An anonymous political campaign on Facebook has reached nearly 10 million voters, asking them via advertisements to oppose British Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit deal, the media reported on Saturday.

According to The Guardian, it was discovered by the digital campaign group 89up, which shared the details with the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport’s (DCMS) panel into fake news.

“In adverts micro-targeted to individual constituencies, voters are exhorted to tell your local MP to bin Chequers,” said the report.

“This advertising is designed to specifically influence MPs,” 89up said.

All that is known about the campaign is what can be found on its website, Twitter and Facebook accounts.

“Going by the name Mainstream Network, the group writes and publishes news stories on its website with an almost exclusively pro-Brexit slant, shared on its social media accounts,” the report added.

“Over the last couple of weeks, I received a flood of about 50 emails – some quite abusive – urging me to ‘chuck Chequers’ and vote for out-and-out Brexit,” Labour MP Paul Farrelly was quoted as saying

The news comes at a time when Facebook is reeling under a couple of massive data breaches including the Cambridge Analytica scandal that impacted 87 million users earlier this year.

Facebook says it has set a goal of bringing a transparency feature for political ads — now available in the US and Brazil — to the UK and India by March 2019.

With the new ad architecture in place, people would be able to see who paid for a particular political ad.

Facebook has also set up a War Room to reduce the spread of potentially harmful content.

Facebook faced flak for not doing enough to prevent spread of misinformation by Russia-linked accounts during the 2016 US presidential election.

IANS

Petrol and diesel prices Thursday were reduced for the first time in over two months because of a drop in the cost of production, according to state-owned oil firms. Petrol price was cut by 21 paise per litre and diesel by 11 paise, a price notification issued by state retailers said. This is the first price cut arising from a drop in international oil prices.

The rates were reduced by a minimum Rs 2.50 per litre across the country on October 5, when the government cut excise duty on petrol and diesel by Rs 1.50 a litre and asked oil PSUs to subsidise the fuels by another Re 1 a litre. The reduction in BJP-ruled states was more as they matched this cut by an equivalent reduction in local sales tax or VAT.

Petrol in Delhi now costs Rs 82.62 per litre as against Rs 82.83 a litre previously. A litre of diesel now costs Rs 75.58 as compared to Rs 75.69 previously. In Mumbai, petrol now costs Rs 88.08 per litre and diesel Rs 79.24.

The price cut follows international oil prices trading near the lowest level in a month on a bigger-than-expected gain in American stockpiles. West Texas Intermediate for November delivery traded 11 cents lower at USD 69.64 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while Brent for December settlement was at USD 79.89 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. Brent had earlier this month hit a four-year high of USD 86.74 a barrel.

Prior to Thursday’s cut in rates, diesel price had risen by Rs 2.74 per litre since October 5 to more than wipe away the excise duty cut and oil firm subsidy. Petrol price had during this period risen by Rs 1.33 a litre. Before the October 5 price cut, petrol in Delhi had hit an all-time high of Rs 84 per litre and diesel was at record Rs 75.45. This came down to Rs 81.50 per litre for petrol and Rs 72.95 in case of diesel.

In Mumbai, petrol had hit a peak of Rs 91.34 hit on October 4 and diesel was sold at a record high of Rs 80.10. After the Centre cut excise duty by Rs 1.50 per litre and asked PSU oil firms to subsidise fuel by Re 1, Maharashtra and Gujarat governments were among the first to announce a matching Rs 2.50 cut.

They were later joined by Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Assam, Uttarakhand, Goa, Arunachal Pradesh and Bihar with similar moves. Jammu and Kashmir, which is under the governor’s rule, too reduced the tax on the two fuel. Maharashtra, however, reduced VAT only on petrol and not on diesel.

Even before the excise duty cut, Rajasthan, West Bengal, Karnataka, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh had last month reduced VAT to cushion consumers for a spate of price increases. The reduction in excise duty on October 5, only the second in four years of BJP-led NDA rule, will dent Central government revenues by Rs 10,500 crore and was aimed at cooling retail prices that had shot up to an all-time high.

The BJP-government at the centre had raised excise duty on petrol by Rs 11.77 a litre and that on diesel by Rs 13.47 a litre in nine instalments between November 2014 and January 2016 to shore up finances as global oil prices fell, but then cut the tax just once in October last year by Rs 2 a litre.

