Technology | The Guardian

Readers share their experiences of the classic carI own a mid-grey 1967 Morris Minor Traveller (Ian Allen’s letter, 7 June). Recently, I was returning to it in a Sainsbury’s car park in Macclesfield with some shopping. Hanging around the rear of the car I noticed an elderly lady wearing a Giles cartoon grandma-style hat with a flower in it and a dark ill-fitting coat. When I approached, she asked: “Young man [I’m 72!], is this your car?” When I replied “Yes”, she whimpered a little and shuffled around the rear of the car to peer in a side window.Then came the swinging 60s punchline: “Young man, I’d like you to know that I lost my virginity in the back of one of those.” I was a bit taken aback but managed to ask if she enjoyed the experience, to which she replied, “No, not really”, and shuffled off with her trolley! Continue reading...

An exhibition in London looked at how digital touch technologies could reconnect a person in care with their loved onesSubscribe and review: Acast, Apple, Spotify, Soundcloud, Audioboom, Mixcloud. Join the discussion on Facebook, Twitter or email us at chipspodcast@theguardian.com.Touch is a fundamental part of human interaction. Even when our communication is mitigated by technology, as it so frequently is nowadays, it’s often via some sort of touchscreen. But as far as physical interaction with other human beings in the same space, some people think we’re living through a crisis of touch, especially when it comes to older people. Continue reading...

Intelligence committee wants to know what data was shared with Chinese firms and whyMalcolm Turnbull would “love to see the boss” of Facebook appear before Australia’s intelligence committee, as parliament grapples with new security threats wrought by global internet and social network giants.After coming to terms on the government’s proposed foreign interference and espionage laws, which are expected to have bipartisan support when the joint committee hands down its report later on Thursday, attention has turned to potential backdoor information sources. Continue reading...

Silicon Valley believes there is no problem they can’t solve, even if the problem is that their tech is making us miserableApple’s software keynotes are normally about how the ways you’ll be able to get your devices to do more, but Monday’s event had an unusually paternalistic bent. Demonstrating their new “time well spent” apps, Apple execs showed how your iPhone will get you to spend less time on your iPhone. So if you’ve spent longer stalking your crush on Instagram then you had previously planned it will say: “You went over your Instagram limit two times this week” – presumably it’s not angry, just disappointed.Related: Apple's new 'digital wellbeing' tools aim to help reduce screen time Continue reading...

‘Screen Time’ app show how long you spend on each app and lets people set daily limitsApple has unveiled digital wellbeing tools to help people reduce the time they spend glued to their screens.A new app called Screen Time will offer iPhone and iPad users a dashboard highlighting how much time they have spent using which apps, how many notifications they receive, how often they pick up their device and how their usage patterns compare to the average. Continue reading...

Tech insiders have finally started admitting their mistakes – but the solutions they are offering could just help the big players get even more powerful

My friend John Gozzard, who has died aged 85, was an inventor and engineer whose most notable achievement was the creation of a zeppelin-shaped windshield for microphones, much seen on television and film sets, which stops wind and other extraneous noises interfering with sound recordings.John’s invention was not only far better than previous attempts at minimising unwanted noise, but was also lighter and more durable than the alternatives. Having established its usefulness he set up a company, Rycote, to manufacture the windshield, and the firm continues to this day from its base in Stroud, Gloucestershire. Throughout his time at Rycote John continued to apply his skills to produce items that perfected audio capture, and many of his designs are used worldwide. Continue reading...

Grieving father calls for removal of ‘disgusting’ game that allows users to play the killer in a school massacreA video game that simulates a school shooting incident has been labelled “disgusting” and “despicable” by parents of children who died during the mass shooting at a school in Parkland, Florida, in February.Billed by its Russian publisher, Acid, as a swat team simulator, Active Shooter invites players to take on the role of an armed officer responding to a school shooting. However, the game also allows users to play as the shooter or as a civilian attempting to escape the scene. Continue reading...

Huawei has another hit on its hands with a good balance of features, price and feel for £400 – if you forget the AI cameraThe Honor 10 is Huawei’s cut-price premium smartphone offering that hopes to go toe-to-toe with iPhones and Samsungs for about one-third less than the average price.

