Wednesday 27 April 2016

How African governments block social media

The days some Africans are banned from tweeting

Fast cash: The high-speed world of cloud-based finance

How finance in the cloud can save you time and money

VIDEO: Cloud king: 'Ride a tech wave'

Aaron Levie, cofounder of technology company Box, offers the business advice he wishes he'd downloaded before he started out, for the BBC News series CEO Secrets.

VIDEO: Exploring Chernobyl in virtual reality

How a game development company created a virtual reality experience of Chernobyl

VIDEO: Is big data the key to Olympic success?

Marcus Thompson speaks to Olympic and Paralympic rowers and trainers to see how Team GB is preparing for the 2016 Olympics in Rio.

VIDEO: Dyson announces 'quieter' £299 hairdryer

Engineering firm Dyson reveals its first hairdryer which it says is quieter and lighter than rivals

Can you guess the Shakespeare play?

Google has paid tribute to Shakespeare and St George's Day with a special Google Doodle - but can you spot which of the Bard's plays are featured?

James Webb's mirror is revealed

The covers come off the huge mirror that the James Webb Space Telescope - the planned successor to Hubble - will use to detect the light from the first stars to shine in the Universe.

Google partners Uber on driverless cars

Google joins forces with Volvo, Ford, Uber and Lyft to form coalition on driverless cars.

Indian mobiles 'must have panic button'

All mobile phones sold in India from January 2017 will have to include a panic button, authorities have ruled.

Beautiful People data sold online

Data stolen from a dating website aimed at "beautiful people only" has been found for sale online.

Twitter shares plunge on weak earnings

Twitter's latest earnings results have disappointed investors, coming in below expectations as the firm struggles with weak growth in users and advertising.

Revenge porn victims 'as young as 11'

Children as young as 11 are among more than 1,000 alleged victims of revenge porn who reported offences in the first year of the new law coming into effect, a BBC investigation reveals.

Getty accuses Google in competition row

Photo agency Getty Images says it will file a competition lawsuit with the EU against Google, adding to a long list of European cases against the company.

Buildings that are smarter by design

A truly smart building is one that has taken account of how humans will use and feel about it and there is technology and design that can help that.

Warcraft considers compromise for fans

The studio behind World of Warcraft responds to a petition asking it to run a server for the original version of the video game.

Volvo to test self-drive cars in UK

Volvo plans to launch the UK's most ambitious self-driving car trial next year in London.

Sirin Labs to sell mysterious SP1 phone for the privacy conscious

An international group of investors announced today that Sirin Labs, a startup with $72 million in venture funding, is planning to create a smartphone that combines premium performance and functionality with strong privacy protection.

Sirin’s announcement gave few details about the device, internally dubbed the SP1, but the company says that interested parties won’t have long to wait for additional information, as it should go on sale within the next two months. The SP1’s design, according to Sirin, will attempt to graft high-end flagship features onto a far greater emphasis on security than most modern smartphones.

The group is led by the founders of Israeli VC firm Singulariteam, Moshe Hogeg and Kenges Rakishev, along with former Googler and startup veteran Tal Cohen, who serves as CEO. Sirin has also employed a former product director for Sony Mobile, Fredrik Oijer.

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Sunday 24 April 2016

US mulls tech to disable rogue drones

The US is considering legislation to allow authorities to intercept rogue drones flying too close to aircraft.

Friday 22 April 2016

The FBI paid more than $1 million to hack the San Bernardino iPhone

In the San Bernardino case, it turned out that the FBI didn’t actually need Apple’s help to access the data in shooter Syed Rizwan Farook’s iPhone 5c. But if Apple had helped, it certainly would have been cheaper.

Speaking at a security conference in London, FBI Director James Comey was asked how much the bureau paid the third-party gray-hat hackers for the tool that broke into the iPhone. “A lot, more than I will make in the remainder of this job, which is seven years and four months, for sure. But it was in my view worth it.”

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From wetsuits to wine: Small firms embrace the cloud

Small firms enter the cloud

VIDEO: Wozniak: Apple were right over FBI case

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak believes that Apple made the right decision by refusing to hand over information to the FBI which would have helped them unlock an iPhone.

VIDEO: US Air Force breaks maglev speed record

BBC Click's Stephen Beckett looks at some of the best of the week's technology news

Microsoft Windows hurt by PC sales slump

Microsoft's quarterly profit has missed analysts' estimates as a continued slump in personal computer sales hurts the company's core Windows business.

