Year: 2021

Year: 2021

FBI: Surge in Internet Crime Cost Americans $4.2 Billion
03/18/2021 iNews,iTechnology iMaster

The FBI says it received a record number of complaints from the public last year about cybercrimes, including scams related to the COVID-19 pandemic, costing Americans a staggering $4.2 billion in losses.The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center received 791,790 complaints in 2020, an increase of 69% over 2019 and the largest number since the center

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How a Little Chip is Contributing to Ocean Clean-up
03/16/2021 iNews,iTechnology iMaster

A growing number of companies are making products with the environment in mind. VOA’s Julie Taboh learned about an item finder made from ocean trash. Producer: Julie Taboh/Adam Greenbaum    …

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South by Southwest Goes Virtual with More International Visitors
03/16/2021 iNews,iTechnology iMaster

South by Southwest, the annual event in Austin, Texas, that brings together technology, music, politics and Hollywood, is happening digitally this year after being canceled last year due to COVID-19. Michelle Quinn reports.Producer: Matt Dibble   …

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Facebook Signs Deal to Pay Australia’s News Corp for Content
03/16/2021 iNews,iTechnology iMaster

Facebook has reached an agreement with Australia’s News Corp under a new law that makes social media giants pay domestic news outlets for their content.The terms of the multi-year deal were not disclosed in Tuesday’s announcement. The deal comes nearly one month after Australia’s parliament approved a law that would allow a government arbitrator to

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Semiconductor Chip Shortage Causes GM to Cut Fuel Management Module from Trucks
03/15/2021 iNews,iTechnology iMaster

U.S. automaker General Motors Corporation announced Monday it will build certain 2021 light-duty full-size pickup trucks without a fuel management module due to the global semiconductor chip shortage.In an email to the Reuters news agency, GM spokeswoman Michelle Malcho said the decision will lower the fuel economy slightly in those models effected by the decision,

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Facebook Scraps Trans-Pacific Cable
03/11/2021 iNews,iTechnology iMaster

Facebook has scrapped plans to connect California, Taiwan and Hong Kong via a 12,000 kilometer underwater cable, citing tensions between the U.S. and China. The social media giant told the Wall St. Journal, which broke the story, it was halting the project due to political pressure from the U.S. government, which noted potential national security

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Russia Clamps Down on Twitter
03/10/2021 iNews,iTechnology iMaster

Russia’s Internet regulatory body, Roskomnadzor, announced it had slowed down Twitter’s ability to function in Russia effective Wednesday — part of what authorities said was an initial penalty for the American social media platform’s failure to delete illegal content inside the country.According to a statement posted on Roskomnadzor’s website, 100 percent of mobile devices and

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Russia Restricts Twitter, Threatens Ban
03/10/2021 iNews,iTechnology iMaster

Russia said Wednesday it was restricting the use of Twitter on the grounds the company has not removed banned content. State communications watchdog Roskomnadzor said if Twitter does not comply with Russian law, there will be further actions against the service, including a complete ban. The agency said Wednesday’s action involved slowing service speeds for all those in Russia

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Cutting Off Speech: Governments Turn to Disrupting Internet Service to Restore Order, Stop Protests
03/10/2021 iNews,iTechnology iMaster

The nightly internet shutdowns in Myanmar are part of a strategy employed by many governments worldwide in times of crisis. But they come with costs. VOA’s Michelle Quinn reports.    …

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White House Cites ‘Active Threat,’ Urges Action Despite Microsoft Patch
03/08/2021 iNews,iTechnology iMaster

The White House on Sunday urged computer network operators to take further steps to gauge whether their systems were targeted amid a hack of Microsoft Corp’s Outlook email program, saying a recent software patch still left serious vulnerabilities.”This is an active threat still developing and we urge network operators to take it very seriously,” a

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Twitter Founder’s Auction of First Tweet Draws $2 Million Bid 
03/07/2021 iNews,iTechnology iMaster

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey is selling his first tweet at auction, with bidding Saturday reaching $2 million in a sign of the appetite for virtual objects authenticated through blockchain technology.”just setting up my twttr,” Dorsey tweeted on March 21, 2006.On Friday he posted a link to “Valuables @Cent,” an online marketplace for tweets where, the

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World Semiconductor Shortage Raises Taiwan’s Bargaining Power with US
03/05/2021 iNews,iTechnology iMaster

