ICT news

• Amazon Relaxes Drug Testing Policies, Will Lobby To Legalize Marijuana

  21-09-2021 23:20 via rss.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from CNBC: Amazon is further relaxing its screening policies for marijuana, as it ramps up support for federal legislation to legalize the drug. In a blog post Tuesday, Amazon HR boss Beth Galetti wrote that the company has "reinstated the employment eligibility" for former employees and applicants who were fired or deferred during random or pre-employment marijuana screenings. "Pre-employment marijuana testing has disproportionately affected communities of co
  
  Read more

• Apple is Working on Mental Health Monitoring Using iPhone Data

  21-09-2021 22:41 via rss.slashdot.org
  
  Apple is working on ways to help detect and diagnose conditions such as depression, anxiety and cognitive decline using an iPhone, WSJ is reporting. Techcrunch: Researchers hope that analysis of data such as mobility, sleep patterns and how people type could spot behaviors associated with those conditions, according to The Wall Street Journal. ther measurements could include facial expression analysis and heart and respiration rates. All of the processing would take place on the device, with no
  
  Read more

• EU Plans To Legislate for Common Phone Charger Despite Apple Grumbles

  21-09-2021 22:01 via rss.slashdot.org
  
  The European Commission will on Thursday present a legislative proposal for a common charger for mobile phones, tablets and headphones, a move likely to affect iPhone maker Apple more than its rivals, Reuters reported on Tuesday, citing a person familiar with the matter. From the report: The European Union executive and EU lawmakers have been pushing for a common charger for over a decade, saying it would be better for the environment and more convenient for users. The Commission wants the sale
  
  Read more

• Endangered African Penguins, With Multiple Bee Stings, Are Found Dead

  21-09-2021 21:40 via rss.slashdot.org
  
  More than 60 endangered African penguins were recently found dead, all with multiple bee stings and no other external injuries, according to officials in a coastal city in South Africa where the birds regularly migrate. From a report: Sixty-three dead African penguins were found Friday at the Boulders Penguin Colony, in Simon's Town, about 25 miles south of Cape Town, in the southwest of the country. All the penguins had multiple bee stings, and "many dead bees were found at the site where the b
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• PayPal Launches Its 'Super App' Combining Payments, Savings, Bill Pay, Crypto, Shopping and More

  21-09-2021 21:22 via rss.slashdot.org
  
  PayPal has been talking about its "super app" plans for some time, having recently told investors its upcoming digital wallet and payments app had been given a go for launch. Today, the first version of that app is officially being introduced, offering a combination of financial tools including direct deposit, bill pay, a digital wallet, peer-to-peer payments, shopping tools, crypto capabilities and more. From a report: The company is also announcing its partnership with Synchrony Bank for its n
  
  Read more

• Crypto Channels Targeted in Biden's Fight Against Ransomware

  21-09-2021 20:42 via rss.slashdot.org
  
  The Biden administration plans a fresh campaign against ransomware attacks through sanctions to cut off criminals' cryptocurrency pipelines, and it urged companies to report extortion attempts and better protect themselves from them. From a report: Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo told reporters that the sanctions would be imposed on Suex, a cryptocurrency transferring service that's registered in the Czech Republic. He said Suex had "facilitated transactions involving illicit proceeds fo
  
  Read more

• NETGEAR Releases Security Updates for RCE Vulnerability

  21-09-2021 20:06 via us-cert.cisa.gov
  Original release date: September 21, 2021
  NETGEAR has released security updates to address a remote code execution vulnerability—CVE-2021-40847—in multiple NETGEAR routers. A remote attacker could exploit this vulnerability to take control of an affected system.CISA encourages users and administrators to review NETGEAR’s Security Advisory and update to the latest firmware. Given the increase in telework, CISA recommends that CISOs consider the risk that these vulnerabiliti
  
  Read more

• Researcher Discloses iPhone Lock Screen Bypass on iOS 15 Launch Day

  21-09-2021 20:01 via rss.slashdot.org
  
  On the day Apple released iOS 15, a Spanish security researcher disclosed an iPhone lock screen bypass that can be exploited to grant attackers access to a user's notes. From a report: In an interview with The Record, Jose Rodriguez said he published details about the lock screen bypass after Apple downplayed similar lock screen bypass issues he reported to the company earlier this year. "Apple values reports of issues like this with up to $25,000 but for reporting a more serious issue, I was aw
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Netflix Launches Free Plan in Kenya To Boost Growth

