Sofia Elizabella Wyciślik-Wilson

We live in an age where privacy is valued incredibly highly, but at the same time there are more and more ways for our privacy to be encroached upon. One of the most recent concerns came after the US Senate voted last week to allow ISPs to sell customers' browsing histories without consent.

Things were turned up a notch a couple of days ago when the House agreed and voted to repeal FCC-approved privacy rules. Since the result of the vote was known, there have been reports of a huge surge in interest in VPN tools, private search engines and the like, and now VPN review site The Best VPN has come up with a series of tips to help internet users maintain their privacy, and stop ISPs from getting their hands on potentially sensitive information about browsing habits.

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Earlier this week, Donald Trump signed an executive order that effectively killed Obama-era environmental policies. Expressing his love of "clean coal" -- despite such a substance not actually existing --  Trump wiped out Obama orders that aimed to reduce carbon production and signalled an "end to the war on coal."

The signing of the executive order was met with astonishment around the world, and many voices have spoken out against the wisdom of the move. Among those are technology companies, many of whom have said that they will stick to promises they have made to tackling climate change -- something Google is aiming to do by switching to 100 percent renewable energy this year.

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Today, WikiLeaks publishes the third installment of its Vault 7 CIA leaks. We've already had the Year Zero files which revealed a number of exploits for popular hardware and software, and the Dark Matter batch which focused on Mac and iPhone exploits.

Now we have Marble to look at. A collection of 676 source code files, the Marble cache reveals details of the CIA's Marble Framework tool, used to hide the true source of CIA malware, and sometimes going as far as appearing to originate from countries other than the US.

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Following UK home secretary Amber Rudd's suggestion that encrypted messaging service WhatsApp was 'a secret place to hide' for terrorists, four major technology companies met with the minister to discuss the removal of extremist material from websites and social media.

Microsoft, Google, Twitter and Facebook met with Rudd amid calls from civil liberties groups for greater transparency. Following the meeting, senior executives from each company signed a statement indicating that they are ready to work with the government to tackle the problem. The matter of backdoors into encrypted apps and services, however, remained off the table.

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There has been something of a trend in recent years for phones to grow taller and slimmer. Aspect ratios are changing, and the familiar 16:9 is being met by the LG G6's 18:9 (oh, ok, 2:1) and, in the case of the Samsung Galaxy S8, 18.5:9.

Google sees these emerging aspect ratios as the start of a trend rather than obscure rarities, and it's encouraging developers to embrace them fully.

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In an age of constant surveillance and eroding privacy, there is increasing interest in secure messaging platforms such as WhatsApp and Telegram. While Telegram has gained quite a following, there is one feature that users have been begging for: voice calls.

Now users' prayers have been answered. The latest update to Telegram finally heralds the arrival of secure voice calling, and it features an interesting key exchange mechanism: users need just compare four emoji. If the emoji match, the connection is secure!

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Recent changes at Twitter have focused mainly on clamping down on abuse and trolling, but there have also been adjustment tweaks that allow users to send longer messages. Now the site is introducing another change that effectively means you are able to send longer replies to people.

The latest change does not mean that you are given more than 140 characters to play with, but the 140 character limit is now put to better use. In short, all 140 characters are available for you to reply with as @usernames no longer count towards the total.

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Yesterday's Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8+ announcement held few surprises (with the possible exception of Samsung DeX) thanks to all of the leaks ahead of the event. But something we didn’t find out until today is that there is a customized Microsoft Edition of the handset available too.

Not only will there be a Samsung Galaxy S8 Microsoft Edition and a Samsung Galaxy S8+ Microsoft Edition, but the smartphones will be available to buy direct from Microsoft. Pre-orders start today, but only in Microsoft's US retail stores.

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If you need money for something, you might think about using a service such as GoFundMe to ask people to donate cash to you. But now you can turn to Facebook instead, as the social network launches a new "personal fundraiser" feature, as well as Donate buttons in Facebook Live for Pages.

As the name suggests, a personal fundraiser is a way for individuals to raise money for themselves -- or someone they know. To start with, Facebook says that it is only possible to raise money for "critical financial needs" that fall under one of six headings, but this may expand over time. So how do you go about looking for donations through the social network?

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The UK Home Secretary Amber Rudd is today meeting with technology firms to discuss how they can help to combat terrorism. The meeting comes just days after Rudd said that encrypted messaging services such as WhatsApp should not be a "secret place to hide."

Calls for backdoors to be built into encrypted apps and services have been met with shock, derision and incredulity, but some have pointed out that the controversial Investigatory Powers Act (aka the snooper's charter) already grants the government the right to force the removal of encryption. Ahead of the Rudd's meeting, civil liberty organizations have written a letter demanding transparency.

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For anyone looking to stream music and movies around their home to various devices, Plex is a solid media server solution that won’t hurt your pocket; it's free! But things are about to get even better for Plex Pass subscribers thanks to the arrival of the Plex Pass Perks hub.

Depending on where you are in the world, you might be able to bag yourself a discounted external hard drive or NAS to use with your server, and there is the promise that new deals will be added all the time.

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It has been a long time coming. A very long time coming. But -- finally -- there is an iPad-optimized version of the Google Calendar app available. Let joy be unbounded!

It has taken a full two years for Google developers to pull their fingers out and create a version of the app that is not designed just for iPhones. Google Calendar for iPad takes full advantage of the increased screen real estate, and supports Split View.

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It's something that Microsoft has already tried with Continuum, and now Samsung is ready to give it a bash: transforming a smartphone into a desktop. For the South Korean company, today's events in NYC and London are primarily about the launch of the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+, but this is certainly not all that's being revealed.

The company also spoke about Samsung DeX, described as a way of "extending the smartphone to a desktop environment." What this means is that, with a DeX Station, Galaxy S8 and S8+ owners can transform their smartphones into a desktop system that can be controlled with a regular keyboard and mouse, benefiting from a larger HDMI display.

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With the launch of iOS 10.3 and macOS 10.12.4, there was great excitement about the arrival of a new file system as well as improvements to performance -- even if they were only perceived improvements. Something that didn’t get a great deal of attention, however, is the introduction of replies to reviews.

Just as has been an option in Google Play for years, developers can now respond to the reviews that people leave about their apps and games. It's something that has been a very long time coming, and finally brings a dialog to the App Store, meaning that users and developers have a two-way channel of communication.

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Last week, the US Senate voted to permit ISPs to share -- or sell -- customers' browsing histories and other data without permission. Now the House has gone ahead and voted the same way, so internet users' privacy is now up for sale.

Just as the Senate vote to overturn privacy rules was close (50 votes to 48), so was yesterday's: 215 to 205. The repeal of the FCC-approved rules had President Trump's support, and the latest vote means that all manner of personal information is now able to be sold for marketing and advertising without individuals' consent.

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