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Apple Filed A Lawsuit Against NSO Group For Allegedly Targeting Over A Billion iPhone Users.

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Apple has now joined WhatsApp and its parent company Meta (formerly known as Facebook) in suing NSO Group, the maker of Pegasus spyware. Apple says it’s “seeking a permanent injunction to ban NSO Group from using any Apple software, services, or devices,” along with promising new information about how NSO Group infected targeted iPhones via a zero-click exploit that researchers later dubbed ForcedEntry.

“State-sponsored actors like the NSO Group spend millions of dollars on sophisticated surveillance technologies without effective accountability,” says Senior Vice President of Software Engineering Craig Federighi in a statement.

Source: www.theverge.com

That must be changed… Apple products are the safest consumer electronics on the market, but private companies that create state-sponsored spyware have become even more dangerous.” Apple and WhatsApp aren’t alone in their legal battle with NSO Group; last year, Microsoft and Google joined Apple and WhatsApp in supporting Facebook’s lawsuit.
According to Apple’s press release, Pegasus spyware is designed to allow governments to remotely access a phone’s microphones, cameras, and other data on both iPhones and Androids. According to reports from a journalistic coalition called the Pegasus Project and Apple’s complaint from earlier this year, it’s also designed to infect phones without requiring any action from the user and without leaving a trace.

NSO Group
Image source: investing.com

Forced Entry Exploit By NSO Group

Despite NSO’s claims that its governmental clients are prohibited from using the spyware against journalists, activists, and politicians, Apple cites reports that the spyware has been used against them. It’s understandable that Apple, the company that says “what happens on your iPhone, stays on your iPhone,” would be irritated by its devices and services being used to commit “human rights abuses.”
In a statement to The New York Times, Apple’s senior director of commercial litigation Heather Grenier says the lawsuit is a “stake in the ground” meant to send a “clear signal” that the company will not tolerate “this type of abuse.” Apple claims that NSO violated Apple’s terms of service by creating “more than one hundred” Apple IDs to help it send data to targets, according to the complaint (PDF).
The Court has personal jurisdiction over Defendants because, according to information and belief, they created over one hundred Apple IDs to carry out their attacks and also agreed to Apple’s iCloud Terms and Conditions (“iCloud Terms”), which include a mandatory and enforceable forum selection and exclusive jurisdiction clause that constitutes express consent to this Court’s jurisdiction.
Apple’s complaint explains how the attack worked: NSO would send data to a target via iMessage (after determining that they were using an iPhone) that was maliciously crafted to turn off the iPhone’s logging using the Apple IDs it created. This would allow NSO to install the Pegasus spyware invisibly and control the data collected on the phone. According to Apple, the vulnerability that NSO was exploiting was fixed in iOS 14.8, which you can learn more about here. In short, NSO was sending files that took advantage of a flaw in the way iMessage handled GIFs and PDFs.
“We have not observed any evidence of successful remote attacks against devices running iOS 15 and later versions,” Apple says in a press release, citing improvements to iOS 15 security. Amnesty International stated in July when the Pegasus Project released its reports, that the latest versions of iOS (at the time, iOS 14.6) were vulnerable to attack.

Apple’s Persistent Efforts to Protect Its Customers

A number of new security features are included in iOS 15, including significant improvements to the BlastDoor security mechanism. While the NSO Group spyware is still evolving, Apple has yet to see any evidence of successful remote attacks on iOS 15 and later devices. Apple encourages all iPhone users to update their devices and always use the most up-to-date software.
In addition to the lawsuit against NSO, Apple says it will financially and technically support “organizations pursuing cyber-surveillance research and advocacy.” Citizen Lab, a group of researchers who were involved with the Pegasus Project and helped Apple discover and patch NSO’s exploits, has pledged to give free “technical, threat intelligence, and engineering assistance” to Apple in exchange for $10 million (plus any damages it wins from its lawsuit). Apple also says that “where appropriate,” it will do the same for other organizations.
NSO was recently added to the US Entity List, limiting the ways in which American companies can sell or provide technology to NSO. According to a report by the MIT Technology Review, the sanction has had a significant negative impact on NSO Group’s employee morale as well as its ability to conduct business. According to the report, the company must obtain permission from the US government to purchase items such as Windows laptops and iPhones, and the government has stated that its default decision is to deny such requests.

