keyword: Whatsapp

freedom-of-information:-eu-authorities-must-give-out-sms-and-direct-messages

Freedom of information: EU authorities must give out SMS and direct messages

The European requirements on freedom of information do not only include files that are available on paper or digitally, or e-mails. Interpersonal communication, for example via SMS, Twitter direct messages and chats via messengers such as WhatsApp, Facebook, Threema and Signal are also subject to the EU regulation of 2001 “on access the public on European Parliament, Council and Commission documents “.

” Reality of modern communication ” This has been decided by the EU Ombudsman Emily O’Reilly in response to a complaint from FragDenStaat, as the makers of the transparency portal announced on Monday. Accordingly, the EU committees and subordinate institutions must in future also process and save such direct communication, mostly exchanged via smartphone, and make it accessible on request.

The European Information Act refers to “content regardless of form of the data carrier “and so clearly includes SMS and direct messages, stated O’Reilly. The EU institutions must “make the best possible effort to take into account the reality of modern communication” and the increasing use of instant messaging, for example, “in their documentation management rules and practices”.

Governing by smartphone is everyday life FragDenStaat had previously made a request for freedom of information about messages from former EU Council President Donald Tusk, which he shared Had exchanged heads of state and government of the member states. The Council of Ministers denied the request because it did not have any text messages or direct messages containing “substantive information”. It had previously been reported that an SMS from Tusk 2015 should even have decided negotiations on a rescue package for Greece.

Govern by smartphone has long been part of everyday life. Chancellor Angela Merkel and Commission President Ursula von der Leyen (both CDU) are not the only ones who are known for exchanging ideas with employees and colleagues via direct messages and SMS. The Bavarian Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) should also start his working days with several SMS to his staff and these with the brief greeting “Gumo!” initiate. This is usually followed by various work orders.

Department does not accept decision The decision fits in with the judgment of the Berlin Administrative Court , according to which authorities in this country also have to issue Twitter direct messages in accordance with the Federal Freedom of Information Act (IFG). Here FragDenStaat sued the Federal Ministry of the Interior and got the right in May.

According to the activists, the Interior Ministry does not accept this decision and has applied for a jump appeal to the Federal Administrative Court. This is expected to decide in the coming year on the fundamental question of the transparency of direct communication with the authorities. Until then, a parallel lawsuit by FragDenStaat for access to e-mails from Federal Interior Minister Horst Seehofer (CSU).

(tiw)

whatsapp:-new-squeeze-on-some-android-smartphones.-here-are-which-ones-won't-work-on-in-2021

WhatsApp: new squeeze on some Android smartphones. Here are which ones won't work on in 2021

On some smartphones with outdated operating systems, WhatsApp will no longer work or at least in its most recent features or updates. The reason is soon said but which are the smartphones that will not stand it anymore? Here they are!

by Bruno Mucciarelli published , at 12: 31 in the Telephony channel

WhatsApp

WhatsApp continues to claim victims among supported smartphones and will do so even during the next year . Unfortunately the high number of innovations that the company is implementing on the platform does not allow all smartphones to guarantee adequate performance and this therefore blocks application support at its latest update. After the end of support on Windows Phones, WhatsApp will cease to work on other devices still in use by fewer users. For security reasons, in fact, it is necessary to unplug the obsolete platforms and no longer supported by the respective manufacturers.

We know well WhatsApp as an instant messaging service from over 1.5 billion users : it is the most used in the Western world and since 2014 belongs to Facebook (the acquisition at the time caused a sensation for the figure of 16 billions paid by the colossus of Zuckerberg). Together with Instagram (bought in 2012 from Facebook) it is part of the family of applications of the Facebook brand, to which also Facebook and Facebook Messenger belong.

WhatsApp: here are the devices no longer supported

But on which smartphones it will no longer be able to be updated WhatsApp and therefore on which devices it will no longer be possible to have the security and all the features? The list sees all iPhones that cannot pass the iOS 9 update (therefore iPhone 4 or earlier models) while as regards Android, in this case the smartphones no longer supported are those with the version of Android prior to 4.0.3 . We are talking, however, of decidedly obsolete releases with a few years on their shoulders, fortunately, and therefore for a lower percentage.

