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Tech NewsPrivacy and SecurityOnline Depression Tests Are Collecting and Sharing Your Data
Casually browsing the web comes with the expectation that you’re probably going to be tracked by data brokers who are thirsty for your internet habits, but one might also expect that on certain corners of the web, your information is treated with more sensitivity. But a new report found that even on mental health websites, … Continued
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Tech NewsGovernment Agency Known for Its Bonkers Tech Now Tasked With Solving Fake News
The government agency known for developing wild technology like a penny-sized vacuum, enigmatic sky balloons, and a shit-ton of robots is now tasked with solving perhaps the greatest threat to democracy—misinformation. The Department of Defense’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) “is soliciting innovative research proposals in the area of semantic technologies to automatically assess … Continued
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Tech NewsAppleThieves Steal More Than $300,000 in Apple Products After Smashing Glass Wall With Sledgehammer
Early Tuesday morning, six people broke into two Apple stores in Australia by smashing the glass enclosure with a sledgehammer, according to surveillance footage. According to a Facebook post by the Western Australia Police Force, one of these theft attempts was successful, with the group leaving with more than $300,000 of products, which were mostly … Continued
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Tech NewsGoogleYouTube Is About to Round Down Creators’ Follower Counts
In May, YouTube let creators know that in the near future, all of them with more than 1,000 subscribers would see their follower counts rounded down. The time has come, and the video-sharing service is rolling out this change throughout September. YouTube announced the update on Thursday, which will happen “gradually” across YouTube and the … Continued
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Tech NewsAmazonAmazon Search Results for ‘Suicide’ Will Now Include a Helpline Instead of Nooses
After searches for “suicide” on Amazon brought up a number of items to aid in causing a customer’s own death, the tech giant pledged to add helpline information to the pages of certain products. Reuters reported on Thursday that search results on Amazon’s U.S. and India marketplace pulled up harmful products. Searching for “suicide” on … Continued
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Tech NewsNewsThe Plan to Use Fitbit Data to Stop Mass Shootings Is One of the Scariest Proposals Yet
In the aftermath of yet another mass shooting in America, loved ones grieve, gun control advocates call for common-sense reforms, and politicians suggest new “solutions” that won’t do anything about guns. These proposals frequently focus on mental health, but a new plan before the White House to monitor “neurobehavioral” predictors of violence isn’t just misguided, … Continued
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Tech NewsAppleApple Says Only In-House Employees Will Listen to Siri Recordings as 300 Contractors Are Reportedly Laid Off
Following public outcry over workers listening to audio captured by voice assistants, Apple announced on Wednesday that it would no longer relegate the task of listening to Siri recordings to contractors, and instead, only Apple employees would review these audio clips. As a result, hundreds of contractors have reportedly lost their jobs. In its announcement, … Continued
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Tech NewsPrivacy and SecurityWoman’s Ex-Husband and His New Girlfriend Ordered to Pay $3.2 Million in Revenge Porn Case
In August, Elizabeth Ann Clark sued her ex-husband Adam Matthew Clark and his new girlfriend for stalking, cyberstalking, revenge porn, and libelous comments, which included allegedly posting fake personal ads of her on Craigslist and Facebook. This included posting a partly nude photo of her online. On Monday, a jury ruled in favor of the … Continued
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Tech NewsPrivacy and SecuritySweden’s First GDPR Fine Goes to a High School Piloting Facial Recognition Attendance
A school in northern Sweden experimented with facial recognition as a system to document student attendance, and the Swedish Data Protection Authority (DPA) fined the municipality 200,000 SEK (about $20,699) for violating the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). It’s the first time the country has been fined for violating the digital privacy violation, which began … Continued
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Tech NewsPrivacy and SecurityAirport Body Scanners Have a Gender Problem
Airport security is famously dehumanizing, and reports reveal that for transgender travelers, this can be an especially intrusive and traumatizing experience given the current status of screening. From January 2016 through April 2019, nearly 300 civil rights complaints were filed regarding TSA screening of transgender people. ProPublica published a report on Monday documenting the issues … Continued
