Technology | The Guardian

‘Just wanted to share this snap of my hot grandma. Isn’t she gorgeous? And can you see the resemblance? #FamilyGoals’Name: #GeneBraggingAge: New for summer 2019. Continue reading...

ACCC chair Rod Sims says NBN Co’s priority must be providing customers with better products at prices they can affordThe ACCC chair, Rod Sims, says NBN Co should be prepared to sink the value of the $50bn taxpayer investment in the project if it means customers get better products at prices they can afford.In a speech Sims will give to the ACCC and Australian Energy Regulator conference in Brisbane on Thursday, he will say that as the NBN nears completion next year the focus should be less on recouping the investment the government has made and more on how best to use the network. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Facebook executive Simon Milner says company ‘only removes content that violates our community standards’Facebook has declared it is not “our role to remove content that one side of a political debate considers to be false” in a final, positive, self-assessment of its actions in response to the death tax misinformation circulating on the platform during the May federal election.In correspondence seen by Guardian Australia, Simon Milner, the Singapore-based vice-president of the social media giant in the Asia-Pacific, tells Labor’s outgoing national secretary, Noah Carroll: “I understand that your preference would be for Facebook to remove all content that you believe constitutes misinformation – which in this instance mean all content that discussed whether or not Labor intends to introduce a death tax – rather than demote it; however Facebook only removes content that violates our community standards. Continue reading...

VC support for Mayor Pete seems to top that of other Democratic candidates with strong ties to the industryHe’s young, he’s white, he went to Harvard, and he loves to talk about data.If Pete Buttigieg had a product and a pitch deck, Silicon Valley’s venture capitalists would most likely be lining up to get in on his startup’s seed round. But with the 37-year-old Buttigieg intent on seeking a position in the – gasp – public sector, tech industry VCs instead appear interested in investing in the small-town mayor’s upstart presidential campaign. Continue reading...

More than 17,000 applicants also affected in breach of city’s personnel departmentThe personal information of 2,500 Los Angeles police department officers and 17,500 people who had applied to join the force were exposed in a data breach, the department announced on Monday.The department was informed of a potential breach of records held by the city’s personnel department on 25 July, and it notified affected officers over the weekend. Continue reading...

UK fact-checking organisation Full Fact offers 10 suggestions for improvementsFacebook should immediately extend its fact-checking programme to also cover Instagram, according to Full Fact, a journalism charity that was the first UK member of the scheme.“We do not see why the third-party fact-checking programme cannot be fully expanded to Instagram,” Full Fact said in its report on the first six months of the programme. “The potential to prevent harm is high here, and there are known risks of health misinformation on the platform.” Continue reading...

There is a lot of science demonstrating plausible risk of harm from electromagnetic fields, says Damien Downing, and campaigners against 5G are simply alerting people to the evidence, says Sally BeareHas the Guardian never heard of the precautionary principle (How baseless fears over 5G rollout created a health scare, 26 July)? The one the Stewart report (from the Independent Expert Group on Mobile Phones) called for in 2000, but which has been ignored ever since? The one that says government has a responsibility to protect the public from exposure to harm, when scientific investigation has found a plausible risk?Whatever labels – “baseless”, “half-science”, “cherry-picked” – you put on it, there is quite a lot of science demonstrating plausible risk of harm from electromagnetic fields, far too much to dismiss with a chuckle from the hardly impartial head of technology communications for EE, Howard Jones. Continue reading...

Ford’s all-conquering Ranger is an impressive beast. But is time running out for vehicles like this?Ford Ranger

Sales rush for gadget after it appears in photo of the Queen meeting Boris JohnsonIt is the kind of influencer power that money can’t buy: after being photographed in the Queen’s private apartment, Dyson’s upmarket fans are selling out.The £500 gadget inserted itself into history on Wednesday when its space age design stood out among the ornate furnishings in the audience room at Buckingham Palace, as the monarch was pictured meeting the new prime minister, Boris Johnson. Continue reading...

Losses come even as Elon Musk’s company says it’s delivering a record-breaking number of vehiclesTesla shares tumbled more than 11% in after-hours trading on Wednesday after the company reported a larger-than-expected $408m loss in its second quarter earnings, and announced the departure of its chief technology officer (CTO).Related: Electric dreams? What you need to know about Tesla's Model 3 Continue reading...

Company says US regulators have launched an antitrust investigation into platformTwo giant fines by US government agencies totaling $5.1bn could not derail Facebook’s financial juggernaut on Wednesday, as the company reported revenues of $16.9bn in the second quarter of 2019, exceeding analyst expectations.The social media company’s regulatory concerns are by no means over, however. Facebook also disclosed on Wednesday that the FTC informed it in June that it has opened an antitrust investigation into the company. This follows the Department of Justice’s announcement of a broad antitrust review of online platforms on Tuesday. Continue reading...

