Facebook warned over privacy risks of merging messaging platforms

Facebook’s lead data protection regulator in Europe has asked the company for an “urgent briefing” regarding plans to integrate the underlying infrastructure of its three social messaging platforms.

In a statement posted to its website late last week the Irish Data Protection Commission writes: “Previous proposals to share data between Facebook companies have given rise to significant data protection concerns and the Irish DPC will be seeking early assurances that all such concerns will be fully taken into account by Facebook in further developing this proposal.”

Last week the New York Times broke the news that Facebook intends to unify the backend infrastructure of its three separate products, couching it as Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg asserting control over acquisitions whose founders have since left the building.

Instagram founders, Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, left Facebook last year, as a result of rising tensions over reduced independence, according to our sources.

While WhatsApp’s founders left Facebook earlier, with Brian Acton departing in late 2017 and Jan Koum sticking it out until spring 2018. The pair reportedly clashed with Facebook execs over user privacy and differences over how to monetize the end-to-end encrypted platform.

Acton later said Facebook had coached him to tell European regulators assessing whether to approve the 2014 merger that it would be “really difficult” for the company to combine WhatsApp and Facebook user data.

In the event, Facebook went on to link accounts across the two platforms just two years after the acquisition closed. It was later hit with a $122M penalty from the European Commission for providing “incorrect or misleading” information at the time of the merger. Though Facebook claimed it had made unintentional “errors” in the 2014 filing.

A further couple of years on and Facebook has now graduated to seeking full platform unification of separate messaging products.

“We want to build the best messaging experiences we can; and people want messaging to be fast, simple, reliable and private,” a spokesperson told us when we asked for a response to the NYT report. “We’re working on making more of our messaging products end-to-end encrypted and considering ways to make it easier to reach friends and family across networks.”

“As you would expect, there is a lot of discussion and debate as we begin the long process of figuring out all the details of how this will work,” the spokesperson added, confirming the substance of the NYT report.

There certainly would be a lot of detail to be worked out. Not least the feasibility of legally merging user data across distinct products in Europe, where a controversial 2016 privacy u-turn by WhatsApp — when it suddenly announced it would after all share user data with parent company Facebook (despite previously saying it would never do so), including sharing data for marketing purposes — triggered swift regulatory intervention.

Facebook was forced to suspend marketing-related data flows in Europe. Though it has continued sharing data between WhatsApp and Facebook for security and business intelligence purposes, leading to the French data watchdog to issue a formal notice at the end of 2017 warning the latter transfers also lack a legal basis.

A court in Hamburg, Germany, also officially banned Facebook from using WhatsApp user data for its own purposes.

Early last year, following an investigation into the data-sharing u-turn, the UK’s data watchdog obtained an undertaking from WhatsApp that it would not share personal data with Facebook until the two services could do so in a way that’s compliant with the region’s strict privacy framework, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Facebook only avoided a fine from the UK regulator because it froze data flows after the regulatory intervention. But the company clearly remains on watch — and any fresh moves to further integrate the platforms would trigger instant scrutiny, evidenced by the shot across the bows from the DPC in Ireland (Facebook’s international HQ is based in the country).

The 2016 WhatsApp-Facebook privacy u-turn also occurred prior to Europe’s GDPR coming into force. And the updated privacy framework includes a regime of substantially larger maximum fines for any violations.

Under the regulation watchdogs also have the power to ban companies from processing data. Which, in the case of a revenue-rich data-mining giant like Facebook, could be a far more potent disincentive than even a billion dollar fine.

We’ve reached out to Facebook for comment on the Irish DPC’s statement and will update this report with any response.

Here’s the full statement from the Irish watchdog:

While we understand that Facebook’s proposal to integrate the Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram platforms is at a very early conceptual stage of development, the Irish DPC has asked Facebook Ireland for an urgent briefing on what is being proposed. The Irish DPC will be very closely scrutinising Facebook’s plans as they develop, particularly insofar as they involve the sharing and merging of personal data between different Facebook companies. Previous proposals to share data between Facebook companies have given rise to significant data protection concerns and the Irish DPC will be seeking early assurances that all such concerns will be fully taken into account by Facebook in further developing this proposal. It must be emphasised that ultimately the proposed integration can only occur in the EU if it is capable of meeting all of the requirements of the GDPR.

Facebook may be hoping that extending end-to-end encryption to Instagram as part of its planned integration effort, per the NYT report, could offer a technical route to stop any privacy regulators’ hammers from falling.

Though use of e2e encryption still does not shield metadata from being harvested. And metadata offers a rich source of inferences about individuals which, under EU law, would certainly constitute personal data. So even with robust encryption across the board of Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp the unified messaging platforms could still collectively leak plenty of personal data to their data-mining parent.

Facebook’s apps are also not open source. So even WhatsApp, which uses the respected Signal Protocol for its e2e encryption, remains under its control — with no ability for external audits to verify exactly what happens to data inside the app (such as checking what data gets sent back to Facebook). Users still have to trust Facebook’s implementation but regulators might demand actual proof of bona fide messaging privacy.

Nonetheless, the push by Facebook to integrate separate messaging products onto a single unified platform could be a defensive strategy — intended to throw dust in the face of antitrust regulators as political scrutiny of its market position and power continues to crank up. Though it would certainly be an aggressive defence to more tightly knit separate platforms together.

But if the risk Facebook is trying to shrink is being forced, by competition regulators, to sell off one or two of its messaging platforms it may feel it has nothing to lose by making it technically harder to break its business apart.

At the time of the acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp Facebook promised autonomy to their founders. Zuckerberg has since changed his view, according to the NYT — believing integrating all three will increase the utility of each and thus provide a disincentive for users to abandon each service.

It may also be a hedge against any one of the three messaging platforms decreasing in popularity by furnishing the business with internal levers it can throw to try to artifically juice activity across a less popular app by encouraging cross-platform usage.

