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Tech NewsPrivacy and Security
So, About Your Internet Porn Habits
You might want some privacy when consuming porn online, whether that’s going in incognito mode, locking the door, putting in headphones, or all of the above. And while this certainly conceals your activity from a roommate or someone who might look at your search history, researchers have demonstrated that your intimate browsing time is an … Continued
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Tech NewsPrivacy and Security
Oakland Becomes Third U.S. City to Ban Government Use of Face Recognition Tech
On Tuesday, the Oakland City Council voted unanimously to ban the use of facial recognition technology by the city, including its police force. It’s the third ban of the tech by a U.S. city since May. San Francisco was the first to ban city use of facial recognition tech, followed by Somerville, Massachusetts. Now, Oakland … Continued
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Tech NewsPrivacy and Security
FaceApp Probably Won’t Destroy Society, But the Privacy Trade-Off Is Still Shady as Hell
As our lives are increasingly lived online, what seems like an innocuous (or even silly) digital act can end up having serious privacy consequences. It’s a bleak reality that many are confronting once again thanks to a face-morphing app that ages the photos of users—who probably don’t know they have signed away the rights to … Continued
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Tech NewsNews
CES, Still a Bunch of Puritans
The Consumer Technology Association (CTA), the organization behind CES, doesn’t exactly have an admirable reputation when it comes to its treatment of women and products designed for women, specifically sexually-oriented ones. It appears the organization is attempting to cover its ass when it comes to this reputation, but it is doing so in a way … Continued
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Tech NewsNews
TurboTax Found a Depraved Way to Bump Profits After Tax Filing Process Was Simplified
In the aftermath of Trump’s major changes to the tax code, some of TurboTax’s customers no longer had to pay for many of its services, instead finding that the company’s free product would suffice. To offset this loss, the online tax service made changes that reportedly had an adverse impact on elderly, disabled, and unemployed … Continued
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Tech NewsNews
New York City Blackout Costs StubHub $500,000 In Ticket Refunds
A power outage swept New York City this weekend, leaving streets and metro stations without lights, individuals trapped in elevators, and homes without electricity. Certainly less endangering but still pretty shitty, the blackout also meant that many events in the city were canceled, and StubHub shelled out $500,000 in refunds. The online ticket marketplace paid … Continued
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Tech NewsNews
Instacart Workers Discover an App Is a Terrible Boss
Instacart has a checkered past when it comes to fair and dignified labor practices, and now dozens of its contract workers are claiming that the company app torments them into accepting shitty jobs or suffering the consequences. Instacart workers are independent contractors whose wage is contingent on the tasks they accept through the app, which … Continued
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Tech NewsAmazon
Don’t Open Any Amazon Prime Day Emails, Just in Case
Amazon’s made-up holiday dedicated to “epic deals” and working its warehouse workers to the bone is fast approaching, and so, apparently, are pretty convincing phishing scams disguised as emails from the tech giant. McAfee researchers discovered an “Amazon Phishing Kit” in May of this year designed after a phishing scam that hit Apple users last … Continued
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Tech NewsNews
Ex-Tesla Engineer: Okay, Yes, I Uploaded Autopilot Trade Secrets to My iCloud—What’s the Big Deal?
