MacRumors

Apple today updated its Maps app to display nearby COVID-19 vaccine providers across the United States to make it easier for people to find an appropriate location to receive the vaccination when eligible.

Vaccine location listings include operating hours, address, phone number, and a link to the provider's website where Apple Maps users can get more information about available vaccines and book an appointment.

Apple has also introduced a Siri integration for vaccines. You can ask ‌Siri‌ "Where can I get a COVID vaccination?" to be directed to a nearby location.

VaccineFinder, a free online service from the Boston's Children Hospital is providing the data for the new ‌Apple Maps‌ feature, and the initial rollout includes more than 20,000 locations. Apple plans to add more sites in the coming weeks. Healthcare providers, labs, and other businesses can also submit information on COVID-19 testing or vaccination locations on Apple's Business Register Page, and once validated, the info may be displayed on ‌Apple Maps‌.

‌Apple Maps‌ also includes COVID-19 testing locations in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Portugal, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, and the United States, along with COVID-19 modules for businesses to share special hours and other information.

Note: Due to the political or social nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Political News forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

A Florida teenager who was accused of being the "mastermind" behind a July 2020 Twitter hack that affected Apple has agreed to a plea deal that will see him spending three years in prison, according to the Tampa Bay Times.

Graham Ivan Clark, alongside others, compromised the Twitter accounts of 130 prominent companies and individuals to solicit Bitcoin, scamming people out of more than $100,000. Apple's official account was accessed, as were the accounts of Tesla CEO Elon Musk, former U.S. President Barack Obama, former Microsoft CEO Bill Gates, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, and President Joe Biden.

Clark this week will plead guilty to state charges in exchange for three years in prison and three years probation. Because Clark was just 17 at the time of the attack, he will be sentenced as a "youthful offender" and could be eligible to serve some of his time in a military-style boot camp.

Under the terms of the plea deal, Clark is not allowed to use computers without permission and supervision from law enforcement.

Twitter did an internal investigation after the breach and found that hackers targeted employees in a "phone spear phishing attack," tricking them into thinking they were speaking to other Twitter employees to gain access to Twitter's internal tools.

Mason "Chaewon" Sheppard from the UK and Nima "Rolex" Fazeli have also been charged in the attack and are facing prison time.

With App Privacy labels now available for many of the top apps in the App Store, pCloud earlier this month took a look at the most "invasive" apps that collect the most data from users.

It will come as no surprise to many that Instagram and Facebook share the most data with third-party advertisers, collecting info on purchases, location, contact details, user content, search history, browsing history, and more.

Instagram collects 79 percent of personal data, while Facebook collects 57 percent. LinkedIn and Uber Eats were also serious offenders, collecting 50 percent of data. This study was done prior to when Google shared App Privacy labels for its Google Search and Chrome apps, but YouTube and YouTube Music were found to be collecting 43 percent of personal data to share with third parties.

eBay, TikTok, Duolingo, Deliveroo, and Trainline were all in the top 10 apps for data collection, with Reddit, Snapchat, Spotify, Pandora, ESPN, and CNN making the top 20.

Every time you search for a video on YouTube, 42% of your personal data is sent elsewhere. This data goes on to inform the types of adverts you'll see before and during videos, as well as being sold to brands who'll target you on other social media platforms. Instagram shares 79% of your data including browsing history and personal information with others online.

YouTube isn't the worst when it comes to selling your information on. That award goes to Instagram, which shares a staggering 79% of your data with other companies. Including everything from purchasing information, personal data, and browsing history. No wonder there's so much promoted content on your feed.

With over 1 billion monthly active users it's worrying that Instagram is a hub for sharing such a high amount of its unknowing users' data.

Apps that collect data for third-party use do so for targeting purposes, sharing the info across different apps and websites. Apps also collect data to market their own products, with Facebook and Instagram again collecting the most data in this category.

On the other end of the spectrum, apps that don't collect much data include Signal, Clubhouse, Netflix, Shazam, Etsy, Skype, and Telegram.

Starting with the launch of iOS 14.5, Apple will begin requiring apps that access a user's advertising identifier for cross-app and website tracking to get express permission before using it, which may help cut down on some of the third-party data sharing.

Prior to downloading an app, it's always worth checking out the App Privacy label to see just what data is being collected, primarily in "Data Used to Track You" and "Data Linked to You" sections, which include data collected for third-party advertising and for the developer's own advertising or marketing.

