countries

Mon
27
May
John Lister's picture

Study Claims Internet Use Boosts Wellbeing

Internet adoption has a positive link with wellbeing, according to an international research project. But it's a mixed picture and cause and effect could be questioned. The research comes from the Oxford Internet Institute, which examined a wide ... range of studies into psychological wellbeing and mental health. They covered a total of 2.4 million people across 168 countries at various points between 2006 and 2021. (Source: ac.uk ) The researchers then cross-referenced the results with figures on broadband and mobile Internet use in the relevant countries at the relevant times. The biggest ... (view more)

Tue
23
May
John Lister's picture

Facebook Fined More Than $1 Billion

Facebook's parent company Meta has been fined more than a billion dollars for failing to protect user data. The case involves the way Facebook transfers customer data between Europe and the United States. Under the European Union's privacy rules, ... businesses are restricted in the way they transfer personal data to non-EU countries. In principle this can only happen when the non-EU country has laws that offer a similar level of privacy data protection. Some counties have a "data adequacy" agreement with the EU, meaning the country's privacy rules are officially classed as strong enough. In ... (view more)

Fri
09
Dec
John Lister's picture

Report: Internet Restrictions Ranked Worldwide

Nine in ten Americans are now online according to new figures. But it's the United Kingdom that is "most online" and least subject to Internet restrictions. The figures come from Proxyrack, a company with a clear interest in places where users may ... want to disguise their identity of location. It wanted to see if there was any connection between how widespread Internet use was and how freely people could use the Internet. (Source: proxyrack.com ) The usage figures came from Statista and shows 99,231 out of every 100,000 people in the UK had used the internet recently. That was followed by Japan ... (view more)

Fri
21
Oct
John Lister's picture

Global Election Blunts Russia's Internet Plans

A US official has beaten a Russian opponent to become head of a major Internet body. The result could make a big difference to online technology, particularly on the issue of blocks and censorship. Doreen Bogdan-Martin beat out Rashid Ismailov to ... lead the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). She prevailed 139-25 in an election where every country had one vote. (Source: politico.eu ) The ITU is a United Nations agency that started in 1865 as a way to make sure telegraph systems in different countries could use a compatible system. It now oversees many cross-border tech issues, ... (view more)

Fri
06
Aug
John Lister's picture

Nations Ranked For Online Censorship

At least 175 countries have some form of online censorship according to a newly-published study. The degree varies wildly, however, and is somewhat dependent on definitions. The report comes from Comparitech, which ranked the 175 countries for ... "censorship" in six categories of Internet use: file sharing torrents, pornography, political media, social media, virtual private networks and apps for messaging or voice over Internet protocol (such as Skype). For each category it gave the country one point if it had some form of legal restriction and two points for an outright ban. That ... (view more)

Thu
11
Mar
John Lister's picture

Canadian Broadband Among Most Affordable

Israel and Canada have the world's most affordable broadband according to a newly-published study. The rankings take into account earnings rather than just the raw broadband price. The study, published by Surfshark, also found that the parts of the ... world with the most comparatively expensive broadband also had the worst service. (Source: surfshark.com ) The overall rankings take into account the prices for the cheapest fixed-line broadband package in a country plus the cost of 1GB of mobile broadband data. The researchers then compared these sums to average earnings in the country. Note that ... (view more)

Sat
13
Feb
Dennis Faas's picture

Why Indonesia Leads the World in VPN Users

Indonesia is a complex country. Something that is perhaps accentuated by the fact that it is spread across more than 17,000 islands, 6,000 of which are inhabited. 270 million people live in the world's third-largest democracy, which is fast becoming ... an economic powerhouse and is now Southeast Asia's biggest economy. Indonesia is also home to the highest percentage of VPN users in the world - 61% as of 2020 (all usage stats taken from GlobalWebIndex reports) of the world's fifth-biggest population are estimated to use VPNs. It's a huge figure: three times as much as most North American and ... (view more)

Fri
21
Jun
Dennis Faas's picture

Most Americans, Brits Won't Pay For Online News

The percentage of people willing to pay for online news appears to be on the rise. However, an international study suggests the vast majority of people are still unwilling to pay for the news they find on the Internet. Reuters has published a study ... based on research in nine countries. The study examines the way people consume news on the Internet, both via laptop and desktop computers and through portable devices, like smartphones. (Source: digitalnewsreport.org ) Researchers found the percentage of people who had paid for an online news service, such as a digital newspaper subscription, ... (view more)

Tue
18
Oct
Dennis Faas's picture

Record-Selling iPhone 4S Under Legal Threat

Apple has announced it sold more than four million iPhone 4S handsets in the first three days after its launch. However, legal action could put a halt to sales in Japan and Australia. Apple iPhone 4s: Fastest Selling iPhone to Date According to ... reports, Apple racked up the four million sales this past Friday, Saturday and Sunday, making this the fastest-selling iPhone model. While it won't keep that pace up as the initial rush winds down, there's still a good chance it could set a world record. Guiness World of Records is monitoring sales across the next two to three months, paying particular ... (view more)

Mon
27
Jun
Dennis Faas's picture

Facebook User Numbers Drop In Major Markets: Report

The number of people using Facebook has dropped in several major countries, according to a recent report. It's not enough to stop an ongoing rise in the global total, but the growth rate worldwide has notably slowed. The figure comes from a firm ... named Inside Facebook, which takes its figures from Facebook's own advertising tools. It notes that measures may vary from source to source and can depend on exactly what is counted. With these figures, only active users are counted, rather than those who leave accounts dormant. National drops include the US falling from 155.2 million to 149.4 million ... (view more)

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