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Tech NewsPrivacy and Security
This Guy Designed an Android App That Deletes All Your Phone’s Data When Police Try to Crack It
These days, if you’re arrested and charged with a crime, the first thing cops will likely try to do is look at the contents of your phone. Digital forensics is increasingly a favorite way to secure a conviction, or at least gain a broader understanding of a suspect. However, the tools used to crack into … Continued
By Lucas Ropek -
Tech NewsNews
TikTok Wants To Be Its Own Economy
TikTok is apparently the latest platform to make the shift from social media site to a glorified digital mall. On Tuesday, Bloomberg reported that TikTok has started floating the idea of in-app shopping to brands over in Europe, hoping to hook young EU shoppers—and their wallets—in the process. According to the report, this e-shopping feature … Continued
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Tech NewsFacebook
WhatsApp Will Turn Your Account Into a Useless Zombie If You Don’t Accept Its New Privacy Policy
After facing international backlash over impending updates to its privacy policy, WhatsApp has ever-so-slightly backtracked on the harsh consequences it initially planned for users who don’t accept them—but not entirely. In an update to the company’s FAQ page, WhatsApp clarifies that no users will have their accounts deleted or instantly lose app functionality if they … Continued
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Tech NewsFacebook
Facebook Would Also Like to Annoy the Misinformation Out of You
Following the lead of Twitter, Facebook may now also prompt users to double-check whether they have actually read the goddamn article before potentially passing on hoaxes to some of their less discerning friends. The company’s official Newsroom account tweeted on Monday that if it detects users attempting to share a news article without actually clicking … Continued
By Tom McKay -
Tech NewsNews
44 Attorneys General Beg Facebook to Leave the Kids Alone
In an open letter, forty-four attorneys general have beseeched Mark Zuckerberg to mercifully stop the company’s planned version of Instagram for children. Buzzfeed News discovered in March that Facebook—a company famous for platforming murderous rage and dangerous misinformation without consequence—has been developing a platform for kids under age 13, the minimum age to create an … Continued
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Tech NewsStreaming Services
PSA: Spotify Will Now Let You Share Podcast Timestamps
Spotify is rolling out a handful of new social features. Among the more notable of these features, beginning today, Spotify is introducing a new tool to allow users to share podcast episodes from a specific point in the program—much like you can on YouTube. Now, in order to share a podcast with a timestamp, click … Continued
By Catie Keck -
Tech NewsNews
A TikTok Video Is New Evidence in a Nearly Two-Decade-Old Kidnapping Case
A viral TikTok video has revived the search for Sofia Juárez, a woman who was kidnapped in 2003, just before turning five. According to a police page about the case, Juárez was taken near her home in Kennewick, Washington, where she lived with her mother, grandmother, and aunts and uncles. CNN has reported that Juárez’s … Continued
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Tech NewsNews
Clubhouse Launches Android Beta as iOS Downloads Nosedive
Good news: The audio-based social network Clubhouse is finally bringing its app to Android after more than a year of iOS exclusivity, the company announced Sunday. Bad news: The beta is only available for U.S. users, and, just as with Clubhouse’s iOS version, it remains invite-only for now. So not just anyone can sign up … Continued
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Tech NewsApple
Too Bad, Zuck: Just 4% of U.S. iPhone Users Let Apps Track Them After iOS Update
Apple recently rolled out its highly anticipated App Tracking Transparency feature with iOS 14.5, which lets users decide whether apps track their activity for targeted advertising. Overwhelmingly, users seem happy to leave app tracking disabled. Just 4% of iPhone users in the U.S. have agreed to app tracking after updating their device, according to the … Continued
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Tech NewsNews
Zoomers Are Sharing Cheat Codes for the Universe on TikTok and There’s No Way We Can Stop Them Now
TikTok, a gathering place for the victims of moldavite’s curse and misfired hexes, is now also your source for mystic strings of numbers 4 manifesting the elusive blessings of the universe. The kids are sharing Grabovoi numbers, the cheat codes 2 the universe. If you think on them hard enough, the numbers will bring you … Continued
