Three defends mobile tariff 'price hike'

Thousands of customers currently paying £17 a month for unlimited data and calls have been told they will be moved onto a new £30 tariff if they do not opt out within 30 days.The company has notified customers by post and said it would also text them.Three said the more expensive plan was the closest remaining deal offering unlimited calls and data.It stopped offering the £17 monthly deal to new customers in 2014 and said it was phasing out "legacy" tariffs, but the BBC understands hundreds of thousands of customers still use the tariff and will be affected by the switch.

'Inevitable' changeOne mobile industry analyst told the BBC the demise of unlimited data plans was "inevitable".

"Consumer data usage is growing exponentially," said Ben Wood from CCS Insight."The networks are seeing huge growth in data consumption as people watch more video content at ever-higher resolutions on their smartphones. At some point certain all-you-can-eat tariffs become uneconomical."While the network does still offer plans with unlimited data and calls, Three says its average account holder consumes just 4.9 gigabytes of data per month.The firm had 8.8 million customers in 2015, according to its website.Some have posted their anger at the tariff change online, ironically tagging their posts #MakeItRight - the hashtag Three uses in its advertising campaign."That's how you lose brand loyalty," tweeted software engineer Joseph Longden.

Spam text programmer spared jail

Naveed Ahmed, 27, of Tampa, US, wrote a programme that helped a group of scammers bombard mobile phones with unsolicited text messages.Recipients were told they had won gift cards for an electrical retailer that could be claimed by visiting a website.He was sentenced to two years probation and can continue to work with computers monitored by probation officers.Contact information harvested by the scam was submitted to Internet Cost Per Action networks, which are companies that gather personal information and pay for submissions.

ICPA networks are legal - but the way Ahmed and his group obtained the details they submitted was not, said Assistant US Attorney Jimmy Kitchen.Ahmed is thought to have earned more than $2,000 (£1,400) a week between September 2011 and February 2013 by taking part in the scam, according to the Associated Press.'Invincible'It is believed the money raised was channelled though a Swiss bank account controlled by a so far unidentified co-conspirator.

Ahmed was one of 12 people charged for advertising their computer skills for illegal use on a cybercriminal marketplace which was shut down by the FBI in July.Ahmed told the judge: "I know my actions were irresponsible... I had this naive, immature view of being invincible."Defence lawyer Melvin Vatz said Ahmed was "a man of considerable intelligence" who had "succumbed to directing those talents in the wrong way".

Wikipedia editors make trustee resign

Nearly 300 backed a vote of no confidence over allegations of involvement in a no-poaching deal while he was a Google human resources boss.Mr Geshuri was alleged to have fired an employee who violated an agreement by approaching an Apple staff member.Wikimedia board members said Mr Geshuri did not want to be a distraction from the organisation's work.Patricio Lorente, who chairs the board, and its vice-chair, Alice Wiegand, announced Mr Geshuri's decision to editors on Wednesday.

They wrote: "Throughout the discussion about the appointment of Arnnon Geshuri to the board of trustees, the board has carefully listened to you and discussed internally."Earlier today, Arnnon decided to step down from the board."To paraphrase his words, he doesn't want to be a distraction for the important discussions that the community and the foundation need to face in the times to come.

"We want to thank Arnnon for his ongoing commitment and for helping us to move forward."The board governance committee is working to improve and update our selection processes before we fill the vacancy left by Arnnon's departure."We are sorry for the distress and confusion this has caused to some in our community, and also to Arnnon."Documents filed with a US court indicated Mr Geshuri, who now works for Tesla Motors, had been involved in enforcing a deal struck between Apple and Google not to poach each other's staff.In a 2007 email, while he had been working at Google, he had assured his boss, Eric Schmidt, that a company employee would be "terminated within the hour" for approaching an Apple staff member, the documents indicated.

Mr Schmidt had contacted Mr Geshuri after Apple's co-founder Steve Jobs had complained to him, the documents indicated.

In 2015, Apple, Google, Intel and Adobe all agreed to settle a legal action over related claims for $415m (£289m).The day before it was announced that Mr Geshuri had stepped down, Ms Wiegand wrote to editors insisting that he had the board's backing, despite their objections.

"We understand this conversation will continue, and we will continue to monitor it. However, we want to be clear that the board approved Arnnon unanimously and still believes he is a valuable member of the team," she wrote.

Will you like Facebook's new Reactions

The social networking giant is about to roll out emoji-style Reactions, which will allow you to express your feelings in a more nuanced fashion.In the conference call with analysts after Facebook's blockbuster financial results, Mark Zuckerberg confirmed that Reactions - which are being tested in Spain, Ireland and a few other places - would be shown everywhere "pretty soon".The idea, the chief executive said, is to add "a little bit of complexity" to something that is very simple. "When you only have a like button, if you share a sad piece of content or something that makes you angry, people may not have the tool to react to it."

So now Facebook users are being given new tools in the form of emoticons labelled "love", "haha", "wow", "sad" and "angry" - or they can still just "like".There was another button marked "yay" but that has been removed after pilot users apparently said: "Err….what??"For more than a billion people who visit Facebook every day there may now be a tricky period of adjustment. Do I just like that picture of your dog or do I love it? Should I go as far as telling you I'm "angry" about your views on the issues of the day - or is "haha" enough?

But it's advertisers who will be really going "wow" about this change to the way Facebook works. The latest results show just how much they have bought into the social network's message that it offers a unique way to connect with consumers and learn everything about them. Now they will have a far more complex set of data.Simon Calvert, head of strategy at the marketing agency Lida, says if the new system accurately reflects human emotions then it will be very interesting."Emotions travel five times faster than rational thought," he said. "So the ability to build better emotional connections with consumers is something that advertisers really prize."Facebook "likes" have become a somewhat devalued currency, as I found out when my Virtual Bagel imaginary business collected more than 4,000 likes from all over the world.

"They're devalued because brands collect them mindlessly," Mr Calvert explains. But he sees advertisers using Reactions in a far more sophisticated way to get insights into the emotions people feel about products.Another social media marketing expert, Kristal Ireland of Twentysixdigital, says there is always great excitement when Facebook makes a change like this. She believes there is an opportunity to learn far more about what people think of marketing messages but says the real challenge will be to make sense of the flood of new data: "You might end up with such fragmented data that you can't make up your mind what your ad should look like."

