TechCrunch: Hackers release a new jailbreak that unlocks every iPhone. “The jailbreak, released by the unc0ver team, supports all iPhones that run iOS 11 and above, including up to iOS 13.5, which Apple released this week. Details of the vulnerability that the hackers used to build the jailbreak aren’t known, but it’s not expected to last forever. Just as jailbreakers work to find a way in, Apple works fast to patch the flaws and close the jailbreak.”
smartphones
Washington Post: Smartphone data shows out-of-state visitors flocked to Georgia as restaurants and other businesses reopened
Washington Post: Smartphone data shows out-of-state visitors flocked to Georgia as restaurants and other businesses reopened. “One week after Georgia allowed dine-in restaurants, hair salons and other businesses to reopen, an additional 62,440 visitors arrived there daily, most from surrounding states where such businesses remained shuttered, according to an analysis of smartphone location data. Researchers at the University of Maryland say the data provides some of the first hard evidence that reopening some state economies ahead of others could potentially worsen and prolong the spread of the novel coronavirus. Any impetus to travel, public health experts say, increases the number of people coming into contact with each other and raises the risk of transmission.”
EPFL: EPFL researchers put proximity tracing app to the test
EPFL: EPFL researchers put proximity tracing app to the test. “Over the past two weeks, EPFL computer scientists have been testing and refining the smartphone-based system developed by the international Decentralized Privacy-Preserving Proximity Tracing project (DP3T), with the help of the Swiss Army. Their goal: to optimize the app’s ability to alert users after they’ve been in contact with someone contagious with COVID-19, while building trust around the open system.”
Tom’s Guide: Apple and Google team up to fight coronavirus with contact tracing
Tom’s Guide: Apple and Google team up to fight coronavirus with contact tracing. “Today, Apple and Google announced a surprising collaboration: the two will unite to bring contact tracing to their smartphones in order to fight coronavirus. And both companies are committed to doing so while respecting user privacy. In posts made by both Apple and Google, the companies declared ‘a joint effort 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.'”
EurekAlert: Bluetooth signals from your smartphone could automate COVID-19 contact tracing
EurekAlert: Bluetooth signals from your smartphone could automate COVID-19 contact tracing. “A team led by MIT researchers and including experts from many institutions is developing a system that augments ‘manual’ contact tracing by public health officials, while preserving the privacy of all individuals. The system relies on short-range Bluetooth signals emitted from people’s smartphones. These signals represent random strings of numbers, likened to ‘chirps’ that other nearby smartphones can remember hearing.”
CNN: How the cell phones of spring breakers who flouted coronavirus warnings were tracked
CNN: How the cell phones of spring breakers who flouted coronavirus warnings were tracked. “The Trump administration wants to use Americans’ smartphone location data to help track and combat the spread of coronavirus. Now, a pair of US data companies are making a public pitch to show just how that kind of technology might work. X-Mode and Tectonix focused on a high-profile case: tracking location data from the phones of people who visited the beach in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in March — among them spring breakers who made national news two weeks ago when they ignored warnings to practice social distancing despite the worsening coronavirus pandemic.”
BGR: Verizon to give subscribers 15GB of free data during the coronavirus outbreak
BGR: Verizon to give subscribers 15GB of free data during the coronavirus outbreak. “In a press release published a short while ago, Verizon said that its waiving overage charges for residential and small business wireless customers whose economic situation has been adversely impacted by the coronavirus.”
