After hack, 23andMe gives users 30 days to opt out of class-action waiver
Shortly after 23andMe confirmed that hackers stole ancestry data of 6.9 million users, 23andMe has updated its terms of service, seemingly cutting off a path previously granted to users seeking public accountability when resolving disputes. According to a post on…
After losing everywhere else, Elon Musk asks SCOTUS to get SEC off his back
Enlarge / Elon Musk at an AI event with Britain Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in London on Thursday, Nov. 2, 2023. Getty Images | WPA Pool Elon Musk yesterday appealed to the Supreme Court in a last-ditch effort to terminate…
Verizon fell for fake “search warrant,” gave victim’s phone data to stalker
Enlarge / A Verizon logo at GSMA Mobile World Congress 2019 on February 26, 2019 in Barcelona, Spain. Verizon Wireless gave a female victim’s address and phone logs to an alleged stalker who pretended to be a police officer, according…
US regulators will now have access to years of Binance transaction data
Wired/Getty One attraction of Binance, as the company grew from its 2017 founding into the biggest cryptocurrency exchange in the world, was the firm’s freewheeling flouting of rules. As it amassed well over 100 million crypto-trading users globally, it openly…
Twitch exit from S. Korea is latest fallout from “sending-party-pays” model
Getty Images | NurPhoto Amazon-owned Twitch plans to stop providing its streaming platform in South Korea, saying that fees charged by network operators make it impossible to run the service without a significant loss in the country. The shutdown is…
Meta defies FBI opposition to encryption, brings E2EE to Facebook, Messenger
Getty Images | Chesnot Meta has started enabling end-to-end encryption (E2EE) by default for chats and calls on Messenger and Facebook despite protests from the FBI and other law enforcement agencies that oppose the widespread use of encryption technology. “Today…
Ex-Twitter exec sues Musk, says he was fired for objecting to budget cuts
Getty Images | NurPhoto A former Twitter security executive sued Elon Musk and X Corp. yesterday, alleging that he was unlawfully fired for objecting to steep budget cuts implemented shortly after Musk bought the social network. Alan Rosa, who was…
Tesla whistleblower calls cars with Autopilot “experiments in public roads”
Getty Images | SOPA Images A former Tesla employee who leaked thousands of accident reports and other documents expressed his doubts about the safety of Tesla’s Autopilot system in an interview with the BBC published today. “I don’t think the…
Unproven AI face scans may estimate age for porn access in UK
Aurich Lawson | Getty Images AI face detection now counts among the tools that could be used to help adult sites effectively estimate UK user ages and block minors from accessing pornography, the UK’s Office of Communications (Ofcom) said in…
YouTuber pilot regrets intentionally crashing plane, gets 6 months in prison
Trevor Jacob, a 30-year-old YouTuber pilot who intentionally crashed his plane to drive up views on a sponsored video, has been sentenced to six months in federal prison, the US Attorney’s Office announced Monday. Earlier this year, Jacob pled guilty…
Hackers stole ancestry data of 6.9 million users, 23andMe finally confirmed
It’s now been confirmed that an additional 6.9 million 23andMe users had ancestry data stolen after hackers accessed thousands of accounts by likely reusing previously leaked passwords. 23andMe previously disclosed in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing that 0.1 percent of…
Google caught placing big-brand ads on hardcore porn sites, report says
The appearance of any big brand’s ads on websites that the brand has specifically blocked is one of a brand’s biggest nightmares. That could include specifically blacklisted sites—like Breitbart—or any category of generally controversial site, like sites in countries sanctioned…
Google to pay Canada’s “link tax,” drops threat of removing news from search
Getty Images | Manuel Augusto Moreno Google has agreed to pay Canadian news businesses $100 million a year to comply with the country’s Online News Act, despite previously saying it would remove Canadian news links from search rather than make…
Meta’s “overpriced” ad-free subscriptions make privacy a “luxury good”: EU suit
Backlash over Meta’s ad-free subscription model in the European Union has begun just one month into its launch. On Thursday, Europe’s largest consumer group, the European Consumer Organization (BEUC), filed a complaint with the network of consumer protection authorities. In…
Meta sues FTC, hoping to block ban on monetizing kids’ Facebook data
Getty Images | Chesnot Meta sued the Federal Trade Commission yesterday in a lawsuit that challenges the FTC’s authority to impose new privacy obligations on the social media firm. The complaint stems from the FTC’s May 2023 allegation that Meta-owned…
X advertisers stay away as CEO defends Musk’s “go f*** yourself” interview
Enlarge / X CEO Linda Yaccarino speaks onstage during Vox Media’s 2023 Code Conference on September 27, 2023 in Dana Point, California. Getty Images | Jerod Harris X CEO Linda Yaccarino called owner Elon Musk “candid and profound” in a…
25M homes will lose broadband discounts if Congress keeps stalling, FCC warns
