TikTok sued by Indiana over security and safety concerns

BBC

The popular social media app TikTok has been sued by the US state of Indiana. Its attorney general Todd Rokita has accused TikTok’s parent company ByteDance of violating the state’s consumer protections laws. The state alleges that the app fails to safeguard young people and privacy. However, TikTok said it considers youth well-being in its policies and that it was confident it could satisfy US national security concerns.

Indiana filed two lawsuits on Wednesday. The first one claims the app exposes young users to inappropriate content.

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UK Gov Introduces New Security and Privacy Rules for Apps

Digit News

In a bid to protect consumers from malicious apps which can steal data and money, the UK Government has introduced new rules for app store operators and developers.

Millions of people across the UK use apps on their smartphones, game consoles and smart TVs for a wide range of everyday activities such as work, communication, entertainment and banking.

In response to a call for views earlier this year, the government will request that the app industry signs up to a new code of practice which will boost security and privacy requirements on all apps and app stores available in the UK.

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Apple Ramps Up Security, Privacy Amid Ongoing Attacks

Silicon

Apple plans a number of security upgrades “focused on protecting against threats to user data in the cloud.”

Apple announced on Wednesday “three advanced security features…representing the next step in its ongoing effort to provide users with even stronger ways to protect their data.”

It will allow users to more tightly lock down their photos and notes stored on its iCloud service and require a physical security key when logging in from a new device. The new measures, along with another security measure for Apple’s iMessage chat program, are aimed at celebrities, journalists, activists, politicians and other high-profile individuals heavily targeted by hackers, Apple said.

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Study: Romania has highest adoption rate of phone payments among CEE countries

Romania Insider

A new regional study conducted by Visa reveals Romanians’ preference for paying through mobile phones. Among eight CEE (Central and Eastern European) countries, Romania has the highest adoption rate of payment through mobile phones, with 7 out of 10 Romanians using their mobiles for shopping and online payments and 1 in 3 using their phone to pay for goods in stores.

The study was conducted in Romania, Poland, Bulgaria, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovenia, and Croatia in partnership with data analytics firm Kantar. It was conducted among 1,000 respondents in each country, aged between 18 and 65.

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The links between mobile tech, crypto and blockchain

Telemedia Online

Smart mobile technology has developed in leaps and bounds in recent times, and so too has the blockchain technology that runs and underpins crypto. There are some intricate relationships between the two, and not only because it was a group of tech junkies with links to Silicon Valley that came up with the initial concept of blockchain and cryptocurrency. This article looks at the main linkages between mobile tech and crypto/blockchain and examines why these are relationships expected to positively serve both sectors.

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Taiwan’s front-line battle against mobile phone fraud

BBC

Telecoms security boss Jeff Kuo says that fighting mobile phone fraud is a constant battle, and that Taiwan is on the front line.
“This is like a miniature of the world, here in Taiwan, where we see all kinds of fraud in advance,” says Mr Kuo. “We can use this knowledge to protect other countries, because we can see what is going to happen first.”

Mr Kuo is boss of Taiwanese firm Gogolook, which owns Whoscall, one of the most popular spam blocking apps on the island, and across East Asia in general.

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data.ai Forecast: Time Spent in Mobile Apps Will Surpass 6 Trillion Hours by 2028

PR Newswire

data.ai (formerly App Annie), the leading mobile data analytics provider, has released its annual mobile app forecasts for 2023 and beyond. One of five projections in the report reveals that time spent on mobile will surpass 6 trillion hours by 2028 — a 34% increase over five years.

Other key findings include:

• Global mobile ad spend to hit $362 Billion – Mobile will take over the share of the advertising wallet as more time is spent in apps, with total hours on track to surpass 4 trillion on Android phones alone in 2022. However, the growth of ad spend will slow to 7.5% in 2023, down from 14% in 2022, in the face of economic headwinds.
• Consumer spend in gaming will dampen: Mobile gaming is set to drop by 5% in 2022 to $110 billion and by 3% in 2023 to $107 billion due to factors such as IDFA, Google’s upcoming privacy changes, and a crackdown on fingerprinting which is set to impact user acquisition in 2023.

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Nintendo sees mobile gaming as a marketing strategy as opposed to a revenue generator

Pocket Gamer

Nintendo has revealed that, despite mobile gaming being the most profitable sector of the games industry, it sees mobile gaming primarily as a means to introduce its IPs to new players.

In a statement for the company, a representative told Axios “While we feel the importance of generating revenue and profit through our mobile business, our basic strategy with the business is to expand the number of people who have access to Nintendo [intellectual property.”

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Amazon launches Inspire, a TikTok-like shopping feed that supports both photos and videos

Tech Crunch

Amazon is bringing a TikTok-like shopping experience to its app. The company today announced the launch of Inspire, a new short-form video and photo feed that allows consumers to explore products and ideas and shop from content created by influencers, brands and other customers. The feature is designed to draw consumers’ attention away from apps like TikTok, where brands can directly market to consumers, in order to drive sales on Amazon.com instead.

The retailer said the shopping feature will initially roll out to select customers in the U.S. in early December, and will become broadly available to U.S. customers in the months that follow.

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