Jaron Lanier, pioneer turned digital sceptic, explains in an extract from his new book why we must take back controlIt might not seem like it at first, but I’m an optimist. I don’t think we have to throw the whole digital world away. But there is one particular hi-tech thing that is toxic even in small quantities.The issue isn’t only that internet users are crammed into environments that can bring out the worst in us, or that so much power has concentrated into a tiny number of hands that control giant cloud computers. A bigger problem is that we are all carrying around devices that are suitable for mass behaviour modification. For example, with old-fashioned advertising, you could measure whether a product did better after an ad was run, but now companies are measuring whether individuals change their behaviours as they browse, and the feeds for each person are constantly tweaked to get the desired result. In short, your behaviour has been turned into a product – and corporate and political clients are lining up to modify it. Continue reading...

As tax credits threaten to run out and more powerful and expensive versions launch, buyers are still waitingThis week saw Tesla’s enigmatic chief executive Elon Musk take to Twitter to announce two more powerful, and more expensive, versions of the auto firm’s Model 3 – the much lauded “mass market” vehicle that appears, for now, to be veering further and further away from its $35,000 price tag.

Inboxes around the world are clogging up as deadline for companies to comply with new regulations nearsA last-minute flurry of emails from companies trying to retain customers ahead of the deadline for Europe’s new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has prompted a slew of complaints - and memes - on social media.Friday is the last day for companies to comply with GDPR regulations and as a result, inboxes around the world are clogging up with emails warnings that “the privacy policy has changed” and pleas to “just click here so we can stay in touch”. Continue reading...

The social media company suggests that sending it naked pictures is the best way to protect yourself from revenge porn. But can it be trusted?If you have been the victim of “revenge porn” – intimate pictures stolen and published in an attempt to humiliate or blackmail – Facebook has a proposal that might sound counterintuitive: cc them in to your sexts.But give it a chance. The company’s offering is a better idea than it sounds. Facebook has spent years working with other large technology firms to build software that can identify problem images the second they hit the net, and flag and remove them without the need for human intervention. The scheme, which has already been trialled in Australia, will be tested in the UK from this week. Continue reading...

Workers across Europe, including 70,000 in UK, to be offered pay protections under new insurance policyUber is to provide additional protection for its drivers and couriers across Europe, including 70,000 in the UK, with limited insurance against sickness and injury as well as small maternity and paternity payments.The ride-hailing service said a new insurance policy, to be provided free to its drivers, would give them “peace of mind while preserving the flexibility they value”. Continue reading...

British negotiators warn of security dangers as they call for preferential treatmentUK negotiators in Brussels have warned of significant economic and security dangers for Europe should the EU not grant a special deal on data-sharing laws after Brexit.In an appeal for immediate talks on the issue, a government presentation given to Michel Barnier’s EU team on Tuesday included a mixture of implicit threats and expressions of concern for the future. Continue reading...

US president reportedly resisted White House security checks for Twitter phone for ‘as long as five months’Donald Trump is reportedly shunning security advice by using at least two iPhones, refusing to allow some of them to be screened for hacking attempts because it is “too inconvenient”.The US president, who has not used email while in office, has one iPhone capable only of making calls and another that is used as his Twitter phone, with access to a series of news sites and the social network, according to White House officials talking to Politico. Continue reading...

Airbnb will pay union members $150 to host under deal TWU says is about ending exploitation of drivers

Industrial strategy plans to develop artificial intelligence using algorithms built from NHS patient dataTheresa May will pledge millions of pounds of government funding to develop artificial intelligence able to transform outcomes through early diagnosis of cancer and chronic disease.In a speech in Mansfield on Monday that is being billed as the first of a series on industrial strategy, May will say: “Late diagnosis of otherwise treatable illnesses is one of the biggest causes of avoidable deaths. Continue reading...