While rumors have been floating around about third-generation AirPods launching as early as this month, a reliable leaker has suggested this will not be the case after all.

In a cryptic-as-usual message posted on his Weibo page today (via 9to5Mac), L0vetodream said there are "no AirPods" in his "dream." In a tweet shortly afterwards, he then suggested that the second-generation AirPods will not be discontinued yet. This comes after well-known Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said that the third-generation AirPods will enter mass production in the second half of 2021, meaning a launch could be months away.

At this point, it's unclear if Apple will even be holding its rumored March 23 event, as it was generally expected that Apple would have announced the event by today at around 9 a.m. Pacific Time. Of course, Apple could choose to announce the event at a different time, or it could introduce new products with press releases as it did last March.

Apple has a handful of products rumored to be in the pipeline, including its long-awaited AirTags item trackers, a new iPad Pro with a Mini-LED display, new iPad and iPad mini models, and a new Apple TV. A redesigned iMac with Apple silicon is also expected to launch this year, but it's unclear if the computer is ready yet. 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models with Apple silicon are not expected until the second half of 2021.

Apple has a partnership with Oprah for "Oprah's Book Club," a follow along reading experience available in the Apple Books app and the Apple TV+ app.

Starting today, there's a new Oprah Siri integration that allows you to ask Siri what book Oprah is currently reading for her book club. In response, Oprah herself reads a synopsis of the book, which happens to be Marilynne Robinson's novel "Gilead" at the current time.

"Gilead" is narrated by a Congregationalist minister from Gilead, Iowa named John Ames. Ames reflects back on his life as he shares his experiences and what he's learned with his young son. Oprah is also recommending followup books "Home," "Lila," and "Jack."

After ‌Siri‌ provides an Oprah-read synopsis of the book, ‌Siri‌ directs users to the Apple Books app to get the book or to the "Oprah's Book Club" TV show in the ‌Apple TV‌ app.

Apple is partnering with the Redford Center for the second annual Redford Center Stories Challenge, a youth filmmaking challenge that seeks to amplify the voices of students and educators in the environmental justice movement (via Variety).

The 2021 Redford Center Stories Challenge encourages middle-school-aged youths to promote environmental justice themes through the medium of film. Using the Apple Clips app, students can complete mini-challenges to build confidence and storytelling skills. Lisa Jackson, Apple's vice president of environment, policy, and social initiatives said:

Young people are leading the movement to create urgency around the need for environmental action. We are thrilled to partner with the Redford Center to lift young people's voices and give them tools to create content that inspires real change and furthers justice around the world. For there is no justice without environmental justice.

Students' work will be recognized across a range of categories on Earth Day 2021, and there are more than $10,000 in prize packages available for schools, teachers, and students. Student prizes include the opportunity to make a short film with a professional filmmaker, youth-directed donations to student and educator-selected nonprofits, Apple gift cards, and more.

Judges for this year's Redford Center Stories Challenge include Jackson, Robert Redford, Sibylle Szaggars Redford, Dylan Redford, co-founder of Future Coalition Katie Eder, filmmaker Faith Briggs, and "Animal Planet" host Coyote Peterson. Submissions are open now to students until March 31, and winners will be announced on April 22.

Note: Due to the political or social nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Political News forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Google today announced that, starting July 1, it will be lowering its Play Store commission from 30% to 15% for the first $1 million of revenue developers earn using the Play Store billing system each year, as reported by TechCrunch.

Google estimated that 99% of developers that sell goods and services with the Play Store billing system will see a 50% reduction in fees.

This moves comes nearly three months after Apple introduced a Small Business Program that reduces the App Store's commission rate from 30% to 15% for developers earning up to $1 million per calendar year in net revenue. For developers exceeding this threshold, Apple's standard 30% rate still applies, whereas Google is lowering the rate to 15% for the first $1 million earned per year by developers of any size.

Update: A spokesperson for Epic Games shared the following statement with MacRumors, arguing that "competition in payment processing and app distribution is the only path to a fair app marketplace":

While a reduction in the Google app tax may alleviate a small part of the financial burden developers have been shouldering, this does not address the root of the issue. Whether it's 15% or 30%, for apps obtained through the Google Play Store, developers are forced to use Google's in-app payment services. Android needs to be fully open to competition, with a genuinely level playing field among platform companies, app creators, and service providers. Competition in payment processing and app distribution is the only path to a fair app marketplace.

