Technology | The Guardian

Peiter ‘Mudge’ Zatko, former head of security, says ‘any employee could take over the accounts of any senator in this room’A Twitter whistleblower who accused the company of “egregious” security deficiencies testified in front of Congress on Tuesday, alleging those failures made the platform vulnerable to exploitation, including by foreign agents.Former hacker Peiter “Mudge” Zatko worked as head of security at Twitter from 2020 until he was fired in 2022, and says in that time he witnessed “extreme, egregious deficiencies by Twitter in every area of his mandate”. Continue reading...

From a creeping horror to a funny alien shooter, here are unexpected finds to play before the onslaught of big-name titles

Tech company accused of abusing its power in the ad tech marketGoogle faces a €25bn (£21.6bn) lawsuit in the UK and EU that accuses the tech firm of anticompetitive conduct in the digital advertising market.The company, which is a key player in the online ad market as well as being a dominant force in search, is accused of abusing its power in the ad tech market, which coordinates the sale of online advertising space between publishers and advertisers. Continue reading...

When children first started flocking to YouTube, some seriously strange stuff started to appear – and after much outcry, the company found itself scrambling to fix the problemHarry Jho worked out of a 10th-storey Wall Street office, in which one corner was stacked with treadmill desks and another was filled with racks of colourful costumes and a green screen for filming nursery rhymes. He worked as a securities lawyer. With his wife, Sona, Jho also ran Mother Goose Club, a YouTube media empire.Sona had produced short children’s segments for public-access TV stations before the couple decided to branch out on their own. As educators – the Jhos once taught English in Korea – they saw television’s pedagogical flaws. To learn words, kids should see lips move, but Barney’s mouth never did. Baby Einstein mostly showed toys. The Jhos, who were Korean American, had two young children, and noticed how few faces on kids TV looked like theirs. Continue reading...

Group chats were a lifeline during lockdown – but for many, the constant messages have become an oppressive distraction. Leaving, however, is not so simpleAs I write, I have 101 unread WhatsApp messages, 254 unread iPhone messages and 46,252 unread emails across three separate accounts. For me, Inbox Zero is a faraway goal, as unachievable as mastering the perfect cat’s-eye flick, or learning how to cook.But it is the WhatsApp messages, specifically the WhatsApp group chats, that terrorise me the most. If I were a woman of courage, I would simply exit these chats as soon as I am added to them; but I feel the weight of social obligation, and so I remain. Continue reading...

Rohan Wahi, the brother of a former product manager at the company, has pleaded guilty to wire fraud conspiracy chargesThe brother of a former Coinbase Global Inc product manager pleaded guilty on Monday to a wire fraud conspiracy charge, in what US prosecutors have called the first insider trading case involving cryptocurrency.Nikhil Wahi, 26, admitted during a virtual court hearing before US district judge Loretta Preska in Manhattan that he made trades based on confidential Coinbase information. Continue reading...

MyCoinBanking was known to Barclays but the bank has only offered to repay him half of what he lostDuring the pandemic my 75-year-old father was targeted by scammers via email and WhatsApp who convinced him they were investment managers who could develop his life savings of £55,000 into a fantastic sum by investing in cryptocurrency.He had recently retired and was worried he had not saved enough for his, and my mother’s, retirement, so was easy prey. He also has very little nous and gave the scammers, an outfit called MyCoinBanking, his account details including sort codes and account numbers. Continue reading...

When 92-year-old Lillian’s video went viral, no one could believe it – least of all her… Introducing the older generation taking TikTok by stormTikTok? Why not? That is my motto. Making our channel was my grandson Kevin’s idea from the start. It’s his fault that I’ve got nearly 5m followers. We were just sitting in the kitchen one day and he filmed me chatting. I can barely remember what I said – I think something about clocks? That’s what I thought he was telling me to do: tick tock, a clock! It was meant to be a joke, but overnight that video got 1m views or something ridiculous. Continue reading...

