France’s data protection authority, CNIL, fined Apple €8 million (about $8.5 million) Wednesday for illegally harvesting iPhone owners’ data for targeted ads without proper consent. […] The French fine, though, is the latest addition to a growing body of evidence that Apple may not be the privacy guardian angel it makes itself out to be. Read more about Apple Faces French $8.5M Fine For Illegal Data Harvesting[…]
Asus announced an upcoming feature that allows users to view and work with content in 3D without wearing 3D glasses. Similar technology has been used in a small number of laptops and displays before, but Asus is incorporating the feature for the first time in OLED laptop screens. Combined with high refresh rates, unique input Read more about Asus brings glasses-free 3D to OLED laptops | Ars Technica[…]
In a far-reaching move that could raise wages and increase competition among businesses, the Federal Trade Commission on Thursday unveiled a rule that would block companies from limiting their employees’ ability to work for a rival. From a report: The proposed rule would ban provisions of labor contracts known as noncompete agreements, which prevent workers Read more about US Moves To Bar Noncompete Agreements in Labor Contracts[…]
[…] The short version of the latest drama is this: data stolen from Twitter more than a year ago found its way onto a major dark web marketplace this week. The asking price? The crypto equivalent of $2. In other words, it’s basically being given away for free. The hacker who posted the data haul, Read more about 200 Million Twitter Users’ Data for Sale on the Dark Web for $2[…]
The law affects every company with more than 15 employees looking to fill a job that could be performed from the state of California. It covers hourly and temporary work, all the way up to openings for highly paid technology executives. That means it’s now possible to know the salaries top tech companies pay their Read more about Californian law forces salary disclosure for companies > 15 people – fair and inclusive[…]
Multiple bugs affecting millions of vehicles from almost all major car brands could allow miscreants to perform any manner of mischief — in some cases including full takeovers — by exploiting vulnerabilities in the vehicles’ telematic systems, automotive APIs and supporting infrastructure, according to security researchers. Specifically, the vulnerabilities affect Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Rolls Royce, Ferrari, Read more about Connected car security is very poor – fortunately they do actually take it seriously, fix bugs quickly[…]
[…] We were recently playing in the menus of a 2023 BMW X1 when we came across a group of screens offering exactly that sort of subscription. BMW TeleService and Remote Software Upgrade showed a message that read Activated, while BMW Drive Recorder had options to subscribe for one month, one year, three years, or Read more about We Found Subscription Menus in Our BMW Test Car. And other models have different subscriptions. WTF BMW?[…]
In what looks like a victory for farmers in the United States, the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) has struck a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with equipment vendor John Deere regarding the repairability of its machines. As farming has become more technology-driven, Deere has increasingly injected software into its products with all of its tractors Read more about John Deere signs right to repair agreement[…]
[…] “DoNotPay will pay any lawyer or person $1,000,000 with an upcoming case in front of the United States Supreme Court to wear AirPods and let our robot lawyer argue the case by repeating exactly what it says,” Browder wrote on Twitter on Sunday night. “[W]e are making this serious offer, contingent on us coming Read more about DoNotPay Offers $1M for Its AI to Argue Before Supreme Court[…]
[…] Edward Tian, a college student studying computer science and journalism at Princeton University, recently created an app called GPTZero to help detect whether the text was written by AI or a human. The motivation behind the app was to help combat increasing AI plagiarism. […] To analyze text, GPTZero uses metrics such as perplexity Read more about Meet GPTZero: The AI-Powered AI Plagiarism detection Program[…]
[…] According to the class action complaint filed in a Massachusetts court, names, usernames, billing addresses, email addresses, telephone numbers, and even the IP addresses used to access the service were all made available to wrongdoers. The final straw in the hat could have been the leak of customers’ unencrypted vault data, which includes all Read more about LastPass is being sued following major cyberattack[…]
A startup says it has begun releasing sulfur particles into Earth’s atmosphere, in a controversial attempt to combat climate change by deflecting sunlight. Make Sunsets, a company that sells carbon offset “cooling credits” for $10 each, is banking on solar geoengineering to cool down the planet and fill its coffers. The startup claims it has Read more about Startup Claims It’s Sending Sulfur Into the Atmosphere to Fight Climate Change[…]
As word of students using AI to automatically complete essays continues to spread, some lecturers are beginning to rethink how they should teach their pupils to write. Writing is a difficult task to do well. The best novelists and poets write furiously, dedicating their lives to mastering their craft. The creative process of stringing together Read more about University students are using AI to write essays. Teachers are learning how to embrace that[…]
