Julia Carrie Wong writes at The Guardian that the election of Donald Trump has shocked the tech industry into taking a more critical look at their effect on the world:
FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Germany’s competition watchdog has found that Facebook abused its dominant market position, challenging the U.S. social network’s model of monetizing the personal data of its 2 billion users worldwide through targeted advertising.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s administration is publicly blaming North Korea for a ransomware attack that infected hundreds of thousands of computers worldwide in May and crippled parts of Britain’s National Health Service.
DETROIT (AP) — An outside cyber security firm hired by Uber after a massive data theft found no evidence that rider credit card, bank account or Social Security numbers were downloaded by two hackers, the company said in a response to demands for information from U.S. senators.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A recent letter from the U.S. Attorney’s office confirms that the Justice Department has opened a criminal investigation connected to allegations that a former Uber executive stole self-driving car technology from a Google spin-off to help the ride-hailing service build robotic vehicles.
BEIJING (Reuters) – Alphabet Inc’s Google said on Wednesday it is opening an artificial intelligence (AI) research center in China to target the country’s local talent, even as the U.S. search firm’s products remain blocked in the country.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Donald Trump signed into law on Tuesday legislation that bans the use of Kaspersky Lab within the U.S. government, capping a months-long effort to purge the Moscow-based antivirus firm from federal agencies amid concerns it was vulnerable to Kremlin influence.
Dec. 11 (UPI) — Uber charged a Toronto man more than $18,000 for a 5-mile ride that should have cost about $10 Friday after an error during surge pricing.
DETROIT (AP) — A judge on Wednesday sentenced a Volkswagen senior manager to seven years in prison for covering up a scheme to evade pollution limits on U.S. diesel vehicles, calling it an astonishing fraud on American consumers.
AMSTERDAM, Dec 8 (Reuters) – Nearly half of humans believe in alien life and want to make contact, a survey in 24 countries has found, in what researchers said helps to explain the lasting popularity of the “Star Wars” franchise 40 years after the first movie was screened.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A Canadian man pleaded guilty Tuesday to charges stemming from a massive breach at Yahoo that authorities say was directed by two Russian intelligence agents and affected at least a half billion user accounts.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Federal prosecutors are investigating allegations that Uber deployed an espionage team to plunder trade secrets from its rivals. The revelation triggered a delay in a high-profile trial over whether the beleaguered ride-hailing service stole self-driving car technology from a Google spinoff.
Windows were smashed at Lucian Wintrich’s University of Connecticut speech, which was brought to an abrupt end by left-wing disruption.
As many families sat down to dinner on Thanksgiving, others began to queue around the block of department stores in preparation for Black Friday sales the next morning.
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri’s attorney general is investigating Google for potential violations of the state’s consumer-protection and antitrust laws, his office said Monday.
SAN FRANCISCO/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – For about 48 hours after a deadly rampage at a Texas church, the FBI and other law enforcement agencies did not ask Apple Inc to help them unlock the gunman’s iPhone or associated online accounts, a person familiar with the situation told Reuters on Wednesday.
LISBON (Reuters) – Uber is taking part in a joint industry and government push with NASA to develop software which the company aims to use to manage “flying taxi” routes that could work like ride-hailing services it has popularized on the ground.
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia’s communications regulator Roskomnadzor said on Wednesday it planned to check whether Facebook was in compliance with Russian law.
(Reuters) BRUSSELS — Facebook, Twitter, Google’s YouTube and Microsoft on Tuesday agreed to an EU code of conduct to tackle online hate speech within 24 hours in Europe.
The FBI unit ran fingerprints from about 1,500 bodies through a new computer algorithm that could make matches from low-quality prints or even a single finger or thumb. Previously, the standard algorithm typically needed quality prints from all 10 fingers to make a match.
ATWATER, Calif. (Reuters) – Alphabet Inc’s self-driving car unit stopped developing features that required drivers to take control in dangerous situations, its chief executive said Monday, as autopilot reliance left users prone to distractions and ill-prepared to maneuver.
Nantes (France) (AFP) – American actor Shia LaBeouf’s artistic protest against US President Donald Trump has been attacked again — this time by vandals using a flaming drone in western France where it went on display this month.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A bipartisan group of at least 10 U.S. senators plans to introduce on Tuesday legislation that would substantially reform aspects of the National Security Agency’s warrantless internet surveillance program, according to congressional aides.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Google’s parent company is throwing its financial support behind ride-hailing service Lyft, deepening its rift with market leader Uber.
(AP) – AOL announced Friday that it is discontinuing its pioneering Instant Messenger chat platform after 20 years of service.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Hackers allegedly working for the Kremlin stole details about how the U.S. infiltrates foreign networks and defends against cyberattacks after a National Security Agency contractor took the classified material home and put it on a personal computer, according to a news report published Thursday.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Yahoo has tripled down on what was already the largest data breach in history, saying it affected all 3 billion of its users, not the 1 billion it revealed late last year.
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Some 10 million people in the United States saw politically divisive ads on Facebook that the company said were purchased in Russia in the months before and after last year’s U.S. presidential election, Facebook said on Monday.
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — SpaceX chief Elon Musk’s elaborate plan for a mega-rocket to carry astronauts to Mars may have some down-to-Earth applications.
NEW YORK (AP) — Equifax CEO Richard Smith is retiring effective immediately as the credit reporting agency tries to clean up the mess left by a damaging data breach that exposed highly sensitive information about 143 million Americans.
Writing at the Huffington Post, Ethan Klapper notes that Breitbart News saw a huge increase in Facebook interactions over the weekend following President Donald Trump’s comments on NFL players kneeling during the national anthem and NFL athletes protesting in response
Despite UC Berkeley claiming that Free Speech Week has been canceled, former Breitbart Senior Editor MILO declared Saturday that he would “not back down.”
(Reuters) – Amazon.com Inc is working on its first wearable device – a pair of ‘smart glasses’, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday.
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Google has offered to display rival comparison shopping sites via an auction, as it aims to stave off further EU antitrust fines, four people familiar with the matter said.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The chairman of the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said on Tuesday “operational limitations” in the Tesla Model S played a “major role” in a May 2016 crash that killed a driver using the vehicle’s semi-autonomous “Autopilot” system.
Pisa (Italy) (AFP) – Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli’s voice soars to the rafters of the Tuscan theatre, but all eyes are on the orchestral conductor beside him — a robot with an apparent penchant for Verdi.
COLOGNE, Germany (Reuters) – Facebook said on Wednesday it would introduce tougher rules on who can make money from advertising on its network, responding to criticism that it makes it too easy for providers of fake news and sensational headlines to cash in.
Google had our group kicked out of our parent think tank over a statement lauding the EU’s ruling against Google.
(AFP) — Expedia chief Dara Khosrowshahi has been chosen to replace ousted Travis Kalanick as the next CEO at Uber, The New York Times reported Sunday, as the ride-hailing giant looks to move past a rough patch.
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A South Korean court sentenced the billionaire chief of Samsung to five years in prison for crimes that helped topple the country’s president, a stunning downfall that could freeze up decision making at a global electronics powerhouse long run like a monarchy.
