Month: June 2021

Irish police will have the power to compel people to provide passwords for electronic devices when carrying out a search warrant under new legislation.

The change is part of the Garda Síochána Bill published by Irish Justice Minister Heather Humphreys on Monday.

Gardaí will also be required to make a written record of a stop and search.

This will enable data to be collected so the effectiveness and use of the powers can be assessed.

Special measures will be introduced for suspects who are children and suspects who may have impaired capacity.

The bill will bring in longer detention periods for the investigation of multiple offences being investigated together, for a maximum of up to 48 hours.

It will also allow for a week’s detention for suspects in human trafficking offences, which are currently subject to a maximum of 24 hours detention.

‘Powers and safeguards’
“The law in this area is currently very complex, spread across the common law, hundreds of pieces of legislation, constitutional and EU law,” the minister said.

“Bringing it together will make the use of police powers by gardaí clear, transparent and accessible.

“The aim is to create a system that is both clear and straightforward for gardaí to use and easy for people to understand what powers gardaí can use and what their rights are in those circumstances.

“At the same time, where we are proposing to extend additional powers to gardaí, we are also strengthening safeguards. The bill will have a strong focus on the fundamental rights and procedural rights of the accused.

“I believe this will maintain the crucial balance which is key to our criminal justice system, while ensuring greater clarity and streamlining of Garda powers.”

Facebook is developing a smartwatch that will act as a controller for its forthcoming augmented-reality projects.

Reports claimed the device was due for release in mid-2022 and would feature multiple cameras.

But a senior Facebook executive said the smartwatch was in only its early stages – and may never be released to the public.

“We’re investing in technologies across the board… research doesn’t always lead to product development,” he said.

Detachable display
The watch’s existence was revealed by technology news website the Verge, which cited anonymous sources familiar with its development.

It would feature a detachable display with two cameras that would integrate with Facebook networks, including Instagram, the site reported.

“It’s part of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s plan to build more consumer devices that circumvent Apple and Google, the two dominant mobile-phone platform creators that largely control Facebook’s ability to reach people,” the Verge said.

It also reported the device was set to be a controller, linking to planned augmented-reality glasses, which Facebook has made no secret of developing.

And Facebook Reality Labs vice-president Andrew Bosworth lent that version of the product credence, while dismissing the idea of a mainstream smartwatch.

“We’ve said we want AR glasses to be truly useful… to make that interaction feel more natural and intuitive,” he tweeted.

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“This includes research like EMG [electromyography] , haptics, adaptive interfaces that could come together in a wrist-based form factor.”

“We’ll share more when we’re ready.”

Facebook announced a similar “controller” idea in March, saying its researchers had designed a wristband that could detect hand movements based on nerve signals.

The technology giant is a powerful force in virtual reality, through its range of Oculus headsets, which have pushed forward low-cost VR that does not always require external powerful computers.

But it has also been criticised within the VR community for requiring a Facebook account to use its newer products.

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Augmented reality differs from virtual reality in that it mixes projected images with the real world.

Among the best known examples are Google’s ill-fated Glass spectacles and Microsoft’s Hololens platform.

Other technology titans such as Apple are also thought to be researching future mainstream products in AR.

But Facebook is known to have expressed an interest in the commercial smartwatch space, dominated by Apple.

Main competitor
And it is widely reported to have been one of the main bidders to acquire fitness smartwatch brand Fitbit, eventually bought by Google.

Google’s own WearOS smartwatch system is widely reviewed as the main competitor to apple’s WatchOS but lacking many important features.

Since acquiring Fitbit, Google has announced the upcoming WearOS 3 will merge with Samsung’s well respected Tizen watch system.

The move is widely seen as a bid to improve the open system to more firmly compete with the Apple Watch.

US Senate lawmakers have approved a massive spending plan to boost technology research and production.

The proposed measures come in the face of growing international competition, particularly from China.

A Beijing official hit back at the bill on Wednesday, saying it “exaggerated the ‘China threat'”.

