Victoria Fox's Blog, page 121

Kaspersky Report: Germany has the most cases of digital stalking in Europe

Digital stalking is increasing worldwide; in a European comparison, Germany is in first place. This emerges from an analysis by the cybersecurity company Kaspersky. According to this, the number of those affected worldwide rose by almost six percent to 31,031 last year. Although the trend in Europe is declining overall, Germany still has the most cases with 577 cases.

Behind them are France with 332, Great Britain with 271, Spain with 257 and Italy with 252 cases, as the report shows. Germany is in tenth place worldwide.

Almost one in ten monitors their partner

According to a survey conducted as part of the report, one in three respondents in Germany (33 percent) has already been stalked in this way or suspects it. 23 percent have already been affected by digital stalking in their current or a past relationship, and 18 percent have experienced this with a dating partner.

According to the survey, nine percent openly admit to manipulating their partner’s smartphone with stalkerware. Another nine percent urged their partner to install monitoring apps.

One in five people in Germany supports full transparency in the partnership, which also includes consensual monitoring. 16 percent consider such monitoring to be acceptable only if it is carried out by both parties and with mutual consent. However, a clear majority, 62 percent, fundamentally reject monitoring their partner without their knowledge. 44 percent are also against consensual control of their partner’s online activities.

Disguised as anti-theft or parental control apps

Stalkerware enables location-independent access to smartphones. “Depending on the software used, everything from device location to text messages, social media chats and photos to browser history can be viewed and monitored,” the report says. Since the software works unnoticed in the background, most of those affected know nothing about the monitoring.

“Stalkerware products are typically marketed as legitimate anti-theft or parental control apps for smartphones, tablets and computers, but are in fact misused for other purposes,” the security experts warned. In most countries, stalkerware software is not banned, but installing it on someone else’s smartphone without their consent is a punishable offense.

Digital stalking is increasing worldwide; in a European comparison, Germany is in first place. This emerges from an analysis by the cybersecurity company Kaspersky. According to this, the number of those affected worldwide rose by almost six percent to 31,031 last year. Although the trend in Europe is declining overall, Germany still has the most cases with 577 cases.

Behind them are France with 332, Great Britain with 271, Spain with 257 and Italy with 252 cases, as the report shows. Germany is in tenth place worldwide.

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EU AI law: The best bad AI regulation in the world

After all, it has become a law. The AI Act is far from perfect. Over the years of negotiations, details have slipped into some of the paragraphs that could enable more surveillance instead of protecting civil rights.

But in the meantime it seemed possible that the AI Act would be completely overturned. And that’s why it’s good news that the EU Parliament finally approved it on Wednesday.

The law regulates which applications of artificial intelligence are permitted in Europe and which are not. This is the right approach because you don’t have to be a doomsday prophet to fear that companies could come up with AI applications that could become dangerous.

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Chip manufacturer Nvidia: The fight for the best chip

MI300 is the name of the beacon of hope. Behind the cryptic abbreviation is a series of new AI accelerators from the chip manufacturer AMD. And at the same time it should be one thing above all, an announcement to the big competitor: Nvidia .

The US chip manufacturer Nvidia is currently benefiting from the boom in artificial intelligence like no other company. Since the beginning of the year, the stock has climbed to dizzying heights; on Wall Street, Nvidia was valued at more than two trillion US dollars. This means that the US company is now more valuable than all DAX companies combined.

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European Union: European Parliament passes the world's first AI law

The European Parliament has passed a law to regulate and categorize artificial intelligence (AI). According to Parliament, this is the first AI law in the world. The MPs voted for the new rules with a large majority. For example, a labeling requirement is planned: developers should mark texts, sounds and images generated with artificial intelligence in order not to mislead people.

Stricter regulations should apply to “risky” applications, such as facial recognition at train stations or other public places. A court order will be necessary in the future. Mass surveillance with biometric data, as in China, is fundamentally prohibited.

Shortly before the vote, the FDP expressed concerns

The lead EU Internal Market Commissioner, Thierry Breton, called the new rules “historic”. According to him, it is the world’s first law on artificial intelligence. The EU countries adopted the AI law at the beginning of February after weeks of debate. Due to concerns, particularly in Germany and France, the decision had been on the rocks for weeks.