VR remote Work App

VR remote Work App Released By Facebook, Calling It A Step Toward The “Metaverse.”

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A new VR remote Work App was launched by Facebook on Thursday. Users of the company’s Oculus Quest 2 headsets can hold conferences as avatars.
Many companies continue to work from home after the Covid-19 pandemic shut down physical workspaces, and as a new variant is sweeping the globe, Facebook’s Horizon Workrooms beta test is timely.
In recent weeks, Facebook’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, has talked about a futuristic “metaverse.”
The world’s biggest social community has invested closely in digital and augmented reality, growing hardware which includes its Oculus VR headsets, operating on AR glasses and wristband technologies, and buying a slew of VR gaming studios, inclusive of BigBox VR, to name only some examples.
If Facebook succeeds in gaining a dominant position in this space, which it believes will be the next big computing platform, it will be less dependent in the future on other hardware manufacturers, such as Apple.
“Boz” Bosworth, VP of Reality Labs at Facebook, said that the new Workrooms app gives “a good sense” of how the company envisions elements of the metaverse in the near future.
According to Bosworth, this is “one of those foundational steps” in the right direction during a VR remote Work App news conference.

VR remote Work App
Image source: www.deccanherald.com

It was coined in the 1992 dystopian novel “Snow Crash” to describe immersive, shared spaces that can be accessed across different platforms where the physical and digital merge. An “embodied internet,” according to Zuckerberg.
Recent earnings calls by tech CEOs have discussed how their companies could shape this futuristic world. These consist of Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, Microsoft’s Satya Nadella, Roblox’s David Baszucki, and Match Group’s Shar Dubey.
To work on the metaverse project in July, Facebook announced it was creating a product team within its AR and VR group Facebook Reality Labs.
Avatar users can design avatar versions of themselves to meet in virtual reality conference rooms and collaborate on shared whiteboards or documents, while still using their own physical desk and computer keyboard. With the Quest 2 headsets, which cost about $300, you can connect up to 16 people in VR, and a total of 50 people with video conferencing. Bosworth said that Facebook now uses Workrooms for internal meetings on a regular basis.
As part of the agreement, Workrooms users’ conversations and materials will not be used to target ads on Facebook. In addition, users must adhere to Oculus’ VR community standards, which can be reported to Oculus if they violate them.
According to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, Facebook these days draws up the income of its Oculus Quest 2 headsets and brings back the foam face-liners because of reviews of skin irritability.
As a result of the recall, Quest 2 headset sales, which have yet to be officially announced by the company, are estimated to be around 4 million units. Revenue from AR and VR, as well as e-commerce, came to $497 million in the second quarter of 2021 for Facebook, which is a significant amount.

In the United States, Facebook is a company that offers online social networking services. Facebook was founded in 2004 by Harvard University students Mark Zuckerberg, Eduardo Saverin, Dustin Moskovitz, and Chris Hughes. With a couple of billion users, half of whom used it daily, Facebook had become the world’s largest social network by 2012.
Facebook’s appeal stems in part from Zuckerberg’s insistence that participants be honest about who they are from the start; customers are prohibited from using fictitious names on the site.
The company’s management argued that transparency is important for forming non-public relationships, sharing thoughts and information, and constructing society as a whole. A peer-to-peer community of Facebook customers makes it less complicated for agencies to connect with consumers.
Facebook, which has a market capitalization of more than $600 billion, made $70.7 billion in sales last year. Therefore, Zuckerberg is one of the world’s wealthiest people today, according to Forbes.