Elon Musk was scorned when he set up Tesla, but his tech approach to electric vehicles has triumphed. However, when it comes to aftercare, the model’s not so greatThe first thing one learns when purchasing a Tesla, as this columnist did in December 2020, is that the neighbours immediately begin to hold one personally responsible for Elon Musk. The co-founder and now Supreme Leader of the company is, one finds, widely regarded by non-techies as a fruitcake with a bad Twitter habit, so it follows that anyone who buys one of his cars must be a devotee of the world’s richest nutter and therefore not properly earthed.Interestingly, there was a time, not so very long ago, 2005 to be precise, that this view of Musk was held by sensible German men in suits, who laughed at the idea of this jerk building automobiles. Didn’t he know that making cars is hard and that BMW, Mercedes, Ford, General Motors, Volkswagen, Toyota and the rest had spent the best part of a century figuring out how to do it profitably at scale? Sure, he might be able to produce expensive toys for Silicon Valley types – but real cars? Continue reading...

The BBC’s new wildlife series overcame photography challenges with hi-tech equipment and years of patienceThe tension in the air was palpable as the group of television producers waited with bated breath to see what would happen as the Siberian tiger crept into the bear’s cave. This was a groundbreaking moment in the making of wildlife documentaries, and one that will be seen by millions who tune into Frozen Planet II.It took three years of persistence and trial-and-error filming in Russian forests using remote cameras to get the footage of the tigers entering bears’ caves, said Elizabeth White – who worked on the original Frozen Planet and produced the award-winning “iguanas vs snakes” episode of Planet Earth II. Continue reading...

The French photographer on the joys – and difficulties – of taking pictures in Iceland’s Blue LagoonIt wasn’t until Magali Chesnel was on her flight back to Geneva that she figured out why the people she’d seen swimming earlier that day had been wearing bin bags on their heads. After a week of solo travel around the south of Iceland, the French photographer had spent the morning at the famous Blue Lagoon geothermal spa, just a short drive from the airport. Returning home, she realised her hair had turned coarse and brittle from the silica in the pools. “If you ever visit, use hair conditioner! Or a garbage bag!” she warns.While she expected the shots she took of the bag-wearing bathers to be her favourites, it was actually this one that came out best. The six Icelandic teenage boys were laughing, chatting and drinking ice-cold slushies in 38C water in a scene that later reminded her of Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper. “I studied art when I was younger. I like my photos to have an element of confusion; are they a photograph or a painting?” Chesnel says. Continue reading...

Other inventions include a humane insect remover, a gas-flushing toilet and a collar that stops dogs fightingAn artificial intelligence-driven toaster that gets the perfect level of brownness each time, a device to humanely remove flying insects from a room, and a sensor that tells you when a nappy needs changing. These were just three of the new things created by UK based inventors last year.A Guardian analysis of patent applications listed by the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) found 6,087 patent applications published with at least one UK-based inventor listed in 2021. Continue reading...

Late monarch recognised the immediacy and connection that advanced technology could bring

Guardian Australia picture editor Carly Earl explains the dos and don’ts of photographing the moon

A Reddit subforum for people who are horrified by the proliferation of crypto scams and pyramid schemes pokes fun at cryptocurrencyAs bitcoin plunged below $20,000 in mid-June, many cryptocurrency users were distraught over massive losses – with some reporting they had lost their life savings. But one corner of the internet was cheering: Buttcoin, a Reddit subforum launched in 2011 to poke fun at cryptocurrency.“I’m addicted, I need help,” read one popular post. “I just love watching line go down too much. I always tell myself ‘after it breaks through this next support line, you’ll be satisfied’ but there’s ALWAYS another lower level after that.” “I’m actually hoping it levels off at 20K for tonight,” said another user. “I’m kinda tired and need more time to think of new lower priced memes.” Continue reading...

CEO says messaging app needs to focus on thirtysomethings and ‘big five’ countries – Mexico, Brazil, Italy, Spain and JapanSnapchat is coming for the oldies – in Gen Z terms, at least. The messaging app is focusing on attracting users in their 30s, according to a leaked memo from its co-founder and chief executive, Evan Spiegel, as part of a goal to increase usage “in at least one new large country or demographic”.In the memo, published by the Verge, Spiegel laid out his company’s plans for recovery after a year in which 20% of Snapchat’s staff were laid off, and four of its five stated goals missed. “While the macroeconomic environment certainly contributed to these misses, I believe we can do better,” he wrote. Continue reading...

