Dentist fights to uncover identity of person who left negative Google review
The Melbourne dental surgeon says the online comments are unfair and have damaged his business, so he wants to launch a defamation case against the reviewer.
More than Bloomberg: Facebook OKs influencers working with political campaigns
Following Michael Bloomberg's sponsored meme drop on Instagram, the social media giant is issuing new guidelines for creators working with political campaigns.
Google recently kicked 500 dodgy extensions from Chrome Store
Google has kicked out more than 500 malicious extensions from the Chrome Store. The discovery of the dodgy extensions is a good reminder to review your own.
MIT’s latest artificial intelligence can rewrite outdated Wikipedia pages
Researchers at MIT have created a system that scans Wikipedia articles and replaces outdated text with the latest information.
Google’s new wallpaper-friendly satellite images are simply stunning
Check out Google's new additions to its awesome collection of images captured from its Earth data. The web giant is happy for you to use them as wallpapers, too.
Google partnerships aim to help parents with their kids’ online safety
As part of Safer Internet Day, Google has announced partnerships with the National PTA, YMCA, and others to offer free online safety workshops for parents.
Here’s why you should never trust those ‘privacy-focused’ email apps
Some third-party email clients have been scraping their users’ inboxes and selling anonymized data to corporate giants in the finance and e-commerce sectors.
More Americans are using online dating than ever before, but it still sucks
Three in ten Americans have used a dating app. But many still find the process frustrating, according to a new Pew Research Poll.
Amazon lifts the lid on Prime membership count, and it’s big
Amazon rarely reveals how many people have signed up to its Prime subscription service, but this week it let on that the count now stands at a colossal 150 million members globally. The figure marks an increase of 50 million from April 2018, helped in part by Prime's launch in Brazil four months ago.
Hundreds of Amazon workers criticize the company’s approach to climate crisis
Hundred of Amazon workers have spoken out against the company's handling of climate change issues. More than 300 Amazon employees from the group Amazon Employees for Climate Justice shared their views on Amazon's role in and response to the climate crisis in a Medium post published on Sunday.
Google’s antitrust woes continue as state officials meet with Justice Department
The antitrust investigation into Google may be about to kick up a notch. Both the Department of Justince and state attorneys general are probing whether the search giant acted in an anticompetitive manner in two separate investigations. Now, the two may be starting to share information on their respective probes.
Google will charge law enforcement and government agencies to access user data
Google has begun charging law enforcement for access to user data, with fees of $45 for a subpoena, $60 for a wiretap, and $245 for a search warrant. With a high volume of requests from law enforcement agencies to hand over data, Google has decided to bring in charges to offset the costs of compiling this data.
Apple ordered to pay $85 million to WiLan in patent-infringement case
In a long and drawn-out case over patent infringement, Apple has been ordered to pay $85 million to Canadian company WiLan. This latest ruling comes from the U.S. District Court in San Diego. A jury ruled that Apple infringed patents and will have to pay WiLan's parent organization, Quarterhill Inc.
Apple Safari flaw left users’ browsing activity open to being tracked
Apple recently fixed a serious security flaw with its Safari browser after being alerted to it by Google. The vulnerability, if exploited, would've enabled third parties to gather “sensitive private information about the user’s browsing habits,” Google said this week. Apple fixed the issue soon after learning of it.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai warns of dangers of A.I. and calls for more regulation
Google CEO Sundar Pichai has warned about the dangers of unchecked A.I. and has said in an op-ed in the Financial Times that he believes that the area should be more tightly regulated, citing concerns such as the rise of deepfakes and potential abuses of facial recognition technology.
Terrifying Clearview app could be the end of anonymity in public places
New facial recognition technology could be used to identify anyone, anywhere, and it's already in use by police in the U.S. A tiny company called Clearview developed the app that can use an existing photo of a person to search for other photos of them online, along with links to where those photos are hosted.
Bose to close all of its U.S. retail stores in pivot to online shopping
Bose has announced it's closing all 119 of its brick-and-mortar stores in the U.S., Canada, Europe, Japan, and Australia in the coming months, focusing its efforts on e-commerce instead. But 130 Bose stores in China, India, South Korea, Southeast Asia, and the United Arab Emirates will remain open, at least for now.
Amazon pushes again to rid its shopping site of counterfeit goods
Amazon's ongoing battle to rid its shopping site of fake goods has reportedly prompted it to take renewed action targeting third-party sellers who trade in such items. The efforts are thought to include an agreement to contact law enforcement more quickly and to hand over more information about suspected sellers.
