Month: October 2019

Enlarge / Hong Kong protestors in August 2019. (credit: Lewis Tse Pui Lung)

Apple has yanked an app called HKmap.live from its app store just days after approving it. The app used crowdsourcing to track the location of protestors and police officers in real time. The app's anonymous author says it's intended to help people in Hong Kong stay safe by avoiding potentially dangerous areas.

Apple's latest move came after China's official state-run newspaper, the People's Daily, criticized the app for aiding anti-government protestors—labeled "rioters" by the government—and endangering public safety.

Apple first rejected the app in early October, arguing that it "allowed users to evade law enforcement." Critics pointed out that Apple has approved other apps with similar functionality, including the speed-trap warnings on Waze.

Enlarge / For a relatively low price, you can unleash troll and bot armies to manipulate social media just like (or better than) state actors. (credit: Donald Iain Smith / Getty Images)

The same sorts of organizations that once made their money performing "black SEO"—using fraudulent means to raise paying customers' search engine ranks, often for illicit reasons—are now diving into a whole new sort of online manipulation. Researchers at security threat tracking company Recorded Future have found companies selling disinformation campaign capabilities similar to the ones used by Russian "troll factories" during the 2016 US presidential campaign and other state-sponsored information operations.

In a report issued this month, researchers from Recorded Future's Insikt Group describe how they engaged two providers of advertising disinformation services to assess the threat posed by such operations. Both disinformation operators were advertising services on Russian-language underground forums alongside purveyors of hacking tools and other criminal activities. But one of the services also has a public Internet presence, offering less illicit marketing services through an open website.

"Both of these companies, their bread and butter is negative takedown stuff—discrediting your opponent or competitor," Recorded Future Director of Analysts Roman Sannikov told Ars in an interview. "But they can also promote companies, using the same networks of social media accounts."

Enlarge (credit: Ars Technica)

Greetings, Arsians! The Dealmaster is back with another round of deals to share. Today's list is headlined by a deal on 12-month membership cards for Sony's PlayStation Plus service, as they're down to $39 on eBay today. While that's not an unprecedented sale price, it matches the subscription's going rate on Black Friday and comes in well below Sony's standard $60 price. (Though it's not uncommon to find it closer to $50 online.)

Note that this deal applies to physical membership cards, not digital codes, so you'll have to wait a few days to top off your subscription. As was the case with a similar deal we saw a couple months back, the eBay retailer here is "neogames," which isn't a household name by any means but has highly favorable user reviews and has run several deals along these lines that we've found to be trustworthy in the past. In any event, PlayStation Plus is needed to access online multiplayer in most PlayStation games and still gives out a couple complementary games each month. You can still stack any code bought here on top of your existing membership, and there's been nothing to suggest the service's role will change with the upcoming PlayStation 5.

If you don't want to commit any more time to PlayStation, we also have deals on a Nintendo Switch and Amazon gift card bundle, recommended USB-C PD power banks and car dash cams, Google's Pixel 3a, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, and more. Have a look for yourself below.

Enlarge / The Facebook logo is displayed on a TV screen on September 9, 2019 in Paris, France. (credit: Chesnot | Getty)

A few weeks ago, Facebook made it clear that posts shared by politicians are exempt from Facebook's community standards and also from fact-checking. The company did, however, indicate one area where posts made by politicians' accounts could be subject to scrutiny: in paid advertising. Faced with a stark real-world test, though, Facebook appears once again to be erring on the side of letting misinformation circulate far and wide if a politician promotes it.

The ad in question involves—you guessed it—President Donald Trump and his campaign for re-election. The Trump campaign in the past week has been airing ads on Facebook making false accusations about former Vice President Joe Biden, a Democratic candidate for the 2020 presidential nomination. The ads' claims about Biden's activities in Ukraine and elsewhere have been repeatedly debunked as baseless conspiracy theories, not only by media outlets but also by Republican politicians.

Cable network CNN deemed the ads in question too misleading to broadcast and refused to air them. Facebook, however, considers the matter out of its hands.

Enlarge / A Heidar-1 UGV gets busy with its assault rifle in a demonstration by the Islamic Republic of Iran Army Ground Forces (NEZAJA). (credit: Islamic Republic of Iran Army Ground Forces (NEZAJA) )

The Islamic Republic of Iran Army Ground Forces (NEZAJA) recently revealed the Heidar-1 project, a group of small, networked robotic ground vehicles developed by the Research and Self-Sufficiency Jihad Organization of the Iranian Army. The proclaimed "network-connected anti-infantry and armor smart UGVs" (unmanned ground vehicles) prototypes were on display at an Army weapons expo in Tehran.

The six-wheeled boxy bots, according to images and videos released by NEZAJA, come in six versions—including two that carry assault rifles mounted to their tops and one that is essentially a mobile anti-tank mine. The vehicles are topped with pairs of ruggedized antennae and small cameras; the assault-rifle equipped versions also appear to have a telescopic optic sensor for weapons aiming.

Project Heidar-1
Network-connected anti-infantry and armor smart UGVs pic.twitter.com/EvFfxh3Ehg

— Iran Military (@Iran_Military) October 4, 2019

In the video released in the Twitter post above, the UGVs fire their guns, and one rolls toward a tank-like target before exploding.

Enlarge (credit: Fiat Chrysler Automobiles)

Waymo will begin offering fully driverless rides to ordinary people in the Phoenix area, the company revealed in a Wednesday email to participants of its Early Rider Program. The email was obtained by Techcrunch reporter Kirsten Korosec.

Waymo first began testing fully driverless rides in November 2017, and the company had planned to begin offering driverless rides to paying customers in 2018. The company even made a commercial, starring Jimmy Kimmel, touting the company's driverless technology.

But the planned commercial launch of driverless technology didn't happen. Instead, Waymo launched a limited commercial service called Waymo One in December 2018, with safety drivers behind the wheel of every vehicle. Since then, the company has said little about fully driverless technology.

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images | SOPA Images)

Adobe has reversed itself on a curious decision that would have denied refunds to customers in Venezuela whose accounts are being canceled through no fault of their own.

Adobe announced Monday that it is deactivating all user accounts in Venezuela in order to comply with an executive order issued by President Donald Trump. Adobe interpreted the executive order much more broadly than other companies, claiming that it was "unable to issue refunds" because the order required cessation of all business activity.

This was strange in part because the executive order doesn't actually require cessation of all business activity between US companies and Venezuelan people, as it was targeted at the Venezuelan government and people who provide material support to the regime.