At the moment, messages in, for example, WhatsApp and iMessage are encrypted in such a way that the chat service itself cannot access them. The advantage of this is that the messages are also safe if hackers break into the servers of the company. This allows journalists and activists to communicate securely, even when they…
Google will not develop new ways to track users’ browsing habits for personalized ads. The tech company says it is listening to the increased privacy concerns surrounding this so-called third party cookies. Consumers and regulators are increasingly critical about the use of these cookies, because many internet users do not realize that their surfing behavior…
Accountability For this study, we collected the timelines of 675 Instagram users. This resulted in 7,447 individual Instagram posts from 124 Dutch politicians and party leaders with a relatively large reach on Instagram. The position on the timeline of those Instagram posts has been taken into account. Those positions were then analyzed. This takes into…
Personal data of supposedly hundreds of thousands of people has fallen into the wrong hands due to a leak at the Ticketcounter company. These are names, emails, dates of birth, addresses and bank account numbers. Ticketcounter arranges reservations and payments on behalf of zoos, amusement parks, museums and events. Ticketcounter was recently told by security…
Actions without a lawsuit: deliberately breaking the rules or staying within them? Going to court is not the only form of protest that entrepreneurs are using this week. On Wednesday, market traders in Haaksbergen displayed not only food, but also other wares. In doing so, they deliberately violated the corona measures. Café bosses throughout the…
Very targeted advertising Facebook and Google have been providing access to political advertisements that are distributed and who they roughly reach for a few years now. This can be a lot more focused on the social network than with Google, which has limited this. For outsiders, Facebook only shows in which province an ad is…
Sony expects the shortage of new PlayStation 5 game console to persist for months due to a global shortage of semiconductors. Sony CEO Jim Ryan told the Financial Times he expects deliveries to improve “to reasonable numbers” only in the second half of this year. He cannot guarantee that there are enough consoles will be…
The hackers who penetrated the systems of the University of Amsterdam (UvA) and the Hogeschool van Amsterdam (HvA) may have obtained the encrypted passwords of students and employees. They could access it, but whether they have abused it, we do not know, says a spokesman. Both settings prompt all users to change their passwords as…
Facebook will show messages from news media in Australia to users of the social media platform again within a few days. The American tech giant has reached an agreement with the government about this. In recent days, Facebook’s decision to block news from Australian users has been heavily criticized due to a new media law…
Experts have long warned against the dangers of deepfake technology: films manipulated using smart algorithms. But according to tech expert Jarno Duursma, it also offers many possibilities. Especially for business. “It makes us all more creative.” Intelligent software creates and manipulates existing products, audio, photos and text on an increasingly large scale. For some this…