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Microsoft quietly launches a free lock screen replacement app for Android

Feb03
by on February 3, 2015 at 11:50 am
Posted In: Apps, Around the Web, Product Launches

Picturesque
Things are busy at Microsoft Garage, where the company’s employees share experimental projects they’ve been working on. The most recent release is Picturesque Lock Screen, a free Android app that adds useful functions, handy shortcuts and beautiful images to your lock screen. Picturesque Lock Screen feels almost like a second home screen. It features multiple screens that you scroll through and adds a Bing search bar, a customizable news feed, weather reports, device notifications, shortcuts to frequently used apps and settings toggles. It also pulls in the daily Bing homepage image to use as a background and lets you swipe…

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Google’s AdSense ads now quiz you when you mute them

Feb03
by on February 3, 2015 at 10:19 am
Posted In: ads, Around the Web, Google, Insider, Product Updates

Google has updated its AdSense platform so that muted ads now run a short survey and disappear from the page they’re on, allowing content to fill up the space they occupied. While the Mute this Ad feature has been around since 2012, the survey and placeholder collapse are new. Users can simply click on the X icon to mute an ad, fill out a quick multiple choice survey, and hide the ad on a page. The new features should help advertisers better understand what sort of promotions and ad placements work well, and weed out those that users mute often. ➤ Adding…

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Uber enforces comprehensive background checks on drivers in India

Feb03
by on February 3, 2015 at 7:54 am
Posted In: Around the Web, Asia, India, Insider

Uber Privacy
Over a month after a passenger was allegedly raped by one of its drivers in the capital city of New Delhi, Uber announced that it has teamed up with screening company First Advantage to implement more stringent background checks on all its drivers. Uber says in a blog post that its arrangement with First Advantage will cover address verification, a local criminal court search, and a national criminal database search — over and above standard transport license checks for its drivers. The company says that it has been pilot testing the new screening process in recent weeks, and that thousands of driver-partners…

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Obama to force US intelligence agencies to delete irrelevant snooped data and calls

Feb03
by on February 3, 2015 at 7:07 am
Posted In: Around the Web, FBI, Insider

Obama
President Obama will announce new rules on Tuesday that will require US intelligence analysts to delete any irrelevant information and correspondence it collects on Americans and foreign nationals, reports The New York Times. The orders will decree that intelligence agencies like the CIA and the NSA must immediately delete any calls and emails made by Americans that are “determined not to be relevant to foreign intelligence.” However, similar correspondence collected from foreigners in the course of surveillance exercises may be held for up to five years before being deleted. In addition, the White House will regularly review the NSA’s monitoring…

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