Digital safe offers solution to password thefts

Silicon Safe has designed a special box - a piece of hardware which stores passwords separate to the network.Last year there were high-profile hacks at firms including TalkTalk, Ashley Madison and Vtech which exposed millions of users' passwords.One expert questioned whether new hardware is really solving the problem.Online identity theft is becoming one of the most common forms of cyber-attack and can leave large organisations with both financial and reputational losses.The founders of Silicon Safe, Dr Will Harwood and Roger Gross, initially came up with the solution - dubbed Password Protect - as an academic exercise."We were seeing large-scale theft of passwords becoming an increasing problem and conventional security techniques were proving ineffective," Dr Harwood told the BBC.

They quickly saw that there was commercial potential in their idea.Software is prone to bugs and flaws so their first step was to design bespoke hardware - effectively hard-coding a chip - and making sure that it did not run an operating system or any other conventional software. This design, the founders claim, makes it impenetrable via conventional attack routes.The box is designed to be secure and has only one purpose - to store passwords. It runs on 10,000 lines of code - far less than used for a back-end database where passwords are normally stored.There is no conventional interface with the back-end systems although it does allow web servers to send login credentials to the system in order to authenticate passwords. It does not, at any point, reveal these passwords.Dr Harwood admits that hackers able to gain access to the back-end database of organisations could interrogate the box, but he has built in a safety feature."After four attempts to authenticate the password, the account will be flagged to system adminstrators," he told the BBC.

The device has been trialled by several large UK companies, including a retail bank and a telecoms firm, and is due to launch in April. Firms will pay an upfront cost of around £100,000 and will also have ongoing maintenance fees.It is, Dr Harwood said, easy to install and use with existing infrastructure - the box can be simply inserted into existing server racks and requires a few hundred lines of new code from IT managers.But not everyone was convinced it would be the panacea against mass password theft.

"The system assumes that we all practise proper password hygiene and don't have the same passwords for different accounts. All the evidence suggests that this isn't the case," said Prof Alan Woodward, a computer security expert from the University of Surrey.It also might encourage laziness in the IT departments of large firms, he added."You want developers to know what they are doing including knowing how to store data correctly. That might be preferable to paying £100,000 for a box engineered for one specific purpose."The Cambridge start-up remains confident in its solution and last year it launched a hacker challenge, inviting anyone to steal 100 unencrypted passwords from the system. To date, over 2.5 million attempts have been made, but none have been successful, according to the firm.

Java browser plug-in to be retired, says Oracle

The software is widely used to write programs that run in web browsers. But Oracle said modern browsers were increasingly incompatible with it.Oracle said it would begin winding the plug-in down with the release of its latest development kit software but its demise would not be immediate.Java has been criticised by many online security experts, who have said it is vulnerable to hackers.

'Alternative options'"By late 2015, many browser vendors have either removed or announced timelines for the removal of standards based plug-in support, eliminating the ability to embed Flash, Silverlight, Java and other plug-in based technologies," Oracle said, announcing the decision on Wednesday."With modern browser vendors working to restrict and reduce plug-in support in their products, developers of applications that rely on the Java browser plug-in need to consider alternative options such as migrating from Java Applets (which rely on a browser plug-in) to the plug-in free Java Web Start technology."

"Oracle plans to deprecate the Java browser plug-in" in the next release of its Java Development Kit, JDK 9, it said. The technology would be removed from future software releases, it added."By 'deprecate', Oracle doesn't mean that the Java plug-in will be killed stone dead. Instead they will increasingly hide it, and not encourage users to install it. In due course, the software will be entirely removed," said the security consultant Graham Cluley.

'Unpopular'

In a blog post for online security company Tripwire, Mr Cluley said: "Of course, Oracle isn't dropping support for Java entirely - but with the demise of the unpopular web browser plug-in, it hopes users will be happy to switch over to its replacement."He said that, while the number of reported problems had fallen in recent years, Java remained notorious for its vulnerabilities."Many users have found it hard to muster... love for the technology," he said."And yet, the Java browser plug-in has plodded on, shrugging off the brickbats and abuse, and doggedly providing support for the odd, ageing website and bespoke applications relied upon by corporations."

Mr Cluley said browser manufacturers were making the Java plug-in irrelevant.

He added: "Oracle isn't the only company having to recognise that the world is changing. Adobe, developers of the often-attacked Flash plug-in, recently made clear that it was moving away from the platform to an HTML5-based future."

Microsoft tipped to announce Lumia 650 in February

The reports also suggest that it will be a mid-segment smartphone and it will announce via the official blog of the company. Along with this, the company will be revealing the price and availability of the handset at the time of its launch.As per the rumoured specifications, the Lumia 650 features an HD display with 1280x720 pixels resolution protected with a coating of Corning Gorilla Glass on top and runs on Windos 10 opearting system. Powering the handset is a 1.1GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 210 processor paired with 1GB of RAM. The inbuilt storage of the smartphone stands at 8GB which can be expanded further using a microSD card.

The smartphone will flaunt an 8MP rear camera with LED flash and a 5MP front facing camera for clicking selfies. The connectivity attributes of the smartphone include 4G, LTE, 3G, WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS and it will pack in a 2,000 mAh battery with wireless charging capabilities. The tech giant Microsoft is gearing up to launch two new flagship handsets at the upcoming Mobile World Congress (MWC) in February. As per speculations, the company might launch the Lumia 850 and the Lumia 750 as their specifications and images are surfacing online since past few months.

Apple's new distribution strategy may hurt Redington?

The short term, deceleration in the global volume growth of Apple's flagship products — iPhone and iPad — may not hamper Redington India, its major distributor in the country, given the increasing popularity of these products. A bigger concern for its investors, however, is the changing distribution strategy of the global smartphone giant in its one of the fastest-growing South Asian markets.

In the past three months, Redington's stock has fallen 24%. Most of the loss was incurred after Apple expressed willingness to set up its own shops in India thereby, dealing directly with consumers. If that happens, Redington will face the heat since it derives over one-fourth of the India revenue by selling Apple products. In addition, its Indian business, which accounts for 40% of the total revenue, is more profitable than the overseas operations.

A wider distribution and increased penetration due to the strategy of offering older phone models at lower prices has improved Apple's reach. This is expected to continue given that Apple recently slashed prices of some of its phones by as much as 20%.Therefore, the global decelerating trend in Apple's volumes may not be visible in the Indian market for quite some time. This leaves investors with the gruelling issue of Apple's changing stance on how its products will be distributed in India. In 2015, it added another major distributor taking the total to three. If Apple sets up direct sales channels, it would dampen Redington's top line and margin.

