Latest news with #Signal
The Star
an hour ago
- The Star
WhatsApp is getting ads - time to delete? Here's what to know
Are there messenger apps that can match WhatsApp in terms of functionality, but don't collect chat metadata or at least maintain a privacy-oriented approach to it? Yes, there are. — Pixabay LOS ANGELES: In what may be the final straw for some users, ads are officially coming to WhatsApp in an upcoming version that will incorporate Meta's biggest source of revenue into one of the world's biggest messenger apps. "Sponsored" brands are set to appear in WhatsApp's Updates tab, where users can see the latest from both channels they follow and status updates from their contacts, Meta announced on June 16. The sister company to Instagram and Facebook said it won't use your personal messages and call logs for advertising purposes. But WhatsApp does use information about you – how you use your phone, which country or city you're in, what channels you follow, what language you speak and what contacts you have – to create a profile of you for Meta's advertisers. But nobody has to tolerate this if they don't like it. There are plenty of easy messenger alternatives widely in use, and switching is easy. Anyone who wants to turn their back on WhatsApp just needs a strategy. And that sounds more difficult than it is. It can be done in just two or three steps: find a messenger alternative, back up WhatsApp chats if necessary, then delete your account. Are there messenger apps that can match WhatsApp in terms of functionality, but don't collect chat metadata or at least maintain a privacy-oriented approach to it? Yes, there are. Signal and Wire are among the most widely recommended in security circles, and both are open source, securely end-to-end encrypted and available as Android, iOS and desktop applications. Telegram is another major alternative, but some security experts believe the company also has a worrying policy on data privacy. If in doubt, you can try out a few new messengers at the same time. Before taking the plunge, you should probably check if many of your contacts are already on your new messenger platform. If you're ditching WhatsApp, you may want to keep your old messages and media (photos, videos and voice messages). No problem. Open the individual or group chat you want to save, tap the three-dot menu at the top right (Android) or Settings (iOS), select "More/Chat export" and specify in the next window that the media should also be saved. Then you choose whether the text document with the chat history and media files should be stored on the device or in your cloud. Since, according to WhatsApp, a maximum of the 10,000 most recent messages can be saved in this way, you should repeat the whole procedure for the respective chat and specify that no media should be saved. This way you get a second text document with up to 40,000 messages. Taking this third step before the second is dangerous. If a WhatsApp account is deleted, all chats and backups are also deleted – irretrievably. So you've backed up everything that should be backed up? Good. To leave WhatsApp, tap on the three-dot menu or settings at the top right and select "Settings/Account/Delete account". Next, enter your mobile phone number in international format (with the +00 country code and without the first zero of the area code) in the corresponding field. With a final tap on the red "Delete my account" button, the job is done and the app can then be removed from your smartphone. – dpa
Business Wire
9 hours ago
- Business
- Business Wire
Genasys Inc. Reports Increasing Demand for CONNECT in Wake of 'Signalgate'
SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Genasys Inc. (NASDAQ: GNSS), the global leader In Protective Communications, today announced increasing interest and orders for CONNECT, the company's fully compliant, mission-critical communications platform for government and law enforcement. 'Greater demand for CONNECT has been spurred by the 'Signalgate' controversy, where several members of the federal government used the Signal messaging app for sensitive information sharing,' said Chief Jeff Halstead (Ret.), Genasys Senior Director of Strategic Accounts. 'Since the controversy, we are experiencing increasing demand for CONNECT information, demonstrations and orders from public safety leaders in small towns and large metro areas across the United States.' To date, strong order demand and contract renewals have grown CONNECT coverage in 41 states and more than 500 agencies, with other states and multiple agencies in deployment trials. 'Many public safety leaders now understand the importance and legal requirements of owning and controlling Interactions when planning and responding to crisis events,' Chief Halstead continued, 'During the last two weeks of national protests, I was contacted by more than a dozen police chiefs thanking me for helping them elevate their communication networks. Through CONNECT, many of them were able to regionally respond to mass protests in just a few minutes.' CONNECT Platform Advantages Heavily encrypted messaging from any device to all devices All messages and data are fully owned and controlled by the agency (Genasys has no access to data, chats, or information) Fortified Team chats where it is impossible for any person to be mistakenly added Nothing can be deleted or altered to maintain compliance Unlimited data sharing, photos, videos and documents Screenshot protection No push/share features prevent