And given the staggering size of the Facebook messaging empire, which globally sprawls to 2.5BN+ humans, user resistance to centralized manipulation via having their buttons pushed to increase cross-platform engagement across Facebook’s business may be futile without regulatory intervention.

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Snopes and AP leave Facebook fact-checking partnership

Two of Facebook’s four fact-checking partners in the U.S. have left the program as of the beginning of this year: Snopes, which recently rebuffed reports that its relationship with Facebook was strained, and the Associated Press. Both confirmed they are leaving the program, but left the possibility of future collaboration open.

Snopes joined Facebook’s group of third-party fact checkers in 2016, at first volunteering its services and the next year accepting a lump $100,000 payment for their work. But the company said in a statement that it’s rethinking providing services like this at all.

At this time we are evaluating the ramifications and costs of providing third-party fact-checking services, and we want to determine with certainty that our efforts to aid any particular platform are a net positive for our online community, publication, and staff.

Mikkelson added in a statement to TechCrunch that “we felt that the Facebook fact check partnership wasn’t working well for us as an organization.” I’ve asked Facebook for comment.

The news comes hot on the heels of a recent article in the Guardian by former Snopes employees who described the partnership as being “in disarray.”

Facebook’s fact-checkers toil on

But Snopes founder David Mikkelson strongly disagreed with that characterization, and the suggestion that Facebook had been interfering with or otherwise unduly influencing the fact-checking program. He described the work as “literally just data entry,” and said that Facebook never told them what they should check, with a handful of exceptions like bringing high-profile hoaxes to checkers’ attention during the 2018 election.

In fact Mikkelson said that the main problem was a lack of engagement from Facebook. The tools, he said, were rudimentary, and checkers were limited in the number of articles they could evaluate. Meanwhile the effect of the fact-checking program was poorly communicated both to partners and users. Was it working? How well? In what way? What changes are being made, if any, to the algorithms and systems involved?

In comments to Poynter, Snopes VP of operations Danny Green said the process needed to be improved:

With a manual system and a closed system — it’s impossible to keep on top of that stuff… It doesn’t seem like we’re striving to make third-party fact checking more practical for publishers — it seems like we’re striving to make it easier for Facebook. At some point, we need to put our foot down and say, ‘No. You need to build an API.’

This surely formed at least part of the reason why Snopes declined to renew its yearly contract with Facebook. It seems to be a coincidence that the announcement came shortly after yet another bad week for the latter; the contracts seem to be for calendar years so the decision not to rejoin would have been made some time ago.

It’s not the only U.S. fact checker leaving the partnership. The Associated Press confirmed to TechCrunch that it too is “not currently doing fact-checking work for Facebook.” In a statement, the news organization said that it “constantly evaluates how to best deploy its fact-checking resources, and that includes ongoing conversations with Facebook about opportunities to do important fact-checking work on its platform.”

The AP representative did not elaborate on the reasons for its decision.

Politifact confirmed it is staying with the program; I’ve also asked Factcheck.org (the fourth U.S. fact-checker) and the AFP, which is a partner in multiple countries. I’ll update this post if I hear back.

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This light-powered 3D printer materializes objects all at once

3D printing has changed the way people approach hardware design, but most printers share a basic limitation: they essentially build objects layer by layer, generally from the bottom up. This new system from UC Berkeley, however, builds them all at once more or less by projecting a video through a jar of light-sensitive resin.

The device, which its creators call the replicator (but shouldn’t, because that’s a Makerbot trademark), is mechanically quite simple. It’s hard to explain it better than Berkeley’s Hayden Taylor, who led the research:

Basically, you’ve got an off-the-shelf video projector, which I literally brought in from home, and then you plug it into a laptop and use it to project a series of computed images, while a motor turns a cylinder that has a 3D-printing resin in it.

Obviously there are a lot of subtleties to it — how you formulate the resin, and, above all, how you compute the images that are going to be projected, but the barrier to creating a very simple version of this tool is not that high.

Using light to print isn’t new — many devices out there use lasers or other forms of emitted light to cause material to harden in desired patterns. But they still do things one thin layer at a time. Researchers did demonstrate a “holographic” printing method a bit like this using intersecting beams of light, but it’s much more complex. (In fact Berkeley worked with Lawrence Livermore on this project.)

In Taylor’s device, the object to be recreated is scanned first in such a way that it can be divided into slices, a bit like a CT scanner — which is in fact the technology that sparked the team’s imagination in the first place.

By projecting light into the resin as it revolves, the material for the entire object is resolved more or less at once, or at least over a series of brief revolutions rather then hundreds or thousands of individual drawing movements.

This has a number of benefits besides speed. Objects come out smooth — if a bit crude in this prototype stage — and they can have features and cavities that other 3D printers struggle to create. The resin can even cure around an existing object, as they demonstrate by manifesting a handle around a screwdriver shaft.

Naturally different materials and colors can be swapped in, and the uncured resin is totally reusable. It’ll be some time before it can be used at scale or at the level of precision traditional printers now achieve, but the advantages are compelling enough that it will almost certainly be pursued in parallel with other techniques.

The paper describing the new technique was published this week in the journal Science.

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Twitter bug makes it look like random retweets are appearing in your timeline

A number of Twitter users have been complaining that tweets that were retweeted by people they don’t follow are now showing in their timeline. The issue, thankfully, is not related to a new Twitter algorithm or recommendation system, as some had feared. Instead, the company confirmed that a bug affecting Android users was mislabeling the “social proof” tag on Retweets.

This is the part of the Retweet that tells you who, among the people you already do follow, had retweeted the post in question.

The company says that the social proof label is wrong, so the Android users were seeing tweets that looked like they had been retweeted by someone they don’t know.

why do i keep getting randos i'm not following retweeting themselves on my timeline??