Redington commands a premium valuation considering its dense distribution channel and its hold over the large accounts such as Apple. It trades at a trailing 12-month P/E ratio of 21. Its future performance will depend on how quickly the company reduces its dependence on Apple.

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More Samsung Galaxy S7 specs and images leak ahead of launch

Samsung’s Galaxy S7 is headed for launch in just a few months, and information about the device is already beginning to leak to the press. The S7 has a tough road to walk — the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge were supposed to reverse the Galaxy S5’s disappointing sales figures. Instead, Samsung discounted its flagship handset and cut prices to keep its sales figures up. Several analysts have suggested that while the firm’s mobile division did fairly well in the last quarter of the year, its profits aren’t being driven by the sale of flagship devices.

Leaks and spec sheets should always be taken with a grain of salt, but everything we’ve seen points in the same direction. The Galaxy S7 (SM-G930F) will feature a 5.1-inch screen with a 2560×1440 display, a 12-megapixel rear-facing camera, 4GB of RAM, and either Samsung’s own Exynos 8890 processor or Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 820 — and there’s a real question here, despite the news that Samsung itself is building the Snapdragon 820. Historically, Samsung has used a mix of both its own chips and Qualcomm’s to meet the demands of different markets. The Asian markets are reportedly more concerned with core counts, and it’s possible that the Exynos 8890 is meant to fit that space, while Qualcomm’s quad-core Snapdragon 820 is used for the US products.Unlike the Samsung Galaxy S6, the S7 will reportedly use a 12-megapixel camera, down from 16. This may seem like a marketing problem, but camera enthusiasts know the megapixel rating attached to any given device is just one aspect of whether it can take decent photos.

Our own David Cardinal met with Samsung at CES, so we asked him to weigh in on the camera changes we may see on the Galaxy S7. Here’s David:“Samsung’s Semiconductor division has been touting the low-light advantages of its new BRITECELL sensor layout, so it will be interesting to see if it is willing to gamble its new flagship phone on the technology. BRITECELL replaces the standard Bayer array sensor layout (typically shown as GRBG – alternating lines of Green and Red, and Blue with Green) with one that is WRBW (rows of White and Red alternating with Blue and White) – although Samsung product managers told us that the White has a slight green tint. This would be a bold move, as previous efforts to experiment with new sensor layouts in smartphones have not been very successful. For example, Motorola’s experiment with an RGBW (which is sometimes described as RGBC – with C for clear) in its Moto X camera was short-lived.

“When asked about the imaging artifacts that have been an issue for previous attempt to use White (or “Clear”) pixels, Samsung explained that because produces both the sensor and the imaging pipeline that it has been able to address those issues with BRITECELL.”The two features that no one is talking about, despite repeated requests for inclusion, are a removable battery and a microSD slot. Every time we’ve written about the Galaxy S6 / S6 Edge, we’ve gotten at least a few Samsung customers who wanted to see these two features return. So far, the company doesn’t seem to be listening. The Snapdragon 820should deliver excellent performance, but whether that’s enough to persuade consumers to upgrade after being less-than-enthused about both the Galaxy S5 and S6 is anyone’s guess.

Apple supplier TSMC raises capex at least 10 percent partly on smartphone growth

Apple Inc supplier Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd (TSMC) on Thursday said it would raise capital expenditure by at least 10 percent from 2015's four-year low, partly driven by growth in the global smartphone market.The world's biggest contract chipmaker estimated 2016 capex of $9 billion to $10 billion and said it expects global smartphone shipments to expand 8 percent.Demand for high-end smartphones has started the year weak, while in other segments there are already signs of upward demand momentum in emerging markets including China, the world's biggest for smartphones, TSMC said.

"While China's smartphone market shows signs of recovery, customers remain cautious in general," said Chief Financial Officer Lora Ho. The capex estimate was "realistic", she said.Last year's total capex of $8.12 billion came as a slump in the global technology sector and slowing economic growth in China forced many technology companies to scale back spending.TSMC is one of the world's biggest-spending chipmakers with Samsung Electronics Co Ltd and Intel Corp. It sliced its capex estimate twice last year, but in November said the 2016 amount would be higher.

"Last year was a difficult year," Chairman Morris Chang said at the chipmaker's quarterly earnings conference. "2016 I think will be better than 2015. We are mildly optimistic."TSMC estimated lower revenue for the current quarter - an off-peak season - compared with three months prior, and said its profit margin would be similar. Revenue for the full year would likely grow 5 percent to 10 percent, versus its industry average forecast of 5 percent.The estimates came after TSMC reported net profit of T$72.84 billion ($2.18 billion) for the final quarter of 2015, beating the T$68.53 billion average forecast of 23 analysts, according to Thomson Reuters Eikon

The result was down 3.3 percent from the previous three months and 8.9 percent from the same period a year earlier.

3 biggest security threats of 2016

You can hardly look at tech news without seeing reports of viruses, Trojans, data breaches, ransomware, remote hacking, ATM skimmers and plenty of other threats to your money and information. According to the security company Kaspersky, 34.2 percent of computer users experienced at least one Web attack in 2015. More than 750,000 computers were infected with ransomware, with a steady increase every quarter.

Statistics like these can seem overwhelming. Fortunately, most of the threats break down to a few categories that you can guard against. Today, I’ll look at what are shaping up to be the biggest threats you'll need to worry about in 2016, and give you some tips for how to stay safe.

1. Data breaches

OK, this threat isn't a new one. It’s been at the top of everyone's watch list since the massive Target breach that exposed information on up to 110 million customers at the end of 2013. But the nature of this threat will be shifting in 2016.Breaches at major retailers, where hackers steal payment information, will continue for the foreseeable future, and hotels are the target of choice at the moment. Hilton, Starwood and others experienced attacks in 2015. But as more retailers switch to point-of-sale terminals that work with the EMV chips in the latest credit and debit cards, and as people start using mobile payment systems, hackers should move on to easier targets. Find out how the chip in your new cards works to limit the danger of data breaches and how mobile payment on Apple and Android devices makes you safer.