Scientists in Seoul have built a robot tortoise to help teach children not to ill-treat robots. Jordan Erica Webber investigates the ethical issues surrounding the advance of AISubscribe and review: Acast, Apple, Spotify, Soundcloud, Audioboom, Mixcloud. Join the discussion on Facebook, Twitter or email us at chipspodcast@theguardian.com.We’re getting more and more used to talking to robots. Personal assistants such as Amazon’s Alexa or the Google Assistant are growing in popularity, and children love them. Continue reading...

Company confirms its technology failed to stop collision on same day US traffic safety watchdog opens investigation into crashA Tesla car was driving in “autopilot” mode when it crashed into a stopped firetruck in Utah, the company said in a report to police that repeatedly cast blame on the driver, not its semi-autonomous driving system.The confirmation that the vehicle’s technology failed to prevent it from colliding with a stopped object in its path came the same day that the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) announced it was sending a team to investigate the 11 May crash in Utah.

The system will use behavioral signals – how users react to a tweet – to assess if an account is adding to or detracting from conversationsTwitter is announcing a global change to its ranking algorithm this week, its first step toward improving the “health” of online conversations since it launched a renewed effort to address rampant trolling, harassment and abuse in March.“It’s shaping up to be one of the highest-impact things that we’ve done,” the chief executive, Jack Dorsey ,said of the update, which will change how tweets appear in search results or conversations. “The spirit of the thing is that we want to take the burden off the person receiving abuse or mob-like behavior.” Continue reading...

MPs inquiring into Cambridge Analytica breach urge Facebook CEO to appear via video linkFacebook has said Mark Zuckerberg has no plans to come to the UK to give evidence to parliament despite the threat of a formal summons, prompting frustrated MPs inquiring into the Cambridge Analytica data breach to ask if he would appear via video link instead.Related: Zuckerberg's refusal to testify before UK MPs 'absolutely astonishing' Continue reading...

Firm’s first quarterly moderation report also shows scale of spam, hate speech and violenceFacebook took moderation action against almost 1.5bn accounts and posts which violated its community standards in the first three months of 2018, the company has revealed.In its first quarterly Community Standards Enforcement Report, Facebook said the overwhelming majority of moderation action was against spam posts and fake accounts: it took action on 837m pieces of spam, and shut down a further 583m fake accounts on the site in the three months. But Facebook also moderated 2.5m pieces of hate speech, 1.9m pieces of terrorist propaganda, 3.4m pieces of graphic violence and 21m pieces of content featuring adult nudity and sexual activity. Continue reading...

Medical records not exposed in data breach but information sent by clients seeking an appointment may have been compromised• Sign up to receive the top stories in Australia every day at noon The personal information of clients of a family planning service could have been compromised in a cyber-attack and ransom demand on Anzac Day.Family Planning New South Wales said medical records had not been accessed. But databases containing information from clients who had contacted FPNSW seeking appointments or leaving feedback during the past two and a half years may have been breached. Continue reading...

Tabletop games join trend for ‘the real thing’ over digital – and for having fun with other peopleForget Candy Crush, Fifa and Call of Duty – millennials are putting down their Xbox controllers and smartphones and picking up their dice as they embrace games their parents and grandparents used to love.More and more people are exchanging marathon gaming sessions alone in a darkened room for the social fun of board games. With bars and cafes such as Thirsty Meeples in Oxford, and Draughts in London having a library of more than 800 games catering for the “cocktails and Cluedo” set, board games – as with colouring books – are no longer just Christmas presents for children. Continue reading...

Contrary to the accusations levelled at China’s tech sector, the firm bought its patents fair and square. But is it facing losses?The war of words between the US and China over trade has many subtexts, but treatment of intellectual property (IP) is a major factor. Donald Trump believes that the world’s second-largest economy gains an unfair advantage over its main rival due to an overly aggressive and sometimes underhand approach to IP – the patents and copyrights that underpin big tech, manufacturing and creative breakthroughs.So what happens when China plays the game fairly and buys American IP to gain a foothold in the world’s biggest economy? In the case of Lenovo, one of China’s biggest tech firms, doing so has been no guarantee of success. The Beijing-based company has bought three respected US tech businesses since 2005: IBM’s PC arm and low-cost server unit, and Motorola smartphones. None of them has worked out. Continue reading...

