ONEPLUS SMARTPHONES HAVE developed a bit of a cult following, thanks to a combination of design and affordability that few other Android handsets match. But OnePlus has also experienced some notable privacy and security issues, including a recent admission that it was collecting a sketchy amount of user data on its corporate servers. Now, a French security researcher has published evidence that nearly every OnePlus phone model comes pre-loaded with a factory testing app that essentially acts as a backdoor, potentially granting hackers full access to your device. Whoops!

Elections in 18 separate nations were influenced by online disinformation campaigns last year, suggests research.Independent watchdog Freedom House looked at how online discourse was influenced by governments, bots and paid opinion formers.In total, 30 governments were actively engaged in using social media to stifle dissent, said the report.Educating users to spot fake news and making tech firms police their networks could combat the manipulation, it said.

There’s an App for that.” Apple’s slogan, trademarked two years after the App Store was launched in 2008, summed up a period when an unfamiliar icon on a friend’s home screen was a conversation starter, and someone with a good idea working from their bedroom really could do something radically different.Now Apple wants to bring some of that excitement back to the iPhone of 2017, rebuilding the App Store from the ground up.Gone is the focus on lists of top sellers, replaced with the new App (and Game) of the Day. The entries are drawn from across the spectrum, from huge developers with large marketing budgets to small utilities made by indie teams. The apps aren’t freebies – Apple expects you to be enthused enough to drop real money on the downloads.

En kvinna i 50-årsåldern fick föras till sjukhus efter att under natten ha blivit misshandlad av en man i 50-årsåldern. Händelsen livesändes i en sluten facebookgrupp.Polisen i Malmö fick tips om händelsen av personer som sett livesändningen och reagerat. Polisen ska fått indikationer på att mannen i 50-årsåldern varit beväpnad och skickade därför en insatsstyrka till lägenheten.Livesändningen ska vid ett tillfälle ha blivit nedkopplad för att kort senare ha kommit tillbaka. Polisen såg då att kvinnnan fick hjärt- och lungräddning och valde att storma lägenheten.– Hon är förd till sjukhus men är inte allvarligt skadad, säger Mats Attin, inre befäl vid polisen i Malmö.

Journalists working for Facebook say the social media site’s fact-checking tools have largely failed and that the company has exploited their labor for a PR campaign.Several fact checkers who work for independent news organizations and partner with Facebook told the Guardian that they feared their relationships with the technology corporation, some of whoch are paid, have created a conflict of interest, making it harder for the news outlets to scrutinize and criticize Facebook’s role in spreading misinformation.The reporters also lamented that Facebook had refused to disclose data on its efforts to stop the dissemination of fake news. The journalists are speaking out one year after the company launched the collaboration in response to outrage over revelations that social media platforms had widely promoted fake news and propaganda during the US presidential election.

The money has become too much to ignore and so bitcoin and cryptocurrencies are back in the news. You may have heard about Ethereum, a cryptocurrency that has risen in value by more than 2,500% over the course of 2017. Or maybe you’ve heard about one of the many smaller cryptocurrencies that raised hundreds of millions of dollars in the first few days they were on sale, during their “initial coin offering”. Or you’ve just spotted that bitcoin, whoch made headlines in 2013 for hitting a high of $200, is now worth nearly $7,000 (£5,250), making a lot of people very roch in the process.Are these cryptocurrencies simply speculative bubbles or will they actually transform our financial system? It’s time to answer a few common questions about this new technology – and assess whether a lot of people have just pulled off the investment of their lifetime or made a huge mistake.