Facebook wants to crack down against hate speech on migrants

Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg says the social network needs to get better at cracking down on hate speech against migrants. He identified them as a group that needed protection during a public "town hall" session in Berlin. Around 1,000 young people were invited, many of them students. Germany's history with the Nazi party means there are strict laws around the protection of minorities. Facebook has faced criticism in Germany for failing to police anti-immigration posts. Their ministry of justice has said the social network acts quicker to remove sexual imagery than it does racist messages. It was reported in January that German authorities were working on a deal with Facebook, Google and Twitter to make sure the law took priority over company policy. When asked to clarify Facebook's position directly, Zuckerberg said: "There's not a place for this kind of content on Facebook. Learning more about German culture and law has led us to change the approach," he said. He did not specify how he would stop this sort of material, but added: "Hate speech against migrants is an important part of what we now have no tolerance for on Facebook." Germany receives more refugees and asylum seekers than any other EU country. Many of those have come from war-torn Syria.

The increased numbers of migrants entering has seen support for anti-immigration groups rise. Tensions have grown in Germany both on and offline, especially after a series of assaults on New Year's Eve which were largely blamed on migrants. Authorities say about 1,000 people, mostly men, congregated at Cologne's central train station before breaking off into small groups that molested and robbed women. Despite this, last week about 100 people in the town of Clausnitz took to the streets and shouted "we are the people" and tried to block the bus carrying about 20 asylum seekers. Video footage showing migrants crying caused outrage. Two days after the protest in Clausnitz, a shelter for asylum-seekers was set alight in Bautzen while onlookers applauded.

Germany is currently considering proposals to tighten its immigration policy after the assaults on New Year's Eve. Businesses are expected to argue migrants would help replace the shrinking work force. However, Zuckerberg said he hoped the US would follow Germany's lead allowing more refugees into the country.

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Remarkable Boston Dynamics robot puts up with bullying

Boston Dynamics - the robotics firm owned by Google - has created a humanoid that is able to withstand all manner of bullying and still achieve its task.
Researchers push, kick and tease the remarkable new Atlas robot, which is an upgrade of models we've seen from the firm previously.
Despite the distractions, Atlas continues with its task of picking up and moving boxes.
In one instance, a member of the Boston Dynamics team gives Atlas such a severe whack to its upper back that it falls over, face first on to the floor.

After a moment of reflection, the robot pushes its arms out and jolts itself upright, before somewhat dejectedly walking out of the building. Other demonstrations shown in the video posted by Boston Dynamics show Atlas walking around in the snow, righting itself whenever it encounters difficult terrain. "It is electrically powered and hydraulically actuated," the company explained. "It uses sensors in its body and legs to balance and LIDAR and stereo sensors in its head to avoid obstacles, assess the terrain and help with navigation." The robot is 5ft 9in (175cm) tall and weighs 180lb (82kg). We learned in December last year that plans to develop a four-legged dog-like robot had been shelved after it was deemed too noisy for its purpose on combat zones. It had been hoped that the robot would be able to follow troops while carrying extra kit.

Apple apologises for iPhone 'error 53' and issues fix

Apple has said sorry to iPhone customers whose phones were disabled after third-party repairs, and issued a fix for the problem.

Some users found that their iPhone stopped working following servicing by a non-Apple technician and saw an "error 53" message in iTunes.

Previously, Apple had said the error was a "security measure" taken to prevent fraudulent transactions.

Now, the company has released a software update to fix the error.

In a statement, Apple said that "error 53" occurs when a device fails a standard security test designed to ensure that the Touch ID fingerprint scanner is working correctly.

However, the company added: "We apologise for any inconvenience, this was designed to be a factory test and was not intended to affect customers.

"Customers who paid for an out-of-warranty replacement of their device based on this issue should contact AppleCare about a reimbursement."

A software update has now been released so that iPhone customers with disabled phones may restore their device via iTunes on a PC or Mac.

Apple 'prodded'

"To me, there was a lot of logic in what they said around the 'error 53' element," said mobile analyst Ben Wood at CCS Insight.

"If you're using your fingerprint to unlock sensitive data or make payments and there was the ability for someone to replace the screen and modify the module to take control of your phone - that's not a good thing at all."

Mr Wood added that Apple faced something of a backlash over the error after it appeared "retrospectively" on repaired phones following a software update, and was not something iPhone users had expected.

Apple had even faced a class action lawsuit led by a Seattle-based firm over error 53-disabled phones.

"I think it's a sensible decision by Apple," he told the BBC.

"If they've found a way to allow people to do repairs to the phone without that error occurring, that's great news."

Some customers praised the company's decision on Apple's discussion forums.

"Perhaps my sentiment of a week ago or so (that I would not buy an iPhone 6), which generated so much complaining by people with huge numbers of posts, in its small way helped to prod Apple into fixing this," wrote one user, risandy, following news of the fix.

"Glad to see Apple have back-tracked on this one," added Jay 75.

