WhatsApp 'Restrict Group' feature allows admin to censor members' posts

Facebook-owned WhatsApp is rolling out its "Restrict Group" for all iOS, Android and Windows Phone users -- a feature that gives the group administrator powers to restrict other members from sending text messages, photographs, videos, GIFs, documents or voice messages in case the admin thinks so.

According to WABetaInfo, a popular fan site that tests new WhatsApp features early, you need to update your WhatsApp version to the 2.18.132 Android update in order to remotely receive the activation of the feature.

The "Restrict Group" feature, first spotted in last December, adds "Privacy settings" in the group.

"All participants can normally edit the group description, icon and subject, but finally the administrator can restrict this feature today, preventing no-administrators to modify the group description," the website said.

Your mobile phone can give away your location, even if you tell it not to

US military officials were recently caught off guard by revelations that servicemembers’ digital fitness trackers were storing the locations of their workouts – including at or near military bases and clandestine sites around the world. But this threat is not limited to Fitbits and similar devices. My group’s recent research has shown how mobile phones can also track their users through stores and cities and around the world – even when users turn off their phones’ location-tracking services.

The vulnerability comes from the wide range of sensors phones are equipped with – not just GPS and communications interfaces, but gyroscopes and accelerometers that can tell whether a phone is being held upright or on its side and can measure other movements too. Apps on the phone can use those sensors to perform tasks users aren’t expecting – like following a user’s movements turn by turn along city streets.

New Snapchat update to let users share public 'Stories' outside the app

Image messaging and multimedia mobile application Snapchat on Wednesday announced that the platform will now let its user base to share some public 'Stories' via links.

"Stories eligible for sharing right now include those Official Stories and Our Stories found in the Discover tab, as well as Search Stories," TechCrunch reported.

However, according to the company, the type of 'Stories' that one can share will expand over time.

The aim is to allow users to share content from within the app to let people, who don't use the platform, know what it can do.

This feature will be going live to users running the redesigned Snapchat app, which also includes test markets like Australia and Canada.

It will become available for iOS and Android over the next few weeks.

Google removes 60 gaming apps with pop-up porn malware from Play Store

Alphabet Inc’s Google said on Friday it took down 60 gaming applications after security firm Check Point said it had discovered new malicious software in the apps available to both children and adults at Google Play Store.
The malicious software displayed pornographic ads and tried to trick users into buying premium services, according to Check Point.
“We’ve removed the apps from Play, disabled the developers’ accounts, and will continue to show strong warnings to anyone that has installed them,” a Google spokesperson said.
Dubbed “AdultSwine”, the malware hides inside game apps that Google Play data says have been downloaded 3 to 7 million times, Check Point said in blog post on Friday.
The apps weren’t part of the family collection, which is based on a programme to help parents discover age-appropriate content on the Play Store.
The company clarified that the inappropriate ads within the apps were not Google ads.
The malware also sought to trick users into installing fake security apps, and could open the door for other attacks such as theft of user credentials, Check Point said.
It said games and apps intended for children were a new target for cyber criminals that targeted hospitals, businesses and governments in the past.

Google employees lose nearly 250 Gbikes a week: Report

Technology giant Google loses between 100 and 250 of its colourful employee bicycles a week from its campus, the media reported.

Google maintains roughly 1,100 free, two-wheelers with yellow frames, red baskets and green and blue wheels, known as Gbikes, for its employees to get around its sprawling campus.

However, according to company estimates, its bikes consistently go missing from its campus-between 100 and 250 a week, typically costing $100 to $300.

The bikes have shown up at local schools, in neighbours' lawns, at the bottom of the town creek and on the roof of a sports pub.

"The disappearances often aren't the work of ordinary thieves, however. Many residents of Mountain View, a city of 80,000 that has effectively become Google's company town, see the employee perk as a community service," the Wall Street Journal reported on January 5.

A decade ago, Google started Silicon Valley's first corporate bike programme, which was adopted by at least 16 others across the US, including at Apple, Facebook, and Walmart, the report said.

