Fortnite: Epic Games sues Google and Apple over app store bans

Found on BBC News on Saturday, 15 August 2020
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Apple and Google both removed the hit game from their app stores after Epic Games bypassed their payment systems, to avoid giving them a cut of sales.

Both platforms take a standard 30% of purchases on their app stores.

Epic Games had clearly expected that to happen, quickly publishing a video mocking Apple's famous 1984-themed television advert about fighting a police state. It published court documents almost immediately.

It's always been baffling how Apple and Google can demand 30% from sales just because they allow apps into their walled gardens. Imagine Microsoft would get a 30% cut from all sales done via Windows computers.

TikTok threatens legal action against Trump US ban

Found on BBC News on Sunday, 09 August 2020
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The company said it was "shocked" by an executive order from the US President outlining the ban.

On Thursday, Washington announced recommendations that Chinese firms listed on US stock markets should be delisted unless they provided regulators with access to their audited accounts.

China's Foreign Ministry on Friday accused the US of using national security as a cover to exert hegemony.

Funny how China is angry about hegemony while they do exactly the same to companies who want to do business in China.

Facebook sues EU antitrust regulator for excessive data requests

Found on Reuters on Thursday, 30 July 2020
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Facebook is suing EU antitrust regulators for seeking information beyond what is necessary, including highly personal details, for their investigations into the company’s data and marketplace, the U.S. social media group said on Monday.

In addition to the two lawsuits against the Commission, Facebook is also seeking interim measures at the Luxembourg-based General Court, Europe’s second-highest, to halt such data requests until judges rule, according to a court filing.

Oh that irony.

New 'National Security' Law Threatens Hong Kong Pro-Democracy Protesters With Life In Prison

Found on Techdirt on Monday, 06 July 2020
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Hong Kong was handed back to China in 1997 with the understanding the Chinese government would not strip away the rights granted to Hong Kong residents prior to the handover. The Chinese government has no intention of honoring that agreement, which has prompted months of protests.

Pro-democracy books have been pulled from libraries by the Hong Kong government in order to review them for violations of the new law. And protesters are now carrying blank signs, since the law makes the existence of any anti-Chinese government words a potential violation of the new law, possibly putting protesters in line for life in prison.

After months of battling a rebellious region, the Chinese government has placed Hong Kong firmly under its control. There will be no more "one country, two systems."

Is any of the other nations doing anything, like cutting ties with China? No. So much for their support for democracy: only hollow phrases by politicians.

How Police Secretly Took Over a Global Phone Network for Organized Crime

Found on Motherboard on Friday, 03 July 2020
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Police monitored a hundred million encrypted messages sent through Encrochat, a network used by career criminals to discuss drug deals, murders, and extortion plots.

French authorities had penetrated the Encrochat network, leveraged that access to install a technical tool in what appears to be a mass hacking operation, and had been quietly reading the users' communications for months.

This was malware on the Encrochat device itself, meaning that it could potentially read the messages written and stored on the device before they were encrypted and sent over the internet, a devastating finding for a company whose main mandate is to protect the content of communications for highly sensitive clients.

It would not be too surprising if bodies of people working for Encrochat are found sooner or later.

German Payments Group Wirecard Says $2.1 Billion of Cash is Missing

Found on Slashdot on Tuesday, 23 June 2020
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The company was told by EY that there were indications a trustee of Wirecard bank accounts had attempted "to deceive the auditor" and that "spurious cash balances" might have been provided to EY by a third party.

Investors' enthusiasm for the company, whose aggressive expansion was masterminded by Markus Braun, its chief executive and largest shareholder, catapulted it into Germany's prestigious Dax 30 index two years ago with a market value of $27 billion. It slumped to less than $5.6 billion on Thursday as its shares plunged almost 70%

That's a little more than just an "accident".

Businesswoman's computer hacking revenge 'ruined' firm

Found on The York Press on Sunday, 21 June 2020
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Outside court, police said the victim had told them her actions had led to the company collapsing and job losses.

Detective Constable Steven Harris, of North Yorkshire Police’s Cyber Crime Unit, said: “During our investigation, it became clear that Bulley had left the original company on a bad note, but the deletion of thousands of files containing vital information was catastrophic for the victim.

Not to sound rude, but that's exactly what backups are for. If your entire company relies on the uptime of a Dropbox account, you're out of business sooner or later.

Zoom won’t encrypt free calls because it wants to comply with law enforcement

Found on The Next Web on Wednesday, 03 June 2020
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Zoom CEO Eric Yuan today said that the video conferencing app’s upcoming end-to-end encryption feature will be available to only paid users. After announcing the company’s financial results for Q1 2020, Yuan said the firm wants to keep this feature away from free users to work with law enforcement in case of the app’s misuse.

A very logical conclusion, because someone who pays would never use Zoom for bad purposes.</sarcasm>.

NBC & Disney Take Down NASA's Public Domain Space Launch

Found on Techdirt on Tuesday, 02 June 2020
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Because the numbskulls at NBC Universal work with the default mindset that everything must be owned, and if everything must be owned, then obviously anything that NBC Universal broadcasts must be owned by NBC Universal, it made bogus copyright claims on a ton of others using NASA's footageincluding NASA itself leading to NASA's own public domain video being blocked on NASA's own YouTube page.

And, that's not all. Having dealt with a bogus claim on Wednesday, one would hope that people would get their shit together for the actual launch on Saturday and the docking on Sunday. No such luck. Because for Saturday's launch, National Geographic, a property owned by Disney, did the same thing.

Sadly enough, there most likely won't be any consequences for NBC and Disney for abusing the system. So it will continue.

Banks Get Payout From Equifax Hack While Consumers Still Wait For Compensation

Found on Techdirt on Sunday, 24 May 2020
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The agency originally promised that impacted users would be able to nab 10 years of free credit reporting or a $125 cash payout if users already subscribed to a credit reporting service. But it didn't take long for the government to backtrack, claiming it was surprised by the number of victims interested in modest compensation, while admitting the settlement failed to set aside enough money to pay even 248,000 of the hack's 147 million victims.

After not providing enough money to live up to that $125 cash payout offer, victims were forced to jump through hoop after hoop to try and get the funds, which won't wind up being anywhere close to $125 whenever the checks do arrive.

You can't pay? Get shut down.