  21-09-2021 19:25 via rss.slashdot.org
  
  Netflix said on Monday it is launching a free mobile plan in Kenya as the global streaming giant looks to tap the East African nation that is home to over 20 million internet users. From a report: The free plan, which will be rolled out to all users in Kenya in the coming weeks, won't require them to provide any payment information during the sign-up, the company said. The new plan is available to any user aged 18 or above with an Android phone, the company said. It will also not include ads. Th
  
  Read more

• Facebook Rolls Out News Feed Change That Blocks Watchdogs from Gathering Data

  21-09-2021 18:42 via rss.slashdot.org
  
  Facebook has begun rolling out an update that is interfering with watchdogs monitoring the platform. From a report: The Markup has found evidence that Facebook is adding changes to its website code that foils automated data collection of news feed posts -- a technique that groups like NYU's Ad Observatory, The Markup, and other researchers and journalists use to audit what's happening on the platform on a large scale. The changes, which attach junk code to HTML features meant to improve accessib
  
  Read more

• Googlers Protest Removal of Russian App as Bend To Government

  21-09-2021 18:02 via rss.slashdot.org
  
  Google employees have joined the slew of politicians and activists blasting the internet giant for pulling a voting app from Russia's opposition leader, a move critics say showed the company was caving in to the Kremlin. From a report: Staff members complained over the weekend about the Google's decision in internal forums and on memegen, a messaging board that has served as a breeding ground for protests within the company. Images circulating inside Google, which were viewed by Bloomberg News,
  
  Read more

• Leaked Apple Training Videos Show How the iPhone-Maker Undermines Third-Party Repair

  21-09-2021 17:22 via rss.slashdot.org
  
  em1ly shares a report from Motherboard, which obtained leaked training videos Apple made for its authorized repair partners, showing how the company trains repair technicians to undermine third party companies and talk customers into buying more expensive first party repairs. From the report: "I cracked the glass on my phone and I'm comparing costs. How much for just that part?" One man acting the part of the customer asks in one of the videos.
  "I can show you the cost for just the part before w
  
  Read more

• Ubuntu 14.04 and 16.04 Each Get a Decade of Support from Canonical

  21-09-2021 16:44 via rss.slashdot.org
  
  Canonical has announced that it is extending the life of Ubuntu 14.04 and 16.04 to a decade. BetaNews: In other words, Ubuntu 14.04 and 16.04 are getting longer Extended Security Maintenance (ESM) periods as Canonical pushes back their End of Life (EoL) dates. The former will now get security updates until 2024, while the latter will receive them until 2026. "This lifecycle extension enables organizations to balance their infrastructure upgrade costs, by giving them additional time to implement
  
  Read more

• Google is Buying a New York City Office Building for $2.1 Billion

  21-09-2021 16:03 via rss.slashdot.org
  
  Google is buying a new office building on Manhattan's West Side for $2.1 billion, the most expensive sale of a U.S. office building since the pandemic started. From a report: The tech giant is already leasing a 1.3 million-square-foot building in Hudson Yards, also on the West Side, which it has an option to buy. New York City is the company's second largest office location. The move highlights a long-term push for a return to office work, even as companies across the industry delay their reopen
  
  Read more

• Virgin Media Subscribers Told To Pay 'Thousands of Pounds' To Settle Piracy Laws

  21-09-2021 15:00 via rss.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from TorrentFreak: Virgin Media subscribers receiving letters accusing them of movie piracy may find that settling their cases will be a costly affair. TorrentFreak understands that settlement demands run to several thousand pounds, a massive uplift on the several hundred usually requested in similar cases. Interestingly, however, some subscribers could be immune from being sued. [...] At this stage it's too early to definitively say what factors are being con
  
  Read more

• Amazon's AI Cameras Are Punishing Drivers For Mistakes They Didn't Make

  21-09-2021 12:00 via rss.slashdot.org
  
  em1ly shares a report from Motherboard: Amazon delivery drivers say surveillance cameras installed in their vans have made them lose income for reasons beyond their control. In February, Amazon announced that it would install cameras made by the AI-tech startup Netradyne in its Amazon-branded delivery vans as an "innovation" to "keep drivers safe." As of this month, Amazon had fitted more than half of its delivery fleet nationwide with this technology, an Amazon spokesperson told Motherboard. Mo
  
  Read more

• NASA Reviews Private Space Station Proposals, Expects To Save Over $1 Billion Annually After ISS Retires

  21-09-2021 09:00 via rss.slashdot.org
  
  The National Aeronautics and Space Administration plans to retire the International Space Station by the end of this decade, so the U.S. space agency is turning to private companies to build new space stations in orbit -- and expects to save more than $1 billion annually as a result. CNBC reports: NASA earlier this year unveiled the Commercial LEO Destinations project, with plans to award up to $400 million in total contracts to as many as four companies to begin development on private space sta
  