Elon Musk says a UFO-on-a-stick will connect you to his internet satellites
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk says that anyone signing up to his Starlink broadband service will receive a contraption that looks like a thin, flat, round UFO on a stick to connect to the internet. A test service is expected to launch in the U.S. later this year, once enough of the Starlink satellites have been deployed.
You’ve got a privacy problem, FTC commissioner tells Apple and Facebook
Privacy today is untenable, argues Rebecca Slaughter, a commissioner with the Federal Trade Commission. It sounds apparent to you and I, but it was something of a slap in the face to the other folks on a Tuesday panel at CES 2020: Privacy execs from both Facebook and Apple.
Here’s how to track Santa on his busiest night of the year
If you have kids, or if you're a big kid yourself, then go check out a couple of online offerings that’ll show you Santa's whereabouts as he makes his way around the world on Christmas Eve. Besides the Santa tracker, the websites and apps also offer fun activities to keep everyone entertained until the big day.
Cyberattack forces 38,000 students to physically stand in line for new passwords
A university in Germany is handing out new email passwords printed on pieces of paper to its 38,000 students after its servers were hit by hackers. Students are being asked to line up outside the university gym to collect their new passwords in a process that could take five days to complete.
Google reveals how many miles its Street View cars have driven to date
Google's Street View cars have been tootling along roads around the world for more than a decade, with the company recently revealing the colossal number of miles they've covered so far. And incredibly, the panoramic-photo service still has much ground to cover.
It’s not just you. Everyone is bad at password management, study reveals
Most of us have the same password habits, and they are bad habits that we need to kick. Cybersecurity provider Hypr released a new study on the current state of passwords and how people manage them. A staggering 72% of individuals reuse passwords in their personal life, which experts say is bad “password hygiene.”
OnePlus customer data stolen in second data breach in two years
Phone company OnePlus has suffered another data breach, with an undisclosed number of names, contact numbers, email addresses, and shipping addresses of customers having been stolen by an unnamed third party. This comes less than two years after up to 40,000 customers' information was stolen from OnePlus.
New update turns Google Earth into a free storytelling platform
Google is rolling out new storytelling tools to Google Earth. The new creation features let you build stories and presentations that center around various places. You can arrange a series of locations in order and attach elements such as notes, pictures, and annotations to them.
Pirates are using publishing platform Medium to distribute bootlegged movies
Scammers have been found to be abusing the publishing platform, Medium to distribute bootlegged copies of the latest movies such as Joker. The posts feature links to the video files and a range of search keywords. Most sources lead visitors to registration pages that demand credit card details.
Web 4.0? With a new Edge beta, Microsoft is rethinking the browser
At Ignite, Microsoft unveiled a new version of the Edge browser and Bing search engine, a new green-and-blue swirl logo, a suite of new tools for site builders, and a new vision for the internet: An end to static sites, better access to information, and a way to integrate disparate office applications.
Google celebrates Halloween with interactive Google Doodle
To kick off the Halloween festivities early this year, the Google Doodle for Thursday is an interactive trick-or-treating game. The doodle is a “choose your own” type of Halloween adventure, featuring animals associated with the holiday, such as tarantulas, bats, owls, and wolves.
Facebook wants to ‘strengthen democracy’ with a news tab. What could go wrong?
Facebook is launching a dedicated news tab amid growing criticism for the social network. Facebook News uses articles from a list of publishers meeting a set of standards and includes a section curated by journalists. But is that enough for a platform criticized for fake news?
U.S. senator introduces radical bill to protect people’s private data
A U.S. Senator has called for a radical new approach to consumer privacy to be adopted following revelations about the sale and misuse of data by various technology companies. Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) has introduced a new bill as an even stronger update to his privacy legislation proposed last year.
Google Doodle animation honors physicist Joseph Antoine Ferdinand Plateau
Google is celebrating the 218th birthday of Belgian physicist Joseph Plateau with a Google Doodle recalling the earliest animation device. Starting on Sunday, October 13 at 9 p.m. PT, Google will swap out its regular header for an animated Doodle inspired by his work inventing the phenakistiscope.
Google Maps expands voice guidance for blind and partially sighted users
Google Maps has introduced a new feature for blind or partially sighted people. Maps will now offer more detailed voice guidance and verbal announcements to make navigating with limited vision easier and safer, such as warning users when they are approaching large intersections.
Facebook’s crypto dreams could be crushed as PayPal exits Libra Association
Facebook's chances of launching its own cryptocurrency, Libra, are growing ever slimmer. Visa and Mastercard are reportedly reconsidering involvement following regulatory scrutiny. Yesterday, PayPal put a nail in Libra's coffin by announcing it would no longer be participating in the Libra Association.