TED 2016: HoloLens unveils 'teleportation' to Mars

HoloLens creator Alex Kipman has shown off Microsoft's augmented reality technology at the TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) conference.

Using a camera hooked up to a HoloLens headset, he was able to "teleport" Nasa scientist Jeff Morris to the TED stage.

Microsoft is due to starting selling HoloLens developer units this spring for $3,000 (£2,000).

Some have questioned whether the technology will appeal to the mass market.

Mr Kipman said that AR would eventually replace the computer, smartphone and laptop screens we currently use.

"We will look back at this decade as being like cavemen in terms of technology," he said.

"Machines are becoming capable of understanding our world and interacting with us."

Virtual meets physical

That, he said, will ultimately lead to a world where the real and the digital are merged seamlessly.

"We will turn a dial and get reality and turn it the other way and get virtual reality."

In his demonstration at TED he showed delegates an other-worldly garden and digital rain before "teleporting" Mr Morris, who appeared to be standing on Mars.

"I'm in three places. I'm in a room across the street, I'm on the TED stage and I am also on Mars," said Mr Morris.

Critics have questioned whether HoloLens will be something that consumers will be prepared to pay for.

"I think we're a good few years away from a compelling consumer AR smart glasses solution which has the desirable content and is cheap enough to drive a broader interest in the technology," said Piers Harding-Rolls, an analyst at research firm IHS.

"I see consumer AR as more embryonic than VR and still very much at an experimental stage," he added.

Most activity in AR at the moment is "business-focused using smart glasses for commercial applications," he added.

VR connection

Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) have been constant themes at this year's TED with a VR theme park being demonstrated, alongside another AR headset from Meta.

Virtual reality film-maker Chris Milk used his TED talk to conduct the world's biggest simultaneous VR experience.

Delegates had earlier been asked to download an app to their smartphones and each of the 1,200-strong TED audience was given a Google Cardboard headset to view a video.

It was a combination of films made by Mr Milk's start-up Vrse - including film shot from a helicopter above New York City and footage from refugee camps.

Mr Milk called VR "the last medium".

"We have just started to scratch the surface of the true power of virtual reality," he said.

"It's not a video game peripheral. It connects humans to other humans in a profound way that I've never seen before in any other form of media - and it can change people's perceptions of each other.

"And that's how I think virtual reality has the potential to actually change the world."

Bitcoin could help cut power bills

The technology behind the Bitcoin virtual currency could help cut electricity bills, suggests research.

A blockchain-based smart plug that can adjust power consumption minute-by-minute has been created by technologists at Accenture.

The blockchain is the automated ledger that underpins Bitcoin and tracks where the coins are spent and swapped.

The plug shops for different power suppliers and will sign up for a cheaper tariff if it finds one.

Accenture said the smart plug could help people on low incomes who pay directly for power.

Smart contract

The smart plug modifies the basic Bitcoin blockchain technology to make it more active, said Emmanuel Viale, head of the Accenture team at the firm's French research lab that worked on the plug.

Instead of just resolving and confirming transaction records, the Accenture work has changed the blockchain to let it negotiate deals on behalf of its owner.

"It's about how we put more business behaviour or logic into the blockchain," said Mr Viale, adding that this essentially embeds a "smart contract" into the digital ledger.

The smart plug prototype works with other gadgets in the house that monitor power use. When demand is high or low it searches for energy prices and then uses the modified blockchain to switch suppliers if it finds a cheaper source.

So far, said Mr Viale, the Accenture system was just a proof of concept, but it could help many people on lower incomes who pay for their power via a meter.

Being able to quickly shift suppliers could save this group more than £660m in the UK annually, suggests Accenture research.

A blockchain-based system that can act on behalf of its owner might also prove useful as the Internet of Things becomes more ubiquitous, said Mr Viale.

Managing many different gadgets might be tricky without a more centralised system, he said,

Martin Garner, a mobile services expert at analyst firm CCS Insight, said blockchains were starting to crop up in many different areas including share trading, fishing rights databases and land registry claims.

They had two chief attractions for the Internet of Things, he said.

"They avoid dependence on any one supplier or ecosystem - some users have concerns about the potential dominance of key internet players creating, for example, the Google-of-Things or the Amazon-of-Things," he said.

"The second attraction is as a way of enabling autonomous trading between things, such as the appliances in your house being set up to re-order supplies from a pre-approved list of suppliers," he added.

Glibc: Mega bug may hit thousands of devices

A major computer security vulnerability has been discovered - with experts cautiously warning it could potentially affect hundreds of thousands of devices, apps and services.

However, due to the nature of the bug, it is extremely difficult to know how serious the problem is.

"Many people are running around right now trying to work out if this is truly catastrophic or whether we have dodged a bullet," said Prof Alan Woodward, a security expect from the University of Surrey.

Google engineers, working with security engineers at Red Hat, have released a patch to fix the problem.