— z a c h (@unktions) January 31, 2019

Seriously @Twitter , why am I seeing these? I'm not following these people and their tweets are clogging up my timeline. pic.twitter.com/5RJ4TrjLBs

— Graze Meme Star (@GrazeTwitch) January 31, 2019

Can you stop, Twitter? This is worse than ranked newsfeed on Facebook pic.twitter.com/04jRu9z3FU

— Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane) February 1, 2019

@TwitterSupport Why is my timeline full of users I'm not following retweeting themselves?

— christian cain (@TN_WINS) February 1, 2019

Above: some example complaints

Twitter says the Retweets that showed up were actually tweeted by someone the people did knew, but their social proof label was wrong which made them seem out of place. Its engineers are aware of the problem and working to fix this now. The bug has been live for a few days, Twitter also confirmed.

The company’s @TwitterSupport account had not yet replied to those asking about this problem, which may have led to some user confusion.

After all, Twitter has been known to put what some consider extraneous information in the timeline – like posts that show you when many people you follow have now all followed another Twitter user, or posts that tell you that several people have shared the same link, for example. But even in those cases, that was in-network activity – not something like putting random retweets in your main feed.

Until the bug is fixed, Twitter users who don’t like the content of the seemingly random retweets can tap on the down arrow on the right side of the tweet to tell Twitter it wants to see less content like this.

 

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The 10 Best Windows File Explorer Extensions for File Management

File Explorer is the default file management utility for Windows. It’s the first app you open to manage files and folders or any devices connected to your PC. However, you might not be using it to its full potential. File Explorer extensions can add extra features and help you do so much more.

These utilities could save you time and effort every day. Let’s look at some third-party apps for File Explorer that you can download and install right now.

1. Mountain Duck: Mount Remote Storage

If you need to manage multiple cloud storage services at once, switching between different interfaces can hinder your workflow. Mountain Duck is a nifty app that lets you mount server and cloud storage as a local volume in the File Explorer.

Select New Bookmark > Connect to mount the server as a volume in File Explorer. The server will appear in This PC and the sidebar to let you browse contents and quickly move files. You can perform any operations on the remote files and folders just like you do with local files.

If you wish to reconnect a remote server after reboot, select Enable Login and Save Workspace in Preferences. Mountain Duck includes the built-in utility Cryptomator which can encrypt your data on any server.

The app supports SFTP, WebDAV, Amazon S3, Backblaze B2, and more. The upcoming version 3 has a smart sync feature that works just like other cloud storage services.

Download: Mountain Duck (Free trial, $39)

2. TeraCopy: Copy Files Faster and Securely

Copying large files from one folder to another on the same drive or to another drive has never been fast and flexible. Even before the copy starts, Windows spends ages discovering and calculating how much data it needs to move. If you encounter any errors, it’ll skip the entire process and put your data at risk.

TeraCopy is a utility app for moving and copying files. The app implements dynamic buffer adjustments to the copy process. It creates pending queues with multiple file operations and executes them at the same time. If any error arises, it just skips the corrupted file instead of terminating the entire transfer process.

The app comes with minimal panel and settings. You can extend the panel to reveal additional file properties: source file’s path size, status, source, and target CRC. Since TeraCopy natively integrates with the context menu, it can replace the default copy handler.

Download: TeraCopy (Free, Pro Version for $25)

3. Icaros: Enable Thumbnails for Any Video Type

Icaros is a pack of shell extensions that enables and displays a thumbnail of any video type in File Explorer. When you install the app, Icaros will register the common file types that FFmpeg supports along with FLAC, APE, and MPC formats.

The app offers a comprehensive interface from where you can choose to activate or deactivate the thumbnails.

Once you enable Icaros, all the video media files reveal their thumbnails allowing you to have a quick peek of the content without opening them. Icaros supports popular video formats such as MKV, FLV, AVI, MP4, and more. If you’ve lots of video files, then this extension can prove handy.

Download: Icaros (Free)

4. Listary: Powerful Search Utility for Windows

We end up wasting a lot of time browsing through folders to find the important files since the built-in search isn’t too smart. Listary is a search utility app that lets you quickly find files on your PC and perform actions with a press of a hotkey. On the first launch, a search bar will pop up with three icons built into them.

The Favorites icon shows a list of folders, Recent icon lists all the directories you browsed recently, and Intelligent Commands lists some helpful commands. You can add/remove folders, commands, and customize them so that they’re easily accessible. Listary also integrates with “Open and Save Dialog Box” to quickly open and save files.

It saves your time on repetitive clicks. With Listary fuzzy search, you can find files just by typing a few characters. Press the right arrows key on the keyboard to expand the Explorer context menu and Listary’s action menu.

You’ll find helpful commands to make day-to-day file operations simpler. Listary’s Free version is already feature rich. You can upgrade to the Pro version for more features.

Download: Listary (Free, Pro Version for $20)

5. File Converter: Convert Files Using Context Menu

File Converter is a simple app that lets you convert one or several files using the context menu. It supports a lot of different file formats. For example, you can convert Word documents, Excel sheets to PDF, PSD file to JPEG, and much more. You can customize the app to add/remove conversion presets in the context menus or even edit the present ones.

To create a simple preset, open the file converter settings and select a preset that you want to create. Click the Plus button to create a new preset in the left panel with their options in the right panel. For images, the right sidebar will include settings to scale, rotate, and rename image files.

Download: File Converter (Free)

6. FileMenu Tools: Customize Explorer Context Menu

The right-click menu can make you productive. It can also derail it with a clutter of commands. FileMenu Tools is a feature-rich, intuitive app that helps you customize the context menu.

For instance, modify the “Send-To” menu, and clear up the clutter added by other apps. FileMenu comes preloaded with a whole bunch of useful tools. Add customized commands according to the file types, use the advanced renamer to batch rename files, synchronize two folders from within the Explorer, and do more.

You can organize it with icons, separator, and a name through the properties dialog. The Pro version lets you add custom commands and an unlimited number of files and folders.