The growing worry for 2016 is medical data breaches. In 2015, more than 100 million patient records were exposed, the majority coming from the Anthem Insurance hack early in the year. That trend is going to continue as hospitals, insurance providers and other medical services struggle to get a handle on digital security. To be fair, it's a problem they've never had to deal with before. But that's small comfort when your medical records are being sold on the black market.The reason hackers will focus on medical information is money. The black market is flooded with stolen financial and personal information, which means your identity is selling for a few bucks, if even that. But medical information is in shorter supply, so hackers can sell it for more. Plus, most people have learned to keep an eye on their credit and bank statements for signs of fraud, but few people keep an eye on their medical insurance. This means hackers can get more use out of your information before they're discovered.

Besides medical data breaches, you're going to see breaches in other industries where you wouldn't expect to find them, such as the toy industry. A recent breach at VTech, a toy manufacturer, exposed information on more than 200,000 children, including their names, addresses and even photos. A data breach at Hello Kitty exposed information on 3.3 million users.Newer high-tech toys that store information about kids and interact with them, like "Hello Barbie," could reveal a lot to hackers. So, before you buy a high-tech toy or let your child use an online site, see what information it asks for that could be stolen one day.

2. Ransomware

Ransomware encrypts your files so you can't open them without paying a ransom. Even the FBI is advising victims to pay if they want their files back. And just like data breaches, it isn't a new thing. It’s been a serious concern since a virus called CryptoLocker arrived at the end of 2013.But ransomware is still a serious threat, and it’s getting worse every year,especially since hackers can now get it for free and modify it as creatively as they want.And it isn't just a worry for individual computers. Ransomware can lock up files on a network, which means one infection can bring down an entire company. It's also possible to get it on smartphones and tablets via a malicious text, email or app.Fortunately, it isn't all doom and gloom. Ransomware still needs you to install it. If you avoid falling for phishing emails with malicious links or downloads like this tricky one, you can keep ransomware off your machine.You can also take the precaution of backing up your files regularly. That way, if they get locked, you can wipe your drive and restore them. Learn more steps to keeping ransomware off your gadgets.

3. Browser plug-ins

Britain's Ofcom recently found that adults spend an average of 20 hours a week online, most of that time in a Web browser. So it's no surprise that hackers are focusing their efforts there. If they can find a flaw in your browser, then they just need you to visit a malicious website to slip a virus onto your system. Learn how to spot a malicious site before it's too late.2015 saw hackers target a number of browser weaknesses, but by far the worst was Adobe Flash – or Adobe Animate, as it's now called. There were times it seemed to have an endless string of emergency patches, with at least three instances in July and four between the end of September and the beginning of November.Firefox even blocked Flash for a time in July to keep people safe. Because many online ads use Flash, even legitimate sites could infect a computer if hackers got an ad network to run a malicious ad.

Companies are quickly moving away from Flash/Animate – Facebook, for example, just switched its video player to HTML5 – but Flash/Animate isn't going anywhere for a while. In fact, just like Java, which was the security nightmare before it, Flash/Animate could hang around on computers for years after people no longer need it. Learn why you might not need Flash/Animate as much as you think.

You can expect to see plenty more attacks against it this year. And hackers probably are already probing for the next big hole in browser security. Don't wait. Learn five steps to making your browser hacker-proof.

Keep an eye out

There are always new threats out there, and even we don't know which ones will explode. Keep an eye out for viruses called bootkits, which are incredibly hard to detect and remove and have started showing up in hacker toolkits. Find out how bootkits work.Fortunately, right now they're delivered the same way as any other virus: through phishing emails, malicious downloads, etc. As long as you pay attention to what you click, you should be OK.On the Kim Komando Show, the nation's largest weekend radio talk show, Kim takes calls and dispenses advice on today's

digital lifestyle, from smartphones and tablets to online privacy and data hacks. For her daily tips, free newsletters and more, visit her website at Komando.com. Kim also posts breaking tech

news 24/7 at News.Komando.com.

Self-driving cars on Aussie roads in 2017 with the arrival of the Mercedes-Benz E Class sedan

German car maker Mercedes-Benz has unveiled the world’s first mass-produced vehicle that can automatically speed up and change lanes to overtake a car after the driver presses a button — and can be driven with hands off the steering wheel for extended periods of time, even on roads without lane markings.

It uses dozens of sensors including cameras and radar systems to “read” the traffic around it and determine when it is safe to overtake, and follows the direction of a road without lane markings providing there are other telltale signs such as other traffic.As the new generation Mercedes-Benz E-Class sedan was unveiled in Detroit overnight there are renewed calls for caution regarding the rapid pace of autonomous car technology.Police in Australia have repeatedly stated that, regardless of a vehicle’s technology, the driver must maintain control at all times. Indeed, most states have a specific traffic offence “not maintain proper control of vehicle”.

Authorities in California, one of the few US states that allows experimental vehicles on public roads, recently imposedThe new, automated Mercedes will be on US and European roads by the middle of this year but it is yet to get Australian government approval.However, Mercedes-Benz believes approval will be a formality once the Department of Transport and Regional Services (DOTARS) tests the vehicle and the technology later this year.“The government is being co-operative … but they want to test it and see it for themselves,” said the spokesman for Mercedes-Benz Australia, David McCarthy. “At the moment, our regulations are lagging behind the technology.”

Mercedes has several models on sale in Australia for the past three years that can steer themselves for up to 12 seconds before the driver must regain control. new safety restrictions to reduce the possibility of crashes during real-world testing.But the latest Mercedes with updated technology — due on sale later this year priced from $80,000 — extends the range and the conditions in which the driver could operate the car hands-free.Mercedes is not the only brand inching forward with autonomous technology, with German rival Audi and US company Tesla also leading the charge.

But electric car maker Tesla has just restricted the autonomous controls of its latest model — after introducing the option on top-end versions late last year — following several “near misses” by customers testing the car without their hands on the wheel.Meanwhile, the head of research and development at the world’s biggest car maker, Toyota, says that while autonomous cars won’t be perfect, they will end up being safer than humans.“It’s important not to get too hung up on these extraordinarily contrived rare cases where we have the mistaken belief that human beings actually solved the problem well,” Gill Pratt, the head of technology at Toyota, a former university professor and Pentagon researcher, told US journal Automotive News.