It is now up to manufacturers, and the community behind the Linux operating system, to issue the patch to affected software and devices as soon as possible.

In a blog post explaining the discovery, Google's team detailed how a flaw in some commonly-used code could be exploited in a way that allows remote access to a devices - be it a computer, internet router, or other connected piece of equipment.

The code can also be within many of the so-called "building blocks" of the web - programming languages such as PHP and Python are affected, as well as systems used when logging in to sites or accessing email.

"It's not a sky-is-falling scenario," said Washington D.C-based security researcher Kenneth White.

"But it's true there's a very real prospect that a sizable portion of internet-facing services are at risk for hackers to crash, or worse, run remote code to attack others."

He said that while there is no publicly known attack code using the flaw, it's a "near certainty" hackers would try to exploit the weakness.

Remote execution

The bug is found in glibc - a open-source library of code that is widely used in internet-connected devices.

One particular function is domain look-up. This is when the device converts a typical web domain, say bbc.com, and finds its corresponding IP address so it can access whatever website or service is needed.

The domain look-up code in glibc contains a bug that could allow hackers to maliciously implant code within a device's memory. From here, attacks such as remote execution - controlling the device over the internet - could take place.

However, Google said it is very hard to exploit the flaw although their engineers have worked out how. For obvious security reasons they are not making that public.

The scale of the problem is difficult to determine because it is unclear how many devices and systems make use of the glibc code.

For instance, Google Android devices use a substitute library which is not vulnerable to this particular attack.

But hundreds of thousands of others could be, and so manufacturers are being urged to test their systems using a proof-of-concept attack developed and released on Tuesday by Google's team.

Major systems like Windows or OS X are unaffected - but consumers need to be more concerned about smaller connected devices.

"Think routers and increasingly anything considered part of the 'Internet of Things'," said Prof Woodward.

Worryingly, it appears that the bug was first reported to the team that maintains glibc in July last year, but it was flagged as low priority.

The vulnerability is being compared to Shellshock, a bug discovered in 2014 which affected a huge range of computing devices.

The bug discovered in glibc has been present since 2008, experts said.

Bounty hunter finds Facebook account hijack bug

A British security analyst has been given $7,500 (£5,240) by Facebook after notifying it of a flaw on its website.

Like many big tech firms, Facebook offers financial rewards, known as bug bounties, in exchange for issues reported directly to it rather than publicised.

It is Jack Whitton's second big payout from Facebook - a previous find netted him $20,000.

The more serious the bug, the higher the reward.

It means that vulnerabilities can be fixed before they fall into the hands of hackers.

Facebook recently announced that it had paid a total of $4.3m in bug bounties since it launched its programme in 2010.

Last year, it awarded $936,000 to 210 people. The average payment was $1,780.

Jack Whitton describes so-called bug hunting as a hobby. He has also identified weaknesses in platforms run by Paypal, Microsoft, Dropbox and Snapchat among others.

"It can take a day to find, then more to investigate whether it's a real issue," he told the BBC.

His most recent find involved an image that could be embedded with malicious code, which would enable its owner to take over a Facebook account once a particular member had clicked on it - a vulnerability known as cross-site scripting.

It would not have affected the user's computer, but would have enabled their account to be accessed and controlled remotely - including sending private messages, posting links and pictures.

"No-one had actually exploited it," Mr Whitton said.

"Facebook were pretty pleased. They managed to get a quick fix - within six hours. They are a great company to report bugs to, they take it seriously."

Increased awareness

A permanent fix took longer, which is why he is only now able to talk about the bug although he found it last year.

The social network has also included Jack Whitton in its "hall of fame" - a list of white hat - or ethical - hackers who have helped it to make the platform more secure.

However, potential bug hunters should choose their websites carefully, he added.

"Firms are becoming more aware that every company has issues, if you don't let people report them, the bad guys will use them and you just won't know about it," he said.

"It's fun to find these things - and it is also very nice to get money from it - but only if the website has an official bug bounty policy.

"Otherwise you might find yourself accused of hacking."

Bounty balancing act

Cybersecurity expert Prof Alan Woodward told the BBC that bug hunters were a cost-effective way for tech firms to find security flaws.

"Compare the potential financial loss to a company and the bug bounties they pay and you soon realise it is a very cost-effective means of finding and plugging security holes," he said.

Companies have a difficult balancing act to perform with the size of bounty they pay.

If they pay too little, they can be accused of undervaluing the work of security researchers, and thereby not taking security seriously enough. If they pay too much, the companies might be accused of paying sums equivalent to protection money.

"While there are security flaws and those willing to exploit them for criminal purposes, there will be a need to pay people a bounty to responsibly disclose what they find," Prof Woodward added.

"Just like in the Wild West, it's not an ideal solution, but it works."

MyShake quake app invites public testing

A new app that turns a smartphone into a mobile seismometer is being rolled out by California scientists.

Known as MyShake, it can sense an earthquake even when the cell device is being carried in a pocket or a bag.