Firm turns to features such as car crash detection and ‘no bars’ rescues rather than exciting new designsThe latest versions of Apple’s most important product of the year, the all-conquering iPhone, was unveiled with typical pomp on Wednesday to a willing global audience of millions. Its marquee feature: safety, in the flashy new emergency satellite communications but also in iterative design and minor upgrades.One look at the iPhone 14 evokes a feeling of déjà-vu. It has the same design introduced two years ago with the iPhone 12, with minor upgrades. In a first for Apple, it even has the same A15 chip as last year’s 13 Pro. Continue reading...

Welcome to Pokémon Worlds, the wholesome tournament where childhood dreams can come trueLike many 90s kids, when I was 10 I dreamed of becoming a Pokémon Master. From car journeys spent craning my neck over a Game Boy screen while battling through Victory Road, to cranking the Pokémon album on my Discman, I was determined to be the very best. Life had other plans for me but, as I discovered on a sunny August weekend this year, for 5,000 dedicated competitors across the globe the dream is very much alive.After a Covid-mandated three-year hiatus, the Pokémon World Championships have returned. And this year, Pikachu and pals took over London, coating the ExCel centre’s concourse with Poké-paraphernalia – even transforming the nearby cable car over the Thames. Surrounded by 100-foot-tall inflatable Pikachus and a stadium-worthy stage, this once drab conference hall is now a makeshift battleground for aspiring trainers young and… well, I’m not ready to call myself old yet. Less young? That’ll do. Continue reading...

Fully fledged self-driving technology appears to be pepetually just around the corner. It is a promise that the Tesla chief executive, Elon Musk, has made almost every year since 2013. But in the real world, it is still an open question whether level five self-driving automation is actually possible. Josh Toussaint-Strauss finds out how close industry frontrunners have come to full automation and assess the scale of the problems standing in their way

Multisport tracker packs maps, GPS and battery upgrade alongside advanced training tools, plus solar-charging optionGarmin’s new Forerunner 955 multisport watch looks to be the ultimate training tool for enthusiasts, packed with advanced metrics, onboard maps, higher-accuracy GPS and a solar-charging option.The watch is the firm’s top running and triathlon model, costing £480 ($500/A$800), sitting above the £300 Forerunner 255 and loaded up with additional features such as offline maps, advanced training tools and longer battery life for serious runners and triathletes.Screen: 1.3in transflective MIP LCDCase size: 46.5mmCase thickness: 14.4mmBand size: 22mmWeight: 52gStorage: 32GB (up to 2,000 songs)Water resistance: 50 metres (5ATM)Sensors: GNSS (multiband GPS, Glonass, Galileo, BeiDuo, QZSS), compass, thermometer, heart rate, pulse OxConnectivity: Bluetooth, ANT+, wifi, NFC Continue reading...

Always-on display lets notification addicts stay connected but only ‘pro’ models get the latest A16 Bionic chipIf you feel like you never look away from your phone, Apple’s newest iPhones are for you, with an always-on display letting notification addicts stay connected all day, every day.Exclusive to the iPhone 14 Pro, the display preserves power by dropping down to an ultra-low refresh rate of just 1Hz, dimming the screen, and handing updates over to a dedicated low-power coprocessor to keep the time, widgets and notifications up to date even with the phone in sleep mode. Continue reading...

Case will go ahead next month but his countersuit can be expanded to include whistleblower’s allegationsElon Musk has failed in an attempt to delay a trial over his termination of a $44bn (£38bn) deal to buy Twitter.A judge ruled on Wednesday that the case would go ahead in Delaware from 17 October after deciding that Musk’s request to push it into November would damage Twitter’s business. Continue reading...

Unearthing beloved old gaming consoles that have been languishing in a freezer bag is a lesser-known plus side of moving house, as Dominik Diamond discoveredI recently moved into a new house and faced that most terrifying of prospects: a few days without internet access. On top of all the other dependencies that this enriching, vile invention has created in us, all the games I’ve been playing required patches, updates, or someone to play against. I was – gulp – gameless!Luckily, I had found my old Game Boy Advance while moving, rejected and forlorn in a freezer bag in the bottom of a box with a handful of game cartridges, unfingered for nearly 20 years. It had been my constant companion on flights to from Glasgow to London back when we didn’t have phones with games, and I was appearing on what seemed like every single one of those Top 100 War Movies/TV embarrassments/Songs That Use Flowers As Metaphors for Sex. (And Richard and Judy.) Continue reading...

