John Ribeiro
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Salesforce acquires mobile authentication firm Toopher
Salesforce.com has acquired Toopher, the developer of a mobile two-factor authentication app that uses location-awareness.Toopher in Austin, Texas, said on its website that it will no longer sell its current products, but is “thrilled to join Salesforce, where we’ll work on delivering the Toopher vision on a much larger scale as part of the world’s #1 Cloud Platform.”It did not disclose the financial terms of the acquisition.Salesforce spokeswoman Karly Bolton confirmed the purchase but did not provide further details. Toopher’s website is now inaccessible, except for the notice announcing the acquisition.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Salesforce acquires mobile authentication firm Toopher
Salesforce.com has acquired Toopher, the developer of a mobile two-factor authentication app that uses location-awareness.Toopher in Austin, Texas, said on its website that it will no longer sell its current products, but is “thrilled to join Salesforce, where we’ll work on delivering the Toopher vision on a much larger scale as part of the world’s #1 Cloud Platform.”It did not disclose the financial terms of the acquisition.Salesforce spokeswoman Karly Bolton confirmed the purchase but did not provide further details. Toopher’s website is now inaccessible, except for the notice announcing the acquisition.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Google cloud platform can now be managed from a phone
Google is testing a version for Android smartphones and tablets of a console that will help its customers monitor services in the cloud while on the move.Following the beta launch of the Cloud Console for Android, Google said a version for Apple’s iOS operating system is expected to launch later this year.Using the app, users can set up alerts, manage Google cloud platform resources and access health graphs to gain insights into the performance and availability of their cloud-powered applications on Google’s Cloud Monitoring feature, wrote Michael Thomsen, a product manager at Google, in a blog post Monday.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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UN to appoint watchdog to focus on privacy in digital age
The Human Rights Council of the United Nations has voted in favor of a resolution backed by Germany and Brazil to appoint an independent watchdog or ‘special rapporteur’ to monitor privacy rights in the digital age.The council said Thursday that the same rights that people have offline must also be protected online, including the right to privacy.The proposed appointment of the rapporteur is likely to be mainly symbolic as the official’s functions will be mainly advisory. But it reflects continuing concerns around the world about privacy in the wake of disclosures of U.S. surveillance by former National Security Agency contractor, Edward Snowden.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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UN to appoint watchdog to focus on privacy in digital age
The Human Rights Council of the United Nations has voted in favor of a resolution backed by Germany and Brazil to appoint an independent watchdog or ‘special rapporteur’ to monitor privacy rights in the digital age.The council said Thursday that the same rights that people have offline must also be protected online, including the right to privacy.The proposed appointment of the rapporteur is likely to be mainly symbolic as the official’s functions will be mainly advisory. But it reflects continuing concerns around the world about privacy in the wake of disclosures of U.S. surveillance by former National Security Agency contractor, Edward Snowden.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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About 25 US states oppose sale of RadioShack’s customer data
Several state consumer protection agencies in the U.S. have joined the state of Texas in objecting in bankruptcy court to the proposed sale by RadioShack of personal information of its customers.In a filing Wednesday, the state of Texas said it had received support from 21 governmental consumer protection entities to its objection last week to the planned sale of personally identifiable information (PII) of 117 million RadioShack customers.The state of Texas had earlier objected to the sale citing both the in-store and online privacy policies of the consumer electronics retailer. “All versions of the privacy policy contain an unequivocal provision that consumer PII will not be sold,” state officials said in a filing to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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About 25 US states oppose sale of RadioShack’s customer data
Several state consumer protection agencies in the U.S. have joined the state of Texas in objecting in bankruptcy court to the proposed sale by RadioShack of personal information of its customers.In a filing Wednesday, the state of Texas said it had received support from 21 governmental consumer protection entities to its objection last week to the planned sale of personally identifiable information (PII) of 117 million RadioShack customers.The state of Texas had earlier objected to the sale citing both the in-store and online privacy policies of the consumer electronics retailer. “All versions of the privacy policy contain an unequivocal provision that consumer PII will not be sold,” state officials said in a filing to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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FTC says it did not go easy on Google in search probe
