Australia rushes its ‘dangerous’ anti-encryption bill into parliament, despite massive opposition

Australia’s controversial anti-encryption bill is one step closer to becoming law, after the two leading but sparring party political giants struck a deal to pass the legislation.

The bill, in short, grants Australian police greater powers to issue “technical notices” — a nice way of forcing companies — even websites — operating in Australia to help the government hack, implant malware, undermine encryption or insert backdoors at the behest of the government.

If companies refuse, they could face financial penalties.

Lawmakers say that the law is only meant to target serious criminals — sex offenders, terrorists, homicide and drug offenses. Critics have pointed out that the law could allow mission creep into less serious offenses, such as copyright infringement, despite promises that compelled assistance requests are signed off by two senior government officials.

In all, the proposed provisions have been widely panned by experts, who argue that the bill is vague and contradictory, but powerful, and still contains “dangerous loopholes.” And, critics warn (as they have for years) that any technical backdoors that allow the government to access end-to-end encrypted messages could be exploited by hackers.

But that’s unlikely to get in the way of the bill’s near-inevitable passing.

Australia’s ruling coalition government and its opposition Labor party agreed to have the bill put before parliament this week before its summer break.

Several lawmakers look set to reject the bill, criticizing the government’s efforts to rush through the bill before the holiday.

“Far from being a ‘national security measure’ this bill will have the unintended consequence of diminishing the online safety, security and privacy of every single Australian,” said Jordon Steele-John, a Greens’ senator, in a tweet.

Tim Watts, a Labor member of Parliament for Gellibrand, tweeted a long thread slamming the government’s push to get the legislation passed before Christmas, despite more than 15,000 submissions to a public consultation, largely decrying the bill’s content.

The tech community — arguably the most affected by the bill’s passing — has also slammed the bill. Apple called it “dangerously ambiguous”, while Cisco and Mozilla joined a chorus of other tech firms calling for the government to dial back the provisions.

But the rhetoric isn’t likely to dampen the rush by the global surveillance pact — the U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia and New Zealand, known as the so-called “Five Eyes” group of nations — to push for greater access to encrypted data. Only earlier this year, the governmental coalition said in no uncertain terms that it would force backdoors if companies weren’t willing to help their governments spy.

Australia’s likely to pass the bill — but when exactly remains a mystery. The coalition government has to call an election in less than six months, putting the anti-encryption law on a timer.

Apple rebukes Australia’s “dangerously ambiguous” anti-encryption bill

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JioSaavn becomes India’s answer to Spotify and Apple Music

India finally has its answer to Spotify after Reliance Jio merged its music service with Saavn, the startup it acquired earlier this year.

The deal itself isn’t new — it was announced back in March — but it has reached its logical conclusion after two apps were merged to create a single entity, JioSaavn, which is valued at $1 billion. For the first time, India has a credible rival to global names like Spotify and Apple Music through the combination of a venture capital-funded business — Saavn — and good old-fashioned telecom, JioMusic from Reliance’s disruptive Jio operator brand.

This merger deal comes days after reports suggested that Spotify is preparing to (finally) enter the Indian market, a move that has been in the planning for over a year as we have reported.

That would set up an interesting battle between global names Spotify and Apple and local players JioSaavn and Gaana, a project from media firm Times Internet which is also backed by China’s Tencent.

It isn’t uncommon to see international firms compete in Asia — Walmart and Amazon are the two major e-commerce players while Chinese firms Alibaba and Tencent have busily snapped up stakes in promising internet companies for the past couple of years — but that competition has finally come to the streaming space.

There have certainly been misses over the years.

Early India-based pioneer Dhingana was scooped by Rdio back in 2014 having initial shut down its service due to financial issues. Ultimately, though, Rdio itself went bankrupt and was sold to Pandora, leaving both Rdio and Dhingana in the startup graveyard.

Saavn, the early competitor too Dhingana, seemed destined to a similar fate, at least from the outside. But it hit the big time in 2015 when it raised $100 million from Tiger Global, the New York hedge fund that made ambitious bets on a number of India’s most promising internet firms. That gave it the fuel to reach this merger deal with JioMusic.

Unlike Dhingana’s fire sale, Saavn’s executive team continues on under the JioSaavn banner.

The coming-together is certainly a far more solid outcome than the Rdio deal. JioSaavn has some 45 million songs — including a slate of originals started by Saav — and access to the Jio network, which claims over 250 million subscribers.

