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Android’s Location Data Jackpot; Google Search Adds Privacy Controls

Posted June 1st, 2016 at 11:20 am (UTC-5)
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Today’s Tech Sightings: Police Filing Warrants for Android’s Vast Store of Location Data If you use Google Maps on your Android device, you should know the software has a feature that builds a comprehensive history of the places you visit. Google’s Location History system collects the information, which is then used in Maps. The resulting […]

Stolen Tumblr Data Up for Sale; US, Vietnam World’s Biggest Spammers

Posted May 31st, 2016 at 12:00 pm (UTC-5)
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Today’s Tech Sightings: 65 Million Tumblr Account Records Up for sale on Underground Market A few week after Tumblr notified users it suffered a data breach, 65 million records showed up for sale on the dark web. The information is on offer on a dark market site called TheRealDeal, owned by the same person who […]

Selfies for Security? Just Don’t Blink on Facebook

Posted May 27th, 2016 at 10:30 am (UTC-5)
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Selfies – those digital expressions of self-infatuation and keepers of memories – are slowly emerging as a potential replacement for passwords. But cybersecurity experts caution that they can only be an effective deterrent as part of a multi-layered security defense. Some companies are already experimenting with selfies to authenticate credit card users for financial transactions, […]

Microsoft’s Mobile Dreams Unravel; Foxconn Robots Replace Humans

Posted May 25th, 2016 at 12:05 pm (UTC-5)
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Today’s Tech Sightings: Microsoft Retreats in Smartphone Battle, 1,850 Jobs Could Go Microsoft’s foray into the mobile smartphone market appears to be at an end. The tech giant’s smartphone business has been in its death throes in recent months. And now, Microsoft just announced it will cut about 1,850 jobs, mostly in Finland, and write […]

Twitter Eases 140-Character Limit; Google Toys With Killing Passwords

Posted May 24th, 2016 at 11:49 am (UTC-5)
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Today’s Tech Sightings: Twitter Makes Important Changes to Its 140-character Limit, Ditching ‘@mention’ Twitter is moving forward with changes to its 140-character limit that take links and @replies out of the word count. Pictures and other attachments will no longer count toward the 140-character count. A retweet button will also be added to personal tweets. […]

Online Gamers Tackle DNA, Exoplanets Next

Posted May 20th, 2016 at 11:05 am (UTC-5)
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A Massively Multiplayer Online Science (MMOS) partnership that recently recruited EVE Online gamers to identify protein distribution patterns in human cells, has teamed up with the University of Geneva for new research that could be added to the game’s Project Discovery, a joint venture with CCP Games and the Human Protein Atlas. It is possible […]

China’s Fake Online Posts; Shenzhen’s Bright High-tech Future

Posted May 19th, 2016 at 11:38 am (UTC-5)
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Today’s Tech Sightings: Study: China Fakes 488 Million Social Media Comments a Year A Harvard University study says the Chinese government fabricates up to 488 million social media comments every year – the equivalent of a day of global tweets – to distract its citizens from sensitive political issues. Harvard scholars started their study with […]

Foxconn Nabs Nokia Dumbphone Brand; LinkedIn Data Posted for Sale

Posted May 18th, 2016 at 11:48 am (UTC-5)
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Today’s Tech Sightings: Why a Taiwanese Company Is Paying $350 Million to Build Nokia Dumbphones Microsoft announced Wednesday it is selling its featurephone Nokia brand to Foxconn, a Taiwanese smartphone manufacturer best known as the manufacturer of iPhones. Old fashioned featurephones, also known as dumbphones, are still very popular around the world and show no […]

In the Right Hands, This Game Teaches Kids About Cybersecurity

Posted May 13th, 2016 at 10:52 am (UTC-5)
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When Matt Trobbiani created Hacknet, it was intended as a game, no more, no less — until he discovered it was being used to train cyber warfare teams. Now, he is testing educational versions of the game to teach school kids and would-be sleuths about cybersecurity. It started out at a game-jam competition as a […]

Drones to Take Over More Human Jobs; FBI Eyes Messaging Encryption

Posted May 12th, 2016 at 12:00 pm (UTC-5)
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Today’s Tech Sightings: Drones Could Replace $127 Billion Worth of Human Labor Drones could take over human jobs in infrastructure, agriculture and services sectors by 2030. A new report from PwC predicts drones, already on the job in some fields, could replace $127 billion worth of human labor. Evidence suggests robots could replace about 50 […]