UK Opens New Investigation Against TikTok, Reddit, and Imgur for Privacy Concerns Related to Processing Minors’ Data

The leading UK privacy watchdog just shared how it’s carrying out an investigation against TikTok, Reddit, and Imgur due to serious privacy concerns linked to processing kids’ data.

The country’s Commissioner’s Office for data revealed how it’s now getting into the depths of how the app utilizes kids’ information to roll out recommendations that might give rise to dangerous and explicit material that’s easily visible on feeds.

Meanwhile, separate investigations were rolled out for both Reddit and Imgur, which investigate how they’re using the personal data linked to UK kids to determine the exact age. Such investigations are an integral part of the efforts to determine how companies protect kids. Moreover, it’s a stage that they investigate to see if any data protection laws were violated.

The office claims that if any such evidence was found that these organizations broke the law, then they will be penalized. So the scrutiny is only to see if they are abiding by the data protection rules. The UK says that it has a strong responsibility to keep all kids safe online. And this can only happen if such social media apps are offering the right services and sticking to the regulations that hold them accountable.

The news comes after a study was shared by the ICO which found that more than 42% of all parents in the country felt helpless about limited control over sharing videos online. This includes the amount of data that social media apps collect about kids.

Media outlets asked the respective apps for comments on the subject but failed to hear back. Meanwhile, the privacy watchdog did penalize social media giant TikTok with a fine of $15.9M in April 2023. It says the company violated laws including those related to collecting data of kids below 13 without consent from parents. Then in 2020, the app enabled nearly 1.4M young kids in the UK to utilize the app despite rules stopping them from generating accounts.

Currently, the ICO is examining data violations linked to data protection rules to make sure the firms roll out digital services that keep kids’ privacy safeguarded at all times. If that’s revealed through evidence of breaches made by the companies, then the ICO will sit with them before making the final verdict.

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by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

School Phone Ban Gains Support but Gen-Z Says It's a Step Too Far

According to a survey conducted among 2,000 American by Talker Research, most respondents think that cell phones should be banned at school, with 71% being in favor of it and 29% opposing it. Texas is going to vote for a mobile phone ban in educational institutions because many Americans are concerned that mobile phones are affecting the learning and well-being of students. 54% of the respondents said that mobile phones should be banned in elementary schools because young students using phones is concerning. 49% said that mobile phones should be banned in middle schools while 45% said that mobile phones should be restricted in high schools.

This shows that many people are aware that children of different ages have different mobile phone needs and it is important to know how much mobile phone use is required in educational institutions for the students to use it in educational settings. A lot of respondents were on the same page about mobile phones being a distraction for the youngest students and they do not even need them in educational institutions.

78% of the respondents are in favor of mobile phone restrictions because they are the biggest distraction for students, 72% are in favor because they do not want students to spend too much on devices and 47% want to stop cyberbullying. 45% of the respondents also said that they do not want students to use AI for their answers and that's why mobile phone restriction is necessary. The people who showed the strongest opposition to this ban suggestion are unsurprisingly Gen-Z, with 41% opposing mobile phone restriction in educational institutions while 26% of Baby Boomers opposed it. Gen-Z have grown around technology that's why this ban may be much harder on them while the generation who didn't have smartphones during their school times may not oppose it that much.

54% of the respondents who have children going to school support a mobile phone ban for all students, while 40% of parents who have children in elementary schools support the ban at that level only. 39% of parents with children in middle school and 34% of parents with children in high schools support the mobile phone ban at respective levels. There were only 19% of parents who are in favor of a complete ban on smartphones in schools while 56% of the respondents are in favor of allowing mobile phone usage in specific settings and times in schools. 11% also said that mobile phone usage should be allowed for educational purposes in school hours while 8% also said that students should have unrestricted access to their mobile phones.

The survey also looked at technological ways to stop mobile phone usage and 54% were in favor of blocking cell phone signals during school hours, but 28% opposed it. People who are in opposition to the mobile phone ban in schools (58%) are mostly concerned about parent-child communication and this shows that mobile phones are also being seen as a safety tool by some people. 27% of the respondents said that children have a right to their devices while 13% are in favor of specific policies around mobile phone use in schools.

