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The makers of an app that can alert parents when a diabetic child is at risk say Google's rules are making it harder to use the app. Play Store rules designed to stop malware mean the app can't send text messages directly. The app is called CamAps ... FX and works with medical devices to operate an "artificial pancreas" for type-1 diabetes, which is a hereditary condition. It connects to a glucose monitor and an insulin pump, constantly monitoring glucose levels and then delivering insulin as necessary. (Source: camdiab.com ) The BBC reports that while it's suitable for adults, the app is ... (view more)

Some Google Play Store apps with more than a million downloads have turned out to house malware. It's a reminder that however good Google's security vetting process is, it's not perfectly reliable. Two security companies, ThreatLabZ and Evina, say ... they found a total of 60 apps that are or have been in the Play Store and house one of four "families" of malware. One type appears to be new and has been dubbed Autolycos by researcher Maxime Ingrao. Promoted via Facebook and Instagram ads, the apps use a common technique. They are listed as carrying out a specific feature, which they ... (view more)

Google has fixed an unusual bug that mistakenly implied trusted contacts might be spammers. It asked users to make a decision about future filtering but took no notice of the reply. The good news is that the fix removes the unwanted messages and the ... filtering now appears to be working as intended. The bug involves the way Google will occasionally highlight a message sender as a potential source of unwanted emails. Users can then click one button to block all future messages from the sender. Once the bug took effect, many more users than usual started seeing the message, which read: "Do ... (view more)

At least half the zero-day bugs discovered by Google this year were preventable according to one of its security experts. She pointed to sloppiness by software developers. The claims came in a talk and subsequent blog post by Maddie Stone. She's ... part of Google's Project Zero security program. While precise definitions sometimes vary, the general principle of a zero-day bug is that it's where attackers are exploiting the vulnerability before the software developers have a chance to develop a fix - in most cases because they aren't even aware of the bug. The name comes from the way the ... (view more)

Consumer groups claim Google acts unfairly in getting permission to use personal data. They say the sign-up process makes it far more time-consuming to exercise the right to limit data use. The complaints come from consumer groups in six European ... countries who have complained to national data regulators while warning they may also launch a civil court case. The European setting is key as data laws there say companies that rely on consent to make data handling lawful must make sure the decision to give consent is based on having a meaningful choice. Businesses aren't supposed to make both ... (view more)

Google has added an offline mode for Gmail. It lets users read, reply and even search through Gmail messages without being online. The mode will be familiar to users of a certain age, though it's mainly aimed at people in places where Internet ... connections are unreliable such as in some remote areas or developing nations. Though the offline mode might seem like wizardry, it's an extremely simple setup with some clear limitations. It uses some of the user's hard drive to store copies of messages that are normally only kept on Google's servers. The mode only works for users running the Chrome ... (view more)

Google is making it easier to change passwords on an Android device after a security breach. It's automating much of the process through the Google Assistant feature. It works with the saved passwords tool on Chrome, which can automatically fill in ... user names and password fields on websites. The passwords themselves are then stored securely in the user's Google account, which is one of the reasons it's so important to keep the Google password secure. On both desktop and mobile devices, Chrome can already warn users if their saved login details for a particular site is known to have been ... (view more)

Google is making it easier for people to remove web pages with their personal contact details from search results. It won't remove them from web pages, but may make it less likely people will come across them. The policy makes information less ... visible in two ways. Firstly, it stops it appearing on the search results page through the extracts from the relevant pages. Secondly, it may make it less likely the page that hosts the content will appear in a search result. While Google is legally required to remove some personal information from search results under European privacy laws, it goes a ... (view more)

Google has started including detailed privacy information about the Android apps in the official Play Store. It's up to developers to fill out the details and Google won't be checking them in advance. The listings page for each app will now have a ... summary box listing key data privacy and security details. Users can then click or tap through to see more detailed information. The box will note how many types of data the app collects, whether it is stored in encrypted form, and whether user can easily delete it. It will also list if the developer has put the app through an independent privacy ... (view more)

Google users have reported an unexpected message saying their account is about to be shut down. It looks like a phishing scam but appears to actually be a bug in Google systems. The reports came in a Google support thread that has now been deleted. ... More than 300 people "upvoted" the original posts, suggesting they had a similar experience. The users were confused as they received an email saying "Your Google Account will soon be considered inactive" and that if they didn't log in it would be classed as having not been used for 18 months. That was a major surprise to users ... (view more)