The company recently equipped about a third of its 1,100 bikes with GPS trackers, which revealed that the two-wheelers take an average 12 trips and travel six miles a day.

It now also has a team of 30 Google contractors and five vans who are tasked with retrieving Gbikes. They carry waders and grappling hooks for pulling bikes out of a creek.
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How WhatsApp launched 'Reply Privately' feature in beta update - mistakenly

WhatsApp mistakenly rolled out the 'Reply Privately' feature in a beta update that will allow users to privately send a message to a participant in a group without anyone else knowing about it.

According to Express.co.uk, the hotly-anticipated feature is under development and could be rolled out with other features as well.

The feature appeared and was subsequently dropped from the beta version of the app, watcher of the popular chat app @WABetaInfo said, confirming that the developers wrongly enabled the feature.

"In the new WhatsApp beta for Windows Phone 2.17.344 the private reply feature is disabled. Probably WhatsApp has wrongly enabled it in 2.17.342," WABetaInfo tweeted.

WABetaInfo said that the option will only be available in group chats and will be included in the small menu that pops-up when users press and hold on a message.

Earlier this month, WABetaInfo leaked the details of the features that WhatsApp was developing for web and desktop, including tap to unblock and a picture-in-picture (PIP) mode.
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Google's digital payment app 'Tez' launched: Here's how it works

Tech giant Google on Monday joined the bandwagon of Unified Payment Interface (UPI) -based payment apps launching its "Tez" app.

Tez, which means fast in Hindi, is a standalone payments app that can be downloaded on Android and iOS devices.

It is based on UPI -- a payments protocol built by government-backed National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI).

Apart from English and Hindi, "Tez" app supports various Indian languages such as Bengali, Gujarati, Marathi, Kannada, Tamil and Telugu.

The user interface is fairly simple and the user is asked to sign into the application using the mobile number that is registered with the bank account.

The user then receives an OTP via SMS and the registration is completed after an email id is provided.

The app lets the user pay bills, send money and receive payments directly into their bank accounts (after the app is linked to their bank account to verify ownership).

There is also an option to send a text message from their registered phone number through Google "Tez" app.
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YouTube gets new design, brings more features to app

YouTube, the online video streaming portal, has updated its mobile app for intuitive user experience. The YouTube app update applies Google’s Material design that brings host of new features and redefined the existing ones of the app.

Here are the key new features added to the app:

Design: The navigation tabs are moved to the bottom and now features two new tabs – Library and Account. The header is coloured in white so that the content can take the lead.

Gestures: The app supports double tap gestures on the left or right side, which fast forward or rewind 10 seconds of a video. In the coming months, accoridng to the YouTube official blogpost,  the app will get more gesture support that will allow users to jump between videos with a swipe of your hand -- swipe left to watch a previous video or swipe right to watch the next one.

Speed control: The app now supports playback speed control. You can either slowdown or fast-forward the videos at whatever speed you prefer.
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Google launches ARCore to bring augmented reality closer to Android users

In a bid to bring the augmented reality (AR) experience closer to Android users, Google has released a new software development kit (SDK) called ARCore.

The platform, which is now available for developers to experiment with, will render augmented reality capabilities to existing and future Android phones, Google said in a statement late on Tuesday.

The company built on the fundamental technologies used in Tango, another AR platform by Google, but ARCore is scalable across the Android ecosystem as it doesn't require any additional hardware.

The new AR platform has been rolled out to Google Pixel and Samsung S8 which run on Android 7.0 Nougat and above.

Google is working with manufacturers like Samsung, Huawei, LG, ASUS and other major smartphone makers for quality and performance checks.

ARCore, which works with 'Java/OpenGL', 'Unity' and 'Unreal' technologies mainly focuses on three features -- motion tracking, environmental understanding and light estimation.

The tech giant has also built 'Blocks' and 'Tilt Brush' applications for creation of 3D content for use in AR apps.

