Ukraine has banned government officials, military personnel and other defense and critical infrastructure workers from installing the popular Telegram messaging app on state-issued devices, describing the move as necessary for national security during the war with Russia.

Ukraine’s National Cybersecurity Coordination Center said it issued the ban for the official devices of government employees, military personnel, security and defense workers, and critical infrastructure employees. The ban was announced Friday by Ukraine’s Security and Defense Council in a statement on Facebook.

During a meeting on Thursday, the Security Service of Ukraine and the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said Telegram is actively used by Russia for cyberattacks, phishing, spreading malware, establishing user locations and calibrating missile strikes.

An exception to the ban will be allowed for people who use the app in their official duties. Ukrainians are free to use the app in their personal devices.

The app is widely used in Ukraine not only for texting but also for reading news, including updates on Russian air attacks. It is also the primary way Ukrainian officials, including President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, engage with the public and relay war developments. Zelenskyy is likely to continue using Telegram in his public communications since it is in his official capacity.

Ukraine’s intelligence chief, Kyrylo Budanov, said Russian intelligence services are able to access the personal messages of app users, including deleted messages, as well as their personal data, according to the statement.

“I have always advocated and continue to advocate for freedom of speech, but the issue of Telegram is not a matter of freedom of speech; it is a matter of national security,” Budanov said, according to the statement.

© 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

Apple is giving more people the chance to test a software update that will implant artificial intelligence into its virtual assistant Siri and automate a variety of tedious tasks on the latest iPhone coming out Friday.

The free update was made available Thursday to an audience that has signed up to test Apple’s software before it’s released to all iPhone owners next month. As of Thursday, only two premium iPhones that came out last year contain the souped-up processor required to power the AI features included in the update, but that will change Friday when four new iPhone 16 models reach store shelves.

All the iPhone 16 models, with starting prices ranging from $800 to $1,200, are equipped to handle the new technology, which the company is marketing as “Apple Intelligence.” That branding is part of an effort to distinguish the iPhone’s AI from similar technology already available in smartphones released earlier this year by Samsung and Google.

The AI features are being promoted as one of the main reasons to buy an iPhone 16, so releasing a test version of the software powering the technology now may prod more consumers to splurge on one of the new models as soon as possible

The AI technology is coming out in U.S. English only for now, but will expand into localized English in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, and the U.K. in December. Apple plans to expand into other languages and countries next year. The testing of the AI software is beginning just a few days after Apple released its latest mobile operating system, iOS 18, to all its earlier iPhones.

Once the iOS 18.1 upgrade is installed, the often bumbling Siri is supposed to become more conversational, versatile and colorful, with a glowing light that will rotate around the iPhone’s screen as it responds to requests. While Apple is promising Siri will be able to perform more tasks and be less prone to becoming confused, it won’t be able to interact with other apps installed on the iPhone until another software update comes out at a still-unspecified date.

Other AI features in the software update will handle a variety of writing and proofreading tasks, summarize the content of emails and other documents. The AI also will provide a variety of editing tools to alter the appearance of photos and make it easier to find old pictures.

But the initial update doesn’t include other AI tricks still to come, such as the ability to create customized emojis on the fly or conjure other fanciful imagery upon request. Apple also plans to eventually enable its AI suite to get a helping hand from OpenAI’s ChatGPT when users want it.

Besides the new iPhone model, Apple’s AI features also will work last year’s iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max because they have the special computer chip that’s required. The update will also bring the ability to record spatial video on those two iPhone 15 models that can be watched on Apple’s $3,500 Vision Pro headset.

But the AI won’t work on hundreds of millions of other iPhones that are still in use, a drawback that investors are betting will juice Apple’s recently slumping sales of the ubiquitous device.

That expectation is the main reason that Apple’s stock price has climbed by more than 15% since the company previewed its AI strategy in June, creating $500 billion in shareholder wealth. Some analysts believe the demand for new iPhones could propel Apple’s market value above $4 trillion for the first time within the next year.

© 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

In his first day at Boeing, Kelly Ortberg visited the factory floor to speak with workers on the 737 MAX program, part of the new CEO’s effort to “reset” labor relations.

But as a strike of Boeing’s 33,000 Seattle-area workers enters its second week, Ortberg is quickly discovering the challenges involved in realizing that goal.

Members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers District 751 voted overwhelmingly on September 12 to reject a new contract, walking out hours later in a stoppage that has shuttered assembly plants for the 737 MAX and 777.

Chief among the workers demands is a wage hike of 40 percent, much above the 25 percent increase touted by Boeing, a figure workers view as misleading because the deal would also eliminate an annual bonus.

Union members complain of more than a decade of near stagnant pay, a problem exacerbated by the consumer inflation of recent years and by the elevated living costs in the Seattle region, a growing tech hub.

The union also wants Boeing to reinstate a pension and strengthen a pledge to build the next new plane in the Puget Sound region beyond the four-year life of the contract.

Ortberg “was in a tough position coming in,” Jon Holden, head of the IAM’s Seattle district, told reporters at a September 12 news conference.