Facebook

Facebook Starts a Three-Step Initiative to Fight Fake News and Misinformation

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Though social media was developed for entertainment purposes, it has become the biggest source of spreading misinformation and fake news. We have seen the impact of all the misinformation in the form of major steps taken by the general public, violence being one of them. Being the biggest social media platform, Facebook is the one that is most of the time blamed for spreading misinformation and hate among people.

Last month too, after the Capitol Hill riots, Facebook had to face a lot of criticism and had to suspend a few groups for spreading misinformation and call for violence. For the past many years, too, the company has been warned by several governments to work on its moderation policies.

Now, after the misinformation spread about COVID-19, the company has come up with its new three-step policy, to help to reduce the rate of spread of rumors. The three steps include, “Remove, Reduce, and Inform”. Maybe, the company has finally realized that it is losing its credibility. So it has to take some serious steps to maintain its position as one of the most used social media platforms.

Facebook Three-Step Initiative Remove, Reduce, and Inform

Facebook on Thursday held a small briefing session, where it addressed the issue of the spread of fake news and rumors. In this virtual meeting, the company talked about its new “Remove, Reduce, and Inform” policy, which would help curb the spread of fake news and misinformation in the coming future. Facebook already includes the option to report and take down posts related to hate-speech or misinformation. It also has its native similarity detection system used to filter the content posted on the platform. Now, for the new policy, Facebook has tied up with more than 80 fact-checker companies, including Fact Crescendo and Boom. These companies deal in over 60 languages and are certified by the nonpartisan International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN).

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Image Source: Pixabay

These fact-checkers will help Facebook identify false, altered, or partly false information on the platform. Currently, the company along with its partner fact-checkers is working towards labeling and checking vaccine-related posts, such that to identify their authenticity. It is also keeping a check on the ads and posts that includes selling of COVID-19 vaccine. The visibility of the groups that are spreading any sort of fake or partly false information about COVID-19 and its vaccine, has also been reduced, such that to lessen the reach of their posts.

Though the company is taking Stringent steps to fight misinformation, the Facebook Product Policy Manager, Misinformation Alice Budisatrijo admitted that it is impossible to combat this issue completely. “However, we take our responsibility seriously. We are a service for more than 2 billion people around the world. So we know how essential it is for people to have access to credible information, and for us to remove harmful content,” she said. “Even with the combination of artificial intelligence and the human reviewers that we have all over the world, we can never 100% guarantee that content that violates our policies is not on the platform,” she added.

Losing Credibility

Facebook has been facing a lot of criticism from around the world for being a major source of misinformation and hate spread. According to Rahul Namboori, co-founder of Fact Crescendo, Facebook was one of the most used social media platforms to cause chaos and hate among people in India in 2020. The year started with misinformation about the CAA and NRC bill proposed in India and lead to spreading fake news about COVID-19. 2021 also started with another protest about the Farm bill and people around the world have witnessed what happened on 26th Jan in Delhi, because of the misinformation on different social media platforms, including Facebook.

Facebook has also marked a ban from the Myanmar government recently, so to oppose possible violence over the military coup due to fake news in the country. After facing so much criticism from all around the world, the company is now trying to fix its image by added new policies against misinformation. Recently, it took some steps to oppose the spread of fake news about COVID-19 and its vaccine. It has removed many posts as well as suspended a few pages on the platform that included false information about the disease.

Controlling the Fake News on Other Platforms

Apart from Facebook, the company is going to strict its policies for its other platforms, i.e. Instagram and What’s App, too. On the other hand, Twitter is also taking some stringent actions on the same. It has started to label the posts that offer baseless rumors, disputed claims, incomplete information, and the information that is out-of-context for COVID-19 vaccines. Even Google has announced a fund of $3 million to fight the misinformation regarding the COVID-19 vaccines, such that it will try to show the most authentic results about the disease and its vaccine on every search on Google.