Apple is to be investigated by France's data-protection watchdog following allegations that the company's personalized advertising feature violates European Union data protection and e-privacy rules (via Bloomberg).

The National Commission on Informatics and Liberty, known as "CNIL," is France's regulator that oversees privacy and data. CNIL is now examining antitrust allegations from France Digitale, a lobbying group representing startups and venture capital companies, about Apple's personalized advertising practices.

Apple displays personalized ads in the App Store, Apple News, and the Stocks app based on collected user data, but does not request consent before doing so.

Four French advertising lobbies have highlighted that Apple's changes to App Tracking Transparency in iOS 14, which requests user permission to be tracked across apps and websites for advertising purposes, do not extend to Apple itself. Apple can still deliver personalized advertising via a default setting, the lobbies have said, thereby holding itself to a different standard.

France Digitale alleges in its complaint that users are "insufficiently informed" about the use and processing of their personal data by Apple. Apple has now responded to the claim, calling the allegations "patently false," and said that "privacy is built into the ads we sell on our platform with no tracking."

The investigation may result in requests for Apple to make adjustments to its personalized advertising systems, or even an in-depth probe with sanctions. EU General Data Protection Regulation law allows data regulators to levy fines of as much as four percent of a company's annual sales for breaches.

A ruling is expected as soon as March 17, and Bloomberg claims that the result could have "implications" for Apple's personalized advertising in a future iOS 14 update.

Note: Due to the political or social nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Political News forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Instagram today announced several new tools and changes coming to the platform with the aim of "protecting young people." Amongst the changes will be the inability for adults to DM teenagers (users under 18 years old) who don't follow them.

Instagram says it has partnered with The Child Mind Institute and the non-profit group ConnectSafely to publish a new Parents Guide in the U.S. The new resource advises parents and teenagers on proper and safe usage of the platform. It will additionally roll out in partnership with experts in Argentina, Brazil, India, Indonesia, Japan, Mexico, and Singapore, joining existing guides for the UK, France, Italy, Germany and Spain and with plans to expand further in the future.

Instagram's terms and conditions require all users to be at least 13 years old to make an account, although some young users "can lie about their date of birth," circumventing the requirement. To battle it, Instagram does ask some new users for a form of age verification, and now, Instagram will use artificial intelligence to help "keep teens safer and apply new age-appropriate features."

One of the most prominent new "age-appropriate features" will be limited interaction between adults and teenagers who aren't following each other. As Instagram explains, if an adult tries to DM a teenager who doesn't follow them, they'll be shown a prompt saying, "You can't message this account unless they follow you." Additionally, Instagram will add new "Saftey Notices" for teenagers when messaging an adult they follow.

Safety notices in DMs will notify young people when an adult who has been exhibiting potentially suspicious behavior is interacting with them in DMs. For example, if an adult is sending a large amount of friend or message requests to people under 18, we'll use it to alert the recipients within their DMs and give them an option to end the conversation, or block, report, or restrict the adult.

Other changes coming to Instagram will include the platform attempting to make it harder for adults to find teenagers to follow if they've been "exhibiting potentially suspicious behavior to interact with teens." Instagram also says it will encourage teenagers to make their accounts private, only allowing people they approve to see their photos and videos.

Dropbox today announced that it will be rolling out a limited version of its Dropbox Passwords password manager to users with a free Dropbox Basic account in early April. The feature launched last year for paying subscribers only.

Dropbox Basic users will be able to store up to 50 passwords, with automatic syncing on up to three devices. These limits are likely in place to incentivize users to start paying for a Dropbox Plus or Dropbox Professional plan, but as The Verge notes, Bitwarden offers unlimited password storage and syncing for free.

Similar to 1Password, Dropbox Passwords is a password manager that allows you to save your account usernames and passwords and sync them across your devices, with autofilled or suggested passwords when you sign into websites and mobile apps. Dropbox Passwords is available as a desktop app on macOS and Windows, mobile app on iOS and Android, and browser extension across Safari, Chrome, Firefox, and Microsoft Edge.

Users can sign up to be notified when Dropbox Passwords is available.

Multiple reports suggest that Apple is developing an augmented reality headset as well as smart glasses, and a newly granted Apple patent may provide a clue about one of the potential features that could be included in the latter device.

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on Tuesday granted Apple a patent describing "systems and methods for gaze-driven recording of video."

