NEW DELHI — An Indian court adjourned the hearing of petitions challenging Facebook-owned instant messaging service WhatsApp’s new privacy policy to August 27. A Delhi High Court bench of Justice D.N. Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh on July 22 found no urgency in the matter and deferred the hearing for the next date. WhatsApp’s new privacy policy announced on Jan. 4, 2021, has been surrounded by controversy ever since its release. Indian users were concerned about the company’s policy that allows some data of its business accounts to be shared with its parent company Facebook. WhatsApp had earlier said that it will…
Author: zenger.news
NEW DELHI — A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) has been filed in India’s Supreme Court seeking the appointment of a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe into the Pegasus spyware row. The litigation was filed by advocate Manohar Lal Sharma in India’s apex court. Sharma sought direction from the top court for an SIT probe into “whether the Central government bought the Pegasus spyware following due procedure of law and whether and how it had been used since the purchase.” Sharma, in his petition filed before the Supreme Court, raised various constitutional questions of law. The petition asks if the…
DARTMOUTH, Mass. — A new study by research and advisory firm Gartner has estimated that cyber attackers will have weaponized Operational Technology (OT) environments to successfully harm or kill humans by the year 2025. Attacks on Operation Technology — hardware and software that monitors or controls equipment, assets, and processes — have become more common, as per a press release from Gartner. “Attacks have also evolved from immediate process disruption such as shutting down a plant, to compromising the integrity of industrial environments with the intent to create physical harm,” said the release. “Other recent events like the Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack have highlighted…
CAMBRIDGE, England — Major websites and services, including those of banking, shipping, and technology companies, faced outages on July 22 due to the widespread service disruption of cloud services provider Akamai Technologies. Users reported issues with websites and services like e-commerce firm Amazon, digital wallet service Paytm, and YouTube, among other major firms and brands. The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company, however, said that it was “resuming normal operations” of its Edge Domain Name System (DNS) service after 30 minutes of the disruption. “A software configuration update triggered a bug in the DNS system, the system that directs browsers to websites. This caused…
WASHINGTON — Audio-only social networking app Clubhouse announced that it was ditching its invite-only policy to give everyone access to its audio chat rooms. The news was announced at Clubhouse’s Town Hall on July 21. “The invite system has been an important part of our early history,” the company said in a blog. “By adding people in waves, welcoming new faces each week in our Wednesday Orientations, and talking with the community each Sunday in Town Hall, we’ve been able to grow Clubhouse in a measured way and keep things from breaking as we’ve scaled.” Users on the waitlist will slowly get added…
WASHINGTON — Microblogging platform Twitter said that it is working on a new upvote and downvote reactions feature for tweets. Twitter said that it was testing the feature for a small group of users on iOS, and it has already been spotted, as per multiple tweets from users that are part of the test group. “Some of you on iOS may see different options to up or down vote on replies,” the company said in a tweet. “We’re testing this to understand the types of replies you find relevant in a convo, so we can work on ways to show more…
LOS ANGELES — Disgraced Hollywood producer, Harvey Weinstein has pleaded not guilty to 11 counts of rape and sexual assault. He made his first court appearance in Los Angeles on July 21. Weinstein appeared in a wheelchair in the courtroom, with his hands shackled to the armrests, while wearing a rumpled dark brown jumpsuit. Weinstein was extradited from New York on July 20 and is currently being held at the Twin Towers Correctional Facility in downtown Los Angeles. “I and My Sisters have been waiting for this day. It would not have happened without the courage and sacrifice of all…
WASHINGTON — The space rover sent by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), United States’ independent agency on space program and research, will soon start the collection of its first-ever sample of rocks from the planet Mars. The rover, Perseverance Mars rover, is searching for a scientifically interesting target in a part of Jezero Crater, a space shuttle landing site on Mars, called the “Cratered Floor Fractured Rough.” The rock will be sent to Earth through more advanced operations, NASA said in a press release. “Up ahead: The target spot where I plan to collect my first-ever sample of Martian…
TOKYO — The International Olympic Committee has dismissed Kentaro Kobayashi from his role as director of the team, creating the opening and closing ceremonies of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics for making a Holocaust joke. The decision came after a video surfaced of Kobayashi, a former comedian, making jokes in the past about the Holocaust. “Tokyo 2020 Olympic Opening Ceremony creative team member Kobayashi Kentaro was dismissed from his post after a joke he had made in the past about a painful historical event was brought to light,” International Olympic Committee said in a statement. “Following this, the Tokyo 2020 Organizing Committee relieved Kobayashi of his…
LONDON — India fugitive diamantaire Nirav Modi has pleaded with the United Kingdom High Court against extradition to India, saying that his removal from the country would seriously impact his mental health and would worsen “suicidal feelings.” Nirav Modi’s lawyers said that his extradition would be a “flagrant denial of justice” owing to his severe and ongoing mental health problems, which would see him “sectioned” under existing laws in the United Kingdom. Nirav Modi’s lawyer Edward Fitzgerald, in an application to the High Court, said that Nirav Modi was “severely depressed” and asked that the extradition be blocked on mental…