Google Accused of Hiding Competing Webmail Service from Search Results

The search engine has been accused of hiding a ProtonMail service from its search results for about a year, which cost the company hundreds of thousands in lost revenue.

ProtonMail provides encrypted email accounts for users, and is known to be one of the most popular services since its very launch 2 years ago, according to its Google search ranking: ProtonMail claims it was placed on the first or second page of the searches for encrypted and secure email.

However, its ranking plummeted a year ago – from the first page to the 5th, 10th, and nowhere visible at all. The company says they were trying to contact Google all throughout spring 2016, having created 2 tickets on Google’s web spam report form explaining the situation. Moreover, ProtonMail even contacted Google’s president of EMEA strategic relationships, but no response or change followed.

As a result, the company’s growth rate dropped by 25% for the past months, which cost it “several hundred thousand Swiss Francs”, and it decided to go semi-public, publishing tweets addressed to Google and accusing it of intentionally hiding ProtonMail from search results. Perhaps, this was noticed by the search giant, because the mail service received a reply from Google that it had “fixed something” without providing any details of what exactly it was. Indeed, ProtonMail immediately returned to the first page of results and stays there.

The industry experts suggest that one potential cause of the drop in ranking could be the site moving domains, from .ch to .com, as such moves can cause the collected authority attributed to the website to be lost, thus forcing website operators to start afresh. However, ProtonMail claims that the event demonstrated the existence of “search risk”, pointing out that any service can thus easily be suppressed by search companies or the governments that control them, even across national borders. For instance, Google, which is a US firm, controls more than 90% of European search traffic. ProtonMail agrees with the European Commission that more transparency and oversight is critical in Google’s case.

Google confirmed that they managed to find and fix the problem affecting the search results after the affected company’s report, but no further details followed.

China Adopted New Controversial Cybersecurity Law

The country has just adopted a new cybersecurity law, which is supposed to tackle threats like hacking and terrorism. However, the new law has also triggered concern from foreign business and rights groups. The legislation is set to come into effect in June 2017.

The critics argue that the new law threatens to shut out foreign tech firms. Besides, the law lists contentious requirements for security reviews and requires data to be stored on servers in China. The suggestions are that it will further tighten restrictions on China’s Internet, which is already subject to the most sophisticated online censorship mechanism dubbed the Great Firewall of China.

It is known that 40+ global business groups petitioned the Chinese authorities urging them to amend controversial sections of the law, while Chinese officials claimed it wouldn’t interfere with foreign business interests.

The demands to store personal and important business data in the country, provide support to security agencies and pass national security reviews all have raised concern within companies, which fear they would be required either to hand over intellectual property or build backdoors in their products to be allowed to operate in China’s market.

The American Chamber of Commerce in China called the provisions of the law “vague, ambiguous, and subject to broad interpretation”, while Human Rights Watch said its elements like criminalizing the use of the web to “damage national unity” can potentially restrict online freedom.

In the meantime, the Cyberspace Administration of China claimed that every article in the law was in accordance with the rules of international trade and that the country is not going to close its doors on foreign companies.

No Links Found between Trump and Russian Bank

A US cybersecurity firm Mandiant investigated allegations of secret communication with the Trump Organization and found no evidence of contact, email or financial links. The cybersecurity firm is owned by the California-based company FireEye. It was hired to examine Internet server logs presented to the Russian bank by media organizations investigating the link.

It all started with a story published by the online magazine a few days ago. It was about communication between a server hosting Donald Trump domain addresses and a server owned by the Russian Alfa Bank. The latter is owned by two oligarchs, one of whom worked with Vladimir Putin in the early 1990s. The story allegedly quoted cybersecurity experts who claimed that the communication between the servers was human rather than robotic and was intended to be secret.

The investigation was launched, where the cybersecurity firm was presented with a log of the communication between the servers over a period of 3 months, listing the separate contacts. Mandiant concluded that the information presented was inconclusive and was not evidence of substantive contact or a direct email or financial link between the bank and the Trump campaign or Organization.

The story in the online magazine said that the Trump server had a capacity for mass email but was only being used for a small amount of traffic, almost all of which was with servers from Alfa Bank. However, other cybersecurity experts later dismissed these claims as “nonsense”, saying the domain in question was actually controlled by a company that handles marketing for hotels, including those owned by Trump. Even the FBI has spent weeks looking into the Alfa-Trump logs, but eventually concluded that there could be an innocuous explanation to the connection – for example, a marketing email or spam.

Photos: Chief priest flees as repentant youths destroy evil forests in Aboh Mbaise, Imo State

Following months of intense prayers led by Rev, Fr. Kirian, youths in Umuemeri Uguru Nwenkwo autonomous community in Aboh, Mbaise Local Government Area of Imo State, denounced evil practices and gave their lives to God.
On Tuesday, November 8th, the youth launched a final war against evil in their communities by destroying the evil forests and trees in the community.

The chief priest (pictured in the middle, on white and red cap) of one of the evil forest is seen running away.

