Technology | The Guardian

Technical advances are a boon, but VAR proves they rely on the people using themEven if you can’t tell your offside from your elbow (in the face), you’ve probably heard of VAR. The video assistant referee has been introduced into top-level football to cut out errors by referees. At every Premier League game, a VAR referee watches TV feeds of the game to check potentially contentious decisions.Moaning at referees has long been the staple of football fans. “That was never a penalty!” “Ref, do you need glasses? It was offside by a mile.” Continue reading...

Governments in Australia have come up with some creative reasons to sell the public on the use of facial recognition technologyIt started with passports. Then it was your phone. Now governments in Australia want you to use facial verification to access government services, take public transport and even for your private viewing.Last month the joint standing committee on intelligence and security told the government it needed to rethink its plans for a national facial verification database built off people’s passport and driver’s licence photos. It said there weren’t strong enough safeguards for citizens’ privacy and security built into the legislation. Continue reading...

Impact X, set up to support businesses run by or for minorities and women, is on its way to raising £100mBola Adegbulu’s idea came to him by accident – literally. Narrowly avoiding a car crash inspired the Londoner’s idea for smart navigation software that could predict the safest route for drivers and prevent some of the 1.3 million deaths due to road accidents globally each year. With more than 90% of those fatalities taking place in developing nations, including Adegbulu’s native Nigeria, the concept hit home.The 30-year-old spent two years working on the pilot for his company, Predina, with co-founder Meha Nelson, before clinching funding from Impact X Capital Partners: a new black-owned-and-run venture capital firm in London aiming to reverse the lack of funding for startups led by, or serving, women and people of colour. Continue reading...

The environmental impact of such technological advances can be hugeThere is, alas, no such thing as a free lunch. This simple and obvious truth is invariably forgotten whenever irrational exuberance teams up with digital technology in the latest quest to “change the world”. A case in point was the bitcoin frenzy, where one could apparently become insanely rich by “mining” for the elusive coins. All you needed was to get a computer to solve a complicated mathematical puzzle and – lo! – you could earn one bitcoin, which at the height of the frenzy was worth $19,783.06. All you had to do was buy a mining kit (or three) from Amazon, plug it in and become part of the crypto future.The only problem was that mining became progressively more difficult the closer we got to the maximum number of bitcoins set by the scheme and so more and more computing power was required. Which meant that increasing amounts of electrical power were needed to drive the kit. Exactly how much is difficult to calculate, but one estimate published in July by the Judge Business School at the University of Cambridge suggested that the global bitcoin network was then consuming more than seven gigwatts of electricity. Over a year, that’s equal to around 64 terawatt-hours (TWh), which is 8 TWh more than Switzerland uses annually. So each of those magical virtual coins turns out to have a heavy environmental footprint. Continue reading...

For the latest in keyboards, monitors and headsets, our jargon-free accessories guide will raise your game however you play itWhether you’re a PC, console or smartphone gamer, there’s a wealth of accessories that promise to improve your experience – and your score. But from mechanical keyboards to high dynamic range monitors the choices and jargon can be confusing. Here is our selection of the best gaming peripherals, whatever you play on. Continue reading...

For Corbyn the proposal would create a ‘treasured institution’, but Johnson calls it ‘crazed’

Ban will come with restrictions on ‘cause-based’ ads, as Facebook faces backlash over policiesTwitter’s rules for political advertising will include new restrictions on micro-targeting, a move that will increase pressure on Facebook, the company announced on Friday.The policy rollout follows Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey’s surprise announcement on 30 October that the company would ban all political advertising due to a belief that “political message reach should be earned, not bought”. The new rules will go into effect on 22 November. Continue reading...

Fed up with slow internet, Michaelston-y-Fedw residents took matters into their own hands

As the experiment expands to US accounts, some influencers are worried they will lose followers or incomeInstagram has begun to hide the number of users who have “liked” a photo for some accounts in the US in an ongoing effort to create a less stressful experience.The shift had influencers, artists, celebrities and everyday users up in arms – Nicki Minaj even said she’d stop posting on the platform – with many worrying the transition will lose them followers and ultimately income. Continue reading...

PC, PS4 (version tested), Xbox One; Electronic Arts

Everwild, Grounded and more than 50 new titles for the xCloud streaming service topped the line-up at Microsoft’s Xbox fan eventMicrosoft revealed a host of new Xbox and PC titles at its X019 fan event in London on Thursday night, including projects from Rare and Obsidian. The company also announced it would expand its xCloud game streaming service and its Xbox Game Pass subscription platform.The major game revelation was Everwild, a title from veteran studio Rare. With development being led by Louise O’Connor, known for her work on the cult favourite Conker’s Bad Fur Day, the project looks to be a mystical, woodland-set action adventure game, with a muted painterly art style reminiscent of Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Continue reading...