Last month, Apple had unveiled its ARKit platform focussing on augmented reality applications at its annual Worldwide Developers Conference, to allow developers to build apps that could place virtual content on top of real-world scenes.
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Real reason why you can't quit Facebook - It lets you be a 'silent watcher'

Facebook recently announced that it now has over 2 billion monthly users. This makes its “population” larger than that of China, the US, Mexico and Japan combined. Its popularity, and with it the influence it has in society, is beyond dispute. But for many the experience of actually using the site fluctuates somewhere between the addictive and the annoying. Our new research shows that the reason for this is very simple. It’s all to do with other people, and how we feel about them.

For Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerburg and colleagues, the ethos behind the site is straightforward. It aims to “give people the power to build community and bring the world closer together”. By offering individuals the chance to connect with friends and share meaningful content, it aims to strengthen relationships and community ties.

The fact that this is a rather idealistic picture of society hasn’t prevented the site from flourishing. Yet, examining what people actually do on the site, how they interact with each other, and what they feel about the behaviour of friends and acquaintances, shows that the truth is rather more complex.

Silent watchers

We surveyed and selectively interviewed a network of over 100 Facebook users. Our findings show how we continue to use the site and remain connected to people through it even though they often annoy or offend us. But instead of challenging them or severing ties, we continue to use Facebook to silently watch them – and perhaps even take pleasure from judging them.

In other words, Facebook reflects the dynamics at the heart of all real human relationships. Just as in their offline life, people try to open up and bond with each other while simultaneously having to cope with the everyday frictions of friendship.
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Google's virtual assistant 'Home' facing glitches

Google pinned a lot of hope on its virtual assistant 'Home' to take on Amazon's 'Alexa' but it appears that it has gone bonkers with the users reporting indifferent behaviour from 'Home'.

The virtual assistant is spitting out errors instead of controlling smart home devices and answering questions.

"According to multiple online complaints, there's a Google Home outage affecting a significant portion of users," tech website Android Police reported on Monday.

To know if Home is affected, users need to use a trigger phrase and it will respond with "Hmm, something went wrong. Try again in a few seconds," or "There was a glitch. Try again in a few seconds."

"Most users say the issues started popping up in the last day or two and today Google Home has a nearly 100 per cent failure rate," the report said.

What is interesting is that other devices with Google Assistant are working fine.

While some owners reported that a hard reset of 'Home' fixed the issue, many others still had problems after resetting.
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Apple opens its accelerator for app developers in Bengaluru

Nearly a year after Apple CEO Tim Cook visited India to woo Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Bollywood stars and start-ups, the iPhone maker has opened its doors to app developers with the first-of-its-kind accelerator in Bengaluru.

The Centre will support Indian app developers to design, test and optimise their apps to better run on Apple's iPhone and iPad. The move is aimed at replicating the iPhone's success a decade ago in developed markets, where users flocked to it due to the availability of higher quality apps.

"We are impressed by the great entrepreneurial spirit in India, and are excited to provide a platform for these developers to share their innovations with customers around the world," said Philip Schiller, SVP of Worldwide Marketing, in a statement. "In just the first few weeks, we've already seen some incredible developers here at the App Accelerator Bengaluru."

Apple will be able to provide guidance to over 500 developers every week where they will be able to get analysis and feedback for their apps from a set of experts. The company will also look at supporting Indian developers in using its own Swift development language to build apps and services for its iPhone.

The opening of the app accelerator comes weeks ahead of Apple's first iPhone manufacturing plant in Bengaluru going online. The facility is expected to produce the low-cost iPhone SE and will allow the company to circumnavigate high excise duties of importing a fully assembled device into India.

As Apple is working hard to increase sales of its iPhones in India, the company is trying to woo developers who've traditionally built services for Google's Android operating system first. Even today, devices running Android outnumber iPhones by over nine to one, as majority of buyers look for affordable smartphones. (READ MORE)

Rooter, a sport social network to connect with fans of your favourite team

BREAKING NEWS - There is something unique about all sports – a spirit of unity that brings people together to cheer for what they support. We often get a glimpse of it among friends or strangers at workplaces, eateries, clubs, or any other place where a live match is being screened.

