Tech NewsNews

Spotify Backtracks on Hateful Content Policy, But R. Kelly is Still Banned

Less than one month after instituting a new policy designed to punish artists for misconduct in their personal life, Spotify is partially walking back its “hateful content” rules that resulted in several artists being removed from the streaming service’s promoted playlists. R. Kelly will continue to be banned. Bloomberg reported that pushback from artists and … Continued

Tech NewsPrivacy and Security

How to Download Your Data With All the Fancy New GDPR Tools

The big new European data-privacy law known as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is here, and it’s ushered in a host of changes to the way companies treat your personal information. One of the consumer benefits of GDPR is that it requires companies to make it possible for users to pack up their data … Continued

Tech News

Australia Finishes Building World’s Largest Cat-Proof Fence, Cats Accept the Challenge

Australia has completed the world’s longest cat-proof fence, because cats, an introduced species on the island continent, can be a huge freaking problem. Agence France-Presse reports: The Australian Wildlife Conservancy this month finished building and electrifying the 44-kilometre (27-mile) long fence to create a predator-free area of almost 9,400 hectares (23,200 acres) some 350 kilometres … Continued

Tech NewsAmazon

Your Worst Alexa Nightmares Are Coming True

What’s the most terrifying thing you can imagine an Amazon Echo doing? Think realistically. Would it be something simple but sinister, like the artificially intelligent speaker recording a conversation between you and a loved one and then sending that recording to an acquaintance? That seems pretty bad to me. And guess what: it’s happening. A … Continued

Tech NewsPrivacy and Security

How Your Favorite Tech Blog Is Grappling With Europe’s New Privacy Law

In the run-up to Friday’s launch of the new GDPR privacy protections, most of the focus has been on how it will affect huge data-mining tech giants like Google and Facebook. But as many people are finding out today, GDPR applies to any site that collects user data or, in the case of publishers like … Continued

Tech News

New PGP Encryption Exploits Are Being Discovered Almost Every Other Day

For more than a week, PGP developers have been rapidly working to patch critical flaws in the legacy encryption protocol used for sending and receiving secure emails; a tool that’s widely relied upon by lawyers, journalists, dissidents, and human rights advocates, many of whom operate at the highest levels of risk in shadows cast by … Continued

Tech NewsApple

Samsung Forced to Pay Apple $539 Million for Violating iPhone Patents

This patent battle between Apple and Samsung is the lawsuit that just won’t go away. Since 2011, the two smartphone giants have been fighting over five patents due to the claim that Samsung infringed on Apple’s intellectual property when it made a handful of devices including the original Galaxy S 4G, the Galaxy S2, and … Continued

Tech NewsGadgets

This Bop It-Like Toy You Can Fuck Has Major Design Issues

I will admit I spent a very long time staring at this Motherboard story about a new sex toy created in celebration of National Masturbation Day. Partly because it was 9 in the morning, and contemplating a variety of sex toys bolted to a Bop It-style frame before I have finished my coffee is enough … Continued

Tech NewsNews

WeChat Blocks ‘Sugar Dady’ Dating Service in China

After a meteoric rise in popularity in China, the SeekingArrangement dating app was removed from the country’s most popular social network, WeChat. SeekingArrangements is marketed as an app that helps “sugar daddies or mommas” and “sugar babies” connect for “mutually beneficial relationships.” The site says that for the former, “Money isn’t an issue, thus they … Continued

Tech NewsNews

New Evacuation Plan in Place as Third Kilauea Lava Flow Reaches Ocean

US Marine Corps stationed in Hawaii are now on standby to help with evacuations should lava flows cut off the only remaining escape route from the beleaguered Puna neighborhood. The latest threat comes as the Big Island enters its fourth week of eruptions, and as a third lava flow reaches the ocean. At a base … Continued

Tech News

Apple Just Killed the Ability to Stream Games From Steam to Your iPhone

Valve’s anticipated app designed to let you stream games and movies from the Steam platform to your iPhone or iPad has been rejected by Apple, despite the company approving it earlier in the month. As with Valve’s Steam Link box, the app would have allowed you to stream games from your PC directly to your … Continued

Tech NewsAmazon

Amazon Confirms Alexa Heard a Couple’s Background Conversation as a Command to Record Them

Two weeks ago, a woman in Portland learned that her Amazon Echo device had recorded and sent a private conversation between her and her husband to one of his employees in Seattle without their knowledge. “Unplug your Alexa devices right now,” she says the employee told them, “You’re being hacked.” But the couple in Portland … Continued

Tech NewsFacebook

Facebook and Google Accused of Violating GDPR on First Day of the New European Privacy Law

When Mark Zuckerberg testified in front of members of the European Parliament on Tuesday, he insisted that Facebook was ready for Friday, the day when the European Unions’s strict new data privacy law went into effect. But users in Europe have already filed complaints against Facebook and others today, saying the tech companies are in … Continued

Tech NewsGadgets

How Google News Compares to Twitter, Facebook, and RSS for Your News

There’s a new news aggregator in town (well, an old one, revamped). The updated, refreshed, and smarter version of Google News is out now on Android, iOS, and the web, so how does this reimagining of the news stack up against the other ways we usually get our headlines—Facebook, Twitter, and RSS? We’ve been diving … Continued

Tech NewsPrivacy and Security

Dozens of American News Sites Blocked in Europe as GDPR Goes Into Effect Today

The European Union’s digital privacy law, known as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), officially went into effect today. But some websites in the U.S. have decided to block their services entirely rather than adhere to the new regulations. Dozens of American newspapers are currently blocked in Europe and web services like Instapaper have suspended … Continued

Tech NewsNews

Serial Swatter Indicted for Death of Gamer, Disruption of FCC Net Neutrality Vote

A California man who allegedly placed a hoax emergency call that resulted in the death of a Kansas man is also believed to be responsible for the fake bomb threat that disrupted the Federal Communications Commission’s vote to repeal net neutrality protections last December. The US Department of Justice announced Thursday that Tyler Barriss, a … Continued

Tech NewsFacebook

Facebook Wants a Social Security Number From Political Advertisers

Facebook already has more data on most people than it knows what to do with but the company announced Thursday that it will need a few more vital pieces of personal information from anyone hoping to place political ads on its platform, including a government-issued ID and social security number. In a blog post, Facebook … Continued

Tech NewsNews

Essential Never Lived Up to Its Name, and Now It’s Reportedly for Sale

Just over one year into its endeavor to “inject passion back into smartphones,” Essential appears to be on its last legs. Bloomberg reported the smartphone manufacturer founded by Android creator Andy Rubin is exploring a sale and has scrapped plans to develop a second smartphone. According to the report, Essential already has one unnamed suitor … Continued

Tech NewsPrivacy and Security

Report: T-Mobile Website Let Anyone Look Up Sensitive Customer Data With Just a Phone Number

A bug on a T-Mobile website meant for employees let anyone with a T-Mobile customer’s phone number access sensitive information, according to a ZDNet report. While T-Mobile has since fixed the issue, the bug sounds similar to one found by researchers in October 2017, bringing into question the security practices of T-Mobile, a company in … Continued

Tech News

New Evidence Points to an Unbroken, Million-Year-Long Ice Core in Antarctica

Imagine an unbroken chronological record, dating back a million years, of temperature and atmospheric conditions on Earth. Such a thing could indeed exist in the form of an ancient and undisturbed Antarctic ice core, according to a recent survey. Ice cores are like a window to the past, allowing scientists to observe and document climatic … Continued