Google Duplex, which simulates human speech with lifelike inflections, criticised as unethicalGoogle’s AI assistant will identify itself as a robot when calling up businesses on behalf of human users, the company has confirmed, following accusations that the technology was deceitful and unethical.The feature, called Google Duplex, was demonstrated at the company’s I/O developers’ conference on Tuesday. It is not yet a finished product, but in the two demos played for the assembled crowd, it still managed to be eerily lifelike as it made bookings at a hair salon and a restaurant. Continue reading...

The latest in the God of War series, an affectionate father-son psychodrama, shows how video game bruisers are maturing alongside their creatorsIn an industry now in its mid-to-late 30s, and still with a predominantly male workforce, the glut of recent blockbuster video games featuring father-child relationships surely reflects the preoccupations of the men who make them. God of War is the latest specimen: a game in which a monosyllabic muscleman is on a journey to scatter his late wife’s ashes on the tallest mountain in Norse myth, while accompanied by his young son.Previously the God of War series, which debuted in 2005, had little time to explore the emotional landscape of its testosterone-pumped protagonist Kratos, whose only downtime from tearing the balls from mythological monsters was spent gruffly shagging mute slave girls. God of War was always something akin to Marvel does Greek mythology (which, to be fair, was pretty much how Homer did Greek mythology): all brutal set-pieces that, with their lingering camera angles and splattering money shots, treated violence as pornography. It was a peculiarly American vision for the mid-2000s video game action blockbuster, one that has aged quicker than its protagonist’s tribal tattoos. Continue reading...

Ivana is on a budget but still wants a new 13in machine that can handle tougher tasks than email and browsingI left my corporate job a few months ago and now need to purchase a new laptop for my work. I am looking for a 13in laptop in the £500-£700 range. I am not too picky about the aesthetics. What matters most is that it’s fast and can handle more tasks than just email and browsing. What is my best bet? Ivana

Firm counts cost of backlash by social media users after share price hits record lowShares in Snapchat’s parent company have hit a record low after its results revealed the cost of a backlash against a redesign of the social messaging app.Snap’s share price fell 22% to $10.96 (£8.05) in early trading as investors reacted to ongoing concerns over its struggle to compete with Facebook and its subsidiary Instagram. Continue reading...

Data protection supervisor lambasts companies’ deluge of ‘take it or leave it’ privacy emails ahead of GDPR

New control, which will let users erase ‘what you’ve clicked on’ and ‘website you’ve visited’, comes as Zuckerberg battles bad publicity

World domination in under half an hour and captivating battles between fantasy forces in our regular board game roundup

Judges say Investigatory Powers Act is incompatible with EU law after legal challenge by LibertyThe British government must rewrite its mass data surveillance legislation because it is incompatible with European law, the high court has ruled.Judges have given ministers and officials six months to redraft the 2016 Investigatory Powers Act, labelled the snooper’s charter by critics, following a crowdfunded challenge by the human rights group Liberty.

Guardian investigation finds knockoff items and used goods sold as new on MarketplaceAmazon is rife with potentially dangerous counterfeits and other knockoff goods despite years of attempts to crackdown on mis-selling on its platform, a Guardian investigation can reveal.The global internet giant, which this week revealed that its daily revenues had hit a record $550m (£400m) a day, now spans a huge range of businesses from TV production to web hosting but faces an ongoing challenge to police its own online retail platform. Continue reading...

A consensus says that something must be done with the all-powerful tech platforms. But how far do governments go?Facebook has finally been dragged to testify to politicians in Washington and London, and there is now a global consensus that something must be done about powerful internet platforms.Not only has Mark Zuckerberg taken up semi-permanent residence on Capitol Hill, but next week senior Facebook officials will appear before the House of Commons fake news inquiry, whose chairman, Damian Collins will attempt to unpack what went wrong in the entanglements between Facebook and Cambridge Analytica, and whether these have facilitated the hacking of western democracy. And the House of Lords has opened an inquiry on internet regulation. Within months, the debate has shifted from “you can’t regulate the internet” to how, and by whom, internet platforms should be regulated. Continue reading...

