Tag: phones
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Roaming charges: What will happen after Brexit?
Image copyright Getty Images
In June 2017 the European Union scrapped additional charges for roaming on smartphones when you travel to another EU country.
Roaming is when you use your mobile phone abroad. Since last year, UK consumers have, within reason, been able to use the minutes, texts and data included on their mobile phone tariffs when travelling in the EU.
There are fair use limits, which mean you can use your mobile phone while travelling in another EU country, but you couldn’t get a mobile phone contract from Greece and then use it all year round in the UK.
Before the rules changed, using a mobile phone in Europe was expensive, with stories of people returning from trips to find bills for hundreds or even thousands of pounds waiting for them.
Will these charges return after Brexit?
Image copyright Getty Images In March 2018, Prime Minister Theresa May announced: “The UK will not be part of the EU’s Digital Single Market, which will continue to develop after our withdrawal from the EU.”
That means that the European regulation that prohibits roaming charges will not automatically be part of UK law, so UK mobile network operators, if they want to, might be able to reintroduce the charges.
EU mobile phone roaming cost-cuts ‘a step closer’ Mobile phone roaming charge abolition plan rewritten Mobile phone roaming charges cut within EU
A spokesperson for the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, which is responsible for this area, told Reality Check that the White Paper on leaving the EU had proposed “new arrangements for services and digital sectors, recognising that the UK and the EU will not have current levels of access to each other’s markets”.
They continued: “That approach would not preclude discussions with the EU on arrangements for consumers, for example in the area of mobile roaming, if that would be in the mutual interests of both sides.”
In other words, it would depend on a future UK-EU deal, which is yet to be negotiated.
It is also possible that the UK government could create its own laws regulating roaming fees after Brexit, but it would be hard to impose that on UK network operators without a reciprocal agreement with their counterparts in the EU.
Operators’ plans
Of course, just because the operators might be allowed to reintroduce roaming charges, it does not necessarily mean that they will do so.
Three has “committed to maintain the availability of roaming in the EU at no additional cost following Brexit”.
Vodafone said it was too soon to assess the implications of Brexit on roaming regulation, but added it expected competition to continue to drive good value for customers and that it currently had no plans to change its roaming charges.
EE also said it had no plans to introduce charging and called on the government “to put consumers at the top of their agenda in the Brexit negotiations to help ensure that UK operators can continue to offer low prices to our customers”.
And O2 said: “We currently have no plans to change our roaming services across Europe. We’re engaged with the government with regards to what may happen once the UK officially leaves the EU.”
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Google tracks users who turn off location history
Image copyright Getty Photographs Image caption The have a look at discovered that customers needed to turn off some other setting in order to disable region being recorded
Google data customers’ places even if they have got asked it not to, a record from the Associated Press has suggested.
The issue could have an effect on as much as two billion Android and Apple units which use Google for maps or search.
The study, demonstrated via researchers at Princeton School, has angered US regulation-makers.
Google said in response that it supplies transparent descriptions of its equipment and the way to show them off.
The study discovered that customers’ whereabouts are recorded even if location history has been disabled.
for instance:
Google shops a picture of the place you might be while you open the Maps app Automatic climate updates on Android telephones pinpoint kind of the place a person is Searches that experience not anything to do with region pinpoint precise longitude and latitude of customers
‘Pretty sneaky’
To illustrate the effect of those region markers, AP created a visual map appearing the actions of Princeton researcher Gunes Acar who was the usage of an Android telephone with region historical past grew to become off.
The map showed his teach commute round New York as well as visits to The Prime Line park, Chelsea Market, Hell’s Kitchen, Significant Park and Harlem. It additionally revealed his house address.
To prevent Google saving these region markers, customers have to show off any other environment called Web and App Activity, that is enabled via default and which doesn’t point out region knowledge.
Disabling this prevents Google storing knowledge generated by means of searches and other activities which can restrict the effectiveness of its digital assistant.
“you may think that telling Google that you simply did not want your area to be tracked by means of disabling an possibility known as “Region Historical Past” would prevent the internet massive from storing knowledge approximately your region,” writes safety researcher Graham Cluley on his weblog.
“it kind of feels pretty sneaky to me that Google keeps to retailer location information, except you each disable “Region history” and “Internet & App Process.””
In reaction, Google informed AP: “There are a bunch of various ways in which Google might use location to enhance folks’s enjoy, together with: Area Historical Past, Internet and App Task, and thru tool-level Location Services.
“We Provide transparent descriptions of those gear, and strong controls so folks can flip them on or off, and delete their histories at any time.”
Corporate practices
Facebook and Google use ‘dark patterns’ in privateness settings Google and Fb accused of breaking GDPR rules Gmail messages ‘read by means of human third parties’
Following its research, AP created a information to show customers how you can delete area knowledge.
Presented with the proof of the AP observe, Democratic senator Mark Warner accused generation corporations of getting “corporate practices that diverge wildly from the utterly cheap expectation of their customers”.
Democratic congressman Frank Pallone referred to as for “complete consumer privateness and data security law”.
In the uk, a spokesman for the guidelines Commissioner’s Place Of Business advised the BBC: “Beneath the GDPR and the information Protection Act 2018, corporations have a criminal accountability to be open, transparent and honest with the general public approximately how their private knowledge is used.
“Any One who has concerns about how an organization is handling their private data can contact the ICO.”
Era companies are beneath hearth for now not being clear about privacy settings and the way to make use of them. In June, a document from the Norwegian Consumer Council discovered proof that privateness-pleasant choices are hidden away or obscured.
Region-based totally advertising offers large opportunities to sellers. according to analysis firm BIA/Kelsey, US brands are poised to spend up to $20.6bn (£16.3bn) on focused mobile commercials in 2018.
Since 2014, Google has permit advertisers track the effectiveness of online adverts with a feature in response to footfall knowledge, which relies on region history.
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Apple to close iPhone security hollow used by police
Image copyright Getty Pictures Image caption The FBI took Apple to court docket in 2016 to take a look at to get access to a killer’s iPhone
Apple says it’s to modify the default settings of its iPhone to stop hackers and others unlocking gadgets with out proper felony authorisation.
The move may even make it tougher for police to unlock handsets with out authorisation.
However, Apple denied the adjustments have been designed to thwart US regulation enforcement.
the corporate has been a prominent opponent of us legislation to force technology firms to maintain get admission to to users’ communications.
Police forces say that having the ability to unlock iPhones and iPads is important to their work.
Symbol copyright Getty Images Symbol caption Many iPhone customers were alarmed by means of the idea of law enforcement having the ability to access handsets The changes to the default settings of the iPhone are supposed to prevent unauthorised get entry to to the phones by means of the USB port.
In 2016, a courtroom order demanded that Apple assist the FBI liberate the phone utilized by San Bernardino gunman Syed Rizwan Farook.
the corporate resisted and the FBI sooner or later paid mavens to enhance era that unlocked the telephone.
The FBI hasn’t ever named the protection firm or crew of hackers who did the paintings.