“As part of this drastic reduction in fatalities and accidents, there are still going to be some cases where the car had no choice (to crash into another car), and it’s important that we as a society come to understand that,” Pratt told Automotive News.“Unfortunately, our standards for machines are far higher. We expect perfection from them.”Electric car maker Tesla has just restricted the autonomous controls of its latest model after several “near misses” by customers testing the car without their hands on the wheel.Meanwhile, the head of research and development at the world’s biggest car maker, Toyota, says that while autonomous cars won’t be perfect, they will end up being safer than humans.

White House unveils measures to counter IS propaganda

Among a raft of measures is the creation of a new task force to counter the online propaganda of terror groups.The announcement comes as administration officials meet leaders from Silicon Valley to discuss ways that technology can thwart terrorists.Participants include Apple, Google, Facebook, Microsoft and Twitter.

The aim is to prevent extremist groups radicalising others and encouraging violence online.While the meeting in San Jose, California, was happening, the White House unveiled its new plans.The initiatives include a new task force for countering violent extremism, established by the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice.

The State Department also announced a new Global Engagement Center, which will focus on enabling foreign audiences to counter pro-IS messages."The horrific attacks in Paris and San Bernardino this winter underscored the need for the United States and our partners in the international community and the private sector to deny violent extremists like ISIL fertile recruitment ground," said White House spokesman Ned Price.Attorney General Loretta Lynch, FBI Director James Comey and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper were expected to be at the Silicon Valley meeting.An agenda obtained by the Associated Press news agency shows that government officials will share how terrorists use encrypted apps and services.

The agenda also shows there will be a discussion on how to "help others create, publish and amplify alternative content that would undercut the" the so-called Islamic State.Syed Farook and Tashfeen Malik, the radicalised Muslim couple who opened fire at an office party in San Bernardino, California, killing 14, met online and used a private messaging app to share their views.

IS recruits new members online across Europe and the US. Mr Obama has called the group "a bunch of killers with good social media".Lawmakers have proposed legislation that would require social media platforms to report detected terrorist activity, but the industry said it worries that would lead to reporting of inaccurate data and could impose undue burdens.Industry leaders and lawmakers have been debating online encryption and privacy after recent terror attacks.Technology groups have said they want to help without invading privacy.

Tech giants raise concerns over UK draft surveillance bill

The firms are worried about the phrasing of proposals on encryption, bulk collection of data and openness.The submission joins another, from Apple, which challenges the reach of the draft legislation.If passed, the IP Bill would overhaul rules on how authorities access people's communications.The five firms form part of a coalition called Reform Government Surveillance(RGS) which aims to promote a series of principles on how governments should collect communications data on their citizens."There are many aspects of the Bill which we believe remain opaque," the RGS companies state in their written evidence, citing the wording on judicial authorisation, encryption and technical requirements on tech firms among other things.

Their comments come in the form of written evidence submitted to a parliamentary committee considering the scope of the bill.Secret communication Currently, several of the corporations involved are standing by the provision of end-to-end encryption in some of their products - such as Apple's iPhones.This allows people to communicate privately in a form that cannot be decoded, even by the company which makes the device.

The IP Bill would not outlaw encryption, but it would strengthen the power to force firms to give up decryption keys so that coded messages might be read.On this issue, the tech firms rally behind comments made to the committee by Apple."We reject any proposals that would require companies to deliberately weaken the security of their products via backdoors, forced decryption, or any other means," the companies say.There has been some question over whether companies could or should be compelled to insert "back doors" in their software - allowing intelligence agencies to access data which they transmit or store.

Laws without borders

One key issue raised is that of extraterritorial jurisdiction - the extent to which UK authorities can compel foreign companies to comply with their laws."We have collective experience around the world of personnel who have nothing to do with the data sought being arrested or intimidated in an attempt to force an overseas corporation to disclose user information," state the RGS firms in their written evidence."We do not believe that the UK wants to legitimise this lawless and heavy-handed practice."The submission notes that other countries around the world are likely to be influenced by what sort of laws are laid down in the UK and warns against "an increasingly chaotic international legal

Honesty as policyThere is also a comment on how surveillance might be made more transparent.

"As a general rule, users should be informed when the government seeks access to account data," the companies say."It is important both in terms of transparency, as well as affording users the right to protect their own legal rights."If it is deemed necessary to delay notice in exceptional cases, the firms argue that the burden should be on the government to show that there is an overriding public safety case for doing so.'Remarkable' intervention

"I think it's very interesting how strongly the 'big players' of the internet have responded to the UK government's surveillance plans," said Paul Bernal, a legal expert at the University of East Anglia who also submitted evidence to the committee."The breadth of the intervention is remarkable - they haven't kept to purely technical matters, but talk about judicial authorisation, transparency and so forth," he told the BBC."This breadth shows how seriously they are taking the issue."

Dr Bernal also pointed out that the firms had raised the issue of "technical impositions" - the requirements that would be placed on communications companies by the bill should it become law.Vodafone, in a separate submission, also commented on the obligation to obtain and generate data, saying: "There is nothing within the draft bill to indicate what this might mean, and could be used to require an operator to make changes to its networks and services simply to get more data — even relating to other companies' services — and to hold on to it for law enforcement."

Commissioner's concerns

Alongside the silicon valley firms expressing some anxiety over the draft IP Bill is the UK's own Information Commissioner's Office (ICO).

In an 11-page submission to the parliamentary committee, the ICO praises some of the bill's proposals while questioning the reach of others, including the retention of internet connection records (ICRs).

ICRs are the domain names of websites visited by internet users, but not records of specific pages.

"Although these are portrayed as conveying limited information about an individual they can, in reality, go much further and can reveal a great deal about the behaviours and activities of an individual," the ICO says. system".

Among other concerns, the ICO also highlights a clause in the draft bill which enables the secretary of state to force the removal of electronic protections on communications data.

The consequences of this clause could be "far-reaching" and have "detrimental consequences to the security of data", the ICO warns.

"The Information Commissioner's comments will carry particular weight since he is a government-appointed official whose job it is to protect the public's information," commented the BBC's security correspondent, Gordon Corera.

"His concerns echo some of those of the tech companies that some of the language in the act - for instance on encryption and equipment interference - is unclear and could have a real impact on the security and privacy of individuals' data."

Microsoft reveals details of Windows 10 usage tracking

The firm listed statistics on how many minutes had been spent by users in total in the Edge browser and the number of photographs which had been viewed in the Photo app.However, some people have questioned whether the data tracking is a threat to privacy.Since Windows 10 was launched, Microsoft has been tracking information about how those with the OS are using it.Until now though, relatively little has been known about what data is being collected.