A former Tesla engineer admitted on Monday that ahead of leaving the company and joining a competitor, he uploaded Tesla files to his personal iCloud account as well as made .zip files with the company’s Autopilot “trade secrets.” However, the ex-employee, Guangzhi Cao, is denying Tesla’s claims that he engaged in trade secret theft. “Despite the … Continued
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Tech NewsNews
T-Mobile Says That Getting Sued for Selling Users’ Location Data Violates Its Terms of Service
T-Mobile screwed over millions of customers when it collected their geolocation data and sold it to third parties without their consent. Now, two of these customers are trying to pursue a class-action lawsuit against the company for the shady practice, but the telecom giant is using another shady practice to force them to settle their … Continued
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Tech NewsPrivacy and Security
Digital Rights Group Calls for a ‘Complete’ Federal Ban on Government Use of Facial Recognition Tech
Against a backdrop of U.S. government agencies abusing unproven and potentially unjust facial recognition technology, a digital rights group on Tuesday called for a “complete” federal ban on the government’s use of this technology. The group, Fight for the Future, is calling on Americans to contact their state, local, and federal lawmakers using a tool … Continued
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Tech NewsPrivacy and Security
Documents Reveal How ICE Agents Exploit DMV Photos for Shady Facial Recognition Searches
Facial recognition is a powerful surveillance tool, one that is deeply unregulated, unjustly biased, and dangerously abused. And yet, over the last few years, agents from the FBI and ICE have conducted thousands of facial recognition searches on immense state driver’s license databases. According to a report from the Washington Post based on internal documents … Continued
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Tech NewsNews
At Least You’ll Look Beautiful When They Turn Your Face Into Your Credit Card
A payment app in China is adding beauty filters to its facial recognition system to make its users “look even prettier” when they pay with their face. The move comes from Alipay, an online payment platform established by Alibaba Group, which announced Tuesday on social media platform Weibo that it would be adding a “beauty … Continued
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Tech NewsApple
Apple’s iOS 13 Lets Us Fake Intimacy in FaceTime by Correcting Our Gaze to Look Into the Camera
It appears Apple is testing out a feature that will help users fake some intimacy during video calls. There’s a new feature in the third developer version of iOS 13 beta, called FaceTime Attention Correction, which corrects your gaze to make it look like you’re staring into the camera. App designer Mike Rundle was among … Continued
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Tech NewsNews
China Censors Audio Content That Is Horny or Nihilistic
Content with even a hint of sexual suggestion is not long for the internet in China—even ASMR videos have been wiped from the nation’s video streaming services. And on Friday, over two dozen audio apps were censored by China’s central internet regulator. The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) announced in a notice last week that … Continued
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Tech NewsGadgets
This AI-Powered Cat Door Is a Brilliant Way to Keep a Kitty’s Murder Presents Outside
What do you do if your cat often gets in a murdery mood and tries to bring dead, blood-dripping varmints into your house? Well, if you’re Ben Hamm, you create an AI-powered cat door to lock out the furry boy when he tries to bring you a filthy meat present. https://gizmodo.com/i-found-the-perfect-pet-cam-to-launch-treats-at-my-dog-1835277983 Hamm, a product manager … Continued
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Tech NewsPrivacy and Security
The Pentagon Has a Device That Can Use a Laser to Identify Someone Based On Their Heartbeat
Walking around the world anonymously is becoming increasingly more difficult as surveillance tech is developed to identify us by our faces, our gait, and now, our heartbeat. The Pentagon’s Combating Terrorism Technical Support Office (CTTSO) developed a device that can identify people based on their cardiac signature using an infrared laser, as first reported by … Continued
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Tech NewsGoogle
Google and Private Research University Sued for Sharing Medical Data Without Patient Consent
In a class-action complaint filed on Wednesday against Google, a private research university and its medical center reveals not only how one of the most powerful companies in the world can obtain your most intimate data, but highlights their ability to piece all of this data together to figure out who you are. Matt Dinerstein was … Continued
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Tech News
What If I Don’t Want to Be a Hologram After I Die?
It’s October 2022, five years after the death of Tom Petty, and you and your family have just arrived at the Hollywood Bowl to see the late musician’s digital resurrection. It’s only lasers, of course, you know this, but as an ultra-realistic Petty zaps to life onstage, it’s a distant truth, washed away by a wave … Continued
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Tech NewsNews
Wayfair Execs Will Do Anything to Avoid Standing Against Concentration Camps
On Tuesday, Wayfair employees announced that they would stage a walkout to protest the company’s willingness to do business with government contractors managing the inhumane camps that are being used to imprison children at the border. On Wednesday, they did just that, with reports of hundreds of people (though not all employees) demonstrating in Boston’s … Continued