Download: FileMenu Tools (Free, Pro Version for $11)

7. Link Shell Extension: Hardlinks and Symbolic Links

Sometimes it might be useful to have a single file present in multiple folders on your computer, as opposed to simply having separate copies of that same file in different locations. Windows has this feature, but it needs some skill with the Windows command prompt.

Link Shell Extension is a sort of graphical tool to simplify the process of creating hard links, junctions, or volume mount points, and symbolic links (symlinks) with nothing more than a few clicks. Locate the file or folder, right-click and select Pick Link Source from the menu.

Then browse to a different folder, right-click and choose Drop As. Choose Hardlink to create a hard link to a file, or Symbolic Link to create a soft link to a file or directory. If you often work with hard links and symlinks, this app can save you a lot of time.

Download: Link Shell Extension (Free)

8. Groupy: Organize Explorer Into Grouped Tabs

Groupy is a utility app for a better window management system. It creates tabs for Windows apps, both modern UWP, and classic Win32. Simply drag a window you want to group over the title bar of another window. You can use this app to organize multiple Explorer windows into groups.

On installation, Groupy will ask you to set the position of tabs. To make tabs revealing, enable Show the window icon on tabs. You can also combine certain types of apps automatically.

If you work with a similar set of windows every day, save the group and re-launch the app to load tabs. The app can be useful for those working on multiple tasks at the same time.

Download: Groupy (30-day free trial, $5)

9. File Meta: View and Edit Metadata for Any File Type

Each file stored on your computer has metadata associated with it. Metadata is the information about a file’s source, size, rating, last modified date, and more. This metadata makes searching and organizing files on Windows a lot faster.

Microsoft restricted metadata to certain file types like images, music, and Microsoft Office files. File Meta allows you to add and edit metadata for any file.

To add metadata, select the file extension and choose a profile of editable properties given by Windows. Then, click Add File Meta Handler. Restart the Explorer to take effect.

File Meta Association Manager controls the properties shown in “Preview Panel”, “Info tip”, and in the “Details” tab of the Properties dialog for a file. The metadata properties will also be visible in the main pane of the File Explorer.

Download: File Meta (Free)

10. DropIt: Organize Files and Folders Automatically

Want to eliminate the drudgery of manually opening folders, renaming files, or moving them to different locations? Use DropIt to automate all your file management.

Using DropIt is simple. Create some associations between rules and actions. Then drag-and-drop files or folders on the floating icon to start processing them. You can define how to filter your file by name, size, date, property, and associate one of the 21 available actions to perform. It supports actions like Upload, Rename, Encrypt, Compress, Change Properties, and much more.

DropIt also lets you monitor a folder at a definite interval and takes action on them automatically. The action happens in the background. You don’t have to fiddle with anything.

Download: DropIt (Free)

Little Known Features of Windows File Explorer

If you spend a lot of time in File Explorer, try out some of these apps and see if they make you more productive.

Although File Explorer looks simple, don’t get fooled by its plain looks. It’s open to many hidden actions and tweaks that you may not be aware of it.

Read the full article: The 10 Best Windows File Explorer Extensions for File Management

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How to See Who Has Viewed Your LinkedIn Profile

Are you rethinking your place on Facebook? Then come to LinkedIn. The professional network’s “Who’s Viewed Your Profile” feature can be the first pull of a thread towards new professional connections, skill boosts, and career breakthroughs.

Think back. When did you last spend some time to really understand the members who visited your LinkedIn profile? What did you do with the breadcrumbs they left behind? The “Who’s Viewed Your Profile” tool can give you some clues…

What Kind of LinkedIn Account Do You Have?

LinkedIn has free and premium accounts. Your access to your profile views on the “Who’s Viewed Your Profile” dashboard depends on the account you have, the privacy settings of your account, and the people who visit your profile.

LinkedIn Basic (Free) Account

If you have a free account, you’ll be able to see up to five results of who has viewed your profile, the number of visits to your profile, and the number of times you’ve appeared in search results.

These three bits of insights can help you build your professional network:

• Their job titles.
• Where your profile viewers work.
• Where they found you from.

To see these last five profile views, you will have to enable the display of your name and headline in your profile visibility settings page.

To enable the name and headline, click the Me icon on your homepage. Follow these steps:

1. Click Settings & Privacy. Select the Privacy tab.
2. Scroll down to the How others see your LinkedIn activity section. Click and expand Profile viewing options.
3. Under Select what others can see when you’ve viewed their profile, choose to show Your name and headline.

The choice will be saved automatically.

In the same way, the information you can see on your visitors also depends on how they have set up their own profile visibility settings.

• Visitors have enabled “name and headline”. You will see their name, headline, location, and industry.
• Some are partially anonymous. You can see limited information like title and industry, or university only.
• Members have enabled private mode for total anonymity. You will see only “LinkedIn Member”.

LinkedIn Premium (Paid) Accounts

LinkedIn Premium users do not have any restrictions on viewing history across the last 90 days. A slider across the top of the page shows where the visitors have come from, and the most common titles they have, along with how they found you on LinkedIn.

But do remember that premium users won’t be able to see any additional information on viewers who have enabled Private mode.

How to See Who Has Viewed Your LinkedIn Profile

It goes without saying that profile views will be visible only if visitors come to your page. Also, the actual time frame LinkedIn uses to show the number of visitors differs sometimes. But LinkedIn says that it tries to display a minimum of five views over any time frame.

There are two routes to check up on visitors who have viewed your profile in the last 90 days.

1. Log into LinkedIn. On your home page, click Who’s viewed your profile, beneath your profile photo on the left rail.

2. Click the Me icon with your photo at the top of your LinkedIn homepage > Click View profile > Choose Who Viewed Your Profile on Your Dashboard.

3. Click the Me icon at the top of your LinkedIn homepage > Click Access My Premium > The Who viewed your profile data for the past 90 days will be displayed under Your personalized insights.

