Less than half of Spaniards change their passwords when they separate from their partner
05/10/2022The email and social network accounts of one in five Spaniards (21%) have been subject to violation by a third party who has changed the passwords without the owner's knowledge or consent, attributing 37% of the victims this wrong use to their ex-partners. This data comes from the recent study carried out by Avast and Dynata on the degree of knowledge that Spaniards have of the passwords of their partners or relatives. In this study more than 2,000 Internet users have participated. Among the most striking results of this survey is that the collaborators who say they still know their ex's passwords, 56% of them has admit that they even know, also, their professional email passwords. 24% of those surveyed also claim that their location has been tracked without their consent due to knowing their password. This behavior, the authors of the study explain, can be considerated as technological abuse, which can be further aggravated by installing spyware or 'stalkwerware' on other people's devices or controlling or harassing someone through home technology.
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The Spanish Organization of Consumers and Users has denounces Apple for the planned obsolescence of the iPhone6
25/05/2022The Spanish Organization of Consumers and Users (OCU) has filed a class action lawsuit against Apple for the planned obsolescence of their iPhone 6 and has agreed to pay the costs of the trial to the 400,000 affected in Spain. The OCU considers this planned obsolescence a deceptive commercial practice that violates consumer protection regulations and demands compensation for Spanish users for an amount that ranges between 99 and 189 euros. This figure comes from the sum of the amount of the battery (between 29 and 89 euros, depending on whether or not the replacement plan was accepted), plus 10% of the purchase price of the mobile (between 699 and 999 euros, depending on the model). According to the OCU lawsuit, Apple has acted fraudulently by hiding information from users, and considers that the technology company updated the software in the different models of the iPhone 6 to mask the performance problems of its batteries, knowing that this would cause a slowdown. and loss of phone performance. This practice, said OCU, conditioned consumers to renew their iPhones, causing them an economic loss that amounts to between 40 and 80 million euros, approximately. The complaint against Apple is one more action from the OCU to encourage affected users to fight against planned obsolescence.
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WhatsApp improves security in its desktop version
14/03/2022In accordance with the growing use of WhatsApp in the desktop version and with the aim of guaranteeing users maximum security, Meta has announced that has implemented in this app, a new security layer called Code Verify that acts as an open source browser extension verifying automatically the authenticity of the web code of this application. According to Meta, which has offered this utility to other services to use it, Code Verify allows web browsers to verify that the resources they obtain have not been tampered with. "When someone uses Code Verify, the extension automatically compares the code that is executed in WhatsApp Web with the version of the code verified by WhatsApp and published in CloudFlare", has said the company, who also explains that if any violation or inconsistency is detected , the user will receives a notification, immediately. This new WhatsApp code verification, which Meta has confirmed does not record metadata or user data or share information with the application, will be available in the official browser extension stores for Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge and Mozilla Firefox.
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Common front against advertising based on user surveillance
19/01/2022Facing the forthcoming vote on the EU Digital Services Law, a group of 17 civil organizations and 14 digital companies have demanded the European Parliament prohibit invasive and hostile practices with privacy that take place in digital advertising such as user tracking. According to his complaint, companies that specialize in monitoring the behavior of Internet users, integrate data from all websites, something that entails a violation of EU data protection regulations. In addition, they remember, these advertising practices make use of "inferred data that reveals vulnerabilities of the users" and, in general, they insist, this data are obtained without the knowledge of the user and beyond their control. The signatories, including the privacy-focused search engine companies DuckDuckGo and Ecosia, denounce also that these types of practices only favor a few “dominant players” based in the United States, and they specifically cite, among others, Facebook and Google. As an alternative to these advertising systems, they propose to follow initiatives such the Dutch television channels NPO and Norwegian TV2, which opted for contextual advertising and increased their income from ads.
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What is the value of a Bitcoin?
