Facebook, Twitter Disable Fake Accounts Using AI to Push Pro-Trump Messages

Facebook and Twitter disabled a global network of hundreds of fake accounts that pushed pro-Trump messages and covered its tracks using inauthentic photos generated with the aid of artificial intelligence. The tech giants’ takedown targeted the BL, a U.S.-based media company that Facebook linked to Epoch Media Group that has criticized the Chinese government; has ties to Falun Gong, a Chinese spiritual movement; and has vociferously supported the reelection of President Trump.

France's Competition Watchdog Fines Google $166M Over Ad Abuses

France’s competition watchdog has slapped Google with a €150 million (~$166 million) fine after finding the tech giant abused its dominant position in the online search advertising market. In a decision following a lengthy investigation into the online ad sector, the competition authority sanctioned Google for adopting what it describes as “opaque and difficult to understand” operating rules for its ad platform, Google Ads, and for applying them in “an unfair and random manner.”

'Secure' Chat App ToTok Called Spy Tool Used by United Arab Emirates

It is billed as an easy and secure way to chat by video or text message with friends and family, even in a country that has restricted popular messaging services like WhatsApp and Skype. But the service, ToTok, is actually a spying tool, according to American officials familiar with a classified intelligence assessment and a New York Times investigation into the app and its developers.

EU Court Adviser Approves Facebook Data Transfer Agreements

Agreements that let Facebook and other firms send European citizens’ data to the United States and other countries are valid, a key EU court adviser said, although he left room for such transfers to be blocked if European data protection standards are not met in countries receiving the information. The case is based on a challenge by Austrian privacy activist Max Schrems, who argued that Facebook’s contracts do not protect data to European levels, especially given concerns about activities by U.S. spy agencies.

Data on 267 Million Facebook Users Exposed Online, Report Says

More than 267 million Facebook users allegedly had their user IDs, phone numbers and names exposed online, according to a report from Comparitech and security researcher Bob Diachenko. That info was found in a database that could be accessed without a password or any other authentication, and the researchers believe it was gathered as part of an illegal scraping operation or Facebook API abuse.

Man Gets 5-Year Sentence for Email Scam That Cost Facebook, Google $120M

A Lithuanian man who scammed Facebook Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google into sending him more than $120 million must serve five years in prison, a judge said. Evaldas Rimasauskas, 50, and his accomplices engaged in a phishing scheme, sending emails to employees and agents of the two tech giants that appeared to be from a major Taiwanese hardware maker that was a business partner of both companies.

Facebook Bans Ads That 'Advise People Not to Participate in Census'

Facebook Inc., which has come under fire for allowing politicians to run misleading advertisements, said it will ban any ads that aim to limit participation in next year’s U.S. census, which officials and lawmakers fear could be targeted by disinformation aiming to disrupt the count. The census is used to determine each state's representation in the U.S. Congress and to guide the allocation of as much as $1.5 trillion a year in federal funds.

House Committee Unveils First Draft of Bipartisan Federal Privacy Bill

A key House committee unveiled a first draft of a bipartisan federal privacy bill, bringing Congress one step closer to passing a law to rein in the tech industry's unregulated collection of personal information on its millions of U.S. users. The draft from Republican and Democratic staffers on the House Energy and Commerce Committee comes as the Senate continues to wrestle with its own privacy negotiations, which recently broke down as top senators offered separate party-line bills.

Chinese Authorities Combining Tools to Create Widespread Surveillance

Chinese authorities are knitting together old and state-of-the-art technologies — phone scanners, facial-recognition cameras, face and fingerprint databases and many others — into sweeping tools for authoritarian control, according to police and private databases examined by The New York Times. Once combined and fully operational, the tools can help police grab the identities of people as they walk down the street, find out who they are meeting with and identify who does and doesn’t belong to the Communist Party.

Texas Attorney General Defends Use of Google Foes in Antitrust Probe

Texas investigators are defending their decision to employ some of Google’s longtime foes as part of an antitrust probe into the search giant, saying in a court filing that the recent legal objections raised by the company threaten to “severely compromise” states’ scrutiny. At issue are a number of consultants retained by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who is leading an inquiry into Google’s ad business that’s backed by 50 other attorneys general.

EU Court Adviser to Offer Opinion on Facebook's Use of Data Protection Safeguards

Facebook’s clash with Austrian privacy activist Max Schrems reaches a critical point when an adviser to Europe’s top court will offer his view on whether tools used by companies to transfer data abroad protect European citizens’ data. The U.S. social media giant and companies ranging from banks to industrial giants use standard contractual clauses to transfer personal data to the United States and other parts of the world.

Facebook Discloses More Information to Senators About Location Tracking

Facebook told senators that it continues to track the location of its users even after they've said they don't want the social media giant to know where they are — and it makes money off of that information. Facebook's letter to Sens. Christopher Coons (D-Del.) and Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) comes in response to the senators' questions about the company's location-tracking policies.

Reuters Releases Online Course for Journalists to Identify Deepfakes

Reuters has released a new 45-minute online course designed to help give journalists the tools they need to spot and avoid sharing manipulated pictures, videos and audio clips. While deepfakes are obviously a major component of the material, there's also advice on how to approach real media that's been co-opted so that it presents an entirely different story than it did originally.

Canadian Lab Testing Company Pays Hackers to Retrieve Stolen Data

LifeLabs, Canada's leading provider of laboratory diagnostics and testing services, admitted today to paying hackers to retrieve data stolen during a security breach last month. "We did this [paying the hackers] in collaboration with experts familiar with cyber-attacks and negotiations with cyber criminals," the company said today in a press release.

Instagram to Notify Users of Offensive Captions Before Posting

A new Instagram feature notifies users when their captions on a photo or video may be considered offensive and gives them the chance to write something else before posting, parent company Facebook said in a blog post. Instagram added a similar feature on comments earlier this year. The additions are part of the platform's growing antibullying efforts.

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