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“The UC News app is a platform to bridge the gap between content creators and content consumers with over twenty plus featured channels including news, cricket, technology, entertainment, movies, lifestyle and humour,” Ye said adding that the app will act as a new platform for content creators to access more users.
What is the problem?
It is free in all sense. It has no advertisements for now. But what is the problem? UC News app doesn’t only serve news but anything that is popular, which means it throws authenticity out of the window. “Our algorithm searches for the most popular content on the web,” Ye told HT adding that users themselves will act as filters. This means that UC will track consumer behaviour and present news stories accordingly.
Also, the company is looking to partner with self publishers like a blogger which might also result in loss of veracity of information. UC has not released any guidelines on how it chooses its information partners.
Trouble ahead?
Should you be worried that UC is reading your data or pattern of news consumption? Yes as a Canadian technology research group named
Citizen Lab said that Chinese and English-language versions of UC Browser had leaked personally identifiable information like location, search details, mobile subscriber and device numbers to third parties.
The transmission of this information “represents a privacy risk for users because it allows anyone with access to the data traffic to identify users and their devices, and collect their private search data”, it said in a report.
Alibaba spokesman Bob Christie had told Reuters that the problems were immediately fixed and customers notified of an update to the browser after Citizen Lab brought the issues to Alibaba’s attention in April. “We take security very seriously and we do everything possible to protect our users,” he had said.
Alibaba-owned UC Browser’s News app more about popular curated content | tech$news | Hindustan Times
What is the problem?
It is free in all sense. It has no advertisements for now. But what is the problem? UC News app doesn’t only serve news but anything that is popular, which means it throws authenticity out of the window. “Our algorithm searches for the most popular content on the web,” Ye told HT adding that users themselves will act as filters. This means that UC will track consumer behaviour and present news stories accordingly.
Also, the company is looking to partner with self publishers like a blogger which might also result in loss of veracity of information. UC has not released any guidelines on how it chooses its information partners.
Trouble ahead?
Should you be worried that UC is reading your data or pattern of news consumption? Yes as a Canadian technology research group named
Citizen Lab said that Chinese and English-language versions of UC Browser had leaked personally identifiable information like location, search details, mobile subscriber and device numbers to third parties.
The transmission of this information “represents a privacy risk for users because it allows anyone with access to the data traffic to identify users and their devices, and collect their private search data”, it said in a report.
Alibaba spokesman Bob Christie had told Reuters that the problems were immediately fixed and customers notified of an update to the browser after Citizen Lab brought the issues to Alibaba’s attention in April. “We take security very seriously and we do everything possible to protect our users,” he had said.
Alibaba-owned UC Browser’s News app more about popular curated content | tech$news | Hindustan Times