Sofia Elizabella Wyciślik-Wilson

Police ask people not to share London Bridge and Borough Market attack footage on social media

Last night saw two attacks in London leading to the deaths of seven people and dozens of injuries. A van driven at pedestrians on London Bridge, and stabbings in Borough Market have been labelled as terrorist attacks, and Facebook Safety Check was activated for the incident.

The social network was not just used by people to let loved ones know that they were safe following the attacks, but also to share footage of the shocking aftermath. While police are keen for witnesses to come forward with footage they may have shot on mobile phones, they are pleading with people not to share videos on social media.

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Not just for photos -- now you can add just about anything to Facebook albums

Albums on Facebook have, logically, been a handy way to store and organize photographs. for a while now. But an update to the social network means that albums can now be used to group together posts, photos, check-ins and more.

In a fairly major overhaul of the system, Facebook is in the process of greatly expanding the capabilities of albums, making them far more versatile and useful. As well as increasing the range of content that can be added, Facebook is also surfacing collaborative albums, introducing featured albums, and more.

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YouTube defines 'hate speech' and clarifies which videos can earn money through ads

It has been a few weeks since advertisers started to pull out of YouTube after concern about the placement of ads. Since then, the company has been scrambling to earn back trust and it says it has "held thousands of productive conversations with advertisers, and implemented additional controls to restore advertiser confidence."

Now YouTube has set out what it classifies as hate speech, and says that any content that falls into this category will not be eligible for monetization. It's a move that's designed to calm the fears of advertisers, but there is concern that the rules being put in place are now too strict and could affect the incomes of large numbers of YouTubers.

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Google Photos starts using AI to suggest pictures for archiving

It's not really the time of year for spring cleaning, but Google is turbo-charging the Archive option in Google Photos with the added power of artificial intelligence. Archiving is only a recent addition to Google Photos, making it possible to clear out the clutter from your timeline, and now it has been boosted by AI.

The idea acknowledges the fact that while we might take a photo of something -- such as snapping a poster to save writing down dates and times of an upcoming event -- this isn’t something we necessarily need to see after it has served its purpose.

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Facebook's solution to fake news: 'fight information with more information'

It may be Donald Trump who is obsessed with what he perceives as "fake news" (translation: anything which is not in line with his personal views), but there is a genuine problem with the dissemination of false information online, particularly on social media sites such as Facebook.

Just as it has voiced a commitment to tackling its well-known problems with trolling and abuse, Facebook has also made a great deal of noise about fighting fake news. Despite this, Facebook shareholders have rejected proposals that suggested the company should release a report into the impact of fake news. Mark Zuckerberg thinks he has a solution: "fight information with more information."

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Google is building an ad blocker into Chrome in 2018

Google Chrome logo

Starting early next year, Chrome users will benefit from an ad blocker built into the web browser. As part of its work with the Coalition for Better Ads, Google is looking to clamp down on intrusive ads that web users find most irritating.

Google is a company whose business model is built largely on advertising, and it is keen for the experience of being subjected to ads to be as painless as possible for people. But rather than block all ads -- killing revenue streams for many websites -- Google wants to block only those that do not comply with Better Ads Standards.

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Trump administration approves visa questionnaire that asks for social media handles

The world may be focused on the US withdrawal from the Paris accord, but the Trump administration is causing plenty of ripples in other areas too. Not content with trying to push through travel bans, the US government is also tightening up on visa applications.

An updated version of the supplemental visa application questionnaire asks would-be visitors for not only details of their travel and address history, but also for the names they use on social media. Applicants are required to provide details dating back five years, but officials are not saying in what circumstances the extra questions will become necessary.

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This is the OnePlus 5 and its packaging

Rarely does a phone -- or even a company -- generate quite as much interest as the OnePlus 5. The upcoming flagship killer is hotly anticipated, and the mood among the almost cult-like following is reaching a fever pitch.

Of course, OnePlus is doing nothing to calm things down, having embarked on an advertising campaign that involves teasing its customers until they can take no more. The latest move finds the company tweeting an image of the OnePlus 5, while a separate leak gives a glimpse at the packaging complete with the tagline "Dual Camera. Clearer Photos."