Ad sales boost revenue for Google parent

Quarterly revenue at Google's parent company Alphabet rises 17% after strong mobile advertising sales.

VR headset shipments 'to boom' in 2016

More than nine million virtual reality (VR) headsets will be shipped in 2016, suggests research by analyst firm IDC.

Connected tech aims to protect rhinos

A system that tracks people rather than animals is being tested in a reserve in South Africa as part of fight against rhino poaching.

Uber settles over employee status row

Uber has agreed to pay out $100m for its drivers to drop their case claiming employee rights.

$10 router blamed in Bangladesh hack

Hackers stole more than $80m (£56m) from Bangladesh's central bank because it skimped on network hardware and security software, reports Reuters.

San Bernardino hack 'cost FBI over $1m'

The figure paid by the FBI to unnamed experts to unlock the phone of the San Bernardino killer has been estimated at $1.3m or more.

China shuts down two Apple services

China has shut down Apple's online book and movie services as it imposes strict rules governing what can be published on the net.

House panel moves to require warrants for stored data

A U.S. House of Representatives committee has advanced a bill to give email and cloud-stored data new privacy protections from law enforcement searches.

The House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday voted 28-0 to approve an amended version of the Email Privacy Act, which would require law enforcement agencies to get court-ordered warrants to search email and other cloud-stored data that's more than six months old.

Some privacy advocates and tech companies have been pushing Congress to update a 30-year-old law called the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) for the last six years.

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Thursday 21 April 2016

Opera browser build adds a first: Free, unlimited VPN for secure surfing

After successfully launching a version of its browser that offered ad blocking, Opera just won’t quit. On Wednesday night, the company released a free VPN service with unlimited bandwidth, built right into its latest beta. The Opera release is developer edition version 38.0.2204.0 for the Mac and the PC.

Opera also won’t make you pay for the amount of bandwidth that you route through the VPN—which would normally cost you about $48 per year.

A virtual private network spoofs your IP address, pretending that your PC is actually physically located in London, for example, when it’s actually sitting in Los Angeles. That offers all sorts of possibilities: It helps hide your identity when surfing, or allows you access to a website that you normally wouldn’t be able to see. VPNs are also common in countries like China, whose so-called “Great Firewall” insulates the Chinese Internet from the rest of the world.

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VIDEO: Netflix on personalisation 'utopia'

Netflix's vice-president of innovation outlines how data will be used to personalise video

US bank hackers get long jail term

Computer hackers who created malware that stole about $100m (£70m) have been given long jail sentences in the US.

'More action taken' on child abuse images

Nearly 70,000 examples of online content showing child sex abuse have been removed from the internet in the past year, the UK charity leading the efforts to combat the abuse says.

University sorry for search tampering

US university UC Davis apologises for hiring a PR firm to try to bury online references to an incident in which students were pepper-sprayed.

Could cures for cancer lie hidden in the cloud?

How pooling patient data could help combat cancer

Google charged over Android 'abuse'

The European Commission accuses Google of abusing the dominant position of its Android operating system to stifle competition

'Sweaty billboard' kills mosquitoes

A billboard that smells of human sweat and breath in order to attract and kill mosquitoes has been designed in Brazil.

EU gives companies two years to comply with sweeping new privacy laws

Companies could face massive fines in 25 European Union countries if they mishandle citizens' personal information, under a new privacy law due to take effect in 2018.

New age restrictions will mean no more Facebook or other social media for European pre-teens.

Today, fines for violations of EU data protection rules are typically limited to a few tens of thousands of euros, or hundreds of thousands in exceptional cases. That's hardly enough to upset companies such as Facebook or Google, which both reported billions of dollars in net income last year.

From 2018, though, data protection authorities will be able to impose fines of up to 4 percent of a company's worldwide revenue for breaches of the new privacy rules approved by the European Parliament on Thursday afternoon. For Google, the fine itself could now be in the billions of dollars. 

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Wednesday 20 April 2016

Chrome extensions will soon have to tell you what data they collect

Google is about to make it harder for Chrome extensions to collect your browsing data without letting you know about it, according to a new policy announced Friday.

Starting in mid-July, developers releasing Chrome extensions will have to comply with a new User Data Policy that governs how they collect, transmit and store private information. Extensions will have to encrypt personal and sensitive information, and developers will have to disclose their privacy policies to users.

