A German court has ruled against an online shopping site’s use of Facebook’s “like” button on Wednesday, dealing a further legal blow to the world’s biggest social network in Germany. The Duesseldorf district court said that retailer Peek & Cloppenburg failed to obtain proper consent before transmitting its users’ computer identities to Facebook, violating Germany’s data protection law and giving…

Civil court gives search company Google two weeks to provide information on fake reviewers that attacked nursery with claims of child abuse. The search company has been ordered to hand over the contact details of accounts linked to fake reviews that attacked a Dutch nursery. The nursery, which was not named in the proceedings, won a court order against the…

Police in one of India’s biggest cities are clamping down on people dying for a selfie, following a spate of deadly incidents. The move was prompted by the recent death of a college student who was swept into the sea while attempting to take a self-portrait with her cellphone at a popular tourist attraction. A man trying to save her…

Verizon will pay a $1.35 million fine and agreed to a three-year consent decree after the Federal Communications Commission said it found the company’s wireless unit violated the privacy of its users. Verizon Wireless agreed to get consumer consent before sending data about “supercookies” from its more than 100 million users, under a settlement. The largest U.S. mobile company inserted…

Internet pioneer Ray Tomlinson, who is credited with the invention of email, has died at the age of 74. The US computer programmer came up with the idea of electronic messages that could be sent from one network to another in 1971. His invention included the ground-breaking use of the @ symbol in email addresses, which is now standard. Tomlinson…

LAHORE: Lahore could save billions of rupees in energy and water once the metropolis was transformed into a smart city. This was disclosed in a meeting between the Adviser to Chief Minister Khawaja Ahmad Hassan and representatives of a Danish company, Starman Group, on Saturday. Nadeem Elahi, a representative of the company, said that by using modern technology and finding optimal…

Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, high commissioner for human rights at the United Nations, has warned that a “Pandora’s box” will be opened if Apple co-operates with the FBI. The FBI has ordered the tech giant to assist it with unlocking an iPhone used by San Bernadino gunman Syed Farook. Prince Al Hussein said the law enforcement agency “deserves everyone’s full…

Something wasn’t right about the phone screen. It had gone dark. That’s when Nick Harvey examined it more closely. It looked odd. And it was then that he saw the message. His smart phone had, in effect, been hijacked and he was being asked to pay a ransom. “My device had been locked”, he told BBC Radio 4’s PM Programme.…

Hackers are using Facebook quizzes to trick people into providing personal information. Sri Sridharan, managing director at the Florida Center for Cybersecurity, explains hackers want to use the information to make money. “It seems harmless but you never know who’s really asking you for that information,” he said. Sridharan insists hackers can use quizzes to disguise malicious links. Some will…

Google and Yahoo have accused ad-blocking software Shine of destroying the relationship between advertisers and consumers, after an executive from the company called its solution a “nuclear weapon” threatening the industry. In a heated debate at Mobile World Congress (MWC) on Tuesday, executives from Google and Yahoo clashed with Shine’s chief marketing officer (CMO) over ad-blocking. Ad blocking software use…