U.S. President Joe Biden’s order to secure semiconductor supply chains for high-tech hardware production offers a commercial boost to Taiwan, one of the world’s biggest providers of chips, and gives Taipei new weight in any free-trade talks, analysts say.Biden signed an executive order Feb. 24 for the United States to start overcoming a chip shortage

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US Tech Competition With China Draws Bipartisan Support
03/05/2021 iNews,iTechnology iMaster

This week a U.S.-government backed commission of technology experts completed a three-year review of the country’s artificial intelligence capabilities, urging the development of a new national technology strategy to stay competitive with China.The National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence (NSCAI) has been studying how artificial intelligence and machine learning can address U.S. national security and

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Vietnam Tapping Hackers to Silence Critics, Experts Warn
03/04/2021 iNews,iTechnology iMaster

An international advocacy group’s claim that the Vietnamese government has tapped hackers to target activists shows that the communist Southeast Asian state is widening the use of technology to quash its biggest opponents, experts believe. Ocean Lotus, a shadowy group suspected of working with the Vietnamese government, is “behind a sustained campaign of spyware attacks,” London-based

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Learning a Dog’s Many Moods … With a Smart Collar
03/03/2021 iNews,iTechnology iMaster

From a smart dog collar that can tell you your pet’s emotional state to toys that automatically move, the pet tech industry is growing, especially during the pandemic when many people staying at home have been adopting dogs and cats.  VOA’s Elizabeth Lee has more on the latest tech devices for pets.Camera:  Elizabeth Lee, Sam Verma    Producer:

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What Is Clubhouse and Why Did It Get So Popular?
03/01/2021 iNews,iTechnology iMaster

There’s a new player in the social media webspace: it’s called Clubhouse. But unlike other social media platforms this one isn’t open to just anyone. Mariia Prus looked into why the platform got so popular so fast. Camera: Oleksii Osyka …

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US Judge Approves $650M Facebook Privacy Lawsuit Settlement
03/01/2021 iNews,iTechnology iMaster

A federal judge on Friday approved a $650 million settlement of a privacy lawsuit against Facebook for allegedly using photo face-tagging and other biometric data without the permission of its users.U.S. District Judge James Donato approved the deal in a class-action lawsuit that was filed in Illinois in 2015. Nearly 1.6 million Facebook users in

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Carter Center Targets Online Threats in Ethiopia
03/01/2021 iNews,iTechnology iMaster

With internet access increasing in many emerging democracies, use of social media is changing the ways that candidates and voters interact.  It’s also changing how the non-profit U.S.-based Carter Center assesses elections. As VOA’s Kane Farabaugh reports, monitoring online disinformation and threats to prevent political violence is a new front in the center’s democracy initiatives

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Tech Executives Warn Full Extent of US Cyber Breach Still Unknown
03/01/2021 iNews,iTechnology iMaster

U.S. lawmakers launched an investigation this week into the December 2020 SolarWinds hack that included a breach of many private and U.S. government computer systems. As VOA’s congressional correspondent Katherine Gypson reports, tech leaders are telling lawmakers the full scope of the breach is still not known.  Camera: Adam Greenbaum  Produced by: Katherine Gypson   

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ByteDance Agrees to $92 Million Privacy Settlement with US TikTok Users
03/01/2021 iNews,iTechnology iMaster

ByteDance has agreed to a $92 million class-action settlement over data privacy claims from some U.S. TikTok users, according to documents filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Illinois. ByteDance, the Chinese company that owns the short video app that has more than 100 million U.S. users, agreed to the settlement after more than a year

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Australia Approves Law to Make Facebook and Google Pay to Carry News Content
03/01/2021 iNews,iTechnology iMaster

Australia has become the world’s first nation to make digital companies such as Facebook and Google pay domestic news outlets for their content.Parliament approved the law Thursday that would allow a government arbitrator to decide the price a digital company should pay news outlets if the two sides fail to reach an agreement.The final legislation

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Facebook Pledges $1B in News Investments Over 3 Years
03/01/2021 iNews,iTechnology iMaster

Facebook on Wednesday pledged to invest at least $1 billion to support journalism over the next three years as the social media giant defended its handling of a dispute with Australia over payments to media organizations.Nick Clegg, head of global affairs, said in a statement that the company was willing to support news media while

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