Facebook now lets you delete multiple third-party apps at once

There’s no “select all” button, but this is still much better.

Shortly after news broke that millions of Facebook users had their personal information shared and exposed with Cambridge Analytica, people have been in a rush to revoke access from third-party apps to their Facebook accounts.

Deleting apps and websites that have access to your account is fairly straightforward, but in its current form, is a very time-consuming process as Facebook only allows you to delete one app at a time. Thankfully, this is now changing with a bulk removal tool.

Facebook confirmed to TechCrunch that it’s rolling this feature out to users on its desktop website and mobile apps, and it allows you to select multiple apps and delete them all at once. There’s no “select all” button for automatically choosing all apps at once, but this is still a very welcome addition.

To use this feature, simply select the apps you want to delete, tap the “remove” button in the upper right-hand corner, and then press “remove” again to confirm your decision. You’ll also be able to check a box to confirm whether or not you want to delete any posts, photos, and/or videos that have been shared from your account using these apps.

The bulk removal tool should be available to use right now.

Up to 87 million Facebook users’ data was shared with Cambridge Analytica

BMW’s car subscription pilot program starts at $2,000 per month

The rumors of BMW’s American branch joining the car subscription craze were true. The automaker has launched a pilot Access by BMW program in Nashville, giving you a more flexible alternative to ownership that lets you switch cars as often as you like (through a mobile app, of course) without paying extra for maintenance. It’s expensive like the Porsche equivalent, but that also means you’re choosing from higher-end vehicles in lineup.

A ‘basic’ Legend tier starts at $2,000 per month lets you choose from the M2, 4 Series, 5 Series (including the 530e plug-in hybrid), and the X5 (including its PHEV model). Pay as much as $3,700 per month for the performance-minded M tier and you can drive the M4 convertible, M5, M6 convertible, X5M and X6M.

BMW stressed that this is a pilot, and thus an “opportunity to learn.” There’s a chance that Access could change if and when it spreads to other cities. However, we’d expect a wider launch to be more a matter of “when” than “if.” Like other brands, BMW is adapting to an era where ridesharing and (eventually) self-driving cars will reduce the incentive to own a car. Instead of paying for maintenance or worrying about owning the ‘wrong’ car, you can just get the vehicle you want when you want it.

Source: BMW

Google employees petition CEO to drop out of Pentagon AI project

Over 3,100 Google employees have signed a petition opposing the company’s part in a Pentagon AI program. The letter asked CEO Sundar Pichai to pull Google out of the project, which harnesses artificial intelligence to analyze video and could improve drone targeting. Further, it urged him to establish and enforce a policy that kept the company or its subsidiaries from ever building “warfare technology.”

That could include a lot of things, but if this partnership is a baseline, said policy would include simply providing government agencies with Google’s tech. Gizmodo broke the news last month that the company would lend AI TensorFlow programming kits to the Pentagon’s Project Maven, and according to sources, employees were outraged that the government would use it to improve drone operations.

The Pentagon first announced Project Maven last May as a next-gen application of machine learning to churn through big data to get ‘actionable’ intelligence more quickly. Some of this is intended to automate administrative tasks, but Google’s AI tech would improve the system’s ability to parse video and could be used to better identify both targets and civilians.

Despite what Google maintained was a “non-offensive” involvement with the Pentagon project, the letter to Pichai claimed that involvement would tarnish the corporation’s brand.

“Amid growing fears of biased and weaponized AI, Google is already struggling to keep the public’s trust,” the internally-circulating petition read, according to The New York Times. “The argument that other firms, like Microsoft and Amazon, are also participating doesn’t make this any less risky for Google. Google’s unique history, its motto Don’t Be Evil, and its direct reach into the lives of billions of users set it apart.”

When reached for comment, Google provided the following statement:

An important part of our culture is having employees who are actively engaged in the work that we do. We know that there are many open questions involved in the use of new technologies, so these conversations – with employees and outside experts – are hugely important and beneficial.

Maven is a well publicized DoD project and Google is working on one part of it – specifically scoped to be for non-offensive purposes and using open-source object recognition software available to any Google Cloud customer. The models are based on unclassified data only. The technology is used to flag images for human review and is intended to save lives and save people from having to do highly tedious work.

