Some Gulf states are using COVID-19 contact tracing apps as mass surveillance tools. The issue was highlighted in research by Amnesty International, reported on by The Verge.

Amnesty International found that the Gulf states’ apps it analyzed were among the most invasive, collecting and storing GPS data and making it easy for the government to identify someone based on their account ID. Norway’s app was also flagged for putting its citizens’ privacy at risk for collecting and storing location data on a central server. But the country on Monday said it would pause the rollout of its the app, called Smittestopp, after Amnesty International shared its findings with the Norwegian government… Apple and Google are still in the process of developing a more privacy-focused system for the US and other countries that would work across both Android and iOS, while some governments have simply made their own apps along separate lines.Gul

Following a hit is always hard. Gamesmaker Niantic has found this after the mega-success of Pokémon Go. The company’s boss John Hanke told Bloomberg News on how it is trying to create the next big thing.

“We’re hard at work on our games pipeline with a multiyear product road map made up of games and other forms of AR experiences,” John Hanke, chief executive officer of the San Francisco-based studio, told a group of reporters last week. “We are extending the concept of what constitutes a Niantic game in a variety of ways,” he added, without elaborating. AR technology, which blends digital elements with real-world environments, is seen as one of the next big leaps in mobile tech and many firms are gearing up to seize the opportunity. That includes Apple Inc., which Bloomberg News has reported will build 3-D cameras into this year’s iPhone generation like it’s done for the latest iPad Pro. Formerly a part of Alphabet Inc.’s Google — which has its own AR ambitions — Niantic is in charge of the most popular AR app in history with Pokémon Go.