Technology | The Guardian

#IwanttoseeNyome outcry after social media platform repeatedly removes pictures of Nyome Nicholas-Williams

Algorithms routinely come up with ‘recommendations’ for anti-vax ‘bestsellers’ or juices that cure cancerIt’s a truism that we live in a “digital age”. It would be more accurate to say that we live in an algorithmically curated era – that is, a period when many of our choices and perceptions are shaped by machine-learning algorithms that nudge us in directions favoured by those who employ the programmers who write the necessary code.A good way of describing them would be as recommender engines. They monitor your digital trail and note what interests you – as evidenced by what you’ve browsed or purchased online. Amazon, for example, regularly offers me suggestions for items that are “based on your browsing history”. It also shows me a list of what people who purchased the item I’m considering also bought. YouTube’s engine notes what kinds of videos I have watched – and logs how much of each I have watched before clicking onwards – and then presents on the right-hand side of the screen an endlessly-scrolling list of videos that might interest me based on what I’ve just watched. Continue reading...

Property group British Land was one of the first to allow staff back into its London HQ – with lift-button prodders at the readyTemperature checks at reception, spaced-out desks, contactless coffee dispensers and plastic lift-button prodders. Welcome back to work – in an anti-Covid-19 office. These features, which would have been deemed eccentric and invasive in January, are some of the measures being deployed for returning employees by one of the UK’s biggest companies, property firm British Land.And many more businesses will have to take heed if the UK is to reverse its position as one of the slowest European countries to get its feet back under the desk. Only a third (34%) of UK white-collar employees have gone back to work, while in continental Europe almost three-quarters of staff (68%) have done so, according to analysis from US bank Morgan Stanley. Continue reading...

The move requires TikTok and WeChat to find new owners or shut down, but it may not be that simpleOn Thursday, Donald Trump issued two executive orders aimed at banning TikTok and WeChat, saying the US must take “aggressive action” against the China-based social media platforms in the interest of national security.The move would effectively require TikTok and WeChat to shut down in the US or find new owners within 45 days. Trump claims the apps are a security concern because they are based in China and thus prone to data requests from the Chinese government. Microsoft is already reportedly in talks to purchase TikTok for billions. Continue reading...

The tech company, in the midst of antitrust hearings in Congress, has come under fire for cloning other companies’ products beforeFacebook-owned Instagram on Wednesday launched Reels, a feature within the photo and video sharing app that allows users to post short videos and songs. Rings a bell?The launch drew a cheeky retweet from TikTok on Thursday, with the year’s hottest app saying Instagram’s feature looked “familiar”. Continue reading...

Digital and analogue modes of play combine in a new nostalgia-infused toy collection that will have all generations entrancedIf there are two things that defined my 1990s childhood (apart from Disney) they would be Nintendo and Lego. Like many millennials I have never entirely grown out of either. In a cabinet in my spare room sits a perfect Lego Simpsons house, miniature cityscapes of Berlin and London, and a blocky Mini. As for the video games, well, I’ve turned them into a career; I’ve been a games journalist and critic for more than 15 years, and own more Mario games than I’m comfortable admitting.All of which means I am an absolute sucker for the Nintendo-themed Lego sets that came out this month. Aimed at younger Lego fans, the Super Mario sets (a starter set is £49.99, with an eye-wateringly expensive array of expansions, from £3.49 character packs to an £80 Bowser’s Castle) offer bright bricks that can be combined to make real-world Mario levels, and an electronic Mario toy who comes to life to jump around them. Continue reading...

In the Covid-19 age, protestors are finding novel ways to express themselves, from BLM rallies in The Sims to Hong Kong protests in Animal CrossingAs street protests against anti-black racism erupted across the globe, Animal Crossing: New Horizons players were taking their own stand. Adelle, a software engineer from New York, decided to create a memorial on her in-game island, decorated with flowers and pixel art portraits of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and other black victims of police brutality.“I was living with immuno-compromised people, so couldn’t attend the physical protests,” explains Adelle. The virtual space she created soon turned into a protest site as other players – some wearing masks – visited Adelle’s island, shouting: “No justice, no peace”, “Justice for Breonna” and “Defund the police.” “Being there with other players you don’t know, connected by this common feeling, was really moving,” she recalls. While the game only allows eight players on an island at one time, more people were engaging with the protest and raising thousands of dollars via the live-streaming platform Twitch. Continue reading...