Any military use of machine learning naturally raises valid concerns. We’re actively engaged across the company in a comprehensive discussion of this important topic and also with outside experts, as we continue to develop our policies around the development and use of our machine learning technologies.”

Source: The New York Times

Command Nest’s security system with Google Assistant

You’d think Nest’s Secure alarm system would have worked with Google Assistant out of the box, but no — you’ve had to arm it the old-fashioned way. Now, however, it’s decidedly more convenient. Nest has quietly introduced Google Assistant support that allows voice control over Secure from a supporting device. You can arm the system whether you’re home or away, check its status, or cancel it within seconds of making a mistake.

Not surprisingly, there are limits. You can’t disarm the system with voice commands, and you can’t arm it if it’s set to require a passcode. You can’t change security levels, either. These could be hassles, but it’s clear that Nest would rather not risk an intruder getting in by shouting through an open window. This is mainly for arming Secure on your way out instead of a full replacement for your phone or the hub itself.

Via: 9to5Google

Source: Nest

Facebook: Cambridge Analytica may have had up to 87 million users’ data

Facebook is continuing to strengthen its data policies amid the Cambridge Analyica scandal, and today the company provided an update to its plans. In a blog post, CTO Mike Schroepfer revealed that Facebook information for up to 87 million people — mostly in the US — has been improperly shared with Cambridge Analytica. This is much higher than the 50 million count reported previously.

In order to restore user trust, Facebook is working on restricting data access in a few different ways. One of them is that call and text history is now part of an opt-in feature for people using Messenger or Facebook Lite on Android. This is likely a reaction to when the company came under fire for retaining call metadata on Android phones a few weeks ago.

“We’ve reviewed this feature to confirm that Facebook does not collect the content of messages — and will delete all logs older than one year,” wrote Schroepfer. He also wrote that the app will only upload the required information for the feature, not broader data such as call duration.

Facebook will also now disable the ability search for a user using their email address or phone number. That’s because, according to Schroepfer, malicious actors have abused the feature to “scrape public profile information” through “search and account recovery.” Facebook is also changing the way account recovery works to reduce the risk of scraping.

There are several important changes to Facebook’s third-party APIs as well. Apps using the Events API will no longer access the guest list or wall posts and the Groups API will no longer provide access to member lists as well as personal information. In general, all apps using these APIs will now need approval from Facebook before any access is granted.

It’s also following through on changes to Facebook Login that it announced a couple of weeks ago. The company will now strictly vet any app that is requesting information such as check-ins, likes, photos, posts, videos, events and groups. It will also no longer allow access to personal information like political views, relationship status and more. Also, if the app has not been used in the last three months, the permission will be revoked.

This is on top of several other steps Facebook have undertaken recently to help improve its reputation. It’s trying to make its data policies easier to understand, will limit the data advertisers use to target ads, allow the deletion of apps in bulk, delete unpublished videos, crack down on unwanted ad targeting and removed hundreds of Russian troll accounts. It will also warn users if they were one of the 87 million people impacted by the Cambridge Analytica scandal.

Source: Facebook

Netflix orders an adult animated show about terrible cops

In retrospect, Bojack Horseman was a watershed show for Netflix. Its success has led the streaming provider to expand its animated comedy lineup with adult-oriented titles like Big Mouth and Brickleberry, but more are on the way. The team behind the latter are making a new cartoon series for Netlix, Paradise P.D., about a less-than-competent police force.

If you ever wanted to watch an edgy comedy about a wildly incompetent police force and their talking dog attempting to take down a drug ring in small town America, then we have good news for you. Coming later this year: Paradise PD, from the creators of Brickleberry pic.twitter.com/7y7IPFsDJA

— Netflix US (@netflix) April 4, 2018

Here’s the pitch, according to Entertainment Weekly: “They’re bad cops. Not bad like no-nonsense. Not bad like cool. Bad like sh—y. Paradise PD: They’re the worst responders.”

