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Facebook comes with new rules ahead of 2020 US election fears

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The social media giant, Facebook tightens the rules ahead of the next US presidential election, reports BBC.

The company has introduced new political advertising rules, in a bid to halt exploitation in the US elections.

Now, for the political advertisers, to obtain a “confirmed organisation” label, they have to verify their identity.

This is marked as an attempt, to stop creating misleading or inaccurate ads to influence voters.

These new rules of Facebook will also be applicable to Instagram, which is a property of Facebook.

The political parties are using the ‘paid-for’ Facebook ads, as a tool for their campaigns to target voters.

A recent survey revealed that, over $70m (£57.3m) had been spent on Facebook ads by the 2016 Trump campaign, during the election period.

Political advertisers has been required in the US by the social media giant put a “paid for” disclaimer on their ads since 2018, but the changes have not completely stamped out improper use.

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News Technology

Job-search tool of Google being investigated by EU

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The job search tool of Google is being investigated by the European Union as they got several claims, saying the competitors has been driven out of the market.

Margrethe Vestager, the EU competition commissioner has raised a question whether it was fair the Google had “such control over the success or failure” of its rivals.

At the top of searches, the tech giant places a widget, circumventing the need to click through to job sites.

Brussels has been asked by Twenty-three job-search sites, to take necessary action last month.

Google is not charging any fee for this facility now. The competitors fears that this is a plan to gain market share before monetising its business model.

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News Technology

Flouting of privacy law using facial recognition – School fined in Sweden

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A school in Sweden, which used facial recognition for tracking student’s attendance has been fined 200,000 Swedish Krona (£16,800, $20,700) by the Swedish Data Protection Authority (DPA).

The fine has been issued on the school for for flouting a privacy law.

The school used a trial session which included 22 high school students being detected when each of them entered the classroom.

It is for the first time that a GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) fine has been issued in Sweden.

The GDPR came into force last year and it has issued some restrictions in using facial images and other bio-metric information.

If the school had carried out a longer period trial, the fine would have been bigger, said the DPA.

To a Swedish state broadcaster, the local authorities said that when calculated the time spent by teachers for taking attendance, they got an average of 17,000 hours a year. The authorities explained that they were just trying find out a way to speed up the attendance reporting.

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News Technology

Facebook asked to close down the groups that seeks fake Amazon reviews

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The tech giant Facebook is facing a problem in closing down the groups on its site where fake Amazon reviews are sold, claims ‘Which?’ the consumer group.

Facebook, in June was urged by CMA (Competition and Markets Authority) to tackle sale of fake reviews.

Certain uncovered active groups are recruiting people to write fake testimonies, claims Which?.

The social media giant claimed that the reported groups are being removed. They said that investigations are still going on regarding this issue.

CMA, previously had found some evidence that there is a thriving marketplace for fake and misleading online reviews. CMA reportedly said that during the period of November 2018 to June 2019, they had found about 26 Facebook groups in total, where people offered to write fake reviews or businesses recruited people to write fake and misleading reviews on popular shopping and review sites.

Which? said that for the investigations regarding this issue, it joined 10 separate Facebook groups looking for recruits.

In a short period of 30 days, the recruiters added more than 55,000 posts to the groups that offered free products to people who wrote highly-rated reviews on Amazon, said Which?.

Natalie Hitchins, the head of products at Which? said, “It is deeply concerning that [Facebook] continues to leave customers exposed to poor quality or unsafe products boosted by misleading and disingenuous reviews”.

Image courtesy: variety .com / images are subject to copyright

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Entertainment News Technology

Franky Zapata successfully crosses English Channel in fly-board

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Franky Zapata (40), French inventor and creator of Flyboard and Flyboard Air has succesfully completed his attempt to cross the English Channel on a jet-powered fly-board.

Zapata, who started his flying from Sangatte, near Calais, at 06:17 GMT on Sunday had landed in St Margaret’s Bay in Dover.

A kerosene-filled backpack has been used in the fly-board journey. Zapata crossed a distance of 22-mile (35.4-km) in 22 minutes.

Zapata was a former jet-ski champion. A previous attempt had been made by him on 25th of July this year, which was not successful. Several complications were faced by him regarding the refueling of the flying system.

Filled with emotions, he told the media, “We made a machine three years ago… and now we’ve crossed the Channel, it’s crazy. Whether this is a historic event or not, I’m not the one to decide that, time will tell”.

“The last five, six kilometres were pure pleasure, to see the [British] coast approaching like this”, he said to the French media while talking with his family, after the flying.

WATCH THE VIDEO HERE !!!

Image / Video courtesy: Evening Standard, Press TV / images and videos are subject to copyright

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Games News Sports

Cristiano Ronaldo will not face rape charges in US

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The US prosecutors said that he Football star Cristiano Ronaldo will not face charges after being accused of sexual assault. It is reported that they do not have enough evidence to proceed with the case.

Kathryn Mayorga (34), a former model claims that she had been raped by Cristiano Ronaldo in a Las Vegas hotel in 2009.

