New Delhi, February 8 (IANS): The focus on right to privacy in public discourse has prompted 81 per cent of Indian Internet users to stop using or considering not using certain apps due to privacy or data-sharing concerns, a new report said on Monday. The report reveals that owing to the pandemic, Internet usage across Indian households has spiked by 50 per cent and has also fostered awareness about cyber frauds across 61 per cent of the households. "The pandemic has acceler

Bengaluru, February 8 (IANS): Amazon Alexa turned three in India on Monday and the customer interactions with the virtual assistant increased 67 per cent in 2020. The customers said "I love you" to Alexa 19,000 times a day, up a massive 1,200 per cent from 2019, according to the company. More customers in non-metro cities brought home an Echo device, accounting for over 50 per cent of India's Alexa users. "Be it the Echo device in the living room, 100+ Alexa bu

New Delhi, February 7 (IANS): A cyber security researcher has discovered a malicious Google Chrome extension in the wild abusing the Chrome Sync process that can help hackers steal user data. Hackers can use the Google Chrome sync feature to send commands to infected browsers and steal data from infected systems, bypassing traditional firewalls and other network defenses. Croatian security researcher Bojan Zdrnja found a malicious Chrome extension that can communicate with a remo

Washington, February 5 (IANS): NASA has awarded Texas-based Firefly Aerospace approximately $93.3 million to deliver a suite of 10 science investigations and technology demonstrations to the Moon in 2023. The delivery, planned for Mare Crisium, a low-lying basin on the Moon's near side, will investigate a variety of lunar surface conditions and resources, NASA said on Thursday, adding that such investigations will help prepare for human missions to the lunar surface. The awar

Mandi (Himachal Pradesh), February 4 (IANS): Researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Mandi have developed an Artificial Intelligence (AI)-driven mobile application for Covid-19 patients to monitor and accurately detect the identity of a home quarantined person. The Home Quarantine Management Application (HQMA), called LakshmanRekha, uses a combination of biometric verification, geofencing and AI. "We have developed a pilot version of LakshmanRekha mobile appl

San Francisco, February 2 (IANS): Elon Musk-run SpaceX has announced worlds first all-civilian mission to space at the end of 2021 in a charity-driven mission named Inspiration4, commanded by tech entrepreneur Jared Isaacman. SpaceX will chose three people to ride alongside Isaacman to orbit the planet aboard SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule every 90 minutes along a customised flight path. Upon conclusion of the multi-day journey, Dragon will reenter Earth's atmosphere f

San Francisco, January 31 (IANS): Within a month of its inception, the Alphabet Workers Union (AWU) launched by Google workers in the US and Canada earlier this month is facing unexpected challenges after the formation of an international alliance called Alpha Global. The formation of Alpha Global came to light after The Verge published a report on January 25. Alpha Global, it was reported, comprised of 13 different unions representing workers in 10 countries, including the US, t

New Delhi, January 30 (IANS): Nearly 3 in 4 Indians feel safe while joining any group or channel on Telegram as they don't need to reveal their phone number to strangers, according to a new survey. Telegram which has crossed 600 million users globally scores over Signal in terms of awareness (55 per cent) and actual usage (39 per cent). Over the past one year, 37 per cent of users in India have actually used Telegram, compared to a mere 10 per cent for Signal, a rather nascen

San Francisco, January 29 (IANS): Taking aim at Facebook, Apple CEO Tim Cook has called for greater scrutiny of businesses built on "data exploitation". "If a business is built on misleading users, on data exploitation, on choices that are no choices at all, then it does not deserve our praise. It deserves reform," Cook said in his keynote speech at Europe's Computers, Privacy and Data Protection (CPDP) conference on Thursday. "The fact is that an int

New Delhi, January 28 (IANS): As millions of people now access WhatsApp on their PCs and laptops, the Facebook-owned platform on Thursday announced to add an additional layer of security where users will be able to link their WhatsApp account on mobile phones to their computers. In order to link WhatsApp Web or Desktop to your WhatsApp account, you will now be asked to use your face or fingerprint unlock on your phone, before scanning a QR code from the phone to link your device.