The bill, which must pass the House of Representatives before being signed into law, is a rare point of agreement between Republicans and Democrats.

In a vote in the upper chamber of the US Congress, 68 of the 100-member Senate supported the measure, with 32 against. The Senate is evenly divided between Republicans and Democrats, and experts say the vote shows how the two political parties are united on the need to counter Beijing’s economic and military ambitions.

Supporters say the package is one of the largest industrial bills in US history and the biggest investment in scientific research that the country has seen in decades.

“I believe that this legislation will enable the United States to out-innovate, out-produce, and out-compete the world in the industries of the future,” Senate majority leader and co-sponsor of the bill Chuck Schumer said on the Senate floor.

It authorises roughly $250bn (£176bn) in funding for technology research, semiconductor development and manufacturing, as well as subsidies for robot makers and chipmakers amid a shortage of computer chips worldwide.

The computer chip shortage has hit automobile production at a time of rebounding global demand and bosses of big tech firms have told the BBC it could last as long as two years.

Why is Huawei still in the UK?
IBM says chip shortage could last two years
China’s tech giants fall under regulator’s pressure
The bill includes a number of China-specific provisions, including the prohibition of the social media app TikTok from being downloaded on government devices.

The purchase of drones manufactured and sold by Chinese state enterprises would also be blocked under the legislation.

Chinese organisations engaged in US cyber attacks or theft of US intellectual property from US firms would face sanctions too, once the bill is passed.

The legislation was passed amid some signs of a thaw in relations between Beijing and Washington. In May, China and the US held virtual talks between trade negotiators in the first such meeting of the Biden presidency.

China’s Commerce Ministry said in early June that China and the US had agreed to restart normal communications.

But on Wednesday, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin suggested the bill could harm these efforts, saying it was “full of Cold War and zero-sum thinking and runs counter to the public aspiration in both countries to strengthen exchanges and cooperation”.

“The China-related content of the bill passed by the US Senate distorts facts and slanders China’s development path and its domestic and foreign policies,” he said. “It exaggerates the ‘China threat’, advocates traditional competition with China and seriously interferes with China’s internal affairs on Taiwan.”

A version of the legislation must still pass the US House of Representatives and then be reconciled with the Senate version before being signed by President Joe Biden to become law.

However, President Biden praised the bill’s passage.

“It is long past time that we invest in American workers and American innovation,” President Biden said in a statement.

“We are in a competition to win the 21st century, and the starting gun has gone off. As other countries continue to invest in their own research and development, we cannot risk falling behind.”

Apple device users will now be able see when individual apps request to access features such as the microphone, camera and phone gallery, plus which third parties they have connected with in the last seven days.

The new “app privacy report” feature was unveiled at the firm’s annual developers’ conference, WWDC.

Apple has prioritised privacy lately, including a war on ad-tracking.

No new hardware was announced at the event, despite earlier speculation.

Privacy
The new privacy report goes further than Apple’s existing “nutrition labels” which show users what kinds of permissions apps ask for, before they are installed.

It will allow users to dive deep into when exactly an app used the permissions it has been given – and what third-party websites it contacted or sent data to.

“Apple continues to double down on privacy,” said Thomas Husson, analyst at Forrester.

“In this area, no doubt Apple is leading the pack and setting the tone for the rest of the industry.”

Apple device users will now be able see when individual apps request to access features such as the microphone, camera and phone gallery, plus which third parties they have connected with in the last seven days.

The new “app privacy report” feature was unveiled at the firm’s annual developers’ conference, WWDC.

Apple has prioritised privacy lately, including a war on ad-tracking.

No new hardware was announced at the event, despite earlier speculation.

Privacy
The new privacy report goes further than Apple’s existing “nutrition labels” which show users what kinds of permissions apps ask for, before they are installed.

It will allow users to dive deep into when exactly an app used the permissions it has been given – and what third-party websites it contacted or sent data to.

“Apple continues to double down on privacy,” said Thomas Husson, analyst at Forrester.

“In this area, no doubt Apple is leading the pack and setting the tone for the rest of the industry.”