Executive apologises over Cambridge Analytica scandal as Tory MP accuses Facebook of bullyingFacebook has been accused of being a “morality-free zone” that bullies journalists and threatens academics, as one of its executives appeared in front of MPs.The Conservative MP Julian Knight told the social network’s chief technical officer, Mike Schroepfer, that the company’s reaction to the Cambridge Analytica scandal suggested a “pattern of behaviour” that included “bullying journalists, threatening academic institutions, and potentially impeding investigations by lawful authorities”. Continue reading...

Belgium’s Gaming Commission has decided that ‘loot box’ mechanics in three popular video games encourage children to gamble. The games industry doesn’t need themYesterday, the Belgian minister of justice, Koen Greens, announced the result of an investigation that the country’s Gaming Commission conducted into video game “loot boxes”, a mechanic that lets players pay real money for a chance at winning virtual items. It found that three popular games – Overwatch, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Fifa 18 – were in violation of gambling legislation. This is a significant finding, because controversy over loot boxes has been raging for at least six months: are they actually a form of gambling? Worse, are they a form of gambling that is particularly appealing to children?Belgium’s Gaming Commission has decided that, yes, they are, and the publishers in question should remove loot boxes from their games or face fines. (EA and Blizzard, publishers of two of the games in question, did not respond to requests for comment on how they plan to comply; a Valve spokesperson said that the company is “happy to engage with the Belgian Gambling Commission and answer any questions they may have.”) There might be no financial incentive to buying loot boxes – you never win any money – but they are still a game of chance. “A dialogue with the sector is necessary,” said Groens: “It is often children who come into contact with such systems and we can not allow that.” Continue reading...

The retail giant’s critics say contrived financial arrangements are at the heart of its successWhen Jeff Bezos was looking for a home for his fledgling online bookseller, amazon.com, in 1994, his first choice is said to have been a Native American reservation. The location would have presented generous tax breaks if the state of California had not intervened and halted the plan.Next stop was Seattle, selected because of Washington state’s small population. At the time only those retailers with a physical presence in a state paid sales taxes, so a home state with a small population meant the lowest possible sales tax burden. Sales made into other more populous states would not be taxed.

The first Harry Potter game in years is out today on Android and iPhone. Here’s what to expectI won’t lie: on my 11th birthday, a tiny part of me hoped that I might get a letter from Hogwarts. By that age I had long accepted that my toys would not spring to life, I would not find a snowy fantasy realm in the back of a closet, and I was not a secret warrior princess – but the existence of a secret school in the Highlands of Scotland still seemed just possible. Edinburgh’s Fettes College was down the road from where I grew up; I imagined Hogwarts would be much the same, but for wizards instead of extremely posh children.The first Harry Potter game in more than five years, Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery, attempts to fulfil that childhood fantasy. Released today for Android and iPhone, it is a gentle narrative game that offers a pared-down Hogwarts experience, letting you pick your house, form friendships and rivalries and master spells in the famous castle. I was really hoping it would be good. On first impressions, it’s not the lazy cash-in I’d feared. Continue reading...

Smart replies, greater offline access, expiring emails and improved safety features headline Google’s major redesignGoogle is implementing the biggest overhaul of its popular Gmail webmail service in five years, bringing a new look, advanced AI-powered features and improved privacy.Two years in the making, the redesign is intended to help Google better compete with Microsoft’s Outlook on the business side and modernise consumer email by bringing features from its Inbox email client into the main Gmail experience. Continue reading...

A year after the Guardian revealed Facebook’s secret rules for censorship decisions, the company has released a public versionA year after the Guardian revealed Facebook’s secret rules for content moderation, the company has released a public version of its guidelines for what is and is not allowed on the site, and for the first time created a process for individuals to appeal censorship decisions.The disclosure comes amid a publicity blitz by the company to regain users’ trust following the Observer’s revelation in March that the personal Facebook data of tens of millions of users was improperly obtained by a political consultancy. Continue reading...