Anxious parents may see the appeal of measuring their baby’s vital signs – but sharing your child’s data with a private company may not be wiseThis week’s instalment of innovations no one was waiting for is brought to you by Pampers, which has announced a “smart nappy” system. Lumi consists of a sensor that you stick to a specially designed nappy; the gizmo then beams information about how much your little bub is peeing and sleeping to a dedicated app. You can complement this with a video monitor that links to the app and tracks room temperature and humidity. Voilà: your embarrassingly low-tech baby is now a sophisticated analytics machine.If you can’t wait to start a more data-driven relationship with your newborn, I am afraid to say there is no word on when Lumi will launch in the UK (it arrives in the US this autumn). If you are in South Korea, however, you can grab some Huggies smart nappies; these let you know, via Bluetooth, whether your baby has urinated or defecated. A truly brilliant update to the obsolete technology known as “your nose”. Continue reading...

FTC to claim company misled users about handling of their phone numbers as part of settlementThe Federal Trade Commission is expected to announce on Wednesday that Facebook has agreed to a sweeping settlement of allegations it mishandled user privacy and pay roughly $5bn, two people briefed on the matter said.Related: Should tech companies be worried about DoJ's antitrust review? Continue reading...

Officials to look into whether Facebook, Google, Amazon and Apple are unlawfully limiting competitionThe US justice department is opening a broad antitrust review into major technology firms, as criticism over the companies’ growing reach and power heats up.The investigation will focus on growing complaints that the companies are unlawfully stifling competition. Continue reading...

Government-owned company says it is just 1.6m premises short of reaching its 2020 targetNBN Co is racing closer to the finish line of the network being built, announcing there are now 10m homes and businesses that can connect to the network, just 1.6m short of the 2020 target.The government-owned company announced the achievement on Wednesday, less than one year until the network is due to be completed. Continue reading...

This chilling documentary lays bare the cynicism and chaos surrounding the data research company that harvested information from millions of Facebook users‘Data rights are human rights” is the rallying cry of this gripping, challenging documentary by Karim Amer and Jehane Noujaim, about the biggest scandal of our time: the gigantic question mark over the legality of the Brexit vote.It is about the Trump campaign, the Leave.EU campaign and many other reckless electoral adventures all over the world and their connection with Cambridge Analytica, the British data research company that cunningly harvested information from millions of Facebook users and their friends via an innocuous-seeming “personality” questionnaire. They put this gigantic database to lucrative work with machine-tooled marketing campaigns for Trump and the Brexiters; after the company declared bankruptcy, its documentation may never come to light. Continue reading...

Get the latest news on our investigation delivered straight to your email inboxGuns and Lies in America is the Guardian’s year-long series on the dramatic decline of gun violence in the Bay Area – one of America’s most rapidly gentrifying areas, and the people who made it happen.Sign up to our newsletter to hear about our investigation’s latest installment. Continue reading...

Telecom giant announces plan amid diplomatic crisis between Canada and China over detention of executiveThe embattled Chinese telecom giant Huawei has unveiled plans to deploy high-speed wireless internet to dozens of underserved communities in Canada’s remote northern regions.The move – mostly 4G deployments and not the superfast fifth-generation or 5G – comes with Huawei under sanctions in the United States over national security concerns and amid a diplomatic crisis between Canada and China over the detention of a Huawei executive in Vancouver. Continue reading...

Chinese tech firm’s equipment will continue to be used in UK’s 5G mobile networks for nowHuawei equipment will continue to be used in the UK’s 5G mobile networks for now after the government delayed a decision on whether it should be restricted or banned over concerns that the Chinese government could use it to spy on countries.Jeremy Wright, the culture secretary, said the UK had no choice because it is still gauging the impact of US sanctions on Huawei. Continue reading...

Company denies that warehouse workers urinate in bottles and says it offers industry-leading payUnion workers have staged the final in a series of protests outside an Amazon warehouse in Doncaster over “unsafe” and “appalling” working conditions. According to the GMB union, workers urinate in plastic bottles rather than go to the toilet during their shifts, and pregnant women are forced to stand for hours on end.The protest follows international campaigns last week to coincide with the retail giant’s Prime Day promotion, with demonstrations being held outside seven British warehouses – what the company calls “fulfilment centres” – and in seven US cities. Continue reading...

