Sofia Elizabella Wyciślik-Wilson

Facebook set to pay millions in UK tax

Tax blocks

Tax restructuring at Facebook means the company is due to pay millions of pounds in tax in 2017. The social network famously paid just £4,327 in corporation tax in 2014, but this bill is about to get much larger as advertising revenue is set to be routed through the UK rather than the tax haven of Ireland. A wide-scaled restructuring means advertising sales will now be booked in Britain and subject to UK tax.

Tech companies such as Amazon, eBay and Google have been criticized for their use of tax avoidance schemes, although Google recently agreed to pay back £130 million in tax. Not everyone was happy with Google's 'sweetheart' deal and there has been increased pressure on other companies to pay their fair share.

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Windows 10 Fast Startup could be detrimental to your computer

Faster -- like bigger -- is better, right? Not necessarily. Windows 10 includes a feature called Fast Startup which certainly sounds enticing. Microsoft's description in the Control Panel says, "this helps start your PC faster after shutdown". Who wouldn't want a slice of that pie?

Enabled by default on most clean installations of Windows 10, Fast Startup essentially hibernates the Windows kernel and loaded drivers to help slash startup times. It all sounds great, but Fast Startup may not be quite as good as you think. Not only can it seriously mess up dual-boot systems, it may also interfere with the installation of updates, and could cause problems with encryption software.

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Fake profiles on social media could become illegal

Facebook has faced a great deal of criticism over its real names policy, and a number of people have fallen foul of the rule that prevents users from assuming a pseudonym. UK law enforcement agencies are looking for ways to tackle the problem of online abuse perpetrated by trolls.

Among the suggestions put forward by the Crown Prosecution Service is that people who use fake social media accounts to harass and abuse others should be prosecuted. The proposals would normally only apply to adults, but children could be hit by the legislation in certain circumstances as well.

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Twitter to help UK prosecutors fight revenge porn and online abuse

Twitter has long-battled trolls and after launching various tools to help combat abuse, the social network is lending its support to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) in the UK. The social network is to work with prosecutors to provide training that will help the CPS to fight revenge porn, stalking and other forms of online abuse.

The move comes after a marked increase in the use of social media to perpetrate attacks on individuals, particularly women. But while levels of technical nous have generally increased, legal services have been slow to keep up with the latest changes. With new guidelines set to be published covering the persecution of women through social media, prosecutors are ready to call on Twitter's experience.

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Disable Windows 10's Microsoft Consumer Experience to take control of your Start menu

Windows 10

Microsoft's use of the Start menu to promote 'recommended apps' is nothing new, but recent builds of the operating system take things a step further. Install Windows 10 on a new computer, or create a new user account, and you'll find that a number of extra apps -- including Candy Crush Soda Saga, Flipboard, and Twitter -- appear in the Start menu.

Getting rid of these Start menu entries is simple enough, but the Microsoft Consumer Experience feature which is used to push the apps could be used to add links to more third party apps in future. Here's what you need to do to disable the Microsoft Consumer Experience and regain control of your computer.

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The 'free ride' of BBC iPlayer viewing is over as license fee loophole is to be closed

Watch TV in the UK -- be it through an aerial, cable, or satellite -- and you have to pay for a TV license. The official line is that you need a TV license "if you watch or record programmes as they're being shown on TV or live on an online TV service" and this has long-meant that anyone time-shifting their viewing by watching shows on BBC iPlayer have been able to do so for free. This is set to change.

Having waxed lyrical about the threat of adblockers to the web, UK culture secretary John Whittingdale turned his attention to the BBC's streaming services. He plans to close a loophole that has permitted people without a TV license to watch non-live shows on iPlayer without paying a fee and -- more importantly -- without breaking the law. He says that this is 'wrong' and wants to bring the 'free ride' to an end.

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Adblockers 'pose a threat to the survival' of news and music websites

Is adblocking good or evil? It's a discussion that has been rumbling on for some time, and it shows no signs of going away any time soon. The reasons for blocking ads are plentiful -- privacy, speed, annoyance -- but there's no getting away from the fact that ads mean revenue, and without this income many sites simply would not exist.

The latest figure to wade into the debate is the UK culture secretary John Whittingdale. While not going as far as calling for a ban on adblockers, he says that companies such as Adblock Plus are operating "modern-day protection rackets", ultimately threatening the existence of news sites.

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Hack the Pentagon!

The Pentagon is to run its own big bounty program, inviting white-hat hackers to test the security of its systems. It is not intended to be a free-for-all, and would-be hackers will be vetted before being given the go-ahead -- although of course there is nothing to stop anyone from trying to breach the defenses if they feel so inclined

The 'Hack the Pentagon' initiative was launched today by Defense Secretary Ash Carter. He said "I am confident that this innovative initiative will strengthen our digital defenses and ultimately enhance our national security". It is to be a carefully managed program which will only be open to US citizens, and networks relating to particularly sensitive material and weapons will be off-limits.