WhatsApp is no longer available for smartphones:

  • Android with version 4.0.3 or earlier
  • iPhone with version of iOS 9 or earlier
  • Nokia S 40 and S 60
  • Smartphone with Windows Phone
  • Smartphone with BlackBerry OS
  • Smartphone with BlackBerry 10

To understand which type version of the operating system you own will be enough from your smartphone on the Settings. In particular:

  • Android: Settings -> System -> About and you will find the Android version
  • iOS: Settings -> General -> Info / Software update and you will find the iOS version

WhatsApp won’t work anymore, what to do?

Who wants to continue using WhatsApp and has one of the terminals indicated above must necessarily change the terminal , both because of the restrictions that will be activated, and because it would also be appropriate to do so in terms of security of your data. For those still on Windows Phone 8.1 or Windows 10 Mobile the advice is of course to switch to an updated iOS or Android terminal.

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existing-data:-government-coalition-wants-to-use-ip-addresses-to-combat-illegal-work

Existing data: Government coalition wants to use IP addresses to combat illegal work

In the future, customs authorities such as the Customs Criminal Police Office (ZKA) and the offices responsible for prosecuting and punishing administrative offenses under state law should be able to access inventory data such as name, address and e-mail addresses of users in order to take action against undeclared work. You can also query IP addresses for this purpose and compare them with participants.

This is provided by a heise online draft law with which the government groups of the CDU / CSU and SPD want to adapt the provisions for inventory data information to the requirements of the Federal Constitutional Court (BVerfG). The Karlsruhe judges had ruled that “a sufficiently precise delimitation of the intended use” of inventory data must be guaranteed.

The authorized authorities should be able to call up relevant information from providers of telemedia services . These include social media, chats, game apps, search engines, shops and private homepages, webmail services, podcasts and flirt communities. A data query should be permitted for example on WhatsApp, eBay, Facebook, Google with Gmail and YouTube as well as Tinder & Co., provided that in individual cases there are actual indications of undeclared work or illegal employment when publishing job offers or comparable advertising measures “without specifying name and address “are available.

The information to be collected must be” necessary to identify the client “, it continues. The coalition does not justify the project in any more detail. The Act to Combat Undeclared Work and the “Prevention and prosecution of related crimes and administrative offenses” are in principle already used as purposes for information on inventory data in accordance with Paragraph 14 of the Telemedia Act ( TMG). However, there was no concrete legal basis for access.

Inventory data information for secret services Furthermore, the Military Counter-Intelligence Service (MAD ) May access inventory data from providers of telemedia services including IP addresses. At the same time, the agents are given permission to access security codes such as PINs and PUKs from telecommunications companies. Unlike in the draft bill from the Federal Ministry of the Interior (BMI), the powers should no longer only apply to the investigation of certain illegal activities or activities in the armed forces, but also to ensure the operational readiness of the armed forces or to protect the members of the departments and facilities of the Federal Ministry of Defense .

Schwarz-Rot wants to grant the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution and the Federal Intelligence Service (BND) similar competencies for querying inventory data according to the Telecommunications Act (TKG) and the TMG. The foreign secret service should be able to request information on political information and early warning of danger if in individual cases there are actual indications that information of foreign and security policy importance for the Federal Republic could be obtained.

The range for relevant Schwarz-Rot wants to bring danger areas into line with the broad catalog for strategic telecommunications intelligence from the planned reform of the BND law. In addition to threats to the highest legal interests such as life and limb, it includes “critical developments abroad”, terrorism or extremism, the proliferation of weapons of war, the protection of critical infrastructure, hybrid threats and criminal, terrorist or state attacks with malicious programs on confidentiality, integrity or availability of IT systems, which also means “hacktivism”.

Extensive powers for police forces As from the BMI already provided, the Federal Police, the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) and the ZKA as well as other customs investigation services are to have particularly extensive powers. According to the new draft, you are not only allowed to access PINs and PUKs, but also passwords for operators of telemedia services. The law enforcement officers should therefore have access to identifiers with which access to user accounts, devices and cloud services is protected.

The coalition wants to increase the requirements a little. For the Federal Police and the BKA this means, for example: Information about this particularly sensitive data may only be requested “to avert a specific danger to life, limb or freedom of a person or to the existence of the federal government or a country”. The BKA should be able to query general inventory data, especially according to the TKG, if there is a current or impending danger to a person to be protected, a property or a material asset. The Federal Police and the BKA should only be allowed to request IP addresses if there is a current or imminent “danger to a legal asset of particular importance”. Similar conditions are planned for the ZKA.