The researchers want users to download the app, in the first instance, to help test and improve its capabilities.

But ultimately the idea is that recruited phones will be part of a network that not only gathers data but also issues alerts.

Destructive ground motions take time to move out from the epicentre of a large tremor, meaning people at more distant locations could receive several seconds' vital warning on their phones.

"Just a few seconds' warning is all you need to 'drop, take cover and hold on'," said Prof Richard Allen from the UC Berkeley Seismological Laboratory.

"Based on what social scientists have told us about past earthquakes, if everyone got under a sturdy table, the estimate is that we could reduce the number of injuries in a quake by 50%," he told BBC News.

Prof Allen has a paper about MyShake in this week's Science Advances journal, but he has also been demonstrating it here in Washington DC at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

The app relies on a sophisticated algorithm to analyse all the different vibrations picked up by a phone's onboard accelerometer.

This algorithm has been "trained" to distinguish between everyday human motions and those specific to an earthquake.

The achieved sensitivity is for a Magnitude 5 event at a distance of 10km (6.2 miles) from the epicentre.

In simulations, the app detects a quake correctly in 93% of cases.

All this is done in the background - much like health apps that monitor the fitness activity of the phone user.

Once triggered, MyShake sends a message to a central server over the mobile network. The hub then calculates the location and size of the quake.

False positives are filtered out because the server is connected to existing seismic and GPS monitoring stations, and - if the public take up MyShake - thousands of other phones.

"We took the data from our traditional network gathered during the 2014 La Habra earthquake near Los Angeles, and downgraded its quality to something similar to what might be recorded on your smartphone, and then we applied the MyShake algorithm blindly to that data," Prof Allen explained.

"The system triggered rapidly and accurately, and that's really given us the confidence to now take MyShake out to the public for its big, real test."

For this release, MyShake is available for Android devices; an iOS version is very likely to come in the future. And to be clear, enrolled phones will not be receiving alerts of earthquakes - not yet.

Prof Allen is a leading figure behind ShakeAlert, the earthquake early warning system now in development for California.

Only a few such systems exist in the world.

They work on the principle of being able to detect the faster-moving but not-so-damaging P-waves in a seismic event ahead of its S-waves, which cause most destruction.

California has several hundred state-of-the art seismic stations in the ShakeAlert system, and during the 2014 South Napa earthquake an eight-second warning of shaking was delivered to trial participants in downtown San Francisco. This included the city's metro system, BART, which wants to be able to slow its trains ahead of the biggest tremors.

The phones enrolled to MyShake would eventually get such warnings as well (see this dramatisation).

"The MyShake approach can contribute to and enhance earthquake monitoring in those parts of the world that have traditional seismic networks, like California. But perhaps even more importantly, because we can do a lot of this 'in the cloud', MyShake could help provide earthquake early warning in locations that have no traditional seismic network - places such as Nepal or India where we get very damaging earthquakes."

Women write better code, study suggests

Computer code written by women has a higher approval rating than that written by men - but only if their gender is not identifiable, new research suggests.

The US researchers analysed nearly 1.4 million users of the open source program-sharing service Github.

They found that pull requests - or suggested code changes - made on the service by women were more likely to be accepted than those by men.

The paper is awaiting peer review.

This means the results have yet to be critically appraised by other experts.

The researchers, from the computer science departments at Caly Poly and North Carolina State University, looked at around four million people who logged on to Github on a single day - 1 April 2015.

Github is an enormous developer community which does not request gender information from its 12 million users.

However the team was able to identify whether roughly 1.4m were male or female - either because it was clear from the users' profiles or because their email addresses could be matched with the Google + social network.

The researchers accepted that this was a privacy risk but said they did not intend to publish the raw data.

The team found that 78.6% of pull requests made by women were accepted compared with 74.6% of those by men.

The researchers considered various factors, such as whether women were more likely to be responding to known issues, whether their contributions were shorter in length and so easier to appraise, and which programming language they were using, but they could not find a correlation.

However among users who were not well known within the community, those whose profiles made clear that they were women had a much lower acceptance rate than those whose gender was not obvious.

'Bias nonetheless'

"For outsiders, we see evidence for gender bias: women's acceptance rates are 71.8% when they use gender neutral profiles, but drop to 62.5% when their gender is identifiable . There is a similar drop for men, but the effect is not as strong," the paper noted.

"Women have a higher acceptance rate of pull requests overall, but when they're outsiders and their gender is identifiable, they have a lower acceptance rate than men.

"Our results suggest that although women on Github may be more competent overall, bias against them exists nonetheless," the researchers concluded.

Despite various high profile initiatives, tech firms continue to face challenges in terms of the diversity of their staff, in terms of both gender and ethnicity, particularly in more technical careers.

Just 16% of Facebook's tech staff and 18% of Google's are women according to figures released in 2015.

However the researchers' findings are still encouraging, computer scientist Dr Sue Black OBE told the BBC.