When users of the far-right forum harassed and stalked a trans streamer to the extent she fled her home, this is how Cloudflare pulled the plug … finally

Joe Sullivan’s trial is believed to be the first case of an executive facing criminal charges over such a breachUber’s former security officer, Joe Sullivan, is standing trial this week in what is believed to be the first case of an executive facing criminal charges in relation to a data breach.The US district court in San Francisco will start hearing arguments on whether Sullivan, the former head of security at the ride-share giant, failed to properly disclose a 2016 data breach affecting 57 million Uber riders and drivers around the world. Continue reading...

Twitter counters that Musk is using new claims to cover up buyer’s remorse as trial over broken deal set to begin next monthA trial over Elon Musk’s bid to end his $44bn deal for Twitter should be delayed by several weeks to allow him to investigate a whistleblower’s claims about security on the social media platform, Musk’s lawyer told a judge on Tuesday.“Doesn’t justice demand a few weeks to look into this?” said Musk’s lawyer, Alex Spiro, at a hearing in Wilmington, Delaware. Continue reading...

Filing by ex-Theranos CEO says former lab director has misgivings after saying he had raised concerns about company’s techElizabeth Holmes requested a new trial on Tuesday, asserting in a court filing that a key witness for the prosecution now regrets the role he played in her conviction for investor fraud and conspiracy related to Theranos, her failed blood-testing startup.The petition centers on the reliability of testimony provided by the former Theranos lab director Adam Rosendorff, who said he repeatedly raised concerns about the accuracy of blood tests that were being administered to patients during his tenure in 2013 and 2014. It is typical for defendants to make motions for a new trial after a guilty verdict. Continue reading...

Indulgent, yes – but this PS5 update reminds me what a heartbreaking gamechanger the horror classic really is

Penalty follows investigation into Instagram setting that allowed teenagers to set up accounts that displayed contact detailsInstagram owner Meta has been fined €405m (£349m) by the Irish data watchdog for letting teenagers set up accounts that publicly displayed their phone numbers and email addresses.The Data Protection Commission confirmed the penalty after a two-year investigation into potential breaches of the European Union’s general data protection regulation (GDPR). Continue reading...

The tendency to be glued to bad news can spark a ‘vicious cycle’ that interferes with our lives, researcher saysThere’s no shortage of bad news in the media to “doomscroll”, from a global pandemic to the war in Ukraine and an impending climate crisis, but new research suggests the compulsive urge to surf the web can lead to poor mental and physical health outcomes.Doomscrolling is the tendency to “continue to surf or scroll through bad news, even though that news is saddening, disheartening or depressing”, a practice researchers found has boomed since the onset of the pandemic. Continue reading...

As upgrade season arrives, phone users have more options than ever for improving their handsets in environmental, cost-effective ways

I didn’t like the person it was making me, but a few strategic moves later, the calm and mystique of the game returnedPerhaps it was when I missed my bus stop so I could finish a three-minute game of online blitz chess that I realised I had a problem. Or when, instead of getting off at the next stop, I started another game on chess.com. I certainly had no qualms about the resulting half-hour walk home, narrowly avoiding lamp-posts as I continued to line up ill-fated pre-moves against anonymous opponents.Blunder. Resign. New game.Stuart Kenny is a freelance travel journalist and editorDo you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a letter of up to 300 words to be considered for publication, email it to us at guardian.letters@theguardian.com Continue reading...

A gadget the size of a 10p coin, the AirTag was intended to help people find their keys. Instead it has facilitated a boom in terrifying behaviour from abusersIn March this year, Laura (not her real name) was in her car when a notification showed up on her phone, alerting her that an Apple AirTag had been detected nearby. “I didn’t know what it was or what it meant. I felt quite panicky,” she says. “I pulled over and still didn’t know what I was looking at. My phone was showing a map of where I was with a trail of red dots indicating the route I’d just followed. I think I was in shock. I drove straight to a friend’s house and we searched the car.”They emptied the glove compartment, opened the bonnet, checked underneath it and then behind the number plate. “Eventually we found it under the carpet in the back – a tiny gadget the size of a 10-pence piece. I didn’t want it anywhere near me.” Continue reading...

