Privacy and Security
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Google Pays Contract Workers “A Few Cents” to Transcribe Your Conversations Google has been paying contractors to listen and transcribe Google Home recordings of completely unaware users. One of the contractors decided to blow the whistle to a Dutch-language news site, revealing that some of the conversations are up to a minute long. -
US Tech Giants Are Reportedly Selling to Huawei Despite Ban In May, the Trump administration issued a blanket ban on US companies supplying hardware or software to the Chinese tech giant Huawei. Now a new report claims that tech companies including Intel and Micron sold millions of dollars worth of products since the ban was announced. -
5 Things We Learned from BBC Interview with Facebook’s Nick Clegg Today, Nick Clegg, Facebook's Vice-President of Global Affairs and Communications, sat down for an interview on BBC radio, and faced a grilling on his company's activities, past and present. Up for discussion were regulation, the Christchurch shooting, and Russian meddling. -
Chrome Restricts Ad-Blockers: What This Means For You Google Chrome may be one of the most popular browsers out there, but it has provoked plenty of ire recently in the way that it handles ad-blocking extensions. Critics have suggested that recent changes to Chrome will make dedicated ad blocking plugins ineffective. -
US Immigration Now Asks For Your Social Media Details People wishing to travel to the US are now being asked to provide their social media details on visa applications, as well as their phone numbers from the past five years. These new visa rules are expected to impact 15 million people and give the US Government tonnes of data. -
Airbnb Users Targeted in Latest Scam Booking a weekend away? You might want to double check exactly who your booking is going through, especially if you're using Airbnb, which has found itself in the middle of a rather involved fraudulent scheme. Here's how to make sure you don't get scammed. -
US Declares National Emergency Over Huawei Security Concerns Tensions between the US and Chinese-based tech giant Huawei aren't getting better any time soon, as the Trump administration has declared a national emergency over "threats to American technology." We explain what you need to know about this latest move against the Chinese firm. -
What Needs to Change to Restore Trust in Tech With constant news stories about tech companies breaking the law, or acting in morally dubious ways, Tech.co spoke to Ali Shah, the ICO’s new head of technology policy to find out how big tech companies can restore the trust of their users. -
Don’t Try To Download Avengers: Endgame – It’s A Scam Avengers: Endgame took in a billion dollars in the five days after it opened, destroying box office records. It's the biggest movie opening ever, but some would-be audiences are searching for a free download – which makes it the best bait for online scammers. -
Facebook Dating to Expand with Secret Crush Feature – Should You Trust It? Facebook's developers conference, F8, is currently underway, and one of the latest bits of info to drop is that the company intends to expand its dating app, Facebook Dating. Included is a new feature named Secret Crush, which lets users discretely connect with fancied friends. -
Twitter Forced to Unmask UK User Following Court Order Twitter has been compelled by a UK court to reveal the user behind an account parodying the British pub chain JD Wetherspoon. Does this represent a dangerous precedent on the social media site by removing the right to privacy? Or is it a simple case of defamation? -
Opera Browser Update Includes Crypto Wallet, Web 3.0 Compatibility and Dark Mode The Opera browser has unveiled loads of new features including a built-in cryptocurrency wallet, support for Web 3.0 applications, and a new dark mode. With the browser already packing a built-in VPN, it's a genuine Chrome competitor that's well worth a free tryout.