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Facebook ad feature claims to predict user's future behaviour
Samsung's Galaxy J2 Pro Phone Can't Access the Internet
Report finds more than half of Android apps for children are in violation of COPPA

Facebook ad feature claims to predict user's future behaviour

Posted: 16 Apr 2018 07:24 AM PDT

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Facebook ad feature claims to predict user's future behaviour The Guardian

How to protect your Facebook data [UPDATED] Naked Security
Facebook comes under attack for tracking internet users who don't have a Facebook account Phone Arena
I Can't Jump Ship From Facebook Yet New York Times
AI Weekly: Facebook fiasco proves we need a better approach to personal data VentureBeat

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Samsung's Galaxy J2 Pro Phone Can't Access the Internet

Posted: 16 Apr 2018 06:13 AM PDT

The smartphones of 2018 ship with a range of features to try and entice a purchase, but one thing they all have in common is the ability to access the Internet and use mobile apps. However, Samsung's new Galaxy J2 Pro handset may look just like any other smartphone, but it's far from it.

The Galaxy J2 Pro was announced by Samsung in South Korea late last week. As Ayrne reports, the handset sports a 5-inch QHD AMOLED screen, 1.5GB of RAM, 16GB of internal storage, an 8MP front-facing and 5MP back-facing camera, and runs Android 7.1 Nougat using a 1.4GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 425 processor. The battery is 2,600mAh and you can insert up to a 256GB micro-SD card into the included slot.

So far, so very smartphone. But that seems to be where the similarities end. The J2 Pro will not be able to load up web pages, run mobile apps, or do anything that requires access to 3G, LTE, or even Wi-Fi networks. This is as basic as phones get when it comes to data access. You can make calls, send text messages, snap photos, and watch content (off a micro SD card), and that's about it.

Samsung made the J2 Pro available to cater to very specific markets, notably the elderly, parents who want their children to have a phone just for easy contact, and students who need a phone but don't want distractions from their studies. Students have an extra incentive as Samsung is promising to accept the phone back from any student sitting the 2019/20 College Scholastic Ability Test and replace it with a Galaxy S handset instead.

The J2 Pro will be available in black or gold colors and carries a price of 199,100 won, which is roughly $185. So it's certainly not a cheap phone to purchase. However, the inability to even consider a data plan means ongoing costs should be very low and it is going to remove the worry that you may be running up a huge bill from accessing content through your phone.

For now, Samsung has no plans to launch the J2 Pro outside of South Korea. Would there be a market for it if they did? If the price was right then I bet there is. The number of seniors is increasing, and concerns are only growing about what kids have access to on the Internet. A dumb smartphone could prove very popular.

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Report finds more than half of Android apps for children are in violation of COPPA

Posted: 16 Apr 2018 07:51 AM PDT

A new study titled Proceedings on Privacy Enhancing Technologies has found that more than half of Android apps directed toward children under 13 potentially violate the US Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), as reported by The Guardian. Additionally, the study — led by researchers at the International Computer Science Institute at the University of California, Berkeley — says the apps that are improperly collecting and sharing data are all included in Google's Designed for Families program.

The study looked at 5,855 child-directed apps, and the researchers said they "Identiﬁed several concerning violations and trends." According to the study, 4.8 percent had clear violations surrounding sharing location or contact information without consent, 18 percent shared identifiers for ad targeting, 40 percent shared personal information without proper security protocols, and 39 percent disregard "contractual obligations aimed at protecting children's privacy."

In total, 28 percent of the apps accessed sensitive data protected by Android permissions, and 73 percent of the apps transmitted said sensitive data over the internet. Some of the apps named in the report include KidzInMind, TabTale's "Pop Girls–High School Band," and Fun Kid Racing.

While Google's Designed for Families program provides developers with information on COPPA and says it requires they certify compliance, enforcement appears to not be thorough. The report notes that while developers and SDKs have financial incentive to ignore violations (restricting data collection results in lower revenue), they suspect that "many privacy violations are unintentional and caused by misunderstandings of third-party SDKs."

COPPA was enacted by Congress in 1999 and was created in order to protect the privacy of children online. The act requires that companies designing apps for children under the age of 13 obtain consent from parents before collecting personal information. In 2013, the FTC revised COPPA to also include geolocation markers, IP addresses, and a mandate that third-party advertisers comply with these rules as well.

This is far from the first time child-directed apps have been found in violation of COPPA. Last year, a federal class action lawsuit was filed against Disney, alleging that 42 of its apps were collecting and sharing data with advertisers without parental consent. A similar complaint about selling information on underage users to advertisers was also levied against YouTube last month. In January, VTech Electronics — the parent company of popular educational brand LeapFrog — agreed to settle for a fine of $650,000 after charges that it violated children's privacy.

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