Tell Me Why, the latest narrative adventure from French studio Dontnod, stars a trans man – a decision the team says it didn’t take lightlyAt Microsoft’s X019 event in London on Thursday, the company revealed a range of major new titles for the Xbox and PC. But in an industry which has often struggled with representation and diversity of lead characters, one announcement stood out.The latest narrative adventure game from the acclaimed French studio Dontnod will have a transgender man as its lead character – a first for a major game release. Continue reading...

Company is listed as a ‘gold circle’ sponsor for rightwing group Federalist Society dinner where justice will be keynote speakerFacebook is facing criticism for sponsoring the annual gala dinner of the Federalist Society, the powerful rightwing legal group behind the nomination of the conservative supreme court justice Brett Kavanaugh.Related: Nancy Pelosi accuses Trump of bribery after first public impeachment hearing – live Continue reading...

Google’s reputation has remained relatively unscathed despite behaviors similar to Facebook’s. This could be the tipping pointFew things are certain in the American healthcare system – except for the paperwork. The tedious ritual of signing forms authorizing new providers to access our medical history is the result of a rarity for Americans: thanks to the first amendment, we have few rights and little expectation of privacy, except when it comes to our medical records. Even doctors who have our best interests at heart must get permission to access our data under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (Hipaa).So it was truly shocking to learn this week that a business partnership between Google and Ascension, a major hospital chain and health insurer, has resulted in the transfer of 50 million Americans’ most intimate medical records to the Silicon Valley company, without the knowledge or consent of those 50 million patients. Even more alarming, the records are not de-identified, and a whistleblower disclosed to the Guardian serious concerns about the program, including that individual staffers have downloaded patient records. Continue reading...

App-centric box is like a smart TV combined with a video recorder, with access to almost everythingVirgin Media is Sky’s long-time rival in the pay-TV space, delivering TV coverage through its own cable network to its latest V6 box. Positioned as the king of the aggregators where you can get everyone’s channels for cheaper, does Virgin deliver?First things first, Virgin TV only works if you happen to live in a cable area, which immediately makes its availability smaller than Sky, BT or the others. Virgin currently covers over 50% of UK households with a target to reach 53% by the end of 2020. Continue reading...

Angela is a light internet user and is wondering if she could make do with an older, slower ADSL serviceI signed up for fibre broadband a couple of years ago but am now wondering whether it is worth the cost. The only devices I use in my home are a six-year-old Toshiba Satellite L870 laptop and a Samsung tablet. I use them for email, web browsing and watching BBC iPlayer, but not much else. The laptop runs Windows 10 and works well enough so I don’t have any immediate plans to replace it.If I revert to ordinary broadband, will I notice a reduction in performance in either device? AngelaYou should notice a difference, because your “fibre” connection is probably about five times faster than you will get from ADSL2. However, for your purposes, the difference may not matter. Continue reading...

Study finds Robert F Kennedy Jr’s World Mercury Project and Larry Cook’s Stop Mandatory Vaccinations bought 54% of adsThe majority of Facebook ads spreading misinformation about vaccines are funded by two organizations run by well-known anti-vaccination activists, a new study in the journal Vaccine has found.The World Mercury Project chaired by Robert F Kennedy Jr, and Stop Mandatory Vaccinations, a project of campaigner Larry Cook, bought 54% of the anti-vaccine ads shown on the platform during the study period. Continue reading...

Karatbars used former football stars Lothar Matthäus, Roberto Carlos and Patrick Kluivert to promote productsA German cryptocurrency company that used the former football stars Lothar Matthäus, Roberto Carlos and Patrick Kluivert to promote its products has been ordered by a German watchdog to wind up its blockchain-based business after allegations it was luring customers into a pyramid scheme.Karatbars, founded by a Stuttgart-born former vacuum cleaner salesman, Harald Seiz, in 2011, has promised to revolutionise the world’s financial system through its internet-based currency. Continue reading...

News of service called Cache comes day after whistleblower sounded alarm over secret transfer of personal medical dataGoogle is preparing to launch a personal checking account service, a move that comes as its big tech rivals are increasingly focused on consumer finance.The project, in partnership with Citigroup and code-named Cache, is expected to launch next year. Continue reading...