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by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

Google AI Overviews Are Secretly Killing Top Pages While Boosting Hidden Ones

According to a study by Terakeet, web pages that are included in Google’s AI Overviews (AIO) gain more traffic, but webpages that do not appear on AI Overviews experience no clicks. The transactional and top-ranked queries get 3.2 times more clicks when they are included in Google’s AI Overviews while informational queries which are lower ranked get 2 times more clicks. Similarly, lower-ranked transactional queries and top-ranked transactional queries get 3.6 times and 3.2 times more clicks respectively as compared to webpages which get excluded by AI Overviews.

The study also found that webpages benefited from Google AI Overviews regardless of the intent. For informational queries, AIO reduces traffic for the top 1-2 positions but increases traffic for lower-ranked 3-10 positions. Webpages for transactional queries get an increase in traffic no matter what their position is on the first page of search results.

This shows that AI Overviews are changing the search behavior by reducing the traffic for top pages so businesses shouldn't only rely on SERP positions now. Adi Srikanth, Senior data scientist at Terakeet, says that AI Overviews is significantly harming some webpages but it is also becoming advantageous to others.

All in all, the presence of AI Overviews completely changes how web traffic behave in search engines and their results pages. This is why education tech company Chegg is suing Google by saying that AI Overviews has negatively impacted the traffic and revenue of their webpage.

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Read next: Apple's Siri Upgrade Delayed to 2027 Amid Technical Setbacks and Leadership Struggles

by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

Apple's Siri Upgrade Delayed to 2027 Amid Technical Setbacks and Leadership Struggles

Apple's ambition to reinvent Siri with more natural, upgraded, human-like conversations faces tougher obstacles than anticipated. The long-awaited transformation might not arrive until iOS 20 in 2027, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman.

The upcoming iOS 18.5 update will introduce large language model-powered AI enhancements to Siri. But instead of replacing the old system, the upgrade will work alongside it. This split design could limit how fluid and consistent Siri feels in everyday use. The real breakthrough that is combining basic tasks with smarter, context-aware capabilities, was initially planned for iOS 19.4. Now, that milestone appears out of reach for Apple's usual June software reveal at WWDC.

Apple isn't alone in facing these hurdles. Amazon's Alexa overhaul has followed a similar path, requiring a full system rebuild to merge legacy features with AI intelligence. That effort is only just entering early access for select devices.

Apple's situation comes with extra pressure. Engineers inside the company reportedly say its AI models are already straining against technical boundaries. Shortages of the hardware needed to train better models have made progress even slower. Meanwhile, leadership struggles and staff departures have added to the setbacks, all while competitors press forward with faster, more capable AI systems.

The delays raise bigger questions about Apple's role in the AI race. The company built its reputation on polished, seamless products, but in this fast-moving tech space, catching up might not be enough.

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• This Study Shows What Happens to Your Brain If You Ditch Your Smartphone for 72 Hours

by Asim BN via Digital Information World

This Study Shows What Happens to Your Brain If You Ditch Your Smartphone for 72 Hours

Mobile usage has become common in today's world, but a study published in Computers in Human Behavior found that not using a smartphone for 72 hours can change our brain activity in areas which are linked to self-control and reward. Researchers wanted to know how short breaks from smartphones can change our brain functioning because too much smartphone use shares similarities between gaming addiction and substance use. There had been some studies done which talked about differences between light and heavy smartphone users, but this study wanted to know how short-term restriction of smartphones can affect our brain activity.

For the study, the researchers recruited 25 young adults between the ages of 18 and 30 who were regular smartphone users. They were also examined for any mental health conditions or gaming addiction. The study made participants grow through a brain scan called functional magnetic resonance imaging in two sessions. The participants were asked to fill a questionnaire about their smartphone usage habits before the first scan. When the first brain scan was done, they were asked to restrict their smartphone use completely for the next 72 hours.

