Sofia Elizabella Wyciślik-Wilson

You're probably well aware that Gmail is popular... but have you ever thought about just how popular it is? If this is the sort of thing that keeps you awake at night, Google has provided an answer.

Apparently around a fifth of the world's population has a Gmail account -- 1.5 billion in total. Of course, there are many people who have more than one Gmail email address, but the number is pretty impressive nonetheless.

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Google may have pulled out of the Pentagon's $10 billion JEDI cloud project, but Microsoft has no intention of following suit. Company president Brad Smith has used a blog post to defend the decision to bid for military contracts, despite pressure from its employees.

Smith recognizes that there are ethical concerns about getting involved in military projects, particularly when artificial intelligence technology is involved. However, he says: "we believe in the strong defense of the United States and we want the people who defend it to have access to the nation's best technology, including from Microsoft".

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The UK Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has penalized Facebook for the Cambridge Analytica data scandal by fining it the maximum amount permissible under law.

But the fine is unlikely to make Facebook break a sweat. At just £500,000 ($645,000) the sum represents a miniscule percentage of the social network's income. There will undoubtedly be arguments that this is little more than a rap on the knuckles for failing to protect the private data of at least a million Facebook users in the UK.

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One of the problems with buying an Android phone over an iPhone is the fact that you don't know how long you can expect to receive updates. There has long been criticism of the fact that many Android handsets are quickly abandoned while Apple pushes out iOS updates for a number of years.

We've heard suggestions that Google might start requiring handset manufacturers to provide updates for a minimum period, and now it seems that this has indeed been mandated. A leaked copy of a contract between Google and OEMs shows that there is now a requirement to release security updates -- or face the consequences.

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It's the butt of many jokes, but your search history -- as well as your browsing history -- can be hugely revealing about you. While it is possible to quickly clear the record of searches that your browser stores, it is not so easy to delete the records stored by Google. At least that used to be true.

Google has just announced a new option that enables you to view and delete your Google search history, making it possible to take control of some of the data stored on the company's servers. Contrary to what you might expect, the option is not being hidden away, but will instead be accessible from a Google search. What's more, the company says that similar options will be coming to Google Maps and other Google services next year.

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Speaking at the International Conference of Data Protection and Privacy Commissioners in Brussels, Apple CEO Tim Cook praised Europe's GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) and said the US needs to fight back against the weaponization of personal data.

In a strongly-worded speech, Cook avoided explicitly naming the likes of Google and Facebook for trading in private information, but it was clear who he was referring to when he said data was being misused. He added: "We shouldn't sugar-coat the consequences. This is surveillance".

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Mozilla has announced a partnership with ProtonVPN as it explores new ways to keep people safe online.

Starting today, a select group of Firefox users in the US will see an ad for ProtonVPN encouraging them to take out a monthly subscription with the service. It's an experiment that is part of Mozilla's attempt to explore new revenue streams to help keep Firefox funded.

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After hitting the headlines for falling victim to a hack attack, and then the privacy issues surround its Portal devices, Facebook will be hoping that the rollout of a sleeker, sexier, simplified version of Messenger will do something to get disgruntled users back on side.

The social networking giant has launched Facebook Messenger 4, a neater and tidier version of its messaging app. As well as clearing out the clutter, there is the promise of a dark mode in the future.

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At the moment, there are many people eagerly awaiting the arrival of the OnePlus 6T later this month. But looking further ahead, OnePlus has plans for a 5G handset.

The smartphone manufacturer has already hinted at the release of a 5G handset in 2019, but now this has been confirmed. Joining the president of Qualcomm on stage at the company's 4G/5G summit at Hong Kong, OnePlus' Carl Pei said that a 5G phone is definitely coming next year.

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After taking some time out from the Linux community to "change some of [his] behavior", Linux Torvalds is back. In a post to the Linux Kernel Mailing List announcing the release of Linux kernel 4.19, Greg Kroah-Hartman -- his temporary replacement -- handed back the reins.

After writing about the changes to be found in the latest release, Kroah-Hartman signed off by saying: "Linus, I'm handing the kernel tree back to you. You can have the joy of dealing with the merge window :)".

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Users of Google's own Android keyboard app Gboard have a new option available to them. In an update that is rolling out, a new floating keyboard feature lets you move the location of the keyboard as you see fit.

This is not something that is unique to Gboard by any means; floating keyboards have been available in other keyboard apps for a while, so this is really just Google playing catch-up. But for existing users -- as well as those who are looking for a reason to try out Gboard for the first time -- this update is great news.

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The Chrome web browser was starting to get some bad press after problems with extensions and then concerns over automatic sign-ins. Google listened to the complaints and promised to do something about it -- the result is Chrome 70.

But Chrome 70 is about more than just security and privacy changes. Google has also used this released to introduce a handful of new features. One of the best is picture-in-picture mode (PiP) which lets you keep watching a video in an overlay while you continue to browse other sites. Here's how to use it.

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All of the major technology companies suck up swathes of data about their users, and Apple is no different. While the iPhone-maker may not swallow up anywhere near as much personal information as the likes of Google and Facebook, you may well still be interested to know what the company does hold about you.

With the introduction of GDPR, Apple made it possible for people in Europe to download their data. As promised earlier in the year, the company has now expanded this feature to the US.

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As part of a coordinated movement between four of the biggest names in tech, the old TLS 1.0 and 1.1 security protocols are to be killed off in Safari, Edge, Internet Explorer, Firefox and Chrome in 2020.

Apple, Microsoft, Mozilla and Google have come together to purge the internet of these old and buggy protocols, noting that most people have now moved to TLS 1.2, if not TLS 1.3. Although 94 percent of sites already support version 1.2, a tampering off period over the next 18 months will give everyone a chance to catch up.

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When Facebook unveiled its Portal and Portal+ video calling hardware last week, there were immediate concerns voiced about the privacy implications of the social network's new devices.

Facebook has been insistent that Portal is "private by design", and the company said no data -- such as call logs and app usage information -- would be used to target users with ads. Now the company has changed its mind and says that actually it could be hitting users with targeted ads.

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