iOS 14 will cramp Facebook’s ability to track app installs
Cops are arresting members of the Sparks piracy group worldwide
Quick news bites
Fake Cisco switches are a thing I didn’t know existed
Cheap iTunes/App Store gift cards, Nanoleaf smart lights, Surface Go 2, Nest Mini, Nest Hub & Nest Hub Max
Facebook is having a whinge that a new feature in iOS 14 that requires users to opt-in to obtain a unique "ID for Advertisers" will limit the ability to track when someone installs an app after seeing/tapping a Facebook ad. In testing they've seen "a 50% drop in Audience Network publisher revenue when personalization was removed from mobile app ad install campaigns". I'm surprised it's even that high - who's saying "yes, I want more tracking please, sign me up"?! Meanwhile, Apple's own advertising network for apps, Apple Search Ads, still has tracking on by default in the latest betas, so Apple can track when someone installs an app after interacting with an ad in the App Store or Apple News.
Law enforcement around the world has been arresting members of the Sparks Group piracy outfit. Two have been picked up already (a Brit living in Cyprus and a yank) and one Norwegian dude is on the run. Allegedly they "circumvented copyright protections on nearly every movie released by major production studios, as well as television shows, and distributed them by way of a worldwide network of servers" - i.e: ripped some discs/broke some DRM on Netflix and chucked it on Bitorrent/Usenet. Apparently what shit off the copyright owners the most was Sparks getting early access to discs by lying to wholesale distributors then uploading sweet rips prior to release date. As much as I dislike the copyright cartel, when you mess with the bull you get the horns.
NZ’s stock market has been experiencing "network connectivity issues" for two days straight due to an "overseas-based DDoS attack".
iOS 13.7 is now in beta, with the only feature being "support for built-in COVID-19 exposure notifications without the need to first download a separate app".
Facebook is still running ads that discriminate against minorities for housing, work and finance, despite being told to knock that shit off a year ago.
Lots of press around for Canon cameras being able to upload directly to Google Photos, but the camera still needs to connect to a smartphone and the app does the uploading.
The iOS and Mac versions of Fortnite won't be getting the latest "season" of game updates because of the whole "fuck you Apple" thing Epic has going on.
I had no idea there are counterfeit Cisco switches, but they're absolutely a thing according to this Serve The Home article. The proliferation of fake Cisco gear is so bad that counterfeit units have been entering the legitimate supply chain. At first glance and without a real Cisco unit to compare to you wouldn't suspect you've got a fake multi-thousand dollar switch! Cracking it open though, you can see that whoever made this has done some hardware modifications to "circumvent hardware/ software checks for validity". No backdoors were found in this particular fake, it's purely just a cheap knockoff with stolen software. If you want to learn more, F-Secure's report (which the article is based on) can be found here.
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