The FDP had expressed concerns at the last minute, but then agreed after the traffic light coalition reached an agreement. Transport Minister Volker Wissing (FDP), who is also responsible for digital matters, said afterwards that he had achieved “improvements for small and medium-sized companies”. The economy had warned against excessive requirements, for example for start-ups.

According to its own statements, the federal government is also working at the EU level to ensure that so-called general-purpose AI such as the chatbot ChatGPT is not classified as a high-risk application. About a year ago, AI suddenly received a lot of attention through ChatGPT. The application can communicate with users via text messages and provide detailed answers to questions in seconds. She can now also create images that look deceptively real.

The European Parliament has passed a law to regulate and categorize artificial intelligence (AI). According to Parliament, this is the first AI law in the world. The MPs voted for the new rules with a large majority. For example, a labeling requirement is planned: developers should mark texts, sounds and images generated with artificial intelligence in order not to mislead people.

Stricter regulations should apply to “risky” applications, such as facial recognition at train stations or other public places. A court order will be necessary in the future. Mass surveillance with biometric data, as in China, is fundamentally prohibited.

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TikTok: US Congress votes for bill to ban TikTok

The US House of Representatives wants to force the Chinese owner of TikTok to sell the popular video platform by law. A corresponding draft law has now cleared the first hurdle in the Chamber of Congress. 352 MPs voted in favor, 65 against.

The draft law now goes to the US Senate, where the positions are still unclear. US President Joe Biden has already made it clear that he would sign the law.

Bytedance has 180 days to sell

The law could lead to TikTok being banned from American app stores if its Chinese parent company Bytedance does not agree to a sale within 180 days. Bytedance is seen across all parties in the USA as a Chinese company that must bow to the will of the Chinese Communist Party. The company is suspected of giving the government in Beijing access to user data. The platform rejects all allegations.

According to a media report, Bytedance is determined to exhaust all legal remedies against an impending ban in the USA before considering a sale. A separation from TikTok is seen as a last option, wrote the media company Bloomberg , citing informed people.

Trump speaks out against TikTok ban

In a rare act of bipartisan unity, the legislative initiative was supported in the House of Representatives by both the dominant opposition Republicans and Democrats. However, the required approval by the Senate is uncertain. Some influential senators have already spoken out against the bill.

Former US President and renewed presidential candidate Donald Trump also opposed a TikTok ban just this week. TikTok is an important counterweight to Facebook, which he sees as an “enemy of the people,” Trump told CNBC. With this attitude, the Republican made a 180-degree turn. During his term as US President, he himself tried to enforce a TikTok ban.

Beijing speaks of “bullying behavior”

However, the plan failed primarily because US courts suspected the plans for a TikTok ban to violate the freedom of speech enshrined in the US Constitution. A current law in the state of Montana that was supposed to ban TikTok from the app stores there is also on hold.

The White House, however, has already announced that Biden will sign the bill when it is passed by both chambers of Congress and thus bring it into force. Beijing criticized the proposed law on Wednesday as “bullying behavior” and warned vaguely that the approach would “inevitably cause more trouble for the United States.”

The US House of Representatives wants to force the Chinese owner of TikTok to sell the popular video platform by law. A corresponding draft law has now cleared the first hurdle in the Chamber of Congress. 352 MPs voted in favor, 65 against.

The draft law now goes to the US Senate, where the positions are still unclear. US President Joe Biden has already made it clear that he would sign the law.

The law could lead to TikTok being banned from American app stores if its Chinese parent company Bytedance does not agree to a sale within 180 days. Bytedance is seen across all parties in the USA as a Chinese company that must bow to the will of the Chinese Communist Party. The company is suspected of giving the government in Beijing access to user data. The platform rejects all allegations.

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Telegram is close to profitability and is considering making the jump to the stock market

The founder and owner of the Telegram social messaging network, Pavel Durov, has acknowledged his interest in launching an IPO to “democratize access to the value” of the company, while revealing that he has rejected purchase offers from some funds for more. of 30,000 million dollars (27,473 million euros) for an app surrounded by great opacity.

“Generally speaking, we see potential [in an IPO] as a means to democratize access to the value of Telegram,” Durov said in an interview with the Financial Times newspaper, his first since 2017.

Sources familiar with the plans of the

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Webcam Logitech MX Brio: I've never looked so good

Some things don’t change the world. But they make our everyday lives a little more pleasant. Or they are just nice to have. Or even both. The ZEIT-ONLINE series “nice and useful” is about these gadgets and apps.

