Google Play Store Will Reveal User Data Taken by Applications

Technology-Portfolio.Net - The Google Play Store will display a privacy label containing the user data set recorded in the application. The plan, this label will be present starting next year.

This announcement comes after several months that Apple displays the same privacy label on their App Store app page. Even Google also said that its application will also display recorded data, just like Apple.

According to Google, this is intended to assist users in understanding what data is collected and shared in the application, what effect if the data is secured, to further information regarding privacy and security.

Google will detail some user data that applications can access such as location, contacts, or email addresses. But companies also want to give developers room to explain why that data is being used and what's in it for their apps.

Also Read: Google Restricts Applications To Access User Information

Later, Google will provide information to users whether the data is encrypted, whether the data complies with Google's policies regarding child-friendly applications, and whether users can choose not to share data.

In addition, the information will also highlight whether a third party has verified the security of the application or can users ask them to delete their data or not.

Developers will begin to be informed of this information in the final quarter of 2021. Meanwhile, the privacy label will begin showing to users in the first quarter of 2022.

This label also applies to new applications or applications that have recently introduced an update. If the app update doesn't show any new information about the data recorded on the label, Google will block the app.

Twitter Users Can Now Upload Photos in 4K Resolution and Crop Free

Technology-Portfolio.Net - Twitter is back with updates for the convenience of its users in social media. After the fleet and the elimination of the bookmark feature, this time the platform with the blue bird logo makes it easy for users to upload images at full size.

Previous Twitter users had to crop (crop) the image they want to upload to a size of 16: 9 or usually it will be done by the system automatically.

This was done with the reason to keep the appearance in the timeline uniform. But now, Twitter has announced that users can upload images at their actual size.

"Introduce a bigger and better image on iOS and Android, now available to all users," wrote Twitter in its official account.

For information, this ability has indeed become one that is requested by users. Because, it is not uncommon for uploaded photos to be cut in size when they appear on the timeline.

High-Quality Images With 4K Resolution

Previously, Twitter also allowed users to upload high-resolution images from iOS and Android devices. Through this update, the image seen can be sharper and more detailed.

Apart from being crop free, Twitter users can also activate the high-quality images feature to view 4K resolution images and high-quality image uploads to tweet 4K quality images.

The Twitter application on the website supports high-resolution images up to 4K (4,096x4,096 pixels). Only for applications, the resolution is limited to a maximum of 2,048 x 2,048 pixels.

Users can also choose whether they want high resolution images to be seen when using cellular and WiFi networks, only when connected to WiFi, or disable both options.

Information From Twitter

"Time to tweet high-resolution images, the option to upload and view 4K images on Android and iOS is now available to all users," said Twitter via @TwitterSupport account.

"To start uploading and viewing images in 4K, update your high-quality image preferences in the 'Data usage' section," said Twitter.

Based on the Twitter statement, to activate this feature, users need to enter the "Data Usage" Settings on the Twitter application.

Brazil Finally Allows WhatsApp Pay

Technology-Portfolio.Net - WhatsApp has re-launched the WhatsApp Pay payment service in Brazil. The payment service WhatsApp Pay was suspended by Brazil's Central Bank in June 2020, just days after its launch.

Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, announced the return of this payment service in a video that was shown in Brazil.

In the video, Mark Zuckerberg talks about how payment information added to WhatsApp will work on Facebook and Instagram.

According to the Head of Facebook Financial, David Marcus, "the payment service WhatsApp Pay being rolled back in Brazil will be part of a phased rollout effort."

It seems that Facebook is serious about returning the WhatsApp Pay service to Brazil, one of which can be seen from the video uploaded to promote the payment service.

Not only that, Facebook also published a page stating that the Facebook Pay payment system that underlies WhatsApp Pay has been authorized by the Central Bank.

When the WhatsApp Pay service was first launched in Brazil, the country's central bank suspended operations. The reason is, there are concerns about competition among payment systems.

Brazil's Central Bank said it plans to evaluate whether the Facebook-owned service complies with regulations.

At the time, Facebook said it had been in contact with authorities before the WhatsApp Pay service was launched.

In late March 2021, Reuters reported, Brazil's Central Bank had approved the service, after Facebook obtained official approval to run the payments service.

In a Facebook press release, WhatsApp users will be able to connect debit, prepaid, or combo cards from several banks that work together to process their payments.