"I think we are going to see a resurgence of interest from women in not only coding but all sorts of tech-related careers over the next few years," she said.

"Knowing that women are great at coding gives strength to the case that it's better for everyone to have more women working in tech.

"It was a woman - Ada Lovelace - who came up with the idea of software in the first place, we owe it to her to make sure that we encourage and support women into the software industry," Dr Black added.

Tribunal rules computer hacking by GCHQ is not illegal

GCHQ is operating within the law when it hacks into computers and smart phones, a security tribunal has ruled.

Campaigners Privacy International have lost a legal challenge claiming the spying post's hacking operations are too intrusive and break European law.

The case was launched after revelations by US whistleblower Edward Snowden about the extent of US and UK spying.

GCHQ admitted its agents hack devices, in the UK and abroad, for the first time during the hearings.

Its previous policy had been to "neither confirm nor deny" the existence of such operations.

Listening devices

Hackers can remotely activate cameras and microphones on devices, without the owner's knowledge, log keystrokes, install malware, copy documents and track locations among other things, the Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT) was told.

The Home Office has now published a code of practice for hacking, or "equipment interference" as it is also known, and aims to put it on a firmer legal footing in its Investigatory Powers Bill, which is due to become law later this year.

The Investigatory Powers Tribunal, a panel of senior judges, said in its ruling that the code struck the right balance between the "urgent need of the Intelligence Agencies to safeguard the public and the protection of an individual's privacy and/or freedom of expression".

But the judges were "satisfied" the agency was already operating in a lawful and proportionate way, whatever the outcome of Parliament's scrutiny of the Investigatory Powers Bill.

Privacy International, which launched the legal challenge with seven internet service providers, said it was "disappointed" by the ruling and would continue to challenge "state-sponsored hacking," which it said was "incompatible with democratic principles and human rights standards".

'Secret practices'

Scarlet Kim, Privacy International's legal officer, said: "Hacking is one of the most intrusive surveillance capabilities available to intelligence agencies.

"This case exposed not only these secret practices but also the undemocratic manner in which the government sought to backdate powers to do this under the radar.

"Just because the government magically produces guidelines for hacking should not legitimise this practice."

She added that hacking "fundamentally weakens the security of computers and the internet" by exploiting the "weaknesses in software and hardware used by millions of people".

"It is akin to unlocking a person's window without their knowledge and leaving it open for any attacker - whether GCHQ, another country's intelligence agency or a cyber criminal - to access."

Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond welcomed the tribunal's ruling.

"The ability to exploit computer networks plays a crucial part in our ability to protect the British public," he said.

"Once again, the law and practice around our Security and Intelligence Agencies' capabilities and procedures have been scrutinised by an independent body and been confirmed to be lawful and proportionate.

"The draft Investigatory Powers Bill will further strengthen the safeguards for the Agencies' use of these powers, including a new double-lock authorisation process.

"It will provide our Security and Intelligence agencies with the powers they need to deal with the serious threats our country faces, subject to strict safeguards and world-leading oversight arrangements." Share this story About sharing

Nidar: India launches 'lightest gun' weighing 250g

Two years after India launched Nirbheek, a handgun pitched as the country's "first gun for women", a state-run arms factory has launched a similar gun which it says is India's lightest gun.

The new .22-calibre revolver is named Nidar, it weighs a mere 250g (8.8 ounces) - that's half of .32-calibre Nirbheek's 500g (1.1lb); and it costs 35,000 rupees ($513; £357) - Nirbheek came with a steep price tag of 122,360 rupees ($1,990; £1,213).

Manufacturers say Nidar is made with an aluminium alloy which makes it very light, but has "strength similar to steel", it has a 40-mm barrel and is just 140mm in length which makes it "small enough to fit into a palm".

Both Nirbheek and Nidar are synonyms of Nirbhaya - the nickname given by the Indian press to Jyoti Singh, the 23-year-old victim of December 2012 fatal gang rape on a bus in in Delhi. All three words mean fearless in Hindi.

They are produced by government-owned factories, and their manufacturers say carrying them will make people more confident and "fearless".

An official at the state-run Rifle Factory Ishapore, near the eastern city of Kolkata (Calcutta), said Nidar was aimed at "professional Indian men and women".

"I believe our customers would be people who travel a lot, who have security risks. They will buy this gun for their personal safety," factory in-charge PK Agarwal told the BBC.

He said he expected the gun to be more popular with women.

"I think it will be ideal for women. If a woman takes a taxi at night, the driver will think 10 times before trying anything with her because he knows she has a gun in her purse," he added.

But can carrying a gun make people safer?

Not really.

Most places in India do not allow guns - even the licensed ones - and there are metal detectors at many offices, malls, cinemas, markets and other public places to enforce this.

So even if "professional Indian men and women" were to get a gun, it will be of little use to them because they will not be able to carry it around with them.

Anti-gun campaigners also say that arming citizens is never a good idea - and that the way to tackle women's safety and reduce crimes is by better policing and changing attitudes.

