Facebook Secretly Pays Users For Complete Access To Their Data

Photo: TechSpot

According to TechCrunch, Facebook has been paying teenagers around $20 a month to use a VPN app called "Facebook Research" that allowed the company full access to all of their phone and web activity. 

The app appears to be a reincarnation of Onavo Protect, a Facebook app that was pulled last year due to Apple's privacy objections. 

As "Facebook Research" seems to have the same features as Onavo, this would appear to be in violation of Apple's privacy policies as well. 

Facebook has admitted to TechCrunch that the app exists, and that its purpose was to gain insight on usage habits. 

According to TechCrunch, the program has been in distribution since 2016, and has been referred to as "Project Atlas" starting in mid-2018.

Instead of downloading the app through the App Store or via Apple's own TestFlight beta testing program, users were getting it through three different beta testing services: BetaBound, uTest and Applause. 

Those three services specifically ran ads on Instagram and Snapchat targeting a demographic of those ages 13-35, saying that it was a "paid social media research study." When signing up for the app, minors are prompted to ask parental permission via a form. 

One of the forms reads: "There are no known risks associated with the project, however you acknowledge that the inherent nature of the project involves tracking of personal information via your child's use of apps."

Here's the text from a disclaimer when users download the Facebook Research app from Applause (procured by TechCrunch):

"By installing the software, you're giving our client permission to collect data from your phone that will help them understand how you browse the internet, and how you use the features in the apps you've installed ... 

This means you're letting our client collect information such as which apps are on your phone, how and when you use them, data about your activities and content within those apps, as well as how other people interact with you or your content within those apps. 

You are also letting our client collect information about your internet browsing activity (including the websites you visit and data is exchanged between your device and those websites) and your use of other online services. 

There are some instances when our client will collect this information even where the app uses encryption, or from within secure browser sessions."

According to a Will Strafach, a security expert commissioned by TechCrunch, the level of access that the Facebook Research app provided could lead to the company collecting all manner of data that includes private messages, instant messaging chats that include photos and videos, emails, web activity and even location information.

Rather than downloading the app from Apple, users would download it from a separate Facebook URL, told to install an Enterprise Developer Certificate, and allow the company root access to their phone. 

One program from Applause even asked users to provide screenshots of their Amazon order history. If users kept the VPN running and sent the data to Facebook, they would get paid via e-gift certificates.

Facebook has acknowledge the existence of this program to TechCrunch: "Like many companies, we invite people to participate in research that helps us identify things we can be doing better. 

Since this research is aimed at helping Facebook understand how people use their mobile devices, we've provided extensive information about the type of data we collect and how they can participate. 

We don't share this information with others and people can stop participating at any time."

According to the Facebook spokesperson, the company is not in violation of Apple's rules, as the app was distributed inline with Apple's Enterprise Certificate program. 

But as the Certificate program is primarily for internal developer use and not as a public beta where users would get paid, it's not clear if this is true.

Source: TechCrunch

World's Largest Digital Sky Survey Issues Biggest Astronomical Data Release Ever

Photo: HubbleSite

Pan-STARRS releases 1.6 petabytes of data from its four-year survey

Data from the world's largest digital sky survey is being publicly released today (28 JAN 2019) by the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, Maryland, in conjunction with the University of Hawai’i Institute for Astronomy in Honolulu, Hawaii. 

Data from the Pan-STARRS1 Surveys will allow anyone to access millions of images and use the database and catalogs containing precision measurements of billions of stars and galaxies. 

This data release contains over 1.6 petabytes of data (a petabyte is one million gigabytes), making it the largest volume of astronomical information ever released. 

The survey data resides in the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes (MAST), which serves as NASA's repository for all of its optical and ultraviolet-light observations.


The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, Maryland, in conjunction with the University of Hawai'i Institute for Astronomy (IfA), is releasing the second edition of data from Pan-STARRS — the Panoramic Survey Telescope & Rapid Response System — the world's largest digital sky survey. 

This second release contains over 1.6 petabytes of data (a petabyte is 1015 bytes or one million gigabytes), making it the largest volume of astronomical information ever released. 

The amount of imaging data is equivalent to two billion selfies, or 30,000 times the total text content of Wikipedia. The catalog data is 15 times the volume of the Library of Congress.

