Apple’s new App Privacy labels fall short of expectations, Google deletes negative Robinhood reviews, and a fresh list of companies hiring for new positions.
It’s all the tech news that’s popular right now. Welcome to Hashtag Trending! It’s Monday, February 1, and I’m your host Alex Coop.
The Washington Post’s Geoffry Fowler peeled apart Apple’s new “App Privacy” label, a label of assurance introduced last month through a blue check mark, signaling the app collects zero data. But upon closer inspection, it turns out the label that label has been misrepresenting several apps on the Apple App Store. By putting apps labelled with the “data not collected” button on the App Store, Fowler discovered that roughly 1 in 3 of the apps he checked that claimed they took no data seemed to be inaccurate. In the case of Satisfying Slime Simulator, for example, which is rated for ages 4 and higher, the gaming app turned out to share the users’ iPhone and other device properties with Facebook, Google and a service called GameAnalytics. It was also sending Unity, a software provider for game makers, the phone’s ID, battery levels, free storage space, general location and even volume level.
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According to Gizmodo, Google removed at least 100,000 negative reviews of the stock trading app Robinhood from the Google Play app store after angry users sent a flood of critical reviews that caused the app’s rating to plummet late last week. The app’s rating went from about four stars out of five on Wednesday to just one star the next day. Robinhood users were pretty upset after the company stopped purchases of GameStop’s stock and other stocks promoted by Reddit’s WallStreetBets community.
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And lastly, LinkedIn published another list of companies seeking new talent. Once again, several companies representing the tech sector can be found on the list. Some of the notable listings include Shopify, which plans to hire 2,021 engineers in 2021, E-learning firm Prodigy Education, which plans to hire hiring 400 employees, and solution provider Softchoice, which is hiring for over 50 Full-time and Co-Op roles. Check out the show notes for this episode, where you can also find a link to the complete list, at ITWorldCanada.com. [LinkedIn]
That’s all the tech news that’s trending right now. Hashtag Trending is a part of the ITWC Podcast network. Add us to your Alexa Flash Briefing or your Google Home daily briefing. I’m Alex Coop, thanks for listening!