JioSaavn is available across iOS, Android, web and Reliance Jio’s own app store

The JioMusic service will be freemium but Jio subscribers will get a 90-day trial of the ad-free ‘Pro’ service. The company maintains five offices — including outposts in Mountain View and New York — with over 200 employees while Reliance has committed to pumping $100 million into the business for “growth and expansion of the platform.”

While it is linked to Reliance and Jio, JioMusic is a private business that counts Reliance as a stakeholder. You’d imagine that remaining private is a major carrot that has kept Saavn founders — Rishi Malhotra, Paramdeep Singh and Vinodh Bhat — part of the business post-merger.

The window certainly seems open for streaming IPOs — Spotify went public this past April through an unconventional listing that valued its business around $30 billion while China’s Tencent Music is in the process of a listing that could raise $1.2 billion and value it around that $30 billion mark, too. JioSaavn might be the next streamer to test the public markets.

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GCHQ’s not-so-smart idea to spy on encrypted messaging apps is branded ‘absolute madness’

Nobody wants to be a third wheel. Unless you’re a British spy.

Two of the most senior officials at British eavesdropping agency GCHQ say one way that law enforcement could access encrypted messages is to simply add themselves to your conversations.

“It’s relatively easy for a service provider to silently add a law enforcement participant to a group chat or call,” said Ian Levy, technical director of the U.K.’s National Cyber Security Center, and Crispin Robinson, cryptanalysis director at GCHQ, in an op-ed for Lawfare.

“The service provider usually controls the identity system and so really decides who’s who and which devices are involved — they’re usually involved in introducing the parties to a chat or call,” they said. “You end up with everything still being end-to-end encrypted, but there’s an extra ‘end’ on this particular communication.”

Law enforcement and intelligence agencies have long wanted access to encrypted communications, but have faced strong opposition to breaking the encryption for fears that it would put everyone’s communications at risk, rather than the terror suspects or criminals that the police primarily want to target. In this case, two people using an end-to-end encrypted messaging app would be joined by a third, invisible person — the government — which could listen in at will.

This solution, Levy and Robinson say, would be “no more intrusive than the virtual crocodile clips” that lawmakers have already authorized police to use to wiretap communications.

Presumably that would require compelled assistance from the tech companies that built the encrypted messaging apps in the first place, like Apple, Facebook’s WhatsApp, Signal, Wire and Wickr. That poses not only an ethical problem for the companies, which developed their own end-to-end encrypted services so that even they can’t access people’s communications, but also a technical one, which would require the government to ask a court to compel the companies to rework their own technologies to allow government spies in.

It wouldn’t be the first time the government’s pushed for compelled assistance.

Only recently the U.S. government lost its bid to force Facebook to re-architect its Messenger app to allow the government to listen in on suspected gang members. And not just the U.S. or the U.K.; Russia, the west’s favorite frenemy, ruled to force Telegram, another encrypted messaging app, to turn over its private keys in an effort to allow its intelligence agencies to snoop in on possible kompromat.

Suffice to say, the U.K.’s plan has drawn strong criticism.

The conversation on exceptional access is a non-starter until the pro- side actually can come up with schemes that work that would satisfy them… this is weak sauce: https://t.co/rYGBizvr9J

— Joseph Lorenzo Hall (@JoeBeOne) November 29, 2018

This proposal for an encryption backdoor by Ian Levy and Crispin Robinson is deeply troubling. Among other concerns, it will severely undermine trust in the services that are subject to any such order – an equity the authors claim to prioritize. https://t.co/zovrsXJFm6

— Robyn Greene (@Robyn_Greene) November 29, 2018

And NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, an outspoken commentator and critic of global surveillance, branded the move “absolute madness.”

Absolute madness: the British government wants companies to poison their customers' private conversations by secretly adding the government as a third party, meaning anyone on your friend list would become "your friend plus a spy." No company-mediated identity could be trusted. https://t.co/8CwoZfBM3K

— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) November 29, 2018

“No company-mediated identity could be trusted,” said Snowden, suggesting that the move would effectively render the trust in any end-to-end encrypted messaging app redundant.

Exactly what the U.K.’s solution looks like isn’t entirely clear, but Mustafa Al-Bassam, a PhD student at University College London, said that the ability for users to verify their keys — which proves the identity of a person in a conversation — in an end-to-end messaging app is “is going to be increasingly important” to prevent government manipulation.

