Australia’s national public broadcaster ABC reports:
A Chinese company with links to Beijing’s military and intelligence networks has been amassing a vast database of detailed personal information on thousands of Australians, including prominent and influential figures. A database of 2.4 million people, including more than 35,000 Australians, has been leaked from the Shenzhen company Zhenhua Data which is believed to be used…
Tag: wechat
Trump To Ban US TikTok and WeChat App Store Downloads on September 20
The US Commerce Department has issued a new order to block people in the US from downloading the popular video-sharing app TikTok as of September 20th, Reuters first reported Friday. From a report: The full order was published by the Department of Commerce on Friday morning. “Any transaction by any person, or with respect to any property, subject to the jurisdiction…
WeChat Users Won’t Be Targeted By Trump’s Order, US Says
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg: WeChat users who download the Chinese app for personal or business communications won’t be targeted by President Donald Trump’s executive order that will prohibit using the app for some transactions, the U.S. said. The U.S. Commerce Department plans to clarify by Sept. 20 which transactions will be prohibited. But it doesn’t intend to…
How Microsoft is Looking To MetaOS To Make Microsoft 365 a ‘Whole Life’ Experience
An anonymous reader shares a report: Earlier this year, some leaks about Microsoft’s “MetaOS” had a lot of us Microsoft watchers scrambling to figure out what this foundational layer is and how it will affect Microsoft’s various products and services in the future. Recently, I’ve unearthed some more details about the company’s high-level goals and lower-level product plans around MetaOS. MetaOS…
India Bans PUBG and Over 100 Additional Chinese Apps
India has banned more than 100 additional apps with linkage to China including popular mobile game PUBG citing cybersecurity concerns as geopolitical tension between the two neighboring nations continues to rise. From a report: On Wednesday, India’s IT Ministry ordered to ban 118 apps that it said were “prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of state…
How WeChat Censored the Coronavirus Pandemic
In China, the messaging platform blocked thousands of keywords related to the virus, a new report reveals. From a report: When the novel coronavirus was first discovered in China last winter, the country responded aggressively, placing tens of millions of people into strict lockdown. As Covid-19 spread from Wuhan to the rest of the world, the Chinese government was just as…
Tim Wu: A TikTok Ban Is Overdue
Tim Wu, a professor at Columbia Law School, writing in a column for The New York Times: Were almost any country other than China involved, Mr. Trump’s demands would be indefensible. But the threatened bans on TikTok and WeChat, whatever their motivations, can also be seen as an overdue response, a tit for tat, in a long battle for the soul…
Text Editor Notepad++ Banned In China After ‘Stand With Hong Kong’ Update
The website of Notepad++ is banned in China as of Monday, “obviously due to” its release of editions named “Free Uyghur” and “Stand with Hong Kong,” the source code and text editor announced on Twitter. TechCrunch reports: First released in 2003 by France-based developer Don Ho, free-to-use Notepad++ operates on Windows and supports some 90 languages. In his release notices for…
Cringely Predicts the U.S. Can’t Stop WeChat
An anonymous reader quotes long-time technology pundit Robert Cringely:
Forty-five days from now, we’re told, President Trump will shut down TikTok and WeChat. TikTok, maybe, but WeChat? Impossible… Trump has a chance of taking down TikTok, the short form video sharing site, because that service is dependent on advertising. He can force the app out of U.S. app stores (though not out…
Trump Blew Up More Than Just TikTok and WeChat
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg: U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to ban dealings with ByteDance, owner of video-sharing sensation TikTok, appears to codify what his administration has already been warning. A second edict targeting messaging app WeChat and its parent, Tencent, seems weirdly overdue. The executive orders issued by the White House go beyond stopping average Americans from…