Sofia Elizabella Wyciślik-Wilson

PayPal has extended its partnership with Google so it now offers more payment options to its customers.

By integrating more deeply with Google, PayPal now allow you to seamlessly make payments in the likes of Gmail, YouTube, Google Pay and Google Store. As there is support for any service that makes use of Google Pay, users will also be able to make peer-to-peer payments.

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It has been impossible to avoid stories about GDPR over the last few weeks and months, and today the new rules regarding privacy and personal data come into force across the EU.

Inboxes across Europe have been flooded with GDPR-related emails as companies have rushed to comply with the new regulations that require them to seek consent from users to collect data about them. But now GDPR day has arrived, dozens of US websites are blocked in the EU.

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The rollout of Windows 10 April 2018 Update was recently blocked to some computers because of problems with certain SSDs. Now Microsoft has issued an update that addresses the issues.

Releasing the KB4100403 patch, Microsoft says that problems with Intel SSD 600p Series or Intel SSD Pro 6000p Series, and Toshiba XG4 Series, Toshiba XG5 Series, or Toshiba BG3 Series drives, are fixed. After installing it, users should be able to upgrade to Windows 10 April 2018 Update.

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With the recent scandals involving Facebook coupled with the impending arrival of GDPR in Europe, there has been a lot of talk about privacy recently. Now the social networking giant is to start asking all of its users to review information about privacy and "how to control their experience".

The company says that it introduced updated data policies and made privacy settings easier to find, as well as making other changes, in Europe, and now is rolling out the same things to the rest of the world.

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After 16 years, StumbleUpon is closing down. One of the first high-profile services that gave people a way to discover new websites and online content, it was enjoyed by over 40 million users.

The closure came out of the blue, and was announced by co-founder Garrett Camp in a blog post. He suggests that users might like to migrate to another one of his creations, Mix.com, and says that switching to the newer service has been made "as smooth as possible".

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A bug has been discovered in popular chat tool WhatsApp that completely undermines the blocking feature.

The idea behind blocking people on WhatsApp -- just like any other app or service -- is to prevent them from contacting you, and to stop them from viewing your activity. But the bug means that blocked users are still able to send messages to people who have blocked them, as well as viewing statuses and profile details.

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Donald Trump's use of Twitter has long been controversial, and he has developed something of a penchant for blocking people who dare to question or criticize him. Earlier this year a judge suggested that he should make use of the mute option instead of blocking Twitter users, and now another judge has ruled that blocking critics is unconstitutional.

Judge Naomi Buchwald said that Trump's use of the block feature is a violation of people's right to free speech under the First Amendment of the US Constitution. The Department of Justice has indicated that it disagrees and is considering what to do next.

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Following on from a trial in Australia, Facebook is rolling out anti-revenge porn measures to the UK. In order that it can protect British users from failing victim to revenge porn, the social network is asking them to send in naked photos of themselves.

The basic premise of the idea is: send us nudes, and we'll stop others from seeing them.

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If you've ever been curious about just what data Apple has gathered and stored about you over the years, now you can find out -- if you're in Europe, at least.

The iPhone-maker has just launched a new Data and Privacy portal in order to comply with GDPR which comes into force across the EU from Friday. The website lets you download pretty much every piece of data that Apple has collected about you.

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A Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) shows that Amazon has started selling facial recognition software to at least two US law enforcement agencies.

A report published by the ACLU shows that the online retailer has been advertising its facial recognition system -- known as Amazon Rekognition, and described as "deep learning-based image and video analysis" -- to numerous states. Testimonials from the Orlando, Florida Police Department and the Washington County Sheriff’s Office in Oregon suggest that the system is already in use.

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Yesterday, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg appeared in front of members of the European Parliament to answer questions and to address concerns that the EU has about the social network in general, and its use of private data in particular -- thanks largely to the Cambridge Analytica data scandal.

At least that was the idea. What actually happened was nothing short of a farce, with Zuckerberg smugly sitting back and choosing which questions to answer, neatly avoiding any he was uncomfortable with. It was little more than a PR-cum-damage-limitation exercise for the Facebook founder... and it didn't really go very well.

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Trend Micro has a new privacy-focused mobile browser for iOS users called Zero Browser. It has been designed specifically to block a range of tracking techniques, including the invasive activity-recording "session replay" method.

The company says that the browser was created to overcome the shortcomings of existing "incognito" browsing modes and brings an extra level of privacy to iPhone, iPad and iPod touch users.

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The clock is ticking for the arrival of GDPR (or General Data Protection Regulation) in Europe. As of May 25 -- this Friday -- new regulations will give people greater access to the data companies store about them and the right to have it deleted.

Microsoft is among the global technology firms that will have to comply with the laws in Europe and -- pointing out how it appreciates "the strong leadership by the European Union on these important issues" -- the company says that it will also roll out some of the benefits of the privacy legislation on a global basis. It will be known as Data Subject Rights.

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Security researchers have discovered a bug in the Comcast website that makes it possible to gather information about Xfinity users. As well as customer data such as home addresses, it is also possible to access wireless network details including passwords.

The bug was reported by Karan Saini and Ryan Stevenson after they found it was possible to use the Xfinity activation website to access customer data using nothing more than a customer account ID and that customer's house or apartment number.

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It's only a couple of week until Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference, and it's looking as though we could be getting a new voice for Siri -- and possibly a new HomePod.

This is not just idle speculation or the usual industry rumor mill working overtime -- this time around it is Siri itself providing the clues. Ask Siri what to expect from WWDC next month, and the digital assistant starts to drop hints.

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