While, yes, your messaging apps are indeed spying on you, to argue that they were developed specifically for that purpose might seem like a stretch. But life is stranger than fiction in the year of our lord 2019, and now you can thank ToTok for making your worst dystopian surveillance state nightmares come true.
What millions of users thought was a free chat app is believed to be a surveillance tool that leaks data to government officials in the United Arab Emirates, U.S. intelligence officials told the New York Times Sunday. Apple and Google have since removed ToTok from their respective stores, but it’ll continue to keep spying away if you already have it on your phone. So TLDR: Delete ToTok.
Per the report, the UAE government used ToTok to learn location data (which was required to access information on the weather), voice and text conversations, and online social connections of its users. Most of the app’s userbase live in the UAE though it’d been gaining popularity worldwide and recently cracked the charts in America. Just in November, it racked up more than half a million downloads.
But while ToTok advertised itself as a “fast and secure calling and messaging app,” its privacy policy never actually promises end-to-end encryption, only referencing data storage: “Messages: all data is stored heavily encrypted so that local ToTok engineers or physical intruders cannot get access.”
One particularly strong selling points it touted among UAE users was, unlike more ubiquitous chat apps like Skype and Whatsapp, ToTok didn’t require a VPN and could circumvent restrictions put in place by the Emirati government. Thus allowing (seemingly) no-strings-attached video chatting and messaging with anyone anywhere in the world so long as they also had an internet connection.
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And ToTok’s developer, Breej Holding, is apparently similarly shady. They’re a proverbial ghost on the internet, per the Times report, and likely a front for the cyber intelligence agency DarkMatter. The company has a history of contracting with the Emirati government and employing ex-intelligence agents and has already attracted scrutiny from U.S. intelligence officials for purported hacking crimes. The software itself—basically a copy and paste job of the Chinese app YeeCall—is also linked to a data-mining company with ties to Dark Matter that shared a building with the UAE’s intelligence agency for a bit.
Right about now, you should be feeling a cold, inexplicable chill up your spine and a sudden impulse to be more careful with your private information. Because ToTok isn’t secretly scrapping your data, it didn’t need to use viral Deepfake challenges to access an unsettling amount of personal information. It doesn’t have to. To access every bit of its users’ online identity, ToTok asked for all the same permissions you’d expect of a social media app on your phone. And hoped people didn’t look too closely at its privacy policy.
MONTREAL – Lightspeed Commerce Inc. says it is conducting a review of its business and operations including talks relating to a range of potential strategic alternatives.
The Montreal-based payments technology company made the comments after reports concerning a potential transaction involving the company.
Lightspeed says it periodically undertakes a review of its business and operations with a view of realizing its full potential.
A strategic review is often seen by investors as a prelude to a sale by a company.
Lightspeed says its board of directors is committed to acting in the best interests of the company and its stakeholders.
Company founder Dax Dasilva returned to the role of chief executive officer earlier this year and has been working to return the company to profitability.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 26, 2024.
OTTAWA – Bank of Canada governor Tiff Macklem says there is a lot of uncertainty around how artificial intelligence could affect the economy moving forward, including the labour market and price growth.
In a speech in Toronto at the Economics of Artificial Intelligence Conference, the governor said Friday that the central bank is approaching the issue cautiously to get a better understanding of how AI could affect its job of keeping inflation low and stable.
“Be wary of anyone who claims to know where AI will take us. There is too much uncertainty to be confident,” Macklem said in prepared remarks.
“We don’t know how quickly AI will continue to advance. And we don’t know the timing and extent of its economic and social impacts.”
The governor said AI has the potential of increasing labour productivity, which would raise living standards and grow the economy without boosting inflation.
In the short-term, he said investment in AI is adding to demand and could be inflationary.
However, Macklem also highlighted more pessimistic scenarios, where AI could destroy more jobs than it creates or lead to less competition rather than more.
The governor called on academics and businesses to work together to shed more light on the potential effects of AI on the economy.
“When you enter a dark room, you don’t go charging in. You cautiously feel your way around. And you try to find the light switch. That is what we are doing. What we central bankers need is more light,” he said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 20, 2024.
CHICAGO (AP) — United Airlines has struck a deal with Elon Musk’s SpaceX to offer satellite-based Starlink WiFi service on flights within the next several years.
The airline said Friday the service will be free to passengers.
United said it will begin testing the service early next year and begin offering it on some flights by later in 2025.
Financial details of the deal were not disclosed.
The announcement comes as airlines rush to offer more amenities as a way to stand out when passengers pick a carrier for a trip. United’s goal is to make sitting on a plane pretty much like being on the ground when it comes to browsing the internet, streaming entertainment and playing games.
“Everything you can do on the ground, you’ll soon be able to do on board a United plane at 35,000 feet, just about anywhere in the world,” CEO Scott Kirby said in announcing the deal.
The airline says Starlink will allow passengers to get internet access even over oceans and polar regions where traditional cell or Wi-Fi signals may be weak or missing.
