F REIGN TRADE - 中国国际贸易促进委员会

summer, after a new version of Android comes out and
Lenovo has time to test it, Mr. Read said, adding the tablet
may not be called LePad outside China.
Read in April last year said Lenovo believed 10% to
20% of its revenue would come from mobile Internet services
within five years, up from low single digits at the time.
(Wall Street Journal)
Apple Ranked Last by China
Environment Group for Transparency
Apple Inc. ranked last out of 29 global technology companies
in terms of responsiveness and transparency to health and
environmental concerns in China, according to a Beijing-based
nonprofit group.
BT Group Plc and Hewlett-Packard Co. were among the
highest ranked companies, Ma Jun, director of the Institute of
Environmental and Public Affairs said in a phone interview.
Apple refused to confirm suspected polluters were among its
suppliers and avoided taking responsibility for environmental
problems related to its products, he said.
“Apple has had an extensive supplier auditing program
since 2006 and we have lots of information available through our
website,” said Jill Tan, a Hong Kong-based spokeswoman for
Apple. Tan said she read the IPE report.
Among the examples cited in the report is Wintek Corp.
which in 2009 is alleged to have used poisonous chemicals in
the production of screens for Apple that resulted in workers being
hospitalized for nerve damage. In a regulatory filing in May,
Wintek said it stopped using the chemical, N-Hexane, and all
workers were getting adequate treatment. Apple has not acknowledged
Wintek as a supplier, Ma said.
All of the workers involved in that case have recovered
fully, said Jay Huang, a spokesman for Taichung, Taiwan-based
Wintek. He declined to say whether Apple is a current or past
customer. Apple’s Tan declined to say if Wintek is a supplier, or
comment on specific cases.
BT and HP ranked highly in IPE’s list of technology companies
because they have responded to environmental problems
and worked with suppliers to ensure better compliance, Ma said.
“We originally thought that Apple, as a corporate citizen,
would take a leadership role, but now we feel they ended up as
the most obstructive,” Ma said. IPE today released “The Other
Side of Apple” a report that outlines findings from a group of 36
non-governmental organizations into environmental and health
practices among technology companies. (Bloomberg)
Facebook Should Mimic
Apple App Security Restrictions
Experts at security company Sophos say a rise in unmonitored
Facebook applications endangers the site’s 650
million users.
Instead, they suggest that it should mimic Apple’s App
Store, which vets all programs available for download.
But Facebook said its data shows the opposite of Sophos
and that it already has extensive protection for users.
“We have a dedicated team that does robust review of
all third party applications, using a risk based approach,” the
firm said.
“That means that we first look at velocity, number of users,
types of data shared, and prioritize. This ensures that the
team is focused on addressing the biggest risks, rather than
just doing a cursory review at the time that an app is first
launched.”
This is partially because of the site’s size and popularity,
but also because Facebook allows anyone to build applications,
games, surveys and other programs. The most popular
ones have been downloaded tens of millions of times.
While this open system might be good news for Facebook’s
business, says the report, it leaves inexperienced users
vulnerable to attacks from malicious hackers who are increasingly
building fake applications that trick people into handing
over their private information.
“Facebook, by far the largest social networking system
and the most targeted by cyber-criminals, has a major problem
in the form of its app system,” it says.
To combat this, the report suggests Facebook could
learn a lesson from mobile phone makers such as Apple,
which operates strict controls over what applications are
available for users of its iPhone and iPad platforms to download.
“A walled garden approach may be more suitable,” the
report says. “This is the way the Apple App Store operates,
with applications requiring official approval before they can
be uploaded to the site and shared with other users.”
Although such an approach would potentially screen
users from fraudulent applications, it would not be without its
problems, however. Apple’s own process has come in for criticism
in the past for its seemingly arbitrary rules that resulted
in the banning of some applications, such as dictionaries,
while other similar ones were allowed through.
Alternatively, Sophos says, the world’s biggest social
network could offer more detailed controls over security, allowing
them to decide more easily which applications can run
on their profile.
“We have built extensive controls into the product, so
that now when you add an application it only gets access to
very limited data and the user must approve each additional
type of data,” the company
said in a statement.
“We make sure
that we act swiftly to
remove or sanction potentially
bad applications
before they gain access
to data, and involve law
enforcement and file
civil actions if there is a
problem.” (BBC)
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