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Facebook Locks Horns with NYU Over Ad-Targeting Data Collection

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Ever since the COVID-19 pandemic ballooned out of proportion, tech companies have been feeling the heat. Most countries around the world, with the EU in particular, have started holding them accountable for information shared online. As a result, there have been a lot of discussions and debates regarding how to ensure such companies use their power wisely. The world is still debating on the data tax bill, and Google and Facebook have been asked to fact-check the information they share. Amidst all of this, Facebook has now asked NYU to stop a study they were conducting on political advertisements. Here’s a look at everything you need to know about Facebook’s stand, and how the world is reacting to it.

Facebook Blocks the NYU

New York University seems to be in a lockdown contest against Facebook. The tech giant has asked NYU to stop collecting data for a study it is doing on political ads propagated by Facebook. However, journalists, lawyers, academics, and First Amendment activists have come to the support of NYU. The study essentially focuses on how the tech giant micro-targets specific individuals with their political ads. While Facebook has asked the university to shut down its data collection tool, researchers believe that the tool is integral to their study. In essence, the tool helps the academics track how Facebook serves as a source of misinformation and manipulation by several extremist political groups.

Disable Tools Collecting Data

A Facebook executive order that came out on October 16 demands that researchers disable their data collection tool. The University depends on a special plug-in for both Firefox and Chrome browsers to collect data regarding the ads. The University has signed on over 6500 volunteers across the US to help with the data collection. Facebook’s new order demands that the University halt its data collection and delete the information obtained. The plug-in essentially allows the researchers to see what ads each volunteer views, helping them understand how Facebook targets users. The researchers claim that Facebook’s algorithm for tailor-made ads depends on a lot more than gender, race, age, and political afflictions. 

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Facebook’s Side of Things

Allison Hendrix, the executive from Facebook, states that the tool violates Facebook’s rules. She also noted that the social media giant does not allow the automatic collection of bulk data from it. The letter also warned of enforcement action in case the NYU did not comply with November 30th. Also, Joe Osborne, who serves as Facebook’s spokesperson, stated that the tech giant had informed NYU months ago to not move forward with their study. He claims that the company had warned them that doing so would be a violation of their terms. Furthermore, he also stated that Facebook works extensively to ensure the privacy of its users’ data. However, researchers at NYU claim that their tool does not violate any terms as it collects data from volunteers anonymously.

Reaction to the Threat

The public seems to be rallying against the social media giant with several prominent personalities calling out the social media giant. Ever since the Wall Street Journal broke the news on Friday, public sentiment seems to be on the side of the researchers. The WSJ quickly pointed out that NYU’s Ad Observer tool may shine some much-needed light on Facebook’s policies on advertisements. The tool has been in effect since September by volunteers from Utah to Florida to Wisconsin. Ramya Krishnan, who works as a lawyer with Columbia University’s Knight First Amendment Institute, represents the researchers. She was quick to point out that it was unfortunate that Facebook is attaching a tool that will help identify gaps within the current framework. Since the study aims to expose disinformation related to the American elections, Krishnan believes the paper should not be halted. She also pointed out that the public deserves to know how they are being targeted and that Facebook cannot serve as a gatekeeper to information. 

Julia Angwin, who serves as an editor of The Markup, which is a tech news website, also tweeted in disappointment after Facebook’s statement. Since the NYU’s Ad Observatory was the only way researchers could explore micro-targeting of political ads, she deemed this move extremely controversial and disappointing. In a statement released by NYU, researcher Damon McCoy stated that the study focuses on how Facebook profiles citizens. After profiling, the company sends them misinformation regarding policies and candidates to influence their votes.

While 2016 witnessed social outcry over Facebook’s political ad-running algorithm, history seems to be repeating this time around. Ads on traditional media are accounted for as they have to create an ad archive that lists who paid for the ad and how long it ran. However, social media companies do not have any such rules in place, making it difficult to see their political biases. With right-wing content trending in the last few weeks on the platform, the move to block the study will only further hurt Facebook’s public standing. Last year, over 200 researchers asked Facebook to lift bans on the collection of data. It will be interesting to see if Facebook’s terms hold in a court of law and whether the study ends u exposing the company’s biases.