Apple's patent notes that head-mounted displays are used to provide virtual reality, augmented reality, and/or mixed reality experiences for users, and envisions video from such a device being recorded for later playback or analysis. Specifically, it envisions such a system in smart glasses, where the use of built-in gaze-tracking sensors could provide an indication of where a person is currently looking, which could direct a built-in camera to record the scene where the user's eyes are trained, instead of simply recording what's in front of the user.

The patent envisions a system with one or more gaze-tracking sensors, one or more image sensors, and a processing apparatus configured to access the gaze data captured. This apparatus would apply a temporal filter to the gaze data to obtain a "smoothed gaze estimate," which would allow it to determine a region of interest based on the sensors. The system would then apply signal processing to the video based on the region of interest to obtain an enhanced recording that could mitigate the impact of rapid-movement eye saccades.

According to the patent, the system would consist of a pair of smart glasses and a separate connected device for power and storage, which could be interpreted to mean an iPhone, iPad or Mac.

The invention harks back to another patent filed last month in which an eye tracking system is used for detecting the position and movements of a user's eyes in smart glasses and other head-mounted displays.

In the latter patent, Apple envisages the eye tracking system being used to analyze the position and movements of the user's eyes, or to detect other information such as pupil dilation. In one example, identifying the point of the user's gaze allows for interaction with content shown on the near-eye display of the head-mounted display, while another application includes the creation of eye image animations that could be used for digital avatars visible to other users in a mixed-reality communal environment.

Of course, Apple files numerous patent applications every week, and many of these inventions do not see the light of day. But they do provide a glimpse into the kinds of technologies Apple is exploring for potential use in its upcoming AR/VR products, and based on the rumored launch roadmap for its mixed-reality headset and smart glasses, the company still has plenty of time to implement them.

The Information and Bloomberg have both said that Apple is working on smart glasses AND an AR/VR headset, with the headset to come out in first followed by the glasses. Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo believes the "mixed reality" headset will come out in 2022, with the Apple Glasses to follow in 2025. The headset is AR/VR, while Apple's glasses are augmented reality.

The headset is rumored to be similar to Facebook's Oculus Quest virtual reality headset, but with a sleeker design that uses fabrics and lightweight materials to ensure the headset is comfortable. JP Morgan believes the headset will look similar to other brands of VR headsets, featuring six lenses and an optical LiDAR scanner to map the wearer's environment. The headset will be targeted at the top end of the consumer market and will be more expensive than others on the market.

The glasses, meanwhile, which are reportedly in an early stage of development, are said to resemble high-end sunglasses with thick frames that house the battery and chips. Kuo expects the AR glasses to be marketed as an ‌iPhone‌ accessory and will primarily take a display role offloading computing, networking, and positioning to the ‌iPhone‌, with the glasses providing a mobile-first "optical see-through AR experience."

Patently Apple was first to report on the patent being granted today. Apple originally applied for the patent in December 2019.

Apple has reportedly agreed to show users a prompt when first setting up a device in Russia to pre-install government-approved apps, in compliance with a new law from the Ministry of Digital Affairs, according to a report from Vedomosti.

According to the report, citing a source within the Ministry, Apple struck a deal with the government that will show users a prompt when first configuring a device in Russia to pre-install apps from a list of government-approved software. Users will have the ability to decline the installation of certain apps.

The new legislation is an amendment to the existing "On Consumer Protection" law that will require the pre-installation of software on all devices sold in Russia, including smartphones, tablets, laptops, desktops, and smart TVs. The pre-installed software will include antivirus and cartographic apps, social media apps, and "Public Service" apps for payments and civil services.

Apple told Vedomosti that beginning on April 1, "users will be offered a choice of applications from Russian developers, which they will be able to choose for further installation on their iPhone or iPad." Furthermore, Apple is reportedly discussing adding a new section to the App Store in Russia specifically dedicated to promoting Russian apps.

The Ministry of Digital Affairs assures that it is not seeking to create a dominant position for itself on the list of pre-installed apps. In fact, the Ministry says that if there are other apps on the market, they should be added to the list for users to pre-install.

The Ministry is not interested in the fact that popular programs included in the list for mandatory pre-installation occupy a dominant position. If there are alternative offers of interest to users and rapidly gaining popularity on the market, they will be included in this collection and will also be offered for pre-installation.