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Updated Snooper's charter will allow police to remotely hack phones and computers

The UK's controversial Snooper's charter (or draft Investigatory Powers Bill) has been updated to grant the police sweeping new powers. The new legislation will permit authorities to not only access the browsing histories of suspected criminals, but also to remotely hack into computers and phones in certain circumstances.

Previous version of the bill had limited such powers to the investigation of "serious crime", but the updated version expands this dramatically. Home Secretary Theresa May is hoping to push the draft Investigatory Powers Bill through parliament later this year. The bill has already met with strong criticism from not only privacy groups, but also governmental advisers. While there are some concessions to protect unbreakable encryption, the latest changes will do little to assuage concerns with the bill.

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Kiddle lets children search the web 'safely', leaves the sex talk to mom and dad

Parents with younger children may well be concerned about the type of content their offspring could stumble across online. While it is possible to enable the Safe Search feature of Google, this is not 100 percent reliable, and more adult content can slip through the net. A new 'visual search engine for kids', Kiddle, launched this week to plug the gap.

Although nothing to do with Google, Kiddle apes the colorful logo of the famous search giant, and also relies on Google Safe Search for some of its results. The bulk of the first ten results returned by any search, however, are handpicked by editors to ensure they are safe for children and easy to read. There are also some automatic filters in place that prevent searches for 'bad words' and the like and, interestingly, treat searched for homosexuality and heterosexuality in completely different ways.

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Apple win: New York judge dismisses FBI request in iPhone unlocking case

A New York judge has rejected an FBI demand for Apple to bypass the lock screen of a seized iPhone. Judge James Orenstein ruled that the FBI may not use the All Writs Act to force Apple to "bypass the passcode security" of an iPhone 5S running iOS 7 in a drug case.

This is not the only iPhone the FBI is seeking to have unlocked, and many are looking to the New York case as a precursor to a similar case involving the San Bernadino shooter's iPhone which is set to be heard next month. Talking about the California case, Tim Cook has liken complying with the FBI demands to create a backdoor as the "equivalent of cancer", and Judge Orenstein appears to have recognised that the New York drugs case could be seen to set a precedent.

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Kill the password! Yahoo Account Key rolls out to more apps

There have been a lot of attempts to kill the password and replace it with something more secure and easier to use. Biometric measures such as fingerprint and iris readers are increasingly common, but Yahoo is on a mission of its own with Yahoo Account Key.

Recognizing that "passwords suck", Yahoo launched the product back in October and since then there have been a few changes and additions. It's a simple system that uses your mobile as your access key and it's now available in more apps than ever.

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Documents reveal details of EU-US Privacy Shield data sharing deal

Details of the data sharing arrangements agreed between the US and EU earlier in the month have been revealed in newly published documents. The EU-US Privacy Shield transatlantic data transfer agreement is set to replace the Safe Harbor that had previously been in place.

The European Commission has released the full legal texts that will form the backbone of the data transfer framework. One of the aims is to "restore trust in transatlantic data flows since the 2013 surveillance revelations", and while privacy groups still take issue with the mechanism that will be in place, the agreement is widely expecting to be ratified by members of the EU.

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Microsoft is wrong to pester insiders for Windows 10 feedback

tablet feedback

Windows 10 has enjoyed the largest beta testing program of any version of Windows. In opening up the Windows Insider program to anyone who wants to sign up for it, Microsoft has been able to gather valuable feedback from more people than ever. But not enough people it seems.

Users of Windows 10 preview builds have been asked to provide feedback using either the feedback app, or by responding to occasional popup notifications that appear. Up until now these notifications have been optional but in the latest Redstone build there is no way to disable them. Of course the first argument to be put forward is that gaining feedback is the very point of running the insider program. But is it that simple? Could mandated feedback actually be counterproductive?

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Everything you need to know about Windows 10: product keys, secret tools, essential hacks, and problem fixes

Windows 10 has been with us for a number of months now, and this has given us plenty of time to unearth all manner of secrets about the operating system. Since launch we have experienced love, hate and everything in between, but we've also learned a great deal. We thought it would make sense to pull together all of this info into one place so you have it available in a handy respository. So what will you find here? Everything!

In the days of Windows being a paid-for OS, people would hunt high and low for cracks and serials to bypass activation. Now that Windows is free, this clearly isn't as prevalent as it used to be, but you might still want to look up your Windows 10 product key before you reinstall. But that's just the start; read on to learn tips, tweaks, hacks, and problem fixes.

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