google

Google faces a legal claim demanding more than $9 billion for allegedly contributing to inflation. It's fair to say the claim is somewhat ambitious. The claim has been filed in the United Kingdom by Hereford Litigation, which describes itself as a ... "third-party litigation funder." It's filed a claim with the Competition Appeal Tribunal, which hears cases that specifically relate to alleged breaches of competition law. Technically the claim is on behalf of every person aged over 16 in the UK, meaning the demand is for around $140 per person. If the claim was successful, it's not obvious how the ... (view more)

Google says malware creators are using a simple workaround to bypass security on the official Play Store for Android apps. The problem is that the simplest fix would undermine one of the key differences between Android and closed systems such as ... Apple. In theory, all apps in the Play Store are vetted for security, including malware checks. That's one of the reasons Google recommends only using the Play Store, while still giving users the choice to get and install Android software from other sources. The problem is that scammers are using an extremely simply workaround called "versioning". ... (view more)

Android users can now get alerts if a tracking device such as an Apple AirTag may be targeting them. The alerts were already available on iPhones, but Google and Apple are now working together, albeit with some holdups. An Apple AirTag is a small ... device that emits a Bluetooth signal. The idea is to attach it to valuable or important items such as keys, purses or luggage. Around a billion Apple devices are set to scan for the signals and anonymously report the location and identity of the AirTags, meaning that owners can track down lost items with varying degrees of precision. Like most tech, ... (view more)

The number of 0-day bugs, which give hackers a dangerous advantage, fell in 2022 according to Google. However, the company warns this may risk misleading complacency that forgets other factors. The figures come from Google's Threat Analysis Group, ... which aims to track, identify and report security bugs, regardless of the software or hardware concerned. The logic is that the better Internet security is overall, the better it is for an Internet-dependent business such as Google. For the past nine years, it's put together an annual tally of 0-day bugs. While definitions vary, Google classes them ... (view more)

Google will stop some of its employees accessing the Internet. It's a bold experiment to see if it can reduce security threats without affecting performance. The idea is reduce the risk of hackers getting access to employee machines, either to get ... hold of data on those machines or to use them as an entry point into Google's network. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Google's internal data is particularly attractive to attackers, whether they are seeking financial gain, political or commercial advantage, or plain old mischief making. For example, attackers being able to find out how Google ranks ... (view more)

Regulators in Europe have threatened to break-up Google. They say it could be the only way to prevent anti-competitive behavior in the ad market. While Google has been fined eye-watering sums for breaking competition laws in Europe before, they've ... proven a poor deterrent given the company's huge revenues. This time, though, the penalty may be a forcible sale of some of its ad business. The key to the legal problem is that Google is a major player in all three elements of online advertising: businesses buying ads, businesses selling ads, and the technology that brings together buyers and ... (view more)

Google is testing a Chrome feature that could heavily reduce the time users spend completing CAPTCHA tests. The tests are designed to reduce spam and other automated mischief but can irritate genuine human users. CAPTCHA stands for "Completely ... Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart". It's designed to use a test that's relatively simple for a human to do, but difficult for a computer. Often such tests take advantage of the fact that humans are better at recognizing images and patterns, for example spotting pictures with varying backgrounds that contain a bicycle. Other ... (view more)

Google is set to release its first foldable smartphone dubbed the "Pixel Fold" scheduled for May 10th. According to reports, Google has been working on a foldable phone for years. The Pixel Fold is expected to take the form of a book-style foldable ... with two screens, resembling the squarish shape of Oppo's foldable phone, the Find N. Pixel Fold: Camera According to 9to5Google, the Pixel Fold will have two front-facing 8-megapixel lenses, one presumably on the cover and one for the interiors, as well as a 12-megapixel rear camera. The main sensor is expected to be a step down from the Pixel 6 ... (view more)

Google has warned users of some Android handsets to turn off some voice call features. A series of vulnerabilities could mean attackers can compromise a handset just by knowing its phone number. The problem involves four vulnerabilities in a ... Samsung-made component called an Exynos chipset. It's used for voice calls made over mobile data rather than the voice network. At the time of writing, Google says the affected products include phones made by Samsung (A04, A12, A13, A21s, A33, A53, A71, M12, M13, M33, S22), Google itself (Pixel 6 and 7) and Vivo (S6, S15, S16, X30, X60, X70) along with ... (view more)

Microsoft has experimented with one of its most audacious attempts yet to persuade users to prefer the Edge browser over Google Chrome. It appears the plan, which effectively involved full-size banner "ads" on the Chrome website, will not proceed ... after the tests. Technically speaking, the Microsoft Edge browser is built using "Chromium" code (which is open source), which is the exact same code that Google's Chrome browser uses. The only difference between Edge and Chrome is that Edge has been customized with its own set of unique features and is branded as being Microsoft Edge. That ... (view more)