Prior to October 5 cut, petrol price had risen by Rs 6.86 a litre and diesel by Rs 6.73 since mid-August.

PTI

San Francisco As part of its annual privacy upgrades, Apple has introduced a new portal that lets users see what personal data the company has kept on them, the media reported.

The information collected may include data such as calendar entries, photos, reminders, documents, website bookmarks, App Store purchases, among other items, CNBC reported on Wednesday.

The search function is in line with Apple’s efforts to differentiate itself as a company that does not montetise user data as it does not treat customers as its products. The company takes pride in making money though its hardware.

“Whether you’re taking a photo or asking Siri a question, you can do it knowing that Apple doesn’t gather your personal information to sell to advertisers or other organisations,” Apple says in its privacy website.

According to a report in USA Today, users still have to wait a few days to retrieve the information, from the updated http://www.apple.com/privacy section of the Apple website, as the tech giant confirms the request, but it should be way easier to find the tools now than before.

Apple updates its privacy website every autumn, after the introduction of new phones and software upgrades to the mobile and computer operating systems, iOS12 and MacOS, which this year is called Mojave, the report said.

(IANS)

San Francisco Social networking giant Facebook is developing a camera-equipped set-top box for TVs that would support functionalities like video-calling, a media report said.

Internally codenamed “Ripley”, the device would use Artificial Intelligence (AI) to automatically detect and follow people as they move through the frame during a video call, news website Cheddar reported on Tuesday.

Apart from facilitating video-chat, the device could also help Facebook compete with the likes of Apple and Amazon in the TV-segment.

In October, the social networking major launched its smart-speakers — “Portal” — which incorporated AI technology to follow user-movements while on a video-chat amd remove unwanted background noise during a call.

Priced at $199, sporting a 10-inch display, built-in Amazon Alexa support and pre-loaded with Facebook’s own “Watch” video service, the smart speakers would begin shipping in November.

With projects like “Portal” and “Ripley” Facebook is trying to build a consumer-hardware business outside of its virtual reality brand ‘Oculus’ that was acquired by the social networking giant in March 2014 for nearly $2 billion.

Facebook declined to comment on the subject, the report added.

(IANS)

Key equity indices rose in the afternoon session on Tuesday, amid expectations companies will report robust earnings for the second quarter ended September 30.

The gains were led by banking and finance stocks, as investors saw an opportunity after these stocks were hammered over the past fortnight. Capital goods, oil and gas, and energy counters also gained over a per cent.

At 1.07 p.m., the barometer Sensex was trading at 35,132.47, up 267.37 points or 0.77 per cent.

The broader Nifty of the National Stock Exchange was at 10,580.65, up 68.15 points or 0.65 per cent from its Monday’s close.

The Sensex has so far touched an intra-day high of 35,215.79 and a low of 34,913.06.

Ahead of their earnings on Tuesday, Infosys was trading at Rs 707.45 apiece, up 1.19 per cent, while Hero MotoCorp was at Rs 2,891.90, up 0.30 per cent.

Nokia and the government-owned telecom operator BSNL on Tuesday announced to work together to leverage 4G LTE technology for enabling greater operational efficiency at Nokia’s Chennai plant and prepare it for the 5G era with smart manufacturing.

Nokia manufactures a range of telecom equipment across technologies at its factory in Chennai, catering to both domestic and global customers.

The factory will now leverage Industry 4.0 solutions such as Augmented and Virtual Reality (AR/VR), connected Robotics, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Big Data Analytics and Internet of Things (IoT) to enhance operations and increase productivity.

“Nokia is already one of our key partners in developing the 5G ecosystem, and now we are exploring use cases such as Industry 4.0 that can benefit tremendously with 5G,” said Anupam Srivastava, Chairman and Managing Director at BSNL.

“This network deployment for Industry 4.0 at Nokia’s Chennai factory that can be scaled to 5G demonstrates our preparedness to take advantage of new opportunities that will emerge with 5G and IoT in India,” he added.

Industry 4.0 relies on low-latency, high-reliability networks as well as capabilities in robotics and AI to drive new levels of automation and data exchange in manufacturing industries, resulting in improved operational efficiency and reduced costs.