Former US President Donald Trump has told Fox Business that he sees Bitcoin as a “scam” affecting the value of the US dollar.

“Bitcoin, it just seems like a scam,” Mr Trump said. “I don’t like it because it’s another currency competing against the dollar.”

He added that he wanted the dollar to be “the currency of the world”.

His comments come on the back of news El Salvador plans to make the crypto-currency legal tender.

The price of Bitcoin has been falling steadily since early May and so far has not recovered.

The falls were widely attributed to China banning banned banks and payment firms from providing services related to crypto-currency transactions, as well as electric car maker Tesla announcing it would no longer accept the currency a week before that.

Is Bitcoin actually a threat to currency? Here’s what experts we spoke to think.

‘Bitcoin is a threat to all major currencies’
Justin Urquhart-Stewart, co-founder of Seven Investment Management and the Regionally investment platform, thinks Bitcoin does have a potential threat of destabilising currencies “because it has taken off in such a way that it’s created a popular appeal without any sound financial strength”.

He blames the rise of Bitcoin on figures like Elon Musk “behaving stupidly”, which makes the general public perceive that the crypto-currency is credible.

“Bitcoin is dangerous because it’s trying to create a level of credibility to unreliable and wholly unfounded value,” he tells the BBC.

“Quite often, unsophisticated punters are drawn in at the wrong time to something they think they can make a quick buck on – to them, it doesn’t matter what it is, whether it’s Bitcoin or GameStop or AMC, it’s something you can bet on.”

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Bitcoin dives as China cracks down on crypto
He says that a rising trend of young people who are somewhat tech savvy, “like hobby technologists”, are taking huge risks because they haven’t been educated about finance properly.

Mr Urquhart-Stewart strongly believes the national curriculum should include education on how to develop family finances over generations.

“What we have now is a young generation of punters who have no knowledge of financial planning and development,” stresses Mr Urquhart-Stewart.

“They understand how to buy and sell things, but they have no concept of how to create longer-term wealth.”

No threat to the dollar
In contrast, Neil Wilson, chief market analyst for Markets.com, thinks Bitcoin is definitely not a currency.

He says that to qualify as a currency, it must have the following functions:

A unit of account
Provide a good store of value
Be a means of payment
“I call Bitcoin more of a security, like a stock or bond,” says Mr Wilson.

“Although it’s appreciated massively, it’s far too volatile to be a currency – it moves around more than most stocks do.”

He says that with Bitcoin, people are mostly buying it to hold onto and invest, rather than spending it frequently.

And as to Mr Trump’s assertion that the crypto-currency is threatening the US dollar, he disagrees, although it could be a slight threat to gold.

“The means by which America exerts influence over the world is predominantly by the dollar, and it’s not going to give that up, so I don’t see Bitcoin as a threat whatsoever,” he says.

“Governments don’t like other people creating money – they’ve seemed to tolerate crypto-currencies for some time, but they will eventually get their own digital currencies established and will squeeze Bitcoin out into the margins.”

Facebook Inc has suspended former US President Donald Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts for two years.

He was barred indefinitely from both sites in January in the wake of posts he made on the US Capitol riots, but last month Facebook’s Oversight Board criticised the open-ended penalty.

Facebook said Mr Trump’s actions were “a severe violation of our rules”.

Mr Trump said the move was “an insult” to the millions who voted for him in last year’s presidential election.

Facebook’s move comes as the social media giant is also ending a policy shielding politicians from some content moderation rules.

It said that it would no longer give politicians immunity for deceptive or abusive content based on their comments being newsworthy.

Mr Trump’s ban was effective from the date of the initial suspension on 7 January, Facebook’s vice-president of global affairs Nick Clegg said in a post.

“Given the gravity of the circumstances that led to Mr Trump’s suspension, we believe his actions constituted a severe violation of our rules which merit the highest penalty available,” it added.

“If we determine that there is still a serious risk to public safety, we will extend the restriction for a set period of time and continue to re-evaluate until that risk has receded.”

