Tech Rewind 2022: Top 5 stories you loved reading on Live Mint

How India’s new VPN rules change the status quo

By: Prasid Banerjee, Month: May

Under the new directions, VPN providers will need to store validated customer names, their physical addresses, email ids, phone numbers, and the reason they are using the service, along with the dates they use it and their “ownership pattern”. In addition, Cert also asked VPN providers to keep a record of the IP and email addresses that the customer uses to register the service, along with the timestamp of registration. Most importantly, however, VPN providers will have to store all IP addresses issued to a customer and a list of IP addresses that its customers generally use.

This meant that the Indian government did not ban VPNs, so they can still be used to access content that is blocked in an area, which is the most common usage of these services. However, journalists, activists, and others who use such services to hide their internet footprint will have to think twice about them.

Government issues warning for Google Chrome users: Details

By: Livemint staff, Month: August

The Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology issued a warning for Google Chrome users. It had notified multiple vulnerabilities in Google Chrome that could allow remote attackers to execute arbitrary code and bypass security restrictions on targeted systems.

In its warning, CERT-In said that multiple vulnerabilities had been detected in Google Chrome browser which could allow a remote attacker to execute arbitrary code and bypass security restriction bypass on the targeted system.

“These vulnerabilities exist in Google Chrome due to use after free in FedCM, SwiftShader, ANGLE, Blink, Sign-in Flow, Chrome OS Shell; Heap buffer overflow in downloads, insufficient validation of untrusted input in intents, insufficient policy enforcement in Cookies and inappropriate implementation in extensions API,” it further added.

Apple Watch saves a 17-year-old’s life; Tim Cook wishes the boy speedy recovery!

By: Govind Choudhary, Month: August

In a life saving incident attributed to Apple Watch, a 17-year-old boy from Pune, Maharashtra had thanked Apple technologies for saving his life. A tragedy happened in Lonavala when the boy went for a trek with his friends on a rainy day to enjoy the scenic beauty.

The incident is reported to have occurred in July when Smit Mehta, a student from Pune who is preparing for the NEET exam, scheduled a trip to Lonavala with his friends to go hiking. Mehta had fallen off from a valley on his way back while it was pouring and he had lost his footing.

This is how Apple Watch Series 7 came into the picture and rescued the boy. Mehta stated that he had left his phone in his friend’s bag that day and had no means to call anyone for assistance. Mehta had used his Apple Watch to call his parents and asked for help. The rescue crew was called immediately and they shifted Mehta to a safe place with the help of some other hikers.

Interestingly, Mehta narrated the entire story to Apple CEO Tim Cook via an email. What was not expected is that Apple CEO surprised Mehta with his reply in which he wished the boy a quick recovery. Cook wrote in his reply, “I am delighted you are on the road to recovery.”

Tech workers face a new reality as talent wars turn to pink slips

By: Katherine Bindley, The Wall Street Journal, Month: November

This spring, Google employees in the Bay Area got a private Lizzo concert to herald a return to the office. The company was cutting back on social gatherings as well as hiring. Meta Platforms Inc., known for once-lavish perks such as free laundry, began slashing 11,000 jobs that week and said some of its remaining workers would have to share desks.

The comedown had been swift for employees of big technology companies, long among the most coveted workers in business. Accustomed to jobs with six-figure salaries, fat equity packages and cushy amenities, many employees were facing staff cuts for the first time, along with shrinking net worths as stocks fell during a bumpy stretch for big tech.

Recruiters like Charley Betzig said they had been receiving a flood of notes from tech employees saying they would love to reconnect. For years, he had been the one trying to get their attention, he said. After large-scale layoffs at Twitter Inc., Lyft Inc., Stripe Inc. and others in recent days, tech employees had logged on to the anonymous messaging board Blind with commiserating posts with titles such as “layoff layoff layoff” and “take care of yourselves y’all.” One post was simply labeled: “I want to cry.”

Some tech workers faced unemployment for the first time in their careers, while others were seeking security in more staid but growing fields such as logistics and financial services, recruiters said.

Deleted WhatsApp chats by mistake? Follow these steps to retrieve them

By: Vivek Punj, Month: November

There is a way to retrieve deleted WhatsApp chats using the chat history saved either on your Google Drive or device.WhatsApp doesn’t save your chats on its servers, but instead creates databases on your Google Drive or your device’s internal storage. This can be used to get back any chat history that has been deleted by mistake or lost due to some other reason.

To restore your chat history follow these steps:

Restore WhatsApp chats from Google Drive

Firstly, ensure that WhatsApp has been backing up chat history to your Google Drive account. If you are switching to a new device, then log in to your Google account first. Users can select to back up their chat history daily, weekly, or monthly.

To restore your WhatsApp chat history, install WhatsApp and verify your phone number. Once the sign in and verification are complete, WhatsApp will prompt you to restore your chat history from Google Drive. Click on ‘Restore’ to complete this process. Once done, tap on ‘Next’ to find your old chats.

In case the Google Drive doesn’t have your chat history, WhatsApp will pull the same from local storage. This will not on a new device though.

Restore WhatsApp chat history from local backup

Go to you file manager, or download one if your doesn’t have it. Look for WhatsApp folder, which usually is in your internal storage. After getting into the folder, tap on Databases. Here you will find back-ups of your chat history arranged date-wise. Make sure it has the chat history of the date you want.

If you have your WhatsApp data saved on an SD card, copy the latest entry in the Databases folder and paste it in the folder with the same name in your internal storage.

Now uninstall and reinstall WhatsApp and log in using your phone number. Allow WhatsApp to restore your chat history by tapping on the ‘Restore’ button.

For restoring chat back ups from a later date, pick the desired one from Databases folder and rename it from from msgstore-YYYY-MM-DD.1.db.crypt12 to msgstore.db.crypt12. Be careful to remove only the date and leave the rest unchanged. Do not change the crypt extension. Uninstall and reinstall WhatsApp, log in and then restore your chat back-ups.