Category: Sci & Tech

Leading mobile lending company Tala on Wednesday announced a Sh11 billion investment to support the company launch a bunch of new products and grow its operations across the world.

The five-year-old startup is being financed by RPS Ventures, with GGV Capital and previous investors IVP, Revolution Growth, Lowercase Capital, Data Collective VC, ThomVest Ventures and PayPal Ventures also participating in a new financing round.

Tala general manger in East Africa Ivan Mbowa said the new round of funding will enable online micro-lender to reach more customers.

Tala approves loans within minutes and disburses the money to customers via mobile payment platforms. The startup has lent over $1 billion to more than 4 million customers to date up from $300 million to 1.3 million customers the previous year claims Shivani Siroya the founder of the app.

This means the company can offer more loans than ever to Kenyans while charging 5-15% interest and fees in a startup meant to deliver financial access, choice and control to undeserved people. The company also forwards negative credit history and rankings to the local credit bureaus when the loan is defaulted.

The company boasts over 2.5 million customers in Kenya. “Kenya is at the heart of Tala’s operations around the world. Kenya was our first home, and today it remains our largest office and customer base. We are thankful every day for the loyalty and trust of our Kenyan customers,” Mr Mbowa said.

Just recently a study conducted by The Financial Sector Deepening (FSD) survey, which has the backing of the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) shows that about 20% of Kenyans are loan defaulters. One in every five Kenyans has a loan which they have not paid, the study concluded. The most affected being unemployed and low income employed youths, farmers and the elderly.

With the added Funds mobile-based digital lender Tala which has gained wide popularity in recent years and advanced billions of shillings to the private borrowers, the household debt burden will only skyrocket.

The study also revealed about 6.5 million Kenyans are digital borrowers with 31 percent taking the cash to try their luck in sports betting and gambling.

Porn sites have joined other known data-mining companies and new research has revealed that 93% of 22,484 adult websites that were analyzed were leaking users data to online advertisers and web analytics providers.

According to the research, the list of companies that sell users data, browsing habits and sexual preferences includes Google, Oracle, Facebook, Cloudflare, and advertisers who are only active in the adult industry.

The research team selected the sites they used for their analysis by scanning the Alexa Top 1 Million list for sites that used the term “porn” in their title or metadata. They identified 22,484 websites, and then analyzed their source code, and looked for the presence of a privacy policy. Inside privacy policies, researchers looked for wording that may indicate if the website is sharing user data with third parties, confirming their source code scans.

“We successfully extracted privacy policies for 3,856 sites, 17% of the total,” said the research team, consisting of Elena Maris from Microsoft, Timothy Libert from Carnegie Melon University, and Jennifer Henrichsen from the University of Pennsylvania.

“Policies have an average word count of 1,750 and take seven minutes to read. The policies were written such that one might need a two-year college education to understand them.” The researchers said.

According to the researchers, only 11% of third-parties that were seen tracking users on an adult web page were also listed in a site’s privacy policy, indicating that a lot of users are being tracked and their data stored without disclosure to users.

In a nutshell, some porn sites, which are less than 2%, set up a privacy policy but majority of the porn streaming sites deployed various trackers in the site’s source code and used tech that was silently collecting data about users’ behavior.

Per the research team, Google-related scripts were found on 74% of the 22,484 adult sites, followed by exoClick (40%), Oracle (24%), JuicyAds (11%), and Facebook (10%).

“Our results indicate tracking is endemic on pornography websites. 93% of pages leak user data to a third-party; the pages that leak data do so to an average of seven domains; 79% have a third-party cookie (often used for tracking); of the pages with cookies, there is an average of nine cookies; and only 17% of sites are encrypted, allowing network adversaries to potentially intercept login and password details.” The research said.

according to further details of the research seen by Kenya Insights, There were way over 230 companies that were data mining porn sites users private information and behaviors with a few known big players who aggregated most of the data.

“Thee majority of non-pornography companies in the top ten are based in the U.S., while the majority of pornography-specific companies are based in Europe. One reason may be differing cultural and commercial norms towards sexual content. In the U.S., many advertising and video hosting platforms forbid ‘adult’ content. Thus, Google refuses to host porn, but has no limits on observing the porn consumption of users, often without their knowledge,” researchers said.

But according to researchers, recording the URL of a page a user accessed on adult sites is normal tracking behavior for any analytics provider, but the structure of which, some adult sites’ URLs would reveal the nature of the material the user was viewing caused problems.