11/06/2021Since Bitcoin first appeared in 2009, this digital currency not issued by any government or company, nor, under the umbrella of any kind of economic policy, has gained a foothold in the market and has already started to fit into existing legal frameworks. What gives Bitcoin its value? The great value of Bitcoin is that it is a decentralized and global currency, an alternative to fiat currencies (those issued by governments). All transactions with Bitcoins are public and each of these crypto currencies belongs exclusively to its owner, therefore, it is a currency that cannot be intervened by anyone. What can I do with Bitcoins? To date, with this cryptocurrency, it is possible to monetize all kinds of services, in addition to making investments, free or practically free of commissions, which in the medium to long term are proving attractive. This has made Bitcoin an asset in which to invest and an increasingly popular means of payment through which to transfer value from one user to another without losing friction along the way, going through an intermediary or paying a commission. What is the price of a Bitcoin? Like any other good, the price of a Bitcoin varies according to market demand, although the fact that it has been designed to behave as a deflationary asset and that its supply is limited to 21 million coins, facilitates that by the law of supply and demand itself, the Bitcoin exchange rate tends to rise continuously. As of June 9, at the time of writing this article, the Bitcoin value today is 30,007.86 euros, 3.4 times its price a year ago, when the Bitcoin to Euro conversion rate was 8,629.5 Bitcoins for 1 euro. In 2010 Bitcoin price was less than one Euro cent. What does the value of Bitcoin depend on? The value of Bitcoin depends on the trust and acceptance of users to use it, hence why Bitcoin is rising in value some days and not others. As Bitcoin has been implemented as a means of payment in multiple transactions and its popularity has grown, its value has grown in parallel. Likewise, when there have been news or events that have questioned, for example, the suitability of this crypto currency, its price has fallen. Like any other currency, the price of Bitcoin fluctuates and it is the users themselves who set it at the time of the purchase and sale transaction, which prevents the existence of a single price for Bitcoin, since it is not operated through a single platform as is the case with other currencies. Even so, buying and selling prices of Bitcoins tend to be quite similar. To know how much Bitcoin costs, there are several online platforms, known as "Bitcoin trading platforms" that report live the evolution of the value of the cryptocurrency. Is it safe and profitable to invest in Bitcoin? As with any other asset, investing in Bitcoins is profitable if we know how to do it at the right time. On the other hand, the Blockchain technology on which Bitcoin is based is reliable and difficult to manipulate, with no risk of being counterfeited, although some experts believe that the perfect, 100% inviolable system has not yet been created. In the cryptocurrency segment, convertibility is contemplated, so that Bitcoins can be exchanged for fiat currencies. What can I buy with Bitcoins? Over the last few years, a large number of companies have incorporated Bitcoin as an official method of payment for their goods and services From travel companies to ticket sales platforms for all kinds of shows, through gaming platforms, digital bookstores, software stores or even non-profit organizations already accept this digital currency. That is, Destinia, 13tickets, Gear Best, Shopify, Wordpress, Hostinger, Greenpeace,... among many other companies. eBay is currently considering adding Bitcoin as a method of payment. What is Bitcoin mining and how are Bitcoins generated? The users themselves through a totally decentralized system create Bitcoins. To become a bitcoin creator, computers with high computational capacity are needed to process and verify transactions and quickly solve the complex digital processes of generating the currency. This work is called mining and one of its best attractions is that the system offers "miners" rewards in Bitcoins in exchange for these services, which has made this activity very appealing for certain users. Is it profitable to mine Bitcoins in Spain? Bitcoin mining requires very powerful equipment, with high calculation capacities to solve operations, being nowadays totally inoperative for this operation the PCs of domestic or office use. The investment to mine Bitcoins requires, in addition, to assume the large power consumption required by this more powerful equipment, which makes Spain, at this time due to the high price of KW/h, an uninteresting market for mining Bitcoins. On the contrary, other locations such as China, Iceland, Iran or Georgia, where the Bitcoin mining business is in full expansion, are very interesting.
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