Developers will also have to post a "prominent disclosure" when collecting sensitive data that isn't related to a prominent feature. That's important, because extensions have tremendous power to track users' browsing habits and then use that for nefarious purposes.

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Apple rebuts DOJ's appeal in N.Y. meth dealer's iPhone case

Apple last week opposed the Department of Justice’s renewed demand that it assist investigators in accessing a drug dealer’s iPhone, arguing that the government has not proved the company’s help is required.

“The government has utterly failed to satisfy its burden to demonstrate that Apple’s assistance in this case is necessary,” lawyers for the Cupertino company said in a brief (PDF) filed with a federal court in New York on Friday. “The government has made no showing that it has exhausted alternative means for extracting data from the iPhone at issue here, either by making a serious attempt to obtain the passcode from the individual defendant who set it in the first place ... or by consulting other government agencies and third parties known to the government.”

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Microsoft cites new EU personal data rules in support of email dispute

Microsoft has cited new European data protection rules in support of its claim that the U.S. government should use inter-governmental agreements rather than a warrant to force the technology company to provide emails stored in Ireland that are required for an investigation.

The General Data Protection Regulation was adopted last week by the European Parliament with an aim to provide an unified data protection regime across member states. It was earlier adopted by the Council of the EU, and is to come into effect in a little over two years after its publication in the EU Official Journal. The legislation will replace the EU Data Protection Directive, which dates back to 1995.

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Viber joins WhatsApp and Apple with end-to-end message encryption

Not wanting to be left behind in the pursuit of enhanced user security, Viber is adding end-to-end encryption (E2EE) following WhatsApp’s E2EE roll out earlier in April. Viber announced on Tuesday that E2EE would roll out to its users globally over the next two weeks. The new encryption will cover text, voice, and group chats, and will work across mobile and PC versions of Viber.

viberencryption

Viber with end-to-end encryption.

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How Nasa is helping businesses to be greener

Nasa is developing a number of sustainable technologies that could benefit companies back on Earth.

VIDEO: Tech helps to teach Malawi's children

From apps and tablets to a solar-powered projector helping to teach Malawi's schoolchildren

VIDEO: HDR: The next TV revolution

High Dynamic Range (HDR) is the latest picture boosting technology for our TV sets

VIDEO: Shakespeare's plays go virtual in new game

Play the Knave is a new motion capture video game developed in California that lets players act out scenes from Shakespeare's works.

VIDEO: Sweaty billboard could help fight Zika

A billboard that smells of human sweat and breath in order to attract and kill mosquitoes has been designed in Brazil.

Football club's website deleted

The website for Scottish League Cup winners Ross County is accidentally deleted, causing problems for the club selling tickets.

Outcry over Twitter's new China boss

The BBC's Stephen McDonell looks at the social media outcry over Twitter's new China boss - and what the fuss is all about.

Drones to be banned during Obama visit

Drones will be banned from flying in large parts of London during the visit of US President Barack Obama, aviation officials say.

UK phones only get 4G '53% of the time'

A new study into the use of 4G in the UK has found all four networks provide limited access to the service

Construction giant launches smartphone

Power-tool maker Dewalt has entered the smartphone market with a tough handset designed for construction workers

Intel to cut 12,000 jobs globally

Computer chip maker Intel says it is cutting 12,000 jobs - about 11% of its workforce - over the next 12 months.

Yahoo revenues and profits fall

Yahoo reports a fall in revenues and profits for the first three months of 2016, as the company reviews offers from potential bidders.

VIDEO: Would you buy a book from a vending machine?

Machine Supply creator Matt Webb explains the concept behind his vending machine that sells books.

Apple complies with US data demands

Apple's transparency reports show it consistently complies with a greater-than-average proportion of information requests from US authorities

Help! My building has been hacked

There are millions of buildings being connected to the net, which makes them vulnerable to cyber-attack, so should we be worried?

Friday 15 April 2016

Microsoft sues US government over secret requests for user data

Microsoft has sued the U.S. government in an attempt to strike down a law allowing judges to gag tech companies when law enforcement agencies want access to their users' data.

The lawsuit, filed Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington, argues that a section of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act is unconstitutional for requiring tech companies to keep requests for data under wraps. 

Microsoft argued the law is unconstitutional under the First Amendment, by limiting the company's freedom of speech, as well as under the Fourth Amendment's due process protections. 

