Category: Technology

Facebook banned a quiz app from its platform for refusing an inspection and concerns that data on as many as 4 million users was misused.   The social media company said Wednesday that it took action against the myPersonality app after it found user information was shared with researchers and companies “with only limited protections in place.” Facebook said it would notify the app's users that their data was misused. It's only the second time Facebook has banned an app, after it blocked one linked to political data mining firm Cambridge Analytica that sparked a privacy scandal.   The company said myPersonality was “mainly active” prior to 2012, and it wasn't clear why Facebook was taking action now.   The app was created in 2007 by researcher David Stillwell and…

Parents lament their teenagers’ noses constantly in their phones, but they might want to take stock of their own screen time habits.  A study out Wednesday from the Pew Research Center found that two-thirds of parents are concerned about the amount of time their teenage children spend in front of screens, while more than a third expressed concern about their own screen time.  Meanwhile, more than half of teens said they often or sometimes find their parents or caregivers to be distracted when the teens are trying to have a conversation with them. The study calls teens’ relationship with their phones at times “hyperconnected” and notes that nearly three-fourths check messages or notifications as soon as they wake up. Parents do the same, but at a lower if still substantial…

Parents lament their teenagers' noses constantly in their phones, but they might benefit from taking stock of their own screen time habits. A new report from the Pew Research Center says two-thirds of parents are concerned about the amount of time their teenage children spend in front of screens. But more than half of teens said they often or sometimes find their parents or caregivers to be distracted by screens when trying to have a conversation with them. And more than a third expressed concern about their own screen time. The study surveyed 743 U.S. teens and 1,058 U.S. parents of teens from March 7 to April 10. The margin of error is 4.5 percentage points. ...

Around the world, 2.6 million newborns die within a month after they are born, according to the World Health Organization. A project called NEST360°, in the Rice 360° Institute for Global Health in Houston, is trying to reduce the number of preventable newborn deaths in sub-Saharan Africa. The key is to provide appropriate medical devices for hospitals in this region of the world. VOA’s Elizabeth Lee has the details. ...

Social media giants Facebook and Twitter said they have removed hundreds of pages and accounts linked to Russia and Iran ahead of the midterm elections in the U.S. Facebook said it had removed 254 Facebook pages and 116 Instagram accounts that originated in Iran and were part of a disinformation campaign that targeted countries around the world, including the U.S. and Britain.   The social media companies acted on a tip from cybersecurity firm FireEye, which said on Tuesday that the accounts were promoting Iranian propaganda, including discussion of "anti-Saudi, anti-Israeli and pro-Palestinian themes." "We've removed 652 Pages, groups and accounts for coordinated inauthentic behavior that originated in Iran and targeted people across multiple internet services in the Middle East, Latin America, UK and US," Nathaniel Gleicher, head of cybersecurity…

From an app to diagnose disease on Zambian farms to Tinder-style matchmaking for Senegalese land owners and young farmers, young coders have been finding solutions to hunger in the first Africa-wide hackathon on the issue. Eight teams competed in the hackathon, organized by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and a Rwandan trade organization in the country's capital Kigali this week. Experts say keeping young people in farming is key to alleviating hunger in Africa, which has 65 percent of the world's uncultivated arable land, but spends $35 billion a year on importing food for its growing population. "In our families, agriculture is no longer a good business. They don't get the return," said Rwandan Ndayisaba Wilson, 24, whose team proposed a $400 solar-powered device that can optimize water…

A federal judge hearing arguments over a settlement between the Trump administration and a company that wants to post plans for printing 3D weapons on the internet said Tuesday that the issue is best decided by the president or the Congress. U.S. District Judge Robert Lasnik that while he will still rule on the legal issues involving the settlement, "a solution to the greater problem is so much better suited'' to the president or Congress. The settlement prompted 19 states and Washington, D.C., to sue the Trump administration for allowing a Texas company to distribute instructions on how to make printable three-dimensional guns. Lasnik issued a temporary restraining order blocking the online release of the blueprints. Now, the states and Washington are seeking a permanent ban. A lawyer for the…

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday that it is "very dangerous" for social media companies like Twitter and Facebook to silence voices on their services. Trump's comments in an interview with Reuters come as the social media industry faces mounting scrutiny from Congress to police foreign propaganda. Trump has made his Twitter account — with more than 53 million followers — an integral and controversial part of his presidency, using it to promote his agenda, announce policy and attack critics. Trump previously criticized the social media industry on Aug. 18, claiming without evidence in a series of tweets that unnamed companies were "totally discriminating against Republican/Conservative voices." In the same post, Trump said "too many voices are being destroyed, some good & some bad." Those tweets followed actions taken…

People in big cities around the world typically enjoy a wide range of public transportation options. Those who own smartphones also have the choice of using some of the increasingly popular ride sharing services such as Uber and Lyft. And now, Kabul residents in Afghanistan can, too. VOA's Haseeb Maudoodi takes a look at Kabul's newest online taxi service called Buber, which means 'take me' in Dari. Bezhan Hamdard narrates. ...