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Tech NewsFacebookJudge Pauses Roll Out of Facebook’s ‘Clear History’ Tool Over Fears of Evidence Destruction
Facebook showed its whole snooping ass last year during the Cambridge Analytica scandal, and Mark Zuckerberg promptly promised to deliver users a tool that would give them some more power over how their data is used. Over a year later, and Facebook is finally beginning to roll out such a feature, but a state judge … Continued
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Tech NewsPrivacy and SecurityA Crackdown on the Use of Face Recognition Tech Is Brewing in the EU: Report
European citizens may soon have protections most Americans lack: control over the use of their face recognition data. Facial recognition tech remains largely unregulated, and we’ve seen what police and other government operators can get away with in the absence of any meaningful rules. A few cities in the U.S. have outright banned its use … Continued
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Tech NewsPrivacy and SecuritySecurity Installation Man Sentenced To Life in Prison for Secretly Recording Girls at Homes He Serviced
A 39-year-old man in Oklahoma who installed home security systems for a local company was sentenced to life in prison on Thursday for hiding cameras in homes and secretly recording girls who lived there. The man, Ryan Alden, pleaded guilty to 28 felonies in June, which included creating and possessing child pornography, the Associated Press … Continued
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Tech NewsNewsSecond Teen Arrested for Threats Posted on Meme-Sharing Site iFunny
On Monday, a 19-year-old man from Chicago was arrested after allegedly threatening to “slaughter and murder any doctor, patient, or visitor” in the area of an abortion clinic. The threats were reportedly made on iFunny, and he is the second young man this month to be charged over violent comments on the meme-sharing site. The … Continued
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Tech NewsGoogleGoogle Will Now Let Visually Impaired Users Experience Live Edits in Google Docs
There are a lot of improvements to be made on the web to make it more accessible, and a lot of that is contingent on thorny legal issues, so it’s nice to see tech companies take the initiative to inject accessibility improvements directly into their own products. Especially basic but frequently used features like editing … Continued
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Tech NewsPrivacy and SecurityShit Show at the Fuck Factory
Security breaches on widely used anonymous communities online threaten to out some of our most personal past-times, especially when those data leaks occur on platforms dedicated to user-created porn. Researchers revealed this month that a user-generated porn site leaked a damning amount of personal data of its more than one million registered users. The site, … Continued
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Tech NewsGoogleGoogle’s Fix for Misleading Abortion Ads Is Weak and Ineffective
In June, Google began implementing a new policy that required companies running ads with abortion-related keywords to explicitly state whether or not they provide abortion services and then added a disclosure directly on the ad to prevent crisis pregnancy centers from deceiving users. But it appears the policy still allows these dangerously misleading clinics to … Continued
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Tech NewsPrivacy and SecurityMarried Florida Cop Sues Dating Site for Cops Over Alleged Photo Thievery
In April of last year, a photo of “33-year-old,” “single” police officer named “Jason” appeared in sponsored ads across Facebook and Instagram to promote a dating app for “uniformed singles.” Only thing is, the photo was actually of a 24-year-old police officer named David, who is married, has children, and is now suing the owners … Continued
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Tech NewsPrivacy and Security
Researchers Discover Malware That Can Record the Screen of French Internet User’s Watching Porn
Security researchers discovered a new form of malware that specifically targeted users of a French telecom giant. One of the more disturbing features of this malware is its capability to identify when someone was likely viewing porn and record their screen. Researchers at IT security company ESET spotted the malware, which they coined Varenyky, in … Continued
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Tech NewsPrivacy and SecurityAmazon’s Face Recognition Tech Once Again Pegs Politicians as Criminals
Facial recognition systems are still far from accurate, and yet government agencies continue to push for its deployment. To illustrate the existing flaws of the tech, the ACLU conducted another test of Amazon’s Rekognition software, which inaccurately identified one in five California lawmakers as matches to a mugshot database. The test was detailed during a … Continued
Melanie Ehrenkranz
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