WhatsApp and Signal, for example, tell you when a user’s key changes, indicating that a new device is in use — and requires verification — or that a device has been manipulated by a third-party and that the conversation isn’t secure.

“They’re proposing to exploit the fact that users don’t verify each other’s public keys, and inject bad keys,” said Al-Bassam.

ACLU asks court to release a secret order forcing Facebook to wiretap Messenger

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‘Google You Owe Us’ claimants aren’t giving up on UK Safari workaround suit

Lawyers behind a UK class-action style compensation litigation against Google for privacy violations have filed an appeal against a recent High Court ruling blocking the proceeding.

In October Mr Justice Warby ruled the case could not proceed on legal grounds, finding the claimants had not demonstrated a basis for bringing a compensation claim.

The case relates to the so called ‘Safari workaround’ Google used between 2011 and 2012 to override iPhone privacy settings and track users without consent.

The civil legal action — whose claimants refer to themselves as ‘Google You Owe Us’ — was filed last year by one named iPhone user, Richard Lloyd, the former director of consumer group, Which?, seeking to represent millions of UK users whose Safari settings the complaint alleges were similarly ignored by Google, via a representative legal action.

Lawyers for the claimants argued that sensitive personal data such as iPhone users’ political affiliation, sexual orientation, financial situation and more had been gathered by Google and used for targeted advertising without their consent.

Google You Owe Us proposed the sum of £750 per claimant for the company’s improper use of people’s data — which could result in a bill of up to £3BN (based on the suit’s intent to represent ~4.4 million UK iPhone users).

However UK law requires claimants demonstrate they suffered damage as a result of violation of the relevant data protection rules.

And in his October ruling Justice Warby found that the “bare facts pleaded in this case” were not “individualised” — hence he saw no case for damages.

He also ruled against the case proceeding on another legal point, related to defining a class for the case — finding “the essential requirements for a representative action are absent” because he said individuals in the group do not have the “same interest” in the claim.

Lodging its appeal today in the Court of Appeal, Google You Owe us described the High Court judgement as disappointing, and said it highlights the barriers that remain for consumers seeking to use collective actions as a route to redress in England and Wales.

In the US, meanwhile, Google settled with the FTC over a similar cookie tracking issue back in 2012 — agreeing to pay $22.5M in that instance.

Countering Justice Warby’s earlier suggestion that affected class members in the UK case did not care about their data being taken without permission, Google You Owe Us said, on the contrary, affected class members have continued to show their support for the case on Facebook — noting that more than 20,000 have signed up for case updates.

For the appeal, the legal team will argue that the High Court judgment was incorrect in stating the class had not suffered damage within the meaning of the UK’s Data Protection Act, and that the class had not all suffered in the same way as a result of the data breach.

Commenting in a statement, Lloyd said:

Google’s business model is based on using personal data to target adverts to consumers and they must ask permission before using this data. The court accepted that people did not give Google permission to use their data in this case, yet slammed the door shut on holding Google to account.

By appealing this decision, we want to give affected consumers the opportunity to get the compensation they are owed and show that collective actions offer a clear route to justice for data protection claims.

We’ve reached out to Google for comment.

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Apple announces its ‘Best of 2018’ lists across apps, games, music, podcasts and more

Apple today announced its Best of 2018 selections – its annual, editorial list of what it considers the best content across its App Store and iTunes, along with its top charts of the most downloaded apps and games fo the year. As in other years, Apple selected a “best” app and game for each platform, including iPhone, iPad, Apple TV and Mac. It also rounded-up several favorite Apple Watch apps, but didn’t award a winner.

The best app of 2018 on iPhone was the iPhone version of the popular Procreate drawing app for iPad, Procreate Pocket.

Meanwhile, the top iPad app was Froggipedia, an AR app that lets you virtually dissect a frog so you don’t have to actually dissect a frog.

Both apps showcase technologies Apple aims to promote. In Procreate Pocket’s case, it’s the iPhone companion to an Apple Pencil-powered app on iPad. On the iPhone, it instead uses 3D Touch support for painting with your finger. Froggipedia turns an Apple Pencil into the scalpel to dissect a virtual frog.

On Mac, the top app was image editor Pixelmator Pro, and top Apple TV app was the big-screened version of workout app Sweat, whose creator Kayla Itsines also showed up at WWDC this year to lead a special session.

The top games this year were: Donut County (iPhone), Gorogoa (iPad), The Gardens Between (Mac) and Alto’s Odyssey (Apple TV) – the latter which also won an Apple Design Award earlier this year.  

