IT & Security News
Location Based Marketing … Creepy?
MoviePass CEO, Mitch Lowe, has caused controversy by telling the Hollywood audience at the Entertainment Finance Forum that his MoviePass app can track and gather information about users before and after their trip to the movies. What Is MoviePass? MoviePass, based in New York, offers a service whereby, for a flat monthly fee ($9.95 per…
Blockchain Used To Reduce Child Labour
Blockchain Used To Reduce Child Labour Blockchain, the same technology that powers the Bitcoin cryptocurrency, is being tested in a pilot project between car-maker BMW and start-up Circulor with a view to eliminating battery minerals produced using child labour. What Is Blockchain? Blockchain is an incorruptible peer-to-peer network (a kind of ledger) that allows multiple…
Fight For DPOs With Introduction of GDPR
Technology and employment commentators are predicting that with the already high demand for skilled and talented Data Protection Officers (DPOs), the introduction of GDPR may see businesses having to compete to recruit the right one. What’s A Data Protection Officer? A DPO’s role is essentially that of looking after any legal and ethical issues related…
Facebook Shooting Game Gaffe
Facebook has faced criticism this week after news that it promoted a virtual reality shooting game set in a public train station, on its stand at a US conservatives’ event. Bad Timing Clearly, in the light of the latest mass school shooting incident in Florida where a gunman killed 17 victims, it appeared to be…
Google Acted On Less Than Half Of Requests To Remove URLs
Google’s latest Transparency Report reveals that of the 2.4 million requests made since 2014 to remove certain URLs from its search results, Google has only complied with less than half. Removal Requests The removal requests relate to a ruling by the European Union’s Court of Justice in May 2014 which said that Google and other…
Amazon’s $1 Billion ‘Smart Doorbell’ Purchase
Amazon has paid $1 billion for ‘Ring’, a smart doorbell company, so that it can improve how it delivers parcels, and compete with Google and Apple in expanding the opportunities for their digital assistants and app ecosystems. What Is Ring? Ring, run by CEO Jamie Siminoff, is a US company that primarily manufactures ‘smart doorbells’.…
Intel Didn’t Reveal Chip Flaws To Authorities First
It has been revealed that US authorities found out about the Spectre and Meltdown chip flaws from media reports rather than being informed directly by US computer chip manufacturer Intel. What Chip Flaws? Back in January, researchers from Google’s Project Zero, the Technical University of Graz in Austria and the security firm Cerberus Security in…
A Quarter Of Councils Have Been Hacked
A freedom of information request by privacy campaign group Big Brother Watch has revealed the shocking statistic that a quarter of all UK councils have had their IT systems breached in the past five years. 37 Attempted Cyber Attacks Every Minute The ‘Cyber Attacks In Local Authorities’ report from Big Brother Watch shows that local governments are…
Postcards To Combat Election Interference
Following disclosures of how Facebook was used by advertisers who may have been seeking to influence the US election result, Facebook has suggested that in future in the US, those backing candidates with advertising campaigns will receive a ‘snail mail’ postcard sent by Facebook with a verification code. Ads Mentioning A Candidate The measure is…
GDPR Extortion Prediction
A report by Security Company Trend Micro has predicted that, as cyber-criminals are now focusing more on maximising financial return, the introduction of GDPR this year could give them potentially lucrative extortion opportunities. How? The point that this report is making is that with the prospect of massive fines under GDPR e.g. fines up to…
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