Advertisers are seemingly able to access accounts with no input from the userOn one of Facebook’s myriad setting screens, a place where few dare tread, is a list of places you’ve probably never heard of, all of whom insist that they know you. It’s emblematic of the data protection issues Facebook is struggling to address in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, of the fact that these problems spread far beyond Facebook, and of the easy solutions the company could take if only it had the courage.This list is the collection of “advertisers you’ve interacted with”. You can find it halfway down your ad preferences screen, below a list of algorithmically suggested topics that Facebook thinks you’re interested in (if you’re a heavy user, these may be scarily accurate; if you’re not, they’ll likely be hilariously off). Continue reading...

Tech giant behind Android corrals phone operators around the world to launch a unified SMS replacementGoogle has unveiled a new messaging system, Chat, an attempt to replace SMS, unify Android’s various messaging services and beat Apple’s iMessage and Facebook’s WhatsApp with the help of mobile phone operators.Unlike traditional texting, or SMS, most modern messaging services – such as Signal, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger or Apple’s iMessage – are so-called over-the-top (OTT) services, which circumvent the mobile phone operator by sending messages over the internet. Continue reading...

Deborah O’Neill on the failings of automation at Tesla and elsewhere, and Matt Meyer and Nick Lynch on the House of Lords AI select committee reportElon Musk’s comment that humans are underrated (Humans replace robots at flagging Tesla plant, 17 April) doesn’t come as much of a surprise, even though his company is at the forefront of the technological revolution. Across industries, CEOs are wrestling with the balance between humans and increasingly cost-effective and advanced robots and artificial intelligence. However, as Mr Musk has discovered, the complexity of getting a machine to cover every possibility results in a large web of interconnected elements that can overcomplicate the underlying problem. This is why so many organisations fail when they try to automate everything they do. Three key mistakes I see time and again in these situations are missing the data basics, applying the wrong strategy, and losing the human touch.There are some clear cases where automation works well: low value, high repetition tasks or even complex ones where additional data will give a better outcome, for example, using medical-grade scanners on mechanical components to identify faults not visible to the human eye. But humans are better at reacting to unlikely, extreme, or unpredictable edge cases, for example being aware that a music festival has relocated and extra cider needs to go to stores near the new venue rather than the previous location. Continue reading...

Jim doesn’t want his emails scanned for targeted ads, but while there are ways to avoid it, surveillance-based advertising is rifeWhat’s the best free email service provider that does not scan or use the data in your emails for advertising? JimFree email services are usually paid for by showing you advertisements. Some email services scan your emails in order to show you personalised or targeted ads. You could argue that that’s a benefit, because you’ll see ads in which you might have some interest. You could also argue that your emails are private, so it’s an invasion of privacy. Either way, it’s different from scanning your emails to stop viruses and phishing attempts, which nobody wants to stop.

Users will be asked to review information about targeted advertising but some say opting out is deliberately difficultFacebook has started to seek explicit consent from users for targeted advertising, storage of sensitive information, and – for the first time in the EU – application of facial recognition technology as the European general data protection regulation (GDPR) is due to come into force in just over a month.The company is only required to seek the new permissions in the European Union, but it plans to roll them out to all Facebook users, no matter where they live. The move follows Mark Zuckerberg’s stated goal to apply the spirit of GDPR worldwide. Continue reading...

America’s founders didn’t envision the power of the corporation. We need a new structure for self-governance that can counter 21st-century monopoliesLast week, Senator Dick Durbin asked: “Mr Zuckerberg, would you be comfortable sharing with us the name of the hotel you stayed in last night?”The Facebook CEO froze and then answered: “No.” Continue reading...

A global conflict is taking place on the internet – and your router may be more attractive to a foreign operative than you thinkAnother day, another hacking attack – or, in Monday’s case, another few million hacking attacks. Russia has been blamed by the US and the UK for a global hacking campaign that involves breaking into millions of computers and other devices, including wifi routers.Tens or hundreds of thousands of the devices they have targeted are reportedly in the UK – so why is Vladimir Putin apparently so keen to break into your internet connection? Continue reading...