Refined phone-tablet hybrid is better all round – but still a gadget-lover’s dream and not for the mass marketSamsung’s cutting-edge Galaxy Z Fold 4 Android phone-tablet hybrid is back and here to prove that folding devices are the future.By putting both a powerful smartphone and 7.6in tablet in your pocket, Samsung has created the device of choice for gadget lovers. But the price means it is not ready yet for most consumers. Continue reading...

Since Roe v Wade was overturned in the US in June, there are concerns that law enforcement could request the intimate data users share with period tracking apps. Johana Bhuiyan reports on the privacy concernsMillions of women around the world use period tracking apps to understand their bodies and work out when their ovulation or period is due.While many people find these apps useful and empowering, there are concerns about where the data put on these apps goes. Continue reading...

When new versions are unveiled this week only ‘pro’ models will get chip upgrade, analyst reportsThe invitation to Apple’s latest iPhone launch event on Wednesday, at which the company is expected to reveal new versions of the iPhone and Apple Watch, shows a starfield in the shape of the company’s logo, with the caption “Far out”.The company’s event invitations frequently contain a gnomic hint at the forthcoming news, usually only visible in the rear-view mirror. But while some of the company’s expected announcements are likely to elicit a sense of amazement, they may not all be in the tone that Apple’s marketing team would hope. Continue reading...

Tech billionaires are buying up luxurious bunkers and hiring military security to survive a societal collapse they helped create, but like everything they do, it has unintended consequencesAs a humanist who writes about the impact of digital technology on our lives, I am often mistaken for a futurist. The people most interested in hiring me for my opinions about technology are usually less concerned with building tools that help people live better lives in the present than they are in identifying the Next Big Thing through which to dominate them in the future. I don’t usually respond to their inquiries. Why help these guys ruin what’s left of the internet, much less civilisation?Still, sometimes a combination of morbid curiosity and cold hard cash is enough to get me on a stage in front of the tech elite, where I try to talk some sense into them about how their businesses are affecting our lives out here in the real world. That’s how I found myself accepting an invitation to address a group mysteriously described as “ultra-wealthy stakeholders”, out in the middle of the desert. Continue reading...

Amelia Tait talks to the people painstakingly scrubbing and restoring graves – and posting wildly popular footageThe gravestone in Helensburgh cemetery is in loving memory of someone, but it’s hard to tell exactly who. Exposure to 92 years of Scottish weather has rendered it grimy and grubby, but two small streaks of white at the bottom corner catch Ryan Nott’s attention on a rainy day in May. And so, the next day, the 31-year-old student accommodation manager comes back with a car boot full of equipment. He wears long sleeves to cover his arms and black rubber gloves. As the cemetery echoes to the cheers and chants of football fans watching a match on TV in the nearby flats, Nott starts to spray. The gravestone slowly begins to sizzle as the hydrochloric acid he’s splashed on the memorial stone creates a noisy, bubbling fizz. A grey smoke curls up towards the sky and as he scrubs the memorial with a steel brush, a light sweat beads his brow.The stone features four intricately carved roses and each one is speckled with green moss and white lichen splodges. Nott takes out another brush, not unlike a children’s paintbrush, and works the acid into the petals. Quickly – so quickly that it almost seems like a magic trick – it becomes apparent that the headstone is made of white marble. Gorgeous, glistening, gleaming white marble on which the names of three long-departed sisters appear. Continue reading...

Internet infrastructure company says it blocked Kiwi Farms because ‘the threats on the site escalated enough in the last 48 hours’

Research project aims to discover how age, size and shape of woodlands affect people’s happiness and wellbeingHow happy do you feel right now? The question is asked by an app on my phone, and I drag the slider to the space between “not much” and “somewhat”. I’m about to start a walk in the woods that is part of a nationwide research project to investigate how better to design the forests of the future.Volunteers are being sought to record their feelings before and after eight walks on a free app, Go Jauntly, which could reveal what kind of treescapes most benefit our wellbeing and mental health. Continue reading...

Highly profitable company paid out more than $500m to reclusive owner Leonid Radvinsky in last two yearsOnlyFans has paid out more than $500m (£433m) to its reclusive owner in the last two years, as the British-based subscriber platform synonymous with pornography reported record profits.Leonid Radvinsky, the site’s Ukrainian-American 40-year-old owner, is the sole shareholder in a business that has seen its profits boom, as users spent $4.8bn on the site last year. Continue reading...