Showcasing their somewhat secondary status, Apple Watch apps didn’t get a “best of” pick for app and game, but a small group got a shoutout from Apple as being “favorites.”

This includes: WaterMinder, Lifesum, 10% Happier, Carrot Weather, FunGolf GPS, Swing Tennis Tracker, Slopes, App in the Air, Overcast, and Just Press Record.

While its “Best of” selections were editorially chosen, Apple also unveiled its year-end “Top Charts” across iPhone and iPad, which were separated by both apps and games (free and paid).

These are the most downloaded app of 2018. The lists still show Facebook, YouTube, Google, and other entertainment apps dominating the top free charts.

Top Free iPhone Apps – Chart

1. YouTube: Watch, Listen, Stream
2. Instagram
3. Snapchat
4. Messenger
5. Facebook
6. Bitmoji
7. Netflix
8. Google Maps – Transit & Food
9. Gmail – Email by Google
10. Spotify Music
11. Amazon – Shopping made easy
12. Uber
13. WhatsApp Messenger
14. Pandora – Streaming Music
15. Wish – Shopping Made Fun
16. TikTok – Real Short Videos
17. Cash App
18. Google Photos
19. Google Chrome
20. Twitter

Top Paid iPhone Apps – Chart

1. Facetune
2. kirakira+
3. Dark Sky Weather
4. HotSchedules
5. PlantSnap Plant Identification
6. AutoSleep Tracker for Watch
7. Sky Guide
8. 1 Second Everyday: Video Diary
9. The Wonder Weeks
10. Afterlight 2
11. My Talking Pet Pro
12. Glitché
13. Scanner Pro
14. TouchRetouch
15. 7 Minute Workout Challenge
16. Forest – Stay focused
17. Full Fitness : Exercise Workout Trainer
18. Word Swag – Cool Fonts
19. SkyView® – Explore the Universe
20. HeartWatch. Heart & Activity

Top Free iPhone Games – Chart

1. Fortnite
2. Helix Jump
3. Rise Up
4. PUBG MOBILE
5. Hole.io
6. Love Balls
7. Snake VS Block
8. Rules of Survival
9. ROBLOX
10. Dune!
11. Subway Surfers
12. Episode – Choose Your Story
13. Word Link – Word Puzzle Game
14. Toon Blast
15. Color Road!
16. HQ Trivia
17. Twisty Road!
18. 8 Ball Pool
19. Kick the Buddy
20. Sniper 3D Assassin: Gun Games

Top Paid iPhone Games – Chart 

1. Heads Up!
2. Minecraft
3. Plague Inc.
4. Bloons TD 6
5. Pocket Build
6. Bloons TD 5
7. Geometry Dash
8. The Game of Life
9. Papa’s Freezeria To Go!
10. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
11. Trivia Crack (No Ads)
12. Getting Over It
13. Monument Valley 2
14. Alto’s Odyssey
15. True Skate
16. The Room: Old Sins
17. Terraria
18. Exploding Kittens®
19. Five Nights at Freddy’s
20. The Escapists: Prison Escape

Top Free iPad Apps – Chart

1. YouTube: Watch, Listen, Stream
2. Netflix
3. Messenger
4. Facebook
5. Amazon Prime Video
6. Google Chrome
7. Gmail – Email by Google
8. YouTube Kids
9. The Calculator
10. Amazon – Shopping made easy
11. Spotify Music
12. Hulu: Watch TV Shows & Movies
13. Google Docs: Sync, Edit, Share
14. Google Drive
15. Google Maps – Transit & Food
16. Microsoft Word
17. Pandora – Streaming Music
18. Amazon Kindle
19. Colorfy: Coloring Art Games
20. Google

Top Paid iPad Apps – Chart

1. Procreate
2. Notability
3. GoodNotes 4
4. Toca Life: Pets
5. Duet Display
6. Toca Life: After School
7. XtraMath
8. Toca Hair Salon 3
9. MyScript Nebo
10. Toca Kitchen 2
11. PDF Expert by Readdle
12. Toca Life: Hospital
13. Affinity Photo
14. Toca Life: Office
15. GoodReader
16. Toca Lab: Elements
17. Notes Plus
18. Human Anatomy Atlas 2019
19. Toca Life: City
20. AnyFont