The Pan-STARRS observatory consists of a 1.8-meter telescope equipped with a 1.4-billion-pixel digital camera, located at the summit of Haleakalā, on Maui. 
Conceived and developed by the IfA, it embarked on a digital survey of the sky in visible and near-infrared light in May 2010. Pan-STARRS was the first survey to observe the entire sky visible from Hawai'i multiple times in many colors of light. 

One of the survey's goals was to identify moving, transient, and variable objects, including asteroids that could potentially threaten the Earth. The survey took approximately four years to complete, scanning the sky 12 times in five filters. 

This second data release provides, for the first time, access to all of the individual exposures at each epoch of time. 

This will allow astronomers and public users of the archive to search the full survey for high-energy explosive events in the cosmos, discover moving objects in our own solar system, and explore the time domain of the universe.

Dr. Heather Flewelling, a researcher at the Institute for Astronomy in Hawai'i, and a key designer of the PS1 database, stated that “Pan-STARRS DR2 represents a vast quantity of astronomical data, with many great discoveries already unveiled. 

These discoveries just barely scratch the surface of what is possible, however, and the astronomy community will now be able to dig deep, mine the data, and find the astronomical treasures within that we have not even begun to imagine.”

“We put the universe in a box and everyone can take a peek,” said database engineer Conrad Holmberg.

The four years of data comprise 3 billion separate sources, including stars, galaxies, and various other objects. This research program was undertaken by the PS1 Science Consortium — a collaboration among 10 research institutions in four countries, with support from NASA and the National Science Foundation (NSF). 

Consortium observations for the sky survey were completed in April 2014. The initial Pan-STARRS public data release occurred in December 2016, but included only the combined data and not the individual exposures at each epoch of time.

“The Pan-STARRS1 Survey allows anyone access to millions of images and catalogs containing precision measurements of billions of stars, galaxies, and moving objects,” said Dr Ken Chambers, Director of the Pan-STARRS Observatories. 

“While searching for Near Earth Objects, Pan-STARRS has made many discoveries from ‘Oumuamua passing through our solar system to lonely planets between the stars; it has mapped the dust in three dimensions in our galaxy and found new streams of stars; and it has found new kinds of exploding stars and distant quasars in the early universe. We hope people will discover all kinds of things we missed in this incredibly large and rich dataset.”

The Space Telescope Science Institute hosts the storage hardware, the computers that handle the database queries, and the user-friendly interfaces to access the data. 

The survey data resides in the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes (MAST), which serves as NASA's repository for all of its optical and ultraviolet-light observations, some of which date to the early 1970s. 

It includes all of the observational data from such space astrophysics missions as Hubble, Kepler, GALEX, and a wide variety of other telescopes, as well as several all-sky surveys. Pan-STARRS marks the nineteenth mission to be archived in MAST.

The Pan-STARRS1 Surveys and its science archive have been made possible through contributions by the Institute for Astronomy, the University of Hawai'i, the Pan-STARRS Project Office, the Max-Planck Society and its participating institutes, the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, Heidelberg and the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, Garching, the Johns Hopkins University, Durham University, the University of Edinburgh, the Queen's University Belfast, the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard and Smithsonian (CfA), the Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network Incorporated, the National Central University of Taiwan, 

the Space Telescope Science Institute, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration under Grant No. NNX08AR22G issued through the Planetary Science Division of the NASA Science Mission Directorate, the National Science Foundation Grant No. AST-1238877, the University of Maryland, Eōtvōs Loránd University (ELTE), the Los Alamos National Laboratory, and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.

SOURCE: hubblesite.org

Google Assistant May Scan Your Face To Personalize Commands

MakeUseOf

Google might soon have an alternative to voice matching when you want to use Assistant to get personalized results. 

The latest beta for Android's Google app includes code references to a previously hinted-at Face Match feature that, as the name implies, would scan your visage to provide tailored commands on camera-equipped devices. 

While there isn't a detailed description, you'd have to both train the system and could add multiple devices. 

Your face profile wouldn't be limited to one gadget, which some companies do in the name of security.

You could also invite other people to create profiles.

There's no clue as to when Face Match might launch, assuming it launches in the first place. The absence of imagery and other content implies that it might not arrive for a while. 

It could make sense, though. So long as your device has a camera (no Home Hub users need apply), you could view sensitive info or issue commands without having to create a voice profile. 

This might also be an accessibility feature -- people who can't speak could still get a customized, private experience in a multi-user household.