For the last thirteen years the Free Software Foundation has published its Ethical Tech Giving Guide. But what’s interesting is this year’s guide also tags companies and products with negative recommendations to “stay away from.” Stay away from: iPhones It’s not just Siri that’s creepy: all Apple devices contain software that’s hostile to users. Although Read more about FSF Warns: Stay Away From iPhones, Amazon, Netflix, and Music Steaming Services[…]
The version of the iconic character from “Steamboat Willie” will enter the public domain in 2024. But those trying to take advantage could end up in a legal mousetrap. From a report: There is nothing soft and cuddly about the way Disney protects the characters it brings to life. This is a company that once Read more about Mickey’s Copyright Adventure: Early Disney Creation Will Soon Be Public Property – finally. What lawsuits lie in wait?[…]
Last week, just before Christmas, LastPass dropped a bombshell announcement: as the result of a breach in August, which led to another breach in November, hackers had gotten their hands on users’ password vaults. While the company insists that your login information is still secure, some cybersecurity experts are heavily criticizing its post, saying that Read more about The LastPass disclosure of leaked password vaults is being torn apart by security experts[…]
As smartphone manufacturers are improving the ear speakers in their devices, it can become easier for malicious actors to leverage a particular side-channel for eavesdropping on a targeted user’s conversations, according to a team of researchers from several universities in the United States. The attack method, named EarSpy, is described in a paper published just Read more about EarSpy: Spying on Phone Calls via Ear Speaker Vibrations Captured by Accelerometer[…]
[…] This White Paper entitled ETSI Activities in the field of Artificial Intelligence supports all stakeholders and summarizes ongoing effort in ETSI and planned future activities. It also includes an analysis on how ETSI deliverables may support current policy initiatives in the field of artificial intelligence. A section of the document outlines ETSI activities of Read more about ETSI’s Activities in Artificial Intelligence: White Paper[…]
In a reminder of smart home security’s dark side, two people hacked Ring security cameras to livestream swattings, according to a Los Angeles grand jury indictment (according to a report from Bloomberg). The pair called in hoax emergencies to authorities and livestreamed the police response on social media in late 2020. James Thomas Andrew McCarty, Read more about Two people charged with hacking Ring security cameras to livestream swattings[…]
It’s been four years since Facebook became embroiled in its biggest scandal to date: Cambridge Analytica. In addition to paying $4.9 billion to the Federal Trade Commission in a settlement, the social network has just agreed to pay $725 million to settle a long-running class-action lawsuit, making it the biggest settlement ever in a privacy Read more about Meta agrees to $725 million settlement in Cambridge Analytica class-action lawsuit[…]
[…] This week, OpenAI open sourced Point-E, a machine learning system that creates a 3D object given a text prompt. According to a paper published alongside the code base, Point-E can produce 3D models in one to two minutes on a single Nvidia V100 GPU. […] Outside of the mesh-generating model, which stands alone, Point-E Read more about OpenAI releases Point-E, an AI that generates 3D point clouds / meshes[…]
ou may have noticed the world getting excited about the capabilities of ChatGPT, a text-based AI chat bot. Similarly, some are getting quite worked up over generative AI systems that can turn text prompts into images, including those mimicking the style of particular artists. But less remarked upon is the use of AI in the Read more about The Copyright Industry Is About To Discover That There Are Hundreds Of Thousands Of Songs Generated By AI Already Available, Already Popular[…]
The United States Copyright Office (USCO) reversed an earlier decision to grant a copyright to a comic book that was created using “A.I. art,” and announced that the copyright protection on the comic book will be revoked, stating that copyrighted works must be created by humans to gain official copyright protection. In September, Kris Kashtanova Read more about AI-Created Comic Has Copyright Protection Revoked by US[…]
A new wave of chat bots like ChatGPT use artificial intelligence that could reinvent or even replace the traditional internet search engine. From a report: Over the past three decades, a handful of products like Netscape’s web browser, Google’s search engine and Apple’s iPhone have truly upended the tech industry and made what came before Read more about ChatGPT Is a ‘Code Red’ for Google’s Search Business[…]
The FBI is warning the public that cyber criminals are using search engine advertisement services to impersonate brands and direct users to malicious sites that host ransomware and steal login credentials and other financial information. […] Cyber criminals purchase advertisements that appear within internet search results using a domain that is similar to an actual Read more about FBI warns of fake shopping sites – recommends to use an ad blocker[…]