Apple has launched its ‘Apple Card’ in the US in partnership with Goldman Sachs and with processing by Mastercard. Card The Apple Card can now be applied for by customers in the US through the Wallet app on iPhone (iPhone 6 and later).  The physical laser-etched card, which is made of titanium and has a typically clean Apple design has no card number, no CVV security code, and no expiration date or signature on it.  Although you can buy using the card, the real Apple Card product is incorporated in the Wallet on the customer’s iPhone and works through Apple [...]

If you’ve been looking for a good gallery app for Android, Google has created an offline and compact, lite version of Google Photos that is uncluttered and easy to use. The Gallery Go app works offline, so it doesn’t sync to a Google account (like Google Photos), but it only has two tabs at the bottom for pictures and folders, useful search tabs at the top, and very a user-friendly layout. Gallery Go enables easy copying and moving photos between folders, you can create new folders, and it supports SD card.  The app also has automatic organisation so that each [...]

Research by Kaspersky Labs has discovered that cyber-criminals are now hijacking and using the confirmation emails from registration, subscription and feedback forms of legitimate company websites to distribute phishing links and spam content. How? Kaspersky has reported that scammers are exploiting the fact that many websites require users to register their details in order to receive content. Some cyber-criminals are now using stolen email addresses to register victims via the contact forms of legitimate websites.  This allows the cyber-criminals to add their own content to the form that will then be sent to the victim in the confirmation email from [...]

Apple Inc recently announced at the annual Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas that it is offering security researchers rewards of up to $1 million if they can detect security flaws its iPhones. Change This move marks a change in Apple’s bug bounty programme.  Previously, for example, the highest sum offered by Apple was $200,000, and the bounties had only been offered to selected researchers. The hope appears to be that widening the pool of researchers and offering a much bigger reward could maximise security for Apple mobile devices and protect them from the risk of governments breaking into [...]

A University of Oxford researcher, James Pavur, has explained how (with the consent of his partner) he was able to exploit rights granted under GDPR to obtain a large amount of his partner’s personal data from a variety of companies. Right of Access Mr Pavur reported that he was able to send out 75 Right of Access Requests/Subject Access Requests (SAR) in order to get the first pieces of information from companies, such as his partner’s full name, some email addresses and phone numbers. Mr Pavur reported using a fake email address to make the SARs. SAR A Subject Access [...]

Google has announced that users can verify their identity by using their fingerprint or screen lock instead of a password when visiting certain Google services, starting with Pixel devices and coming to all Android 7+ devices in the next few days. How? Google says that years of collaboration between itself and many other organizations in the FIDO Alliance and the W3C have led to the development of the FIDO2 standards, W3C WebAuthn and FIDO CTAP that allow fingerprint verification. The key game-changer in how these new technologies can help users is that unlike the native fingerprint APIs on Android, FIDO2 biometric capabilities are available [...]

Reports of a 2018 investigation by China Labour Watch (CLW) into the Amazon Echo manufacture at the Hengyang Foxconn factory show that the recruiting of young interns from vocational schools could mean that the Amazon devices are made with the help of child labour. Schools Providing Workers For Night Shifts The report of the investigation by New York-based non-profit group CLW claims that a number of interns from schools and colleges were brought in to work night shifts and if they were unwilling to work overtime or night shifts, the factory would arrange for teachers to pressure those workers. The [...]

If you’d like to get better integration between your PC and phone, the Crono app enables you to get all your notifications straight from Chrome. If you spend a lot of time using Chrome on your computer, the Crono app lets you see all your notifications and calendar events without looking at your phone i.e. you get mobile notifications on your browser and you can respond to those notifications through your browser. The app, which requires a Chrome extension to work also allows clipboard sharing between your browser and device with a single click, and if you can’t find your [...]

A recent survey by VPNpro has revealed that almost one-third of the most popular VPN services are secretly owned by Chinese companies that may be subject to weak privacy laws. VPN A ‘Virtual Private Network’ (VPN) is used to keep internet activity private, evade censorship / maintain net neutrality and use public Wi-Fi securely e.g. avoid threats such as 'man-in-the-middle' attacks.  A VPN achieves this by diverting a user’s traffic via a remote server in order to replace their IP address while offering the user a secure, encrypted connection (like a secure tunnel) between the user’s device and the VPN [...]

Amazon has now added an opt-out option for manual review of voice recordings and their associated transcripts taken through Alexa but it has not stopped the practice of taking voice recordings to help develop new Alexa features. Opt-Out Toggle The opt-out toggle can be found in the ‘Manage How Your Data Improves Alexa’ section of your privacy settings, which you will have to sign-in to Amazon to be able to see.  This section contains a “Help Improve Amazon Services and Develop New Features” section with a toggle switch to the right-hand side of it and moving the toggle from the [...]