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The wearable tech giving sports teams winning ways

How wearable tech is transforming the world of sport

VIDEO: The sphere drone that can deliver water

BBC Click's Stephen Beckett looks at some of the best of the week's technology news

VIDEO: Football star's biotechnology venture

Arsenal star Mathieu Flamini discusses his passion outside football, a biotechnology company that he runs.

Steel jobs 'can be saved by tech'

The UK steel industry is doomed unless it embraces cutting-edge technology, a Cambridge professor warns.

New Microsoft bot 'still learning'

Microsoft's latest bot, designed to describe the contents of photographs, says it is "still learning" after receiving mixed reviews online.

Apple 'abandons' QuickTime on Windows

Apple has stopped producing updates for its QuickTime media player software on Windows, according to security experts.

Pepper spray college 'hid web results'

The American university at the centre of a pepper spray row paid consultants more than $175,000 (£123,000) to bury online search results about the incident.

Doom free trial divides gamers

The studio behind classic shooter game Doom is inviting players to test the new version, Doom 4, for free from 15 to 17 April.

Cinema chain makes U-turn over texting

US cinema chain AMC changes its mind over allowing texting in some of its venues after its plan drew criticism online.

FBI reportedly bought exploit from hackers to access San Bernardino iPhone

The FBI reportedly paid professional hackers a one-time fee for a previously unknown vulnerability that allowed the agency to unlock the iPhone of San Bernardino shooter.

The exploit allowed the FBI to build a device capable of brute-forcing the iPhone’s PIN without triggering a security measure that would have wiped all of its data, the Washington Post reported Tuesday, citing unnamed sources familiar with the matter.

The hackers who provided the exploit to the FBI find software vulnerabilities and sometimes sell them to the U.S. government, the newspaper reported.

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EU plan to collect, not share, air traveler data is ‘absurd'

Air passengers entering or leaving the European Union will have their movements kept on file by police authorities from 2018 under draft legislation approved by the European Parliament.

Critics, however, say a lack of provisions to share the data severely limits the plan's usefulness.

Airlines running flights into or out of the EU must hand over the data to national Passenger Information Units (PIUs) that will hold the data for law enforcers. Member states may choose to gather data from travel agencies and to retain information about passengers on flights within the EU too.

However, there will be no centralized EU database of arriving and departing passengers, and no automatic sharing of data between the various national PIUs. With open land borders between countries in the Schengen Area, and no mandatory collection of information on intra-EU flights, it will be difficult for investigators to use the data to determine whether a person of interest is in the EU.

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More than 43,000 sign petition against U.S. encryption-breaking bill

More than 43,000 people have signed a petition against proposed U.S. legislation that would require tech companies to break into their users' encrypted data when ordered to by a judge.

The proposal, from Senators Richard Burr and Dianne Feinstein, would require smartphone OS developers and other tech vendors to assist law enforcement agencies by breaking their own security measures.

CREDO Action, a progressive activist group, launched a petition opposing the Compliance with Court Orders Act on Tuesday, and more than 43,000 people had signed it by early Thursday afternoon.

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VIDEO: Drone racing to become TV sport

American sports TV network ESPN says it will begin screening drone races this August.

VIDEO: Surgery live-streamed in virtual reality

The operation of a patient undergoing surgery for colon cancer is streamed-live using virtual reality video.

Culloden battlefield laser-scanned

The Culloden battlefield site is being scanned to provide a detailed model of the landscape 270 years on from the Jacobites' final stand.

Implant lets paralysed man 'play guitar'

In a world first, a quadriplegic man can once again move his own fingers after a chip was implanted in his brain.

Army Reserve targets social media users

In a bid to recruit more part-time soldiers, the Army Reserve releases details of a survey showing young people spend more than three hours a day on social media and gaming.

Music streaming boosts sales of vinyl

Almost half of the people who bought a vinyl record in the last 12 months did so after hearing it on a streaming site like YouTube or SoundCloud, new research shows.

Apple probably won’t find out how the FBI hacked the San Bernardino iPhone

The strange tale of the San Bernardino iPhone seems like it’s almost over, although it touched off a national debate about encryption that’s just getting started. Apple probably won’t find out what method was used by the third-party firm that broke into the iPhone 5c used by shooter Syed Rizwan Farook, reports Reuters.

