The kids started school this week, and I’m already feeling oppressed. The local network is clogged, kids are kicking us out of rooms for their class room Zooms, and there’s just way too much noise. But, alas, it’s Thursday! Here’s another week of tech talk with Mark Starling and the First News 570 crew. This week, India bans a bunch of Chinese apps, Facebook and El Goog will be banning Australian media, and the FBI is trying to ban hackers before they strike! Lot’s of banning this week. You can listen to Mark and I point and laugh while talking about the wild and crazy technology world every Thursday morning, LIVE at 6:43am Eastern.
INDIA BANS POPULAR CHINESE APPS
While the US has banned the TikTok from government phones, India has banned over 118 apps from being sold in its country. These titles include PlayerUnknown’s Battleground, WeChat work, and Marvel Super War (I know, right). The Indian government is citing that the apps are serving in the disinterest of India. The Indian government is claiming the apps are stealing consumer information and surreptitiously sending data back to Chinese servers. The ban is happening against the backdrop of Chinese and Indian troops clashing in disputed territories including a dispute on the Himalayan border.
EL GOOG AND FACEBOOK MAY BEGIN BANNING AUSTRALIAN MEDIA
The Australian government is drafting legislation stating that large social media and news sharing platforms have to share the ad revenue collected while displaying news media. Australia claims that Facebook, Google, and others take too large of a share of online revenue from media organizations in Australia. The legislation states that the social networks will need to share their algorithms before making changes and pay some of the cash. Facebook and Google for their part have said that ad revenue is a small part of their business, and that they’ll have to start banning Australian news articles on their platform.
FBI TO HACKERS: NOT AGAIN ON OUR WATCH
With the 2020 Presidential Election looming ahead, the FBI has been on the look out for hackers. In 2016, the FBI notified the Democratic National Committee of its email hack too late, with too little urgency. This time around, the FBI is being more proactive in its role to prevent election tampering this year. The FBI is planning to alert organizations while hacking is incurring, and before an intrusion actually occurs. Previously, the FBI will only notify victim organizations after the fact. Also, the FBI will be using much more pointed language to describe the breach. I’ll wager a dollar that there will be shenanigans going on, like every other election, but I’m hoping experience will diminish the tampering.