Category: apps

WhatsApp claimed a legal win over the NSO Group, the makers of the Pegasus spyware, on Friday. A US District Court judge ruled in favour of the Meta-owned platform and found that the Israeli company is liable for hacking 1,400 individuals’ devices and infecting them with spyware via the instant messaging platform’s servers. The judge also found the company in violation of the federal US hacking laws as well as those of the State of California. Additionally, NSO Group was also held liable for breaching WhatsApp’s terms of service.

WhatsApp Wins Lawsuit Against NSO Group

The US District Court Judge Phyllis Hamilton, in the ruling, granted WhatsApp’s motion for summary judgment against NSGO group and found that the Israeli company violated the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) and the State of California’s Comprehensive Computer Data Access and Fraud Act (CDAFA).

A separate trial will be held in March 2025 to ascertain the damages NSO Group owes WhatsApp. Hamilton also asked both parties to notify the court by January 17, 2025, if any expert-related motions need to be resolved before the trial on damages.

Will Cathcart, the Head of WhatsApp, called the ruling “a huge win for privacy” in a post on Threads. “We spent five years presenting our case because we firmly believe that spyware companies could not hide behind immunity or avoid accountability for their unlawful actions. Surveillance companies should be on notice that illegal spying will not be tolerated,” he added.

The ruling on the Meta-filed lawsuit comes nearly two years after the US Supreme Court permitted WhatsApp to pursue the lawsuit accusing the NSO group of exploiting a bug in the messaging app to install the Pegasus spyware. The company had claimed that the spyware was installed in an unauthorised manner and was used for the surveillance of 1,400 people including journalists, politicians, and human rights activists.

During the Friday ruling, Hamilton highlighted that the NSO Group repeatedly failed to provide WhatsApp with the source code of its spyware. This was one of the main reasons behind granting the messaging platform’s request for sanctions. Notably, the Israeli firm only showed the source code of the Pegasus spyware to one Israeli citizen within the country. The Judge called the move “simply impracticable”.

WhatsApp first filed a lawsuit against the Israeli company in 2019 seeking an injunction and damages. At the time, NSO Group had argued that the intended usage of Pegasus was to help catch terrorists and hardened criminals and it was aimed at helping law enforcement and intelligence agencies fight crime and protect national security.

Snap
Inc.
is
planning
to
introduce
a
“Simple”

Snapchat
app
next
year,
the
company
CEO
announced
at
the
quarterly
investors
call
on
Tuesday.
The
company
revealed
that
it
added
37
million
users
daily
active
users
globally
in
the
third
quarter
(Q3)
of
2024,
taking
the
total
to
443
million.
Meanwhile,
the
fifth-generation
Snapchat
Spectacles,
which
were

unveiled
at
the
company’s
annual
summit
last
month,
will
now
be
available
in
more
countries,
it
is
confirmed.

New
Snapchat
App
and
Expansion
of
Spectacles
Availability

Snapchat

announced
the
financial
results
for
Q3
2024,
highlighting
a
15
percent
increase
in
the
quarterly
revenue
year-over-year
(YoY)
to
$1.3
billion
(roughly
Rs.
11,
544
Crore),
despite
the
company
reporting
a
net
loss
of
$153
million
(roughly
Rs.
15.3
Crore).
The
total
time
spent
watching
content
on
Snapchat
increased
5
percent
YoY,
with
a
billion
Snaps
being
shared
by
its
users
every
month
in
the
quarter.

Building
upon
its
recent
successes,
CEO
Evan
Spiegel
announced
that
a
new
“simple”
Snapchat
app
will
be
introduced
in
the
first
quarter
of
2025.
It
is
currently
in
testing
with
over
10
million
users
involved
in
more
than
12
markets.
The
company
also
has
plans
to
roll
it
out
in
higher
monetisation
markets
over
the
course
of
the
next
quarter.

Upon
launch,
the
app
will
target
new
and
less
engaged
users
—
an
area
where
the
company
is
reported
to
have
seen
the
biggest
increases
in
content
engagement.
Snapchat
says
its
app
has
become
complex
with
the
addition
of
new
innovations.
This
is
where
the
simple
Snapchat
app
would
come
in.
It
is
meant
to
deliver
a
simpler
and
unified
experience
for
basic
things
like
watching
stories
or
watching
Spotlight.

