lines, which restricts the ability to offer digital services to patients.
Vodafone UK and Atos IT Services are among 12 firms suspended for not paying their suppliers in line with the Prompt Payment Code (PPC), under which 95% of supplier invoices are paid within 60 days.
Facebook has suffered another outage of its services a month after a server upgrade left users unable to use its Facebook, WhatsApp or Instagram services for almost a day. Services were restored within hours of reports emerging about the outage.
·
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has fined Bounty (UK) Limited £400,000 for illegally sharing personal information belonging to more than 14 million people.
Tech companies in the UK face new rules, sanctions and oversight as the UK government declared to end the “era of self-regulation”. The government will impose a new legal “duty of care” on companies to take steps to tackle illegal and harmful activity on their services, according to plans announced in a white paper.
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has fined the London Borough of Newham £145,000 for disclosing the personal information of more than 200 people who featured on a police intelligence database.
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has opened the beta phase of its Sandbox, a new service designed to support organisations using personal data to develop products and services that are innovative and have demonstrable public benefit.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is charging Facebook with violating the Fair Housing Act by encouraging, enabling, and causing housing discrimination through the company’s advertising platform.
Several tweets circulating the Twitter platform are asking users to change their birth year to 2007 in order to make their feeds look "colourful". Falling for this hoax tweet, several users went ahead and changed their birth years to 2007. This obviously did not change the way their feeds looked, but instead, locked them out of their accounts for being under age.
·
The European Parliament has voted in favour of the EU’s first update of copyright rules in nearly two decades, as MEPs in Strasbourg on Tuesday voted by a margin of 348 votes to 274 to back rules that will force internet groups such as YouTube and Google to take out licences to show copyrighted content and make them liable to take down material that breaks intellectual property rules.
·
It's another day, so time for another Facebook scandal, as the company admitted Thursday that it had stored hundreds of millions of its users’ passwords internally in a readable format.
The world’s largest social network said in a blog post that during a routine review in January it had found the flaw in its internal data storage systems, adding that the company had now fixed the issue.
·
The European Commission has fined Google €1.49bn following an antitrust investigation into Google's ‘anti-competitive’ behaviour in online ad market.
The probe, led by the European Union’s antitrust czar Margrethe Vestager, looked into accusations that Google had spent 10 years trying to prevent websites from using the advertising services of its rivals.
Employees could face a criminal prosecution if they access or share personal data without a valid reason, the Information Commissioner’s Office has warned.The warning came after Birmingham Magistrates' Court fined two workers in separate cases for breaching data protection laws.
The UK has one of the world’s leading digital economies, making it more vulnerable to cyber-attacks from hostile countries, criminal gangs and individuals, which continue to increase and evolve as it becomes easier and cheaper to launch attacks.
Facebook scandals are nothing new these days but a new report suggests that federal prosecutors in the United States are conducting a criminal investigation into Facebook's data sharing deals with other tech companies.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has levied a £29,107,600 fine on Carphone Warehouse after finding staff were trained more in countering customer objections than assessing whether the product was appropriate.
Ofcom should be given new powers to regulate major tech companies like Google and Facebook, members of the House of Lords have argued, as tech platforms have failed to tackle harms and abuse in digital media.
Citrix is cooperating with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to investigate a major data breach of the company's internal network, where hackers may have accessed and downloaded business documents, though the full extent is not yet known.
Hermes UK is introducing innovative technology aimed at bringing people together by enabling the sender of a parcel to connect with its recipient through a personal video message.
Hermes Play, which was created within Hermes’ Innovation Lab, allows the sender to pre- record a personal message which is then uploaded via the Hermes Send app.
Investigations by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) into nuisance marketing have resulted in 16 company directors being banned from running a company for more than 100 years in total.
Facebook is a “digital gangster” that violated its users’ privacy for profit, exploited its market power to kill or prefer businesses and has resisted scrutiny by governments around the world, a British parliamentary committee has found. UK MPs stated that Facebook needs far stricter regulation, with tough and urgent action necessary to end the spread of disinformation on its platform.
Facebook currently owns and operates three messaging platforms that all run independently of each other - Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp and Instagram. All three platforms feature their own respective messaging component; Instagram users, for instance, can't use the app to contact users on WhatsApp.
·
France's National Commission for Information Technology and Civil Liberties (CNIL) has fined Google €50 million for a breach of GDPR. The CNIL’s restricted committee imposed the penalty for "lack of transparency, inadequate information and lack of valid consent regarding the ads personalisation.”.
Google shareholders are suing the company board and senior management for covering up executives' sexual harassment and rewarding them with large payouts for leaving quietly.
Facebook's never-ending stream of privacy scandals continues as a new report by The New York Times states that Facebook provided companies like Microsoft, Amazon, Netflix, and Spotify unrestricted access to users' data.
·
O2 customers throughout the UK have been left with no data connectivity or 3G and 4G services after a technical fault caused a UK-wide outage.
An ex headteacher has been fined in court for unlawfully obtaining school children’s personal data from previous schools where he worked.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) and Samsung today announced an extension to their global Olympic partnership through to 2028.