The government says that the unidentified international firm that did the hack has legal ownership of the method, so while the FBI got the data it wanted, it’s unable to disclose the method to Apple. There’s actually a system in place, known as the Vulnerabilities Equities Process, that’s designed to evaluate flaws discovered by the government’s own agencies to determine if they should be disclosed to the technology companies who can patch them, or if the vulnerabilities can remain secret to be used by the NSA, FBI, or other agencies.

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Wednesday 13 April 2016

'Your face is big data:' The title of this photographer's experiment says it all

Got privacy? You may think you do, but a recent experiment by a Russian photographer suggests otherwise.

In a project entitled, “Your face is big data,” Rodchenko Art School student Egor Tsvetkov began by photographing about 100 people who happened to sit across from him on the subway at some point. He then used FindFace, a facial-recognition app that taps neural-network technology, to try to track them down on Russian social media site VK.

It was ridiculously easy to find 60 to 70 percent of the subjects aged between 18 and 35 or so, he found, although for older people it was more difficult.

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EU privacy regulators: Commission ‘could do better’ on Privacy Shield

The Privacy Shield trans-Atlantic data transfer arrangement is better than its predecessor, Safe Harbor, but still not good enough, European Union data protection authorities said Wednesday.

They want the European Commission improve the deal it has negotiated with U.S. authorities to ensure that EU citizens' personal information receives privacy protection equivalent to that of EU law when it is exported to the U.S.

The authorities have been examining Privacy Shield since it was unveiled in February, and announced the results of their study Wednesday.

The deal is too complex, they say, as it is composed of a collection of legal instruments, letters and annexes rather than a single, easily understandable document.

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VIDEO: Your face is big data

A Russian photographer proves how easy it is to be tracked down on social media.

VIDEO: Facebook's Zuckerberg bets on bots

Mark Zuckerberg believes the public will prefer chatting to bots rather than communicating with online services via apps or over the phone.

VIDEO: Facebook reveals Surround 360 camera

Facebook reveals a high-end virtual reality camera that captures 360-degree footage in three dimensions.

VIDEO: Facebook takes steps to stop bot abuse

Facebook says it is taking steps to prevent hackers taking advantage of its new shop-by-bots facility on Messenger.

Drone woe Madeley hails 'Twitterpower'

TV's Richard Madeley hails "Twitterpower" after taking to the social media site to tackle a "peeping Tom" drone operator.

Gaming blamed for rail crash error

A German train controller was distracted by a computer game seconds before a fatal rail crash in February, prosecutors believe.

Uber issues first transparency report

Uber has joined some of tech giants in issuing a transparency report but concentrates on data shared with regulators.

Build your own house via the internet

We all crave a home at a price we can afford in a place we want to live. Now technology is helping to make that become a reality.

EU to harvest more air passenger data

The EU plans to give police more powers to see airline passenger details, in a major counter-terrorism initiative.

EU watchdogs reject Safe Harbour fix

Privacy watchdogs say changes must be made to a proposed EU-US data transfer pact meant to replace the Safe Harbour agreement.

Online scams 'target Apple customers'

Cybercriminals target people using Apple products as they are more likely to have disposable income, a security researcher warns.

Tuesday 12 April 2016

How monitoring behaviour could unmask the fraudsters

The tech making online banking safer and easier

VIDEO: A wearable personal cinema system

From a personal cinema system headset to a retro games console - Tommy Sandhu looks at some of the latest travel gadgets

VIDEO: How graphene could change cycling

Why adding graphene to bicycle tyres makes them stronger and lighter with more grip

ID data losses hit 500 million in 2015

More than 500 million digital identities were stolen or exposed in 2015, suggests a report from security firm Symantec.

HTC 10 phone combats shaky selfies

HTC unveils a smartphone, which is the first to feature front-camera optical image stabilisation tech to reduce the chances of blurred selfies.

US considers 'breathalysers for phones'

New York legislators consider introducing technology that can analyse whether a phone was being used by a driver in an accident.

Hello, I am BBCTechbot. How can I help?

Chatbots are on the rise but what are they and why is everyone talking about them?

Microsoft endorses EU-US Privacy Shield data sharing pact

Microsoft is throwing its weight behind the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield agreement, which is intended to safeguard the privacy of European Union citizens when their personal information is exported to the U.S. for processing.

But a document leaked late last week suggests the proposed agreement does not have the backing of EU data protection authorities, who are meeting this week to finalize their position on it.

