The Local: Austria privacy group files complaint against Google. “An Austrian online privacy campaign group said Wednesday it has a filed a complaint against Google over what it says is a tracking code ‘illegally’ installed on Android phones. The complaint from NOYB relates to Google’s Android Advertising Identifier (AAID) and has been lodged with the CNIL, France’s data protection authority.”
From the Congressional Research Service, and in PDF form: Facebook’s Acquisition of GIPHY: Potential Competition Issues. “Facebook is now facing antitrust lawsuits, some of which focus on its past acquisitions. This Insight discusses how Facebook’s acquisitions can affect competition in digital advertising and the potential implications of the antitrust lawsuits on Facebook’s acquisition of GIPHY.”
Cycling News: Bikmo launches bike theft tracking tool as 74,000 bikes reported stolen in 2020. “Bikmo has today launched an interactive bike theft tracking heatmap, combining police data and population data to find the best and worst areas for bike theft in England and Wales in 2020. The aggregated data confirms that 74,573 bikes were reported stolen across the two countries, down from 83,536 in 2019.”
SC Magazine: Hackers rush to new doc builder that uses Macro-exploit, posing as DocuSign. “Researchers at Intel471 have identified a new malicious document builder that has gone from a new, relatively unknown exploit to being incorporated into the attack chains of top cybercriminal groups in less than a year. The builder, dubbed EtterSilent, comes in two flavors: one version exploits an old remote code execution vulnerability in Microsoft Office and another uses a Macro-based exploit and is designed to look like DocuSign, a popular software program that allows individuals or businesses to electronically sign documents.”
Vice: Facebook Says It’s Your Fault That Hackers Got Half a Billion User Phone Numbers. “Facebook has become accustomed to dealing with multiple massive privacy breaches in recent years, and data belonging to hundreds of millions of its users has been leaked or stolen by hackers. But, instead of owning up to its latest failure to protect user data, Facebook is pulling from a familiar playbook: just like it did during the Cambridge Analytica scandal in 2018, it’s attempting to reframe the security failure as merely a breach of its terms of service.”
BNN Bloomberg: Google faces complaint in France over Android advertising tool. “Google’s Android advertising tool is the target of a complaint in France by privacy activist Max Schrems, accusing the tech giant of violating European Union rules by failing to get users’ consent.”
Washington Post: How America’s surveillance networks helped the FBI catch the Capitol mob. “Debra Maimone pulled down her American flag mask for a moment on Jan. 6 and gazed at the unruly mob of supporters of President Donald Trump overrunning the U.S. Capitol. ‘Put your mask on,’ warned her fiance, as the couple stood beneath an unblinking array of surveillance cameras. ‘I don’t want them to see you.’ It was too late.”
Gizmodo: Google Is Cracking Down on Apps That Can See Every Other App You Have Installed. “In a recent announcement for developers, Google outlined an update to its policies that will restrict ‘broad app visibility’ in Android 11 or later. Broad app visibility is a function that allows apps to query your device and potentially see what other apps you have installed. Google says it considers data regarding other apps installed on a device to be sensitive information and is making this change to help increase user privacy.”
SAMAA: Court seeks report on Pakistan social media rules. “The Islamabad High Court has ordered the government committee on social media rules to submit its report on May 10. A bench headed by IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah heard the case on Friday.”
Sky News Australia: Federal government considering ID verification for social media accounts. “The federal government is considering a ban on anonymous social media accounts as part of major changes to tackle the scourge of domestic violence.”
Atlantic Council: Social media helps and hurts Iranian elections. Here’s how.. “The internet has always been one of the most challenging issues for the Iranian government, especially during elections. Over the past three years alone, Iran has tried to meet this challenge on numerous occasions by shutting down the internet during nationwide protests or blocking popular apps and websites. According to the 2020 Internet freedom index, Iran ranks at the bottom at fifteenth or, to put it in another way, “not free”. In this piece, I will try to examine the pros and cons of social media during every Iranian election since 2009 and speculate about the potential of a new app ahead of the June vote.”
Vice: How Mexico’s Most Powerful Cartel Used EBay to Arm Themselves With Military Gear. “It started with his mom’s credit card, claimed Ismael Almada in March 2020, as he voluntarily spilled his guts to U.S. law enforcement officers during an interview in the Mexican city of Guadalajara. He’d originally used his mom’s card to order weapons accessories and tactical gear off eBay for his security business that focused on anti-spyware and surveillance technology, before eventually moving to PayPal to make the trail of U.S. goods to Mexico a bit more clandestine. He needed to. Most of the illegal imports went to the infamous Jalisco New Generation Cartel, known as the CJNG for its Spanish acronym.”
iNews UK: ‘Global Dark Web drug network’ disrupted after raids target organised criminal gang across England. “The arrest and search operation, which also targeted addresses in Surrey, was the latest arising from the success of law enforcement agencies around the world in breaking into EncroChat, the encrypted phone network which had become a favoured way for organised crime gangs to communicate and establish international connections.”
Department of Justice: Indictment: Kansas Man Indicted For Tampering With A Public Water System . “The indictment alleges that on or about March 27, 2019, in the District of Kansas, [Wyatt] Travnichek knowingly accessed the Ellsworth County Rural Water District’s protected computer system without authorization. During this unauthorized access, it is alleged Travnichek performed activities that shut down the processes at the facility which affect the facilities cleaning and disinfecting procedures with the intention of harming the Ellsworth Rural Water District No. 1, also known as Post Rock Rural Water District.”
The Diplomat: How Will China’s Sovereign Digital Currency Affect Fintech?. “China’s sovereign digital currency is still in the testing phase, but has caused speculation about what effect it will have on fintech. Some experts have asserted that the digital currency will crowd out payment methods WeChat Pay and Alipay. Others have stated that China’s sovereign digital currency will boost the fintech industry overall since it is electronic. So, how can we reasonably predict will the effect of the digital currency will be on China’s fintech industry?”