Previously on June 15, 2020, the WhatsApp Pay service officially operated in Brazil. This was conveyed by Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg through his personal page. Brazil became the first country where WhatsApp Pay was widely launched.

"Brazil became the first country in the world where we launched a payment service on WhatsApp," Zuckerberg said.

He said that with the presence of the payment service WhatsApp Pay in Brazil, users could send and receive money as easily as sending photos.

WhatsApp Pay, according to Zuckerberg, is also claimed to make it easier for small businesses to make financial transactions through the messaging application.

"To enable transactions, we developed Facebook Pay which provides a secure and consistent way to transact across our app platforms," ​​Zuckerberg said.

For your information, Zuckerberg also said, WhatsApp Pay can run thanks to collaboration with a number of local bank partners. They include Banco do Brasil, Nubank, Sicredi, and Cielo, merchant payment processors in Brazil.

Google Restricts Applications To Access User Information

Technology-Portfolio.Net - Google will be more selective with applications on the Google Play Store that can see what applications are already installed on the user's smartphone.

Although it seems harmless, the list of applications installed on the user's smartphone can inform the developer of the user's information. For example, dating preferences to political affiliations.

Starting May 5, 2021, the developer must provide reasons to Google regarding why the application accesses application installation information on the user's smartphone.

Android 11 applications currently requesting the "QUERY_ALL_PACKAGES" permission can view the complete list of applications installed on the user's device. However, Google recently updated its Developer Program Policies.

Where, now the application information installed on the user's smartphone is classified as sensitive personal data of the user.

Restrict Permission Access to the Application

Accordingly, Google will limit which applications are allowed to obtain information regarding the complete list of applications installed on the user's smartphone.

When these changes take effect in May, applications can only obtain permissions, if their core functions require wide visibility into the applications installed on the user's smartphone.

Examples are file manager applications, browsers, and antivirus applications that require data for interoperability purposes. "Banking applications, digital wallet applications, and other applications that involve financial transaction functionality will be licensed for security purposes," said Google.

Naughty Developers Can Be Kicked from Google Play

Apps that don't function properly but request visibility permission access could run the risk of being removed from the Google Play Store.

For this reason, all developers who wish to retain permission access in their applications need to complete a declaration form that guarantees its use in accordance with its function.

If you're concerned that users may still abuse permissions, Google's documentation clearly states that this will impact the app.

Google may suspend apps and may terminate developer accounts if they commit violations.

Google Assistant Now Can Say Difficult Names

Technology-Portfolio.Net - The use of Google Assistant is increasingly being used by users, because there are more and more things that can be done, such as playing music or calling contacts.

However, it is not uncommon for obstacles to arise in the pronunciation of difficult names to contact. As a result, Google Assistant doesn't recognize him or mispronounces his name.

In response to that problem, now Google Assistant has added the latest update for the pronunciation of names that are difficult or require special pronunciation.

"We want Google Assistant to recognize and pronounce people's names as accurately as possible, especially the less common ones," the company wrote in a blog post.

This feature will later allow users to provide examples of the pronunciation of names that the Google Assistant system will accept. That way, the system will be better able to recognize names that are quite difficult to pronounce.

This feature will be released in the next few days, with the temporary support language is English.

"We hope to expand into more languages soon," he said.

Smart Speaker

The next update regarding Google Assistant is the capability in Google's Smart Speaker.

This smart speaker is recorded as the most frequently commanded to set an alarm. Then, the user sometimes assigns multiple tasks in one command. This is what sometimes becomes a problem and the alarms are not loaded properly.

With the updates currently included, Google Assistant will be able to better understand the context that what its users are speaking. For example, after activating two alarms, the user wants to turn off one of them. The system will understand when the user orders even with sentences that are not exactly the same.

"Please turn off the second alarm," for example.

With this capability, Google Assistant is predicted to be 100 percent accurate in understanding the context of the alarm command.

BERT Technology

Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers (BERT) machine learning capabilities are behind the development of the feature.

To complement it, the company redesigned the NLU Assistant model to better understand context. That is, this model can find out empirically what the user commands mean.

BERT was first discovered in 2018 and is used in Search which allows the processing of various but related words.

Thus, the BERT capability will make the conversation between Google Assistant and its users appear more natural. The system is able to understand what the user is doing when opening the smartphone.