Tech Digest daily round up: Dating apps introduce Covid vaccine badges
UK online daters will be able to choose to display a badge on their profiles to show if they have been vaccinated against Covid or support the jab drive. However there will be no way of verifying whether those displaying the badge have genuinely had the vaccine. Tinder, Match, Hinge, Bumble, Badoo, Plenty of Fish, OurTime and Muzmatch have all signed up to the scheme, in partnership with the UK government. The idea of vaccine badges on dating apps was launched in the US in May. Some of the apps are including additional incentives for those who say they are vaccinated – such as free credits or access to premium features that usually cost extra, like profile boosts, virtual rose giving and “super likes”. BBC
Apple paid millions of dollars to a student after iPhone repair technicians posted explicit photos and videos from her phone to Facebook, legal documents have revealed. The tech giant agreed a settlement with the 21-year-old after two employees at a repair facility uploaded the images from a phone she had sent to Apple to be fixed, resulting in “severe emotional distress”. The incident, which occurred in 2016 at a centre in California run by Pegatron, an Apple contractor, is one of the most significant privacy violations to be revealed at an iPhone repair facility. Apple has often argued that its control over how its devices can be fixed helps to protect customers’ privacy, lobbying against legislation that would make it easier for third parties to fix its electronics. Legal filings show that the unnamed victim, a university student in Oregon, sent her phone to Apple after it had stopped working. Telegraph
Jeff Bezos – one of the world’s richest men and the chief executive of Amazon – has said he will travel into space next month. The US business tycoon has invited his brother along for the journey, with the winner of an auction set up by his aerospace company Blue Origin. In a video posted to his Instagram page, he said: “What a remarkable opportunity to see the Earth from space… it changes you. I want to go on this flight because it’s a thing. It’s an adventure – it’s a big deal for me.” He added: “Ever since I was five years old, I’ve dreamed of traveling to space. On July 20th, I will take that journey with my brother.” Sky News
A new drug for Alzheimer’s disease, the first in nearly 20 years, may be approved in the US on Monday, which would trigger pressure to make it available worldwide. Any decision is likely to be controversial. While doctors, patients and the organisations that support them are desperate for treatments that can slow mental deterioration, the usefulness of the new drug, aducanumab, is disputed by scientists. Two trials were stopped in March 2019 because the drugs appeared not to work. The manufacturer, Biogen, said the drugs were unlikely to improve people’s memory and thinking. But the company later announced that a reanalysis of more patient data from one of the trials involving people who had taken the drugs for longer showed that a high dose could slow the decline of memory and thinking skills. Guardian
France’s anti-competition watchdog decided Monday to fine Google 220 million euros ($268 million) for abusing its “dominant position” in the online advertising business, an unprecedented move, the body said. Practices used by Google “are particularly serious because they penalize Google’s competitors” in certain markets and publishers of mobile sites and applications, the statement by the Competition Authority said. “The authority recalls that a company in a dominant position is subject to a particular responsibility, that of not undermining,” the statement said. Google, based in Mountain View, California, did not dispute the facts and opted to settle, proposing changes, the statement said. The head of the authority, Isabelle de Silva, said the decision was unprecedented. AP News