Mayorga claimed that the Ronaldo initially used “fixers” to stop her pursuing criminal charges, including paying her $375,000 to keep quiet.

Reports said that she had made an out-of-court settlement with Ronaldo in 2010, but finds to reopen the case in 2018. Ronaldo had denied all the allegations.

Las Vegas prosecutors on Monday said that the claims could not “be proven beyond reasonable doubt”.

The Clark County District Attorney’s Office said that Mayorga had submitted a report to them on 13th of June 2009, saying that she had been the victim of a sexual assault. She refused to state where the incident happened or who the attacker was.

Police said that they were unable “to conduct any meaningful investigation”, due to this reason. The criminal investigation is now reportedly closed.

Image courtesy: independent.ie / images are subject to copyright

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News Technology

Instagram to hide the number of likes to ‘remove pressure’

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Instagram is hiding the Instagram likes’ numbers in some countries to “remove pressure” of the app users, considering their mental health. The countries includes Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Italy, Japan and Brazil.

A similar test move had been occurred in Canada in the month of May. The younger people are being severely affected by the social media ‘likes’, and hence may be lead to some mental stress.

Facebook, the Instagram owner is now on a try to reduce this situation by hiding the total number of likes obtained for a particular post on Instagram. Instagram is testing the new approach with users in Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Italy, Japan and Brazil.

In the current situation, the Instagram post shows a total number of likes gained. But when the trial is on, the users will see a user name “and others” below posts.

The new system allows the users to see the number of likes of their own post, but the followers will not be able to see the like numbers. In the same way, you won’t be able to see other’s post likes.

Image courtesy: cnet .com, giphy / images are subject to copyright

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Crime News Technology

Personnel data of ‘nearly all adults’ in Bulgaria has been stolen

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The personal data of millions of Bulgarians has been stolen, reports BBC. The data leakage occurred in a cyber attack on the tax agency of the country.

The data of almost all adults in the country, having a total population of about 7 million, has been stolen, says a local cyber-security researcher.

A 20 year old man has been reportedly been arrested by the authorities, suspecting his involvement in the cyber crime.

Vladislav Goranov, the finance minister of Bulgaria has apologised in parliament for the breach. Goranov said that the persons, who are involved this cyber crime “would fall under the impact of Bulgarian law”.

The cyber-security researcher Vesselin Bontchev said, “It is safe to say that the personal data of practically the whole Bulgarian adult population has been compromised”, reports bbc.

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Libra – The cryptocurrency of Facebook attacked at Senate hearing

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Facebook’s cryptocurrency – Libra will let you buy things or send money to people with nearly zero fees, has come under further attack at a US hearing.

The politicians said that the company is “delusional” and non-trusted. They said that they do not trust Facebook to operate a global cryptocurrency.

Facebook executive David Marcus has been questioned by the Senate Banking Committee over FB’s intention to launch its Libra digital currency.

Senator Sherrod Brown said that the company had showed “through scandal after scandal that it doesn’t deserve our trust”.

Facebook executive David Marcus at the Senate Banking Committee hearing

Before launching a new business model, the tech giant had been advised to clean up its house. Last moth, the company had announced its plan to launch a digital currency, probably by next year.

But, initially, the company had to get the Washington lawmakers on its side. But, several criticisms came soon after the company had revealed its plan to launch Libra, even from President, Donald Trump.

Trump’s last week tweet said that he is not a fan of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, which are not money, and whose value is highly volatile and based on thin air.

Facebook said that Libra won’t be an investment vehicle and that the company and its partners have no plans to act like a central bank.

Former chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission said in an interview that, “We don’t actually have a regulatory framework that sufficiently addresses the cash market for digital assets that aren’t securities, like bitcoin. We don’t have a comprehensive way of looking at it”.

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Health News Technology

Rare Conjoined twins successfully separated in London

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Safa and Marwa, the rare conjoined twins from Pakistan were successfully separated in Great Ormond Street Hospital, London. The twins were born by caesarian section in early January 2017 in Peshawar, Pakistan.

The two year old twins had undergone three major operations to separate their heads at the Great Ormond Street Hospital.


Safa and Marwa

They had their first operation at the age of just 19 months in October 2018.

This was a very rare case where the girls were craniopagus twins, with their skulls and blood vessels fused together. Craniopagus twins are those who will be fused at the cranium.

According to Britain’s National Health Service, one in every 2.5 million births produces conjoined twins and only 5% of them are fused at the head.

The hospital had previously separated craniopagus twins in 2006 and 2011, which was all successful.

The technology of virtual reality and 3D printing had been used in the surgery, for creating an exact model of the girls’ anatomy. This helped the doctors to view the complex structure of their skulls as well as the positioning of their brains and blood vessels.

Four major operations with a total time of 55 hours had been done in this medical case with about 100 medical staff included. Reports said that all the amount was funded by a private donor.

The girls were discharged from the hospital and sent with their mother Zainab and their grandfather Mohammad Sadat Hussain.

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