Microsoft will seek approval to conduct data transfers under the agreement, its Vice President for EU Government Affairs, John Frank, wrote in a blog post Monday.

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Monday 11 April 2016

VIDEO: TomTom boss: 'You can go 100mph'

Harold Goddijn, chief executive and cofounder of TomTom, offers the business advice he wishes he had been given when he started out, for the BBC News series CEO Secrets.

VIDEO: Is this the world's safest helicopter?

An 18-rotor multicopter, designed to be safer than a traditional helicopter, takes its first manned flight in Germany.

O2-Three tie-up risks 'long-term damage'

The planned merger of UK mobile networks O2 and Three should be blocked or severely restricted by the EU to prevent serious damage, the UK competition regulator says.

Philippines elections hack 'leaks data'

The Philippines may have suffered its worst-ever government data breach barely a month before its national elections.

Blackberry to launch two Android phones

Blackberry will launch two mid-range Android handsets this year, chief executive John Chen says.

Petya ransomware encryption cracked

Anyone hit by the Petya ransomware virus can now recover their scrambled files without paying.

Why would anyone want to buy Yahoo?

The Daily Mail's owner says it is considering a bid for Yahoo - but why would anyone want to buy the tech giant?

Sunday 10 April 2016

Whatsapp adds end-to-end encryption

Facebook-owned messaging app Whatsapp heightens security for information sent through the service.

Phishing email that knows your address

BBC Radio 4's team investigate a new phishing scam which entices users to click on malware by claiming they owe money to UK firms.

Computer paints 'new Rembrandt'

A team of technologists working with Microsoft and others produce a 3D-printed painting in the style of Dutch master Rembrandt.

Huawei P9 uses dual-cam tech to refocus

Huawei unveils a dual-camera smartphone that can refocus photos after they have been taken.

FBI shuns call to reveal hacking tools

The FBI is resisting calls to reveal how it identified people who used a child pornography site on the Tor anonymising network.

Saturday 9 April 2016

Unsealed court order shows Apple was ordered to unlock a phone in Boston too

We already knew about San Bernardino and Brooklyn, but according to court documents unsealed on Friday, Apple’s legal struggle with the FBI includes a case in Boston, too.

The Massachusetts chapter of the ACLU was successful in getting the documents unsealed after filing a motion in court. The ACLU is undertaking a nationwide project to uncover information about All Writs Act warrants being issued “to attempt to conscript Apple or Google to break into personal electronic devices.” So far they’ve found more than 60 cases in 20 states, stretching back to 2008.

The ACLU’s legal director, Matthew Segal, said in a statement:

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US to push for access to NY iPhone

The US Department of Justice is to pursue its request for Apple to help unlock an iPhone that is part of a drugs case in New York.

Samsung forecasts 10% jump in profits

South Korea's electronics giant is forecasting a 10% jump in first quarter operating profit compared with the same time last year.

How to make money hunting cyber bugs

As the US government prepares for its first bug bounty programme, meet the bug hunters making money from finding cybersecurity weaknesses.

Setback for Playboy in hyperlinks case

A top EU lawyer says a website did not break the law by linking to Playboy photographs that had been re-published on another site without permission.

Video game Olympics announced for Rio

A new eGames international gaming tournament will make its debut in Rio during this summer's Olympic Games.

Volvo plans China driverless car tests

Swedish carmaker Volvo has said it plans to launch a self-driving experiment in China involving up to 100 cars.

Messaging app Kik opens chatbot store

Messaging app Kik is opening a kind of app store for robots, betting on a future when users chat to automated machines.

Friday 8 April 2016

Oculus Rift privacy policy prompts lawmaker concern

As if summoned by the Bat-Signal, U.S. Senator Al Franken is seeking answers on Oculus’ privacy policies after some users expressed concerns.

Gizmodo rounded up some of those concerns last week, noting that Oculus Rift’s privacy policy allows the company to gather information on users’ locations, physical movements, and interactions with games and services. The policy notes that Oculus may use that information for marketing and promotional purposes.

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VR and sport: What is the reality?

What is the reality?

How old banks are learning from a new breed of tech start-ups

How old banks are learning from a new breed of tech start-ups

VIDEO: Dara O Briain on Bafta games awards

The host of the Bafta games awards discusses some of the titles nominated at 2016's ceremony.