secure communications from being posted on social media All persons added to CONNECT are logged and tracked (they can only be added by sending an encrypted invitation directly to them) All data, chats and attachments are owned by the agency and can be easily reviewed in 30 seconds Complete transparency and accountability from all elected officials and law enforcement agencies Full compliance with FOIA, CJIS/FBI, public records retention laws and HIPAA Encrypted communications platforms like Signal are designed to allow users to hide or delete communications. Using CONNECT, a fully compliant encrypted communications platform specifically created for governmental operations, local, state, and federal governments/agencies can avoid the problems and fallout created by using non-FOIA-compliant consumer apps. About Genasys Inc. Genasys Inc. (NASDAQ: GNSS) is the global leader in Protective Communications. Incorporating the most comprehensive portfolio of preparedness, response, and analytics software and systems, as well as the Company's Long Range Acoustic Devices® (LRAD®) the Genasys Protect platform is designed around one premise: ensuring organizations and public safety agencies are 'Ready when it matters™.' Protecting people and saving lives for over 40 years, Genasys covers more than 155 million people in all 50 states and in over 100 countries worldwide. For more information, visit Forward-Looking Statements Except for historical information contained herein, the matters discussed are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the 'safe harbor' provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. You should not place undue reliance on these statements. We base these statements on particular assumptions that we have made in light of our industry experience, the stage of product and market development as well as our perception of historical trends, current market conditions, current economic data, expected future developments and other factors that we believe are appropriate under the circumstances. Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those suggested in any forward-looking statement. The risks and uncertainties in these forward-looking statements include without limitation the business impact of geopolitical conflicts and other causes that may affect our supply chain, and other risks and uncertainties, many of which involve factors or circumstances that are beyond the Company's control. Risks and uncertainties are identified and discussed in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. These forward-looking statements are based on information and management's expectations as of the date hereof. Future results may differ materially from our current expectations. For more information regarding other potential risks and uncertainties, see the 'Risk Factors' section of the Company's Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2024. Genasys Inc. disclaims any intent or obligation to publicly update or revise forward-looking statements, except as otherwise specifically stated.
Atlantic
19 hours ago
- Politics
- Atlantic
The Trojan Horse Will Come for Us Too
I stopped using my cellphone for regular calls and text messages last fall and switched to Signal. I wasn't being paranoid—or at least I don't think I was. I worked in the National Security Council, and we were told that China had compromised all major U.S. telecommunications companies and burrowed deep inside their networks. Beijing had gathered information on more than a million Americans, mainly in the Washington, D.C., area. The Chinese government could listen in to phone calls and read text messages. Experts call the Chinese state-backed group responsible Salt Typhoon, and the vulnerabilities it exploited have not been fixed. China is still there. Telecommunications systems aren't the only ones compromised. China has accessed enormous quantities of data on Americans for more than a decade. It has hacked into health-insurance companies and hotel chains, as well as security-clearance information held by the Office of Personnel Management. The jaded response here is All countries spy. So what? But the spectacular surprise attacks that Ukraine and Israel have pulled off against their enemies suggest just how serious such penetration can become. In Operation Spiderweb, Ukraine smuggled attack drones on trucks with unwitting drivers deep inside of Russia, and then used artificial intelligence to simultaneously attack four military bases and destroy a significant number of strategic bombers, which are part of Russia's nuclear triad. Israel created a real pager-production company in Hungary to infiltrate Hezbollah's global supply chains and booby-trap its communication devices, killing or maiming much of the group's leadership in one go. Last week, in Operation Rising Lion, Israel assassinated many top Iranian military leaders simultaneously and attacked the country's nuclear facilities, thanks in part to a drone base it built inside Iran. In each case, a resourceful, determined, and imaginative state used new technologies and data to do what was hitherto deemed impossible. America's adversaries are also resourceful, determined, and imaginative. Just think about what might happen if a U.S.