Google

Fri
05
Aug
John Lister's picture

Insulin App Restricted By Google SMS Rules

The makers of an app that can alert parents when a diabetic child is at risk say Google's rules are making it harder to use the app. Play Store rules designed to stop malware mean the app can't send text messages directly. The app is called CamAps ... FX and works with medical devices to operate an "artificial pancreas" for type-1 diabetes, which is a hereditary condition. It connects to a glucose monitor and an insulin pump, constantly monitoring glucose levels and then delivering insulin as necessary. (Source: camdiab.com ) The BBC reports that while it's suitable for adults, the app is ... (view more)

Thu
21
Jul
John Lister's picture

Gmail Flags Legit Senders as Spammers

Google has fixed an unusual bug that mistakenly implied trusted contacts might be spammers. It asked users to make a decision about future filtering but took no notice of the reply. The good news is that the fix removes the unwanted messages and the ... filtering now appears to be working as intended. The bug involves the way Google will occasionally highlight a message sender as a potential source of unwanted emails. Users can then click one button to block all future messages from the sender. Once the bug took effect, many more users than usual started seeing the message, which read: "Do ... (view more)

Fri
15
Jul
John Lister's picture

Google Accused of Unfair Privacy Practice

Consumer groups claim Google acts unfairly in getting permission to use personal data. They say the sign-up process makes it far more time-consuming to exercise the right to limit data use. The complaints come from consumer groups in six European ... countries who have complained to national data regulators while warning they may also launch a civil court case. The European setting is key as data laws there say companies that rely on consent to make data handling lawful must make sure the decision to give consent is based on having a meaningful choice. Businesses aren't supposed to make both ... (view more)

Tue
12
Jul
John Lister's picture

Gmail Allows for Viewing of Emails Offline

Google has added an offline mode for Gmail. It lets users read, reply and even search through Gmail messages without being online. The mode will be familiar to users of a certain age, though it's mainly aimed at people in places where Internet ... connections are unreliable such as in some remote areas or developing nations. Though the offline mode might seem like wizardry, it's an extremely simple setup with some clear limitations. It uses some of the user's hard drive to store copies of messages that are normally only kept on Google's servers. The mode only works for users running the Chrome ... (view more)

Thu
07
Jul
John Lister's picture

Google Hangouts Closing in November

Google says its messaging service Hangouts will close by November. Users who want to download past conversations may need to act sooner than that. Google Hangouts launched in 2013 and was designed to be a simple form of instant messaging that worked ... regardless of what operating system or platform the users were on. That simplicity was somewhat undermined by Google's chopping and changing as it developed various services. (Source: arstechnica.com ) Google originally had two messaging tools: Messenger as part of the ill-fated and Google+ Messenger social network, and Talk. It then merged ... (view more)

Mon
09
May
John Lister's picture

Google Play Store Adds Privacy Info

Google has started including detailed privacy information about the Android apps in the official Play Store. It's up to developers to fill out the details and Google won't be checking them in advance. The listings page for each app will now have a ... summary box listing key data privacy and security details. Users can then click or tap through to see more detailed information. The box will note how many types of data the app collects, whether it is stored in encrypted form, and whether user can easily delete it. It will also list if the developer has put the app through an independent privacy ... (view more)

Fri
29
Apr
John Lister's picture

Google 'Inactive Account' Warning A Mistake

Google users have reported an unexpected message saying their account is about to be shut down. It looks like a phishing scam but appears to actually be a bug in Google systems. The reports came in a Google support thread that has now been deleted. ... More than 300 people "upvoted" the original posts, suggesting they had a similar experience. The users were confused as they received an email saying "Your Google Account will soon be considered inactive" and that if they didn't log in it would be classed as having not been used for 18 months. That was a major surprise to users ... (view more)

Wed
23
Mar
John Lister's picture

Google Search Quality Under Attack

A software engineer has sparked a controversial debate with the claim that "Google Search is dying." Dmitri Brereton says he is talking about the quality and relevance of results rather than the number of people using the tool or the revenue it ... generates for Google. Brereton's claims were sparked by a post showing the number of Google searches for the discussion site Reddit are steadily increasing. He believes this isn't because the site itself is becoming more popular but rather because people are using Google but restricting the results to posts from Reddit to get more useful ... (view more)

Fri
04
Feb
John Lister's picture

Google Plans New Cookie-Replacement

Google has rethought its plans to overhaul the way targeted advertising works online . It's the latest attempt to balance user privacy and accurate targeting. At the moment a large proportion of online ads are powered by third-party cookies. That's ... where an advertiser or ad network operator uses cookies to track a user's online activity and try to figure out their tastes and interests. This data then powers the ads they see on many websites, which are shown specifically for them. It's good news for advertisers as they can theoretically do a better job of reaching suitable customers, but bad ... (view more)

Tue
01
Feb
John Lister's picture

Publishers Cry Foul Over Google Cookie Ban

Google's plans to block third-party cookies in Chrome have prompted "hundreds" of complaints in from businesses in Germany. They say the move is anti-competitive because Google will still be able to track users for its own advertising business. ... Apple's Safari browser already blocks third-party cookies. That means websites can issue and use their own cookies (for example, remembering somebody's location or interests to customize a web page) but cookies originally issued by another site won't work. That makes it considerably more difficult to track a user's activity across multiple websites. ... (view more)

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