Obligation to transmit According to the explanatory memorandum, this is now being introduced for all security authorities the federal authority to collect inventory data according to the TMG. This corresponds to a transmission obligation for the affected telemedia service providers. It is estimated that around 3500 to 4000 of such “manual” inventory data inquiries per year. This would result in costs of around 15. 15 Euro annually, for which they would be compensated. The MPs do not illuminate the effects on fundamental rights.

To avoid difficulties of interpretation, the draft law uses the imminent term instead of the concrete danger coined by the BVerfG, write the authors. Ultimately, “manifestations of the preliminary stages of the concrete danger” from the Karlsruhe judgment would only be elaborated. At the same time, “the increasing demands on proportionality are taken into account by also increasing the weight of the legal interests to be protected”.

The project is considered urgent because, due to the announcement from Karlsruhe, the controversial draft law on the “Fight against right-wing extremism and hate crime” is on hold. At the beginning of October, Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier (SPD) refused to sign the initiative approved by the Bundestag in June. In principle, this contains the controversial rules for issuing passwords to security authorities, which, however, require parallel access rights in individual laws.

Adoption in the urgent procedure In its statement on the BMI draft for the “Repair Act”, the IT association Bitkom criticized the fact that “a password with many providers can provide access to areas that are used by the police Research excludes “such as e-mails, historical location data and search histories. Almost all service providers only save encrypted access IDs. Therefore, there are “substantial” constitutional doubts. It is unclear whether the data can be used at all. The much more widely used automated information procedure will not be touched at all.

The coalition actually wanted to bring its “final” draft to the Bundestag this week and discuss it for the first time. However, the AfD vetoed due to deadlines not being observed. The project could not be decided before the end of January in an urgent procedure. The Greens Renate Künast and Konstantin von Notz complained that the hang-up game with the anti-hate law continues. It is incomprehensible why the federal government does not tackle its “existing, central deficiencies” such as the obligation of providers to report to the BKA. The new inventory data rules would have to be checked intensively.

(olb)

google-accused-of-search-manipulation-in-third-major-antitrust-lawsuit

Google accused of search manipulation in third major antitrust lawsuit

A coalition of 38 states filed an antitrust lawsuit against Google Thursday focusing on the design of the tech giant’s search engine. It’s the third major antitrust lawsuit filed against the search giant this year.

Colorado’s Democratic Attorney General Phil Weiser and Nebraska’s Republican Attorney General Doug Peterson led the bipartisan group of states’ suit accusing Google of anticompetitive behavior like designing its search engine in a way that leverages the company’s own products over those of its competitors.

“Google sits at the crossroads of so many areas of our digital economy and has used its dominance to illegally squash competitors, monitor nearly every aspect of our digital lives, and profit to the tune of billions,” New York Democratic Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement Thursday.

According to a press release from the New York attorney general’s office, the states are asking the court to stop Google’s illegal conduct and “restore a competitive marketplace.” They are also seeking to “counter any advantages that Google gained as a result of its anticompetitive conduct,” including possible divestitures.

Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The states’ lawsuit specifically takes aim at Google’s market power and ability to push specific sites and services out of its search results. “Google sells advertisements to some specialized vertical providers, but, depending on the commercial segment involved, unnecessarily limits their utility,” the lawsuit says. “And by virtue of its monopoly power, Google extracts from some specialized vertical providers massive amounts of proprietary customer data that Google can them use to compete against them.”

Thursday’s lawsuit is just the latest in a stream of court challenges for Google. On Wednesday, Texas’ state attorney general announced new antitrust charges against the search giant. However, the Texas-led lawsuit focused on Google’s ad tech practices, primarily taking issue with the company’s requirements for publishers. The Justice Department also filed its own suit in October, along with 11 Republican state attorneys general, focusing on Google’s exclusive contracts with Android smartphone manufacturers and Apple to set its own search engine as the default option on these devices.

Shortly after the DOJ filed its Android case this fall, Kent Walker, Google’s senior vice president of global affairs, said that Google planned to contest the suit.

“People use Google because they choose to, not because they’re forced to, or because they can’t find alternatives,” Walker said at the time. “This lawsuit would do nothing to help consumers.”