The Chinese social media platform subject to a banning order by the US president

The 36-year-old follows Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates as fortune passes $100bn for first timeMark Zuckerberg’s fortune has passed $100bn (£76bn) for the first time, adding him to an exclusive club of the world’s centibillionaires, after Facebook’s shares surged on news it is to launch a rival to the video-sharing app TikTok.Facebook announced the US rollout of Instagram Reels, its answer to the Chinese app TikTok, as the US president, Donald Trump, issued bans on American companies transacting with its parent company, ByteDance, and Tencent, which owns the WeChat messaging service. Continue reading...

Executive order comes as TikTok faces scrutiny from US lawmakers and Trump administration over national security concernsDonald Trump has issued a pair of executive orders that would ban any US transactions with the Chinese companies that own TikTok and WeChat, saying the US must take “aggressive action” in the interest of national security.Executive orders issued late on Thursday would prohibit “any transaction by any person, or with respect to any property, subject to the jurisdiction of the United States,” with the companies, beginning in 45 days. Continue reading...

Move will allow Uber to offer journeys in towns such as Oxford, Doncaster and Aberdeen

Australian Signals Directorate will for the first time be able to identify suspects on home soilPeter Dutton has confirmed the government’s $1.6bn cyberstrategy will include capability for the Australian Signals Directorate to help law enforcement agencies identify and disrupt serious criminal activity – including in Australia.By rendering support to the Australian federal police and the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission, the cybersecurity and intelligence agency would for the first time be able to target Australians, although Dutton maintains ASD won’t be able to do so directly. Continue reading...

Coronavirus has accelerated the shift away from banknotes – central banks must act fast to catch upAs the Covid-19 crisis accelerates the long-term shift away from cash (at least in tax-compliant, legal transactions), official discussions about digital currencies are heating up. Between the impending launch of Facebook’s Libra and China’s proposed central-bank digital currency, events now could reshape global finance for a generation. A recent report from the G30 argues that if central banks want to shape the outcome, they need to start moving fast.Much is at stake, including global financial stability and control of information. Financial innovation, if not carefully managed, is often at the root of a crisis, and the dollar gives the US significant monitoring and sanctions capabilities. Dollar dominance is not just about what currency is used, but also about the systems that clear transactions and, from China to Europe, there is a growing desire to challenge this. This is where a lot of the innovation is taking place. Continue reading...

Move comes amid rising US-China tensions over TikTok and WeChat apps that White House says are ‘significant threats’Google says it has deleted more than 2,500 YouTube channels tied to China as part of its effort to weed out disinformation on the video-sharing platform.The Alphabet-owned company said the channels were removed between April and June “as part of our ongoing investigation into coordinated influence operations linked to China.“ Continue reading...

Video in which Trump wrongly said kids were ‘almost immune’ from illness also prompted Twitter to ban president’s re-election campaign accountFacebook has removed a post from Donald Trump’s page for spreading false information about the coronavirus, a first for the social media company that has been harshly criticized for repeatedly allowing the president to break its content rules.The post included video of Trump falsely asserting that children were “almost immune from Covid-19” during an appearance on Fox News. There is evidence to suggest that children who contract Covid-19 generally experience milder symptoms than adults do. However, they are not immune, and some children have become severely ill or died from the disease. Continue reading...

Jeff Bezos is richer than hundreds of countries, and earns my entire salary in under a minuteWe all know Jeff Bezos is very rich – but wouldn’t you love to know how long it would take him to, for example, earn your entire years’ salary, tackle your entire student debt or pay off your mortgage?A new website will you give you these exact numbers, as they apply to Bezos and 14 other tech moguls. The company – a text messaging company – says it uses data on salary, bonuses, earnings from equity and other forms of compensation from 2019 SEC filings to let you calculate just how quickly people like Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook, Susan Wojcicki of YouTube and Reed Hastings of Netflix could pay off all of your expenses. Continue reading...