On his return, Mr Trump will be held to “a strict set of rapidly escalating sanctions,” for any violations, Mr Clegg’s statement noted.

How has Mr Trump responded?
In a statement issued from his Save America political action committee, Mr Trump said: “Facebook’s ruling is an insult to the record-setting 75m people, plus many others, who voted for us…”

“They shouldn’t be allowed to get away with this censoring and silencing, and ultimately, we will win. Our country can’t take this abuse anymore!”

In a second statement on the two-year ban, Mr Trump attacked Facebook’s founder.

“Next time I’m in the White House there will be no more dinners, at his request, with Mark Zuckerberg and his wife,” the former president said. “It will be all business!”

The move by Facebook allows Mr Trump to return to the platform before the 2024 presidential election.

It also comes as he prepares to again hold the large scale in-person rallies that were a signature of his campaigns and presidency. One of his first is planned for Dallas, Texas, in early July, according to local media.

Earlier this week, it emerged that the communications platform set up by Mr Trump in the wake of his social media bans – From the Desk of Donald J Trump – has been permanently shut down.

In addition to Facebook, which has over two billion monthly users, Mr Trump has also been banned from Twitter, YouTube, Snapchat, Twitch and other social media platforms over the January riot.

Last month, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a Republican Trump ally, signed the first law in the US that punishes tech companies for de-platforming politicians.

Facebook’s dilemma on Trump was complex, involved trade-offs, and was guaranteed to upset millions of people. The fact is – whatever their decision – it was bound to be polarising.

But just to be clear: today Facebook, the world’s biggest social network, has denied access to its megaphone to a man who 74 million people voted for. They didn’t just know him, or approve of him; they voted for him to be US president. That is a big call.

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What is Facebook’s new policy?
Facebook says public figures who violate its rules by inciting unrest or violence will be suspended for a month or, in more serious cases, up to two years.

It comes as part of an effort to undo a previous policy of allowing newsworthy political speech despite a potential that it may cause harm.

Posts that are deemed worthy of an exception, despite possible violations, may still be allowed but will be given a warning label by Facebook. The company says it will no longer treat “content posted by politicians any differently”.

“Instead, we will simply apply our newsworthiness balancing test in the same way to all content, measuring whether the public interest value of the content outweighs the potential risk of harm by leaving it up.”

The company’s Oversight Board found that Mr Trump’s initial ban was appropriate, but that there was no rationale for the ban to remain indefinitely.

The independent board, which is funded by Facebook, has 20 members who are able to make binding decisions on content. Among the members are legal scholars, journalists, freedom of speech experts and a former prime minister of Denmark.

The announcement comes on the same day that regulators in Europe and the UK begin formal anti-trust inquiries into whether Facebook misused customer data.

Facebook is being investigated by UK and European competition watchdogs over concerns it uses advertising data to gain an unfair advantage over rivals.

The Competition and Markets Authority is looking into whether it uses information to benefit its own services, such as Facebook Marketplace.

The European Commission is examining if Facebook violated EU rules by gathering data from advertisers to compete with them in providing classified ads.

Facebook said it would cooperate fully.

It said it will demonstrate that both the UK and EU investigations are “without merit”.

The CMA said Facebook collects data through its digital advertising service as well as its single sign-on option. This allows people to sign-in to other websites, services and apps using their Facebook log-in details.

Facebook downplays data breach in internal email
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The watchdog said it is examining whether the company has unfairly used the data to compete with other businesses through Facebook Marketplace, where firms and users put up classified adverts to sell items, as well as Facebook Dating which was launched in Europe last year.

The European Commission said it had opened a formal antitrust investigation “to assess whether Facebook violated EU competition rules by using advertising data gathered in particular from advertisers in order to compete with them in markets where Facebook is active such as classified ads”.

It said: “The formal investigation will also assess whether Facebook ties its online classified ads service “Facebook Marketplace” to its social network, in breach of EU competition rules.”

Facebook said its “Marketplace and dating offer people more choices, both products operate in highly competitive environment with many large incumbents”.

