Android
Google Hangouts Vulnerable To Surveillance
Hangouts is not as secure as Google would like us to believe. The company has finally admitted its messaging service doesn’t use end-to-end encryption, meaning Google itself can tap into its users’ conversations. The revelation comes in the wake of an AMA on Reddit, in which Google’s director for law enforcement and information security, Richard Salgado, and senior privacy counsel, David Lieber, answered questions about the state of government surveillance in the US.
Christopher Soghoian, from the American Civil Liberties Union, took the AMA as an opportunity to ask for clarification on Google Hangout’s encryption, on which the company has always been relatively secretive. “Why has Google refused to be transparent about its ability to provide wiretaps for Hangouts? Given Google’s rather impressive track record regarding surveillance transparency, the total secrecy regarding the company’s surveillance capabilities for this product is quite unusual.”
Salgado’s answer danced around the question, stating only that “Hangouts are encrypted in transit.” This didn’t exactly satisfy the community, and Google’s continued sketchiness about the encryption of Hangouts has led to many assuming the service is not fully secure. But in the wake of the AMA, Motherboard received confirmation from a Google spokesperson that Hangouts does not use end-to-end encryption. This means that, while there is encryption that stops third parties from tapping into conversations, the conversations are not protected from being read by Google itself, or from being given by Google to Government agencies. Even turning on the “off the record” feature does not prevent this, which makes the inclusion of the feature rather misleading.
In the wake of the Edward Snowden revelations, people have flocked to services that provide protection from government surveillance. The revelations made it clear that encryption that blocks third parties but not the host companies like Google or Apple is next to useless when it comes to preventing government surveillance, since the National Security Agency has been working in collaboration with all of the major tech companies to gather data on their users.
The revelations also led to many companies selling encrypted messaging services, some of which have been quite successful. Apple implemented end-to-end encryption on its iMessage and Facetime services and has used this as one of its selling points. Even though Apple was one of the companies Snowden revealed to be cooperating with the PRISM program, its claims that nobody but the sender or receiver could read iMessage conversations have been shown to be mostly true. (Apple can still read your messages if they want to. It’s complicated.)
The lesson here is that most of the major tech companies, particularly the ones Snowden has mentioned, can’t be trusted with data its users don’t want to be seen by Government eyes. The good news is that there are plenty of free and fully encrypted communication services to choose from. You just have to look them up. But not on Google.
Google has recently used CES as a platform to present its philosophy of “Better Together,” the notion that all devices should get along with one another. Typically, this entails making announcements regarding new Cast compatibility and features like Fast Pair. The business revealed that it is collaborating with Spotify to incorporate the Connect streaming capability into the Android UI at CES 2023. Additionally, it showed a sneak peek at an audio handoff tool that would recommend various devices to shift your music to based on your preferences and location.
However, CES is a significant vehicle event, and Google also sells items for cars. Additionally, it said today that the Polestar 3 would receive its higher-resolution maps, and it debuted the most recent Android Auto user interface for the first time since it was revealed at I/O 2022.
Two vehicles, a Volvo EX90 with Google preinstalled and a BMW i7 with the new Android Auto experience, were at the Google stand in the trailer lot of the Las Vegas Convention Center. We had never seen the Volvo before, and we’ll be posting a separate hands-on on that experience shortly. The new Android Auto is the main topic of this article and video.
The redesigned interface will support larger screen sizes and have a split screen layout, as we discovered at I/O. Google has eliminated the status bar and inserted a row of shortcut keys below it, along with some indication icons in a small area to the top left. When we were in the car, the Spotify app was located on the left panel, and we could access a list of suggested playlists by swiping in from the right side.
Alerts that you won’t have time to respond to while driving are likewise stored in this left pane. For instance, you can swipe right on a notification to move it to the dock, where it will wait until you’re ready to deal with it.
Check out the video up top for more of our experience with the updated Android Auto in the BMW i7! And be sure to pay attention this week as there will be a ton of news at CES 2023.
Additionally, stand-alone groups will now have access to 32-person video chats.
One of the new features that WhatsApp is introducing is one that aims to group together related group chats. The Communities feature, which was introduced earlier this year by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, aims to let users consolidate group chats “under one umbrella with a structure that works for them.” For Facebook and Instagram, comparable technologies are under development.
In the upcoming months, communities will be accessible to all WhatsApp users. To discuss topics that are important to you, you can create smaller group chats inside a community and easily switch between them. WhatsApp will provide administrators with “strong new capabilities” to govern communities, including the capacity to select which groups to include and the option to broadcast announcements to all users.
WhatsApp suggests that communities may be created through local areas, workplaces, and parents with children attending the same school. To begin, select the Communities tab from the menu at the top of the Android app or the bottom of the iOS screen. You will have the option of building a community from scratch or expanding an existing one.
The Communities feature has some similarities to Facebook Groups (as well as Nextdoor and Discord), but it is protected by end-to-end encryption. Making group chats more like Facebook Groups, where false information has thrived in recent years, may have some drawbacks, even though Zuckerberg has been eying a community-driven model to lessen the reliance on feeds across Meta’s applications. Due to the platform’s focus on encryption, WhatsApp generally has fewer moderation capabilities, which may make it harder to keep a lid on fabrications.
In other places, WhatsApp is giving groups—including those that aren’t connected to a community—new functionality. Group polls are also being added, along with support for the 32-person encrypted video conversations that Meta has been beta-testing over the past few weeks. Furthermore, groups now support a maximum of 1,024 people.
Numerous apps are available for music, which has the power to uplift individuals. The top Android music player apps are listed here!
Nowadays, private music collections are uncommon due to music streaming. A personal music collection is still beneficial to many people, though. Higher-quality music is available; it is offline-compatible and doesn’t require a subscription. Thankfully, there are several options available for grooving out to your favorite music. Here are our top choices for Android music player apps.
The best music player apps for Android
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