California revealed for the first time an 18-month investigation into Facebook’s privacy practices and accused the social media giant in a court filing on Wednesday of hampering the investigation. From a report: Revelation of the probe is the latest bad news for Facebook, which is already under investigation by 47 U.S. states. Some states, particularly New York and Nebraska, have raised…
Tag: parties
Airbnb Tries New Screening System for ‘High-Risk Reservations’ After ‘Party House’ Fatalities
“The CEO of Airbnb has announced that the company will be banning ‘party houses’ and doubling down on getting rid ‘of abusive host and guest conduct’ in direct response to the deadly shooting that broke out during a Halloween party held at an Airbnb rental in Orinda, California,” reports BuzzFeed News: On Thursday, renters of the home in Orinda threw a…
Google’s Sidewalk Labs Leaked Document Reveals Company’s Early Vision For Data Collection, Tax Powers, Criminal Justice
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Globe and Mail: A confidential Sidewalk Labs document from 2016 lays out the founding vision of the Google-affiliated development company, which included having the power to levy its own property taxes, track and predict people’s movements and control some public services. The document, which The Globe and Mail has seen, also describes how…
Motorola Is Building a New Kind of Walkie-Talkie For First Responders
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Fast Company: Motorola Solutions (not to be confused with Motorola Mobility, which makes the smartphones you know), the biggest global player in these LMR walkies, is releasing what appears to be the most advanced walkie-talkie ever. Called the APX Next, it’s a chunky black brick with a thick antenna and a giant push-to-talk button…
Calculation Errors and Inadequate Peer Review Led To Miami Bridge’s Collapse
America’s National Transportation Safety Board has now officially determined the probable causes of a Florida pedestrian bridge’s collapse in March of 2018: load and capacity calculation errors made by FIGG Bridge Engineers. Slashdot reader McGruber shares their report: Contributing to the collapse was Louis Berger’s inadequate peer review, which failed to detect FIGG’s calculation errors in its design of the main…
Man Sues AT&T, Saying He Lost $1.8 Million In Cryptocurrency With SIM Card Hack
A California man is suing AT&T after he says one of its employees allowed a hacker to access his cell phone number that resulted in his data being compromised and more than $1.8 million in cryptocurrency stolen from his accounts. ABC News reports: Seth Shapiro says that an AT&T employee allowed a hacker to swap his phone number from his phone…
Privacy-Respecting Smart Home System Can Work Offline and Sends Fake Data
A publicly-funded group of designers, artists and privacy experts from Amsterdam have designed a smart home system prototype to “prove it’s technically possible to build a privacy respecting smart home while maintaining convenience.” Its controller uses an Arduino Nano to disconnect the system from the internet during times when it’s not in use. They’re building everything on Mozilla’s open smart home…
DoNotPay App Waits On Hold For You
DoNotPay, a free chatbot that offers AI-powered legal counsel, is launching a new feature that will call you when it’s your turn in a customer service phone queue. TechCrunch reports: The app today is launching “Skip Waiting On Hold.” Just type in the company you need to talk to, and DoNotPay calls for you using tricks to get a human on…
FCC Votes To Approve T-Mobile-Sprint Merger
The FCC on Wednesday formally approved the merger between T-Mobile and Sprint. The vote comes months after the Justice Department greenlit the deal. The Verge reports: In May, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai first signaled that he would vote to approve the merger after the commission and the companies struck a deal that Republicans believed would help foster a faster 5G rollout….
In the age of fake news and manipulation, you are the new battlefield
With states, political parties and individuals jockeying for ever-greater influence online, you and your clicks are now the front line in the information war Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg24432520-800-in-the-age-of-fake-news-and-manipulation-you-are-the-new-battlefield/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home…