Category: Politics

Iran’s coronavirus ‘diagnosis’ app looks more like a surveillance tool

[ad_1] AC19’s developer, Sarzamin Housmand (formerly Smart Land Solutions), is also known for developing government clones of Telegram that weren’t as secure as the real thing and were geared more toward enabling surveillance. While it’s not clear exactly what the Iranian government is doing with the data, it’s eager to brag about the scale. ICT […]

The Morning After: Disney released ‘The Rise of Skywalker’ early

[ad_1] He’s a little busy elsewhere at the moment.Bill Gates steps down from Microsoft’s board of directors If you checked out of keeping up with the news a little early on Friday, you may have missed Bill Gates’ announcement. The Microsoft co-founder and Engadget reader has been increasingly focused on public health issues (like pandemics, […]

Google is building a website to coordinate coronavirus testing in the US

[ad_1] There are no specifics at the moment regarding when the site will go live, but more details about the initiative are coming the evening of Sunday, March 15th, Vice President Mike Pence said. In a memo to Google employees seen by CNBC, CEO Sundar Pichai said the company’s life sciences arm, Verily, was working […]

US wireless carriers pledge to suspend cancellations amid outbreak

[ad_1] At the moment, approximately 70 companies have agreed to honor the pledge. The list includes all four of the big wireless carriers — AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon (Engadget’s parent company) — as well as internet service providers (ISPs) like Comcast and Google Fiber. “As the coronavirus outbreak spreads and causes a series of […]

President Trump signs bill to help rural carriers replace Huawei gear

[ad_1] The measure had bipartisan support in Congress and was expected to become law given the Trump administration’s eagerness to label Huawei a security threat. There are lingering concerns about the severity of this claimed threat. The US has been reluctant to provide public evidence that the Chinese government has used Huawei equipment for surveillance. […]

US House votes to extend FISA surveillance

[ad_1] But the bill would do more than just extend the provisions’ validity. Since surveillance laws tend to raise privacy concerns, the bill would add new restrictions to the FISA court overseeing requests for surveillance warrants. It would also bring changes to FISA wiretaps in response to the backlash the feds got for wiretapping former […]

California ends opposition to T-Mobile and Sprint merger

[ad_1] The settlement also aims to protect jobs. Current retail employees at T-Mobile and Sprint will have to get offers of “substantially similar” jobs post-merger, with the total employee count after three years being “equal to or greater than” what it was before the merger. California wants T-Mobile to create about 1,000 jobs with a […]

EU plans to introduce sweeping ‘right to repair’ legislation for electronics

[ad_1] If the European Parliament were to pass legislation, it would extend its eco-design law to cover phones, tablets and computers, and likely force tech companies to completely rethink the designs of their products. The legislation would also require those same companies to provide easy to access information related to the repairability and durability of […]

UK to levy additional tax on big tech companies beginning April 1st

[ad_1] The UK first announced the “digital services tax” in 2018, and after a couple rounds of review, it’s ready to be enacted. The new legislation will levy a two-percent tax on the revenue from search engines, social media services and online marketplaces that derive value from UK users. It will only apply when companies […]

Facebook labels manipulated video of Biden ‘endorsing’ Trump as ‘partly false’

[ad_1] As before, the clip was edited to cut off important context for Biden’s statement. Where the manipulated video shows him saying “we can only re-elect Donald Trump,” the unedited piece shows him saying “we can only re-elect Donald Trump if in fact we get engaged in this circular firing squad here,” referring to the […]