The strike isn’t a reflection of “(Ortberg) or the relationship,” Holden said.

“It’s really what has happened to our members at the Boeing company by leadership of this company for close to 20 years.”

Hard bargain

During the 2008 strike—which was the IAM’s fourth stoppage in less than 20 years—then-CEO James McNerney argued that strikes were undermining Boeing’s reputation for reliability as he touted the rise of southern US states as manufacturing hubs.

After the 57-day strike ended, McNerney took moves that weakened the Seattle union’s leverage.

He announced plans to base a manufacturing line for its new Dreamliner 787 in Charleston, South Carolina, committing to adding 3,800 jobs in the southern state within seven years.

In 2011 and 2014, a profitable stretch for Boeing in which it paid shareholder dividends and compensated McNerney and other executives with millions in pay, Boeing reached contract extensions with meager pay hikes for line workers.

These deals involved an uneasy truce in which workers agreed not to strike in exchange for Boeing committing to build new aircraft in the Seattle region.

The fight over the 2014 contract was particularly bruising, with a sharply divided union voting 51-49 percent in favor of a deal that included a $10,000 signing bonus but eliminated the pension.

Boeing pledged to build the new 777X in Everett, a move that solidified the job base for decades to come. Boeing also dropped a plan to move outside Seattle.

Turnaround takes time

Since the strike began, Boeing officials have signaled they hope for a quick resolution. But on Wednesday, the company announced it would start furloughs of professional and white-collar staff as it seeks to conserve cash.

The union, meanwhile, said the two sides made “no meaningful progress” after two days of talks with federal mediators, adding that “there are no additional dates scheduled.”

Boeing watchers expect the company to raise its offer.

“They (Boeing) have to take another financial hit and try to rebuild their reputation and develop a better reputation with the workforce,” said Leon Grunberg, co-author of two books on Boeing’s workplace relations.

“It’s possible to create a better relationship, but it’s going to take a lot of hard work,” said Grunberg, an emeritus professor at the University of Puget Sound.

Staff turnover means Boeing has lost a lot of skilled, seasoned workers.

But the upside is that there are more young staff less familiar with past battles who have a more “transactional” approach, Grunberg said.

“Boeing is going to have to raise its offer and the workers are going to have to lower their expectations,” said Cornell University labor relations expert Harry Katz.

Katz said Boeing’s long-term prospects are “very solid” because it is part of a duopoly with Airbus, though it faces long-term financial stress.

Boeing could introduce more participatory programs that create a sense of teamwork among the staff.

“It takes time for people to believe they really want to change,” Katz said.

© 2024 AFP

A years-long analysis shows that social media titans engaged in “vast surveillance” to make money from people’s personal information, according to the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

A report based on queries launched nearly four years ago aimed at nine companies found they collected troves of data, sometimes through data brokers, and could indefinitely retain the information collected about users and non-users of their platforms.

“The report lays out how social media and video streaming companies harvest an enormous amount of Americans’ personal data and monetize it to the tune of billions of dollars a year,” FTC Chair Lina Khan said in a release.

“Several firms’ failure to adequately protect kids and teens online is especially troubling.”

Khan contended that the surveillance practices endangered people’s privacy and exposed them to the potential of identity theft or stalking.

Business models that typically involve targeted advertising incentivized mass collection of user data at many of the companies, pitting profit against privacy, according to the report.

“While lucrative for the companies, these surveillance practices can endanger people’s privacy, threaten their freedoms, and expose them to a host of harms, from identify theft to stalking,” Khan said.

The Interactive Advertising Bureau countered that internet users understand that targeted ads pay for online services enjoyed free of charge and pointed out that the industry group “vehemently” supports comprehensive national data privacy law.

“We are disappointed with the FTC’s continued characterization of the digital advertising industry as engaged in ‘mass commercial surveillance,'” IAB chief executive David Cohen said in a post responding to the report.

“Nothing could be further from the truth, as countless studies have shown that consumers understand the value exchange and welcome the opportunity to have access to free or highly subsidized content and services.”

Data not deleted?

The findings were based on answers to orders sent in late 2020 to companies including Meta, YouTube, Snap, Twitch-owner Amazon, TikTok parent company ByteDance, and X, formerly known as Twitter.

“Google has the strictest privacy policies in our industry –- we never sell people’s personal information and we don’t use sensitive information to serve ads,” Google spokesperson Jose Castaneda told AFP.

Castaneda added that Google prohibits ad personalization for users younger than 18 years of age and does not personalize ads for those watching “made for kids content” on YouTube.

The report found data collection practices “woefully inadequate” and that some companies did not delete all of the data users asked them to remove.

Sharing of data by companies also raised concerns about how well they were protecting people’s data, according to the report.

Along with maintaining that social media companies were lax when it came to protecting children using their platforms, the FTC staff cited a report that such platforms were found to harm the mental health of young users.

The report called for social media companies to rein in data collection practices and for the US Congress to pass comprehensive federal privacy legislation to limit surveillance of those using such platforms.

© 2024 AFP