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OneLogin suffers serious security breach -- attackers access data and decryption keys

Password management service OneLogin has fallen victim to a serious attack. The company says that it "detected unauthorized access to OneLogin data in our US data region" -- this was blocked, but not before the attacker gained access to AWS keys and the ability to decrypt data.

The company warns that "all customers served by our US data center are affected; customer data was compromised, including the ability to decrypt encrypted data." OneLogin has provided a guide for securing data, but it's possible that it may be too late for some people.

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Microsoft unveils a massive redesign of Skype, heavily plagiarizing Snapchat

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, there's a hell of a lot of flattery going on in the world of chat and messaging apps. Such is the level of feature borrowing and design inspiration that we're entering a phase of unbridled homogeneity. This isn’t enough to put off Microsoft, of course, and today the company lifts the lid on its latest -- and arguably most radical -- redesign of Skype.

Coming first to Android -- as is becoming increasingly common for Microsoft these days -- the Skype redesign boasts a fresh new look that makes it clear from the start that things are going to be different around here. While Skype is well known for its voice and video calling capabilities, now the focus switches rather more toward messaging; as Microsoft puts it: "chatting is front and center."

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Plex rolls out Live TV and improved DVR to Plex Pass subscribers

Coming out of beta, Plex's DVR feature is now rolling out to all Plex Pass subscribers. On top of this, the platform is also gaining Plex Live TV -- a way to stream OTA broadcasts from your TV tuner to the Plex app.

To start with, Live TV is coming to the Android TV and iOS apps, but it will also make its way to Plex's other offerings meaning subscribers will be able to watch live TV from just about anywhere. On top of this major announcement, Plex has also unveiled -- in a blog post entitled "#$%@ it! We'll do it live!" -- a number of key improvements to its DVR feature.

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Facebook redesigns security settings page making two-factor authentication easily identifiable

Realizing that its security settings were off-putting to many people due to being a shambolic mess, Facebook has rolled out a redesign which it says helps to improve clarity.

As well as giving greater prominence to the most important security settings, some options have been renamed. This comes after Facebook conducted some research into why users were clicking certain options but not changing them -- it turns out they had no idea what the settings actually did.

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Security experts warn about UK's nuclear Trident submarines: 'the vulnerability to cyberattacks is real'

A report published by the British American Security Information Council (BASIC) cautions that the UK's fleet of Trident submarines faces "growing potential for cyber-attack." The authors issue a stark warning that "a successful attack could neutralise operations, lead to loss of life, defeat or perhaps even the catastrophic exchange of nuclear warheads."

Government officials have long dismissed the risk of hacking the nuclear subs because they are not connected to the internet. But the report, entitled Hacking UK Trident: A Growing Threat, suggests that risk of malware infection during manufacturing or software updating are just two possible attack vectors that could lead to the compromise of nuclear weapons.

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UK launch of Microsoft Rewards bribes Brits into using Bing and Edge

Formerly known as Bing Rewards, Microsoft Rewards has now made its way to the UK. The program rewards users for making searches with Bing, with extras thrown in if these searches are conducted in Microsoft Edge.

Users can accrue points by performing searches, completing quizzes, or spending money in the Microsoft Store, and these can then be exchanged for Skype credit, gift cards, Groove Music passes and more. It's a scheme that amounts to little more than bribery, and sees Microsoft paying people to use its products and services.

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US roll-out of Samsung Bixby delayed as the virtual assistant struggles with English

The launch of the Samsung Galaxy S8 was slightly marred by the absence of the promised virtual assistant, Bixby. We may now be in June, but it looks like it's still going to be a few weeks until Samsung's assistant arrives in the US. The problem? It's having trouble understanding English syntax and grammar.

So far Bixby has emerged with Korean support, but the Wall Street Journal reports that the English-language version is still weeks away from completion. The news comes from "people familiar with the matter," but Samsung has responded to the claims, adding weight to their veracity.

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