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Tech NewsGoogle
Google Is Launching Its Own Version of Apple’s Privacy Nutrition Labels
Google is taking a page from Apple’s playback with a new safety section in the Google Play Store to help users better identify the kinds of data access and permissions that Android apps have in the background. It’s not immediately clear what the section will look like or where you should look for it, but … Continued
By Florence Ion -
Tech NewsMicrosoft
RIP Windows 95 Icons
Bits and pieces of Microsoft’s sweeping aesthetic changes to Windows 10, codenamed Sun Valley, have dropped over the last few months. The OS is getting support for the Advanced Audio Codec (AAC) codec over Bluetooth, new folder icons, and reportedly a much-needed overhaul to its Microsoft Store user interface. (There may even be a new … Continued
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Tech NewsNews
Billboard Is Partnering With Twitter to Rank Music in a New, Fun Way
Billboard — the music industry’s stalwart chart resource — announced plans on Wednesday to team up with Twitter to give the people what they want: more charts. The latest chart, dubbed “the Billboard Hot Trending Powered by Twitter,” will do exactly what its name implies: gauge how many Twitter conversations are happening around a particular … Continued
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Tech NewsNews
Twitter Will Beg You to Send Nicer Tweets
Twitter is (again) asking you to think a bit before you tweet. On Wednesday, the company announced that it is slowly rolling out prompts for English-speaking iOS and Android users that encourage them to “pause and reconsider” a particularly hateful tweet before they hit send. According to the announcement, Twitter began testing these prompts last … Continued
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Tech NewsFacebook
Conservatives Demand Supreme Court Overrule Fake Facebook Court, Others Weigh In
On Wednesday, Facebook’s Oversight Board, the pseudo-legalistic, questionably independent body that the company claims has the power to review and potentially overrule official moderation decisions, issued its not-so-final proclamations regarding the status of Donald Trump’s account. The now-former president has been suspended from Facebook and its subsidiary Instagram after inciting deadly riots at the Capitol … Continued
By Tom McKay -
Tech NewsNews
Oversight Board Finds Facebook Took the Coward’s Way Out With Trump Ban, Also Takes Coward’s Way Out
America may have to wait another six months to find out whether Facebook has the capacity to make a good decision. On Wednesday, Facebook’s Oversight Board announced that it would uphold the social media network’s decision to suspend Donald Trump from its main site and Instagram after he rallied his supporters to attack the Capitol … Continued
By Tom McKay -
Tech NewsNews
Area Man Wants You To Check Out His Blog
After threatening for months to disrupt social media with a bespoke platform that would allow him to bypass community guidelines (and the embarrassingly long list of platforms he’s been banned from), our big patriotic boy has finally made good on his promise. Folks, the wait is over — the future is now, and it’s a … Continued
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Tech NewsStreaming Services
Musicians Ask Spotify to Promise It’ll Never Use Its Creepy Speech-Recognition Patent
Earlier this year, Spotify was granted a patent for speech-recognition tech that could potentially recommend music based on your “emotional state, gender, age, or accent.” Now, a coalition of more than 180 artists and human rights organizations has written Spotify a letter asking the company to publicly commit to abandoning the dystopian technology. The letter, … Continued
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Tech NewsPrivacy and Security
Signal Tries to Run the Most Honest Facebook Ad Campaign Ever, Immediately Gets Banned [Updated]
A series of Instagram ads run by the privacy-positive platform Signal got the messaging app booted from the former’s ad platform, according to a blog post Signal published on Tuesday. The ads were meant to show users the bevy of data that Instagram and its parent company Facebook collects on users, by… targeting those users … Continued
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Tech NewsTwitter
Twitter’s Upcoming Subscription Service Looms Following Latest Acquisition
While Twitter has yet to officially outline plans for its upcoming subscription service, the social media giant continues to prep for its release with the acquisition of Scroll. In a blog post announcing the buyout, Twitter says it’s planning to enlist Scroll’s tech to create a better way to read news stories and articles “without … Continued