Facebook user and CEO of Silver Sports Media, Owerri, Kennedy Onwunali posted the photos, along with details of the spiritual warfare. Read what he said below:

"After months of prayers by the people of Umuemeri ogwu in Aboh Mbaise local government area of imo state lead by rev frd kirian the people of the area denounced evil practices and embraced God by evacuating all evil materials in their homes mainly at night to avoid being noticed by the people the grand final of the war was fixed for Tuesday the 8/11/2016 as early as 4am in the morning the youths trooped out in their thousands and prayers was held in every part of the community know for their exploits in cow business all over the country until the priest arrived and warned that everybody should despise and return back the next day because the coast was not clear for the action before then their was serious disagreement between the father and son of one of the most powerful family in the area over tress to be brought down or not which made the first son of the man to pick tent with the people an action the powerful man saw as a challenge to this authority and immediately disowned him in the present of people who welcome him with gladness and assured him of this place in the community the youths were about living for their verous homes when the second son of the man arrived with police men to sensing that the men came with the second son who the powerful man has picked as replacement of the first son the youths in their thousands who came from various parts of the world for the final war made it clear of their mission which is to be freed from the powers of evil which has kept them at a state of no do well in the society and the police men left the environment to the joy of the people and the d day came with mach discussion between the powerful family and the people brokered by the first son the man gave in to get one of the trees he objected to be brought down with this the people boost into jubilation and prayers and words like the evil that our generation see today we shall see no more to the glory of God.

Graphic photos: Bank manager, cashier, 2 others killed in robbery attack in Ekiti State - Police

Armed robbers killed a manager and cashier with Heritage Bank, two other persons and carted away undisclosed sum of money in Otun Ekiti, Moba Local Government Area of Ekiti State on Friday, November 11th.

A security guard attached to the palace of the paramount ruler of the town, Adedapo Popoola and another guard at Unity Bank, were among those killed in the robbery incident which lasted for about one hour.

The spokesman for Ekiti State Police Command Alberto Adeyemi, who confirmed the incident, said the incident said bodies of the victims has been deposited at the Usi-Ekiti General Hospital.

"We have commenced investigations into the incident and hope that the perpetrators would soon be apprehended," headed.

Rob Kardashian shares more photos of Kim K, North and Kourtney Kardashian in their Halloween outfits

Rob Kardashian and Blac Chyna who are currently in charge of Kim Kardashian's website, Kim Kardashian West, shared more beautiful photos of Kim K, her daughter, North West and sister Kourtney Kardashian all in their Halloween outfits. More photos after the cut...

‘They have insatiable taste for women and beautiful ones at that! - Ben Bruce compares Donald Trump to Obansanjo

Senator Ben Murray-Bruce took to his Facebook page today to a lenghty piece he wrote ‘Like Trump Like Obasanjo’, where he compared US president elect Donald Trump to former President Olusegun Obasanjo. According to Senator Bruce, Donald Trump and Obasanjo who can be brash and outspoken undeniably have an insatiable taste for women and beautiful ones at that. Read his post after the cut

‘Like Trump Like Obasanjo

On the morning of Saturday the 20th of February, 2016, I was having breakfast at Eko Hotel with a friend of mine, Reno Omokri and one of the top Democratic Party strategists in the US and an argument ensued. Omokri said Trump would go all the way while the American said he was not going anywhere. I joined the conversation by saying that Trump is a phenomenon and no one knows how far he will go.

Today, I sit here writing this piece pleasantly stunned that what the mainstream media, what the establishment and what the powers that be said could never happen has happened due to this phenomenal man's belief in himself when others did not believe in hm.

I have met Donald Trump one on one before and what I clearly remember about him is that he is a White and younger version of former President Olusegun Obasanjo.

The two of them can be brash and outspoken but they always seem to come out on top by some sort of divine arrangement that makes whatever they do turn out for the best even if it began with controversy.

More similarities between the duo is that they both undeniably have an insatiable taste for women and beautiful ones at that!

Then again, they are both men who have succeeded in business and, even though they were political outsiders, they extended their business success to politics.

And even though there is a lot of anxiety in the Black world and especially Nigeria, I believe that a Trump Presidency would be better for Africa and Nigeria than a Hillary administration.

For one, Boko Haram are now afraid. Very afraid! This is a man that is not afraid to use the word radical Islamic terror and to declare to all who care to listen that he will be their nemesis.

Nigeria needs such a partner!

We are spending way too much of our resources on fighting terrorists. We need a big strong hand to help us fight them. A hand that will not be afraid to sell us weapons and will not make us grovel before it is willing to help us destroy our enemies who want to destroy us.

But secondly and very importantly, Nigeria is an oil producing nation and though I believe that it is what is between the ears of our people that will make this nation great, we still need foreign exchange and Hillary's plans for alternative energy was not going to see the price of oil go up anytime soon.

But Trump won in Texas because the oil industry knows that they have a friend in him, and any friend of Texas big oil is a friend of Nigeria.

And forget about all that talk about immigration reform. Trump will not stop Nigerians from entering the US. The US needs Nigerians more than Nigerians need the US.

Without Nigerian healthcare professionals, the US health industry would collapse overnight. Neither Trump or Hillary wanted that.

Trump's rhetoric was directed more at Mexican immigrants because of the immediate threat posed to the US by illegal immigration from Mexico.

Having said that, let me add that the last similarity between Trump and former President Obasanjo is that they both look not very intelligent, but their looks betray their vast knowledge and deep wisdom. You meet them and size them up by their looks and end up underestimating them.

But when they reach into their reptilian brain and come out with strategies it becomes too late to do what you should have done.

I am glad that Trump won and I cannot wait to see how he will change the world positively.

But one thing is clear, any politician who underestimates the role of social media in the battle to win the hearts and minds of the people is a politician that is going the way of the dinosaurs.

Social media and particularly Twitter was the weapon Trump used to fight the mainstream media. Social media is the ultimate form of democracy in that it gives the underdog a vehicle to amplify his or her voice against a biased media that wants to suppress it.

Senator Ben Murray-Bruce is the founder of the Silverbird Entertainment Group and the Senator Representing Bayelsa East