VIDEO: Batman: Arkham Knight is top British game

Adam Doherty, Sefton Hill and Nathan Burlow from Rocksteady Studios speak about Batman: Arkham Knight winning best British game at 2016's British Academy Games Award.

VIDEO: Doom creator honoured with Bafta

The creator of Doom, Wolfenstein 3D and Quake is honoured with a Bafta fellowship at the academy's games awards.

VIDEO: Fallout 4: Bafta win 'unexpected'

US games developer Bethesda is caught by surprise as it wins 2016's best game prize at the Bafta awards.

VIDEO: 3D-printed 'Rembrandt' painting

BBC Click's Marc Cieslak looks at some of the best of the week's technology news

NCT parent details hit by data breach

A childbirth charity apologises to 15,000 expectant parents after registration details were accessed in a "data breach".

Thai police probe royals Line stickers

Thai police are investigating the release of a set of icons on messaging app Line, now withdrawn, which depicted the royal family.

Fallout 4 wins best game at Baftas

Fallout 4 wins best game at 2016's British Academy Games Awards.

Martha Lane Fox to join Twitter board

Digital pioneer Martha Lane Fox tweets that she will be joining the board of Twitter.

'Hack' puts explicit show on US radio

The producers of an explicit "furry" podcast say they are "deeply sorry" after it was broadcast on several US radio stations in an apparent hack.

Thursday 7 April 2016

FBI says hack tool only works on iPhone 5c

Only the iPhone 5c running iOS 9 can be unlocked by the tool the FBI bought to crack the iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino killers.

The tool does not work on the iPhone 5s or 6, so it only addresses a “narrow slice” of iPhones, Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey said late Wednesday at Kenyon College.

The government is considering whether it should disclose to Apple the flaw that aided the hack: “We just haven’t decided yet,” he said at the Ohio college’s Center for the Study of American Democracy.

A court in California ordered Apple to help the FBI to hack by brute force the passcode of the iPhone 5c. The government was concerned that, if an auto-erase feature was activated on the phone, the data that the FBI was looking for would be automatically erased after 10 unsuccessful attempts, so it wanted a workaround from Apple.

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The murder victim and the media blackout

How Facebook posts disrupted a murder trial

VIDEO: Liquid-pumped robot made by 3D printer

Robotics researchers in the US develop a new technique to build working robots using a 3D printer.

VIDEO: A show driven by artificial intelligence

A new dance production, Pattern Recognition, will make use of artificial intelligence to drive the latest motion sensing technology

VIDEO: Sinclair sale: 30 years anniversary

A look back at the events that led British computer-maker Sinclair to sell out to its rival Amstrad 30 years ago.

VIDEO: Rapture game leads pack at Bafta awards

An indie title - Everybody's Gone to the Rapture - is the frontrunner at this year's British Academy Games Awards after securing 10 nominations.

Suspect 'tried to flee by hoverboard'

A Florida man suspected of a drug offence tried to flee from US police on his hoverboard, an affidavit seen by the BBC says.

ZTE shares tumble as trading resumes

Shares in Chinese telecom equipment maker ZTE slide in Hong Kong, as they resume trading after a one-month suspension.

Wednesday 6 April 2016

Is world's greenest office also smart?

The Edge has been given the highest ever marks for sustainability but is its radical technology helping workers?

VIDEO: An app-controlled 'day at the office'

Alexandre Janssen shows how a smartphone gives him a highly personalised day at the office, at The Edge building in Amsterdam.

VIDEO: Tech measures how hard you exercise

BBC Click's Lara Lewington looks at some of the latest wearable technology

VIDEO: Huawei phone uses Leica camera tech

Huawei launches a smartphone that it co-engineered with the camera specialist Leica, promising high quality photos that can be refocused after being snapped.

China's 'Great Firewall' blocks creator

Fang Binxing bypasses his own system after it blocks website access during a speech.

Drones to catch Dubai litterbugs

Waste management team says using drones to monitor beaches and campsites will save time.

Dog microchipping law brings fines risk

Dog owners who have not had their pets microchipped could face a fine of up to £500, as a new law comes into force across Britain.

Panama Papers firm 'victim of hack'

A partner at the Panamanian law firm at the centre of a huge leak of confidential financial data says it has been the victim of a hack.

Tuesday 5 April 2016

Quantum computing: Game changer or security threat?