"Microsoft is deeply committed to protecting our customers' privacy," a spokesman for the company told the BBC."Consistent with all modern services and websites, the Windows 10 information highlighted in the blog on January 4 is standard diagnostic, anonymous analytics that enables us to deliver the best Windows 10 experience possible.

"We are committed to delivering industry leading privacy protection for our customers, as shared in a recent blog from Terry Myerson."

Minutes tracked

The company blog listed a range of figures, including:

44.5 billion minutes spent by users in the Microsoft Edge browser across Windows 10 devices

2.4 billion questions asked to virtual assistant Cortana

30% more Bing search queries per Windows 10 device versus previous versions of the OS

82 billion photos viewed with the Photo app

More than four billion hours spent playing PC games

Microsoft also reported that Windows 10 continued to be the fastest growing version of Windows, outpacing the adoption of both Windows 8 and Windows 7.Security expert Prof Alan Woodward told the BBC he was interested to know the long-term plans for the data.

"[This information] might be collected for one purpose, but how long will it be stored for? What else are they going to use it for?" he said."As soon as it goes outside the EU it's no longer protected by things like the UK's Data Protection Act."Recently, Microsoft announced it would be opening UK data centres for corporate clients in a move the firm hoped would address privacy watchdogs' concerns about "data sovereignty".However, it is not clear where data relating to the company's own operating system is transmitted and stored.

It is possible to increase the privacy controls in Windows 10 by setting the feedback option to Basic, so that activity data is not sent to Microsoft - bar error reports.However, Prof Woodward suggested that users of the new OS may not be fully aware of the range of options and what they do."I've noticed it because I've been installing it a lot recently. The default is for them to track a whole lot of things about usage and send details back to Microsoft," he said."I think some people are walking into it blindfolded, they don't necessarily realise what's going on."

Google removes 13 Android apps from Play store

NEW DELHI: The search engine giant Google has removed 13 malicious apps from the Google Play Store. The company took this step after it was notified by the security researcher Chris Dehghanpoor from Lookout that these apps made unauthorized downloads to the Android devices.

Dehghanpoor explained that these apps try to get the root privileges and when given they copy numerous device files to the system partition that remains untouched even after factory resetting the device.The researcher stated that the apps boosted high download numbers and automatically posted positive reviews on the Play store.

The list of apps removed from the Google Play store includes Honeycomb, Just Fire, Cake Blast, Crazy Block, Drag Box, Tiny Puzzle, Jump Planet, Ninja Hook, Piggy Jump, Eat Bubble, Hit Planet, Cake Tower, and Crazy Jelly.

Nextbit's Robin looks to break the smartphone mold

A new take on the smartphone is hatching next month.

Nextbit, a San Francisco-based startup run by Google and HTC veterans, plans to start shipping its first smartphone, called the Robin, on Feb. 16 to those who've preordered it. On that same day, it plans to unveil its e-commerce store. Preorder sales are ending next Friday.

The company is hoping the Android phone's clever design and heavy focus on cloud storage will help it gain attention in a crowded smartphone field dominated by tech titans including Apple and Samsung."Nothing really stands out anymore," Scott Croyle, Nextbit's chief designer, said on CNET's Consumer Electronics Show stage in Las Vegas on Friday. "Everything feels like a derivative of either the [HTC One] M7 or the iPhone."

For that reason, Croyle said, many people are "hungry" for a fresh look in smartphones and the Robin's spare, square-sided design may fit the bill. Croyle knows a little about smartphone design, having been a key designer behind the look of the HTC One M7. Still, to avoid making another phone that blends in, he said he didn't use design cues from the M7 to create the Robin.

This new SanDisk memory stick will make your phone’s storage problems a thing of the past

IT’S 2016 but two major smartphone issues are yet to be fixed. First of all, there’s never enough storage on most mobile devices whether they’re new iPhones or Android devices. And then there are battery life problems. SanDisk has a new product that aims to fix one of them, and that’s the shortage of memory.

The company has a few popular products that offer users extra memory on the go, and the company updated some of them, announcing new versions at CES 2016 that offer even more storage.The SanDisk Connect Wireless Stick is one of the new products SanDisk is pitching in Las Vegas. We’ve seen it before, but it now comes in a 200GB capacity that retails for $US119.99 from Amazon, Best Buy and from SanDisk.The flash drive lets you transfer files wirelessly from a smartphone or tablet, including both iOS and Android devices, and works with Macs and Windows PCs as well. The SanDisk Connect app handles the transfers using password-protected connectivity and it even supports Live Photos taken on the new iPhone 6s models.

While the wireless stick is something iOS users looking for more storage should check out, Android fans might be more interested in a different kind of SanDisk flash drive, one that connects physically to their smartphones or tablets.That’s the case with the SanDisk Ultra Dual Drive 3.0. The product isn’t new, but it’s now available in a 128GB version that retails for $US59.99 on Amazon, Best Buy and SanDisk. Previously, the drive was available which only up to 64GB of storage.

Adware, beware! Microsoft plans to retaliate against software that doesn't behave

The ban targets adware that uses man-in-the-middle (MITM) techniques or changes DNS settings to place ads in users' browsers. The move from Microsoft, which will be in effect from March, comes several months after Lenovo's controversy surrounding the Superfish adware.These methods are used by software writers to intercept users' browsers to inject advertisements. Though they're usually not intended to harm a PC or overtly snoop on its user, they can easily hi-jacked by a malicious actor to snoop on communications or place their own malware.

"Our intent is to keep the user in control of their browsing experience, and these methods reduce that control," said Microsoft in its announcement on Monday.From March 31, any programs that place advertisements in a browser must be a plug-in that can be easily removed by the user. "[Programs] that create advertisements in browsers must only use the browsers' supported extensibility model for installation, execution, disabling, and removal," it said.

Related: Microsoft rolls out surprise Christmas ad showing Apple some love

For example, the Superfish adware could be removed by someone with a Lenovo laptop, but the potential vulnerability would remain behind. Lenovo released a removal tool to address this more efficiently soon afterwards.

"We encourage developers in the ecosystem to comply with the new criteria," said Microsoft's Barak Shein and Michael Johnson. Developers have been given "ample" warning they added in order to get their programs in line with the new rules. If not, Microsoft will detect and remove the programs.Since the Superfish problems, Dell has experienced its own issues with pre-installed software that potentially put users at risk. In the wake of these controversies, PC makers have found themselves under increasing pressure to ensure the security of their pre-loads. These new rules from Microsoft are hoped to push more developers and manufacturers in that direction.