Ever wondered how it would be if common interests and sport fandom were to unite random people separated by distance or want of acquaintance? How about some ‘social sports networking’? After all, sitting alone curled in a couch as you watch a match of your favourite team or player can be boring!

You can use social sports app Rooter to get yourself in touch with sports enthusiasts around the world with similar interests and liking. Apart from basic features like real-time updates and event facts, the app offers a 360-degree engagement experience to fans, giving them the opportunity to immerse themselves in their most ardent passion – sports!

Once you have downloaded the app from Play Store, you can log in using your Facebook, Twitter or Google accounts. The app requires permissions to access contacts and user profile, so user discretion is required. Once logged in, the app offers you the option to customise your experience in accordance with the sports of your liking. (READ MORE)

1 billion Yahoo accounts on sale, despite hacking indictments: Report

One billion Yahoo accounts are up for sale at $200,000 or best offer, a media report has said.

The passwords do not work, but the dates of birth, telephone numbers and security questions could still be useful to an adept cyberthief, a New York Times report said.

US Federal prosecutors unsealed indictments this week against four Russian men, including two hackers and two intelligence officers, responsible for a 2014 intrusion into Yahoo's systems that affected 500 million user accounts.

Despite this, data on 1 billion accounts - stolen in another attack on the company in 2013 - appeared to remain available on underground hacker forums on Friday, the NYT report added.

The authorities were tight-lipped about their investigation of the 2013 attack, which is the largest known breach of a private company's computer systems. The 2014 hacking of Yahoo's servers is the second largest.

"We're not willing to comment right now if there is a connection between the two investigations," Malcolm Palmore, who oversees the Federal Bureau of Investigation's cybersecurity division in San Francisco, said on Wednesday in a brief interview after the government unveiled the indictments. (READ MORE)

Now, Twitter to also allow media firms to stream live videos

Micro-blogging site Twitter will soon allow media firms to post live streaming videos directly into the service, media reports said.

According to a report in the Information on Thursday, Twitter will allow media firms to plug directly into Twitter's software to go live by opening its streaming application programming interface (API) to them.

"Twitter is opening up its live API to media firms. It will also reveal partnerships with firms that provide back-end services for live-video streaming," the report said.

Though media organisations have already been hosting live streams on Twitter, it required partnerships and extensive planning between the two. With the upcoming announcement, Twitter's API will let these organisations go live without using Periscope.

Twitter in partnership with PBS NewsHour on Fenruary 28 live-streamed US President Donald Trump's address to a joint session of Congress.

It also witnesses over 2 million viewers for Thursday Night Football last year live-streamed a boxing match for the first time in partnership with Showtime. (READ MORE)

Google Maps to ease transit in seven more Indian cities

Google India on Thursday expanded the transit feature on Google Maps to seven more Indian cities to help users better plan their local commute.

The newly added cities are Chandigarh, Lucknow, Vadodara, Indore, Mysore, Surat and Coimbatore.

"Google Maps is your guide to the world around you and this launch is part of our effort to reflect the real world and provide you with relevant information about your surroundings," Sanket Gupta, Product Manager of Google Maps, said in a statement.


With the update, the transit feature is now available in sixteen Indian cities -- the seven newly added places and Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Kolkata, Jaipur, Hyderabad, Pune and Ahmedabad.

'Google Transit' is a feature on Google Maps designed to help a user to plan a commute with just a few taps.

If a user wants to go to Sukhna Lake in Chandigarh, he/she needs to search for Sukhna Lake and Google Maps will show how to get there from the user's current location.

Google will also show bus routes and stops, including details such as departure and arrival times, the names of bus stands and even where to change buses.

Google Transit is available on Google Maps for Android and iOS as well as on browser.

Google Maps globally provides over 1 billion kilometre worth of transit results every day and has schedules for more than 2.5 million public transit stops worldwide. (READ MORE)

The YouTube videos you watch can be tracked

If you thought what you watch on YouTube is no one's business, you could not be further detached from reality. Researchers have found that your online video viewing habits can be tracked.