In 2019, Apple warned that this new law would open up its device to possible risks and that it would be the "equivalent to jailbreaking." Apple maintains tight control over the pre-installation of apps on its devices and strict moderation over apps allowed onto the ‌App Store‌, so the expected change is unusual.

Note: Due to the political or social nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Political News forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Kensington in February began accepting pre-orders for the StudioDock docking station that it released for the iPad Pro, and now those StudioDock orders have started arriving to customers. We picked up one of the new StudioDocks to see if it's worth the high purchase price for an iPad workflow.

Available for the 11-inch ‌iPad Pro‌, the 10.9-inch iPad Air, and the 12.9-inch ‌iPad Pro‌, the StudioDock has a magnetic base where an ‌iPad‌ can attach, and it can be used in either landscape or portrait mode. We have the version for the 12.9-inch ‌iPad Pro‌, and it looks kind of like the Pro Display XDR stand.

This isn't an Apple-designed product so it's not quite as high quality as the Pro XDR stand, but the aluminum design looks nice on a desk, and the plastic back panel is hidden. The ‌iPad‌ attaches magnetically to the rubberized front of the stand, and plugs in to the USB-C connector.

In addition to orienting the ‌iPad‌ in landscape or portrait mode, you can also adjust the angle up and down to get the ideal position for what you're doing, and once situated, it doesn't move around.

The dock offers 37.5W passthrough charging to charge your ‌iPad‌ at full speed through USB-C, plus it adds multiple ports and charges your other accessories. There are three USB-A ports, one USB-C port, an HDMI 2.0 port, a 3.5mm headphone jack, an SD card reader, a Gigabit Ethernet port, and a power button. There are also two spots for Kensington locks to protect the StudioDock.

On the built-in Qi-based wireless charging pad that's at the bottom, you can charge an iPhone and AirPods, or any other Qi-based device, plus you can add-on a separate Apple Watch charging puck. You'll need to give up the USB-C port on the side whenever you want to use it, though. The ‌iPhone‌ charging spot charges at 7.5W, while the AirPods spot charges at 5W.

At the $380 to $400 price point, the StudioDock is aimed at those who use their iPads in a professional capacity. If the ‌iPad Pro‌ or ‌iPad Air‌ is your main work or school machine and you're using it in lieu of a Mac or PC, the StudioDock adds all of the versatility you need for a full day of work.

If you're using your ‌iPad‌ in a more casual capacity and have other Apple products that you use alongside it, the StudioDock is likely overkill.

The StudioDock can be purchased from the Kensington website. It's priced at $380 for the 11-inch model that works with the ‌iPad Pro‌ and ‌iPad Air‌ and $400 for the 12.9-inch model designed for Apple's largest ‌iPad Pro‌.

Huawei will begin negotiating for royalties from Apple and Samsung for access to its portfolio of patents on 5G technology (via Bloomberg).

Huawei is the owner of the world's largest collection of 5G patents and is seeking to charge other large tech companies a "reasonable" fee for access to them, creating a substantial new source of revenue.

Huawei's Chief Legal Officer, Song Liuping, explained earlier today that the company will negotiate rates and comprehensive cross-licensing agreements with Apple and Samsung, promising to charge lower rates than competitors such as Qualcomm, Ericsson, and Nokia. "It's natural" for Huawei to capitalize on its patents, Song said.

Per-phone royalties will be capped at $2.50, which is markedly less than Qualcomm's $7.50 rate that led to a legal battle with Apple over supposedly unfair pricing.

While Apple is currently reliant on Qualcomm and expected to stick with external suppliers for its 5G technology until 2022, the company is rumored to be developing its own 5G modem for introduction on the 2023 iPhone models. Apple is also believed to have begun work on next-generation 6G wireless technologies.

With Apple seeking to move away from reliance on other companies for wireless technologies, it is unclear how a deal with Huawei may pan out. Though Apple could take advantage of Huawei's expansive portfolio of 5G patents to develop its own wireless technologies, the company's apparent desire for independence in this area may mire the chances of a sustainable long-term agreement.

Note: Due to the political or social nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Political News forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Apple plans to begin enforcing its App Tracking Transparency changes following the release of iOS 14.5, and all apps that access an iPhone's ad identifier or IDFA will need to ask a user's permission before tracking is allowed.

According to a new report by the Financial Times, however, the state-backed China Advertising Association (CAA) is testing a tool that could be used to bypass the new Apple privacy rules and allow companies to continue tracking users without their consent.

