Facebook removes accounts in fight against fake news

LONDON  — Facebook says it has deleted tens of thousands of accounts in Britain ahead of the June 8 general election in a drive to battle fake news.

The tech giant also took out newspaper advertisements in Britain’s media offering advice on how to spot such stories. The ads suggest that readers should be “skeptical of headlines,” and to “look closely at the URL.”

The company says it has made improvements to help them detect fake news accounts more effectively.

Simon Milner, the tech firm’s U.K. director of policy, says the platform wants to get to the “root of the problem” and is working with outside organizations to fact check and analyze content around the election.

Milner says Facebook is “doing everything we can to tackle the problem of false news.

source: technology.inquirer.net

It’s official: Android N is Android Nougat

Tech giant Google announced on Friday that Android N, the company’s latest version of Android, will now go by the name “Android Nougat.” Nougat, a chewy dessert bar made of roasted nuts, fruits and honey, is on Android’s list of “luscious” dessert names for their operating systems.

Introducing #AndroidNougat. Thank you, world, for all your sweet name ideas! #AndroidNReveal pic.twitter.com/7lIfDBwyBE

— Android (@Android) June 30, 2016

That moment when… #AndroidNougat #AndroidNReveal pic.twitter.com/dzWYeiW0gk

— Android (@Android) June 30, 2016

We asked for your help to #NameAndroidN. Say hello to #AndroidNougat & watch the unveiling. #AndroidNReveal https://t.co/xVtEiy44FF

— Android (@Android) June 30, 2016

Last month, Google announced that the next version of Android would be named after a winning suggestion from the public. A few weeks ago, social media users speculated that Android N would be named Nutella due to “hidden clues” found in Senior Vice President for Android at Google Hiroshi Lockheimer’s tweets.

Android ‘Nutella’? Google exec’s tweet may have bared name

Drawing from previous reports from tech sites, the tech giant has already released 14 Android versions since 2008, with almost all of the versions’ names patterned after a dessert or sweets in alphabetical order, from Cupcake to Kitkat to Marshmallow, which was released last year.

source: technology.inquirer.net

Google redeems spot as world’s most valuable company

Again, tech giant Google dethroned Apple as the ‘World’s Most Valuable Company’ by market capitalization.

Apple, Google’s competitor in the tech industry, experienced their shares sink below $90 (4,192 PHP) on Thursday, the first time since June 2014. As a result, Google’s parent company, Alphabet, overtook Apple on the same day.

Alphabet’s market valuation peaked at $498 billion (23.1 trillion PHP) , compared to Apple’s $494 billion (23 trillion PHP), CNN Money and Time noted.

Alphabet previously overtook Google last February.

For the past six months, Apple’s shares dropped nearly 20 percent due to the decline of iPhone-chip shipments, one of the company’s trademark products since 2007.

Other tech titans, Intel and Microsoft, also declared disappointing slump in sales this quarter. Reversely, social media giant Facebook and online shopping site Amazon bolstered higher earnings this quarter. Gianna Francesca Catolico

source: technology.inquirer.net

Microsoft releases data on government requests

WASHINGTON  - Microsoft said Thursday it received 75,378 law enforcement requests for data in 2012 in the tech giant's first report on the sensitive subject.

The requests, which included those for the Skype messaging and voice service, potentially impacted 137,424 accounts, Microsoft said on its corporate citizenship Web page.

The disclosure is similar to a "transparency report" which Google started in 2010.

Microsoft said that "customer content" was released in just 2.1 percent of cases, representing 1,558 requests.

But "non content" information, which can include subscriber information such as the e-mail address, name, location and IP address was released in 79.8 percent of requests to the company, excluding Skype.

The company said Skype, which Microsoft acquired in 2011, did not provide any "content" in response to the 4,713 requests but did provide a Skype ID and other identifiers in more than 500 cases.

"In recent months, there has been broadening public interest in how often law enforcement agencies request customer data from technology companies and how our industry responds to these requests," Microsoft general counsel Brad Smith said.

"Google, Twitter and others have made important and helpful contributions to this discussion by publishing some of their data. We've benefited from the opportunity to learn from them and their experience, and we seek to build further on the industry's commitment to transparency by releasing our own data today."

Smith said the data suggests "that less than 0.02 percent of active users were affected" by data requests.

"Microsoft is committed to respecting human rights, free expression, and individual privacy," he said, but added that "like every company, we are obligated to comply with legally binding requests from law enforcement."

Smith said two-thirds of the requests to Microsoft excluding Skype which resulted in any disclosure came from five countries -- the United States, Britain, Turkey, Germany and France.

For Skype, the top five countries accounted for 81 percent of all requests -- The US, Britain, Germany, France and Taiwan.  — Agence France Presse

source: gmanetwork.com