ShinyShiny tech roundup: Microsoft shuts LinkedIn China

Microsoft is shutting down LinkedIn in China as a result of the “challenges” of complying with Beijing’s censorship rules, and will in its place launch a new site that won’t allow users to share posts. The career-focused social networking platform had been criticised for censoring posts and profiles from Western journalists that were deemed to be in breach of Communist Party rules. Microsoft will launch a new version of the site in China called InJobs which “will not include a social feed or the ability to share posts or articles” and thus offer no opportunity to offend Beijing. Sky News

Apple has taken down one of the world’s most popular Koran apps in China, after a request from officials, the company has confirmed to the BBC. Quran Majeed is available across the world on the App Store – and has nearly 150,000 reviews. However, Apple removed the app at the request of Chinese officials, for hosting illegal religious texts, the company said. The Chinese government has not responded to a request for comment. The deletion of the app was first noticed by Apple Censorship – a website that monitors apps on Apple’s App Store globally. The Chinese Communist Party officially recognises Islam as a religion in the country. BBC 

Amazon has urged owners of its Ring security cameras and doorbells – which come with a camera and microphone – to respect neighbours’ privacy after a court ruled their use broke data laws. A neighbour complained about use of the devices, which can be remotely accessed by homeowners via an app, by Jon Woodard, a plumber from Oxfordshire. A judge at Oxford county court said the Data Protection Act 2018 and the UK General Data Protection Regulation had been breached and Woodard now faces a substantial fine. The court also upheld the claim that the devices contributed to harassment. Judge Melissa Clarke said the video images and audio files that the Ring doorbell and cameras captured of the neighbour, Dr Mary Fairhurst, were her personal data. Guardian

WhatsApp has announced a major new update that it claims will make the world’s most popular messaging app fully encrypted. The Facebook-owned app, which has more than 2 billion active users worldwide, will introduce password-protected backups of messages for both Android and iOS users. With end-to-end encrypted backups, WhatsApp has completed its mission of providing a fully encrypted messaging experience, which it began five years ago by rolling out end-to-end encryption for instant messaging as standard. The latest update offers an extra, optional layer of security to protect backups of text, audio, images and video stored either on Google Drive or Apple’s iCloud. “Neither WhatsApp nor your backup service provider will be able to read your backups or access the key required to unlock it,” a WhatsApp blog post stated. Independent

A Russian technology giant with ties to the Kremlin has launched an ultra-fast grocery delivery service in the UK in the latest challenge to British supermarkets and delivery firms. Yandex, which is known as “Russia’s Google”, launched its Yango Deli app in London yesterday. Yango Deli promises to deliver groceries to customers within 15 minutes with the capacity to reach 1.4m people in the capital. The company has opened four so-called “dark stores” in London to service demand. Yandex, which is listed on the Nasdaq exchange and is valued at $27bn (£20bn), was founded in 1997 and has grown to become Russia’s biggest search engine. Telegraph