India-China mobile phone industry to hold talks

NEW DELHI: Mobile phone industry players of India and China will deliberate on cooperation opportunities to enhance handset manufacturing eco-system in the country.

"Chinese companies are keen to participate in the 'Make in India' campaign and establish mobile handset & component manufacturing facilities here," Mobile World (Shoujibao) Shenzhen Founder & CEO Wu said in a statement.

The deliberations between India and Chinese firms will take place at first 'China-India Mobile phone and Component Manufacturing Summit' on January 13.

It is being organized by Indian mobile phone industry body Indian Cellular Association (ICA) in association with Mobile World (Shoujibao)-- China's leading mobile industry service platform and technology media.

"This 1st ever China-India Mobile phone and Component Manufacturing Summit is the fructification of the high level visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to China during May, 2015," ICA National President Pankaj Mohindroo said.

India has set up a Fast Track Task Force (FTTF) at DeitY under Mohindroo to fulfill the objective to achieve production target for 500 million mobile phones by 2019 and generate employment for 15 lakhs people by 2019.

Touch-free car controls split world's drivers

Germans love the latest wave of touch-free car controls, which respond to the flick of a wrist or the swipe of a hand, as it means no messy fingerprints on their spotless dashboards. Italians, known for an extravagant hand gesture or two, are not so sure.A simplistic stereotype, but it captures the split among the world's drivers over the newest in-car tech on display at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week.

Germany's BMW demonstrated a 7 Series car that recognizes five simple gestures, from a finger twirl to the right to raise the music volume and a hand swipe to decline an incoming call.Japan's Pioneer had a minty scent shoot out of a dashboard to revive a driver after a car seat sensor detected a falling heart rate, a possible prelude to nodding off."It's certainly weird, certainly odd and certainly unproven. But Pioneer is not off base to connect one sensory organ to others," said Mark Boyadjis, an analyst at consulting firm IHS Automotive.

Given that drivers have enough to do keeping their hands on the wheel and eyes on the road, touch-free controls for some non-essential functions makes sense. But it is not clear all drivers want gesture, eye-tracking or even lip-reading technology."The jury is out" on how widespread it will become, said Jeffrey Owens, chief technology officer for Delphi Automotive, which made BMW's gesture software.

NATIONAL DIFFERENCES

The Japanese, some of the keenest consumers of novelty technology, are likely fans of Pioneer's 'bio-sensing system' that squirts out fragrance, said the company's marketing head Russ Johnston.Enthusiastic visitors to Pioneer's booth at CES suggested cappuccino and peppermint as good wake-up smells, he said.The Japanese were the first to embrace back-up, or reversing, assistance because they did not want to bang their cars, said Guillaume Devauchelle, head of innovation at French auto parts supplier Valeo, who identified cultural preferences as a huge factor in adoption.

"There's no universal solution," said Devauchelle, whose company hired an ethnologist to make sense of different cultures with different tastes. He pointed out Germans' dislike of touchscreens, the risks of gesture control with expressive Italians, and the eager uptake of any kind of new tech by the Chinese.Regardless of national tastes, the market for gesture recognition technology in vehicles - and the cheaper, more prevalent proximity sensing, in which the approach of a hand will trigger a touchable menu screen - is growing rapidly.

IHS Automotive predicts a seven-fold jump in unit sales of such technology to 30.4 million in 2021 from 3.7 million today. But full consumer buy-in is an open question, and cost may keep such features a limited, luxury option.

SAFETY QUESTIONS

Safety experts have cautiously welcomed dashboard simplification, but note gesture control and other such features may actually add to confusion.

"If a driver doesn't know how to use it, will that increase the distraction?" asked Henry Jasny, vice president of Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety in Washington. "There's no proof that it will improve safety."

Automakers are free by law to test an array of options in their cars. The industry has voluntary guidelines that say drivers should complete tasks in a series of single glances taking no more than 2 seconds each, for a total of 20 seconds.

Systems are never foolproof, noted IHS' Boyadjis, who said he once triggered a blaring radio with an innocuous gesture.

Car makers and industry watchers are divided on whether touch-free controls will catch on, or even be overtaken by self-driving cars.

The human-machine interface "will be the differentiator for car makers" after safety systems, said Rainer Holve, head of connected car automotive software for Elektrobit, a subsidiary of German auto supplier Continental AG .

But Boyadjis at IHS is wary of "differentiation for the sake of differentiation."

"BMW has the capacity to throw this arguably unnecessary but innovative product into the 7 Series, not too concerned with the cost... and wait to see if the seed grows," he said. "The rest of the industry is watching."

Latest tech support scam stokes concerns Dell customer data was breached

Tech-support scams, in which fraudsters pose as computer technicians who charge hefty fees to fix non-existent malware infections, have been a nuisancefor year. A relatively new one targeting Dell computer owners is notable because the criminals behind it use private customer details to trick their marks into thinking the calls come from authorized Dell personnel.

"What made the calls interesting was that they had all the information about my computer; model number, serial number, and notably the last item I had called Dell technical support about (my optical drive)," Ars reader Joseph B. wrote in an e-mail. "That they knew about my optical drive call from several months prior made me think there was some sort of information breach versus just my computer being compromised."

He isn't the only Dell customer reporting such an experience. In a Dell forum post from July, Ars reader Patrick Z. reported receiving similar calls. When he pressed company representatives to explain how the scammers had so much information about him, a company employee shut him down. "Dell is aware of this and other complaints and is investigating," the employee wrote. "No, there will not be a public post/blog. We consider this closed from a Forum perspective."

What's more, a blog post published Tuesday reported scammers knew of every problem the author had ever called Dell about. None of those problems were ever discussed in public forums, leading the author to share the suspicion that proprietary Dell data had somehow been breached.

The blog post went on to detail several posts on Dell's public support forum reporting the same phenomenon. In all, there were eight separate customers. In addition to having the customers' phone numbers, model numbers, and serial numbers, the scammers in some cases also knew of previous support calls the targets had made.

"Was DELL hacked...?? How did this 'helpful tech representative' have my contact info AND knowledge of my technical issue ???????" one person posting on Dell's website in July asked. "DELL??? HELLO ????"