The social media giant is set to unveil its second-best results this week, despite a privacy ruling and fears over LibraFacebook is expected to report its second most profitable quarter ever on Wednesday, even in the wake of a $5bn (£4bn) fine and an unprecedented level of scrutiny over its plans to launch a new global currency.While regulatory struggles and digital money plans have hogged the spotlight in recent weeks, investors and analysts remain convinced that the social media juggernaut can continue to expand. Continue reading...

Omission of Chinese firm’s role in building 5G networks will reopen divisions among ministersA long-awaited government review will fudge taking a critical decision on controversial Chinese technology company Huawei being allowed to build 5G networks in the UK.Industry sources said the move means the company, which is already building networks for EE and Vodafone, can continue developing and selling 5G technology in the UK, a move that will alarm critics who claim its equipment could help the Chinese government spy on other countries. Huawei, which is subject to stringent oversight by the UK’s spy agency, GCHQ, denies the claim. Continue reading...

Books by James Williams and Carles Boix offer fascinating takes on how we can combat anger and distraction onlineWe’re having problems with the internet and big tech, principally Alphabet (Google/YouTube), Amazon, Apple and Facebook. The government has taken note.Related: 'Facebook is dangerous': tech giant faces criticism from Congress over Libra currency Continue reading...

‘Ruthlessly systematic’ research achieves qubit communication 200 times faster than ever beforeAn Australian research team led by the renowned quantum physicist Prof Michelle Simmons has announced a major breakthrough in quantum computing, which researchers hope could lead to much greater computing power within a decade.Simmons, a former Australian of the Year, and her team at the University of New South Wales announced in a paper published in Nature journal on Thursday that they have been able to achieve the first two-qubit gate between atom qubits in silicon, allowing them to communicate with each other at a 200 times faster rate than previously achieved at 0.8 nanoseconds. Continue reading...

App was launched by Russian developer in 2017 and uses AI to change people’s featuresThe developer of a popular app which transforms users’ faces to predict how they will look as older people has insisted they are not accessing users’ photographs without permission.FaceApp, which was launched by a Russian developer in 2017, uses artificial intelligence allowing people to see how they would look with different hair colour, eye colour or as a different gender. Continue reading...

House members challenge company over its plans to protect data and question its goals in latest clash on Capitol HillFacebook once again faced intense questioning from US lawmakers over the future launch of its cryptocurrency project Libra, in a combative hearing that highlighted deep skepticism over the tech firm’s possibly entering the banking world following a slew of privacy scandals.Members of the US House financial services committee grilled the Facebook executive David Marcus for more than five hours on Wednesday, asking him how the company plans to protect user data, challenging its purported goals of bringing banking services to underserved populations, and demanding more accountability to regulatory bodies. Continue reading...

Consumer watchdog says the contracts made restaurants financially liable for ‘elements outside of their control’UberEats in Australia has agreed to change an “unfair” contract that the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission said made local restaurants liable for refunds for delivery errors – even if the restaurants were not at fault – following an investigation.Previously, if a customer requested a refund, that money could have been deducted from the restaurant – even if the deliverer or Uber itself made the mistake. Continue reading...

Alleged killer Brandon Clark’s post with the caption ‘I’m sorry, Bianca’ shared and reposted hundreds of timesSocial media companies have come under fire after images of a murdered teenage girl’s body were posted online and were widely shared on Instagram as well as other sites including Discord and 4chan.Bianca Devins, a 17-year-old girl from Utica in New York, was brutally murdered on Sunday. Police allege she was killed by Brandon Clark, 21, after the pair, who met on Instagram, attended a concert together. Continue reading...

As if bewitched by their level of access, the BBC ditched critical distance, rolled over and let out one giant cheer for the global techno-oligarchy. Unfriend!

Home affairs says agencies are pushing for data to be held for more than two years for complex investigationsGovernment agencies are pushing for telecommunications companies to be forced to retain customer data for law enforcement agencies for longer than the current two-year requirement.Under the mandatory data retention legislation that passed in 2015, companies such as Telstra, Optus and Vodafone are required to store customer metadata, like number dialled, time of call and call location for two years. Continue reading...

US president vows to look into claim about firm’s relationship with Chinese governmentDonald Trump has suggested Google might be working treasonously with China and claimed he would look into the matter.In a tweet on Tuesday the US president – claiming to quote Fox News – said the tech billionaire Peter Thiel “believes Google should be investigated for treason. He accuses Google of working with the Chinese government.” Continue reading...

