The Indian government has performed a U-turn on a proposed encryption policy. Draft papers showed that the plan was to require people to store non-encryption versions of any data they have encrypted.

The draft policy was an all-encompassing one, and this led to a vocal backlash from users of social networks and messaging tools. The Indian government was forced to backtrack somewhat, making it clear that social media would be exempt and indicating that there is still a great deal of work to be done on the policy.

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Amazon Prime is a good deal to begin with, bringing two day free shipping, video streaming of movies and TV shows, as well as original content, music streaming and even a Kindle lending library for those books you've been meaning to read.

For all of that you pay an annual fee of $99, which is not considered high by many users, given the benefits. However, some people still are afraid of the price because it's all at once -- they can't space it out in small monthly fees as the likes of Netflix offer. It doesn't mean it's bad, it's just bad perception for some customers.

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As websites and online services become ever more demanding, the need for compression increases exponentially. Fans of Silicon Valley will be aware of the Pied Piper compression algorithm, and now Google has a more efficient one of its own.

Brotli is open source and is an entirely new data format that offers 20-26 percent greater compression than Zopfli, another compression algorithm from Google. Just like Zopfli, Brotli has been designed with the internet in mind, with the simple aim of making web pages load faster.

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One person's spam is another's feast, depending on who is giver or receiver. That's one way to read new capabilities coming to Gmail on Android and the web. The first, available starting today on PCs and arriving on Android devices over the next week, lets users block designated email addresses. Google describes "block", but the feature is more of an easy-and-quick filter that dumps unfriendly senders into the spam folder.

For either platform, you click the dropdown options menu to the right of the email address, and block appears as an option. Unsubscribe already is available from personal computers but is new to Android. For example, in the desktop browser, marking listserver messages as spam solicits the user to unsubscribe. The feature also will roll out over the next week to Android. 

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Has this ever happened to you? You go to charge your iPhone or Android device and your cable has fallen behind your desk or dresser. You then have to get on your knees and reach behind the furniture to try and fish it out. It is totally annoying and inconvenient -- especially when you just want to get to bed.

Well, Griffin wants to end this maddening experience. Its Guide Cable Management System will keep everything in place, meaning you never have to search behind your furniture for a fallen cable again. Hallelujah.

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In the aftermath of the big App Store security breach, today Apple reminds developers where they should obtain Xcode. It's not rocket science—from sanctioned distribution sources. I received an email this morning from the company, dispatched to members of its developer program.

To recap: As the new week dawned, Apple rushed to remove content from its Chinese App Store loaded with XcodeGhost malware. Developers using a counterfeit version of Xcode caused the first, major, widespread security crisis for the seven year-old App Store.

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We reported back in July on the UK government's plans to help small businesses boost their cyber security. Today enterprises across the country are being urged to protect themselves by taking up the government's Cyber Essentials scheme.

Whilst £1 in every £5 earned by UK businesses now comes from the Internet, cyber attacks are considered a serious threat. The latest figures reveal that 74 percent of small businesses and 90 percent of major businesses have had a cyber breach of some sort in the last year.

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Skype has announced that Microsoft’s new web browser, Edge, will soon support Skype voice and video calls without the need for a plugin.

This will work for new versions of both Skype for Web and Skype for Outlook.com, and should be implemented "later this year". Considering that this year has just over three months to go, it’s safe to assume it will come pretty fast.

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Despite the number of high-profile data breaches over the last year, many businesses and consumers are still not taking appropriate measures to ensure proper security online. The games industry is no exception, with several major game companies having been hit by significant breaches.

A survey by gaming industry backend service PlayFab of more than 500 users who play video games for more than four hours per week, reveals that 83 percent of respondents believe game developers should be responsible for securing players' personal data. However fewer than 40 percent say they feel confident in current safeguards.

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Australia is preparing for the jobs of the future by having children learn coding and programming at a very young age.

According to a report by Mashable, 21st century computer coding will be taught in primary schools from Year 5, and programming will be taught from Year 7. The curriculum was approved by Education Minister Christopher Pyne in one of his last acts before being sworn in as Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science.

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Data is the lifeblood of business, but getting the answers to key questions from it can be time consuming and costly as it needs specialist tools and expert analysis.

Analytics specialist Looker is trying to simplify the process of gaining insights from data with the release of a new product called Looker Blocks.

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If you are thinking of making the switch to Linux from Windows, there are many good beginner-friendly distributions from which to choose. I highlight two such operating systems here. But what if you are a bit more advanced in the ways of Linux?

Fedora is the top choice of many Linux experts, including the father of the kernel, Linus Torvalds. Today, version 23 of the operating system reaches beta status. Will you try it?

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Many companies rely on the use of survey software to stay in touch with and get feedback from their customers.

But there are lots of options available for conducting surveys, so which are the most popular? Software finding service Capterra has produced an infographic revealing the top 20 survey tools.

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Communication is absolutely vital to businesses and consumers, particularly in the always-on world that we inhabit. Increasingly, it is digital communication tools that enable us to stay connected and Skype is one of the most popular across the globe.

With an estimated 300 million users, Skype has enabled family members to remain in touch, long-distance relationships to endure and businesses to strengthen global ties, but it shouldn’t necessarily be the go-to video messaging app for you. There are a number of alternatives to Skype that offer great features in their own right and we’ve listed five of the best below.

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Nero has shipped its 2016 range of multimedia applications, including Nero Burning ROM 2016 ($49.99), Nero Video 2016 ($49.99), and the suites Nero 2016 Classic ($99.99) and Nero 2016 Platinum ($129.99).

A new Nero Streaming Player app can play pictures, music or videos from iOS or Android devices directly to your TV, or other DLNA/ UPnP media players.

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