Nokia’s Chennai facility recently crossed the four-million unit production milestone in its 10th year of operation.

“Our collaboration with BSNL will enable us to leverage the latest technology advancements and continue in our efforts to build the increasingly digitized and connected factory of the future. It will pave the path to smart manufacturing in the 5G era,” informed Sanjay Malik, Vice President and Head of the India Market at Nokia.

Nokia has deployed the network in the country using its Micro Core Network and Multi-access Edge Computing platform, delivering Edge Cloud capabilities to process data closer to end-users and lowering latency.

BSNL is already working with Nokia and Chinese player ZTE on a 5G technology roadmap.

Earlier this year, Nokia and BSNL signed a network modernisation agreement to support the launch of 4G and Voice over LTE (VoLTE) services in western and southern regions of India.

Finnish company HMD Global that manufactures and markets Nokia smartphones on Monday roped in Bollywood actress Alia Bhatt as the face of Nokia devices in India.

“We are really excited to have Alia Bhatt as the face of Nokia phones. I am confident that in the coming together of Nokia phones and Alia Bhatt, we will further enhance the excitement around our new launches for our fans,” Ajey Mehta, Vice President and Country Head-India, HMD Global, said in a statement.

The new festive campaign with Bhatt takes an affectionate and light-hearted look at the unique role played by a young person (and her Nokia smartphone) in making Diwali celebrations with her loved ones truly special, the company added.

The Nokia phones print campaign with the actress went live on October 12 to mark the festive season.

“The young generation is relied upon by their loved ones for so many things that they do with just a few clicks on their phones — from paying a bill to capturing memories. This insight is at the core of our campaign and helps make Nokia phones relevant for these young consumers,” Mehta added.

IANS

The Odisha government on Monday hiked the dearness allowance (DA) for government employees by an additional 2 per cent.

The hiked allowance will be applicable retrospectively from July 1, 2018, said a statement from the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO).

The hike was approved by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.

With this, the total increase is now 9 per cent, the CMO said.

The state government has also increased the dearness relief (DR) by 2 per cent.

Similarly, work charge employees and staff and lecturers of fully-aided non-governmental colleges will also be benefited by the DA hike.

IANS

The key equity indices on Monday erased their initial losses, despite a tick-up in the wholesale price-based inflation index.

Wholesale price inflation accelerated 5.13 per cent on year in September, gaining pace from August’s 4.53 per cent, due to a rise in food and fuel prices.

At 1.10 p.m., the S&P BSE Sensex which had opened in in the red, wiped out losses, and was trading at 34,751.78, up 18.20 or 0.05 per cent. The broader Nifty of the National Stock Exchange was trading at 10,478.60, up 6.10 points or 0.06 per cent from its Friday’s close.

Auto, banking and consumer durables stocks saw healthy buying, whereas IT and TECK (technology, media and entertainment) counters witnessed a selling pressure.

The Sensex has touched an intra-day high of 35,008.65 points and a low of 34,559.98 so far.

The All India Bank Employees’ Association (AIBEA) has denied issuing any circular calling for five days of bank strike in November-end demanding wage hike, said a top official on Monday.

He also said the bank unions have rejected the Indian Banks’ Association’s (IBA) proposal to link bankers’ wages to operating profits and return on assets (ROA) as only about six banks would be able to give higher wages over and above the six per cent salary hike now being offered.

“We have not issued any circular or notice informing of five days strike call given by United Forum for Bank Unions (UFBU),” C.H. Venkatachalam, General Secretary told IANS.

“Some malicious elements have cut-pasted the union’s letter head and my signature on a plain paper and added some malicious message in the middle,” he said.

On Sunday a message was circulated in social media under AIBEA letterhead that the UFBU has decided to call for five days continuous strike from November 26 to 30.

Queried about the umbrella body of nine bank unions UFBU’s decision on IBA’s proposal of six per cent wage hike and further increases to be worked out based on the operating profits and ROA of individual banks, he said the unions are not agreeable.

He said at the recent meeting of UFBU the IBA’s proposal was discussed and was not agreed to.

“As per IBA’s proposal only employees of about six banks may get wage hike over and above the six per cent offered, which is not agreeable. Salary hike is linked to inflation and cost of living and not to the performance of the banks,” Venkatachalam said.