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Growing Questions around Huawei's Links to Chinese State

Charlotte Henry ·

Despite insisting on its independence, the questions around Huawei’s connections to the Chinese government have grown in recent months. CFO Meng Wanzhou remains under effective house arrest in Canada and the U.S. is preparing to ask for her extradition. Western firms stopped using Huawei technology for key infrastructure, particularly around the roll-out of the 5G network. Wired looked at what is really going on.

It has been suggested the Chinese state could put pressure on Huawei to install backdoors into its products which would allow China to spy on network traffic, potentially on a global scale. Political leaders have also questioned Huawei founder Ren, who was an engineer in China’s army and joined the ruling Communist Party in 1978. Similar concerns have previously been raised around Russian security firm Kaspersky, and its connections to intelligence services in the country.

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Mark Zuckerberg's Op-Ed is Tone Deaf

Andrew Orr ·

Mark Zuckerberg has written an op-ed for The Wall Street Journal, and it’s as tone deaf as ever.

Sometimes this means people assume we do things that we don’t do. For example, we don’t sell people’s data, even though it’s often reported that we do. In fact, selling people’s information to advertisers would be counter to our business interests, because it would reduce the unique value of our service to advertisers. We have a strong incentive to protect people’s information from being accessed by anyone else.

Any service that relies on ad money means the advertiser is the customer. I’d love to hear from an advertiser that would refuse access to peoples’ personal information. Facebook may not sell that data directly to advertisers but you can bet it sells access to the data. Two different words that point to the same destination.

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Features Coming in iOS 12.2, Like Apple News in Canada

Andrew Orr ·

The first iOS 12.2 developer beta was released today, and we got a sneak peak into the features that will be coming.

Apple today released the first beta of iOS 12.2 for developers, and while it doesn’t bring as many new changes as we might have hoped for in a 12.x update, there are still quite a few minor tweaks to be aware of.

Some updates coming include Apple News for Canadian users, HomeKit TV Support, Safari search arrows, and more.

TMO Deals

CASA USB-C Hub with HDMI and VGA Ports: $39

Bryan Chaffin ·

We have a deal on a handy hub for folks with different display needs. It’s called the CASA USB-C Hub, and it has both an HDMI and a VGA port for displays and projectors. It’s small enough to toss into your go-bag, so you can be the hero at that meeting, even if you aren’t the one doing the presenting. It’s $39 through our deal.

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Messy Negotiations Over EU Internet Regulations

Charlotte Henry ·

European Union (EU) negotiations are notoriously messy. Discussions on the EU’s Copyright Directive have proved to be no different. The legislation was meant to update copyright rules so they worked in the digital age. However, in the most recent talks, which took place Friday, six countries changed their approach to two of the Articles being worked on. This meant the discussions could not reach a vote and a conclusion. The Verge delved into what happened, and what it all means for Europe’s internet.

Prior to Friday’s talks, a minority group of the EU’s 28 member states were fighting for more generous interpretations of these articles. These were Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Finland, and Slovenia. But on Friday, they were joined by representatives from Sweden, Croatia, Portugal, Luxembourg, Poland, and Italy, creating a sizable bloc.