-China war broke out over Taiwan. A Chinese state-backed group called Volt Typhoon has been preparing plans to attack crucial infrastructure in the United States should the two countries ever be at war. As Jen Easterly put it in 2024 when she was head of the Cyber and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), China is planning to 'launch destructive cyber-attacks in the event of a major crisis or conflict with the United States,' including 'the disruption of our gas pipelines; the pollution of our water facilities; the severing of our telecommunications; the crippling of our transportation systems.' The Biden administration took measures to fight off these cyberattacks and harden the infrastructure. Joe Biden also imposed some sanctions on China and took some specific measures to limit America's exposure; he cut off imports of Chinese electric vehicles because of national-security concerns. Biden additionally signed a bill to ban TikTok, but President Donald Trump has issued rolling extensions to keep the platform functioning in the U.S. America and its allies will need to think hard about where to draw the line in the era of the Internet of Things, which connects nearly everything and could allow much of it—including robots, drones, and cloud computing—to be weaponized. China isn't the only problem. According to the U.S. Intelligence Community's Annual Threat Assessment for this year, Russia is developing a new device to detonate a nuclear weapon in space with potentially 'devastating' consequences. A Pentagon official last year said the weapon could pose 'a threat to satellites operated by countries and companies around the globe, as well as to the vital communications, scientific, meteorological, agricultural, commercial, and national security services we all depend upon. Make no mistake, even if detonating a nuclear weapon in space does not directly kill people, the indirect impact could be catastrophic to the entire world.' The device could also render Trump's proposed 'Golden Dome' missile shield largely ineffective. Americans can expect a major adversary to use drones and AI to go after targets deep inside the United States or allied countries. There is no reason to believe that an enemy wouldn't take a page out of the Israeli playbook and go after leadership. New technologies reward acting preemptively, catching the adversary by surprise—so the United States may not get much notice. A determined adversary could even cut the undersea cables that allow the internet to function. Last year, vessels linked to Russia and China appeared to have severed those cables in Europe on a number of occasions, supposedly by accident. In a concerted hostile action, Moscow could cut or destroy these cables at scale. Terrorist groups are less capable than state actors—they are unlikely to destroy most of the civilian satellites in space, for example, or collapse essential infrastructure—but new technologies could expand their reach too. In their book The Coming Wave, Mustafa Suleyman and Michael Bhaskar described some potential attacks that terrorists could undertake: unleashing hundreds or thousands of drones equipped with automatic weapons and facial recognition on multiple cities simultaneously, say, or even one drone to spray a lethal pathogen on a crowd. A good deal of American infrastructure is owned by private companies with little incentive to undertake the difficult and costly fixes that might defend against Chinese infiltration. Certainly this is true of telecommunications companies, as well as those providing utilities such as water and electricity. Making American systems resilient could require a major public outlay. But it could cost less than the $150 billion (one estimate has that figure at an eye-popping $185 billion) that the House of Representatives is proposing to appropriate this year to strictly enforce immigration law. Instead, the Trump administration proposed slashing funding for CISA, the agency responsible for protecting much of our infrastructure against foreign attacks, by $495 million, or approximately 20 percent of its budget. That cut will make the United States more vulnerable to attack. The response to the drone threat has been no better. Some in Congress have tried to pass legislation expanding government authority to detect and destroy drones over certain kinds of locations, but the most recent effort failed. Senator Rand Paul, who was then the ranking member of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs and is now the chair, said there was no imminent threat and warned against giving the government sweeping surveillance powers, although the legislation entailed nothing of the sort. Senators from both parties have resisted other legislative measures to counter drones. The United States could learn a lot from Ukraine on how to counter drones, as well as how to use them, but the administration has displayed little interest in doing this. The massively expensive Golden Dome project is solely focused on defending against the most advanced missiles but should be tasked with dealing with the drone threat as well. Meanwhile, key questions go unasked and unanswered. What infrastructure most needs to be protected? Should aircraft be kept in the open? Where should the United States locate a counter-drone capability? After 9/11, the United States built a far-reaching homeland-security apparatus focused on counterterrorism. The Trump administration is refocusing it on border security and immigration. But the biggest threat we face is not terrorism, let alone immigration. Those responsible for homeland security should not be chasing laborers on farms and busboys in restaurants in order to meet quotas imposed by the White House.
