Tuesday, 10 February 2026

Google Can Now Remove Even More Of Your Sensitive Data From Search Results

A person using Google Search on a laptop.
 - Thaspol Sangsee/Shutterstock
Google launched a "Results about you" privacy and security feature for Google Search a few years ago, a tool that lets you request the removal of personal data from search results, which can come in handy when information like your phone number and email address end up online. On Tuesday, Google announced new features for Results about you, to mark Safer Internet Day, that will let users remove even more sensitive data from Google Search results than before. Google unveiled two separate initiatives that both expand the usefulness of Results about you. First, Google will help users remove documents that may have leaked online, including your driver's license, passport, or Social Security number. Second, Google will help users remove non-consensual explicit images from Google Search results in a simpler way than before.

Like before, it's important to remember that Google will not remove the actual content from the web, whether it's a stolen ID that someone may use to impersonate you, or explicit images someone shared online. However, Google will prevent the web pages containing that potentially harmful information from showing up in Google Search results. That's still a useful tool to have on hand when dealing with potential cyberattacks. Google said in a blog post that over 10 million people have used the Results about you tool to request removal of Search results that contain personal data. The new features build on the foundation that Google has already developed.


By Chris Smith

Full story at Yahoo News

Monday, 9 February 2026

Nigeria to Step Up Cyber Defenses as AI Attacks, Losses Mount

Nigeria plans to implement a cybersecurity framework to confront a surge in artificial intelligence-driven cyberattacks that are costing its banks, companies, and government agencies millions of dollars

The framework will require organizations to meet minimum cybersecurity spending thresholds and introduce mandatory breach-reporting timelines and mechanisms for sharing threat intelligence.

Authorities are tightening cyber defenses as AI accelerates the scale and sophistication of attacks on banks, payment systems, and government networks, with Nigeria having lost 1.1 trillion naira to cybercrime between 2017 and 2023.



By Ruth Olurounbi

Full story at Bloomberg.

Sunday, 8 February 2026

Women of UP shine at SA Women in Science Awards


The University of Pretoria (UP) has cemented its position as a powerhouse for women in science, with five exceptional researchers earning recognition at the 2025 South African Women in Science Awards (SAWiSA). The accolades highlight not just individual brilliance, but the University's commitment to nurturing diverse talent across multiple disciplines.

At the forefront of this achievement stands Dr Maurine Musie, who won the Distinguished Young Woman Researcher Award in Human and Social Sciences. The youngest PhD holder in UP's Nursing Science Department, Dr Musie has dedicated her career to improving maternal and neonatal health through ground-breaking approaches that blend traditional and modern healthcare practices. Her work with midwives and traditional birth attendants in rural areas addresses real healthcare challenges facing South African communities.


By Partnered Content

Full story at IOL

Tuesday, 3 February 2026

Nigeria Advances Digital Infrastructure with New Satellites and Nationwide Fibre Rollout

The initiative is designed to enhance broadband capacity across the country, lower internet costs, and improve connectivity for businesses, public institutions, and households alike, supporting Nigeria’s broader digital economy ambitions.

Nigeria is stepping up its efforts to strengthen digital infrastructure, with plans underway to launch two new communication satellites alongside a nationwide fibre-optic network expansion.

During a Global Privacy Day 2026 event in Abuja, government officials highlighted progress on the national fibre-optic backbone, which is projected to stretch over 90,000 kilometres and is currently around 60% complete.


By Joyce Onyeagoro

Full story at Tech African News

Monday, 2 February 2026

Valentine's Beauty: Hair by Gina


Hair by Gina is serving 2026 Valentine's hairstyles, Make up, Eyelashes and so much more.


Visit her at 6, Forest Drive, Fourways, Johannesburg

Book your appointment now: 073 636 4463.

You will never go wrong!

Thursday, 22 May 2025

Aleph expands partnership with Spotify to manage Global Advertising Sales in over 80 markets

Aleph and Spotify’s expanded partnership marks a new era for South African advertisers, offering brands the tools to connect with a diverse and digitally engaged audience. With South Africa’s love for music and storytelling, this partnership enables advertisers to tap into moments that resonate with local listeners, whether the high-energy soundtracks of morning commutes or the relaxing playlists defining weekend downtime. With advanced targeting options and innovative formats like Canvas and Opt-in Video, this collaboration empowers South African brands to deliver relevant and impactful campaigns. 


South Africa, May 20, 2025– Aleph, a global network of digital experts innovating at the intersection of media and payments, and Spotify, the world's most popular audio streaming subscription service, today announced an expanded partnership that makes Aleph Spotify's advertising sales partner in 80+ markets, providing access to 20,000+ advertisers.