In 2019, the Justice Department announced a broad antitrust investigation into the tech industry, including companies like Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google. In the months following this announcement, the DOJ has worked alongside states to build cases on some of these companies. Last week, the Federal Trade Commission and dozens of states filed separate suits looking to break up Facebook, unwinding the social media company’s acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp.

asus-rog-phone-ii-updates-adds-support-for-90-fps-pubg,-kunai-3-controller-and-more

Asus ROG Phone II updates adds support for 90 fps PUBG, Kunai 3 controller and more

The Asus ROG Phone II was one of the best gaming phones to come out of 2019 and updates like this one only make it better. Asus started rolling out a new firmware version (17.0240.2012.65) today and it includes game enhancements, wider VoLTE support and a few important bug fixes for the work-from home crowd.

First up, gaming. The update enables 90 fps mode on PUBG Mobile, something that has been available on the ROG Phone 3 for a few months now. Another thing that the second-gen ROG phone borrows from the new model is support for the Kunai 3 Gamepad controller (check out our in-depth review for details on the controller). A smaller change is the addition of “Auto activation of lock touch function” to the Game Genie.

With this update the ROG Phone II gains VoLTE support for T-Mobile in the US and BSNL in India. Also, the issue that would crash WhatsApp during a call was fixed, as was the issue that prevented notifications while using Teams.

Finally, the Android security patch was updated to December 2020. The new firmware will be delivered over the air (OTA) in batches, so it may take a few days to reach your unit. You should receive a notification when that happens, you can also check manually in Settings > System > System updates.

Source | Via

heise-+-|-facebook,-youtube,-instagram:-find-and-remove-old-content

heise + | Facebook, Youtube, Instagram: Find and remove old content

In social networks, the content piles up over the years: old posts, comments or pictures can be viewed by everyone. This is how they delete the old content.

A look at a smartphone with the various social media apps, such as Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and WhatsApp.

(Image: dpa, Yui Mok / PA Wire / dpa)

Facebook, Youtube, Instagram: Find and remove old content Facebook Instagram Twitter Youtube Nothing is as old as yesterday’s post. Over the years, countless posts, comments or images have accumulated in social networks such as Facebook, Twitter or Youtube. At some point the content will be forgotten by the creator, but can still be found by the public.

But what was meant funny a few years ago may have aged badly without context. It doesn’t necessarily have to be the party photo on Instagram, but can also be likes on Twitter or comments in a heated YouTube debate. It is therefore worthwhile if you clean the social networks regularly and thus control your external impact on the Internet. After all, the strange tweet or the insider picture on Facebook shouldn’t be the first thing a stranger notices of you.

The portals usually don’t make it easy for the user to delete old content . After all, they use the mountain of data that their users accumulate over the years to sell more or less relevant advertising space to companies. With some on-board resources, special tools or apps, you can still achieve your goal. Of course, it is even better if there is no data at all. Here the networks like to hide the relevant settings in different submenus.

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Sign in and read Register now and read the article immediately More information about heise + Facebook, Youtube, Instagram: Find and remove old content Facebook Instagram Twitter Youtube

whatsapp-begins-the-deployment-of-video-and-voice-calls-on-pc

WhatsApp begins the deployment of video and voice calls on PC

by Antonio Delgado Ago 25 minutes ago …

The popular instant messaging service Whatsapp owned, at least For the moment, Facebook has a voice and video call system in its mobile application, however, until now it was not available in the PC version of the application.

With PC version we mean Whatsapp Web or the Windows app 1 0 (which is still WhatsApp Web), the only way to use the messaging service on a computer and that requires a connection with the smartphone.

The deployment of video calls and WhatsApp calls for PC and Web will be carried out progressively

At the moment, video calls and d and voice in Whatsapp Web and in the app for Win 10 are in beta mode and They haven’t been broadly released yet, in fact and it looks like it’s going to arrive in a slow rollout over the next few weeks.

The activation seems random and just the app users There are two buttons that indicate both functions and their beta status. In Wabetainfo they have been able to access the system and show some screenshots of the system, quite similar to telegram calls.

End of Article. Tell us something in the Comments or come to our Forum!

Antonio Delgado

Computer Engineer by training, editor and hardware analyst at Geeknetic since 2011. I love gutting everything that comes my way, especially the latest hardware that we get here for reviews. In my spare time I fiddle with 3d printers, drones and other gadgets. For anything here you have me.