Now you can see why
you’re targeted by
Facebook ads
INCREASED TR ANSPARENCY
FOLLOWS CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA
LEAK.
In March this year, Facebook released a tool
called “Why am I seeing this?”, which allowed
users to take a deeper look at the ads they
were being shown and the reason they were
being targeted. The service was created
in response to the public outcry following
events like the Cambridge Analytica scandal,
which raised concerns about the abuse of
user data by giant tech companies and the
lack of privacy that it entails.
Today, Facebook has announced that
it’s further improved the tool, claiming to
have increased the amount of transparency
offered overall. This includes much more
intricate detail on the reason for being
targeted, a clearer list of the companies that
own and sell your data, and a direct link to a
page where you can change your targeting
preferences, including the ability to opt out
entirely in certain instances.
In order to view which marketing
companies and data brokers have your
information and are selling it to advertisers,
head to Settings > Ads > Advertisers and
Businesses > “Who have uploaded and shared
a list with your info”.Nvidia quietly patches
Tegra exploit
REMAINS CAGEY ON EXACT
DETAILS OF VULNER ABILITY.
Nvidia released a security update for
the Jetson TX1 in the Tegra Linux Driver
Package (L4T) on July 18. The associated
security bulletin offered precious few details
about what Nvidia fixed, but on GitHub, a
researcher named Triszka Balázs revealed
that the company was patching a flaw that
enabled malicious code execution on “every
single Tegra device released so far” via what
he called the Selfblow exploit.Microsoft plans Windows
Defender rebrand
EXPANDING TO COVER MORE
PLATFORMS.
Windows Defender and most of its
associated services will be rebranded to
Microsoft Defender when Windows 10 20H
is released early next year, according to
gHacks. The theory is that Microsoft wants
to change Windows Defender’s name so it’s
no longer associated solely with Windows.
This would allow Defender to be expanded
to Android, iOS and Linux, say gHacks.technotes » need to know
Huawei CEO claims firm’s own
mobile OS will be faster than
iOS and Android
BUT APPS COULD BE A STICKING POINT.Huawei CEO, Ren Zhengfei, has said that the company’s home-grown mobile
operating system (OS) will be faster than both iOS and Android... but it could
struggle when it comes to apps. Zhengfei made the claim during an interview
with French magazine Le Point, and the Huawei chief remains bullish about
his company’s chances in the market, no matter the long-term outcome of the
current US-China trade war. It’s no secret that Huawei is working on its own
OS, which it could employ on smartphones if the US follows through with its
Huawei ban, a ban which would see the
Chinese manufacturer lose access to Google’s
vital Android services such as the Play Store,
security updates and suite of Google apps.
While Huawei’s HongMeng OS (also known as
Ark OS) may run faster than the software
found on rival devices, Zhengfei admitted that
it may struggle when it comes to apps. In the
past few years we’ve witnessed Windows
Phone and BlackBerry OS try, and fail.Over 1,300 Android apps
scrape personal data
regardless of permissions
FIXES COMING WITH ANDROID Q STARTING IN AUGUST.Smartphone operating systems have ramped up their privacy settings in
recent years to let users pick and choose what information apps can get, but
it seems those permissions aren’t ironclad. A new study revealed that over
1,300 Android apps can scrape certain personal data any way, even if a user
explicitly denied access to it. Researchers at the International Computer
Science Institute (ICSI) created a controlled environment to test 88,000 apps
downloaded from the US Google Play Store. They peeked at what data the
apps were sending back, compared it to what users were permitting, and
found that 1,325 of them were forking over specific user data they shouldn’t
have. Among the test pool were “popular apps from all categories,” according
to ICSI’s report. The researchers disclosed their findings to both the FTC and
Google (receiving a bug bounty for their efforts), though the latter stated a
fix would only be coming in the full release of Android Q.