The manufacturers of Nidar, however, are confident that their product will succeed - Mr Agarwal told the BBC that he expected to sell 10,000 units of the gun this year.

Tech giant Google says it will hide content removed under the "right to be forgotten" from all versions of the search engine when viewed from countries where removal was approved.

Under the "right to be forgotten" ruling, EU citizens may ask search engines to remove information about them.

Now, removed results will not appear on any version of Google.

EU privacy regulators previously asked the firm to do this.

Until now, search results removed under the "right to be forgotten" were only omitted from European versions of Google - such as google.co.uk or google.fr.

The French data protection authority had threatened the company with a fine if it did not remove the data from global sites - such as google.com - as well as European ones like.

This filtering will be applied whenever a European IP address is detected - so users outside the country where the removal request is filed, and indeed all users outside Europe, will still see a set of unedited results.

The BBC understands that the change will be in effect from mid-February.

Facebook ‘colonialism' row stokes distrust in Zuckerberg

Mark Zuckerberg has moved quickly to put a digital bargepole between himself and one of Facebook's influential and well-regarded board members.

He was attempting to limit the damage caused by a tweet that could have far-reaching consequences as he continues to expand Facebook around the world.

When Marc Andreessen dismissed India's decision to block Facebook's "free" mobile internet scheme as "anti-colonialism", he stoked the fears of those who believe Zuckerberg's stated philanthropic ambitions are actually a front for his desire to dominate the internet in the developing world.

"I found the comments deeply upsetting," Zuckerberg wrote on Tuesday, as uproar grew.

"They do not represent the way Facebook or I think at all."

Andreessen, an early Facebook investor, has apologised - and deleted his tweet.

Why?

It's damaging because it hits right to heart of what is a perennial problem for Facebook: trust.

In the developed world, every privacy policy change and feature addition is met with fierce investigation.

And that's because people want to know why? Why, for instance, does Facebook use face-recognition software on our photos? Why does Facebook insist we use our real names?

The answer - to help us organise our digital and real lives - is only partially satisfactory to some.

That may be so, users say, but... why else?

In the developing world this suspicion is more fraught.

Of the world's top 100 billionaires, Zuckerberg currently comes in at number eight. Much of Facebook's value, and therefore his, is down to the phenomenal growth the network has enjoyed since its launch in 2004.

This needs to continue, but with more than half of the entire online world already using Facebook, it needs to expand deeper into emerging economies.

It's why Zuckerberg spent $22bn (£15.2bn) to buy messaging service Whatsapp. It's likely why he has wooed China by going to great lengths to learn Mandarin.

And it's why he gave up his trademark hoody and jeans to instead wear a suit to welcome the Indian Prime Minister to Facebook's campus last year.

If he was going to be accepted in India, he needed to build bridges and gain trust.

And it's why Marc Andreessen's comment, as a member of Facebook's board, is so damaging - it's put Zuckerberg once again on the back foot.

Digital colonials

Because colonialism, albeit digital, is precisely what some in India were afraid of.

The suggestion by Andreessen that India, with its history, should somehow be pro-colonialism was treated by many as absurd.

In centuries gone by, colonialism was about exploitation of resources. In the modern world, it's digital - moving in, setting up companies and building insurmountable user bases before any other company can

That's arguably an extreme interpretation of the purpose of Free Basics - but it's the argument made by local businesses to India's telecoms regulator.

An Indian social network wouldn't stand a chance against free Facebook, they said, and websites that are not part of the Free Basics scheme would lose out. The regulator agreed when it ruled in favour of net neutrality.

As did many Western onlookers. The Electronic Frontier Foundation, which campaigns for an open internet, said Facebook was doing what it could to open up the Free Basics scheme to local companies, the inherent flaw of the program was that Facebook remained the sole gatekeeper.

After Free Basics was banned, Zuckerberg said he was "disappointed" but wouldn't give up.

There's no suggestion Andreessen's comments represented anything other than his own, loosely tweeted thoughts. But these weren't the words of a random member of staff - he's on the board, and has influence.

"Facebook stands for helping to connect people and giving them voice to shape their own future," Zuckerberg wrote on Wednesday.

Do people trust him? After this week, perhaps fewer will.

Legal breakthrough for Google's self-driving car

Google's self-driving car system could soon be given the same legal definition as a human driver, paving the way for vehicles without steering wheels or pedals.

The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) - which sets rules and regulations on America's roads - shared its thoughts in a letter to Google made public this week.

Until now, any car without a human driver would not be considered roadworthy.

However, in light of technological advancements, the NHTSA has changed its perspective.

"If no human occupant of the vehicle can actually drive the vehicle, it is more reasonable to identify the driver as whatever (as opposed to whoever) is doing the driving," it said.

"In this instance, an item of motor vehicle equipment, the Self-Driving System, is actually driving the vehicle."

Google boost

It means Google's self-driving pod, which has no typical in-car controls, is one crucial step closer to being allowed on public roads.

