Tech Industry

The legal risks of prosecutors getting access to data from period tracking apps have been getting increasing attention. The Democratic party now plans to enact legislation to provide legal protection for the privacy of this data.

The news was announced by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, who also outlined plans for additional legal protections for women seeking abortions …

Almost exactly a year ago, the Senate approved $52B in funding to boost US chip production, and the House likewise gave its support in February of this year. Apple also lobbied for the deal. Despite this, the subsidy now appears to be in doubt.

Democrats and Republicans are reported to be bogged down in arguments about other measures in the bill …

Discussions about the role of social networks in the wake of the deadly mass shootings in Buffalo, New York, and Uvalde, Texas, look set to rekindle arguments about end-to-end encryption of private messages.

Politicians weighed in after it was discovered that both Buffalo and Uvalde alleged killers used social media apps to discuss their plans with online groups …

Some state privacy laws use wording written by tech companies and their lobbyists, says a new report today. A formerly Apple-backed lobbying group has previously been cited as pushing for weaker privacy protection based on this wording.

Tech giants are aiming to push through weak privacy legislation in order to fend off more meaningful requirements, with one state senator admitting that the text of a privacy bill he put forward was supplied by a tech lobbyist …

The impact of the Russian invasion of Ukraine saw European smartphone shipments fall 10% year-on-year in the first quarter of the year, according to a new report today.

The global chip shortage played a role, but the latest market intelligence data said that the war was a bigger factor in the scale of the decline …

Back in 2018, I talked about a process you might call digital calming: decluttering my devices by removing redundant apps, and switching off most notifications and badges. Four years later, that remains the single best change I’ve ever made to my use of technology.

Thanks to the focus modes in iOS 15, that process has never been easier …

If you thought using Apple Pay was easy, a Mastercard Biometric Checkout Program will let you pay simply by smiling at the payment terminal.

The company says that the initiative will be rolled out globally, starting with trials in Brazil …

Ad tech companies share your online behavior and location with advertisers an average of 747 times a day in the US, and 376 times a day in Europe, according to a report by a civil liberties group. It describes the practice as the biggest privacy breach in the world.

The report says Google is the biggest offender, using a process called real-time bidding (RTB) to let advertisers target internet users by browsing behavior and locations …

The White House has announced deals struck with 20 internet service providers to offer cheaper broadband for tens of millions of Americans – with millions qualifying for a $30/month cap for unlimited data. The initiative was made possible by bipartisan support …

In addition to sharing its estimates of the global PC market, with Mac shipments the standout, Counterpoint Research has also pulled together its best prediction of the component shortage outlook for this year.

It shows that we can expect a significant improvement in the course of 2022, but shortages will remain in four component categories …

The global chip shortage doesn’t appear likely to end any time soon. The manufacturer of crucial chipmaking machines has warned that its kit will be in short supply for another two years.

That’s particularly bad news for Intel as it seeks to play catch-up with the capabilities of Apple’s M1 chips …

A password-less future could be even more convenient, thanks to the latest addition to the FIDO standard – which Apple brands as Passkeys in iCloud Keychain.

The proposal means that you could automatically log in to a secure website, for example, simply by having a second Apple device with you …

New Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chair Jessica Rosenworcel has today told delegates at the Mobile World Congress that 6G launch planning should begin now, even though switch-on is not expected until 2030.

Her remarks follow the embarrassing clash between the FCC and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) over the safety of the expanded 5G rollout …