Find out the week’s top mobile stories from around the world.
This week.. Google stops sending Android cell signal data over privacy concerns, China to drive 5G device boom, mobile data consumption in India rose 56-fold in four years and much more.
Google stops sending Android cell signal data over privacy concerns
Engadget
Google’s increased focus on privacy led it to quietly drop a service for carriers. Reuters sources have learned the tech giant shut down Mobile Network Insights, a feature that gave providers maps of cellular signal strength and speed data collected from Android phones, back in April. The data was anonymized and required opting in to sharing location, usage and diagnostic info, but Google was reportedly worried the practice might raise hackles among users and government regulators.
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China to drive 5G device boom; Huawei likely winner
Mobile World Live
Global sales of 5G smartphones will hit 160 million in 2020 if the technology takes off in China as expected, according to Strategy Analytics, which tipped vendor Huawei to emerge as the major winner.
In a statement, the analyst firm said Huawei was best positioned to capture the majority of China’s 5G smartphone sales and the company could leverage that success “to regain its global smartphone standing”.
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Powered by 4G, mobile data consumption in India rose 56-fold in four years
Quartz
The penetration of 4G technology is fuelling a boom in mobile data consumption in India.
With an 86.85% share in 2018, 4G is the most popular wireless data technology in the country, according to a report published by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) yesterday (Aug. 21).
The share of 2G, 3G, and code division multiple access (CDMA) in wireless data usage stood at 0.95%, 12.18%, and 0.01%, respectively, according to the telecom regulator.
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APAC leaps ahead with in-app mobile advertising
WARC
The Asia Pacific region has overtaken Europe and the Middle East for in-app advertising impressions, according to a report from PubMatic.
The adtech company’s Q2 2019 Quarterly Mobile Index report revealed that the region now accounts for a quarter of global mobile app ad inventory, having more than doubled in volume over the last year.
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Monitoring of mobile phones – rights groups challenge police
Guardian
The refusal by police forces to disclose whether they are exploiting covert surveillance technology to track mobile phones is to be challenged at a tribunal next week.
Privacy International, represented by lawyers for the civil rights organisation Liberty, will attempt to overturn a ruling allowing the Metropolitan police and seven other forces to “neither confirm nor deny” use of the controversial equipment.
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San Francisco crowdfunder Kiva sets up Sierra Leone credit database
Reuters
Kiva, a San Francisco-based tech nonprofit organization, is using blockchain to create an online ID database in Sierra Leone allowing people who struggle to get loans to prove their credit history.
Kiva and President Julius Maada Bio officially launched the system in the capital Freetown on Wednesday. Bio hopes it will bring more Sierra Leoneans into the financial system.
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YouTube is closing its private messages feature…and many kids are outraged
Tech Crunch
People love to share YouTube videos among their friends, which is why in mid-2017 YouTube launched a new in-app messaging feature that would allow YouTube users to private-send their friends videos and chat within a dedicated tab in the YouTube mobile app. That feature is now being shut down, the company says. After September 18, the ability to direct-message friends on YouTube itself will be removed.
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Identifying vulnerable IoT devices by the companion app they use
Helpnet Security
For better or worse, connected “smart” devices are springing up like mushrooms. There is no doubt that they can be very helpful but, unfortunately, most have a slew of security vulnerabilities that could turn them into a nightmare.
Until legislation catches up and manufacturers start caring about implementing security from the start, security researchers are our only hope when it comes to improving IoT security. Consequently, every approach that makes the process of identifying as many vulnerable devices as quickly as possible is more than welcome.
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Lack of cyber investment could spell trouble for smart cities: report
SC Magazine
A lack of investment in cybersecurity protections could imperil the future of smart cities and the Internet of Things devices on which they run, a new report from ABI Research warns.
ABI anticipates there will be 1.3 billion wide-area network smart city connections by the year 2024. Of the $135 billion projected to be invested into critical infrastructure cybersecurity in 2024, ABI expects that the financial, information and communication technologies (ICT) industry and the defense industry will account for 56 percent of that spend.
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China’s Pocket Power: How Chinese Developers Influence the Global Mobile Games Market
Radiichina
ChinaJoy may have been experiencing some challenges to its relevancy in recent years, but the Shanghai-based event remains Asia’s biggest gaming expo and is therefore a major indicator of where the industry is headed. Judging from the big headlines to emerge from this weekend’s iteration — PS4 rage aside — the explosive growth of mobile gaming isn’t about to slow down any time soon.
