NewsBytes Briefing: Here's how deepfakes could end humanity, and more
Unknown perpetrators, using the power of deepfakes, duped Dutch politicians into believing they were video conferencing with Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny's chief of staff. This might sound like a jolly prank, but such diplomatic incidents could spark tensions between nuclear powers. If that seems far-fetched, you might want to take a look at what the US Strategic Command tweeted over last weekend.
The world might be primed for nuclear winter, but that won't stop the hackers from making a quick buck. Last year's leak affecting 20 million BigBasket users went from a private sale to a public database dump that's now free for everyone. If you have a BigBasket account and hadn't changed your passwords back then, now would be a good time to do that.
Speaking of data leaks, the veteran of security botch-ups Facebook is up to no good. WhatsApp has begun nagging users to accept its contentious privacy policy once again. The messaging platform has quite the gall to do that considering the hue-and-cry users raised last time it pulled the same privacy bait-and-switch. Interestingly, it still hasn't meaningfully answered the Indian government's ultimatums concerning this matter.
If you thought breach of privacy just entailed compromised texts, the self-proclaimed frontpage of the internet (Reddit) is making headlines after being sued for profiting off child abuse. While this could be argued as a blend of lax moderation and legal technicality, it's still a bad look for a platform that's already in the dock for shielding an employee with questionable past.
It's not all bad news, though. In a refreshing twist, Google and Microsoft have come out to express solidarity with Indians after the country is suffering from the worst COVID-19 resurgence to date. Google, in particular, has pledged Rs. 20 crore as direct aid. It has earmarked another Rs. 112 crore worth of advertisement credits that can be used to spread COVID-19 awareness.
