India has backed away from its plan to force smartphone makers to preinstall a government app on all devices, following backlash and mounting concerns that the mandate would expand state access to users' devices and weaken privacy protections. On Wednesday, the Indian telecom ministry said Sanchar Saathi, an anti-theft and cybersecurity protection app, would remain voluntary and that smartphone makers would no longer be required to preload it on devices they sell. The new notice effectively reverses a directive issued to manufacturers last week (and circulated online on Monday) that had instructed manufacturers to bake the app into all devices and prevent its features from being disabled. News of the mandate soon ignited concerns over privacy and state overreach. However, the government has not yet issued an official notification to smartphone makers reflecting the withdrawal, and manufacturers are still waiting for formal instructions, two manufacturer sources involved with the proceedings told TechCrunch....

If you use a mobile phone with location services turned on, it is likely that data about where you live and work, where you shop for groceries, where you go to church and see your doctor, and where you traveled to over the holidays is up for sale. And U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is one of the customers. The U.S. government doesn't need to collect data about people's locations itself, because your mobile phone is already doing it. While location data is sometimes collected as part of a mobile phone app's intended use, like for navigation or to get a weather forecast, more often locations are collected invisibly in the background. I am a privacy researcher who studies how people understand and make decisions about data that is collected about them, and I research new ways to help consumers get back some control over their privacy. Unfortunately, once you give an app or webpage permission to collect location data, you no longer have control over how the data is used and shared, including who the data is shared with or sold to....

The local government authorities covering the London boroughs of Kensington and Chelsea and Westminster, which share IT systems as part of a joint arrangement, said their focus was 'on protecting systems and data, restoring systems, and maintaining critical services to the public.' The councils, which provide public services like housing, social services, and rubbish collection, did not describe the nature of the cyberattack or blame a particular hacking group. They noted that an investigation into whether data was stolen remains ongoing. Kensington's website said the cause of the cyberattack is 'now established,' but the council 'will not be giving out further details of the incident at this stage' due to an ongoing investigation with U.K. law enforcement agencies. StrictlyVC concludes its 2025 series with an exclusive event featuring insights from leading VCs and builders such as Pat Gelsinger, Mina Fahmi, and more. Plus, opportunities to forge meaningful connections....

When city leaders talk about making a town 'smart,' they're usually talking about urban digital twins. These are essentially high-tech, 3D computer models of cities. They are filled with data about buildings, roads and utilities. Built using precision tools like cameras and LiDAR ' light detection and ranging ' scanners, these twins are great at showing what a city looks like physically. But in their rush to map the concrete, researchers, software developers and city planners have missed the most dynamic part of urban life: people. People move, live and interact inside those buildings and on those streets. This omission creates a serious problem. While an urban digital twin may perfectly replicate the buildings and infrastructure, it often ignores how people use the parks, walk on the sidewalks, or find their way to the bus. This is an incomplete picture; it cannot truly help solve complex urban challenges or guide fair development. To overcome this problem, digital twins will need to widen their focus beyond physical objects and incorporate realistic human behaviors. Though there is ample data about a city's inhabitants, using it poses a significant privacy risk. I'm a public affairs and planning scholar. My colleagues and I believe the solution to producing more complete urban digital twins is to use synthetic data that closely approximates real people's data.'...