Spotify Advertising has been modernising its ad tech, strengthening its partnerships and deepening its human expertise to make it easier for advertisers to buy, create, measure, and get clear results on Spotify’s ad platform. Spotify’s efforts reflect a significant step forward in automated buying and creative innovation for the ad platform and the broader digital audio industry. Most notably, Spotify is continuing to innovate its self-serve platform, Spotify Ads Manager, with more advanced targeting capabilities, new 1P & 3P measurement solutions, and new outcome-based objectives to help advertisers of all sizes create, optimise, and measure their Spotify campaigns, including Spotify Pixel, Custom Audiences, key third-party partnerships and a new App Installs objective.


Aleph has been a trusted partner to Spotify since 2013, when the initial partnership started with four countries. The newly signed partnership brings Aleph's comprehensive suite of services—including local media sales, payment solutions, creative support, and performance-driven automation—to effectively monetise Spotify’s advertising inventory and connect the brand with advertisers, streamlining and scaling Spotify's ad solutions to 80+ markets.


Aleph’s teams willhave access to Spotify’s Ads Manager to guide advertisers and agencies to leverage the platform's full potential of advertising formats and targeting capabilities to ensure they can reach listeners during key moments, such as workout sessions, focused work periods and commuting to provide advertisers and brands with unique opportunities to connect with their target audience when they’re highly engaged and help reach their marketing goals.


Key benefits for advertisers working with Spotify Ads Manager through Aleph include: 


  • Access to Spotify’s ad formats: Advertisers will be ableto utilise Spotify’s unique audio and video ad formats to craft engaging campaigns. Spotify recently introduced new ad formats available on Ads Manager, including Canvas and Opt-in Video. These new formats reimagine what ads on Spotify can be and how advertisers can engage with people through sight and sound.


  • Objective-based buying: The Ads Manager will allow advertisers to choose goals like reach, impressions, clicks, or video views for highly targeted campaigns. Spotify recently announced new outcome-based objectives to help advertisers of all sizes create, optimise, and measure their Spotify campaigns, including a new App Installs objective and a new Website Traffic Objective.


  • Lower costs: Flexible daily or lifetime budgets make Spotify advertising more accessible and cost-effective for partners thanks to Aleph’s campaign management.


“We are thrilled to partner with Spotify on a global scale, and especially excited and happy to extend the partnership to include Sub-Saharan Africa, namely in South Africa, Kenya, Ghana, Tanzania and Uganda," said Stephen Newton, Managing Director Sub-Saharan Africa at Aleph. "Our shared commitment to innovation and delivering exceptional value for advertisers makes this a natural partnership."


As we continue to grow our ads business, I’m excited to share that we’ve partnered with Aleph to streamline our operations, offer better solutions to advertisers and scale our business more efficiently. With the launch of our more automated solutions and Aleph’s exceptional global network and deep local expertise, we’re now able to offer advertisers around the world new tools and resources that will help them reach their campaign goals,” said Sam Bevan, Global Head of Emerging & Scaled at Spotify.


Aleph is a global leader in digital media solutions, connecting over 22,000 advertisers in more than 100 primarily emerging markets, including Sub-Saharan Africa. Aleph provides comprehensive advertising services through partnerships with major platforms like Spotify, Twitter, Snapchat, Pinterest, and TikTok. In Sub-Saharan Africa, Aleph supports advertisers with tailored solutions, including platform-specific strategies, performance-driven automation, and creative support through its in-house agency, SELVA.  


*Note to editors: Aleph is now the global sales partner for Spotify in  Albania, Algeria, Argentina, Armenia, Austria, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belarus, Belgium, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Estonia, Ghana, Greece, Guatemala, Honduras, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kosovo, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lebanon, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Mexico, Moldova, Montenegro, Morocco, Nepal, Nicaragua, Nigeria, North Macedonia, Oman, Pakistan, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Qatar, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Switzerland, Taiwan, Tanzania, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, Uganda, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Vietnam & more.


—- End of Press Release —-----


About Aleph


Aleph is a global network of digital experts innovating at the Intersection of media and payments. The company connects 60+ leading digital media platforms (including Amazon, Criteo, Google, Meta, Microsoft, Pinterest, Reddit, Snap, Spotify, TikTok, Twitch, Uber, X and others) across 130+ countries, enabling 26,000 advertisers to engage over 3 billion consumers. Local payment, Aleph’s fintech subsidiary, integrates media sales and payment service processing capabilities into a powerful solution for seamless global expansion for its clients, while Digital Ad Expert is a premier education platform and offers certifications for individuals and custom-tailored solutions for businesses, governments, NGOs and IGOs such as UNESCO. 


About Spotify


Since its launch in 2008, Spotify has revolutionised music listening. Its move into podcasting brought innovation and a new generation of listeners to the medium. In 2022, Spotify took the next leap, entering the fast-growing audiobook market, continuing to shape the future of audio.


Today, more listeners than ever can discover, manage and enjoy over 100 million tracks, 7 million podcast titles, and 350,000 audiobooks a la carte on Spotify. Spotify is the world’s most popular audio streaming subscription service with more than 678 million users, including 268 million subscribers in more than 180 markets.


Press Contacts


Aleph

press@alephholding.com