Porn sites have set users private date open such that any third-party observer analyzing these URLs would learn the sexual preferences or viewing habits that users would most likely want to be kept private, and not associated with advertising profiles. Researchers said that almost 45% of adult sites used URL structures that exposed users’ sexual preferences.

I don’t think that porn users data will be safe even if they invest into an ad blocker or any similar technology that ensures the user’s privacy while navigating the web, especially if they want to keep their porn viewing habits private. If the sites still fetch your data in incognito browsing mode then nothing will stop them from fishing and selling your data even if you leave your browser’s local history clean.

Branded the most secure smartphone on the market. Apples iPhones that run iOS are almost impossible to hack. Apple actually believes they are more safe and secure than ever and have therefore massively increased the amount it’s offering hackers for finding vulnerabilities on the OS upto $1 million.

They previously only offered $200,000 and only to selected invite-only company bug bounty program that was launched in 2016. The new program is however open to all researchers.

Reported by Forbes.com, the full $1 million will go to researchers who can find a hack of the kernel—the core of iOS—with zero clicks required by the iPhone owner. Another $500,000 will be given to those who can find a “network attack requiring no user interaction.” There’s also a 50% bonus for hackers who can find weaknesses in software before it’s released.

Apple could be increasing those rewards in the face of an increasingly profitable private market where hackers sell the same information to governments for vast sums or to catch up with the demands of the market like Zerodium who offer upto $2m to a person who can do the same.

Users took to social media and forums after the information was released to voice their opinions. “Is not Apple’s move mostly a PR stunt? Standard people will read “The iPhone is so secure that Apple is willing to pays $1M for somebody that find a security vulnerability.” one user remarked.

So do you think you are up-to the task to take on Apples offer and gain full control of an iPhone remotely, without the user touching anything?

Huawei has finally officially announced HarmonyOS. The operating system it was rumored to be developing to replace its reliance on Android. In China the software will be known as HongmengOS.

In the city of Dongguan, China early Friday, August 9, 2019, Huawei finally took the wraps off its long-rumored, first-party operating system. The OS, called Harmony OS, has been in development for several years

The company says the operating system can be used in everything from smartphones to smart speakers and internet-of-things devices like sensors.

Harmony OS is microkernel-based, like Google’s in-development Fuchsia OS. Huawei says this allows for flexible deployment on various devices, improving security in all scenarios. Developers will be able to use Huawei’s ARK Compiler to compile code from multiple languages like C/C++, Java, and Kotlin for Harmony OS. Huawei will be providing an SDK to support app development across multiple device types, including televisions, car kits, smartphones, smartwatches, and more. Harmony OS will not allow for root access, which Huawei says is a security risk on Android and other Linux-based operating systems. Huawei boasts an EAL 5+ certification level for the new OS. Finally, Huawei will be open-sourcing Harmony OS in the future.

The software is primarily aimed at IoT products (such as smart displays, wearables, smart speakers and cars) instead of smartphones,

The Chinese tech giant said the OS will be open-sourced with its own ARK compiler. It will also support existing Android apps

Yu stated that when Huawei can no longer access Google’s Android ecosystem, it can deploy Harmony OS “at any time.” Until then, Huawei will continue to support Android.

Earlier this week, Chinese media reported the company is set to release a phone based on HarmonyOS by the end of this year

This comes after the chinese tech giant was denied business In the US, in May, Google banned Huawei from using Android, following the latter’s inclusion in the US entity list. Later, Huawei accelerated its efforts to develop this OS as an alternative to Android.

For the first time since 2016 Kenya’s largest Telecommunication provider Safaricom has revealed they now hold sh3.85 billion in unredeemed bonga points.

The loyalty awards which accumulate as tied-up revenue for the telco has dropped in March 2019 pointing to increased redeeming by customers.

The loyalty rewards scheme was introduced in 2017, customers accumulate points then redeem them once the points reach a constant amount specified for different products.

Just like airtime purchased by the customers, the points are accounted for as deferred income in the telecommunications books until the customer uses (redeems) them for airtime, sms or other merchandise

The unclaimed loyalty awards had risen up-to sh4 billion by March 2018. The points are accumulated by buying airtime with a customer earning one point for every Sh10 used.

The telco has stated the drop comes after they decided to extend redemption options to other products by partnering with other companies like redeeming air tickets, shopping, fueling.e.t.c rather than restricting the redemption to its own products, the company has also credited aggressive marketing as an additional reason.

