Changes are coming to Microsoft's Privacy Statement and Services Agreement
On August 2, coinciding with the launch of Windows 10 Anniversary Update, Microsoft is updating its Privacy Statement. The company is a little light on the details of exactly what the changes are, but says that more will be revealed on the big day. The aim of the changes, as with previous updates is to "eliminate redundancies, improve usability and increase clarity and transparency".
Microsoft makes clear that it is in the habit of sharing user data with others "in certain cases" and it also announces that the Services Agreement will be updated on September 15. You are advised that if you don’t agree with the changes you should "discontinue using the products and services, and close your Microsoft account before these terms become effective".
The SwiftKey keyboard app is busy leaking email addresses and phone numbers to strangers
Who doesn't love a good AI-driven keyboard, eh? Well, people who have discovered that the keyboard is sending their email address and phone number to strangers, for starters. And that seems to be precisely what's happening with SwiftKey.
The Microsoft-owned company has disabled the syncing of data between devices after users complained not only about the appearance of unknown email addresses and phone numbers in suggestions, but also suggestions in unknown foreign languages. The problem became apparent when users who saw the random email address suggestions contacted the owner of the address.
Reminder: You now have mere hours to upgrade to Windows 10 for free
Today is the big day -- July 29, the last day when you can upgrade to Windows 10 free of charge. Actually, the cut-off point really depends on where you are in the world, but you have until 11:59 pm UTC-10. Timeanddate.com has a handy conversion to work out what this means for you.
It would be fair to say that there has been plenty of warning about the impending deadline, but there are still people who are putting things off. But really there is no reason not to upgrade; even if you decided you don’t want Windows 10, you can rollback, and you have the option of changing your mind further down the line without having to cough up for the upgrade.
WhatsApp doesn't properly delete 'deleted' chats
A security researcher is warning WhatsApp users that their chats can be retrieved even after they have been deleted, cleared, or archived. Jonathan Zdziarski says that even using the 'Clear All Chats' option leaves behind a 'forensic trace'.
He warns that the only way to be certain that your chat history is deleted, is to get rid of the app entirely. The problem appears to stem from WhatsApp's use of SQLite which fails to overwrite deleted data by default, rendering it recoverable.
Microsoft celebrates the 20th anniversary of Windows Server
With strange serendipitous timing, just as the free upgrade period for Windows 10 is coming to an end, Microsoft is also celebrating the 20th anniversary of Windows Server. Way back in 1996, the company unleashed Windows NT 4.0 Server onto an unsuspecting world. The rest, as they say, is history.
Described as the operating system that would 'knock the socks of Unix' Windows NT 4.0 Server stuck around for four years before being replaced by the enterprise-specific Windows 2000 Server. With laughably low system requirements -- 133 MHz CPU, 32 MB RAM and 1 GB of disk space -- this was the start of a journey incorporating centralization and security.
Google brings add-ons to Docs and Sheets on Android
With a desktop word processor and spreadsheet, you have great power to create a range of documents. The move to the cloud and mobile means that popular Office suites have been ported to mobile platforms, and this usually means missing out on key features -- like add-ons.
Today, this changes as Google has announced that Android add-ons for Docs and Sheets are now available. This means that Google's mobile office tools can be extended with add-ons like DocuSign, Scanbot and Zoho CRM.
Microsoft changes minimum hardware requirements for Windows 10 to improve security
Today -- the day before the free upgrade to Windows 10 expires, and just a few more days before the release of Windows 10 Anniversary Update -- Microsoft is tweaking the minimum system requirements for the operating system.
Specifically, hardware manufacturers will have to include TPM 2.0 in PCs, smartphones and tablets if they are to be considered Windows 10 compatible. TPM 2.0 (Trusted Platform Module) is an added hardware-based security layer that helps to protect user data,
At last! Google Play Family Library lets you share purchased apps, games and movies with others
It's something that Android users have been begging for -- the ability to buy an app once, and share it with members of the family. Until now, one way around the problem was to create a shared family account that could be used to download everything, but now Google has a better solution: Google Play Family Library.