Who actually buys webcams anymore? Admittedly, unlike in the noughties, there are plenty of other options for keeping your face on the Internet: every cheap laptop has a built-in camera, smartphones with current Android or iOS versions can be used for video calls, and if you have a YouTube or If you want to start your Twitch career, you’ll probably swear by an SLR camera on a tripod, which creates a nice depth of field effect.

But I don’t think this is ideal. At home I connect my laptop to an external monitor, which means that the laptop camera itself is no longer necessary because the laptop is either closed or, if not, I don’t exactly view it from the very attractive position “from below, from the side “wants to be filmed. I don’t put a huge camera on my desk and I need my cell phone in long meetings for Candy Crush (or Elon Musk’s favorite game). In short: I find a camera on the screen practical, if only to avoid getting a double chin when filmed from below.

A few years ago I compared several devices. The Logitech Brio provided the best picture at the time. Now, after seven years, Logitech is launching its successor, the MX Brio. And I ask myself: Can the best webcam get even better?

More elegant than a post-it over the camera

Logitech’s MX series is intended for advanced users, i.e. for office and home office workers. So far there are mice and keyboards, but no webcam yet. The MX Brio changes that. It’s housed in an aluminum housing that feels – and looks – much more valuable than the plastic shell of its non-MX predecessor. The biggest external improvement, however, is a built-in privacy screen that can be opened and closed by turning the ring around the camera. This is more practical than the removable (and therefore loseable) plastic closure of the old Logitech Brio and in any case much more elegant than a Post-it note over the laptop camera (yes, Mark, I mean you).

The MX Brio is fixed to the screen with its clamp base. If you want it to be very professional, you can also screw it onto a tripod using the recessed thread. It is connected via USB-C, a fast USB-3 port is necessary, but – unlike in 2017 – it is actually standard today on current computers.

This set-up is necessary because the camera has a very high resolution: While the cameras of current Macbooks, for example, offer a resolution of 1080p, the MX Brio’s image has four times as many pixels, i.e. a 4K resolution. It can display this at 30 images per second, alternatively 60 images at 1080p are also possible. A very wide 90 degree field of view is possible as well as images that show more of the face and less of the chaos in the corner of the room (78 or 65 degrees). The predecessor also had the same technical data. Doesn’t sound like an improvement. But it is.

Even visible in the shadows

No matter what lighting situation I take pictures with the old Brio 4K and the new MX Brio, the new camera always takes the better picture. Even with good exposure, the MX Brio’s camera image looks more natural and brighter. The worse the lighting situation, the bigger the difference: While I’m just a black shadow in the backlight with the Brio 4K, with the MX Brio I’m at least visible (the picture is still not perfect). And the MX Brio can also handle very little light. This is probably all because the image sensor has become larger – by 70 percent, according to Logitech. And of course, today it doesn’t work without artificial intelligence: Logitech says that it uses AI to improve the picture.

In my test, the camera delivers this improved image immediately after connecting. If you want, you can adapt the camera to your own needs; Logitech offers three software programs for this purpose. That seems unnecessary to me, especially since you can set the same thing everywhere. However, Logitech is targeting different user groups with G Hub (gamers), Tune (business) and Options+ (private users). Here you can adjust white balance, saturation or exposure. All nice – I think most people will be happy with the default settings.

A significant improvement is the autofocus, which in the test works faster and more accurately than its predecessor. However, the MX Brio generally has a very large sharpness range: If you’re looking for a SLR-like look with a blurred background, you won’t find it with this camera. The camera’s microphones show that it’s not intended for twitching (despite the G Hub): They sound acceptable, much better than their predecessor, but they pick up a lot of ambient noise. An external microphone or a simple cable headset sound much clearer.

At least the camera has a nice gimmick. If you tilt it forward so that the desk is in the picture, the so-called show mode starts: the camera automatically rotates the picture by 180 degrees so that viewers see the desk in the same perspective as you. This means you can easily demonstrate something on your desk, and it also works without additional software. That’s cool – but unfortunately I don’t know what I’m actually supposed to show.

Conclusion: The Logitech MX Brio is an all-round good webcam. Its image is sharp, bright and easy to see even in difficult lighting situations, making it a useful gadget in the home office. However, it is also quite expensive for a webcam (see below). Maybe not necessary, but nice are the physical privacy screens that can be screwed in and in show mode.