Foreign affairs spokesman accuses US of hypocrisy and editorial in state-run newspaper decries choice between submission at ‘mortal combat’The US has offered China the “choice of submission or mortal combat in the tech realm”, state media in Beijing have said, as the two rival powers manoeuvred on the thorny issue of splitting up TikTok.The popular video-sharing app has joined Huawei to become a technology flashpoint, with Chinese officials and media rushing to defend it following Donald Trump’s threat of a US ban. Continue reading...

Acquisition plans confirmed hours after Mike Pompeo says Chinese firms feeding data to Communist partyDonald Trump on Monday said Microsoft can buy the Chinese-owned video app TikTok, but said the purchase would have to be completed by 15 September.Trump also said the US Treasury should receive payment as a portion of any deal between the social media platform and a US company. The president didn’t explain how that process would work. Continue reading...

Video app’s owner ByteDance already has 800 of its European workforce in UK and IrelandThe Chinese firm behind the TikTok video app is weighing up plans to open a headquarters in London, with Boris Johnson reportedly prepared to risk Donald Trump’s anger by rolling out the red carpet for the company.The US president has been openly hostile to TikTok, amid widespread concern in the country about Chinese companies’ ties to the Communist party and the risk posed to customers’ personal information. Continue reading...

Action needs long-term commitments to be is more than ‘PR stunt’, employees sayCurrent and former Facebook moderators have called for the unprecedented advertiser boycott of the site to be extended to prove that the action is more than a “PR stunt”.Speaking to the Guardian, one current moderator who asked to remain anonymous because they feared for their job, said that without long-term commitments, this was a “PR stunt that will pass when they get enough of the reports that they want”. Continue reading...

Novelist says details from careless Google search are ‘quite funny’ and he will leave his book as is after reader spots Octoroks and Lizalfos in his new book

Bishop from Togo among 1,400 individuals alerted by WhatsApp to malware attack

Congress grilled Apple, Google, Facebook and Amazon last week, and their pitiful replies show Democrats may be set to curtail them at lastThe most striking thing about Wednesday’s congressional interrogation of the leaders of Apple, Google, Facebook and Amazon was the absence of deference to the four moguls. This was such a radical departure from previous practice – characterised by ignorance, grandstanding and fawning on these exemplars of the American Way – that it was initially breathtaking. “Our founders would not bow before a king,” said the House antitrust subcommittee chairman, David Cicilline, in his opening remarks. “Nor should we bow before the emperors of the online economy.”If we wanted a radical departure from the legislative slumber of previous decades, this looked like it. And indeed, to a large extent, it was. One saw it, for example, in the aggressiveness of the questioning by the Democrats. At times, one was reminded of the proceedings of the US supreme court, where the justices constantly interrupt the lawyers before them to cut off any attempt at lawyerly exposition. The implicit message is: “We’ve done our homework. Now get to the point – if you have one.” It was like that on Wednesday. Continue reading...

Customers in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne were worst hit, but telco has said no personal data was compromised

The tech giants’ latest machine-learning system comes with both ethical and environmental costsUnless you’ve been holidaying on Mars, or perhaps in Spain (alongside the transport secretary), you may have noticed some fuss on social media about something called GPT-3. The GPT bit stands for the “generative pre-training” of a language model that acquires knowledge of the world by “reading” enormous quantities of written text. The “3” indicates that this is the third generation of the system.GPT-3 is a product of OpenAI, an artificial intelligence research lab based in San Francisco. In essence, it’s a machine-learning system that has been fed (trained on) 45 terabytes of text data. Given that a terabyte (TB) is a trillion bytes, that’s quite a lot. Having digested all that stuff, the system can then generate all sorts of written content – stories, code, legal jargon, poems – if you prime it with a few words or sentences. Continue reading...

Proposed deal would see Microsoft take over TikTok in US, insiders say, after president said he would ban video appChina’s ByteDance has agreed to divest the US operations of TikTok completely in a bid to save a deal with the White House, after Donald Trump said on Friday he had decided to ban the popular short-video app, two people familiar with the matter said on Saturday.US officials have said TikTok under its Chinese parent poses a national risk because of the personal data it handles. ByteDance’s concession will test whether Trump’s threat to ban TikTok is a negotiating tactic or whether he is intent on cracking down on a social media app that has up to 80 million daily active users in the US. Continue reading...

