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Tech NewsBackpedaling, WhatsApp Says It Won’t Lobotomize Accounts That Refuse Privacy Policy Update
WhatsApp initially threatened to revoke core functions for users that refused to accept its controversial new privacy policy, only to walk back the severity of those consequences earlier this month amid international backlash, and now, it’s doing away with them altogether (for the time being, at least). In a reversal, the company clarified on Friday … Continued
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Tech NewsPrivacy & SecurityThe Indian Government Wants to Break Messaging Encryption, WhatsApp’s Suing
WhatsApp is taking India’s government to court over a new mandate that it claims will lead to mass surveillance of users in the company’s biggest market. Reuters was first to report on the suit filed in Dehli’s high court, which WhatsApp confirmed to Gizmodo on Wednesday. The suit is WhatsApp’s attempt to push back against … Continued
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Tech NewsPrivacy & SecurityScammers Score $2 Million from the WallStreetBets Crowd With Fictional Crypto Launch
A cryptocurrency scam recently pilfered at least $2 million from WallStreetBets enthusiasts, convincing them that they were buying into a new crypto coin connected to the popular memestock, according to a report from Bloomberg News. For weeks, moderators of the notorious Reddit forum have warned users to avoid fraudulent scams based around the good WSB … Continued
By Lucas Ropek -
Tech NewsSocial MediaHacker Publishes Phone Numbers and Other Data of 533 Million Facebook Users for Free
If you have a Facebook account, you should probably be keeping your guard up in the near future. A new report states that a hacker has posted the private information, including phone numbers, birthdays, and locations, of more than 533 million Facebook users from 106 countries online for free. According to Insider, the hacker was … Continued
By Jody Serrano -
Tech NewsLinkedIn Also Has a Clubhouse Rival in the Works Now
The latest platform dipping its toes into the tepid waters of the “social audio experience” is LinkedIn, which confirmed on Tuesday that it’s developing an audio networking integration for its app that will rival the existing voice-only chat app Clubhouse. Clubhouse itself has inspired a host of copycats since its initial rollout in March 2020, … Continued
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Tech NewsSocial MediaWhatsApp Is Now Using Its Version of Stories to Convince Users It’s Committed to Their Privacy
As many of you probably already know, WhatsApp’s announcement on the changes to its privacy policy confused and angered a lot of people, who were given the impression that the messaging app would begin sharing their personal data with its parent company, Facebook. Since then, WhatsApp has been running up and down trying to reassure … Continued
By Jody Serrano -
Tech NewsTelegram Adds Simple Tool to Bring In Your WhatsApp Data
Following the disastrous announcement of changes to its privacy policy, WhatsApp is losing the trust of millions of users who are now looking for a new encrypted messaging platform. Telegram claims it’s added 100 million new users this month alone, and it hopes its new ability to transfer WhatsApp chat histories will accelerate the transition. … Continued
By Rhett Jones -
Tech NewsTelegram Says It Shut Down “Hundreds Of Public Calls To Violence” From US Channels Last Week
In the weeks since Trump-sympathizing rioters laid siege to the U.S. Capitol, platforms have scrambled to account for the ways right-wing zealots used their communication networks to strategize, coordinate or otherwise inflame tensions related to the deadly insurrection. Apparently, Telegram has been no exception: On Monday, the app’s CEO and founder, Pavel Durov, said that the … Continued
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Tech NewsPrivacy & SecurityThis Was WhatsApp’s Plan All Along
Even if you aren’t the type of person who peruses WhatsApp on a regular basis, chances are you’ve tried perusing its new privacy policy. Emphasis on “tried.” The roughly 4,000-word tome fell under fire from countless WhatsAppers across the globe after the company told its users that they’ll be ejected from the platform unless they … Continued
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Tech News
Oh Great, Telegram’s Getting Ads
Telegram, the encrypted messaging app and longtime drug-dealer haven, is planning to monetize in 2021, founder Pavel Durov said on Wednesday. The announcement comes as the app nears its eighth birthday and “approaches 500 million active users,” according to the statement that Durov put on his Telegram channel. Every new user that comes flooding in, … Continued
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Tech NewsPolitics‘Stand Back and Stand By’ Already Selling on Extremist Proud Boys T-Shirts, Thanks to Trump
At the 2020 presidential debates on Tuesday, Donald Trump didn’t just choke on condemning white supremacists—he actually gave what a far-right hate group that has beat up protesters and launched street brawls interpreted as at the very least a tacit endorsement, or even a direct order. The president has since attempted to walk back his … Continued
By Tom McKay -
Tech NewsTelegram’s the Latest Company to File an Antitrust Suit Against Apple
Just one day after its CEO painted the company’s choice to snoop on rival apps as a pro-privacy flex, Apple’s been hit with an antitrust suit from the encrypted messaging app Telegram, claiming that no matter how much Tim Cook wants to argue otherwise, he’s created an ecosystem where Apple’s the only app game in … Continued
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Tech NewsSouth Korea Names Man Allegedly Behind Online Video Blackmail Ring
South Korean authorities reportedly have taken the rare measure of publicly identifying a man who authorities say sexually exploited 74 women, including 16 minors, into producing graphic and dehumanizing videos of themselves that were then shared with paying members of private chatrooms on Telegram. Cho Ju-bin, the 24-year-old suspect identified by South Korean authorities as … Continued
By Catie Keck -
Tech NewsRussian Man Who Tried to Burn Down Offices of Internet Regulator Reportedly Gets Probation
Earlier this month, a court in Russia’s Ulyanovsk Region sentenced a man to one and a half years’ probation after he reportedly tried not one, not two, but three times to burn down the regional offices of national internet regulator Roskomnadzor, with Interfax reporting (via TorrentFreak) that one local said he had done so to … Continued
By Tom McKay -
Tech NewsPrivacy & SecurityChina Allegedly Conducting Cyber Attacks Against Telegram Messaging App to Suppress Hong Kong Protests
The Chinese government is allegedly conducting cyber attacks against the messaging app Telegram in an effort to frustrate this week’s protests in Hong Kong, according to the CEO of Telegram. Telegram’s Pavel Durov claims that the botnets orchestrating the DDoS attacks that his company has been experiencing this week have, “IP addresses coming mostly from … Continued
By Matt Novak -
Tech NewsChernobyl, Schrödinger’s Cat, and Telegram Terrorists: Best Gizmodo Stories of the Week
Happy Sunday evening! Hopefully the events of the last week have been going better for you than YouTube, which spent an impossibly long time flailing around like a Wacky Waving Inflatable Arm Flailing Tube Man after refusing to remove videos of a conservative internet personality taunting a journalist with racist, homophobic harassment. Hopefully the week … Continued
By Tom McKay -
Tech NewsTelegram Goes Nuclear With New Message Deletion Feature
Messaging apps increasingly allow for some form of implicit privacy. But a backlog of sometimes years-old chats can still present a vulnerability. In its most recent update, Telegram believes it has solved that problem and then some. The major overhaul—which sets it apart from even chat apps with disappearing message functions—is that Telegram now allows … Continued
By Avery Ellis