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission said its decision not to prosecute Google over its search practices was in line with the recommendations of its staff.The statement issued Wednesday by FTC Chairwoman Edith Ramirez and Commissioners Julie Brill and Maureen Ohlhausen was in response to the leak of an internal document, which suggested that the agency’s staff had concluded that Google’s business tactics had caused “real harm to consumers and to innovation,” and had recommended a lawsuit against the company.The FTC’s decision on the search allegations was in accord with the recommendations of the FTC’s Bureau of Competition, Bureau of Economics, and Office of General Counsel, the three commissioners wrote, claiming that the document, which was inadvertently provided to The Wall Street Journal as part of a public records request, was only “a fraction” of the voluminous record and extensive internal analysis that was reviewed at the time.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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India’s Supreme Court strikes down law against offensive online content
India’s Supreme Court has struck down as unconstitutional an Internet law that provided for the arrest of people sending online messages considered offensive or menacing.The court struck down on Tuesday section 66A of the Information Technology Act, describing it as vague, and said it did not fall under reasonable restrictions on free speech.The decision by the Supreme Court follows a bunch of lawsuits that alleged that this section of India’s cyberlaw was a threat to free speech in the country, and had led to arbitrary arrests.“This is a clear win for democracy and free speech,” said Mishi Choudhary, a lawyer focused on technology. She added that the Supreme Court had proven to be “very tech-savvy.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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US FCC faces lawsuits against proposed net neutrality order
U.S. broadband industry trade body USTelecom and Internet provider Alamo Broadband filed Monday lawsuits against a controversial U.S. Federal Communications Commission proposal to reclassify broadband providers, which could be the harbinger of similar lawsuits from Internet companies.The FCC voted by 3-2 in February to approve new net neutrality rules that would help ensure the uninhibited flow of Internet traffic. It aims to reclassify broadband as a regulated public utility, thus prohibiting providers from selectively blocking or throttling or offering paid prioritization of traffic.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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US gov’t wants HTTPS on its publicly-accessible sites within two years
Publicly accessible websites and services of U.S. government agencies will have to move to HTTPS encryption within two years to meet the government’s objective that these sites and Web services should be offered over a secure connection.The Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure offers the strongest privacy protection available for public Web connections with today’s Internet technology, according to a draft proposal released Tuesday by the White House’s Office of Management and Budget.“The use of HTTPS reduces the risk of interception or modification of user interactions with government online services,” it added.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Amazon acquires IoT platform developer 2lemetry
Amazon.com has acquired 2lemetry, a startup that has developed a platform for the integration of connected devices across enterprises, as it expands on its Internet of Things strategy.“We can confirm that Amazon has acquired 2lemetry, and we look forward to continuing to support 2lemetry customers,” a spokeswoman for Amazon wrote in an email Friday.2lemetry said on its website that its existing service had not changed and it would offer the same customer support after the acquisition by Amazon. It would retain its existing name and branding, it added.The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.Founded in 2011, the company describes its core technology as an IoT version of Enterprise Application Integration middleware solutions, “providing device connectivity at scale, cross-communication, data brokering and storage.” It also offers companies the ability to manage and analyze the captured data through predictive computational models and a configurable rules engine, according to its website.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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PC sales may be worse than expected this year
PC shipments are forecast to drop by 4.9 percent this year, more than the 3.3 percent fall earlier predicted, IDC said Thursday.Earlier in the day, Intel, the key chipmaker for the PC business, said its first quarter revenue would be around US$12.8 billion, down from the about $13.7 billion it had earlier expected, citing weaker than anticipated demand for business desktop PCs and lower than expected inventory levels in the PC supply chain.About 293 million PCs are expected to be shipped this year, according to IDC. The PC market dropped in value by 0.8 percent to $201 billion in 2014, and is expected to drop by another 6.9 percent in 2015, IDC said. Smaller declines in subsequent years are expected to take the total market to $175 billion by 2019.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Apple to raise drivers’ wages, after demands to share its wealth