How Can You Benefit From the Personalized Insights

As with any other social network, you’ll get LinkedIn invites from strangers. However, it makes more sense to connect with people who are related to your industry rather than random strangers. The right person can give you a career break or just spur you with a validation that you are on track.

LinkedIn says there are four immediate actions you can take to touch base with people visiting your profile. But here are some other ideas which can help you leverage the insights LinkedIn provides. It’s all in the numbers and the slider you see on top.

1. Make it a part of your job hunt. Visit their profile and the company they work for to see if there are any open positions available. The person who crept into your profile could give you the inside track too if you ask nicely.
2. Check if your resume is getting attention. Your resume could be moving up the pile if the HR has started checking you out.
3. Use it to confirm your LinkedIn efforts. Keeping your profile updates at all times is one of our essential LinkedIn profile tips. The “Who’s Viewed Your Profile” data tells you if you are attracting the right sort of people.
4. Ask for a side gig. Perhaps you want to get a start project. Offer your services with an introductory message and see if there’s any scope. You won’t get if you don’t ask.
5. See what you have in common. You may be part of a shared LinkedIn group or have connections in common. Use this base to build stronger relationships.
6. Expand your network. This is the most obvious way to use personal insights and grow your network with the right people.
7. Reconnect. Did someone from your 1st-degree connections check you out? Reboot your relationship with a message or two.
8. Gamify LinkedIn with the numbers. LinkedIn gives you absolute numbers and a percentage of increase/decrease of viewers since last week. Challenge yourself to get these numbers up. You can keep your profile updated, connect with new people, write LinkedIn blog posts, and actively participate on the homepage to do so.

Always Connect With a Purpose

If you are an eager networking beaver, then the “Who’s Viewed Your Profile” LinkedIn feature is a simple feedback tool. So take a look into it and you should discover the reasons why people are coming to your LinkedIn profile. Which could prove invaluable.

This is just one of a number of LinkedIn features you’re probably not using, so keep your eyes peeled on MakeUseOf for more tips and tricks.

Read the full article: How to See Who Has Viewed Your LinkedIn Profile

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Android TV vs. Amazon Fire TV: Which Is Best?

If you’re researching cord cutting, a few devices/platforms will keep popping up again and again—Android TV, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, Chromecast, and Roku are the most common.

Today, we’re going to pitch Android TV and Amazon Fire TV against one another. What are their similarities? What are their differences? And which platform is the best? Read on to find out.

Cost

Which of the two platforms—Android TV or Amazon Fire TV—is more expensive? As is so often the case in these types of comparisons, there’s no easy answer.

Of the two, the cost of the Amazon Fire TV is the more straightforward. Amazon offers three portable TV devices; the Fire TV Stick, the Fire TV Stick 4K, and the Fire TV Cube.

The cheapest device, the Fire TV Stick, costs $39.99. The 4K version will set you back $49.99, and the Cube is $119.99.

Android TV takes a slightly different approach. Much like the world of smartphones, several manufacturers run tweaked versions of the operating system on their own boxes.

As such, the quality and price vary dramatically. At one end of the scale, you can find cheap no-brand Chinese products for less than $20. At the other end, the best-in-class Nvidia Shield Pro costs $300.

You can also find televisions with Android TV or Fire TV built-in, but they will not form part of this comparison.

Android TV vs. Amazon Fire TV: Specs

As you can see in our comparison of Amazon’s Fire TV devices each have slightly different hardware specs.

Only the Fire TV Stick 4K and the Fire TV Cube support ultra HD and HDR 10 video output, while only the Cube has an internal speaker and far-field voice control for both the TV and your third-party devices.

From a storage standpoint, the Fire TV Stick and Fire TV Stick 4K offer 8GB of internal space. The Cube doubles that capacity to 16GB.

And if you want to connect the basic Stick or the 4K Stick to an ethernet port on your router, you’ll need to purchase a separate Amazon Ethernet Adapter. It’s one of many great items in the Amazon Basics product line. The Cube has its own ethernet port.

Once again, comparing the specs of Android TV is more difficult, but we’re going to look at the Nvidia Shield Pro ($300) and the Xiaomi Mi Box ($88). Despite the differing price points, both are among the best Android TV boxes you can buy.

The Shield has a 500 GB hard drive, 4K HDR playback at 60 FPS, Dolby Atmos audio, and an Nvidia Tegra X1 processor. It runs Android 8.0. The Shield also has Plex Media Server capabilities; if you don’t want to use a computer and don’t have a NAS drive, it is a great option.

In contrast, the Mi Box is not as powerful. Like the Shield, it can produce 4K video at 60 FPS. However, it only has 8 GB of storage, 2 GB of RAM, and a quad-core Cortex-A53 2.0GHz processor. There is no support for a Plex Media Server.

Again, remember, that these are just two models. You can find Android TV devices with a vast variety of specs if you do some digging.

Kodi

Many people use Kodi for their video-watching needs. The home theater app is one of the best ways to watch movies in your local library and access (legal!) online content from your favorite TV networks and streaming providers.

If you’re a Kodi user, you should opt for Android TV. Kodi is available as a native Android TV app through the Google Play Store. The app isn’t available natively on Amazon’s products. If you want to install Kodi on Amazon Fire TV, you will need to use a fiddly workaround.

The big advantage of a native Kodi app is the update process. If you install Kodi through an official store, it will automatically update itself. If you install it manually using an APK file, you will need to redownload a new APK file for every update—it’s a time-consuming process.

Virtual Assistants and Smart Home Integration

It wasn’t always the case, but all the new generation of Fire TV Sticks ship with an Alexa-enabled remote control. You can use it to access the personal assistant and control third-party smart home devices around your home.

Because of the fragmented nature of Android TV, support for the Google Home smart assistant is a bit more hit-and-miss. Mid- and high-range devices mostly offer support through a remote and/or far-field voice control; cheaper models are less likely to offer the feature.

If you’re planning to purchase a budget Android TV device and Google Home integration is important to you, make sure you do your research before hitting the buy button.