After 72 hours, participants returned for a second brain scan and again filled a questionnaire about their moods and smartphone cravings. Participants were also shown some blocks of images to monitor responses of their brains to smartphone cues. Some of the blocks contained images of everyday objects, some were pictures of turned off smartphones, and some were pictures of turned on smartphones. The researchers then analyzed the data of first and second scans. They focused on brain regions which were related to attention and reward processing.

The results of the questionnaire, which the participants were asked to fill, didn't show any significant differences before and after 72 hours. But on the other hand, the brain scans showed significant differences. The scans, while seeing the smartphone images (turned off and turned on), showed increased activity in the nucleus accumbens and anterior cingulate cortex, which wasn't there when participants saw images of everyday objects.

The activity observed when participants saw images of smartphones was similar to studies related to substance craving, which suggests that smartphone usage works in a similar way. The study also found a connection between activity in the parietal cortex and craving which suggests that this brain region may influence the urge to use smartphones. The researchers say that even a short break from smartphones can alter the brain activity, but these changes are mostly neural and not behavioral. There are some other limitations to the study, too, like it only focuses on short-term effects and not long-term.

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by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

Hackers Steal Data in Hours Without Encryption as AI Tools Speed Up Cyber Attacks

According to new findings from ReliaQuest’s Annual Cyber Threat Report, hackers only need 48 minutes on average to locate and access key assets after breaching a network, and within a few hours, they steal the data and leave without bothering to encrypt it. Now attackers are also using advanced AI tools for their attacks and the quickest exfiltration time recorded by the hackers was just 4 hours and 29 minutes.

ReliaQuest reported that cyber threats have become more common but quicker as well and defenders do not get enough time to detect and respond when critical data is being stolen. Mist ransomware attacks involve encryption because 80% of the time, attackers only focus on the exfiltration of data. The fastest encryption reported in 2024 was just six hours. Researchers say that advanced security tools and strong backups have made encryption not that important in cyber attacks. Attackers prefer data exfiltration because it is faster and also because encryption is more complex.

The researchers also found that 60% of the time, the stolen days are uploaded to legitimate cloud platforms like Mega, Google Drive, or Amazon S3. Organizations need to rethink their strategies because ransomware attacks are going to get more common in 2025. 85% of the data breaches had compromised service accounts which made attackers remain undetected for a long time. 45% of the attacks happen with the abuse of external remote services like VPNs, and drive-by and phishing attacks remain at the top for attackers to gain initial access.

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Read next: Internet Vulnerability Scans Rise, Leaving Outdated Routers at Higher Risk
by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

Internet Vulnerability Scans Rise, Leaving Outdated Routers at Higher Risk

Even if we are casual internet users, our router is still being scanned for vulnerabilities. Most of the scans are harmless and get blocked by basic firewalls, but outdated or poorly secured routers can still be exploited. Oren Koren, the co-founder and CPO of Veriti, says that tools like Censys and Shodan scan the internet to find any exposed devices, ports or systems. Even though most scans happen routinely, some scans can be dangerous as attackers can probe the network and search for weak points and vulnerabilities. The scans are of four types: mapping tools, targeted attacks, spray and pray, and organizational tools.

Chief Product Officer at ThreatLocker, Rob Allen, says that everyone should be concerned with internet scans, but they should be more concerned about modern firewalls blocking low-level attacks than port scanning. Attackers mostly scan for vulnerable ports like Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) from which unpatched devices and leaked credentials can be exploited. Many of the attackers have accessed devices without authentication by using crafted HTTP requests. Most of the unpatched and older routers are more at risk and even if your security features are in place, zero-day vulnerabilities can still lead to breaches.

Most users ask whether being attacked reduces their internet speed and the answer is no. But attackers can launch a denial of service (DoS) attack which acts like a traffic jam. But DoS is rare and home users are not vulnerable to it because they can easily change their IP address. F5 Labs reports that network scanning activity has increased by 94% last year and this trend is likely to gain momentum. Organizations are being scanned more than 40 million times a month, which shows that higher-value targets face more probes. To keep yourselves safe from port scanning, make sure your firewalls are enabled and all firmware is updated.

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