  Read more

• World's Largest Chip Foundry TSMC Sets 2050 Deadline To Go Carbon Neutral

  21-09-2021 05:30 via rss.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: TSMC announced last week that it would flatten its emissions growth by 2025 and reach net-zero carbon by 2050. That'll be a tall order for a company that produced over 15 million tons of carbon pollution last year across the entire scope of its operations, about the same as the country of Ghana. Though the amount of carbon pollution per wafer produced by TSMC has declined in recent years, surging demand for semiconductors has driven overall
  
  Read more

• The Chinese Version of TikTok Is Limiting Kids To 40 Minutes a Day

  21-09-2021 04:02 via rss.slashdot.org
  
  The Chinese version of TikTok is introducing a "teenage mode" that will limit the amount of time children under the age of 14 spend on the short-form video app to 40 minutes a day. CNN reports: The measure will apply to all Douyin users under the age of 14 who have registered for the app using their real names, Beijing-based ByteDance announced in a statement on Saturday. Douyin will also be unavailable to those users between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m., the owner of TikTok and Douyin added. The company
  
  Read more

• Senate Democrats Call on FTC To Fix Data Privacy 'Crisis'

  21-09-2021 03:25 via rss.slashdot.org
  
  Senate Democrats are calling on the Federal Trade Commission to write new rules to protect consumer data privacy in a new letter to the agency authored on Monday. From a report: The letter, led by Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and signed by eight other Democratic senators, was sent to FTC Chair Lina Khan Monday, calling on the agency to "begin a rulemaking process" on privacy. Specifically, the senators are requesting that the FTC pen new rules addressing privacy, civil rights, and the collecti
  
  Read more

• Facebook Warned Over 'Very Small' Indicator LED On Smart Glasses

  21-09-2021 02:45 via rss.slashdot.org
  
  The Data Protection Commission in Ireland, Facebook's lead privacy regulator in Europe, has asked Facebook to demonstrate than an LED indicator light on its pair of "smart" Ray-Ban sunglasses -- which lights up when the user is taking a video -- is an effective way of putting other people on notice that they are being recorded by the wearer. TechCrunch reports: Italy's privacy watchdog, the Garante, already raised concerns about Facebook's smart glasses -- but Ireland has an outsized role as a r
  
  Read more

• Linux Foundation Survey Shows Companies Desperate To Hire Open-Source Talent

  21-09-2021 02:02 via rss.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from ZDNet: At the Open Source Summit in Seattle, The Linux Foundation, and edX, the leading massive open online course (MOOC) provider released the 2021 Open Source Jobs Report. In this survey of 200 technical hiring managers and 750 open-source pros, the organizations found more demand for top open-source workers than ever. On top of that, 92% of managers are having trouble finding enough talent and many of them are also having fits holding on to their exist
  
  Read more

• Peter Thiel Claims Zuckerberg Agreed To Push 'State-Sanctioned Conservatism' Under Trump Deal

  21-09-2021 01:20 via rss.slashdot.org
  
  ytene writes: Danika Fears over at The Daily Beast carries some pretty explosive reporting, describing how Peter Thiel -- of Palantir infamy -- claims in a new biography by Max Chafkin that Mark Zuckerberg agreed to push "State-Sanctioned Conservatism" in return for the Trump administration steering clear of any "heavy-handed regulations." This could well be one of those situations where it doesn't matter if the core claim is true or false -- because either way this is going to get ugly. The cla
  
  Read more

• Kids 5-11 Appear Safely Protected By Small Doses of COVID Vaccine, Pfizer Says

  21-09-2021 00:40 via rss.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Small doses of Pfizer's COVID-19 mRNA vaccine in children ages 5 to 11 appeared to produce strong antibody responses and comparable side effects to those seen in older age groups, according to the first top-line results from a Phase 2/3 clinical trial released by Pfizer and its partner BioNTech early Monday. The trial data involved 2,268 children ages 5 to 11 years, and these children were given a series of two 10-microgram doses of the vacc
  
  Read more

• Twitter To Pay $809.5 Million To Settle 2016 Lawsuit Over Growth Projections

  21-09-2021 00:02 via rss.slashdot.org
  
  Twitter on Monday said it has agreed to pay $809.5 million to settle a class action lawsuit that accused the social network of violating securities laws by misleading investors about its prospects for growth. CNET reports: The settlement stems from a 2016 lawsuit that alleged Twitter and its executives misled shareholders in November 2014 about user growth, promising an increase in monthly active users to 550 million in the "intermediate" term and more than a billion "over the longer term." But
  
  Read more

Follow @newslocke_ict on Twitter!