Fake News

The EU Asks Facebook, Google, and Twitter to Do More to Combat Fake News

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The coronavirus pandemic has been a rather unfortunate event that has shaken the world vigorously. However, one of the gravest aftermaths of it has been the large-scale sharing of fake news. Around the world, governments are doing all they can to hold tech giants more accountable for their actions. As a result of combined efforts, tech giants, such as Google, Facebook, and Twitter had agreed to accept a self-regulatory code in a bid to combat fake news two years ago. However, the European Commission has now urged these companies to do more to prevent the spread of disinformation. Here’s a look at what the EU is asking of these companies, and how they have reacted in the past.

Proactive Approach

The COVID-19 situation has made governments more active with regards to stopping the spread of misinformation. As a result, social media is now being asked to take a more proactive approach when it comes to combating fake news. The tech giants mentioned above, along with companies like Mozilla and advertising bodies have been asked to do more. All these companies had signed a more lenient deal in 2018 that aimed to prevent more heavy-handed regulations against hate speech. Later on, TikTok and Microsoft also joined these companies in promising to stop the spread of fake news. 

Shortcomings in the Code

However, following an assessment last year, experts concluded that the Code contained several shortcomings. As per a study done by Reuters, the Code allowed for its incomplete and inconsistent application. Furthermore, the report stated that there was a lack of uniform definitions, which allowed for different platforms to interpret the laws differently. Also, there were a lot of gaps in the commitments stated in the Code. The Code also featured limitations that were intrinsic to the very nature of the self-regulatory Code. Vera Jourova, who serves as the Vice President of the European Commission, therefore, called for greater transparency.

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Image Source: digitalinformationworld.com

Flexibility in the Digital Rule Book

Jourova also stated that the world is now witnessing new threats, making new measures extremely essential. Furthermore, Jourova said that these social media platforms need to be held accountable and that they should become more transparent. They also need to provide better access to their data to make the internet a safer place. As a result, the Commission is working on an Action Plan which will help the E.U. become more resilient towards digital threats. The E.U. Commission will soon propose a Digital Services Act by the end of 2020 to increase the responsibilities and liabilities of such platforms.

Requirement for Better Laws

The new Act aims to bring more rules that will restrict the freedom of platforms, products, and services. As a result, the move has set ablaze a fear within the tech industry as they will now face more heavy-handed opposition from governments. A joint statement regarding the inefficiencies of the older plan and the need for a new one came out on Tuesday. The announcement was made by Vera Jourova, who is the EU Commissioner, Security Chief Julian King, and Mariya Gabriel, who serves as the Digital Commissioner. The statement also noted that the old laws allowed for the large-scale spread of propaganda and disinformation which needs to be stopped. As a result, the EU Commission said that the tech giants need to work together and cooperate with governmental and independent bodies.

Trouble Brewing

In recent years, both Facebook and Twitter, with the former in particular have come under scrutiny in the US and Europe. One of the main talking points in such debates has been the Russian influence on the 2016 American election and the Brexit vote that occurred in the UK. The fears of such an influence led to the EU, asking for a better framework to moderate and regulate the spread of information by such platforms. The EU also stepped in requesting American tech companies to provide monthly reports with data on how they are fighting fake news regarding COVID-19 in June. With the US Presidential Election set to take place next year, the pressure is mounting to build such a framework as soon as possible. The rise in the number of manipulated videos and audios by using Deep-Fake technology has also become a popular talking point. Facebook’s refusal to fact-check posts have also drawn fire from lawmakers in the US, and employees within the company. Hence, it will be interesting to see how the companies handle this new law, and whether it will be successful in changing the way social

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Facebook Takes the Battle to the Government by Planning to Block Australian Publishers from Sharing Articles

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Facebook in a new statement has announced that it will block publishers and users from Australia from sharing news pieces and articles. However, this move will serve as a significant pushback against a newly proposed law that will force Facebook to pay media companies for their articles and content. Furthermore, this new announcement will also escalate tensions between the tech giant and the Australian government. Both parties have been caught in a bitter antitrust battle, with the government holding Google and Facebook responsible for paying publishers for the content they provide these platforms. Here’s a look at how the battle came to heads and what this move could mean to users and publishers.