Between 2000 and the 2008 financial crash, tech’s brave new world unleashed changes that were meant to make us happierWhen did our country lose grip of its senses? Some will argue that we never had any in the first place, but others find a sharp contrast between the edgy, neurotic, angry, irrational country we find ourselves living in now and a Britain that was, not that long ago, vaguely commonsensical and, at base level, fundamentally civilised.Researching my new novel, which focuses on the period between millennium eve and the financial crash of 2008, I was left in very little doubt about when it all started. Although I touch on trends in economics, immigration, property (my protagonist is an estate agent) and much besides, many of the forces I discovered were technological – but found their expression psychologically. In short, I believe this is when Britain embarked on its journey towards a full-blown nervous breakdown. Continue reading...

Peter Csemiczky takes issue with comments made by victims’ commissioner Vera BairdI am writing to express my concern about the comments made by Dame Vera Baird regarding the “digital consent forms” given to rape complainants (Victims’ commissioner warns of intrusive CPS demands in rape cases, 8 July).Ms Baird appears to claim that the police use these forms to demand rape complainants hand over highly personal information, no matter its relevance to the allegation. A failure to do so may result in a dropped prosecution, Ms Baird implies. Continue reading...

The founder of the online classifieds site is a survivor from the era of internet optimism. He has given significant sums to protect the future of news – and rejects the idea his website helped cause journalism’s financial crisisAs the Craig in Craigslist, the free online noticeboard that changed everything, Craig Newmark can surely get his hands on just about anything. His new home in Greenwich Village, New York, contains everything from an ancient Roman mosaic to 18th-century British portraits to Simpsons figurines to artworks by his beloved Leonard Cohen. But something is missing. Something vital.“We’re low on bird seed now,” Newmark observes anxiously. “That’s a crisis.” Continue reading...

Scientists are discovering innovative ways to help the natural world adapt to environmental changeLast week, scientists from the University of Texas identified a gene in a species of coral that is activated when coral becomes heat stressed. Warmer waters as a result of climate change often cause stressed coral to expel the algae they depend upon for energy in a process known as bleaching, leading to mass coral decline. Scientists believe this gene to be present in many coral species and hope to use it to detect stressed coral before bleaching occurs, allowing them to prioritise conservation of these species. Continue reading...

The top-of-the-range model does 0-62mph in 3.2 seconds. Should get you down the supermarket sharpish…Mercedes-Benz AMG GT 4-Door

The trailblazing computer scientist talks about being in charge of the software for the 1969 Apollo moon landingComputer pioneer Margaret Hamilton was critical to landing astronauts on the moon for the first time on 20 July 1969 and returning them safely a few days later. The young Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) computer programmer and working mother led the team that created the onboard flight software for the Apollo missions, including Apollo 11. The computer system was the most sophisticated of its day. Her rigorous approach was so successful that no software bugs were ever known to have occurred during any crewed Apollo missions. “She symbolises that generation of unsung women who helped send humankind into space,” said President Barack Obama in 2016 when he awarded Hamilton the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States’ highest civilian award. In 2017, she was one of a handful of Nasa women to be immortalised as a Lego figurine.On the 50th anniversary of the first moon landing, Hamilton, 82, looks back on her trailblazing work in computing.What got you into software engineering? There were no computer science degrees when you were starting out…

Chefs around the world are fed up with so-called social media influencers offering ‘exposure’ – and they’re biting backOne day in April Duncan Welgemoed, chef and part owner of Africola, was checking his emails when he saw a request from a contestant on the Australian reality TV cooking show My Kitchen Rules. She wanted to dine for free in his restaurant. In return she would post some stories on Instagram, giving him exposure.Africola didn’t need the exposure. It’s one of Australia’s hottest restaurants. Celebrities such as Katy Perry dine there when in Adelaide and pay for their food. And anyway Welgemoed had a direct line to the MKR hosts. Plus his own Instagram account had far more followers than the influencer. Continue reading...

The company restored access late Thursday afternoon, but some users were still experiencing issuesTwitter experiencing outages for several hours, with users across the US and elsewhere reporting not being able to access the platform throughout the day.Access was restored on Thursday afternoon, with the company tweeting from its official account “miss us?” at 3.58pm ET . Continue reading...

To fight a housing crunch of their own creation, tech companies are planning company towns worthy of Gilded Age robber barons

Labor says transport minister’s speech ‘curious’ and plan would carry major privacy risksFacial recognition could be used to replace swipe cards on public transport, the New South Wales government has suggested, but the opposition and digital rights groups say it would pose a risk to privacy.The transport minister, Andrew Constance, said on Tuesday he wanted commuters “in the not too distant future” to be able to board trains using only their faces, with no need for Opal cards, barriers or turnstiles. Continue reading...

