Facebook Wants To Read Your SMS, Confidential Info: Kaspersky

New Delhi: Leading social media company Facebook wants to read SMSes and other confidential information of people on the Android mobile phone platform, cyber security firm Kaspersky said on Monday.

“Over the last few days there has been a constant scrutiny over Facebook having access to your SMS. Buried within the latest update for Facebook’s Android app is a feature that is causing growing concern among some users,” Kaspersky said in a statement on Monday.

No immediate comments were received from Facebook.

Facebook is one of the companies that has been accused by U.S. Whistleblower Edward Snowden of sneaking in to private information to help National Security Agency of U.S. in spying at global level. The social media firm has denied that allegation.

The Facebook application at the time of installation on Android mobile phones seeks certain permissions and the updated version now asks users to allow it “Read your text messages (SMS or MMS)”.

The social media’s logic behind seeking access to SMS is that “if you add a phone number to your account, this allows us to confirm your phone number automatically by finding the confirmation code that we send via text message“.

Here Comes the Sun-Powered MacBook?

Apple wants to use natural energy sources to keep MacBooks powered while on the move.

The company has won a patent for a laptop with a lid that features a second display, touch inputs and solar cells. The latter could help users keep their MacBooks' batteries topped up without having to plug in an external charger.
Apple filed its application in 2010, and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office granted the patent this week.

Apple wants to use natural energy sources to keep MacBooks powered while on the move.

The company has won a patent for a laptop with a lid that features a second display, touch inputs and solar cells. The latter could help users keep their MacBooks' batteries topped up without having to plug in an external charger.
Apple filed its application in 2010, and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office granted the patent this week.
Photovoltaic Cells The company's U.S. Patent No. 8,638,549 is for an "electronic device display module." It details Apple's proposal for a two-sided glass laptop casing that features a regular screen on the front. On the reverse, the display housing has photovoltaic cells for charging via sunlight and other sources. These are located under the rear part of the lid.
The two-sided display could be built using a number of materials, including glass, metal, ceramic and fiber composites. The rear could include electrochromic or smart glass. That type of material can alter opacity either to block light or allow it to pass through, effectively allowing Apple to hide the rear-facing display until it's activated by a user or to charge the photovoltaic cells when the glass is transparent.

Vechile to Vechile Communication

The U.S. Department of Transportation on Monday announced it would move forward with a plan that would make car-to-car communication mandatory among light vehicles, a measure that could lead to safer roads.

Vehicle-to-vehicle, or V2V, communication allows cars to share data including speeds and brake applications with nearby cars. That data can then help warn drivers about possible collisions. For instance, if one car turns a corner and unexpectedly slams on the brakes, that car could communicate the action to nearby vehicles, which could then warn their drivers.
The technology would be used only to share information affecting safety, the DoT emphasized. It would not be used to collect personal data or for location tracking.
The technology could be especially useful in preventing common crashes such as rear-end or lane-change collisions, the DoT said.


V2V connectivity has been tested extensively; a program in Ann Arbor, Mich., deployed close to 3,000 vehicles in the largest road test of the technology.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration plans to release a report on its analysis of some of that testing and a year-long pilot program for V2V communication technology, which will provide more details about its technical feasibility, costs and safety benefits.
The NHTSA will then begin the process of drafting a proposal for a regulation that would make it mandatory in new vehicles in a "future year."

Waiting for Green Light

Like any advancement in technology, the implementation of V2V communications likely will be gradual, said Tsiotras.
"The main issues will be reliability of the technology and, most importantly, also the issue of mixing vehicles -- having this technology with vehicles that lack the ability to communicate with other vehicles," he explained.
"It will take some time before all the vehicles will have this capability," Tsiotras observed. "Till then, I think that the focus will be mainly on the use of the V2V technology for traffic regulation purposes. Collision avoidance will follow afterwards."