EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said “many concerns” had been raised to her about Apple Pay.
DuckDuckGo Privacy Essentials Returns to Safari
DuckDuckGo Privacy Essentials is a Safari extension that blocks trackers and provides a privacy dashboard for each website you visit.
Two Twitter Employees Charged With Spying for Saudi Arabia
A complaint unsealed in the U.S. District Court in San Francisco revealed that two Twitter employees have been charged with spying for Saudi Arabia.
The complaint also alleged that the employees — whose jobs did not require access to Twitter users’ private information — were rewarded with a designer watch and tens of thousands of dollars funneled into secret bank accounts. Ahmad Abouammo, a U.S. citizen, and Ali Alzabarah, a Saudi citizen, were charged with acting as agents of Saudi Arabia without registering with the U.S. government.
I wonder if this is a separate incident from Saudi’s Twitter mole.
Trailer for Sneaky Sasquatch - Now on Apple Arcade
The game Sneaky Sasquatch is now on Apple Arcade. It is a task-based game in which you need to complete challenges – the only rule is don’t get caught. Apple posted a trailer for the game on its YouTube channel. This game doesn’t appear to have the high production values of some of the others on the subscription service, but it still looks quite fun.
Chirp Books Gives You Limited-Time Deals on Audiobooks
For several years now I’ve been using a wonderful service called BookBub. It sends you alerts when ebooks go on sale. You pick the genres you’re interested in and you’ll get an email or notification every day. Literally about five minutes ago I got an email from them about another service they have called Chirp. It gives you the same deals except for audiobooks.
To thank you for being a BookBub member, I want to invite you to be one of the first to access our new platform for audiobook deals, Chirp! Chirp offers audiobooks selected by the same BookBub editors you trust at up to 95% off.
I love listening to audiobooks on my daily commute, while cleaning up around the house, and even while exercising. With Chirp I can binge audiobooks and discover new authors without breaking the bank.
The best part is that there’s no subscription fee or commitment, and new deals are added daily!
Google's Secure Enclave, Saving Streaming Subscribers – TMO Daily Observations 2019-11-06
Andrew Orr and Charlotte Henry join host Kelly Guimont to discuss Google’s secure enclave, and how streaming services can retain subscribers.
Leaked Internal Facebook Documents Reveal Disturbing Information
Today a trove of 4,000 internal Facebook documents reveal how the social media giant profits off user data and battles rivals.
Here are some of the key revelations from the document dump, including from reports published from earlier leaks:
Facebook wielded its control over user data to hobble rivals like YouTube, Twitter, and Amazon.
Facebook executives quietly planned a data-policy “switcharoo.”
Facebook considered charging companies to access user data.
Facebook whitelisted certain companies to allow them more extensive access to user data, even after it locked down its developer platform throughout 2014 and 2015.
Facebook planned to spy on the locations of Android users.
The PDF can be found here but currently it’s taking forever to load. Grab it while it’s hot.
Veterans can Save $40 on Amazon Prime This Year
Amazon is giving veterans a discount for its Prime subscription service. The price is normally US$119 but veterans can get it for US$79.
A couple of restrictions to note before jumping on the deal: you can’t take advantage of the discount if you’re already a Prime Student subscriber. Additionally, it’s not possible to use Amazon and partner rewards points to make the subscription even cheaper.
Apple's Ad Agency Media Arts Lab Lays-Off 50 Staff
Media Arts Lab, Apple’s ad agency, has cut 50 employees, mostly in its strategy department, according to a report.
Now Everyone Can Decide Which WhatsApp Groups They Are Added to
WhatsApp has given the ability to control who adds you to a Group to all users, Engadget reported. Previously it had only been available to users in India.
Anyone who relies on WhatsApp to communicate with friends, family, and everyone in between knows how easily people can add them to group chats without consent. This is why the Facebook-owned messaging giant in April introduced a feature that allowed some users to stipulate who can add them to a group. Before today, the privacy setting had only been available in India, where the company has been fine-tuning the feature ahead of today’s global rollout. It’s worth noting that with more than 400 million users, India is a big market for WhatsApp, but it is also one that has struggled with the spread of incendiary messages and fake news. WhatsApp has previously tried to address these issues with stricter message-forwarding restrictions.
