Alphabet Unit Wing Blasts New US Drone ID Rule, Citing Privacy

Alphabet’s drone delivery unit Wing criticized Trump administration rules issued this week mandating broadcast-based remote identification of drones, saying they should be revised to allow for internet-based tracking. From a report: On Monday, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued rules that will allow small drones to fly over people and at night in the United States and mandate remote identification technology…

Apple Experienced iCloud Issues After Christmas Surge

“If you just received a new iPhone 12, Apple Watch or iPad, you might not have gotten immediate satisfaction — Apple was having some iCloud issues,” reports CNET: The issue started early on Christmas Day, according to the iCloud account and sign-in entry on Apple’s system status page. More than a day later, as of late morning PT Saturday, the Apple…

Nigeria Orders Mobile Users To Link Phones To National ID Numbers

Nigeria’s telecommunications regulator ordered mobile-phone users to link their devices to their national identity numbers, raising the prospect of millions of lines being blocked. From a report: Subscribers have until Dec. 31 to comply with the requirement, the Nigerian Communications Commission said in a statement Tuesday on its website. Failure to do so will result in their phone lines being cut…

Spam Calls Grew 18% This Year Despite the Global Pandemic

Despite several efforts from carriers, telecom regulators, mobile operating system developers, smartphone makers, and a global pandemic, spam calls continued to pester and scam people around the globe this year — and they only got worse. From a report: Users worldwide received 31.3 billion spam calls between January and October this year, up from 26 billion during the same period last…

Credit Card Numbers For Millions of Hotel Guests Exposed By Misconfigured Cloud Database

“A widely used hotel reservation platform has exposed 10 million files related to guests at various hotels around the world, thanks to a misconfigured Amazon Web Services S3 bucket,” reports Threatpost. “The records include sensitive data, including credit-card details.” Prestige Software’s “Cloud Hospitality” is used by hotels to integrate their reservation systems with online booking websites like Expedia and Booking.com. The…

Twitch Users Protest Its DMCA Policy By Streaming Videos With Homemade Sound Effects

Wednesday Twitch warned its users to delete any videos containing copyrighted music. PC Gamer reports on what happened next: Since October, Twitch has been deleting significant quantities of videos over copyright claims, leaving the affected streamers with no way to respond or issue counter-claims. Twitch eventually explained that the number of DMCA notifications it receives from major record labels has surged,…

Massive Criminal Trial Begins For ‘Cyberbunker’ Dark Web Server

The Times of London reports:
A gang of cyberexperts turned a former German military bunker into one of Europe’s biggest hubs for the “dark web” and a superhighway for at least a quarter of a million offences, including drug trafficking and the falsification of identity papers, a court has been told. Four people from the Netherlands, three Germans and a Bulgarian are…

Privacy Advocates Alarmed By Singapore’s World-First Face-Scanning Plans

“Singapore will become the world’s first country to use facial verification in its national ID scheme, but privacy advocates are alarmed by what they say is an intrusive system vulnerable to abuse,” reports AFP: Face scanning technology remains controversial despite its growing use and critics have raised ethical concerns about it in some countries — for instance, law enforcement agencies scanning…

Announcing Coursera for Campus free pricing options and academic integrity upgrades

By Jeff Maggioncalda, Coursera CEO The pandemic has been a catalyst for universities to make online learning core to the student experience. In March, we launched the Campus Response Initiative to give students and faculty free access to Coursera for Campus during pandemic-related closures. Since then, we have grown from 30 universities using Coursera for […]
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Philippines Starts Registering Millions for National ID Cards

The Philippines began Monday registering millions of citizens for its national identification system, hoping to promote electronic payments and make it easier for low-income earners without bank accounts to access financial services. From a report: All Philippine citizens and resident foreigners are required to register such information as name, sex, date of birth, place of birth, blood type, address and nationality….