Google has been in the headlines recently, and the news was not good. The technology company left the Chinese market eight years ago to protest Beijing's censorship, but now appears ready to return with a new search engine. But the project is shrouded in secrecy, even as Google's employees demand transparency. Meanwhile, the company tries to defend itself against accusations it has been invading user's privacy, despite claiming it doesn't. Faiza Elmasry has the story. Faith Lapidus narrates. ...

The world's oceans are filled with trace amounts of uranium, the primary fuel for nuclear power reactors. The trick is extracting it from the seawater. Now, scientists in the U.S. say they have done that using yarn, and extracted 5 grams of the powdered form of uranium used to produce reactor fuel. Faith Lapidus reports. ...

Tech companies like Google's YouTube, Facebook and Twitter have long been global platforms for free expression but are increasingly facing calls to respond to offensive and abusive comments on their sites. Michelle Quinn reports this is an issue both in the U.S. and throughout the world. ...

Google is planning a return to China. But the project is shrouded in secrecy, and employees are demanding transparency. According to a report by The New York Times on Thursday, August 16, a petition calling for more oversight and accountability in the project racked up more than 1,000 signatures. Reuters reported this month, the app is a bid to win approval from Beijing to provide a mobile search engine in China. However, employees are concerned the app would support China's restrictions on free expression and ultimately violate the company's 'don't be evil' code of conduct. The petition, seen by Reuters says, "We urgently need more transparency, a seat at the table and a commitment to clear and open processes: Google employees need to know what we're building." The company declined…

After long resisting change, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey wants to revamp the "core" of the service to fight rampant abuse and misinformation. But it's not clear if changing that essence — how it rewards interactions and values popularity — would even work.   Though Dorsey was scant on details, what is certain is that the move will require huge investments for a company that doesn't have the same resources that Google and Facebook have to throw at the problem. Any change is likely to affect how users engage with Twitter and hurt revenue, testing the patience of both users and investors.   "Social networks have a history of ... well-intentioned but badly designed efforts to fix this," said Nate Elliott, principal at marketing research firm Nineteen Insights.   Twitter isn't…

Outfielder Rolando Rodriguez from Panama heard a reporter's question, but he doesn't speak English. So Georgia shortstop Tai Peete helped him out, pecking the words into Google Translate to ask about how young baseball players are sharing technology during the Little League World Series. "It was easier than expected,'' Rodriguez said of the language barrier, speaking through an interpreter. So goes life in the International Grove, the dorms where 16 teams all are staying during the double-elimination tournament in pursuit of a world title. Apps and even video games are making it easier for the boys to communicate and get to know each other — making smartphones a key part rather than a distraction during their moment of a lifetime. Eight teams are from U.S. states while the other teams…

The rise of information sharing in the digital age has made it easier to disseminate knowledge, but it also brings with it heightened risks: from hackers stealing our information, to launching cyberwarfare and even potentially weaponizing legitimate platforms. This week on "Plugged In," VOA Contributor Greta Van Susteren explores these challenges and how they are impacting global cybersecurity. VOA's Elizabeth Cherneff has more. ...

Greta Van Susteren talks to technology journalist Kara Swisher about cybersecurity and privacy. ...

One American university is putting electronic voice-controlled assistants in every student housing room on campus. Saint Louis University recently announced it will equip every student living space with Amazon’s Alexa system. The school in St. Louis, Missouri, will place about 2,300 Echo Dot “smart” devices in all student dorms and other university housing. Officials said the university will be the first in the world to put the devices in every student living space. The devices and the Alexa service are being provided at no costs to students. The Amazon Echo is a speaker with the ability to listen and “talk” to users and can perform some operations. The Alexa assistant competes with similar systems made by Google and Apple. Devices linked to the systems have become increasingly popular in homes…

How do you know if a piece of art is real or fake? Ask a scientist. At New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, chemistry, physics and geology are all playing a part in the detective work of determining whether a work of art is original or a forgery. Now teens are learning the tricks of that trade as well. Tina Trinh has more. ...

