Facebook Adds More African Languages to Fight Fake News, Biostar Software Exposed Millions of Fingerprints, and Amazon Under Fire For Selling Pro-Hong-Kong T-Shirts

Africa

Uganda opposition questions motive of government’s $126 million CCTV from Huawei

Ugandan police force has splashed out $126 million on CCTV devices from Huawei according to a Reuters report. The police say the CCTVs would help in curtailing violence and crime in the nation. However, opposition politicians worry the CCTV devices which have facial recognition software would be used to monitor their movement. “The CCTV project is just a tool to track us, hunt us and persecute us,” Ingrid Turinawe of Uganda’s largest opposition party, Forum for Democratic Change, said. Huawei technicians are said to have helped the government encrypt messages between opposition members and musician-turned-political activitst, Bobi Wine. Huawei is also suspected to have helped hack into Facebook pages of Zambians bloggers critical of government so they could be tracked and arrested. Huawei rejected the findings, saying: “Huawei’s code of business conduct prohibits any employees from undertaking any activities that would compromise the data or privacy of our customers or end users, or that would breach any laws.”

Facebook covering more African languages to fight fake news

Facebook has announced its intention to introduce more African languages into its fight against fake news, CNN has reported. Facebook is carrying out its fact-checking duties with third-party, Africa Check. As part of its plan of action, Facebook intends to cover Wolof, Swahili, Afrikaans, and Yoruba. “Our job is to review this content, provide a rating and an informative article. The system allows us to rate content based on a range of options from ‘true’ to ‘mixture (of true and false),’ ‘satire,’ ‘opinion’ and ‘false,'” Noko Makgato of Africa Watch told CNN.

Europe

Google job search raises antitrust concerns

Rival job boards have accused Google of anti-competitive behaviour that is costing them profits and users, Reuters has reported. The 23 job websites behind the claims are sending a complaint to EU Competitions Commissioner, Margaret Vestager, calling on her to make Google stop its unfair practices. Google’s job search creates an aggregated list of jobs from different sources which it places at the top of the Search Result Pages, though users would have to apply on sites other than Google. Rivals find the act of putting its results first as an abuse of dominant position as it doesn’t have to deploy the digital marketing tools they use to rank higher. Though Vestager will leave office on October 31, sources indicate that her successor would have enough information to pursue the case.

Biostar software leaked one million customer fingerprints

Over one million fingerprints and other sensitive data have been exposed online, according to a BBC report. The trove of data found by researchers at VPNMentor is said to be under the care of biometric security firm, Suprema. The company offers security services to thousands of business across the world including the Metropolitan Police in the UK. 30 million records were said to be exposed at the time of discovery on 5th August, 2019, representing some 23 GB. The researchers said once fingerprints were discovered, it was impossible to make them private again. When contacted about the situation, Suprema said, “If there has been any definite threat on our products and/or services, we will take immediate actions and make appropriate announcements to protect our customers’ valuable businesses and assets.” VPNMentor researchers said the breach has been rectified and the sensitive information made private by 13th August, 2019.

The Americas

Colombia fines Uber for obstructing regulators

Colombia has said it would fine Uber Technologies Inc. over $629,000 for obstructing regulators during a visit in 2017. Uber has not been cleared to operate in Colombia, although it’s popular among commuters. The authorities have threatened to suspend the driving licenses of drivers for 25 years if they are caught offering Uber services, according to Reuters. Regulators claim Uber has issued a directive to its employees to resist any access by government officials and to not give out information, just as they did in 2017. “The company presented a disrespectful and obstructive attitude in the face of different information requirements on the part of officials,” Colombia’s Superintendency of Industry and Commerce said in a statement. Three Uber staffers were also cited in the fine.

Facebook workers listened to calls by users

Facebook paid hundreds of workers to listen to Messenger conversations of its users according to report posted to BBC. This comes after Microsoft, Apple, Google, and Amazon, all admitted to having listened to people’s conversations. According to the report, the workers were given audios of the conversation for manual transcription. The project was meant to improve automatic transcription by Artificial Intelligence. Facebook said this was only done for users who had consented to transcription services and also allowed microphone access. However, Facebook said it had halted the process. “Much like Apple and Google, we paused human review of audio more than a week ago,” the company said.

Asia

Amazon under fire in China over shirts carrying Hong Kong democracy slogans

Amazon has come under fire for selling shirts carrying Hong Kong pro-democracy shirts, it has been revealed. Thousands of users on China’s Weibo protested after seeing shirts with slogans like “Hong Kong is not China,” and “Free Hong Kong, Democracy Now.” Amazon was described as insensitive to the plight of the Chinese. While Amazon.cn has already been shut down, some products on Amazon’s other marketplaces are still available. The shirts were reportedly available on the US website of Amazon. Amazon responded to the backlash by saying, “Amazon has always and will continue to acknowledge the longstanding and widely-recognized policy of ‘one China, two systems’. Every country where we operate has different laws, and we will continue to respect those local laws where we do business.” Protesters in Hong Kong have camped in public spaces for the past 10 weeks as they demand justice and an end to the erosion of personal liberties.

China warns app developers over privacy

China’s internet regulator has cautioned app developers over the mass-collection of personal data, a news item has reveled. This was revealed in a mid-year report by National Computer Network Emergency Response Technical Team this week. The regulator reported that, “A large number of apps exhibit abnormal behavior, such as detecting other apps or reading and writing user device files, posing a potential security threat to the user’s information security.” The regulator also mentioned that a number of apps were collecting data unrelated to their core functions. China has about 800 million smartphone users, representing a huge market for app developers. The regulator is asking for a national response to the problem.