App Availability

When you’re choosing the right streaming box for your household, the most important thing to consider is app availability. If you can’t access the apps you need, the whole endeavor is a waste of time.

Both Android TV and Amazon Fire TV devices offer all the mainstream apps like Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, Spotify, and so on.

However, there’s a glaring omission from the Fire TV line-up: YouTube. An ongoing battle between the tech giants means Google’s video service is not available. The workaround is to use Amazon’s Silk Browser, but it’s not ideal.

The other major issue with Fire TV devices is the lack of the Google Play Store. Instead, Amazon offers its own store. That’s not a problem most of the time, but it does mean you can’t download or use apps like Gmail, Keep, or Maps. Because the missing store means you don’t have access to Google Play Services, the apps still won’t work even if you sideload them.

Interface

We prefer the interface on Android TV. The home screen on Fire TV devices has too much space dedicated to Amazon Prime Video and not enough real estate left over for other apps.

Android TV, on the other hand, is highly customizable. You can add apps (and their associated latest videos) to the home screen, curate your own “Watch Next” playlist, and integrate games and video content into a single frontend.

And the Winner Is…

A top-of-the-line Android TV device is better than a top-of-the-line Amazon Fire TV device. You’ll have better specs, a more extensive selection of apps, and more additional features.

However, if you’re shopping at the budget end of the scale, we’d recommend going for an Amazon Fire TV Stick over an equivalently priced Android TV device. You will enjoy faster speeds and a smoother viewing experience.

If you still can’t decide, check out our comparisons of the Amazon Fire Stick vs. Roku and Android TV vs. the Chromecast before making up your mind.

Read the full article: Android TV vs. Amazon Fire TV: Which Is Best?

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How to Secure Your Accounts With 2FA: Gmail, Outlook, and More

Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) is a hot topic, and for a good reason. 2FA provides an additional layer of security for your online account by requiring a second login token, on a separate device. A password for your password, in a sense.

2FA works differently depending on the online account you are using. 2FA also carries slightly different names in some places, too. So, here is your short guide to enabling 2FA, in its various guises, on a host of online accounts.

How Does 2FA Work?

Two-Factor Authentication works by locking your account with two separate “factors.” In this case, a factor is “something you know” (e.g. password), “something you have” (e.g. phone), or “something you are” (e.g. fingerprint). You have the best protection combing two of these factors.

If your account uses two locks of the same factor, you have two-step authentication. For instance, your password and an additional security question (think mother’s maiden name, first pet name, and so), are both “something you know.” While this isn’t bad, per se, full two-factor authentication is more secure.

Check out our article on the pros and cons of different 2FA methods for a more in-depth look at the system.

How to Set Up 2FA on Gmail and Google

Your Google accounts can use several different 2FA schemes, such is the search giant’s commitment to securing your accounts.

Google Prompt

The first is through the newer Google Prompt system. Instead of sending a one-time code, you receive a Google Prompt on your separate device. You simply unlock your phone and tap Yes to unlock your account.

Head to your Google Account, select Security, and then under the Signing in to Google header select 2-Step Verification. You will have to sign into your account again using your current password. Then select Try It Now to send a Google Prompt message to your listed device.

Once you accept the Google Prompt, you will meet another screen asking if you want to turn on 2-Step Verification. (Some users may meet a screen asking them to confirm their mobile number using an SMS; do this, then continue.) Select Turn On.

Authenticator App

Some users may prefer to use a different 2FA system. One such option is the Google Authenticator app. The Authenticator app generates a six-digit code for you to log into your account, but you must have your phone with you for the system to work.

Before starting the Authenticator app 2FA process, you must download the app to your phone.

Download: Google Authenticator for Android | iOS

Once you download the app, head back to your Google Account (as above), select Security, and the under the Signing in to Google header, select 2-Step Verification. You will have to sign into your account using your newly set up Google Prompt, but from there you will access the 2-Step Verification settings.

Scroll down and select the Authenticator app, then select the type of phone you have (Android or iPhone). A QR code will appear. Open the Authenticator app on your phone, select the + symbol to add a new email address, then select Scan a barcode. Use the app to scan the QR code on your screen and see that it instantaneously adds the account to the app.

Each time you log in to your Google Account, you must provide the six-digit Google Authenticator code.

If you don’t have the code, you will not access your account.

How to Set Up 2FA on Microsoft Outlook

In this instance, you are looking at Microsoft’s Outlook.com service, rather than the desktop Outlook client. The Outlook desktop client has other forms of security, such as password protecting your Outlook PST file. However, 2FA isn’t currently available for it.

To lock down your Outlook.com account, visit your Microsoft account page then select the Security tab, followed by More Security Options. Under the Two-step Verification header, select Turn on two-step verification, then hit Next to proceed.

Now, choose whether you want to use an app, phone number, or alternative email address to secure your account. In this case, choose An app because it is the most secure option and works even when your phone is offline.

Microsoft wants you to use its authenticator app. However, in this case, we’re going to use Google Authenticator. (We used Google Authenticator in the previous section, so it should already be on your phone.) Select your mobile operating system from the list, then open the Authenticator app, scan the QR code, then enter the six-digit code to confirm. Copy the recovery code before you hit Finish.

Note: There are other excellent 2FA authentication apps out there.

How to Set Up 2FA on Apple and iCloud

Apple’s 2FA is very Apple-centric. In that, you won’t be using the Google Authenticator app, or any other app for that matter. That said, the Apple 2FA process works very well and only takes a moment or two to set up.

The process for turning 2FA on is different for a Mac or an iDevice. Head to this short MakeUseOf guide to protecting your Apple account with 2FA for full details.

How to Set Up 2FA on Facebook

Locking up your Facebook account is as important as your email address these days.

To enable 2FA, head to your Facebook Security Settings page. Next, select Use two-factor authentication, then Get started. You have two options: Text message, or Authentication app. You can select whichever option suits you.