The cast includes standouts from other cartoons like Tom Kenny (Spongebob Squarepants, Adventure Time’s Ice King), Sarah Chalke (Elliot on Scrubs, Beth on Rick and Morty) and Dave Herman (various on Futurama and Bob’s Burgers), among others. Netflix hasn’t announced when Paradise P.D. will be added to its catalogue.

Via: Entertainment Weekly

Source: Netflix (Twitter)

A looping GIF could soon be your next Tinder profile pic

Tinder’s latest addition is one cribbed from relationship-minded competitor Hinge. The dating app is testing out a feature called “Loops” in Canada and Sweden, which are essentially two-second repeating GIFs that you can add to your profile.

What’s more, to make room for your new profile clips, the app is also experimenting with boosting the amount of photos and Loops you can have in your profile; nine total, up from the current limit of six. You can’t record videos from within the app, instead, you can upload Live Photos or video from your camera roll. For now, the feature is exclusive to iOS.

While additional features for profiles are welcome, the company still hasn’t enabled profile verification like Bumble has, photo messaging, nor has it done much to curb the amount of bots on the platform. But hey, steal like an artist right?

Via: TechCrunch

Source: Tinder

Most White House email domains could be vulnerable to phishing

We can likely all agree that governmental cyber security is an important issue. While the Attorney General has created a task force to deal with election hacking, there have been plenty of digital security fails in the past year. And the FCC doesn’t seem to care too much about data privacy, either. Now, according to a report from security firm Global Cyber Alliance (GCA), more than 95 percent of the email domains managed by the Executive Office of the President (EOP) — including WhiteHouse.gov — could be used in a phishing attack due to lax security protocol.

The top defense against email phishing and spoofing, says the report, is called the Domain Message Authentication Reporting & Conformance (DMARC). Only one of the domains from the EOP (Max.gov) has fully implemented this system. Seven domains have implemented DMARC at the lowest level (“none”), which does not prevent delivery of email from spoofed addresses. The security firm also says it found that 18 of the 26 domains haven’t even started deploying DMARC. That means that scammers can easily use these official governmental email addresses to “steal money, trade secrets or even jeopardize national security.”

“Email domains managed by the EOP are crown jewels that criminals and foreign adversaries covet,” said GCA CEO Philip Reitinger in a statement. “The lack of full DMARC deployment across nearly every EOP email address poses a national security risk that must be fixed.” The good news, he said, is that four new email domains have at least implemented the lowest level of DMARC, which might mean that the implementation of security might be moving forward. There still seems to be a ways to go, however, until all domains from the EOP are protected at the highest possible level.

Via: TechCrunch

Source: Global Cyber Alliance

Facebook is changing the way it stores call and text history

Facebook published a blog post today detailing the changes it has made to how it manages users’ data. You can read a broader summary of that report here, but among the new changes is a tweak to how Facebook collects and stores call and text history. For those using Messenger or Facebook Lite on Android, an opt-in feature compiles users’ call and text history, which the company says is used to help it surface the contacts you talk to most frequently. In its blog post today, Facebook said that it has reviewed the feature and can confirm that it doesn’t actually collect the content of any messages. Additionally, going forward, it will delete logs older than a year and only the data required for the feature’s functionality will be collected, meaning no extra data, such as call times, will be stored.

The collection of call and text history became an issue last month, when software developer Dylan McKay discovered the logs after downloading a copy of his account data. At the time, Facebook emphasized that it was an opt-in feature that users had to agree to in order for the logs to be compiled. It also said that the call and text history data were never sold. You can see how to turn off this feature here for Messenger and here for Facebook Lite.

Source: Facebook

Mark Zuckerberg: We didn’t do enough to keep users safe

In light of the announcement that Facebook has rewritten its data policy to make it easier for users to understand, and that Cambridge Analytica may have had up to 87 million users’ data, founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg hosted a call with the media to discuss the company’s efforts to better protect people’s information. Zuckerberg began by sending his condolences to everyone at YouTube after Tuesday’s shooting at its headquarters in San Bruno, California, where multiple people were injured. He then went on to say that Facebook didn’t do enough to prevent abuse of its platform, from the spread of fake news to the lack of protection of user data.

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