India will send a manned flight into space by 2022, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced Wednesday as part of India's independence day celebrations. He said India will become the fourth country after Russia, the United States and China to achieve the feat and its astronaut could be a man or a woman. The space capsule that will transport India's astronauts was tested a few days earlier. Rakesh Sharma was the first Indian to travel in space, aboard a Soviet rocket in 1984. As part of its own space program, India successfully put a satellite into orbit around Mars in 2014. India won independence from British colonialists in 1947. Modi's 80-minute speech, broadcast live from the historic Red Fort in New Delhi, comes months before national elections.  Modi listed his government's…

Tesla's board named a special committee of three directors on Tuesday to evaluate possibly taking the electric carmaker private, although it said it had yet to see a firm offer from the company's chief executive, Elon Musk. The Silicon Valley billionaire last week said on Twitter he wants to take Tesla private at $420 a share, valuing it at $72 billion, and that funding was "secured." That earlier tweet triggered investor lawsuits and an investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission into the accuracy of his statement, according to multiple media reports. Musk on Monday gave his most detailed vision of how a take-private deal could work, but shares ended flat, indicating investor skepticism. The shares were last down 1 percent at $352.88 on Tuesday. Musk said Monday he…

The world will soon have its first batch of commercially available 3D-printed concrete homes. A consortium of the Dutch municipality of Eindhoven, Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e), and three private firms has joined forces to build five of these unique homes in the hub city of Eindhoven in the Netherlands. VOA’s Julie Taboh has more. ...

Tesla's handling of Chief Executive Elon Musk's proposal to take the carmaker private and its failure to promptly file a formal disclosure has raised governance concerns and sparked questions about how companies use social media. Musk stunned investors last Tuesday by announcing on Twitter that he was considering taking Tesla private in a potential $72 billion transaction and that "funding" had been "secured." Tesla's shares closed up 11 percent before retrenching after the Wall Street Journal reported that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) had asked Tesla why Musk announced his plans on Twitter and whether his statement was truthful. Musk provided no details of his funding until Monday, when he said in a blog on Tesla's website that he was in discussions with Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund…

Even if you have “Location History” off, Google often stores your precise location. Here’s how to delete those markers and some best-effort practices that keep your location as private as possible. But there’s no panacea, because simply connecting to the internet on any device flags an IP address that can be geographically mapped. Smartphones also connect to cell towers, so your carrier knows your general location at all times. To prevent further tracking For any device: Fire up your browser and go to myactivity.google.com. (You’ll need to be logged into Google) On the upper left drop-down menu, go to “Activity Controls.” Turn off both “Web & App Activity” and “Location History.” That should prevent precise location markers from being stored to your Google account. Google will warn you that some…

A meteor shower lit up the skies above eastern Bosnia Saturday night, giving star gazers a rare opportunity to see a display of shooting stars with the naked eye. “I think that everybody should see this,” said Miralem Mehic, a Bosnian from an international group of star gazers who watched the light show at the Sand Pyramids, an area of naturally occurring sand columns, near the town of Foca. The so-called Perseids meteor shower returns to the skies every August and are best viewed in the northern hemisphere in isolated areas where there is little light pollution. They arise when the Earth passes through the debris of Comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle, which was discovered in 1862. Meteors are parts of rock and dust that hit the Earth’s atmosphere, heat up and glow.…

A NASA spacecraft rocketed toward the sun Sunday on an unprecedented quest to get closer to our star than anything ever sent before. The Parker Solar Probe will fly straight through the wispy edges of the corona, or outer solar atmosphere, that was visible during last August’s total solar eclipse. It eventually will get within 3.8 million (6 million kilometers) of the sun’s surface, staying comfortably cool despite the extreme heat and radiation, and allowing scientists to vicariously explore the sun in a way never before possible. No wonder scientists consider it the coolest, hottest mission under the sun, and what better day to launch to the sun than Sunday as NASA noted. “Fly baby girl, fly!!” project scientist Nicola Fox of Johns Hopkins University tweeted just before liftoff. She…

Samsung's new smartphone illustrates the limits of innovation at time when hardware advances have slowed. The new phone, the Galaxy Note 9, will be faster and will last longer without a recharge. But while earth-shattering new features are in short supply, it will carry an earth-shattering price tag: $1,000. The minor improvements reflect a smartphone industry that has largely pushed the limits on hardware. Major changes tend to come every few years rather than annually, and this isn't the year for anything revolutionary in the Note. The new phone will get some automatic photo editing and a stylus that can serve as a remote control. But the highlights will be a bigger battery, a faster processor and improved cellular speeds. "You don't see massive breakthroughs anymore from a hardware perspective,"…

Unmanned aerial vehicles, commonly referred to as drones, can become an important tool for farmers around the world within the next 10 years. Researchers at Texas A&M University in College Station are looking at different applications of precision farming with drone technology. VOA's Elizabeth Lee has the details. ...