New Delhi, January 28 (IANS): About 84 per cent Indian consumers agree that Artificial Intelligence (AI) has the potential to provide better customer experience, improve brand reputation, and increase customer loyalty, a study revealed on Thursday. According to software company Pegasystems, the study surveyed over 1,000 consumers in India on their views about AI as it relates to morality, ethical behaviour and empathy. Indian consumers generally trust new technologies like AI if

New Delhi, January 27 (IANS): With new techniques targeting a completely new setup of the global enterprise, 13,733 malware threats were detected every hour in 2020, with Trojan leading the year-on-year (YoY) and quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) charts followed by other malware, a report said on Wednesday. According to a report by Seqrite, an enterprise security solutions brand by Quick Heal Technologies, out of the total 113 million malware detections in 2020, the first quarter clocked the

New Delhi, January 27 (IANS): Google-owned YouTube has paid more than $30 billion to creators, artists, and media companies in the last three years, according to CEO Susan Wojcicki. According to an Oxford Economics report, YouTube's creative ecosystem contributed approximately $16 billion to the US GDP in 2019, supporting the equivalent of 345,000 full time jobs. "The UK in 2019 saw approximately 1.4 billion pounds contributed to the British GDP and the equivalent o

San Francisco, January 26 (IANS): Amazon has rolled out a new feature called "hunches" that allows Alexa to proactively complete tasks around the house, such as turning off lights, based on your habits and frequent requests. If the new proactive hunches are enabled, though, Alexa will skip asking for permission for a task and just do it, The Verge reported on Monday evening. Alexa has been able to sense these habits and ask about them since 2018 -- the company calls the

Cupertino (California), January 25 (IANS): Apple is adding a new 'Time to Walk' feature for its Fitness+ subscribers, which is an audio experience in the Workout app where guests will share inspiring stories while walking. According to MacRumors, Apple Fitness+ subscribers will be able to open the Workout app on an Apple Watch, select 'Time to Walk' and choose from one of the audio stories to listen to during their walk. The feature is likely to be extended to whe

New Delhi, January 25 (IANS): A hacker that goes by the name of ShinyHunters has now leaked data of 2.28 million users of a dating website MeetMindful that includes real names, Facebook account tokens, email addresses and geo-location information. According to a report in ZDNet, the leaked date in a 1.2GB file has been shared as a free download on a publicly accessible hacking forum. "The content of this file includes a wealth of information that users provided when they set

Moscow, January 24 (IANS): Researchers have developed a mathematical model that helps accurately predict the next gaze fixation point and reduces the inaccuracy caused by blinking. The study, published in the SID Symposium Digest of Technical Papers, indicates that the model would make VR/AR systems more realistic and sensitive to user actions. "We have effectively solved the issue with the foveated rendering technology that existed in the mass production of VR systems,"

Washington, January 22 (IANS): NASA has loaned a Moon rock for display in the Oval Office of the White House at the request of the Joe Biden administration. The Moon rock now sits in the Oval Office in symbolic recognition of earlier generations' ambitions and accomplishments, and support for America's current Moon to Mars exploration approach. The "Lunar Sample 76015,143" is from the Lunar Sample Laboratory Facility at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston

Washington, January 23 (IANS): The seven rocky planets orbiting the the red dwarf star TRAPPIST-1 have remarkably similar densities, which provides clues about their composition. Located about 40 light-years away, TRAPPIST-1 is home to the largest group of roughly Earth-size planets ever found in a single stellar system. Previous calculations determined that the planets are roughly the size and mass of Earth and thus must also be rocky, or terrestrial -- as opposed to gas-dominat

New Delhi, January 22 (IANS): Encrypted messaging app Signal that has seen a surge in new sign-ups has introduced several features in its upcoming update that already exist in WhatsApp in an apparent bid to woo more users from the Facebook-owned messaging platform. To begin with, Signal has added a feature to change chat wallpaper. The latest Signal Beta update, released this week, includes the feature to change the chat wallpaper copied straightaway from WhatsApp, reports WABeta