Facebook’s Onavo VPN app has been dying a slow death since it was exposed as a clandestine data collection monster last year. The app was pulled from the iOS app store for violating Apple’s rules and now Facebook has voluntarily decided to remove it from Google Play. At the very least, the move seems to signal that the social network is becoming more aware of the risks its creepy privacy practices pose. Read More >>
The anti-vaccination movement has become so widespread that the World Health Organization added it to its list of the top threats to global health in 2019. Social media companies are drawing criticism for not doing more to prevent the spread of misinformation about vaccines and Pinterest has come up with a novel solution: just don’t show vaccine-related search results. Read More >>
Amid a firestorm of legal and political salvoes fired at Huawei by the U.S. government, Huawei CEO Ren Zhengfei insisted this week that “there’s no way the U.S. can crush us” while denying that his company will give China’s government backdoor access to its next-generation 5G network. Read More >>
Chrome OS users are reporting an alarming bug in the latest stable version of the operating system. Something in the most recent update is causing the CPU usage to sky rocket to 50-100 percent capacity on certain systems. Amusingly, developers believe it may be related to checking the CPU usage in the task manager itself. Read More >>
Researchers at the non-profit AI research group OpenAI just wanted to train their new text generation software to predict the next word in a sentence. It blew away all of their expectations and was so good at mimicking writing by humans they’ve decided to pump the brakes on the research while they explore the damage it could do. Read More >>
For two years, the European Union has been mulling over a serious overhaul of its copyright laws. But last year, it became increasingly clear that key provisions in the looming copyright directive pose a serious threat to the free exchange of information online, the culture of fair use, and the ability of startups to compete. On Thursday, lawmakers finalised the text of the legislation, and unfortunately, there’s almost no good news. Read More >>
When Black Mirror: Bandersnatch was released on Netflix last December, it was fairly obvious that the choose-your-own-adventure experiment represented a fresh step in data collection for the streaming service. And as we reported yesterday, a researcher has offered proof that Netflix is storing and mining your choices. Surprisingly, that’s actually a good reason to feel optimistic. Read More >>
“Google is making changes to Gmail” is not a phrase we’re used to hearing without a shudder going up our spine. But this time around, we’re feeling pretty good about it. Read More >>
Security researchers revealed on Friday that the temperature control systems used in freezers at thousands of locations ranging from supermarket to hospitals to pharmaceutical companies are subject to simple sabotage. To raise hell, all anyone would need to know is where to look and the systems’ stupidly guessable default password. Read More >>
Sometimes, the most effective hacks are the simplest hacks. The technique of targeting users’ email accounts with malicious links that gather personal data is one of the oldest and most successful hacks around. And now, you should be on the lookout for phishing emails that are using Google Translate to mask their nefarious nature. Read More >>
On Tuesday, scientists in New Zealand announced they’d discovered a working USB drive in a sample of leopard seal poop that they hoped to return to its owner. In a surprise twist, the drive contained photos and videos of frolicking sea lions. Now, the owner of the faecal flash drive has come forward to tell her story. Read More >>
Last April, TechCrunch revealed that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg had used his executive power to remove his own messages sent in the Messenger app, an option that regular users don’t normally have at their disposal. Following the report, Facebook scrambled to make good and said we’d all soon have delete powers in the messaging app and today that feature is rolling out—sort of. Read More >>
Happy Zuckerversary! Facebook officially turned 15-years-old on Monday, and its founder has blessed us with yet another blog post explaining how he sees his own creation in its terrible teens. After all this time, Mark Zuckerberg still either can’t or won’t accept that he runs a platform, not the internet. Read More >>
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