Snapchat
also

confirmed
that
Spectacles
—
the
augmented
reality
(AR)
glasses
that
it
debuted
at
the
Snap
Partner
Summit
2024
in
September
—
will
be
expanded
to
more
markets
outside
of
the
US.
It
will
soon
be
available
in
Austria,
France,
Germany,
Italy,
Netherlands,
and
Spain.

Instagram
lowers
the
quality
of
videos
that
do
not
get
a
lot
of
views,
Instagram
Head
Adam
Mosseri
said
on
Friday.
The
social
media
platform’s
head
executive
revealed
this
during
an
ask-me-anything
(AMA)
session
held
on
Instagram
Stories.
As
per
him,
this
applies
to
all
video
formats
on
the
platform
including
Stories,
longer
videos,
and
Reels.
The
decision
is
taken
to
ensure
that
the
videos
watched
by
a
lot
of
users
and
are
getting
a
high
volume
of
traffic
are
prioritised
in
terms
of
encoding.

Instagram
Reduces
Quality
of
Videos
That
Get
Less
Views

In
a
Threads

post,
a
user
posted
the
video
where
Mosseri
answered
a
question
about
why
older
Stories
which
are
saved
as
Highlights
turn
to
a
lower-quality
version
of
the
fresh
upload.
The
Instagram
head
said
that
the
platform
has
algorithms
that
automatically
check
older
Stories
and
Reels
which
do
not
get
many
views
and
reduce
their
quality.
This
is
done
to
reserve
the
computation
resources
for
videos
that
are
being
watched
by
a
large
number
of
users.

This
would
explain
why
the
Highlights
and
Reels
of
smaller
creators
appear
slightly
grainy
when
viewed
after
a
certain
period.
Mosseri
highlighted
that
quality
reduction
is
applied
after
the
interest
cycle
of
a
recent
upload
dies
down.
This
could,
in
theory,
take
between
a
few
days
and
a
few
weeks.

Some
users
raised
concerns
over
this
move,
especially
the
transparency
about
such
a
decision.
People
also
asked
about
the
breakdown
highlighting
if
a
certain
number
of
views
is
required
to
maintain
the
video
quality.

Mosseri,

replying
to
the
Threads
post,
said,
“It
works
at
an
aggregate
level,
not
an
individual
viewer
level.
We
bias
to
higher
quality
(more
CPU-intensive
encoding
and
more
expensive
storage
for
bigger
files)
for
creators
who
drive
more
views.
It’s
not
a
binary
threshold,
but
rather
a
sliding
scale.”

When
a
user
suggested
that
such
a
move
makes
it
difficult
for
smaller
creators
to
compete
with
larger
creators,
Mosseri

explained
that
based
on
the
analytics,
users
tend
to
interact
with
videos
based
on
the
quality
of
content
rather
than
the
quality
of
videos.
He
also
claimed
that
the
quality
drop
of
the
video
is
not
significant
enough
to
be
a
concern
to
users.

Apple
Inc.,
seeking
to
make
further
inroads
in
health
care,
tested
an
app
this
year
to
help
people
with
prediabetes
manage
their
food
intake
and
make
lifestyle
changes,
according
to
people
with
knowledge
of
the
matter.
The
company
tested
the
service
on
select
employees
earlier
this
year,
part
of
its
broader
push
into
blood-sugar
features,
according
to
the
people,
who
asked
not
to
be
identified
because
the
work
is
secret.
Though
Apple
doesn’t
have
plans
to
release
the
app,
the
company
may
eventually
integrate
the
technology
into
future
health
products,
including
a
noninvasive
glucose
tracker
that
it’s
been
developing
for
more
than
a
decade.

The
employees
involved
in
the
test
needed
to
validate
that
they
were
prediabetic
with
a
blood
test.
That
means
they
don’t
currently
have
diabetes
but
may
be
at
risk
of
developing
the
Type
2
version
of
the
disease.
As
part
of
the
test,
they
actively
monitored
their
blood
sugar
via
various
devices
available
on
the
market
and
then
logged
glucose-level
changes
in
response
to
food
intake.

The
idea
behind
the
system
is
to
show
consumers
how
certain
foods
can
affect
blood
sugar
—
with
the
hope
of
inspiring
changes
that
could
ward
off
diabetes.
For
instance,
if
users
logged
that
they
ate
pasta
for
lunch
and
that
their
blood
sugar
spiked,
they
could
be
told
to
stop
eating
the
pasta
or
switch
to
protein.