The pros and cons of superfast computing in the world of finance

VIDEO: The eagle that chases drones

BBC Click's Lara Lewington looks at a low-tech solution for bringing troublesome drones down to earth

Facebook lets blind people 'see' photos

As the internet becomes a picture-led domain, Facebook launches a service for visually impaired people to 'see' photos using artificial intelligence.

Barclays joins Apple Pay in UK

Barclays becomes the last of the UK's major banks to support the digital wallet service Apple Pay.

Wiki art map 'violated copyright'

A website documenting public artwork in Sweden violates copyright laws, the country's supreme court rules.

PS4 gamer given bespoke controller

A 22-year-old computer gamer with cerebral palsy has received a Playstation controller especially adapted for him by Sony.

What is a warrant canary?

A warrant canary is a statement saying a company has not received secret requests for user data by government or law enforcement agencies.

Tesla blames 'hubris' for part delays

Tesla blames over-engineering of its Model X electric car for delays in getting them to consumers.

Monday 4 April 2016

Obstacles to 'coding while black'

Exposing the real problems that keep minorities out of tech

VIDEO: Could a drone help spot landmines?

Scientists from Bristol University have developed a ground-breaking way to try and detect landmines.

Tesla Model 3 orders total 276,000

Tesla chief executive Elon Musk says pre-orders of its much-anticipated Model 3 electric car currently total 276,000.

Crypto-challenge: the answers

If you want to know the answers to the crypto-challenges we set last week, help is at hand.

Taliban app removed from Google store

A new app for Android phones created by Islamist fundamentalist group the Taliban has been removed from the app store.

Movie studios attack revenge porn law

The Motion Picture Association of America opposes draft "revenge porn" legislation that is being considered in the US state of Minnesota.

Oculus offers shipping refund

Facebook-owned Virtual Reality firm Oculus is offering shipping refunds on all pre-ordered devices following delays.

Saturday 2 April 2016

From punch cards to smartphones

The Briton who almost invented the floppy disk in the 50s

VIDEO: The world of tiny architecture

Rebecca Roke celebrates the world of miniature architecture in her new book, Nanotecture: Tiny Built Things.

Google April Fool prank sparks backlash

Google removes an April Fool's Gmail button which sent a comical animated gif to recipients after reports of people getting into trouble with their employers.

Tesla launches 'affordable' Model 3

Tesla unveils its much-anticipated Model 3 electric car saying it will cost $35,000 and have a range of at least 215 miles (346km) per charge.

Friday 1 April 2016

FCC votes for strict new broadband privacy rules

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission has taken a major step toward new regulations requiring ISPs to get customer permission before using or sharing their Web-surfing history and other personal information.

The FCC voted 3-2 Thursday to approve a notice of proposed rule-making, or NPRM, the first step toward passing new regulations, over the objections of the commission’s two Republicans.

The proposed rules, which will now be released for public comment, require ISPs to get opt-in permission from customers if they want to use their personal information for most reasons besides marketing their own products.

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Does 'pay by app' mean an end to shopping queues?

How 'pay by app' could transform the way we buy stuff

VIDEO: The ship that sails without a crew

BBC Click's Marc Cieslak looks at some of the best of the week's technology news

VIDEO: Meet Ronald, Apple's third co-founder

Many know the story of Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak - but could you name Apple's third co-founder?

VIDEO: 40 years of Apple in just over a minute

BBC Rewind looks back at Apple's highs and lows as the tech firm marks its 40th anniversary.

VIDEO: Tesla reveals Model 3 electric car

Tesla unveils its much-anticipated Model 3 electric car, which it hopes will take the company from loss to profit.

Huawei's profits up more than 30%

Chinese tech giant Huawei sees its profits jump 33% in the full year to December boosted by demand for its consumer products.

Blackberry squeezed as sales slump

Blackberry sales fall by almost $200m in the three months to February in a bigger-than-expected slide that sent shares down almost 8%.

English clubs to get free stadium wi-fi

England's Football League says free wi-fi for a set of official apps will be made available at Championship, League One and League Two stadiums.

Reddit kills snooping 'warrant canary'

Reddit removes a 'warrant canary', stating it has not received secret data snooping requests, from its transparency report.

Uber 'price-fixing' lawsuit to go ahead

A federal judge in the US refuses to throw out a lawsuit alleging that Uber's chief executive conspired with drivers to fix the cost of rides.