The new method of tracking users is called CAID, which is said to be undergoing testing by tech companies and advertisers in China. According to the report, TikTok owner ByteDance has already provided its developers with an 11-page guide suggesting that advertisers "use the CAID as a substitute if the user's IDFA is unavailable."

However, the CAA told FT that the tool "does not stand in opposition to Apple's privacy policy" and that the association "is currently actively communicating with Apple," while the CAID solution has not yet been formally implemented.

Apple declined to directly comment on the potential use of CAID to get around its new App Tracking Transparency rules, but told the newspaper that it wouldn't grant any exceptions.

"The App Store terms and guidelines apply equally to all developers around the world, including Apple," the company told FT. "We believe strongly that users should be asked for their permission before being tracked. Apps that are found to disregard the user’s choice will be rejected."

However, two people briefed on the issue told the newspaper that Apple is aware of the tool and seems to have so far turned a blind eye to its use.

Apple is believed to have the capacity to detect which apps use the CAID tool and could block them from its App Store in China, if it wanted to. But such a response could ignite a major confrontation if CAID receives the support of China's technology companies as well as its government agencies.

Three people with knowledge of briefings between Apple and developers also said the Cupertino, California-based company would be wary of taking strong action, despite a clear violation of its stated rules, if CAID has the support of China's tech giants as well as its government agencies.

Rich Bishop, chief executive of AppInChina, a leading publisher of international software in China, suggested that Apple might "make an exception for China" because tech companies and the government are "so closely aligned."

It still remains unclear how the CAID system works, but Beijing-based data privacy company Digital Union believes that the system has been designed with Apple's rules in mind because its tracking methods may not uniquely identify users. "This is the room that the industry has left to explore," the company's co-founder Yang Cong'an told FT, suggesting the grey area was intentional.

CAID is reportedly scheduled to be publicly released as soon as this week, and although the system is intended to be used by local app developers in China, at least one French gaming group is said to have been encouraged to apply to use it and several foreign advertising companies have already applied on behalf of their Chinese divisions.

Note: Due to the political or social nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Political News forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Encrypted messaging app Signal appears to have been banned in China, reports TechCrunch. While the app remains available in the App Store, the service is no longer operational in mainland China, according to the censorship tracking website Greatfire.org.

Western-run social networks like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram have been unavailable in the country for some time, but Signal has largely flown under the radar of China's authorities until now. Signal has yet to comment on the issue.

It's unclear what has caused the country's government to act and whether the ban is permanent, however Signal and rival service Telegram have both recently experienced a significant uptick in users following WhatsApp's bungled PR campaign explaining its upcoming privacy policy update.

Like Signal, Telegram and WhatsApp are still listed on the China ‌App Store‌, although access to the services requires the use of VPNs – another category of apps that local authorities have cracked down on in recent years.

VPNs circumvent China's "Great Firewall" by routing and encrypting internet traffic to servers outside of the country, making them popular with privacy-conscious users who have limited access to online content because of government restrictions.

Note: Due to the political or social nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Political News forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

As reported by Ars Technica, a significant number of Apple device users are being bombarded with spam group FaceTime calls during late hours of the night from people they've never met.

The spammers, or "pranksters," utilize the fact that Apple doesn't provide a setting to accept ‌FaceTime‌ calls only from people within a user's address book. Apple does allow users to block individual numbers, but doing so does not prevent group ‌FaceTime‌ calls, even if the blocked number is in the call. As explained by Ars Technica, some users have been getting inundated with the group ‌FaceTime‌ calls, and as soon as they hang-up, another call comes in.

As described by one Apple Support forum user, the spam calls have been ongoing non-stop, and as a result, they've blocked more than 300 numbers. Another user describes their experience:

Starting around 2 am this morning I began receiving group FaceTime calls from a mix of numbers in my contacts and random numbers I didn't have saved. Since then I've received about 7 more calls throughout the day. The calls only ring once or twice before ending. What's even more interesting is that, after going back through the numbers involved in the calls in the "recents" tab of the FaceTime app, there were more than the 32 total people involved with the highest being 59. The reason I think this happened is that every number was repeated once or twice.

It seems this is not a new occurrence, with posts dating back as far as March of last year complaining about the issue. Unfortunately, there's no current remedy, but hopefully the growing number of users reportedly being targeted will push Apple to provide a solution. We've reached out to Apple for comment and will update this article if we hear back.