The CMA and the European Commission said they will work closely with each other as their “independent investigations develop”.

Andrea Coscelli, chief executive of the CMA, added: “We intend to thoroughly investigate Facebook’s use of data to assess whether its business practices are giving it an unfair advantage in the online dating and classified ad sectors.

“Any such advantage can make it harder for competing firms to succeed, including new and smaller businesses, and may reduce customer choice.”

The opening of European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager’s first competition probe into the world’s largest social network is latest fight with the US tech giants.

She has already his Google with more than €8bn (£6.8bn) in fines, and is also investigating Amazon and Apple.

“In today’s digital economy, data should not be used in ways that distort competition,” Ms Vestager said.

In a surprise move, one of the world’s best-known anti-virus software makers is adding cryptocurrency mining to its products.

Norton 360 customers will have access to an Ethereum mining feature in the “coming weeks”, the company said.

Cryptocurrency “mining” works by using a computer’s hardware to do complex calculations in exchange for a reward.

It is not clear what the business model for Norton Crypto is, or if Norton will take a cut of earnings.

The company pitched the idea as a safe and easy way to get into mining, an “important part of our customers’ lives”.

In a press release, Norton LifeLock – once called Symantec – said: “For years, many coin miners have had to take risks in their quest for cryptocurrency, disabling their security in order to run coin mining.”

That is true, in so far as anti-virus software packages such as Norton itself often falsely identify widely used mining programs as dangerous, and the antivirus software often needs to be deactivated to continue the mining process.

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Norton also warns of “allowing unvetted code on their machines” and the danger of storing earnings on a hard drive which could fail.

But most keen miners use a small selection of well-regarded mining apps – some of which are little more than simple command-line scripts – and a digital wallet that is stored on the web or on a smartphone.

Pooling millions
Mining Ethereum as a solo miner is very difficult, relying on luck and powerful computing hardware to receive coins.

Screenshots provided by Norton seem to suggest that the system will instead use a “pool” – where a very large number of miners all contribute whatever computing power they have and split the reward based on how much work their machines did.

But such pools almost universally take a percentage cut – a 1% cut of all earnings being a widely used standard.

If Norton pursues such a model it would, in effect, leverage its millions of customers’ computers to generate a new income stream.

And the process uses a lot of energy – which may mean higher energy bills for unsuspecting consumers.

The company told CNN it was considering adding other cryptocurrencies in addition to Ethereum in the future.

The move has been met with some scepticism among technology enthusiasts.

Security site BleepingComputer pointed out that in the United States, where Norton has a strong customer base, cryptocurrency income is taxable, reportable income, which casual miners running antivirus software may not be aware of.

And tech news site The Verge highlighted that Norton often comes pre-installed on many laptops, offering free service for a while before asking for a subscription.

“It’s easy to imagine a company, not necessarily Norton, offering cheaper or even free computers, if you just turn your unused computing cycles into a recurring source of profit for the bloatware makers subsidising your purchase,” it wrote.

“Norton may be opening a door here that’s hard to close.”

In its statement, Norton product executive Gagan Singh said: “”We are proud to be the first consumer cyber-safety company to offer coin miners the ability to safely and easily turn the idle time on their PCs into an opportunity to earn digital currency.

“Our customers can mine for cryptocurrency with just a few clicks, avoiding many barriers to entry in the cryptocurrency ecosystem.”

The company said the product was available to its early adopter programme members from today – but would roll out more widely in the next few weeks.

Donald Trump’s communications platform has been permanently shut down, his spokesperson told CNBC.

“It was just auxiliary to the broader efforts we have and are working on,” senior aide Jason Miller said.

The platform, titled From the Desk of Donald J Trump, launched last month and served as a way for the former president to publish his own content including press releases and videos.

Mr Trump was banned from Facebook and Twitter after the Capitol Hill Riots.

From the Desk of Donald J Trump had a section on the former president’s official website, but it has now been removed. Mr Miller confirmed via Twitter that it is a precursor to Mr Trump’s return to social media, although it is unclear when or how.