Enlarge / Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel during a House Energy and Commerce Committee Subcommittee hearing on March 31, 2022, in Washington, DC. Getty Images | Kevin Dietsch A federal program that provides $30 monthly broadband discounts to people…
Montana’s TikTok ban blocked by federal judge
A federal judge has stopped a US state’s landmark ban on TikTok from going into effect, in an important test case for the widespread political backlash that has grown in the country against the Chinese-owned video-sharing app. Montana’s Senate Bill…
New chip-packaging facility could save TSMC’s Arizona fab from “paperweight” status
Enlarge / Apple wants to build more of its A- and M-series chips in the United States. Apple Late last year, Apple CEO Tim Cook announced that the company would definitely be buying chips made at Taiwan Semiconductor’s new Arizona-based…
Nvidia CEO: US chip independence may take 20 years to achieve
Enlarge / Founder and CEO of NVIDIA Jensen Huang speaks during the New York Times annual DealBook summit on November 29, 2023, in New York City. The US could be up to two decades away from maintaining its own domestic…
Elon Musk on X antisemitism controversy: “Don’t advertise. Go f*** yourself”
Aurich Lawson | Getty Images Elon Musk addressed an antisemitism controversy in characteristically unwise fashion during a public interview today, telling businesses to “go fuck yourself” and to stop advertising on the social network formerly named Twitter. Musk spoke on…
Amazon packages reportedly overwhelm small post offices, delaying other mail
Enlarge / Amazon boxes sit at a United States Postal Service facility in Fairfax, Virginia, on Tuesday, May 19, 2020. Getty Images | Bloomberg Amazon packages are overwhelming mail carriers in Minnesota, causing delays of other mail, according to news…
Backlash over fake female speakers shuts down developer conference
After an event organizer, Eduards Sizovs, was accused of making up fake female speakers to attract high-profile speakers to an online developer conference called DevTernity, several of the event’s top-billed speakers promptly withdrew. “You are charging attendees money and they…
Big brands keep dropping X over antisemitism; $75M loss, report estimates
The latest advertiser fallout on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, could end up costing Elon Musk’s company much more than the $11 million in revenue that the company previously estimated could be “at risk” due to backlash over…
Google Play keeps banning the same web browser due to vague DMCA notices
Enlarge / The Downloader app that was suspended from Google Play. App developer Elias Saba has had some bad luck with Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) takedowns. His Android TV app Downloader, which combines a web browser with a file…
Hate speech group calls Musk “thin-skinned tyrant” amid X advertiser fallout
Advertisers with zero-tolerance policies for antisemitism spent the weekend urging the CEO of X (formerly Twitter), Linda Yaccarino, to follow their lead, save her reputation, and ditch Elon Musk’s toxic social media platform, according to a pair of reports. Advertising…
Judge rejects Elon Musk’s attempt to kill Twitter/FTC privacy settlement
Getty Images | Bet_Noire Elon Musk lost an attempt to avoid a deposition and terminate a privacy settlement that Twitter agreed to before he bought the company. Musk’s X Corp. in July asked a federal judge for “a protective order…
Musk files lawsuit claiming Media Matters manipulated X by scrolling down
On Monday, Elon Musk followed through with his promise to sue Media Matters over reporting that helped spark the latest advertiser backlash against antisemitic content posted on Musk’s X (formerly Twitter). Musk’s complaint—bizarrely filed in a Texas court despite X…
Report: After Altman firing, OpenAI tried to merge with rival—and was rejected
Enlarge / Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei on Tuesday, July 25, 2023, during a hearing on AI held by the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology, and the Law. Getty Images | Bloomberg After firing CEO Sam Altman, OpenAI’s board of…
Reports: Sam Altman in talks for OpenAI return; board members could be ousted
Enlarge / Then-OpenAI CEO Sam Altman at APEC CEO Summit at Moscone West on November 16, 2023, in San Francisco. Getty Images | Justin Sullivan Former OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is in talks to return to the company’s top job…
Binance slapped with $4B fine, accepts plea deal forcing CEO to resign
Enlarge / Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao leaves the US District Court on November 21, 2023 in Seattle. Binance founder Changpeng Zhao has resigned as CEO of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange after agreeing to plead guilty to money laundering violations,…
Sam Altman wins power struggle, returns to OpenAI with new board
Enlarge / OpenAI CEO Sam Altman at the APEC CEO Summit at Moscone West on November 16, 2023 in San Francisco. Getty Images | Justin Sullivan After five days of chaos triggered by OpenAI’s firing of CEO Sam Altman, the…
Elon Musk and Tesla ignored Autopilot’s fatal flaws, judge says evidence shows
A Florida judge, Reid Scott, has ruled that there’s “reasonable evidence” to conclude that Tesla and its CEO Elon Musk knew of defects in Autopilot systems and failed to fix them. Testimony from Tesla engineers and internal documents showed that…