Ten years ago, Silicon Valley had written off Zoom. Now it’s used by everyone from princes to piano teachersOn 6 January, a day after the World Heath Organization first reported a strange cluster of pneumonia-like cases in Wuhan, China, a party invitation dropped online. “Mark your calendars”, read the invite sent out by Zoom, a video-conferencing company based in California, “for Zoomtopia 2020!” Innocently enough, Zoom was announcing a real-world get-together for its most ardent clients and fans – at the time, these were mostly customers in enterprise and education, who chose to use Zoom over any number of video-chat competitors because of its easy interface and the relative smoothness of its connections.But while it was well regarded in tech and business circles (and floated on the US stock exchange in 2019), Zoom was a marginal force in the world in January. This wasn’t Apple. This wasn’t Uber. Guests on their way to Zoomtopia would have to explain to cab drivers and hotel concierges what Zoom was. Then that strange cluster of Wuhan cases began its unstoppable global spread, and by the end of March about half the planet’s governments had locked their citizens indoors, leaving them to figure out how to work and socialise from home. Suddenly, we were all in Zoomtopia. Continue reading...

Whether you want good sound, the cheapest or an alarm clock replacement, here are the optionsAfter almost six years on the market, smart speakers now come in a variety of sizes, shapes, capabilities and prices.Whether you want a cheap speaker to keep the kids entertained, one that doubles as a digital photo frame or one that sounds so good you’ll want to yell “turn it up to 11”, here’s a quick guide to the best on the market. Continue reading...

Three men charged in hack that saw accounts of Barack Obama, Joe Biden and Elon Musk compromised in bitcoin scam

Microsoft is reported to be looking into buying the TikTok’s US operations as the app’s data privacy practices have come under fireDonald Trump will reportedly order the parent company of TikTok to sell the popular video sharing platform because of national-security concerns.Trump on Friday again suggested the US may take action against the Chinese-owned social media platform. Continue reading...

Social media company suffered major security breach this month that saw hackers take control of public figures’ accountsTwitter said a large hack two weeks ago targeted a small number of employees through a phone “spear-phishing” attack.The social media platform said the hackers targeted about 130 accounts, tweeted from 45, accessed the inboxes of 36, and were able to download Twitter data from seven. Continue reading...

Analysis: heated exchanges raise concern over anticompetitive behavior as chair warns of companies’ ‘monopoly power’After hours of grilling top tech executives in a historic antitrust hearing on Wednesday, US lawmakers suggested unprecedented antitrust enforcement might be on the horizon.In his closing remarks, Representative David Cicilline, a Rhode Island Democrat, said evidence put forward in the investigations and testimony showed just how entrenched the tech companies were in the US economy and day-to-day life. Continue reading...

Jerry Nadler unimpressed with Mark Zuckerberg’s answer on Instagram deal, while Amazon boss Jeff Bezos accused of hypocrisy

Part-time chief Jack Dorsey’s company is mired in high-profile hacks and concerns over leadershipA month of crisis at Twitter has reignited concerns that the company’s part-time chief executive and years of accumulated “technical debt” have left it dangerously vulnerable to malicious attackers and lacking the leadership required to take rapid action or controversial decisions.In mid-July, Twitter suffered an unprecedented security breach as hackers seized control of the accounts of major public figures and corporations, including Joe Biden, Barack Obama, Elon Musk, Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos. Continue reading...

Nintendo Switch, PC, Mac; Polygon Treehouse/United Label

Fed up of brightly-coloured shootouts against teenagers dressed as bananas? These games will test your teamwork, planning and accuracy in tense, real-world scenariosTwo years after its release, Fortnite still dominates the online gaming space, sucking all the air out of the room with its 350 million players, massive celebrity endorsements and ruthlessly compelling dance routines. But, far away from that game’s rainbow-coloured cartoon scapes, there are team-based shooters requiring patience, strategy and cooperation; where real-world physics, weapons and environments replace laser pistols and super powers, and where a single wrong move can blow the whole operation. If you’re looking for a tactical step up from run-and-gun blasters, here are seven of the best examples. Continue reading...

Amid the anger over Wiley’s bigoted tirade, let’s not forget the newspapers that have been peddling prejudice for years

Chief executives of Amazon, Google and Apple will also testify as part of high-powered investigation into tech industry“Companies aren’t bad just because they are big,” Facebook executive Mark Zuckerberg is set to tell Congress on Wednesday, as the world’s most powerful technology companies face a historic investigation into their size and power.Zuckerberg plans to argue to Congress that Facebook became successful “the American way, by starting out with nothing and providing products that people find valuable”, according to a written testimony that was made public on Tuesday. Continue reading...