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The website – which was often referred to as a blog – had a rolling feed of Mr Trump’s various posts and gave visitors the option to “like” the post and share it to Facebook and Twitter.

The link to the website now directs visitors to a page encouraging them to sign up for alerts from Donald Trump.

In March, Mr Miller told Fox News he thinks “we’re going to see President Trump returning to social media in probably about two or three months” and “with his own platform”.

Mr Trump’s own platform has been talked about since early this year, but it is unclear what it might look like.

Some thought From the Desk of Donald J. Trump was the platform he had alluded to, but Mr Miller confirmed in May that it was not, saying: “we’ll have additional information coming on that front in the very near future.”

Trump and his tweets
The former president was an avid user of social media as a way to communicate directly to his followers.

Since his removal from Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube, the former president has not been heard from in the same capacity, although this website was the closest he has been to directly communicating with his followers since January.

Mr Trump was an enthusiastic tweeter, often posting throughout the day – and sometimes at night – about an array of topics, including the 2020 election, coronavirus and what he called “fake news” to his nearly 90 million followers.

He has been permanently banned from Twitter.

Facebook’s Oversight Board recently upheld the platform’s decision but ordered Facebook to review it again within six months.

YouTube has said it will reactivate Mr Trump’s account when the threat of “real-world violence” reduces.

New terms of use for eBay have come into effect which mean the online auction house will now pay sellers directly rather than through PayPal.

PayPal was acquired by eBay in its early days in 2002, and the two firms have worked in partnership ever since.

The changes mean that while eBay buyers can still pay with PayPal, sellers will be paid straight into their bank accounts.

But some sellers have threatened to stop using the service over the move.

EBay’s forums have several posts from sellers who say they are reluctant to use the new system and give eBay direct debit access to their personal bank accounts.

But the new terms, effective from 1 June, say the new “managed payments” system is compulsory, and the company has the power to limit or remove listings from sellers who refuse to use it.

The company says the new system is simpler, convenient, and gives buyers more payment options – and the rollout will be gradual.

It marks a significant change in an almost two-decade partnership with PayPal, which split from eBay in 2015.

What’s changing?
The managed payments system means that PayPal fees will no longer be added to the process, though eBay has made its own fees slightly higher.

But the company claims most people will pay the same as – or less than – before.

The new system is 12.8% of the final amount including delivery, plus 30p in the UK ($0.30 in the US). The old system was 10% for eBay, plus PayPal’s fees, plus 30p. The difference favours the new system to the tune of pennies for most transactions.

The move also means that buyers will automatically have access to every payment option available – including credit and debit cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal, and PayPal Credit.

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However, payments will now take two working days to be transferred, while PayPal was usually on the same day.

The feature has been rolled out since about 2018, an eBay spokesperson said – with business sellers moving first. An estimated four million sellers are already using it.

The deadlines for all users are phased – so while many sellers are required to move to the new system from 1 June, others will receive a message from eBay in the coming weeks and months.

What’s the problem?
The terms and conditions make using the new system mandatory.

In part, the reluctance is because eBay has a strong reputation for protecting buyers – sometimes at the expense of sellers. Some unscrupulous fraudsters have been known to buy a product on eBay, swap it for a damaged or different item, and return the package demanding a refund.

Some sellers believe eBay regularly sides with the buyer in such cases – and fear that refunds would be taken out of their bank accounts under the new system.

Late last year, ahead of the impending change, another forum user wrote: “They are so heavily biased in the buyer’s favour… I am simply not prepared to switch to this new [system] and give eBay direct access to my bank account.”

EBay, for its part, says the direct debit scheme adheres to the same rules any other direct debit, such as a phone bill. That means customers will have advance notice of how much is being taken out, and any incorrect or fraudulent payments should be refunded.

Other users were confused by the switching process requiring them to enter their online banking usernames or passwords. But those credentials are only used by the bank. The company says it does not have any actual direct access to sellers’ bank accounts.