You can use the Google Authenticator app from the other sections in this article. Just scan the QR code and follow the Facebook instructions.

Alternatively, enter your phone number, wait for the activation code arrive and follow the Facebook instructions.

How to Set Up 2FA on Twitter

Twitter supports third-party authenticator apps, so you can use Google Authenticator to secure your account.

Head to your Twitter account settings, then under the Security header select Login Verification. You can turn on SMS 2F by entering your phone number and then entering the code. If your Twitter account isn’t already using SMS verification, you must turn this on before enabling a third-party authentication app.

Once you turn on Login Verification, head back to the same menu and select Review your login verification methods, then select Mobile security app > Set up. Scan the QR code using the Authenticator app and follow the Twitter instructions.

How to Set Up 2FA on Instagram

Instagram 2FA comes in two forms: an SMS code or using an authentication app. Instagram added the latter in 2018 to boost account security and set up is very easy.

In the Instagram app, head to Settings > Two-Factor Authentication, then select the 2FA method you prefer.

If you select “Authentication App,” the Instagram app will automatically detect your installed authentication app and send a login code. For instance, your Instagram account would automatically appear in the Google Authenticator app on your phone.

How to Set Up 2FA on Amazon

Your Amazon account is another that requires serious security. If someone accesses your Amazon account, they can spend as if they were you. (Amazon does have additional security checks for new delivery addresses, but you shouldn’t rely on that.)

Head to your Amazon Advanced Security Settings and select Get Started. You can use SMS or an authenticator app. If you choose the latter, scan the QR code using the Authenticator app and follow the Amazon instructions.

Two-Factor Authentication for Email Is Worth It

It takes a minute or two to set 2FA security up on all of your accounts. Of course, the accounts on this list aren’t exhaustive. But you now understand how the 2FA process works, why 2FA is essential, and where you might find the settings in your other online accounts.

Want to understand more about 2FA? Here’s why it is worth using an authenticator app instead of basic SMS 2FA!

Read the full article: How to Secure Your Accounts With 2FA: Gmail, Outlook, and More

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Everything you need to know about Facebook, Google’s app scandal

Facebook and Google landed in hot water with Apple this week after two investigations by TechCrunch revealed the misuse of internal-only certificates — leading to their revocation, which led to a day of downtime at the two tech giants.

Confused about what happened? Here’s everything you need to know.

How did all this start, and what happened?

On Monday, we revealed that Facebook was misusing an Apple-issued certificate that is only meant for companies to use to distribute internal, employee-only apps without having to go through the Apple App Store. But the social media giant used that certificate to sign an app that Facebook distributed outside the company, violating Apple’s rules.

The app, known simply as “Research,” allowed Facebook access to all the data flowing out of the device it was installed on. Facebook paid users — including teenagers — $20 per month to install the app. But it wasn’t clear exactly what kind of data was being vacuumed up, or for what reason.

It turns out that the app was a repackaged app that was effectively banned from Apple’s App Store last year for collecting too much data on users.

Apple was angry that Facebook was misusing its special-issue certificates to push an app it already banned, and revoked it — rendering the app useless. But Facebook was using that same certificate to sign its other employee-only apps, effectively knocking them offline until Apple re-issued the certificate.

Then, it turned out Google was doing almost exactly the same thing with its Screenwise app, and Apple’s ban-hammer fell again.

What’s the controversy over these certificates and what can they do?

If you want to develop Apple apps, you have to abide by its rules.

A key rule is that Apple doesn’t allow app developers to bypass the App Store, where every app is vetted to ensure it’s as secure as it can be. It does, however, grant exceptions for enterprise developers, such as to companies that want to build apps that are only used internally by employees. Facebook and Google in this case signed up to be enterprise developers and agreed to Apple’s developer terms.

Apple granted each a certificate that grants permission to distribute apps they develop internally — including pre-release versions of the apps they make, for testing purposes. But these certificates aren’t allowed to be used for ordinary consumers, as they have to download apps through the App Store.

Why is “root” certificate access a big deal?

Because Facebook’s Research and Google’s Screenwise apps were distributed outside of Apple’s App Store, it required users to manually install the app — known as sideloading. That requires users to go through a convoluted few steps of downloading the app itself, and opening and installing either Facebook or Google’s certificate.

Both apps then required users to open another certificate — known as a VPN configuration profile — allowing all of the data flowing out of that user’s phone to funnel down a special tunnel that directs it all to either Facebook or Google, depending on the app you installed.

This is where Facebook and Google’s cases differ.

Google’s app collected data and sent it off to Google for research purposes, but couldn’t access encrypted data — such as iMessages, or other end-to-end encrypted content.

Facebook, however, went far further. Its users were asked to go through an additional step to trust the certificate at the “root” level of the phone. Trusting this “root certificate” allowed Facebook to look at all of the encrypted traffic flowing out of the device — essentially what we call a “man-in-the-middle” attack. That allowed Facebook to sift through your messages, your emails, and any other bit of data that leaves your phone. Only apps that use certificate pinning — which reject any certificate that isn’t its own — were protected.

Facebook’s Research app requires Root Certificate access, which Facebook gather almost any piece of data transmitted by your phone. (Image: supplied)

Google’s app might not have been able to look at encrypted traffic, but the company still flouted the rules and got its certificate revoked anyway.

What data did Facebook have access to on iOS?

It’s hard to know for sure, but it definitely had access to more data than Google.

Facebook said its app was to help it “understand how people use their mobile devices.” In reality, at root traffic level, Facebook could have accessed any kind of data that left your phone.

Will Strafach, a security expert who we spoke to for our story, said: “If Facebook makes full use of the level of access they are given by asking users to install the certificate, they will have the ability to continuously collect the following types of data: private messages in social media apps, chats from in instant messaging apps – including photos/videos sent to others, emails, web searches, web browsing activity, and even ongoing location information by tapping into the feeds of any location tracking apps you may have installed.”

