Bryan Chaffin and Andrew Orr join host Kelly Guimont to discuss the newest collection of breached data and some picks for great iPad apps.
Apple Faces Backlash for iOS App that Allows Men to Stop Women Leaving Saudi Arabia
Apple faced critcism for hosting an iOS app that gives men in Saudi Arabia the right to track women and stop them leaving the country.
Apple Turns Music Stars into Memoji for New Videos
Apple released three new videos that showed off both Memoji and Apple Music, featuring Ariana Grande, Khalid, and Florida George Line.
Spotify to Suspend or Terminate Accounts that Use Ad Blockers
Spotify updated its user guidelines to take a tougher approach against listeners who use ad blockers. TechCrunch reported that the new guidelines said that those using ad blockers will be immediately suspended from the service or have their account terminated. In an email to users, the company said that “all types of ad blockers, bots and fraudulent streaming activities are not permitted.” The new guidelines will come into force on March 1st, 2019.
Ad blockers have long been a headache for Spotify. The company disclosed in March 2018 while preparing for its initial public offering that it discovered two million users, or about 1.3 percent of its total user base at the time, had been using ad blockers on the free version of Spotify, enough to force it to restate usage metrics.
Germany Forces Facebook to Get User Consent Before Messaging Merger
Yesterday Germany’s Federal Cartel Office, the country’s antitrust regulator, says that Facebook needs user consent before it merges data from Messenger, WhatsApp, and Instagram.
In future, Facebook will no longer be allowed to force its users to agree to the practically unrestricted collection and assigning of non-Facebook data to their Facebook user accounts.
Kudos to Germany, but it’s disappointing that another country should step in to do the job of the United States. We should be regulating Facebook.
Tim Cook to Deliver Tulane University 2019 Commencement Address
Apple CEO Tim Cook will give the keynote address at Tulane University’s 2019 Commencement at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome.
Harpo Productions Hires Netflix Exec for Apple Video
Apple made a multi-year deal with Oprah Winfrey and Harpo Productions. The production company has recently hired Terry Wood from Netflix.
This Data Breach is Equal to 469,000 War and Peace Books
Last month we heard of the Collection #1 data breach, which contained 773 million email addresses and 21 million passwords. Now, Collections #2-#5 are here.
Despite its unthinkable size, which was first reported by the German news site Heise.de, most of the stolen data appears to come from previous thefts, like the breaches of Yahoo, LinkedIn, and Dropbox. WIRED examined a sample of the data and confirmed that the credentials are indeed valid, but mostly represent passwords from years-old leaks.
As with any data breach you can find out if your details have been leaked by visiting HaveIBeenPwned.com. My eBook copy of War and Peace is 1.8MB. The total size of the new breaches is 845GB, which equals 469,000 of those books.
Netflix Smart Downloads Come to iOS
Now when you finish watching a downloaded episode it will be deleted and the next episode will automatically download.
Sprint Suing AT&T over False 5G Claims
Sprint is suing rival network AT&T over the 5G Evolution branding on its phones. Engadget (which is owned by Verizon), reported that a Sprint survey found that a large number of users thought the 5GE branding meant the network was equivalent to 5G. Users also believed that their AT&T phone was already 5G capable. The lawsuit called for the 5GE tags to be removed from AT&T devices and advertising.
In its claim, Sprint said it commissioned a survey that found 54 percent of consumers believed the “5GE” networks were the same as or better than 5G, and that 43 percent think if they buy an AT&T phone today it will be 5G capable, even though neither of those things are true. Sprint’s argument is that what AT&T is doing is damaging the reputation of 5G, while it works to build out what it calls a ” legitimate early entry into the 5G network space.”