https://www.androidpolice.com/2019/12/15/google-pauses-chrome-79-rollout-on-android-after-bug-wipes-data-in-some-apps/

data from localStorage and WebSQL — two types of storage commonly used by web apps and packaged apps — wasn’t migrated properly.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/lifelabs-pays-hackers-to-recover-data-of-15-million-customers/

Data breach took place in early November, and hackers also gained access to 85,000 laboratory test results.

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/epg4xm/amazon-ring-camera-security

Ring lacks basic security features, making it easy for hackers to turn the company’s cameras against its customers.

https://www.fastcompany.com/3064539/self-driving-mercedes-will-be-programmed-to-sacrifice-pedestrians-to-save-the-driver

Instead of worrying about troublesome details like ethics, Mercedes will just program its cars to save the driver and the car’s occupants, in every situation.

https://uploadvr.com/facebook-ads-vr/

The day is here some VR enthusiasts feared would arrive when Facebook acquired Oculus VR in 2014 for billions of dollars as “Facebook will now use information about your Oculus activity, like which apps you use, to help provide…more relevant content, including ads”

https://medium.com/fluxx-studio-notes/52-things-i-learned-in-2019-8ee483e6c816

At least three private companies have fallen victim to ‘deep fake’ audio fraud. In each case, a computerised voice clone of the company CEO “called a senior financial officer to request an urgent money transfer.”

Some blind people can understand speech that is almost three times faster than the fastest speech sighted people can understand. They can use speech synthesisers set at at 800 words per minute (conversational speech is 120–150 wpm). Research suggests that a section of the brain that normally responds to light is re-mapped in blind people to process sound.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/06/business/algorithm-bias-fix.html

Humans are inscrutable in a way that algorithms are not

Changing algorithms is easier than changing people: software on computers can be updated; the “wetware” in our brains has so far proven much less pliable.

https://ipvm.com/reports/ethnicity-analytics

This exposes that Uyghur persecution and discrimination goes far beyond Xinjiang and is being built on video surveillance technologies

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-50573069

Apple has complied with Russian demands to show the annexed Crimean peninsula as part of Russian territory on its apps.

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2019/12/vulnerability-in-fully-patched-android-phones-under-active-attack-by-bank-thieves/

The vulnerability allows malicious apps to masquerade as legitimate apps that targets have already installed and come to trust, researchers from security firm Promon reported in a post. Running under the guise of trusted apps already installed, the malicious apps can then request permissions to carry out sensitive tasks, such as recording audio or video, taking photos, reading text messages or phishing login credentials. Targets who click yes to the request are then compromised