Author: Toby Shapshak

The convoluted state of US President Donald Trump’s tax affairs is a useful metaphor for the ongoing drama around the banning of Chinese apps TikTok and WeChat. Or, to put it plainly, clear as mud. Who wouldn’t want to pay $750 in taxes in the year you’re elected President of the United States and serve your first year in the White House? The New York Times explosive investigation into the Tax Evader in Chief rings familiar to South Africans, who have seen former #Presidunce Jacob Zuma and EFF leader Julius Malema fighting their own rear-guard actions against tax claims. Try…

Along with Edward Snowden, Sophie Zhang will be remembered as one of the great whistle-blowers of our age. The former Facebook data scientist’s bombshell memo has refocussed attention on the social media giant’s inability to stop the spread of disinformation and false information on its platforms. “In the three years I’ve spent at Facebook, I’ve found multiple blatant attempts by foreign national governments to abuse our platform on vast scales to mislead their own citizenry, and caused international news on multiple occasions,” Zhang wrote. “I have personally made decisions that affected national presidents without oversight, and taken action to enforce…

If Oracle does buy TikTok’s US operations, it will be one of the most unlikely pairings of an old-school enterprise technology firm with a new social media phenomenon. To say that the users of Oracle’s brilliant database technology and TikTok’s youthful happy-snappers have no idea that the other exist is no understatement. The parent users of the former almost certainly have children of their own using the latter. It’s no understatement to say the two companies come from vastly different ends of the software spectrum – high-end databases and mission-critical business software to the seemingly ethereal, virtual bling of short-form…

Why didn’t Experian immediately tell us that its data had been stolen and that it had been dumped onto the internet? Did the multinational credit agency really think that angry South Africans wouldn’t find out it was economical with the truth when it claimed the data breach of 24-million consumers and 800,000 businesses had been “contained”? The data was leaked onto the internet, as everyone suspected, in the two and a half months that the conman had it. They failed to admit the lengthy delay in their first press release. It’s an astounding irony that a business which essentially provides…

Apart from prohibiting the use of Huawei technology by US law enforcement agencies, US President Donald Trump went a step further by banning US firms from dealing with the Chinese telecoms giant. At the heart of that ban was a stipulation that US technology could not be sold to the world’s biggest maker of network equipment and second-largest smartphone manufacturer. Huawei has continued to operate, and still makes brilliant smartphones, but they are forced to ship without Google’s Play Store. Without the easy access to apps and games, it’s a harder sell for its Android phones despite their good hardware…

The most astounding thing about the Experian security breach of 24-million South Africans’ personal data is not that the credit agency willingly gave the information to a “fraudster”, but that Experian will escape unpunished because of years-long delays in finalising the legislation. The Protection of Personal Information Act (POPI) only came into effect this July and gives companies until next July to comply with the regulations. That means the 24m South Africans and 800,000 businesses whose data was handed to a “suspected fraudster” by Experian have no recourse. Similarly, the so-called masterdeeds data breach – where an estimated 60m South…

A truly fascinating conflict is brewing in the two dominant app stores where the most popular gaming app, Fortnite, has staged a revolt against the 30% payments cut taken by Apple and Google. This requirement that apps pay almost a third to the relevant app store is a long-standing bone of contention. Last year streaming music service Spotify reported Apple to European competition authorities because of this fee. The maker of Fortnite, the now very appropriately named Epic Games, is taking on the two giants of the mobile software world. Much like the gaming inside the app, this fight is…

Even though the name and house number were wrong, the address was for an entirely different street and the electricity meter number was incorrect, City Power contractors tried to disconnect our electricity last Wednesday morning. The only way I could prevent them – because they refused to listen to common sense – was to get my private security firm, BeagleWatch, to send an armed guard to stand in their way. Without this, they would have disconnected the wrong house, in the wrong street, in the middle of winter – a mistake entirely of their own making. Welcome to Gangsta’s Paradise.…

The surprise ban last Thursday by US President Donald Trump on Chinese apps TikTok and WeChat is part of the ongoing, increasingly ugly trade war with China – but the ramifications are vastly different. TikTok has been in the spotlight most recently because of fears that its Beijing-based owner ByteDance could be compelled by the Chinese government to access data about the 100-million US users it has. The app is extremely popular with younger users who film themselves singing and dancing. Unlike TikTok, which is used for mostly amusement, WeChat is used for everything. Not just for communication, but for…

If Microsoft does end up buying video app TikTok, which is under threat of being banned in the US, it will mark a new tipping point in global trade and geopolitics. US President Donald Trump, never a man to shy away from a baseless untruth or from smearing a public opponent, has threatened to ban the Chinese-owned social media app. This prompted an offer from Microsoft, the one tech giant excluded from last week’s blistering hearing into anti-competitive behaviour by Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google. Obviously, this latest irrational attack on the cause of a personal slight is classic Trump.…