The
study
was
intended
to
explore
the
possible
uses
for
blood-sugar
data
and
what
tools
the
company
could
potentially
create
for
consumers.
For
now,
though,
the
app
test
has
been
paused
to
let
Apple
focus
on
other
health
features.
A
company
spokesperson
declined
to
comment.

Makers
of
devices
that
treat
conditions
associated
with
diabetes
slid
after
the
report
was
published
Friday,
though
they
soon
rebounded.
Insulet
Corp.,
which
makes
insulin
pumps,
fell
as
much
as
4.7%.
Glucose
monitor
maker
Dexcom
Inc.
dropped
as
much
as
5.3%
before
bouncing
back,
and
Tandem
Diabetes
Care
Inc.
slid
as
much
as
3.4%.
Apple,
meanwhile,
rose
about
1%
to
$232.45.

The
work
indicates
that
glucose
tracking
and
food
logging
could
be
two
important
areas
of
expansion
for
Apple
in
the
future.
The
company’s
current
health
app
lacks
features
for
logging
meals,
a
contrast
with
rival
services.
The
research
could
also
lead
to
Apple
integrating
third-party
glucose
tracking
more
deeply
into
its
offerings.

The
research
wasn’t
directly
tied
to
Apple’s
longstanding
effort
to
build
a
no-prick
glucose
monitor,
but
it
could
ultimately
help
inform
how
the
company
handles
that
project.
The
noninvasive
checker
is
one
of
Apple’s
most
ambitious
health
initiatives.
The
idea
is
to
analyze
a
person’s
blood
without
pricking
the
skin
—
a
potentially
groundbreaking
advance
in
the
fight
against
diabetes.

Apple
often
uses
employee
studies
to
get
health
features
ready
for
public
launches.
It
took
a
similar
tack
with
its
hearing
aid
and
sleep
apnea
detection
features
for

AirPods
and
the

Apple
Watch.
The
Cupertino,
California-based
company
has
multiple
labs
on
its
campus
for
testing
health
features.

The
glucose
studies
were
highly
secretive
—
even
compared
with
Apple’s
previous
projects
—
and
employees
required
specific
vetting
from
managers
before
they
could
partake
in
the
program.
Several
medical
and
nondisclosure
agreements
were
also
required
to
participate.

Today,
glucose-testing
systems
typically
require
a
blood
sample,
often
through
a
finger
prick.
There
also
are
small
shoulder-worn
patches
from
Abbott
Laboratories
and
Dexcom
that
are
less
cumbersome
—
though
they
still
require
insertion
into
the
skin.

About
15
years
ago,
Apple
set
out
to
create
something
less
invasive.
The
project
—
dubbed
E5
—
was
so
under-the-radar
at
the
start
that
Apple
created
a
subsidiary
dubbed
Avolonte
Health
LLC
to
operate
it.
That
unit
was
eventually
moved
to
Apple’s
hardware
technologies
group
and
is
now
run
by
a
deputy
to
the
company’s
head
of
silicon
chips.

Last
year,
Bloomberg
News
reported
that
Apple
had
made
headway
on
the
project
and
believed
it
was
finally
on
track
to
eventually
commercialize
the
technology.
But
an
actual
product
is
still
years
away.
Before
the
company
can
shrink
down
the
sensor
enough
to
fit
in
a
smartwatch,
it
is
working
on
an
iPhone-sized
prototype.
And
even
with
that
format,
Apple
has
run
into
challenges
with
miniaturization
and
overheating.

The
system
uses
lasers
to
shoot
light
into
the
skin
and
determine
how
much
glucose
is
in
the
blood.
Though
Apple
hopes
to
eventually
provide
specific
blood-sugar
readings,
the
initial
version
will
likely
be
designed
to
just
notify
users
if
they
may
be
prediabetic.

Apple
is
taking
a
similar
strategy
with
new
sleep
apnea
notifications,
which
can
tell
smartwatch
wearers
if
they
may
have
the
condition.
An
upcoming
hypertension
detection
feature
will
work
in
much
the
same
way.

©
2024
Bloomberg
LP

(This
story
has
not
been
edited
by
NDTV
staff
and
is
auto-generated
from
a
syndicated
feed.)