Six months later, Dell still hasn't answered. In a series of e-mail exchanges, Ars repeatedly asked Dell representatives if they had any reason to suspect the scammers hacked or otherwise breached Dell security to obtain the customer data. The representative acknowledged the ongoing scam and pointed to this advisory Dell officials issued in October. Among other things, the advisory requests anyone who receives such a call to report it using a link on Dell's website.

"Protection of our customers' data is a top priority for Dell," the spokeswoman wrote. "We ask our customers keep in mind, we do not make unsolicited calls asking to charge to fix an issue they did not report or previously request help with unless they have signed up for our premium support services like Dell Tech Concierge, Dell Premium Support or Dell ProSupport services."

The spokeswoman, however, didn't answer the question Ars asked repeatedly—did Dell officiaOne theory that partially answers the question is that the scammers exploited a vulnerability that became public in November. It resided on Dell PCs that came pre-installed with digital certificates that made it easy for attackers to cryptographically impersonate any website on the Internet. The same certificate, it turned out, also allowed hackers to surreptitiously obtain the unique service tag Dell assigns to computers it sells.

The theory still doesn't explain how scammers obtained contact information and support histories. The vulnerability, however, does demonstrate the plausibility that hackers could have devised a way to obtain personal details belonging to Dell customers. For the time being, owners of Dell computers should presume their support histories and purchase and contact information has been compromised, and act accordingly.ls have any reason to believe its customer data had been compromised, and if not, how did they believe the scammers had access to serial numbers, contact information, and past support calls.

Twitter hires Apple exec to be its new diversity chief

Twitter is hiring a former Apple executive to become its new vice president for diversity and inclusion, after facing harsh criticism in the past few months for its non diverse workforce.Jeffrey Siminoff is replacing Janet Van Huysse, who held the position at the social network for six years. Twitter's head of human resources Brian Schipper tweeted the announcement on Monday .Siminoff tweeted Monday he's "super excited" to be joining Twitter sometime next month. He was Apple's director of worldwide inclusion and diversity for more than two years,according to his LinkedIn profile. Siminoff also led global diversity and inclusion efforts at Morgan Stanley for three years. He's also a founding member of Out Leadership, a global LGBT leadership organization.Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment.Van Huysse tweeted Monday that after "6 incredible years, it's time for my next chapter."

Siminoff will likely work quickly to make the San Francisco-based micro blogging service more diverse. In November, a former high-ranking Twitter engineer who is black publicly questioned the company's commitment to diversity. The topic remains a thorny issue across Silicon Valley as Twitter and other tech giants including Apple, Facebook and Intel are wrestling with how to make their male-dominated and largely white work forces more inclusive.

Last month, former Twitter engineer Leslie Miley, wrote in a blog post that the lack of African-Americans, Hispanics and women on Twitter's engineering team is hurting the company. He cited a Pew Research Center survey that revealed about a quarter of African-Americans and HisTwitter's current USworkforce is 2 percent African-American and 4 percent Hispanic, while women make up 13 percent of its ranks globally. The social network has said it wants to increase minorities in tech jobs in the United States to 9 percent and in leadership roles to 6 percent.

During a ceremony this month honoring those trying to make the tech industry more inclusive, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey said his company wants to be as diverse as its 320 million global users.

"We really need to be reflective of the people that we serve, what their concerns are, how they want to participate in the world, what communities they're a part of and build tools to make their lives easier," he said panics online said they use Twitter, a sharp contrast to the company's employee ranks.

BBC goes offline kin NYE attac

Users received an error message and the broadcaster said on Twitter the outage was due to technical problems.

BBC later apologised for the outage.

“The BBC website is now back up and operating normally. We apologise for any inconvenience you may have experienced,” a spokesperson said.A news story posted on the website said it had been due to a “distributed denial of service” attack in which a website is swamped with more traffic than it can handle.

This is a relatively common way to target a website and temporarily make it inaccessible.The reported attack hit a wide range of BBC websites and also affected the iPlayer and iPlayer Radio services.The corporation’s televised news service and live radio services remained on the air.

Twitter, Politwoops reach deal: Archive can again surface politicians' deleted tweets

Call it "The Case of the Missing Tweet." A politician sends out a controversial remark using Twitter. Then lo and behold, when public outcry begins, the tweet is suddenly nowhere to be found. It's been deleted.Now though, thanks to an agreement between Twitter and a pair of government-transparency groups, you'll again have access to a website that archives those tweets to make sure they're part of the public record. Twitter announced the deal this week.

The site, Politwoops, was disrupted earlier this year when Twitter stopped giving it access to code that made preservation of the tweets possible. The social network said at the time that it supported "increasing transparency in politics and using civic tech and open data to hold government accountable to constituents." But it also said that saving and publishing deleted tweets broke its rules and violated its users' privacy.

The Netherlands-based Open State Foundation, the transparency group behind the site, and the US-based Sunlight Foundation, which runs Politwoops in the states,responded with an open letter in September calling for restoration of access. The groups argued that a citizen's right to information outweighs a political figure's right to retroactively edit a statement.

The conflict raised the question of what counts as a public record in the Internet era. It also highlighted the ease with which a careless user of social media can get into hot water. One example: Last July, a worker for Donald Trump's campaign inadvertently included a picture of Nazi soldiers in a patriotic photo-collage tweeted and deleted by Trump's account. In 2014, several politicians deleted tweets that had shown support for a US Army soldier who'd been help captive by the Taliban but was later charged by the Army with desertion.

In its post about the agreement Thursday, San Francisco-based Twitter gave no details, but it quoted remarks made by CEO Jack Dorsey during the social network's conference for software developers this past October."We have a responsibility to continue to empower organizations that bring more transparency to public dialogue, such as Politwoops," Dorsey said at the Flight conference. "We need to make sure we are serving all these organizations and developers in the best way, because that is what will make Twitter great. We need to listen, we need to learn, and we need to have this conversation with you. We want to start that today."

In its own online statement, the Open State Foundation said the deal was the result of several meetings with Twitter since Dorsey's remarks.It's not clear when Politwoops will again start posting deleted tweets. An online statement from the Sunlight Foundation said that "in the coming days and weeks, we'll be working behind the scenes to get Politwoops up and running." The Open State Foundation said in its statement that in the "coming months" it will relaunch Politwoops in the more than 30 countries in which it had been available and that it will look to add more countries to the list.