With the NHTSA's blessing, the car now fits the key criteria required to pass the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards test.

It's the latest regulatory boost for Google after the US government announced in January a $4bn plan to create nationwide regulations for self-driving cars.

Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx said the initiative would provide consistency between states.

"We are taking great care to embrace innovations that can boost safety and improve efficiency on our roadways," he added.

"Our interpretation that the self-driving computer system of a car could, in fact, be a driver is significant.

"But the burden remains on self-driving car manufacturers to prove that their vehicles meet rigorous federal safety standards."

It followed an announcement by the Californian Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) that said cars absolutely did need a driver - a ruling Google described as "perplexing".

North Korea campaigners seek USB sticks

Two US human rights charities have launched an appeal for donations of old USB sticks, also known as flash drives.

About 10,000 USB sticks are smuggled into North Korea each year by groups of people who have defected from the Communist state.

They are loaded with Hollywood films, South Korean TV shows and other material such as the Korean language version of Wikipedia.

In North Korea it is illegal content, and delivering it is dangerous.

In addition, the groups usually have to bear the cost of buying the flash drives themselves.

They often also have to fund bribes for North Korean officials when smuggling them in, and sometimes they are stopped by the South Korea authorities, who say the illicit activity increases tension between the two nations.

"After food and water, the next thing people in North Korea want is knowledge," said Alex Gladstein, chief strategy officer of the non-profit Human Rights Foundation.

Most North Korean citizens have no access to the internet. Contact with the outside world is largely forbidden by the government, led by Kim Jong-Un.

"We really believe education is the solution in North Korea," Mr Gladstein told the BBC.

"For many of us flash drives are becoming an obsolete technology - we have the cloud, and we can share things. But every single flash drive could save someone's life."

The Human Rights Foundation and Forum 280 are working with organisations such as the North Korean Strategy Center (NKSC), in Seoul, which distributes the sticks.

"It's always been a challenge to get people to understand why North Koreans' access to information is important, and this gives us a physical representation," Sharon Stratton, from the NKSC, told Wired.

"It's literally a key that will unlock a new world for North Koreans."

About 200 sticks have been sent in by individuals since the campaign's launch last week, and one has pledged to buy 10,000 for the appeal.

Mr Gladstein said he hoped corporations would donate unused branded drives ordered in bulk for corporate events.

Defectors describe increased demand for material from the outside world - and the preferred format has shifted from DVD to USB.

Hollywood favourites

"Arnold Schwarzenegger, Leonardo DiCaprio and Sylvestor Stallone are very popular," said Mr Gladstein.

US TV series Desperate Housewives and Spartacus and the Hunger Games films are also favourites.

Last year, Mr Gladstein was involved in a campaign that saw 10,000 copies of a 10-minute montage from The Interview airdropped into North Korea.

The film's fictional plot to kill Mr Kim outraged the government.

And the US believes North Korea was behind the subsequent hack of Sony Pictures, the studio behind the film.

North Korea has always denied the accusation.

Google is to banish most ads built in Adobe Flash from its advertising networks, the company has announced.

From 30 June, its AdWords and DoubleClick networks will no longer accept new "display ads" such as banners built in Flash.

From January 2017 it will stop displaying Flash ads on websites - but some video ads built with Flash will still be accepted.

Google said it wanted to "encourage" advertisers to switch to HTML5.

Today, immersive websites and streaming video can be delivered using HTML5 - an open-source coding language that works across all modern web browsers and devices.

Adobe Flash is a proprietary technology that can be added to web browsers to enable animations, interactivity and streaming video on websites.

It was first released in 1996, at a time when the web was largely static.

But the software has been plagued by security problems, and has been criticised for affecting computer performance and battery life.

Flash failed to make a successful transition to mobile devices, so websites that rely on it do not work as intended on smartphones and tablets.

Google's advertising networks AdWords and DoubleClick place promotional content on more than a million websites.

The company said: "We've rolled out tools to encourage advertisers to use HTML5, so you can reach the widest possible audience across screens."

In August, online shopping giant Amazon announced it would no longer accept Flash ads on its website.

The BBC is currently working to move its video streaming service iPlayer away from Flash too.

Adobe has developed its own HTML5 tools to help developers produce content that works across most modern devices.

But the company said it would support Flash as long as customer demand remained.

In November, it told the BBC: "Until alternative technologies accommodate all our customers' needs, for example in delivery of HD video content on the desktop, we will continue to support Flash."

Facebook hit by French privacy order

Facebook has been given three months to stop tracking non-members of its social network without their consent in France.

Last year, it made changes to the way the site is viewed in Belgium following a similar order from the Belgian Privacy Commissioner.

The French data protection body also demanded stronger password complexity, requiring at least eight characters rather than the existing six.

Facebook said privacy was its priority.

"Protecting the privacy of the people who use Facebook is at the heart of everything we do. We... look forward to engaging with the CNIL [French data protection authority - Commission Nationale de l'Informatique et des Libertes] to respond to their concerns," a spokeswoman said.