Ban on Nvidia and AMD sales marks a major escalation of US efforts to restrict China’s military technology capabilities as tensions bubble over Taiwan

PC, Xbox, smartphones; Half Mermaid

Dramatic move shows Mark Zuckerberg ‘desperate to avoid being questioned over cover-up’, says Observer journalist who exposed scandalFacebook has dramatically agreed to settle a lawsuit seeking damages for allowing Cambridge Analytica access to the private data of tens of millions of users, four years after the Observer exposed the scandal that mired the tech giant in repeated controversy.A court filing reveals that Meta, Facebook’s parent company, has in principle settled for an undisclosed sum a long-running lawsuit that claimed Facebook illegally shared user data with the UK analysis firm. Continue reading...

The Iranian photojournalist on a woman he spotted in northern AfghanistanIn 2015, Ako Salemi was on a photography trip to northern Afghanistan with fellow Iranian photojournalist Majid Saeedi. One day, the pair were exploring near the tomb of Hazrat Ali ibn Abi Talib, known locally as the Blue Mosque for its intricately detailed blue tiled domes and exterior. People feed the many doves – a symbol of peace – that gather around the tomb, and Salemi photographed this woman as she carved a path through the flock.“I didn’t notice it at the time, but afterwards I found the flash of red by her ankles amazing – almost reminiscent of defiance,” Salemi says. Unfortunately, he couldn’t interact with the passerby, or show her his photo. “A man can’t talk with a woman in the streets of Afghanistan. In the radical interpretation of Islam, women are believed to belong to their men, and nobody else should see or talk to them. If you speak with a woman who you don’t know, her father or brother or husband may get very angry.” Continue reading...

Ducky toast tongs, candle sharpeners and an apple tree … our writers name one gadget, gizmo or thing they didn’t know they couldn’t live without“Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful,” William Morris said. I’m fussier. Have nothing in your wardrobe that you do not know to be useful and believe to be beautiful. Continue reading...

The four-year-old case alleged that the company had violated consumer privacy laws by sharing users’ personal data with third partiesMeta’s Facebook has in principle agreed to settle a lawsuit in the San Francisco federal court seeking damages for letting third parties, including Cambridge Analytica, access the private data of users, a court filing showed.The financial terms were not disclosed in the filing on Friday that asked the judge to put the class-action suit on hold for 60 days until the lawyers for both plaintiffs and Facebook finalize a written settlement. Continue reading...

New technology meant to detect cheating by students taking tests at home could invade privacy, raise anxiety and be discriminatoryIn 2020, a Canadian university employee named Ian Linkletter became increasingly alarmed by a new kind of technology that was exploding in use with the pandemic. It was meant to detect cheating by college and high-school students taking tests at home, and claimed to work by watching students’ movements and analyzing sounds around them through their webcams and microphones to automatically flag suspicious behavior.So Linkletter accessed a section of the website of one of the anti-cheating companies, named Proctorio, intended only for instructors and administrators. He shared what he found on social media. Continue reading...

When comedian Jennifer Wong learned that AI was writing viral LinkedIn posts, she couldn’t resist going on a journey of discoveryI’m so humbled that the Guardian asked me to write an article about the LinkedIn Viral Post Generator. Humbled, but not surprised, if I’m honest, after so many years of grinding! #worthitIt’s a HUGE MILESTONE in my career to cover a story about AI that generates cringy viral posts for LinkedIn so you don’t have to (#winning). It just goes to show that if you put in the effort, you’ll be rewarded 10 times over. Continue reading...

As Biden eases student loan debt for millions, a simple phrase is puncturing criticism from conservatives like Marjorie Taylor GreeneConservatives are frothing at the mouth over Joe Biden’s decision to forgive $10,000 in student debt for millions, railing against what they call “student loan socialism”. But their carefully crafted tweets have been undermined over and over again with two words: “This you?”Were there ever seven letters more powerful? On Twitter, the phrase is an instant marker of hypocrisy, cutting down the mighty from politicians to celebrities to brands. It typically comes as a reply to an opinionated tweet, accompanied by a screenshot of an earlier remark from the same person endorsing the opposite point of view. Continue reading...