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Tech NewsElon Musk’s Neuralink Sought to Open an Animal Testing Facility in San Francisco
Exactly one year ago, Elon Musk revealed that he’d co-founded a new startup, Neuralink, with the ambition of inventing a brain-computer interface or, as it was later called, a “wizard hat for the brain.” These types of interfaces, in their current iterations, are mostly used to treat Parkinson’s disease and other brain disorders, and the … Continued
By Kate Conger -
Tech NewsSexual Harassment Lawsuit Against Google Might Proceed as Class Action
A lawsuit brought by a former Google employee who says that the company’s “bro culture” led to daily sexual harassment is being expanded as a class action after Google tried to push the case into sealed, secret arbitration. Loretta Lee, a software engineer, was fired from her role at Google in February 2016 after eight … Continued
By Kate Conger -
Tech NewsPrivacy & Security
Illinois’ Cook County Sues Facebook and Cambridge Analytica for Alleged Fraud
Illinois’ Cook County, which includes Chicago and surrounding areas, is joining the legal fight against Facebook and Cambridge Analytica over the misuse of data scraped from social media profiles, claiming that both companies violated state fraud law. The lawsuit claims that Cambridge Analytica, which worked on the campaigns of Texas Senator Ted Cruz and Donald … Continued
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Tech NewsGoogle Isn’t Listening, So Its Employees Are Suing
If you ask Google whether it has a discrimination problem, the company might point you to its industry-leading diversity efforts or its program for responding to complaints. But employees who challenge that narrative by asserting that it has created anything but a healthy, supportive environment are being labeled troublemakers and, in some instances, pushed out … Continued
By Kate Conger -
Tech NewsPrivacy & Security
Google Opens Up About How Its Cloud Stores Your Secrets
Google Cloud has a whopping 20 new product announcements out today, most of them aimed at enterprise customers—which means they probably won’t matter much to you unless you’re in the position to make IT decisions for a company. But we lowly consumers sometimes get the trickle-down effect from good privacy decisions at the enterprise Cloud … Continued
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Tech News
Cambridge Analytica Suspends CEO Over ‘Honey-Pot’ Remarks
The board of Cambridge Analytica, a data firm that worked with Republican candidates during the 2016 US presidential election and made conflicting statements about its involvement in a campaign for Brexit, has suspended its CEO Alexander Nix. Nix’s suspension is effective immediately and will last through an independent investigation, according to a statement Cambridge Analytica’s … Continued
By Kate Conger -
Tech NewsPrivacy & Security
Facebook Will Audit Cambridge Analytica to Find Out If It Still Has Scraped Profile Data [Updated]
Cambridge Analytica, the data analytics firm that worked on Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, has agreed to a forensic audit to determine whether the firm improperly retained data scraped from Facebook profiles. Facebook announced the audit in a statement, calling it a “comprehensive internal and external review” to determine whether Cambridge Analytica had truly deleted … Continued
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Tech NewsPrivacy & Security
Adrian Lamo, Hacker Behind Breaches of New York Times and Microsoft, Has Died
Adrian Lamo, a hacker known for his high-profile breaches of the New York Times, Microsoft, and Yahoo, has died, according to his family. He was 37 years old. “With great sadness and a broken heart I have to let know all of Adrian’s friends and acquittances [sic] that he is dead. A bright mind and … Continued
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Tech News
Google Says It Spent $270,000 to Close Wage Gaps
Counter to preliminary findings in an ongoing Department of Labor investigation and claims made in a class action lawsuit brought by former employees, Google says it has no gender- or race-based wage gaps among its workers. Google has run a wage gap analysis every year since 2012 and started publishing the results in 2016. The … Continued
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Tech NewsPrivacy & Security
General Motors Is Expanding Its Bug Bounty Program
A security researcher recently notified General Motors that they had found a way to circumvent data limits on the OnStar wi-fi hotspot systems included in many of its vehicles, grabbing unlimited free wi-fi access. The flaw was reported through GM’s 2-year-old vulnerability disclosure program and was patched within a few days, but it illustrates the … Continued
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Tech News
