On Tuesday, Uber announced that it acquired Careem, the sole competitor in the Middle East, for $ 3.1 billion. $ 1.4 billion will be paid in cash and Careem shareholders will receive $ 1.7 billion in Uber shares. “Uber will have all its transport, delivery and payment operations across the[...]
An exploit in touch’s SIM Application Toolkit (SAT) protocol enables companies and individuals to access any touch SIM card and send messages without the owner of the SIM card’s knowledge, a source familiar with the situation told SMEX. According to the source, touch SIM cards have been vulnerable for at[...]
On Wednesday, February 27, SMEX officially launched its online freedom of expression (FoE) case database, Muhal (muhal.org), at its Masaha space in Beirut. Muhal is SMEX’s ongoing, evidence-based campaign to document detentions and arrests related to online freedom of speech in Lebanon. SMEX Executive Director Mohamad Najem presented attendees with[...]
Nexius’ DPI expert job description, February 2019. On Monday, Lebanese daily Al-Akhbar revealed that touch, one of the two mobile operators in Lebanon, is considering purchasing DPI (Deep Packet Inspection) technology from Nexius, a U.S-based communications and software company. The newspaper also reported that Alfa, the other mobile operator in[...]
Join us at 6 PM on Wednesday, February 27 for the launch of Muhal, an open database that documents online freedom of expression violations. We have collected data, including the charges, the punishment, and a description of each case, from local news articles and independent sources. By aggregating and publishing[...]
SMEX will host a workshop about Social Media Solutions Training in Masaha. This one-day workshop is led by the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) in partnership with the Facebook Journalism Project. Participants in the Social Media Solutions program will learn practical skills in four key areas: verification, security, engagement and[...]
On Tuesday, many people noticed the official website of Rafic Hariri Airport had a different landing page. A group calling themselves the Syrian Revolution Soldiers (SRS) defaced the main page of the website to display a political message. Recently, Lebanon has witnessed a slew of these attacks, with many of[...]
This article was written in collaboration with Raseef22 and published first on Raseef22.com. Consider your mobile phone’s photo gallery for a minute. Scrolling through, you may find yourself looking at pictures and videos you’ve sent to a cute crush you met on a dating app, or to a recent ex.[...]
Happy Data Privacy Day! More than half of the world is now online. Companies are collecting, leveraging, and monetizing our data, often exposing it to third parties. We continue to call on governments in the region to respect our privacy and set legal frameworks to protect privacy and personal data,[...]
