The COVID Alert app source code is now available on Github, AT&T pulls DSL internet without providing an alternative for people living in the area, and John McAfee gets arrested in Spain.
It’s all the tech news that’s popular right now. Welcome to Hashtag Trending! It’s Wednesday, October 7, and I’m your host Baneet Braich.
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Let it be open! The source code of Canada’s COVID Alert tracing apps is now available on Github. Releasing the source code allows anyone to examine and develop their own versions of the app. It also lets people scrutinize their security and privacy settings. Moreover, it invites programmers to help refine the core app by squashing bugs and report vulnerabilities. Canada’s COVID-Alert exposure notification app has been adopted by Ontario, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Saskatchewan, Newfoundland and Labrador, and (soon) Quebec.
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AT&T is pulling the plug on DSL, yanking internet access from rural and low-income households. Granted, DSL is an ageing technology, and with fibre internet quickly becoming the new standard, AT&T recommends an upgrade. That’s all good, except AT&T has deployed fibre optic cables to less than 30 per cent of the households in its service area. For some customers, the only option is to switch to a cable company at a higher cost. Consequently, large cable companies are raking in the profits from the laggard fibre deployment by U.S. providers.
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Lastly, John McAfee, the creator of the McAfee antivirus, was arrested in Spain for tax evasion and fraud. McAfee avidly promoted cryptocurrency and had tried to run for president campaign in 2018. He had famously claimed that taxes were illegal and that he had not filed a tax return since 2010. This isn’t his first run-in with the law. In 2012, a gang suppression unit raided his home in Belize, and McAfee was arrested for suspected drug manufacturing but was later released without charge. McAfee fled Belize when he was sought by the local police as a person of interest in the murder of American expatriate Gregory Viant Faull.
That’s all the tech news that’s trending right now. Hashtag Trending is a part of the ITWC Podcast network. Add us to your Alexa Flash Briefing or your Google Home daily briefing. I’m Baneet Braich, thanks for listening.
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