Price: 229 euros in dark or light gray. The business version MX Brio 705 costs 249 euros, but has the same functions.

Transparency note: The author independently selected the gadget described in the article at his own discretion and tested it according to professional criteria. It was provided to him free of charge by the manufacturer for the test period.

Some things don’t change the world. But they make our everyday lives a little more pleasant. Or they are just nice to have. Or even both. The ZEIT-ONLINE series “nice and useful” is about these gadgets and apps.

Who actually buys webcams anymore? Admittedly, unlike in the noughties, there are plenty of other options for keeping your face on the Internet: every cheap laptop has a built-in camera, smartphones with current Android or iOS versions can be used for video calls, and if you have a YouTube or If you want to start your Twitch career, you’ll probably swear by an SLR camera on a tripod, which creates a nice depth of field effect.

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Reddit finalizes its jump to Wall Street to raise up to 684 million

With the placement of 22 million shares at a price between 31 and 34 dollars.

Reddit , the popular American forum platform, is preparing to land on the New York Stock Exchange with the placement of 22 million shares at a price between 31 and 34 dollars , which would raise up to 748 million dollars (684 million euros), according to the prospectus registered by the company with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and collected by Europa Press.

The social platform that was once the epicenter of the ‘meme actions’ maelstrom , has specified that it plans to sell 15.27 million shares, for which it would receive up to 519 million dollars (474 million euros) at the highest price of the established range, while Reddit investors will sell another 6.73 million securities in exchange for up to 229 million dollars (210 million euros).

Reddit had submitted a confidential registration application for the market listing of its common shares at the end of 2021, although it was not until last February when it registered the transaction prospectus, for which it has now determined the number of shares and the price range, adding that it will be listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol ‘RDDT’.

In this sense, the company has highlighted that, as a community platform, it is committed to giving Reddit users and moderators the opportunity to participate in the offer, for which it will reserve 8% of the shares offered in the transaction, around 1.76 million titles, for users and moderators who created an account on or before January 1, 2024, residents of the United States and at least 18 years of age.

“In addition, eligible users and moderators must be in good standing on our platform and cannot be current or former Reddit employees,” the company explains, adding that shares purchased through this program “will not be subject to the terms of the agreement.” “blocking” and may be sold freely by users.

According to the data provided by the company for the transaction, the valuation of Reddit would be around 6,500 million dollars (5,942 million euros), a figure lower than the 10,000 million dollars (9,140 million euros) reached in valuation rounds. in summer 2021.

“We are going public to advance our mission and become a stronger company. We hope that going public will provide significant benefits to our community as well,” said Reddit co-founder and CEO Steve Huffman .

As part of the process of jumping onto the stock market, Reddit has reported that at the end of last year it recorded losses of 90.8 million dollars (83 million euros), compared to the ‘red numbers’ of 158.6 million dollars ( 145 million euros) in 2022, while annual revenues totaled 804 million dollars (735 million euros), up 21%, and gross margin increased to 86% from 84% in 2022.

Likewise, the platform reported that the number of monthly active users was 267.5 million , while the number of daily active users was 73.1 million.

In this sense, he has highlighted among the risks for the company’s business, the impact on user numbers related to content contributions by ‘Redditors’ or the attractiveness and value of these contributions for other users of the forums. .

“We may experience a decline in the number of Redditors accessing our products and services and in user engagement, which could result in the loss of advertisers and may harm our reputation, business, results of operations, financial condition and prospects. “acknowledges the company, warning of its history of net losses and the possibility that it may not be able to achieve or maintain profitability in the future.

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Telefónica Spain finalizes its large IT contract for 500 million

Accenture, Cap Gemini, IBM and Indra are among the dozen firms that aspire to be awarded contracts to manage hundreds of computer applications for seven years.

Telefónica Spain is in the final phase of the process of awarding a project for the modernization of all its computer systems, in which it has been negotiating for months with the elite of information technology firms with pres

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Orange-MásMóvil proposes an agreement with Telefónica on networks

The joint venture plans to transform its commercial relationship with Movistar in fiber to improve its competitive conditions, based on long-term commitments.

Orange and MásMóvil , the two telecommunications operators that are going to close their merger in Spain in the coming weeks, are considering reaching an agreement with Telefónica to optimize their deployments of fixed fiber optic networks to the home.

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