Microsoft Upheld Less Than 1 Percent of Gender Discrimination Complaints by Female Employees, Court Documents Say
Over a six-year period, Microsoft upheld only one of the 118 gender discrimination complaints it received from female employees, according to court filings, Reuters reported on Tuesday. In total, the company received 238 complaints of discrimination or sexual harassment between 2010 and 2016, the court filings say. Microsoft is being sued by several former employees … Continued
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Tech NewsPrivacy & Security
Judge Says Users Can Sue Yahoo for Massive Breach
A federal judge in California has ruled that a class action lawsuit against Yahoo related to a series of data breaches at the company can move forward. Verizon, which bought Yahoo last year for a reduced price of about $4.5 billion, had asked the judge to dismiss many of the lawsuit’s claims. Yahoo users have … Continued
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Tech NewsPrivacy & Security
Ad Blocker Ghostery Is Going Open Source to Win Back Some Privacy Points
The ad blocker Ghostery is shaking up its business model and open-sourcing its code in a bid to earn more consumer trust. The company faced criticism last year over its business model, which involved selling anonymized user data to businesses—not the kind of behavior you’d expect from a privacy tool. Now, Ghostery is ditching that … Continued
By Kate Conger -
Tech NewsPrivacy & SecurityGoogle Is Helping the Pentagon Build AI for Drones
Google has partnered with the United States Department of Defense to help the agency develop artificial intelligence for analyzing drone footage, a move that set off a firestorm among employees of the technology giant when they learned of Google’s involvement. Google’s pilot project with the Defense Department’s Project Maven, an effort to identify objects in drone … Continued
By Kate Conger -
Tech NewsPrivacy & Security
New Security Conference Takes on RSA After It Books Just One Female Keynote Speaker
The massive cybersecurity conference RSA is facing criticism for booking just one female keynote speaker this year—Monica Lewinsky, who advocates against online bullying. RSA organizers told USA Today that, overall, the conference expects that 20 percent of its speakers will be women, a number that they say reflects the overall representation of women in the … Continued
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Tech News
23,000 HTTPS Certificates Pulled After CEO Sends Private Keys in an Email
The security of tens of thousands of websites is in question after the CEO of a company that sells HTTPS certificates included the private keys for 23,000 customers in an email—an apparent attempt to force a revocation of the customers’ certificates. HTTPS certificates form the foundation of the encrypted web. Issued to website operators by … Continued
By Kate Conger -
Tech News
‘Bro Culture’ Led to Repeated Sexual Harassment, Former Google Engineer’s Lawsuit Says
Loretta Lee, a software engineer who worked at Google for seven years before being fired in February 2016, is suing Google for sexual harassment, discrimination, retaliation, and wrongful termination she says she experienced at the company. Lee says in her lawsuit that the company’s “bro-culture” led to continuous harassment and that Google did nothing to … Continued
By Kate Conger -
Tech NewsPrivacy & Security
Justice Department Drops $2 Million to Research Crime-Fighting AI
The artificial intelligence craze isn’t just hitting Silicon Valley—the Justice Department wants to get in on the action, too. The agency announced today that it will put $2 million towards research on AI, which it believes could be used to fight human trafficking, illegal border crossings, drug trafficking, and child pornography. National Institute for Justice, … Continued
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Tech NewsPrivacy & Security
Phone-Cracking Firm Cellebrite Claims It Can Unlock Latest iPhones
Cellebrite, a law enforcement vendor that helps officials get into locked and encrypted devices, has claimed that it can unlock Apple’s newest phones and operating system, Forbes reports. The firm tends to keep its abilities somewhat quiet, but it did advertise its ability to unlock and extract data from Apple devices running iOS 11, the … Continued
By Kate Conger -
Tech NewsPrivacy & Security
Microsoft’s Big Email Privacy Case Heads to the Supreme Court Tomorrow
The United States Supreme Court is set to hear arguments on Tuesday in a high-stakes email privacy case that, when decided, will have international repercussions. The case pits Microsoft against the US Justice Department in a battle over whether cloud computing companies must turn over information stored on their overseas servers in response to warrants … Continued
By Kate Conger
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