SOURCE: ENDGADGET

Lombok Set To Be Next Hub For AirAsia

Photo: Tribun Travel - Tribunnews.com

AirAsia is looking to turn Lombok into its next major hub, with plans to launch services to Perth, Yogyakarta and Denpasar by mid-year.

The budget carrier group states that the announcement of its hub plan follows a series of discussions on Lombok’s recovery from the 2018 earthquake, along with Indonesia’s plans to develop more tourist destinations across the archipelago.

“In the next few months, we will be working with airports and government authorities to turn Lombok into our newest hub in Indonesia, making this commitment a reality,” says AirAsia Group chief executive Tony Fernandes.

In support of that goal, Indonesia AirAsia plans to base two Airbus A320s at Lombok, which will allow it to double its services to Kuala Lumpur, in addition to the new routes flagged.

FlightGlobal schedules data shows that Lombok International airport is connected to 13 domestic destiantions, and to Kuala Lumpur and Singapore.

AirAsia operates the daily Kuala Lumpur service, and SilkAir the thrice-weekly flights to Singapore.

“As an idyllic destination, Lombok has so much potential,” says Indonesia AirAsia chief Dendy Kurniawan.

“We know that when we combine our resources and work with the tourism industry on marketing and public relations initiatives, we’re able to expand the market and drive greater demand for destination Lombok.”

SOURCE: : FLIGHT DASHBOARD

Huawei Launches 5G Multi-mode Chipset and 5G CPE Pro

Photo: HUAWEI

Huawei officially launched its 5G multi-mode chipset Balong 5000 on 24 January – along with the first commercial 5G device powered by it, the Huawei 5G CPE Pro. 

Together, these two new products provide the world's fastest wireless connections for your smartphone, your home, the office, and on the go.

Balong 5000 officially unlocks the 5G era. This chipset supports a broad range of 5G products in addition to smartphones, including home broadband devices, vehicle-mounted devices, and 5G modules. It will provide consumers with a brand new 5G experience across multiple scenarios.

"The Balong 5000 will open up a whole new world to consumers," said the CEO of Huawei's Consumer Business Group, Richard Yu. 

"It will enable everything to sense, and will provide the high-speed connections needed for pervasive intelligence. 

Powered by the Balong 5000, the Huawei 5G CPE Pro enables consumers to access networks more freely and enjoy an incredibly fast connected experience. 

Huawei has an integrated set of capabilities across chips, devices, cloud services, and networks. 

Building on these strengths, as the leader of the 5G era, we will bring an inspired, intelligent experience to global consumers in every aspect of their lives."

Balong 5000: Ushering in the 5G era

HUAWEI launches 5G multi-mode chipset and 5G CPE Pro
Huawei launches the world's first single-chip multi-mode modem

With a small form factor and high degree of integration, Balong 5000 supports 2G, 3G, 4G, and 5G on a single chip. 

It effectively reduces latency and power consumption when exchanging data between different modes, and will significantly enhance user experience in the early stages of commercial 5G deployment. Balong 5000 marks a significant step forward for the Balong series of chipsets.

Balong 5000 is the first chipset to perform to industry benchmarks for peak 5G download speeds. At Sub-6 GHz (low-frequency bands, the main spectrum used for 5G), Balong 5000 can achieve download speeds up to 4.6 Gbps. On mmWave spectrum (high-frequency bands used as extended spectrum for 5G), Balong 5000 can achieve download speeds up to 6.5 Gbps – 10 times faster than top 4G LTE speeds on the market today.

Balong 5000 is also the world's first chipset that supports both standalone (SA) and non-standalone (NSA) network architectures for 5G.

 With non-standalone, 5G network architecture is built on top of legacy 4G LTE networks, whereas standalone 5G, as the name implies, will have its own independent architecture. 

Balong 5000 can flexibly meet different user and carrier requirements for connecting devices throughout different stages of 5G development.

Balong 5000 is the world's first multi-mode chipset that supports Vehicle to Everything (V2X) communications, providing low-latency and highly reliable solutions for connected vehicles. Huawei's 5G smartphones powered by Balong 5000 will be released at this year's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

Huawei 5G CPE Pro: Changing user experiences in home broadband networks

HUAWEI launches 5G multi-mode chipset and 5G CPE Pro
The Huawei 5G CPE Pro achieves a high speed of 3.2 Gbps in live network tests

Powered by Balong 5000, the Huawei 5G CPE Pro supports both 4G and 5G wireless connections. On a 5G network, a 1-GB HD video clip can be downloaded within three seconds, and 8K video can be streamed smoothly without lag. 