“Customers now have more options and last financial year we did a lot more in publicizing these options,” said Safaricom.

Instagram has just announced that they’re running a test that would make the likes one gets on their photos invisible.

The company began testing this in Canada in a move to help reduce pressure to rack up the likes on the platform. Likes, which appear as hearts on Instagram, are often used as a measure of popularity.

The test removes the total number of likes on photos and videos, but the owner of the account will still be able to see them. Likes will not appear on the main feed, profiles or permalink pages.

We’re currently running a test that hides the total number of likes and video views for some people in the following countries:

✅ Australia
✅ Brazil
✅ Canada
✅ Ireland
✅ Italy
✅ Japan
✅ New Zealand pic.twitter.com/2OdzpIUBka

— Instagram (@instagram) July 17, 2019

We want your friends to focus on the photos and videos you share, not how many likes they get. You can still see your own likes by tapping on the list of people who've liked it, but your friends will not be able to see how many likes your post has received.

— Instagram (@instagram) July 17, 2019

For some users, not getting enough likes can impact their self-esteem. According to a recent report by the Royal Society for Public Health in the United Kingdom, Instagram is the most detrimental social networking app for young people’s mental health.

Many users have used the app as a validation. In Kenya, according to latest social media survey, it’s the third most used network after WhatsApp and Facebook.

(Reuters) – China’s Huawei is in the process of potentially launching its “Hongmeng” operating system (OS) to replace the U.S. Android OS, an executive said on Thursday, after Reuters reported that the company has applied to trademark the OS in various countries.

Data from a U.N. body showed that Huawei Technologies Co Ltd is aiming to trademark the OS in at least nine countries and Europe, in a sign it may be deploying a back-up plan in key markets as U.S. sanctions threaten its business model.

President Donald Trump’s administration last month put Huawei on a blacklist that barred it from doing business with U.S. tech companies such as Alphabet Inc, whose Android OS is used in Huawei’s phones.

Andrew Williamson, vice president of Huawei’s public affairs and communications, said Hongmeng was moving forward.

“Huawei is in the process of potentially launching a replacement,” Williamson said in an interview in Mexico City. “Presumably we’ll be trying to put trademarks.”

A senior U.S. official on Thursday said Huawei’s clients should be asking themselves if the Chinese firm can meet its commitments given its dependence on U.S. companies.

Huawei, the world’s biggest maker of telecoms network gear, has filed for a Hongmeng trademark in countries such as Cambodia, Canada, South Korea and New Zealand, data from the U.N. World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) shows. It also filed an application in Peru on May 27, according to the country’s anti-trust agency Indecopi.

Huawei has a back-up OS in case it is cut off from U.S.-made software, Richard Yu, chief executive of the company’s consumer division, told German newspaper Die Welt in an interview earlier this year.

The U.S. official, meeting with officials in Europe to warn against buying Huawei equipment for next-generation mobile networks, said only time would tell if Huawei could diversify.

“It is a fair question to ask if one decides to go with Huawei and Huawei continues to be on our entity list, will Huawei be able to actually deliver what it promises any particular client,” Jonathan Fritz, the U.S. State Department’s director for international communications policy, told reporters in Brussels.

The company, also the world’s second-largest maker of smartphones, has not yet revealed details about its OS.

The applications to trademark the OS show that Huawei wants to use Hongmeng for gadgets ranging from smartphones and portable computers to robots and car televisions.

At home, Huawei applied for a Hongmeng trademark in August last year and received a nod last month, according to a filing on China’s intellectual property administration’s website.

CONSUMER CONCERNS

According to WIPO data, the earliest Huawei applications to trademark the Hongmeng OS outside China were made on May 14 to the European Union Intellectual Property Office and South Korea, or right after the United States flagged it would stick Huawei on an export blacklist.

Huawei has come under mounting scrutiny for over a year, led by U.S. allegations that “back doors” in its routers, switches and other gear could allow China to spy on U.S. communications.

The company has denied its products pose a security threat.

However, consumers have been spooked by how matters have escalated, with many looking to offload their devices on worries they would be cut off from Android updates in the wake of the U.S. blacklist.

Huawei’s hopes to become the world’s top-selling smartphone maker in the fourth quarter this year have now been delayed, a senior Huawei executive said this week.

Peru’s Indecopi has said it needs more information from Huawei before it can register a trademark for Hongmeng. Peru has some 5.5 million Huawei phone users. The agency did not give details on the documents it had sought, but said Huawei had up to nine months to respond.