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Tech NewsPrivacy & SecurityZoom Settles With FTC for Allegedly Lying to Everyone About Encryption
It’s a bad day to be Zoom. As Zoom’s stock price plunged amid promising news of a covid-19 vaccine development on Monday morning, the Federal Trade Commission announced a settlement with the video conferencing company over a “series of deceptive and unfair practices that undermined the security of its users.” The FTC hopes the settlement … Continued
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Tech NewsPoliticsWe’re (Still) Liveblogging the Looming Apocalypse Right Here
After nearly four years of national chaos and months of palpable fear, anxiety, mass death, economic collapse, and far too many tweets, Election Day 2020 is upon us. The day of reckoning has arrived. And the Gizmodo team will be suffering through it with you right here. There are plenty of liveblogs by people paid … Continued
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Tech NewsGadgetsHow to Choose the Best VPN
What’s the best VPN? Great question—and one for which you’re probably never going to get a good answer. Virtual private networks can be a great way to add a layer of privacy to your online life. Unfortunately, VPNs are also, in many ways, black boxes: You have to trust them to do the right thing … Continued
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Tech NewsPoliticsThis Is What Disinformation Looks Like
A front-page story published by the New York Post on Wednesday has supporters of President Donald Trump soiling their trousers with glee. The Post characterizes its story as casting doubt on Joe Biden’s claim that he and his son Hunter never discussed Hunter’s business dealings abroad. It is so riddled with holes that Facebook and … Continued
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Tech NewsPoliticsTwitter Takes One More Crack at Preserving Democracy
Twitter on Friday announced changes that it hopes will limit the spread of disinformation surrounding the 2020 election, even if the bullshit is coming from inside the White House. The tweaks are among the most aggressive by a major social media platform to muffle election-related misinformation to date. But with the future of American democracy … Continued
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Tech NewsPoliticsFacebook Bans the Future of the Republican Party
The future of the Republican Party faces a mild inconvenience as the world’s largest social network said on Tuesday that it plans to take sweeping action against groups and accounts associated with the QAnon conspiracy across Facebook and Instagram. The move to ban all QAnon Facebook Groups, Pages, and Instagram accounts regardless of whether they … Continued
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Tech NewsHere’s What Will Happen Next
The president of the United States has a deadly, airborne disease that has already killed more than 207,000 Americans and more than 1 million people worldwide. The U.S. now faces a national security crisis, the economy is in ruins, and we’re a month away from a contentious presidential election on which the very future of … Continued
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Tech NewsSecret ‘Man Cave’ Discovered in Room Beneath Grand Central Station
Dreams do come true—but sometimes, they also get you in deep shit. A trio of almost-clever Metro-North employees are at risk of losing their jobs after bosses at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority uncovered their secret “man cave” deep in the bowels of New York City’s Grand Central station, according to a newly released report by … Continued
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EartherThe Biggest Wildfire in California History Is Happening Right Now
As dozens of active wildfires turn the West Coast of the U.S. into Hell on Earth, one has risen to become the biggest wildfire in California history. The August Complex fire now engulfs a record 471,000 acres in the Golden State, eclipsing the 459,000 acres burned during the 2018 Mendocino Complex fires, which held the … Continued
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Tech NewsSocial MediaFacebook Cracks Down on QAnon, Just as Trump Makes Everything Worse
Facebook on Wednesday announced a crackdown on a range of extremist communities on its social networks, including the increasingly mainstream QAnon and not a moment too soon. Facebook said in a press release published on Wednesday that its new “policy expansion” applies to activity on its platforms “tied to offline anarchist groups that support violent … Continued
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Tech NewsMozilla Is Laying Off 250 People, Because Everything Can Always Get Worse
The Mozilla Corporation obliterated 250 jobs this week, as the company juggles its priorities: making the Firefox browser and making money. Mozilla CEO Mitchell Baker announced the layoffs in an internal email, which the company posted online on Tuesday. She also laid out the company’s hopeful path toward sustainability in a blog post, where she … Continued
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Tech NewsMandy Patinkin Has Deleted About 28,000 Emails, So Far
Actor Mandy Patinkin announced in a video posted to Twitter Friday morning that he had deleted “about 28,000” of his wife Kathryn Grody’s unread emails. At the time of the recording, some 10,000 unread emails remained, according to Grody, who said she tasked the 67-year-old thespian and musician with conducting the purge. “Dad is clearing … Continued
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Tech NewsGadgetsFi Wants You to Stop Paying for Your Pet’s Microchip
There are two things you need to know about microchips for your pets: First, a microchip does not have GPS, so it can’t be used to track your lost pet. It can only be used to figure out that you are the pet’s owner once it’s found. Second, if you’re paying to register your pet’s … Continued
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Tech NewsPrivacy & SecurityTwitter Finally Blocks the Worst of Us From Tweeting [Update: It Was Too Good to Last Forever]
Twitter spectacularly shit the bed on Wednesday evening as it scrambled to stamp out a widespread hack of high-profile accounts. Soon after 6 pm ET, several verified Twitter accounts were blocked from publishing tweets, which was probably for the best. Not because they were at risk of being hacked seemingly as part of some bitcoin … Continued
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ScienceHealthStop Going to Bars
It’s Friday, baby! Time to put on a nice pair of pants, hit up some pals, and… sit your ass down right there. You have absolutely no business going to a bar. Not today. Not next week. Hell, I’d stock up on enough booze to last through at least New Year’s. Because—maybe you haven’t heard—there … Continued
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Tech NewsWelcome to the New Gizmodo Dot Com
You’re not just seeing things due to lack of sleep and an overwhelming news cycle. Gizmodo dot com now looks a whole lot different! I know, I know—change sucks. But don’t stress. It’ll be fine—better than fine, in fact, as our redesigned homepage makes it easier to quickly find the wide array of news, reviews, … Continued
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Tech NewsCultureMy Weird Cat Taught Himself to Piss in the Toilet—and Showed Me the Meaning of Life
I don’t know how else to say this: My cat taught himself to piss in the toilet. Yes, the people one. Yes, on his own. Without any instruction, my cat has effectively potty-trained himself, squatting over the toilet bowl in an eerie approximation of human bathroom use—and now I don’t know what to believe. The … Continued
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Tech NewsSo You Have to Work From Home
The novel coronavirus has, as of Friday, infected more than 100,000 people and killed more than 3,400 globally. Fear, uncertainty, and doubt are pervasive. What happens next is anyone’s guess, but it’s safe to assume that whatever it is will be a shitshow of historic magnitude—it’s already a tragedy for thousands of families and a … Continued
By Andrew Couts
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