Technology

New Delhi: The United Nations on Friday approved a Russian-led bid that aims to create a new convention on cybercrime, alarming rights groups and Western powers that fear a bid to restrict online freedom.

The General Assembly approved the resolution sponsored by Russia and backed by China, which would set up a committee of international experts in 2020. on countering the use of information and communications technologies for criminal purposes," the resolution said.

The United States, European powers and rights groups fear that the language is code for legitimizing crackdowns on expression, with numerous countries defining criticism of the government as "criminal." China heavily restricts internet searches to avoid topics sensitive to its communist leadership, as well as news sites with critical coverage.

New Delhi Following privacy concerns, social networking giant Facebook is set to stop using your phone number for recommending friends in 2020. According to a BBC report, users will soon have "a code sent to their mobile phones when logging in to make access harder for hackers". The change is part of Facebook's $5 billion settlement with the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and will come into effect from next year. Facebook last year confirmed the use of users' phone number for targeting ads and stopped using members' security phone numbers for advertising in June this year.

New Delhi: Google Maps have captured more than 10 million miles of Street View imagery - a distance that could circle the globe over 400 times. The company announced on Friday that Google Earth now lets people browse more than 36 million square miles of high definition satellite images from various providers - covering more than 98 per cent of the entire population - to see the world from above. "While these stunning photos show us parts of the world, we may never get a chance to visit, they also help Google Maps accurately model a world that is changing each day," said Thomas Escobar, Senior Product Manager, Google Maps.

New Delhi: Facebook-owned WhatsApp has become the latest Voice over Internet Protocol services provider to support call waiting feature even as the company has skipped adding call holding for now. When you're already talking on the phone and another person tries to call you, most phones and operators let you know that you've got a call waiting. Very few VOIP services support that, though, and WhatsApp wasn't among them until now, Android Police reported on Friday.

Earlier, when somebody would try to call you on WhatsApp while you were already on the phone, they would hear it ring, but, no one would answer. The call would then get disconnected. Call waiting is available in v2.19.352 stable (APK Mirror) and above of WhatsApp, and v2.19.128 (APK Mirror) of WhatsApp Business, the report added. Meanwhile, the latest WhatsApp beta update has brought three new options for dark mode on the app.

New Delhi: Huawei is set to launch its upcoming smartwatch GT2 with two week-long battery life in India during the first week of December and now it has added the 'Notify me' button on its official Indian site. The company has also confirmed that the smartwatch will be available online on Amazon and Flipkart exclusively, news portal GSMArena reported on Friday. Huawei Watch GT2 underlines Huawei's focus on customer-centric innovation and being the best to suit their needs and elevate their lifestyle. With maximum viewing radius of 150 metre plus and above, the device would deliver best performance.