In the series scaremongering, now this report

Ok. Apps can have security holes, or they may even exploit the information intentionally.

But a security company publishes a report about security of those apps, saying that more than half of the apps it checked have security problems. 

You might think that this is a bit worrisome, and it would be if they provided some details. As they're a security company, they do have  incentive to list as many findings they can as security problems. Otherwise people might not find their services worth the money!

A threat assessment of 7 million iOS and Android apps

Come on, guys! This sounds a bit like a program from the past which reported each and every cookie as a privacy problem!

Scare mongering

As we all know, publications NEED good headlines to get themselves read, so that they get revenue.

The headlines need to raise the interest. Scaring people is a sure way to get people read the article.

This is one of those articles

How public Wi-Fi puts unprotected users at risk

 Yes, back in the time of gas lamps, the sensitive applications didn't always use encrypted connections (HTTPS et al). But those days are past, the programmers have learned this lesson, at least, and the apps use SSL.

But that wouldn't make an interesting headline, would it?

Removing a selectable option in a selection box/warning causes people not selecting the removed option? DUH!

Great news: Google has been able to make users of Chrome to heed the warning about security certificates.

 

Earlier about 70% of the users went ahead and proceeded to the website anyway, now only about 40% do the same.

Great results, eh?

Well, if you look a bit closer, they removed the "Proceed to the website" button. I guess they hid it behind "Advanced" options.

It is actually surprising that the 40% of the users were able to proceed to the website! The 30% who didn't find it must be frustrated ;)

Here's to the article in "Help Net Securit": Browser security warning redesigned with partial success

 

Swiss initiative to limit immigration might run into legal problems

On 9th of February 2014 Swiss voters accepted a referendum to limit immigration. This included also EU citizens, which conflicts with the international agreements Switzerland has made. The vote was very close, only 50.3% of the votes was for accepting. 9000 votes would've tipped the scales.

The campaign was fierce, SVP leading the initiative. As a foreigner living in CH, the campaign looked very shady. Hate mongering against immigrants was constantly happening.

Now the courts will have a look if the campaigning was racist, and whether the referendum should be declared invalid. Article inTagesAnzeiger

Let's see how SVP will spin this. Certainly they start screaming "the will of the people", but I really hope this will set some limits on how racist the campaigns can be.