Governments

Google has demanded reforms in the practice of governments seeking users' personal information and then issuing gag orders against the citizens."As our lives continue to become more digitised, laws governing government access to personal information need to evolve to protect both public safety and civil liberties," Kent Walker, President of Global Affairs, Google and Alphabet, said.The governments across the world seek orders to prevent providers like Google from telling users about demands for data.These so-called…

In spite of its origins in Black and queer working-class communities, dance music has long been co-opted and whitewashed. As evidence, see producer Kaytranada being the first Black artist to win best dance/electronic album at the Grammys as late as 2021, or the recent surprise at Drake and Beyoncé putting out work rooted in house music, in spite of its origins in Black and queer working-class communities. “I have a word for it,” offers internationally renowned DJ and producer Honey Dijon, with a wry but assertive laugh:…

A Swedish court on Wednesday rejected an appeal from China's Huawei over the government's decision to ban the network equipment giant from the rollout of 5G mobile network infrastructure in the Nordic country.The administrative court of appeal in Stockholm said in a statement it believed it was fair to assume that the use of Huawei's products in central functions of the 5G network "can cause harm to Sweden's security."After the UK in the summer of 2020, Sweden became the second country in Europe and the first in the EU to…

New Delhi: Cyber-security researchers have unearthed a new enterprise-grade Android spyware called 'Hermit' that is being used by the governments via SMS messages to target high-profile people like business executives, human rights activists, journalists, academics and government officials.The team at cyber-security company Lookout Threat Lab uncovered the 'surveillanceware' that was used by the government of Kazakhstan in April, four months after nationwide protests against government policies were violently…

Democratic senators want the U.S. to follow in the European Union’s footsteps and ditch Apple’s proprietary Lightning charger in favor of the universal USB-C charger. It’s a bold and powerful move on paper, but in reality, it’s a whole lot of fluff. Sens. Edward Markey and Elizabeth Warren, both Massachusetts Democrats, and Bernie Sanders (D-Vermont) sent a letter to the Secretary of Commerce on Thursday, June 16, arguing that having smartphone and tablet consumers own both USB-C and Apple chargers places a financial…

NordVPN and Private Internet Access (PIA) are set to remove their physical virtual private network (VPN) servers located in India as a result of the government's order that is coming into force later this month. The order seeks to make it mandatory for VPN service providers to record and keep logs of up to five years. The update comes just days after VPN service providers Surfshark and ExpressVPN announced their plans to pull India-based VPN servers over the directive.Laura Tyrylyte, Head of Public Relations at NordVPN,…

The federal government released two new reports highlighting — for the first time — crashes and fatalities involving autonomous vehicles (AV) and vehicles equipped with advanced driver-assist systems (ADAS). Tesla reported the most crashes involving driver-assist technology, while Alphabet’s Waymo disclosed the most incidents involving its autonomous vehicles. Car and tech companies insist these technologies save lives, but more people died in auto crashes last year than in the last three decades. More data is needed…

Aadhaar data of a large number of farmers was leaked by a government website designed for the welfare of the agriculture sector in India, a security researcher has reported. The website, called PM Kisan, allows the government to distribute grants to farmers under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi programme. However, due to an issue, one of its parts was publicly exposing Aadhaar numbers of enrolled farmers. The website has registered over 110 million farmers since its launch in 2019.Security researcher Atul Nair said…

The federal government is upgrading its investigation into over a dozen incidents of Tesla vehicles using Autopilot that crashed into emergency vehicles. The probe is now designated as an “Engineering Analysis,” which is the second and final phase of an investigation before a possible recall. This next phase will involve additional tests and crash analyses “to explore the degree to which Autopilot and associated Tesla systems may exacerbate human factors or behavioral safety risks by undermining the effectiveness of…

Virtual private network (VPN) provider Surfshark on Tuesday announced that it is shutting down its servers in India as a response to the government's directive that made it mandatory for VPN service providers to record and keep logs of users for 180 days and collect and keep customer data for five years. The Netherlands-based company said it operated under a strict "no log" policy, so the new requirements by the government go against its "core ethos." Last week, ExpressVPN pulled its VPN servers in the country in response…