Remember: this isn’t “root” access to your phone, like jailbreaking, but root access to the network traffic.

How does this compare to the technical ways other market research programs work?

In fairness, these aren’t market research apps unique to Facebook or Google. Several other companies, like Nielsen and comScore, run similar programs, but neither ask users to install a VPN or provide root access to the network.

In any case, Facebook already has a lot of your data — as does Google. Even if the companies only wanted to look at your data in aggregate with other people, it can still hone in on who you talk to, when, for how long, and in some cases what about. It might not have been such an explosive scandal had Facebook not spent the last year cleaning up after several security and privacy breaches.

Mark Zuckerberg is ‘proud’ of how Facebook handled its scandals this year

Can they capture the data of people the phone owner interacts with?

In both cases, yes. In Google’s case, any unencrypted data that involves another person’s data could have been collected. In Facebook’s case, it goes far further — any data of yours that interacts with another person, such as an email or a message, could have been collected by Facebook’s app.

How many people did this affect?

It’s hard to know for sure. Neither Google nor Facebook have said how many users they have. Between them, it’s believed to be in the thousands. As for the employees affected by the app outages, Facebook has more than 35,000 employees and Google has more than 94,000 employees.

Why did internal apps at Facebook and Google break after Apple revoked the certificates?

You might own your Apple device, but Apple still gets to control what goes on it.

After Facebook was caught out, Apple said: “Any developer using their enterprise certificates to distribute apps to consumers will have their certificates revoked, which is what we did in this case to protect our users and their data.” That meant any app that relied on the certificate — including inside the company — would fail to load. That’s not just pre-release builds of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp that staff were working on, but reportedly the company’s travel and collaboration apps were down. In Google’s case, even its catering and lunch menu apps were down.

Facebook’s internal apps were down for about a day, while Google’s internal apps were down for a few hours. None of Facebook or Google’s consumer services were affected, however.

How are people viewing Apple in all this?

Nobody seems thrilled with Facebook or Google at the moment, but not many are happy with Apple, either. Even though Apple sells hardware and doesn’t use your data to profile you or serve you ads — like Facebook and Google do — some are uncomfortable with how much power Apple has over the customers — and enterprises — that use its devices.

In revoking Facebook and Google’s enterprise certificates and causing downtime, it has a knock-on effect internally.

Is this legal in the U.S.? What about in Europe with GDPR?

Well, it’s not illegal — at least in the U.S. Facebook says it gained consent from its users. The company even said its teenage users must obtain parental consent, even though it was easily skippable and no verification checks were made. It wasn’t even explicitly clear that the children who “consented” really understood how much privacy they were really handing over.

Facebook’s VPN app puts spotlight on kids’ consent

That could lead to major regulatory headaches down the line. “If it turns out that European teens have been participating in the research effort Facebook could face another barrage of complaints under the bloc’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) — and the prospect of substantial fines if any local agencies determine it failed to live up to consent and ‘privacy by design’ requirements baked into the bloc’s privacy regime,” wrote TechCrunch’s Natasha Lomas.

Who else have been misusing certificates?

Don’t think that Facebook and Google are alone in this. It turns out that a lot of companies might be flouting the rules, too.

According to many finding companies on social media, Sonos uses enterprise certificates for its beta program, as does finance app Binance, as well as DoorDash for its fleet of contractors. It’s not known if Apple will also revoke their certificates.

What next?

It’s anybody’s guess, but don’t expect this situation to die down any time soon.

Facebook may face repercussions with Europe, as well as at home. Two U.S. senators, Mark Warner and Richard Blumenthal, have already called for action, accusing Facebook of “wiretapping teens.” The Federal Trade Commission may also investigate, if Blumenthal gets his way.

Senator Warner calls on Zuckerberg to support market research consent rules

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Let’s save the bees with machine learning

Machine learning and all its related forms of “AI” are being used to work on just about every problem under the sun, but even so, stemming the alarming decline of the bee population still seems out of left field. In fact it’s a great application for the technology and may help both bees and beekeepers keep hives healthy.

The latest threat to our precious honeybees is the varroa mite, a parasite that infests hives and sucks the blood from both bees and their young. While it rarely kills a bee outright, it can weaken it and cause young to be born similarly weak or deformed. Over time this can lead to colony collapse.

The worst part is that unless you’re looking closely, you might not even see the mites — being mites, they’re tiny: a millimeter or so across. So infestations often go on for some time without being discovered.

Beekeepers, caring folk at heart obviously, want to avoid this. But the solution has been to put a flat surface beneath a hive and pull it out every few days, inspecting all the waste, dirt, and other hive junk for the tiny bodies of the mites. It’s painstaking and time-consuming work, and of course if you miss a few, you might think the infestation is getting better instead of worse.

Machine learning to the rescue!

As I’ve had occasion to mention about a billion times before this, one of the things machine learning models are really good at is sorting through noisy data, like a surface covered in random tiny shapes, and finding targets, like the shape of a dead varroa mite.

Students at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland created an image recognition agent called ApiZoom trained on images of mites that can sort through a photo and identify any visible mite bodies in seconds. All the beekeeper needs to do is take a regular smartphone photo and upload it to the EPFL system.

The project started back in 2017, and since then the model has been trained with tens of thousands of images and achieved a success rate of detection of about 90 percent, which the project’s Alain Bugnon told me is about at parity with humans. The plan now is to distribute the app as widely as possible.

“We envisage two phases: a web solution, then a smartphone solution. These two solutions allow to estimate the rate of infestation of a hive, but if the application is used on a large scale, of a region,” Bugnon said. “By collecting automatic and comprehensive data, it is not impossible to make new findings about a region or atypical practices of a beekeeper, and also possible mutations of the Varroa mites.”

That kind of systematic data collection would be a major help for coordinating infestation response at a national level. ApiZoom is being spun out as a separate company by Bugnon; hopefully this will help get the software to beekeepers as soon as possible. The bees will thank them later.

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