Euronews
2 days ago
- Health
- Euronews
Iran asks its citizens to delete WhatsApp from their devices
The Dutch government advised parents not to allow their children under age 15 to use social media platforms such as TikTok and Instagram, citing psychological and physical problems among kids, including panic attacks, depression, and difficulties sleeping. The country's health ministry also encouraged parents to limit how long their children spend using electronic devices, keep phones and laptops out of bedrooms, and have 20 minutes of screen time followed by two hours of outside play. The advisory 'gives children the time to further develop digital resilience and media literacy,' Vincent Karremans, caretaker deputy minister for youth and sport in the Netherlands, said in a letter to parliament. Karremans is one of several ministers who remained on after the Dutch government collapsed earlier this month pending October elections. Both TikTok and Instagram require users to be at least 13 years of age. The guidelines, which are not legally binding, distinguish between 'social media' sites like TikTok and Instagram and 'social interaction platforms' such as messaging services WhatsApp and Signal. The social media sites have 'significantly more addictive design features' that have a negative impact on children, the government said. Children can use the messaging services from age 13, the year most Dutch children start secondary school, according to the recommendations. Last year, Australia became the first country in the world to ban children under 16 from using social media. Denmark and France are considering similar legislation, and Sweden issued recommendations about limiting screen time for children last year. A group of experts, put together at the request of the Dutch parliament, found that intense screen time and social media usage can result in physical and psychological problems in children. Dutch schools have banned students from using tablets, cell phones, and smart watches, with some exceptions, such as classes on media literacy. In May, some 1,400 doctors and child welfare experts in the Netherlands signed a public letter, calling on the government to ban children under 14 from having cell phones and restricting social media usage until age 16. In February, Dutch Queen Máxima said that her youngest daughter, Princess Ariane, had eyesight problems from spending too much time on mobile devices. Iranian state television urged people to remove WhatsApp from their smartphones, alleging without specific evidence that the messaging app gathered user information to send to Israel. In a statement to the Associated Press,** WhatsApp said it was 'concerned these false reports will be an excuse for our services to be blocked at a time when people need them the most.' WhatsApp uses end-to-end encryption, meaning messages are scrambled so that only the sender and recipient can see them. If someone else tries to access these messages all they will see is a distorted message that can't be unscrambled without a key. 'We do not track your precise location, we don't keep logs of who everyone is messaging and we do not track the personal messages people are sending one another,' the statement added. 'We do not provide bulk information to any government'. WhatsApp is owned by Meta, the US-based parent company of Facebook and Instagram. The app had been one of the most popular messaging apps aside from Instagram and Telegram. This wouldn't be the first time that Iran has asked people to limit their use of WhatsApp. In 2022, the country banned WhatsApp during mass protests against the government over the death of a woman held by the country's morality police. Cybersecurity expert Gregory Falco said it's been demonstrated that it's possible to understand metadata about WhatsApp that does not get encrypted. 'So you can understand things about how people are using the app and that's been a consistent issue where people have not been interested in engaging with WhatsApp for that (reason),' he said. Another issue is data sovereignty, Falco added, where data centres hosting WhatsApp data from a certain country are not necessarily located in that country. It's more than feasible, for instance, that WhatsApp's data from Iran is not hosted in Iran. 'Countries need to house their data in-country and process the data in-country with their own algorithms. Because it's really hard increasingly to trust the global network of data infrastructure,' he said. While the European Space Agency (ESA) waits to see whether the United States will cut 19 of their joint programmes, experts say the relationship between the two governments will likely not go back to the way it was. NASA's 2026 technical budget request, which was released earlier this month, details possible cuts to programmes such as the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA), a space probe that measures gravitational waves, Envision, ESA's first mission to Venus to measure its different atmospheres, and NewAthena, the world's largest X-ray observatory. The budget also cuts funding to certain components of Moon missions after Artemis III, a mission that would bring humans back to its surface in 2027. The cancellations are in the name of finding a more 'sustainable and cost-effective' lunar exploration strategy. The bill still needs to be approved by Congress, which could likely be in the autumn. Alberto Rueda Carazo, research fellow with the European Space Policy Institute (ESPI) think tank, said he has never seen any NASA budget like it. 