This new feature not only lets you share purchased apps with up to six family members, but also games, movies, TV shows and books. It's something that could save Android-using families a good deal of money, and it's rolling out right now.
Tim Sweeney: Microsoft is trying to kill Steam with Windows 10
Microsoft is on a mission to destroy Steam with Windows 10. At least that is what Tim Sweeney, co-founder of Epic Games believes. He says that Microsoft's love of UWP (Universal Windows Platform) apps means that Win32 apps are gradually being driven to extinction.
In an interview with Edge magazine, Sweeney says that he predicts Microsoft will release patches for Windows 10 over the next few years that will render Steam "progressively worse and more broken".
Zero-day flaw leaves LastPass vulnerable to attack [UPDATE: it's fixed]
A Google Project Zero hacker has discovered a zero-day vulnerability in the password manager LastPass that could lead to accounts being completely compromised.
The security flaw can be triggered by visiting a malicious website, and it has been confirmed to be an issue by white hat security researcher Tavis Ormandy. He has filed a full report to LastPass with a view to getting the vulnerability patched.
Your wireless keyboard could be secretly leaking unencrypted data to hackers
Researchers at security firm Bastille warn that many wireless keyboards can be very easily intercepted so hackers can see exactly what is being typed. With a very simple dongle called Keysniffer, it is possible to snoop on usernames, passwords and anything else that is being typed from up to 250 feet away.
In all, Bastille found that eight manufacturers produce keyboards -- meaning there are millions in use -- which use unencrypted radio communication to transmit easily captured clear text. The problem affects non-Bluetooth devices from the likes of Anker, Hewlett-Packard, Kensington and Toshiba.
EU-US data-sharing Privacy Shield agreement will run for at least a year without legal challenges
The rocky road to finding a replacement to the Safe Harbour data transfer agreement appears to have become a little smoother. The successor to the EU-US arrangement is Privacy Shield, and European regulators have said it will be permitted to run to at least a year without intervention.
Having been deemed unsuitable because of the level of access it gave the US to European data, Safe Harbor's replacement has been a long time coming. The head nod from regulators will be widely welcomed by the tech industry, as well as those disturbed by NSA surveillance revelations.
Microsoft boosts the intelligence of Office with Zoom for PowerPoint, Focused Inbox for Outlook, and more
Microsoft today announced a series of updates for its Office apps which help to make the suite more intelligent than ever. There's a strong focus on workflow and efficiency, and things kick off with the Researcher tool. This provides context-sensitive research materials that can be accessed from within Word and quickly added to a document complete with properly formatted citations.
Microsoft says that Researcher will continue to expand to include "sources like national science and health centers, well-known encyclopedias, history databases and more". But this is far from being the only new tool to be added in the latest monthly update.
No, Facebook wasn't deliberately censoring Wikileaks' #DNCLeak emails
Julian Assange promised to deliver a cache of emails that would harm 'liberal war hawk' Hillary Clinton and her presidential campaign. Living up to Assange's promise, Wikileaks delivered the goods.
It wasn't long before controversy struck, but this was not because of the content of the emails. The communication between US Democratic Party committee members was shared on Facebook but it didn't take long for the content to be blocked, leading to accusations of censorship.
TechCrunch hacked by OurMine
The TechCrunch website was today hit by a hacker group going by the name of OurMine. The group describes itself as "an elite hacker group known for many hacks showing vulnerabilities in major systems".
The hack was -- on the face of it, at least -- not particularly malicious, and came across as almost polite. Rather than completely defacing the site, OurMine chose instead to simply post a news story to indicate that the CMS had been breached.
Sofia Elizabella's Bio
Sofia Wyciślik-Wilson is a queer, transgender journalist based in Poland. She has been writing about technology for more than two decades, and after years working for magazines, her writing moved online. She is fueled by literature, music, nature, and vegetables. You can find her on Bluesky and Mastodon. If you like what you read, you can Buy her a Coffee!
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