Commonwealth Ombudsman calls for Peter Dutton’s ability to censor its reports on the process to be revokedNew encryption powers to seek assistance from tech companies to spy on users have been used at least five times by federal and New South Wales police.The Commonwealth Ombudsman has revealed to an inquiry into the encryption act that agencies are already using the powers and called for the home affairs minister Peter Dutton’s ability to censor its reports on the process to be revoked. Continue reading...

ICO imposes fine after personal data of 339 million guests was stolen by hackersThe international hotel group Marriott is to be fined almost £100m by the Information Commissioner’s Office after hackers stole the records of 339 million guests.In November, Marriott International, the parent company of hotel chains including W, Westin, Le Méridien and Sheraton, admitted that personal data including credit card details, passport numbers and dates of birth had been stolen in a colossal global hack of guest records. Continue reading...

Royal Court, London

ICO says personal data of 500,000 customers was stolen from website and mobile appBritish Airways is to be fined more than £183m by the Information Commissioner’s Office after hackers stole the personal data of half a million of the airline’s customers.The ICO said its extensive investigation found that the incident involved customer details including login, payment card, name, address and travel booking information being harvested after being diverted to a fraudulent website. Continue reading...

Australia’s consumer watchdog alleges electronics giant deceived customers with claims made in more than 300 adsThe consumer watchdog is taking Samsung to court, accusing the technology company of misleading consumers by telling them that many of the four million Galaxy phones sold in Australia were water resistant, while knowing they were not.The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has instituted federal court proceedings against Samsung, alleging the electronics giant misled and deceived customers with its claims about various Galaxy phones across more than 300 advertisements since February 2016. Continue reading...

Intrusive software collects emails and texts and could be used to track movement

A remarkable analysis identifies ‘Mao 2.0’ as the west’s new cold war adversaryKai Strittmatter is a German journalist who writes for Süddeutsche Zeitung and is currently based in Copenhagen. From 1997 until recently, he had been a foreign correspondent in Beijing. Prior to those postings, he had studied sinology and journalism in Munich, Xi’an and Taipei. So he knows China rather well. Having read his remarkable book, it’s reasonable to assume that he will not be passing through any Chinese airport in the foreseeable future. Doing so would not be good for his health, not to mention his freedom.We Have Been Harmonised is the most accessible and best informed account we have had to date of China’s transition from what scholars such as Rebecca MacKinnon used to call “networked authoritarianism” to what is now a form of networked totalitarianism. The difference is not merely semantic. An authoritarian regime is relatively limited in its objectives: there may be elections, but they are generally carefully managed; individual freedoms are subordinate to the state; there is no constitutional accountability and no rule of law in any meaningful sense. Continue reading...

New studies show that the latest wave of automation will make the world’s poor poorer. But big tech will be even richerSo the robots are coming for our jobs, are they? Yawn. That’s such an old story. Goes back to Elizabeth I and the stocking frame, if my memory serves me right. Machines have been taking our jobs forever. But economists, despite their reputation as practitioners of the “dismal science”, have always been upbeat about that. Sure, machines destroy jobs, they say. But hey, the new industries that new technology enables create even more new jobs. Granted, there may be a bit of “disruption” between destruction and creation, but that’s just capitalist business as usual. Besides, it’s progress, innit?We have now lived through what one might call Automation 1.0. The paradigmatic example is car manufacturing. Henry Ford’s production line metamorphosed into Toyota’s “lean machine” and thence to the point where few humans, if any, are visible on an assembly line. Once upon a time, the car industry employed hundreds of thousands of people. We called them blue-collar workers. Now it employs far fewer. The robots did indeed take their jobs. In some cases, those made redundant found other employment, but many didn’t. And sometimes their communities were devastated as a result. But GDP went up, nevertheless, so economists were happy. Continue reading...

Through video games, live-action role-playing games and interactive documentaries, developers are challenging the conversation around reproductive rightsThe year is 1972. You’re part of an underground network of feminists in Chicago that provide illegal (at the time) abortion services to vulnerable, pregnant people with few options. Despite the risk of imprisonment, and the ways that your personal experiences may not always perfectly align with your activism, you persist.It’s emotionally complicated. It’s politically fraught. It’s a live-action roleplaying game by Jon Cole and Kelley Vanda called The Abortionists, which requires three players, one facilitator, six hours and a willingness to dig deep into the painful history of reproductive rights in the United States. That history has terrifying relevance in 2019, as numerous states pass laws that put their residents in a reality where abortion is functionally illegal. Based on the real-life work of a 1970s activist group called Jane, it challenges its participants to think about the “internal landscapes” of its players, and how they deal with the larger political and personal landscape of their world. Continue reading...