'Whether or not Congress restores the money, the message is clear: Washington's science commitments can vanish overnight,' he told Euronews Next. ESA said at a press conference last week that 19 of its research projects might be impacted by the proposed NASA budget cuts. The ones where mitigation would be needed are the LISA, Envision and NewAthena. Without NASA contributions to these projects, Carazo said the missions might 'slip years,' possibly pushed back 'well into the 2030s,' and risk cancellation. The questions that these three missions address, like the mergers of black holes, hot-plasma physics and the history of Earth-size planets, would 'remain unanswered for at least a decade,' he said. Ludwig Moeller, ESPI's director, believes that the LISA programme will continue in the future with or without NASA. 'I think the objective of what LISA wants to do is perfectly understood,' he said. 'I don't think we will lose the discovery in the medium term'. Carazo said it could also affect Europe's leadership in fundamental astrophysics, the branch of astronomy that studies the physical structure of stars and other celestial bodies. The hardest hit of the research programmes, according to Carazo, is the ExoMars mission carrying the Rosalind Franklin rover. NASA provides the launch and descent hardware for the craft to fly so the programme cannot continue unless Europe is able to find and build a heavy-lift alternative. Josef Aschbacher, ESA's director general, said in a recent press conference that no cuts or cancellations were coming until the US 'finalises' its position, but that no matter the decision made by Congress, ESA would be 'ready' and 'well-prepared' to react. There are also possible impacts for Europe's Moon mission aspirations, because if the NASA cuts are approved, Carazo said Europe's 'two principal avenues into the Artemis architecture would disappear'. The ESA builds European Space Modules (ESMs) that provide electricity and oxygen to Orion, the spacecraft picked by NASA for the Artemis missions to the surface of the Moon. The NASA cuts would mean that the assembly line in Bremen, Germany, would finish the hardware for the flights but would have nothing scheduled after 2028. That could mean an 'early shut down' of the production line and the associated supply chain, Carazo added. The ESA also contributes three key elements for Gateway, the first international space station to be built around the Moon. Like the ESM parts, the Gateway hardware that's been built 'would have nowhere to go,' and Europe would lose a 'guaranteed, sustained presence in cislunar space'. There are other knock-off effects to consider regarding Europe's aspirations to study the Moon, he added. 'European astronaut seats after Artemis III would vanish, and key technologies that ESA is counting on for a later lunar-surface architecture—closed-loop life support, high-power solar-electric propulsion—would be delayed, widening the capability gap Europe had hoped to close in the 2030s,' he added. It is quite easy for NASA to get out of deals with the ESA or other partners, even if a contract has been signed, Carazo said. NASA contracts fall under the US Federal Acquisition Regulation, where the government has a 'termination for convenience' clause that lets them cancel any contract they want so long as they pay for costs already incurred. 'If Congress deletes the line item, NASA is legally obliged to stop spending, give ESA formal notice and negotiate a settlement; there is no binding dispute-resolution clause that could force the United States back in,' Carazo said. 'A pull-out would be diplomatically and politically messy but completely lawful'. The US has done this before by exiting its ExoMars programme obligations in 2012 under the Obama administration, Carazo added. Withdrawing from this project, in particular for a second time, 'would cement the perception that US commitments last no longer than a presidential term'. Europe's best bet while waiting for the American position to become clear is to offer to absorb a bigger share of the mission and ground costs while also investing in homegrown hardware to supply ESA's future missions, Carazo added. The most immediate consequence of the NASA cuts would be a 'permanent dent in Washington's reputational capital,' Carazo said. A 'diversification' of partners to assist with the ESA missions would follow so that 'no single foreign veto can stall an ESA flagship [programme] again.' ESA is looking to broaden relationships with Canada, Japan and India and while no deals are actively being pursued with China, it remains an option that could be explored, Carazo added. 'All of this reshapes the diplomatic map of space science, diluting US soft power,' Carazo said, adding that projects like China's International Lunar Research Station could start to 'woo European participation'. This is not the first time that Europe has discussed its sovereignty in space, according to Ludwig Moeller, ESPI's director. In 2023, an expert group released a report that noted Europe has 'no independent human launch capacity' and 'relies on non-European partners to send humans to space,' according to a press release about the report. The NASA budget cuts are bringing up this discussion again, Moeller added, along with questions of how much Europe should be investing in security and defence. 'The two points, security, defence and exploration are both on the agenda to an extent that I don't think in the history of Europe has ever existed,' he said. 'This … disruption is unique.' Part of the sovereignty discussion is how Europe is developing domestic supply chains to build the necessary hardware for NASA-vulnerable missions like the ExoMars, according to Daniel Neuenschwander, ESA's director of human and robotic exploration in last weeks media briefing. For example, Neuenschwander said that critical parts for the ExoMars rover, like an americium radioisotope heater unit (RHU) could be built in Europe to sustain future Moon missions. Yet, Moeller said Europe is not ready to give up on a transatlantic relationship that is built on shared values. '[Space exploration] really takes a village and the USA is still part of that village… in a different size, maybe in a different shape,' he said. '[But] Space exploration is a decadal task, it's not a transaction of the day'.