Top Free iPad Games – Chart

1. Fortnite
2. ROBLOX
3. Kick the Buddy
4. Love Balls
5. Helix Jump
6. Color by Number Coloring Game!
7. Bowmasters – Multiplayer Game
8. Hole.io
9. Rise Up
10. Rules of Survival
11. Subway Surfers
12. Rolling Sky
13. PUBG MOBILE
14. Toon Blast
15. Snake VS Block
16. Granny
17. Piano Tiles 2
18. slither.io
19. Run Sausage Run!
20. Pixel Art – Color by Number

Top Paid iPad Games – Chart 

1. Minecraft
2. Geometry Dash
3. The Game of Life
4. The Room: Old Sins
5. Heads Up!
6. Bloons TD 6
7. Goat Simulator
8. Five Nights at Freddy’s
9. LEGO® Jurassic World
10. Terraria
11. The Escapists: Prison Escape
12. Bloons TD 5 HD
13. Monument Valley 2
14. Plague Inc.
15. Five Nights at Freddy’s: Sister Location
16. Goat Simulator PAYDAY
17. Five Nights at Freddy’s 2
18. Teeny Titans – Teen Titans Go!
19. Teen Titans Go! Figure
20. Scribblenauts Unlimited

Apple also rounded up its best stories

In addition to the best content across categories, Apple this year also highlighted the most-read stories from the “Today” section on the App Store.

The revamped and more editorially-driven App Store launched over a year ago in September 2017, making this year the first full year of its existence.

The store is now not just a marketplace and search engine for apps, but also a place to read about the developers who create apps, their businesses, and learn other tips and tricks.

According to Apple, the top ten most-read stories included several on popular games, and a guide for parents on Snapchat, among others.

The full list included:

• A Parent’s Guide to Snapchat
• A Whole New Virtual You
• All the Feels
• Enter the World of The Elder Scrolls: Blades
• Games for Nongamers
• These Puzzles Get Pretty Wild
• Likelife—but More Fun
• Enter Fortnite’s Epic Universe
• Create the Perfect Wallpaper
• Sky Guide

Apple also picked a few editorial favorites of its own, including:

• She Beat the Heat
• It’s Complicated
• Lend an Ear
• Sum Kind of Love
• Falling in Love? Sounds Glorious

Music, books and more

The company also unveiled its editorial and most-downloaded lists for podcasts, audiobooks, books, TV shows and music.

Some highlights of those selections included Artist of the year: Drake; Breakout Artist of the Year: Juice WRLD; Song of the Year: I Like It – Cardi B featuring Bad Bunny & J. Balvin; Album of the Year: Golden Hour – Kacey Musgraves; Most Downloaded Podcast: The Daily; Best Book of the year: American Marriage; and Audiobook of the year: American Marriage.

Apple isn’t the only one with a year-end “Best of” list out now. Google Play also this week unveiled its own “Best of 2018” winners. Its list included the best app, Drops: Learn 31 new languages, and best game, PUBG Mobile. It introduced a “fan favorites” category as well, where users got to vote on their own favorite apps and games. Those winners included PUBG again, but for best app, they chose YouTube TV.

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Apple Music is getting native Android tablet support

Bringing Apple Music to Android tablets probably wasn’t Apple’s biggest priority, but three years after launching support for Android phones, the bigger screens are getting some love.

The update, first spotted by 9to5mac, is only available to Google Group beta testers for now, but should soon be rolling out widely when the 2.7 update goes out. The tablet-friendly design switches up the navigation to make use of the added screen real estate.

Apple added support for Android Auto in the last big update in September. As the company expands its native support for Google products, it does make one wonder where support is for Google Home products. The company announced just last week that Apple Music was coming to Amazon Echo devices so it seems that Apple is growing more open-minded in terms of what platforms it’s interested in bringing Music support to.

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Apple Music is getting native Android tablet support

Bringing Apple Music to Android tablets probably wasn’t Apple’s biggest priority, but three years after launching support for Android phones, the bigger screens are getting some love.

The update, first spotted by 9to5mac, is only available to Google Group beta testers for now, but should soon be rolling out widely when the 2.7 update goes out. The tablet-friendly design switches up the navigation to make use of the added screen real estate.

Apple added support for Android Auto in the last big update in September. As the company expands its native support for Google products, it does make one wonder where support is for Google Home products. The company announced just last week that Apple Music was coming to Amazon Echo devices so it seems that Apple is growing more open-minded in terms of what platforms it’s interested in bringing Music support to.

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