Gaps in YouTube's encryption enable both government intelligence agencies, hackers and internet marketers to determine which videos a user is watching, said the researchers.


"We built a simple yet robust machine-learning algorithm that can identify which video you watched — within a predetermined set of videos — with a high degree of accuracy," said one of the researchers Ran Dubin from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) in Israel.

"The algorithm is based on an in-depth study of how video services work, how video content is encoded and how a video player requests information to play it," Dubin said.

Dubin was able to use this algorithm to determine if someone had watched a specific video from a set of suspicious, terror-related videos.

Intelligence agencies could access this technology for tracking terrorists or other suspicious individuals.

Internet marketing companies could track the number and make-up of viewers watching an ad, according to the research presented at the Black Hat Europe meeting in London.

"It's important to know that video encryption is not as secure as we once thought," Dubin said

"Google, YouTube's parent company, is not likely to patch the gaps, since it would be prohibitively expensive to create a traffic obfuscation mechanism for every user's every video request," he added. (READ MORE)

Security flaw found in WhatsApp, Telegram: researchers

BREAKING NEWS - A computer security firm on Wednesday revealed a flaw that could let hackers break into WhatsApp or Telegram messaging accounts using the very encryption intended to protect messages.

Check Point Software Technologies said that it alerted Telegram and Facebook-owned WhatsApp last week, waiting until the vulnerability was patched before making it public.

Check Point did not specify how many messaging accounts were at risk, but did say the flaw posed a danger to "hundreds of millions" of users accessing the messaging platform from web browsers in computers, as opposed to mobile applications.

"This new vulnerability put hundreds of millions of WhatsApp Web and Telegram Web users at risk of complete account take over," Check Point head of product vulnerability Oded Vanunu said in a release.

"By simply sending an innocent looking photo, an attacker could gain control over the account, access message history, all photos that were ever shared, and send messages on behalf of the user."

The vulnerability made it possible for an attacker to booby-trap a digital image with malicious code that could spring into action after the picture is clicked on for viewing, according to Check Point.

The malicious code could then hijack an account, and even spread itself like a virus by sending infected messages to those listed as contacts.

WhatsApp and Telegram use end-to-end encryption designed to make certain only senders and recipients can see what is in messages.

The privacy protection had the side effect of preventing the services from being able to discern whether message contents included malicious code, according to Check Point.

To remedy the situation, both services shifted to finding and blocking viruses before messages are encrypted, the security researchers said.

WhatsApp is one of the most popular instant messaging services in the world with more than a billion users. Telegram claims only 100 million or so users, but is often cited as a preferred communications tool of jihadists because of encryption to keep messages from the eyes of authorities.(READ MORE)

New iPhone app may help find strangers on Facebook

LATEST BUSINESS NEWS - The next time you want any information about a stranger, try the new facial recognition app on your iPhone, which can provide you his or her details by just matching a photograph on Facebook.

Users can take a picture of anyone and run it through the Facezam app which will show them their Facebook profile.


Facezam scans billions of Facebook profile images a second, which it accesses through a database for developers, until it finds a match. It claims to be able to link most photos with a profile on the social network within 10 seconds.

"Facezam could be the end of our anonymous societies," Jack Kenyon, a British entrepreneur and founder of Facezam, was quoted as saying to telegraph.co.uk on Wednesday.

"Users will be able to identify anyone within a matter of seconds, which means privacy will no longer exist in public society," Kenyon added.

The app, which will launch on iOS on March 21, has been tested on more than 10,000 images to date with a 70 per cent accuracy.

However, the launch could be delayed by Facebook, which said Facezam violates its privacy policies.

"This activity violates our terms and we're reaching out to the developer to ensure they bring their app into compliance," Facebook was quoted as saying.

Facebook reviews apps that use its data before they go live to check they adhere to its policies. Apps that collect users' data or use automated technology to scan Facebook are forbidden from launching without permission from the social network.

Facezam has not violated Facebook's terms, Kenyon said, while adding that the app could help reduce crime by making everyone identifiable.(READ MORE)