Web User - UK (2019-07-10)

72 10 - 23 July 2019

Wemustn’ttake Huawei risk
lyingdown
In your Star Emailin Issue 477, James
Quinnstates “I believe that Huawei is
innocent of espionageuntilit can be
proven guilty”andthat “thetechnology
industry shouldbe ashamedof its
knee-jerkresponse”.
AlthoughI agree that we shouldn’t
react in a knee-jerkmanner, we also
have to be wary of possibleinfiltration
by third partieswhodon’thave our
interests at heart.China’s National
Intelligence Law from 2017 requires
organisationsandcitizens to “support,
assist andcooperate withthe state
intelligence work,” whichis clearlya
concern.Vodafonehas previously
identifiedhiddenbackdoorsthat could
have given Huawei or the Chinese
governmentunauthorisedaccess to
Vodafone’s Italianfixed-linenetwork.
In 2011, Vodafonereportedlyasked
Huawei to remove backdoorsfrom
its homeinternetrouters. Huawei
offered assurances to Vodafonethat
it would complyandsaidit hadfixed
the issues,but whenVodafoneanalysed
the software, it foundthat the
vulnerabilitiesremained.
What’s more, Vodafonediscovered
hiddenbackdoorsin its opticalservice
nodes,whichtransportinternettraffic

over fibre cables,andin its broadband

network gateways, whichhandle

subscriberauthenticationandaccess

to the internet.

It may be wrongto have knee-jerk

reactions,but it’s equallywrongto be so

blaséaboutthis sortof problem.To think

no governmentwould carryout such

thingsis the heightof naivety.

Mark,via email

SuspiciousaboutApple’s

hiddeniPhonecosts

With reference to BarryCollins’column

in Issue 476 regardingshenanigansover

Apple’s productsandservices (‘Apple

needsa doseof nan’s medicine’),I’d like

to addonemore thingthat many Apple

customersmay not know about.

1

3

5

2

4

6

QuizAnswers: Issue 478

William

Shakespeare

Mary Shelley

Oscar Wilde

Anton Chekhov

CSLewis

Barbara Cartland

I

was pleasedto see an article

aboutSpotifyin your recent issue,

becauseI’ve just started usingit

myself andnow I can’tbelieve it took

me so long.I’ve even signedup for the

Premiumversion,whichat £9.99 a

monthis no more expensive than

buyingthe occasionalCD.

I’ve spentthe past 10 years building

up a large MP3collectionthat includes

songsI’ve rippedfrom my own CDs

andtracksI’ve boughtfrom iTunes.I

didn’tsee the needto use a streaming

service too, but Spotifyhas proved to

be a revelation.

Virtuallyevery artist andsongI’ve

looked for, asidefrom a few obscure

remixes andlive versions,has been

there, andI’ve quicklybeenableto

Spotify is a musical revelation

reconstructmy iTunes

playlists. Best of all, I’ve

connected Spotifyto my

GoogleHomespeaker,

whichmeansI can now

play musicsimplyby

saying“Hey Google, play

Elton John”,without

havingto fiddlearound

searchingfor songs.It’s

madeGoogleHomemy

de factomusicsystem,

andthe soundqualityis

excellent.

The onlythingthat

bothersme is that you have to ‘like’

songsratherthan‘save’ themto your

musiclibrary – this is apparentlya

recent changeto the Spotifyapp. It just

seemsvery Facebooky

to me, althoughI

supposeSpotifyuses

your ‘likes’ to builda

profileof your musical

tastes, so it can

recommendtracks

andcreate playlists for

you. At least the app

isn’tdoingthis to target

you withadverts– or

not in the Premium

version,anyway.

I’d recommendanyone

whohas resisted Spotify

becauseit’s ‘trendy’or ‘notthe same

as owningyour music’ to give it a go.

You won’t regret it.

BrianDaniels,via email

StarEmail

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[email protected],www.facebook.com/webusermagazine

Inbox andwww.twitter.com/webusermagazine

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