Euronews
2 days ago
- Health
- Euronews
Dutch government says kids under age 15 should not use social media
The Dutch government advised parents not to allow their children under age 15 to use social media platforms such as TikTok and Instagram, citing psychological and physical problems among kids, including panic attacks, depression, and difficulties sleeping. The country's health ministry also encouraged parents to limit how long their children spend using electronic devices, keep phones and laptops out of bedrooms, and have 20 minutes of screen time followed by two hours of outside play. The advisory 'gives children the time to further develop digital resilience and media literacy,' Vincent Karremans, caretaker deputy minister for youth and sport in the Netherlands, said in a letter to parliament. Karremans is one of several ministers who remained on after the Dutch government collapsed earlier this month pending October elections. Both TikTok and Instagram require users to be at least 13 years of age. The guidelines, which are not legally binding, distinguish between 'social media' sites like TikTok and Instagram and 'social interaction platforms' such as messaging services WhatsApp and Signal. The social media sites have 'significantly more addictive design features' that have a negative impact on children, the government said. Children can use the messaging services from age 13, the year most Dutch children start secondary school, according to the recommendations. Last year, Australia became the first country in the world to ban children under 16 from using social media. Denmark and France are considering similar legislation, and Sweden issued recommendations about limiting screen time for children last year. A group of experts, put together at the request of the Dutch parliament, found that intense screen time and social media usage can result in physical and psychological problems in children. Dutch schools have banned students from using tablets, cell phones, and smart watches, with some exceptions, such as classes on media literacy. In May, some 1,400 doctors and child welfare experts in the Netherlands signed a public letter, calling on the government to ban children under 14 from having cell phones and restricting social media usage until age 16. In February, Dutch Queen Máxima said that her youngest daughter, Princess Ariane, had eyesight problems from spending too much time on mobile devices. Iranian state television urged people to remove WhatsApp from their smartphones, alleging without specific evidence that the messaging app gathered user information to send to Israel. In a statement to the Associated Press,** WhatsApp said it was 'concerned these false reports will be an excuse for our services to be blocked at a time when people need them the most.' WhatsApp uses end-to-end encryption, meaning messages are scrambled so that only the sender and recipient can see them. If someone else tries to access these messages all they will see is a distorted message that can't be unscrambled without a key. 'We do not track your precise location, we don't keep logs of who everyone is messaging and we do not track the personal messages people are sending one another,' the statement added. 'We do not provide bulk information to any government'. WhatsApp is owned by Meta, the US-based parent company of Facebook and Instagram. The app had been one of the most popular messaging apps aside from Instagram and Telegram. This wouldn't be the first time that Iran has asked people to limit their use of WhatsApp. In 2022, the country banned WhatsApp during mass protests against the government over the death of a woman held by the country's morality police. Cybersecurity expert Gregory Falco said it's been demonstrated that it's possible to understand metadata about WhatsApp that does not get encrypted. 'So you can understand things about how people are using the app and that's been a consistent issue where people have not been interested in engaging with WhatsApp for that (reason),' he said. Another issue is data sovereignty, Falco added, where data centres hosting WhatsApp data from a certain country are not necessarily located in that country. It's more than feasible, for instance, that WhatsApp's data from Iran is not hosted in Iran. 'Countries need to house their data in-country and process the data in-country with their own algorithms. Because it's really hard increasingly to trust the global network of data infrastructure,' he said.