This sets a new benchmark for home CPEs. In addition to homes, the Huawei 5G CPE Pro can also be used by small and medium-sized enterprises for super-fast broadband access.

Adopting new Wi-Fi 6 technology, the Huawei 5G CPE Pro delivers speeds of up to 4.8 Gbps. It is the first 5G CPE that supports HUAWEI HiLink protocols, bringing smart homes into the 5G era.

As a 5G pioneer, Huawei began research and development in 5G as early as 2009, and is currently the industry's only vendor that can provide end-to-end 5G systems. 

Huawei has more than 5700 engineers dedicated to 5G R&D, including over 500 5G experts. In total, Huawei has established 11 joint innovation centers for 5G solutions worldwide.

SOURCE: HUAWEI

Facebook Will Shut Down Moments Photo App On February 25th

Photo: YouTube

Did you use Facebook's Moments app to handle and share your social network photos? No? You're not the only one. 

Facebook has informed CNET that it's shutting down the Moments app on February 25th, partly because there weren't enough people using it. 

If you have a collection you'd like to keep, you can visit a special website before May 2019 to export your photos and videos either as a private Facebook album or as a download.

This doesn't mark the end to everything Moments represented. Facebook's Rushabh Doshi said the company would "continue offering ways to save memories" within its main app. 

However, it does signal the end to Facebook's most direct attempt to compete with Google Photos, which offers numerous comparable features like automatic movie generation from snapshots.

The shutdown also exemplifies a recurring problem for Facebook: it has trouble getting users to embrace apps beyond its core offerings. 

Paper, Lifestage and acquired apps like tbh have all closed down in recent years, and frequently due to low usage. 

And it's not clear that Facebook can convince users to change their habits. Most activity on Facebook involves either the main app or Messenger, and there isn't much incentive to venture further than that.

Source: CNET, Moments Export

Huawei Eyes Smartphone Supremacy This Year After Record 2018 Sales

Photo Credit: CTV News

BEIJING/HONG KONG: China's Huawei Technologies Co Ltd on Thursday said it could become the world's biggest-selling smartphone vendor this year even without the U.S. market and as global scrutiny of the firm intensifies.

The bullish forecast contrasts with those of market-leader Samsung and other rivals such as Apple Inc, both of which have flagged weakening sales in China - the largest smartphone market where demand has long been slowing, and where economic growth is at its lowest pace in nearly three decades.

It comes as the United States and its allies restrict market access for Huawei, alleging its products could be used by China for espionage. Huawei has said the allegation is unfounded.

Meanwhile, the firm's chief financial officer - the founder's daughter - has been arrested in Canada in relation to U.S. sanctions violations. Huawei has denied wrongdoing.

"Our customers have trust and confidence in us," Richard Yu, Huawei's consumer division chief, said at a new-product news conference in Beijing. "It's only politics guys which are trying to put pressure on us."

The maker of telecommunications equipment, spanning aerials to handsets, reported a 50 percent jump in consumer business revenue last year to in excess of US$52 billion. It said it aimed to keep the momentum with the launch next month of a foldable smartphone powered by its new fifth-generation (5G) chipset.

The jump meant the consumer business accounted for 48 percent of total revenue, contributing more than Huawei's business for telecoms network providers for the first time.

"Even without the U.S. market we will be number one in the world," Yu said, referring to Huawei's smartphone division, which shipped 208 million handsets last year. "I believe at the earliest this year, and next year at the latest."

Worldwide smartphone shipments likely fell 3 percent last year, returning to low single-digit growth this year and through 2022, when 5G mobile network technology is likely to give the industry a boost, showed forecasts from consultancy IDC.

Yu said Huawei will launch the foldable phone at the Mobile World Congress next month with sales beginning in April at the earliest. He said its Balong 5000 chipset, a rival to Qualcomm Inc's Snapdragon X50, is the world's most powerful 5G modem and can be used in vehicles. The modem is also the first to support countries' differing 5G architecture, Huawei said.

Huawei uses its own chipsets in its high-end phones and servers but said it does not intend to become a standalone chip vendor to rival the likes of Qualcomm and Intel Corp.

Huawei also introduced a 5G base station chipset, dubbed Tiangang. Carrier business chief Ryan Ding said Huawei has won 30 5G contracts, including 18 in Europe, nine in the Middle East and three in the Asia-Pacific region.

SOURCE: REUTERS