Apple has decided to increase hourly wages by about 25 percent and offer other perks for its contract drivers in the Bay Area, in response to demands from workers in the area for better terms.The move comes ahead of the company’s shareholder meeting on Tuesday, which civil rights leader Rev. Jesse Jackson is attending, according to his Rainbow Push Coalition.Jackson, who has backed the demands of contract workers, is also likely to press Apple to outline its plans to employ more women, blacks and Latinos in its tech and general staff. This has been a long standing demand of the leader who has previously attended shareholder meetings of other tech companies including Hewlett-Packard.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Microsoft asks US court to ban Kyocera’s Android phones
Microsoft has asked a court in Seattle to ban Kyocera's DuraForce, Hydro and Brigadier lines of cellular phones in the U.S., alleging that they infringed seven Microsoft patents.The software giant has in its complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington charged that some Kyocera phone features that come from its use of the Android operating system infringe its patents.Microsoft has previously claimed that Android infringes some of its patents, and offered a licensing program to vendors of handsets running the operating system. A number of vendors including Samsung Electronics, HTC, ZTE, LG Electronics and Hon Hai have signed such licensing deals with Microsoft.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Apple, like Google, to hire full-time security guards in Silicon Valley
Apple will replace a number of contract security positions with direct hires for its Silicon Valley operations, amid widespread demands from contract workers like drivers and security guards for better working conditions at tech companies.The move by Apple comes in the wake of growing concerns about inequality in Silicon Valley, arising largely from the gentrification and high-costs in the area driven by the influx of hi-tech employees.In October, Google said it would employ on its payroll security guards, rather than have them placed by a contractor, shortly after a report in August by community labor organization Working Partnerships USA that highlighted the poor working conditions of janitors, security guards and other contract staff, supplied by third-party companies, that are used extensively by tech companies in the valley.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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NSA authorization to collect bulk phone data extended to June 1
A U.S. secret court has extended until June 1 the controversial bulk collection of private phone records of Americans by the National Security Agency.The government said it had asked for reauthorization of the program as reform legislation, called the USA Freedom Act, was stalled in Congress. The bill would require telecommunications companies rather than the NSA to hold the bulk data, besides placing restrictions on the search terms used to retrieve the records.An added urgency for Congress to act comes from the upcoming expiry on June 1 of the relevant part of the Patriot Act that provides the legal framework for the bulk data collections. Under a so-called “sunset” clause, the provision will lapse unless it is reauthorized in some form or the other by legislation.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Fresh from $532.9M win, Smartflash sues Apple again
Shortly after a jury in Texas awarded it US$532.9 million in damages in a patent dispute with Apple, patent company Smartflash has sued the iPhone maker again, this time to focus on newer Apple products."Apple has released new products that came out too late for inclusion in Smartflash's previous action against Apple," Smartflash's attorney Bradley W. Caldwell said in an email Thursday.The company sued Apple and others in May 2013 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, Tyler division, alleging that iTunes software infringed on six of its patents related to serving and managing access to data.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Samsung holds smartphone lead in India, Apple trails
Samsung Electronics led the Indian smartphone market with a 22 percent share last quarter, while global rival Apple didn’t even make the top five in this price-sensitive market.The South Korean company is, however, facing strong competition at the low end from Indian players like Micromax, which had an 18 percent share of the market in the fourth quarter of 2014, and also from brands like Xiaomi that sold exclusively online, according to IDC.The rankings are the subject of some dispute, however. Earlier this month research firm Canalys said that Micromax had already overtaken Samsung, with a 22 percent share of the Indian smartphone market in the fourth quarter to Samsung’s 20 percent share. Samsung contested the figures and said its share had been far higher at about 34 percent, citing data from another research firm, GfK.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Facebook, other tech firms face pressure from drivers over work conditions
Facebook and other tech companies in Silicon Valley are facing increasing pressure from its shuttle drivers to improve working conditions, amid concern about growing inequality in the area.Loop Transportation drivers, who transfer Facebook employees to and from the company’s Menlo Park, California campus, have reached an agreement with the contractor that, among other benefits, will increase their average pay to US$24.50 an hour from the current $18 an hour, International Brotherhood of Teamsters said Sunday.The agreement will have to first be submitted to Facebook for approval as the paying client. The company could not be immediately reached for comment.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here