The social network tracks everyone who visits the site, regardless of whether they are members, by installing cookies - small text files which gather information about web activity.

The type used by Facebook, known as datr, can last for two years.

In Belgium, visitors to the site must now log on before they can view any pages.

The CNIL also told the firm to cease the transfer of some personal data to the US, as the Safe Harbour agreement has ended. Facebook has repeatedly stated that it uses other legal contracts to transfer data to the US.

The agreement, which enabled the transfer of data between the EU and US, was ruled invalid in October 2015, and while a new pact has been drawn up, it is not yet operational.

If Facebook fails to comply with the French privacy body within the three-month time frame it may face a fine, Reuters reported.

'Hack' on DoJ and DHS downplayed

US authorities have acknowledged a data breach affecting the Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security - but downplayed its severity.

A hacker, or hacking group, published via Twitter what they said were records of 9,000 DHS employees.

According to technology news site Motherboard, the hacker has said he will soon share the personal information of 20,000 DoJ employees, including staff at the FBI.

The news site said it had verified small portions of the breach, but also noted that some of the details listed appeared to be incorrect or possibly outdated.

In a statement, the DHS told journalists: "We take these reports very seriously, however there is no indication at this time that there is any breach of sensitive or personally identifiable information."

The Department of Justice also downplayed the breach's significance.

The hacker is understood to have used simple human engineering to bypass one stage of the authorities' security systems.

Motherboard quoted the hacker, who explained: "So I called up, told them I was new and I didn't understand how to get past [the portal].

"They asked if I had a token code, I said no, they said that's fine - just use our one."

The security of government systems was put under scrutiny last year when it was discovered that data on more than five million people was stolen from the Office of Personnel Management.

India blocks Zuckerberg's free net app

India's telecoms regulator has blocked Facebook's Free Basics internet service app as part of a ruling in favour of net neutrality.

The scheme offered free access to a limited number of websites.

However, it was opposed by supporters of net neutrality who argued that data providers should not favour some online services over others.

The free content included selected local news and weather forecasts, the BBC, Wikipedia and some health sites.

"No service provider shall offer or charge discriminatory tariffs for data services on the basis of content," ruled the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India.

The body had been investigating whether any online content should be prioritised over others, or offered for free while others were not.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg said he would work to make Free Basics legal.

"While we're disappointed with today's decision," he wrote. "I want to personally communicate that we are committed to keep working to break down barriers to connectivity in India and around the world.

"Connecting India is an important goal we won't give up on, because more than a billion people in India don't have access to the internet. We know that connecting them can help lift people out of poverty, create millions of jobs and spread education opportunities."

The World Wide Web Foundation, founded by Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the web, welcomed the regulator's decision.

"The message is clear: We can't create a two-tier Internet - one for the haves, and one for the have-nots," said programme manager Renata Avila.

"We must connect everyone to the full potential of the open Web.

"We call on companies and the government of India to work with citizens and civil society to explore new approaches to connect everyone as active users, whether through free data allowances, public access schemes or other innovative approaches."

Internet picks

Vikas Pandey, digital producer for the BBC in India, said there had been an intense publicity campaign on both sides of the debate, with Facebook taking out front page advertising in national newspapers to defend the scheme.

"The people who live in cities and are aggressive users of the internet said: 'You can't dictate the terms, give free internet to villagers and then tell them how to use it'," he said.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has maintained that it is "not sustainable to offer the whole internet for free".

The firm previously said it believed the project - which it launched in 2013 as Internet.org and was offered in 36 countries - had brought more than 19 million people online who would not otherwise have been able to afford access.

Thousands flock to 'malware museum'

An online archive of old computer malware has attracted more than 100,000 visitors since it launched four days ago.

Some of the software showed an animation or messages. Others invited the infected user to play a game.

Many of the viruses were created by "happy hackers" rather than organised criminals, said cybersecurity expert and curator Mikko Hypponen.

The malware all dates from the 1980s and 1990s.

The versions online have all been stripped of their destructive capabilities, but show the messages they would have displayed within emulator windows.

Much of the collection is mischievous and colourful in nature, but there was also more sinister malware around.

"I only chose interesting viruses," Mr Hypponen said of his picks.

Disk destroyer

His personal favourite is a virus called Casino, which overwrote a crucial part of the computer's file system but took a copy of personal files and then offered the user the opportunity to win them back in a game of Jackpot.

"Casino was a real problem," Mr Hypponen, who works at security firm F-Secure, told the BBC.

"At the time the advice was, you lose nothing by playing. In the early 1990s very few people had back-ups so you had lost your files anyway."

He said he was surprised by the number of people who felt nostalgic about the old malware.

"Most of the malware we analyse today is coming from organised criminal groups... and intelligence agencies," Mr Hyponnen added.

"Old school happy hackers who used to write viruses for fun are nowhere to be seen."