AT&T and Verizon say they will voluntarily delay the deployment of their new C-Band 5G services near some US airports after several carriers, including Delta, United and Southwest Airlines, wrote to the federal government to warn of potential flight delays due to the rollout. An AT&T spokesperson told CNBC the carrier was “frustrated” by the Federal Aviation Administration’s inability to safely deploy the networking standard without disrupting aviation services, a feat the company said 40 other countries have done without issue.

Verizon shared AT&T’s sentiment. “We have voluntarily decided to limit our 5G network around airports,” the company said. “The Federal Aviation Administration and our nation’s airlines have not been able to fully resolve navigating 5G around airports, despite it being safe and fully operational in more than 40 other countries.”

In a letter obtained by Reuters, airlines warned interference from 5G cell towers could affect the safety equipment on their planes. Devices like airplane altimeters, which pilots use to land when visibility is low, operate on C-Band adjacent frequencies. Airlines asked that AT&T and Verizon not offer 5G service within two miles of some of the country’s busiest airports. “Immediate intervention is needed to avoid significant operational disruption to air passengers, shippers, supply chain and delivery of needed medical supplies,” they said.

Before airlines sent out the letter to government officials, AT&T and Verizon had agreed to establish buffer zones around 50 airports to reduce the risk of flight disruption. They also agreed to a month-long delay in December, and then a further two-week delay in January, to give the FAA more time to address any interference concerns.

Source: Engadget – AT&T and Verizon delay 5G rollout at some airports after airlines warn of disruptions

Snapchat is changing up its friend recommendation feature following calls for increased safety on the app. The company is making it harder for adult strangers to find teens in its app by limiting friend recommendations in its “Quick Add” feature. 

Now, the app won’t show the accounts of 13 to 17-year-olds in Quick Add unless they have “a certain number of accounts in common,” according to Snap. While the change won’t prevent adults and teens from connecting at all, it could make it more difficult for strangers to find teens they don’t already know. In a blog post, the company said the change was part of its work to “combat the fentanyl epidemic” and keep drug dealers from finding “new ways to abuse Snapchat.”

The company has faced scrutiny over its handling of drug dealers on its platform in recent months. Lawmakers and safety advocates have pushed Snap to do more to keep dealers off of Snapchat following reports of overdoses linked to drugs bought through the app. Snap also said Tuesday that it has improved its ability to proactively detect “drug-related content” on its platform, with 88 percent of “drug related content” now being “proactively detected” with AI. The company also notes it has staffed up the team that works directly with law enforcement agencies and has “significantly improved” its response time to law enforcement requests.

At a Senate hearing last fall, Snap’s VP of Global Public Policy Jennifer Stout said the company was working on new parental control features that would make it easier for parents to monitor their children’s activity in the app. Those updates still have yet to launch, though the company hopes to make them available “in the coming months.”

Source: Engadget – Snapchat is limiting friend recommendations for teen accounts

Just over two weeks before the 2022 Winter Olympics are set to get underway in Beijing, researchers have issued a report claiming that an app many attendees are using has major security issues. The Citizen Lab, a research facility based at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, said a “simple but devastating flaw” made it easy to bypass encryption systems that are supposed to protect voice audio and file transfers.

“The worst case scenario is that someone is intercepting all the traffic and recording all the passport details, all the medical details,” research associate Jeffrey Knockel told CTV.

The app is used for health monitoring as part of COVID-19 countermeasures. Other features include messaging, news about the Games and information about logistics. The International Olympic Committee says the local Beijing 2022 workforce is using the app for things like time-keeping and task management too.

“The IOC has conducted independent third-party assessments on the application from two cyber-security testing organizations,” the IOC told Engadget in a statement. “These reports confirmed that there are no critical vulnerabilities.” The IOC noted that instead of using the mobile app, attendees can access a web-based health monitoring system. It said it has requested the researchers’ report “to understand their concerns better.”

The Citizen Lab notes that health customs forms containing passport information and travel and medical history are also at risk. In addition, the researchers said it was possible to spoof server responses, which could let hackers provide fake instructions to users.

Along with determining that the app doesn’t encrypt some data transmissions, the team found that the app fails to validate some SSL certificates. In such cases, the app can’t “validate to whom it is sending sensitive, encrypted data.” Although they were only able to create an account on the iOS app, the researchers believe the vulnerabilities exist on the Android version of MY2022 as well.

The Citizen Lab said it informed the organizing committee for the Games about the issues on December 3rd, and said it had 15 days to respond and 45 days to fix the issues before it published its findings. As of Tuesday, the researchers hadn’t received a reply.

An updated iOS version of the app that was released on Sunday didn’t solve the problems. According to the researchers, the developers added a feature called “Green Health Code” that asks for more travel and medical history details, which are also vulnerable to the SSL certification issue.

According to the researchers, the flaws could mean that the app contravenes Apple’s App Store rules and Google’s Unwanted Software Policy. In addition, MY2022 may be violating China’s privacy standards and laws.

In addition, The Citizen Lab noted that the app includes an option to report “politically sensitive” content. It has a list of 2,442 censorship keywords too, which is said to be inactive at the minute, but includes terms related to topics like Xinjiang, Tibet, Chinese government agencies and other socially sensitive matters.

Source: Engadget – A health-monitoring app for Olympic attendees reportedly has glaring security issues

YouTube is further backing away from original productions. Business chief Robert Kyncl has revealed that YouTube is shrinking its Originals program. From now on, the unit will only finance projects that are part of its Black Voices and YouTube Kids Funds. The company will respect commitments for shows in progress, but you shouldn’t expect other new productions.

The company is making the shift due to a combination of strategy and a key departure. YouTube believed it could have a “greater impact” on creators by funding Shorts, the Black Voices Fund and Live Shopping. At the same time, Originals global lead Susanne Daniels is leaving YouTube on March 1st. Now may have been a prime opportunity to rethink the program, in other words.

The change isn’t a shock. YouTube initially had ambitions of competing with paid streaming services like Amazon Prime Video and Netflix with shows like Cobra Kai. While it had some success, it didn’t pose a significant threat and eventually made Originals free. The new strategy lets YouTube fund more creators while giving it a better chance of competing with TikTok, Instagram and other short-form video rivals.

Source: Engadget – YouTube (mostly) abandons its original content ambitions