President’s son had shared a viral video published by Breitbart that contained false claims about hydroxychloroquineTwitter limited some of Donald Trump Jr’s account features on Tuesday, after the president’s eldest son shared false claims about the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine as a coronavirus treatment.Related: Anthony Fauci denies Trump claim that he misled US public about coronavirus Continue reading...

Tech giant will allow all global staff to work from home until July 2021 as building work in King’s Cross continuesGoogle has reaffirmed its commitment to its new central London headquarters, a horizontal skyscraper known as the “landscraper”, and will move thousands of workers there once it is completed.This is despite the tech firm’s decision to allow all of its global employees to work from home until July 2021. The vast majority of the US tech firm’s 4,500 UK employees continue to work remotely. Continue reading...

Call for companies to withdraw advertising comes as Wiley is suspended from platform over Instagram postsAn unprecedented boycott of Facebook is moving across the Atlantic, as the coalition of activist groups behind the Stop Hate for Profit campaign have called on companies in Europe to join in the action.The campaign has already gained the support of more than a thousand brands in the US, including Coca-Cola, Unilever and Ford, some of which have extended their boycotts globally. Now, the coalition, coordinated in Europe by the Centre for Countering Digital Hate, is calling on British and other European companies to join in the movement. Continue reading...

Extraordinary hearing will see some of the richest men in history called to account for their firms’ market dominanceSome of the richest men in history representing the most valuable companies ever created will be grilled by Congress on Wednesday , as US authorities get increasingly serious about whether tech giants Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Alphabet have become too powerful.Related: Clashes in Portland as Trump’s actions light fuse under protests in other cities Continue reading...

Sainsbury’s and John Lewis are trialling virtual queueing on your phone, so you can wait in your car instead. But does anybody want to stop standing in line?Name: The queue.Age: As old as Britain. Continue reading...

Improved specs and faster release mechanism update still-novel laptop with detachable screenMicrosoft’s unique power-laptop with detachable tablet screen is back for its third iteration, and other than new chips nothing has changed.Costing from £1,599, this isn’t your average laptop or tablet. The Surface Book 3 is Microsoft’s workhorse for those who need oodles of power, available in a 13.5in version (as reviewed here) and a larger 15in version. Continue reading...

Attack on Roger Torrent seen as possible act of domestic espionageWhatsApp has confirmed that the mobile phone of a leading pro-independence politician in Catalonia was targeted over its messaging app in a 2019 attack that has been condemned as a possible case of domestic espionage in Europe.In a letter to Roger Torrent, the speaker of the Catalan parliament, and obtained by the Guardian and El Pais, the company confirmed that his personal WhatsApp account was “targeted in an attempt to gain unauthorised access to data and communications on the device”. Continue reading...

Filings allege employees had to share equipment and were not allowed extra time to account for social distancingAmazon is under investigation in California for failing to protect its warehouse employees from the new coronavirus.California’s attorney general Xavier Becerra, the Division of Occupational Safety and Health, and the San Francisco department of public health “have all opened investigations into Amazon’s practices” around the pandemic, San Francisco superior court judge Ethan Schulman wrote in a court filing on Monday. Continue reading...

Sundar Pichai reportedly made the decision last week after debate among an internal group of top executivesGoogle will keep its employees home until at least next July, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday, marking the largest tech firm to commit to such a timeline in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.Related: Women at Google miss out on thousands of dollars as a result of pay discrimination, lawsuit alleges Continue reading...

Russian cybercrime gang is believed to be responsible for taking Garmin services offlineA ransomware attack that took the GPS and smartwatch business Garmin entirely offline for more than three days is believed to have been carried out by a Russian cybercriminal gang which calls itself “Evil Corp”.Garmin began to restore services to customers on Monday morning, after being held hostage for a reported ransom of $10m, although some services were still operating with limited functionality. Continue reading...

The Tesla CEO says ‘there’s not much I can do’ to take care of his infant son. What planet is he on?Name: Babies.Age: Young. Continue reading...