New Law In-Play

The Australian government is yet to approve and ass the new legislation. However, an arbitration panel tasked with working out the by-laws and clauses has proposed that tech companies must pay their content publishers if the two sides cannot agree. Facebook hit back through a blog post yesterday, claiming that such a proposal was hugely unfair. The social media giant also stated that such a law would allow content creators and publishers to charge any amount they wanted. Furthermore, the company said that if the law did come through, it would be forced to prevent Australians from sharing any media on Facebook and Instagram. 

Facebook Takes A Stand

Facebook’s VP of Global News, Campbell Brown, said that this decision was hard to take for the company. However, he reiterated that it was the only way to protect Facebook against a move that would hurt them and Australia’s media outlets. She went ahead to state that the social media giant was still working on a full-proof method to block Australian media from sharing articles. Following this announcement, Josh Frydenberg, who serves as Australia’s Treasurer, said that these were nothing but heavy-handed threats.

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Instead, he stated that such a law would help make the media landscape more sustainable as digital platforms would have to pay for the content they put out. Rod Sims, who serves as Australia’s competition regulator, also said that such threats were misconceived and ill-timed. He went on to say that the newly proposed law would go a long way in ensuring that the media remains fair and transparent.

Google Follows Suit

Since the Australian legislation will also affect the Alphabet’s Google, the tech giant has also been vocal about its displeasure regarding such a law. They too raised alarms and said that such a measure would force them to put out much less efficient versions of Google Search and YouTube. As a result, such a move, Google Australia and New Zealand MD, Mel Silva, said would critically damage the use of free internet services, like Google in Australia. 

Fighting for Transparency

The Aussie government claims it is only trying to make things more fair and transparent for its media bodies. Furthermore, it states that such a law would help level the playing field and give local media a chance against large tech companies. For instance, the local media is struggling as a result of the free sharing of news by such tech giants with News Corp, a media agency owned by Rupert Murdoch planning to cut jobs in Australia.

Murdoch’s decision will result in the closing down of over 100 regional and local newspapers in Australia, putting these media persons at risk. Murdoch has long asked Facebook and Google to pay for the articles, news pieces and content that appear on their platforms. Hence, it was obvious that New Corp would laud the government’s efforts to make this a reality. Michael Miller, who serves as the executive chairman of News Corp, stated that such a move would put an end to the tech giant’s free-riding on the content created by others. Since such companies derive a lot of benefit from such content, it is only fair that they pay the people making such content out of their own pockets.

Impact and After-Effect

However, if Facebook does follow through with its plans as per the announcement, publishers would no longer have access to a broad audience. Facebook claims that in just the first five months of this year, it sent over 2.3 billion clicks to news websites based in Australia from its News Feed. As a result, blocking such news from their feed could result in a massive loss of audience for news channels, while also limiting the appeal the platform enjoys in Australia. Australia’s new rules come as a part of a global push to make tech giants more accountable and regulated.

France came out with a statement asking Google to pay media companies for the articles it shares in April. Two months later, Google said it would start paying for certain news services in Brazil and Germany. Facebook came out with its separate News Feed last October and pays certain publishers for stories. The tech giant is also in plans to extend this News tab on a global basis but will block the sharing of news if governments try to intervene in its efforts. It will be interesting to see whether the social media giant is capable of halting this global push for more regulation and whether that would be a wise choice for the consumers.