Google

Google has announced the release of a new Content Safety API with the aim of helping to combat child sexual abuse material (CSAM) online.

The announcement comes as UK home secretary Sajid Javid called on technology companies to do more to tackle the problem of child abuse imagery on the internet, and the API has two main aims. The first is to make it quicker and easier to detect and remove CSAM, while the second is to do so without having to expose human content-checkers to so much abuse content.

A vulnerability in the Android operating system means that it is worryingly easy to track and locate phones. While the issue has been addressed in Android Pie, Google has no plans to patch the vulnerability in earlier versions of its mobile OS.

The vulnerability (CVE-2018-9489) was revealed in a report from Nightwatch Cybersecurity which warns that it can be used to "uniquely identify and track any Android device" and also to "geolocate users". As well as Google's own Android builds, the problem is also said to affect forked versions such as FireOS.

While the US and UK governments continue to eye China with suspicion, blocking the use of some Chinese hardware because of national security concerns, it has come to light that Google's Titan Security Key is produced in China.

The keys are supposed to boost security through the use of two-step verification, but security experts are calling for transparency about the supply chain for the hardware after it was revealed it is produced by Chinese company Feitian. There are concerns that the devices could be compromised by Chinese hackers (state or otherwise) to spy on users.

It's no secret that Google -- and other companies -- track your online purchases; it's one of the reasons you see the ads you do, for instance. But a secret deal between Google and Mastercard means that it is also possible for the internet giant to track your offline purchases.

Google offers a service called Store Sales Measurement that makes it possible for advertisers to determine whether their online ads results in offline sales. A report from Bloomberg reveals that this was all made possible because of the deal between Google and Mastercard in the US-- one that raises serious privacy questions.

Like unwanted mushrooms popping up after rain, Pixel 3/XL rumors are everywhere. Google gets gravy from all the free fan- and blog-post hype. Am I imagining, or is there even more buzz than for the next iPhone(s), which presumably comes soon (Apple sent out invites yesterday for a September 12 product event).

Buzz is the measure of interest—and while iPhone has commanding market share, Pixel's mindshare is formidable. Someone tell me: Is Google's new device really going to be that good? The leaked photos aren't that inspiring with respect to design (little is different). Or perhaps expectations about iPhone X (and its companions) are low—and maybe for good reason.

A month after it was announced, Google is now selling its Titan Security Key for $50. Currently available in the US, the FIDO-compatible keys help to boost security with two-step verification (2SV).

Google boasts that the keys have "special sauce" in the form of tamper-resistant firmware that helps to further improve security. Costing roughly the same as a Yubikey, Google is hoping to offer a viable alternative to the current FIDO key leader.

At the moment, you have two options when using Windows 10. You can create a local account, or you can use a Microsoft account to sign in. In the future, however, it’s possible that you might also be able to sign in using your Google account details.

ChromeStory spotted a massive code commit on the Chromium Gerrit site which refers to a "Google Credential Provider for Windows."

Donald Trump has accused Google of rigging its search results so that "good news" about the president is drowned out by unfavorable stories from the "Fake News Media".

Using his preferred medium of Twitter, he alleged that 96 percent of search results for "Trump News" were from the "National Left-Wing Media", something he described as "very dangerous". Google denied these  accusations of political bias, saying searching results are controlled by constantly-updated algorithms.

The CEO of Epic Games has slammed Google's "irresponsible" disclosure of a security bug in its hit game Fortnite. Tim Sweeney accused Google of trying to "score cheap PR points" by revealing a vulnerability in the game's installer.

Epic chose to bypass Google Play when it released Fortnite for Android leading to concerns about security. On Friday, Google revealed details of a security flaw that could be exploited to secretly install malware onto people's phones.

It seems that the concerns about Fortnite's security were well-founded -- although not necessarily for the reasons some people might have expected. Epic Games has been criticized for its decision not to make Fortnite available through Google Play, leading Google to show warnings to anyone conducting searches for the game.

Now a Google engineer just revealed that the first version of Epic's installer had a serious security vulnerability, placing Android users at risk. A post on Google's Issue Tracker shows that the installer could be abused to secretly download and install any app with any level of permissions -- a Man-in-the-Disk exploit.

The prospect of running Linux apps on a Chromebook is something that has many people excited since Google first announced the plans.

For those who like to live on the edge with the Canary and Dev builds of Chrome OS, Linux apps are already a reality -- but what about everyone else? While we know that Linux app support is coming to a range of Chromebooks from Lenovo, Acer, Dell and others, a post on the Chromium Gerrit reveals that devices running Linux 3.14 or older will miss out.

The world is a terrible place right now. In Pennsylvania, it was revealed that thousands of children were allegedly abused by Catholic priests over several decades. The President of the United States -- who some say is mentally unstable -- has been separating immigrant children from their parents. Mr. Trump -- who should be a role model -- is also calling human beings dogs on Twitter. In Florida, red tide is killing precious marine life, such as manatees and dolphins. Shockingly, all of that negative news is just from the USA! There are many other horrific things happening in other countries.

With all of this going on, it can be hard to get out of bed in the morning. Thankfully, Google is here to save our sanity and hopefully lessen our negative news-driven depression.. The search giant has added a new experimental feature to Google Assistant called "Tell me something good." As you can imagine, the feature is quite literal -- the user asks the voice assistant for some positive news stories. If you say "Hey Google, tell me something good," you will be reminded that the world isn't all bad through a rundown of "good news."

The ability to "unsend" emails has arrived in Gmail for Android -- for some people at least. The feature is already available on iOS and on the web version of Gmail, but now some Android users are finding that they have the option available on their phones too.

Google has not made any sort of announcement about the rollout of the feature, and it seems as though it could be a server-side update rather than a new version of the app. But if you're one of the lucky ones, here's how to make use of this handy option.

Doubt disturbed my commitment to give up the Apple Way for the Google lifestyle two months ago. Preparing to pack up my wife's 64GB white iPhone X, I was taken aback by how pretty it was. She kept the thing in a case, which protected from damage but also obscured beauty. For fleeting seconds, I wondered why switch. Product design that generates joy is another benefit—and one transcending any, and every, feature.

But the moment passed, and I boxed up her smartphone along with my 256GB black iPhone X. Google gave great trade-in values, which dispatched the hassle of reselling the devices on Craigslist. Eight weeks later, writing this post on Pixelbook, I don't regret the decision. Confession: The transition isn't quite complete, but we're getting there. 

Call it bad wording, call it blatant lying, call it what you like -- Google was recently found to have been misleading people about what disabling Location History on their phones actually meant. Many people understandably thought that turning off this setting would prevent Google from tracking and recording their location. They were wrong

But despite the upset caused by this revelation, Google is not backing down. Rather than changing the behavior of the setting so it did what people would expect it to do, the company has instead chosen to simply update its help pages to make it clear how misleading it is being.