A group of Facebook workers say they are treated as if they ‘do not belong’ at the companyOne year after a former Facebook manager accused the company of having “a black people problem” – failing its black employees by allowing the proliferation of a hostile workplace culture — an anonymous group of tech workers at the social media giant have penned a letter in which they argue that the problem has only metastasized.“Racism, discrimination, bias, and aggression do not come from the big moments,” they write. “It’s in the small actions that mount up over time and build into a culture where we are only meant to be seen as quotas, but never heard, never acknowledged, never recognized, and never accepted.” Continue reading...

US electric carmaker will build battery factory in Berlin, says boss Elon MuskThe Tesla chief executive, Elon Musk, has said Brexit uncertainty played a role in the firm’s decision to build its first European factory in Germany rather than the UK.The billionaire entrepreneur revealed that the firm’s European battery plant would be built on the outskirts of Berlin. Continue reading...

Fears about overtourism have prompted the new holiday rental website to ban properties owned by businesses and donate 50% of commission to community projectsEthical holiday rental website Fairbnb.coop has launched its reservations system offering travellers a chance to book in at city apartments that support community projects. The site aims to be a marketplace for “authentic, fair and conscious tourism” and promises to donate 50% of its commission to social projects selected by local residents.“In Amsterdam the money will go to a community gardening project in the north and an urban agriculture project for migrant women in the south-east – both poorer parts of the city,” said Fairbnb.coop’s Spanish founder, Sito Veracruz. Continue reading...

Legislation that reverses onus of proof described as ‘a dangerous precedent’New South Wales courts could be flooded with tens of thousands of cases every year if the NSW government moves ahead with plans to roll out cameras that use artificial intelligence to detect drivers using their mobile phones, a parliamentary committee has warned.The state parliament is considering legislation that would allow mobile phone detection cameras to be placed around NSW to capture drivers using their mobile phones while behind the wheel. The government estimates that there were at least 158 casualties on NSW roads between 2012 and 2018 involving mobile phones. Continue reading...

Company has confirmed system bug in the latest version of iOS app, and said it is submitting a fix to AppleA system bug has been allowing Facebook to access iPhone cameras as users scroll through their feed, the company confirmed on Tuesday.Twitter user Joshua Maddux tweeted a screen recording this weekend that showed his iPhone camera would open as he scrolled through his social media feed. Other users had also noticed the glitch earlier in the month, one calling it “a little worrying”. Continue reading...

Speakers at event in Oxford say ‘junk news’ tools pioneered by Russians now originate in UKMisinformation techniques first deployed by Russian agents are now more commonly used in Britain by the far right, as well as by politicians to convince their own voters, an audience in Oxford has been told.At an event hosted by Oxford University’s Internet Institute, which has been studying the effects of “computational propaganda” in elections around the world, speakers said the evidence of foreign interference in Britain’s election was slim, but that strategies first deployed by foreign actors were still going strong. The event was held under the Chatham House rule, meaning speakers can be quoted but not named. Continue reading...

Whistleblower tells Guardian of growing alarm over secret transfer of medical history data, which can be accessed by Google staffA whistleblower who works in Project Nightingale, the secret transfer of the personal medical data of up to 50 million Americans from one of the largest healthcare providers in the US to Google, has expressed anger to the Guardian that patients are being kept in the dark about the massive deal.Related: Mick Mulvaney drops impeachment lawsuit but will not comply with House subpoena – live Continue reading...

The pop star, who shunned mobile phones before the iPhone era, joins Elton John and Werner Herzog in his abstinenceDespite being one of the UK’s most successful pop stars, with millions of social media followers to keep updated, Robbie Williams has revealed he hasn’t owned a phone since 2006.Speaking on football talk show Back of the Net, Williams said: “I haven’t owned a phone since 2006. I’m always on my computer, I’ve always got Wi-Fi … I got rid of [my phone] because I just don’t like them.” Continue reading...

After the 2016 US election, some fear online interference could create political chaos in the UK. The truth is more complexWe’re now well into the “phoney war” period of the election – where on the surface all seems calm. Parliament has been prorogued, there have been a few early jabs, and a consensus is already beginning to emerge about how everything will play out online.Related: Ex-Johnson aide behind banned Facebook ad worked on fake grassroots campaign Continue reading...

The id Software founder talks about secret rooms, the value of guns and what the controversial genre has lost since the 1990s“Give us more guns!” is a common battle-cry among players of first-person shooters, the videogame industry’s bloodiest genre. Doom co-creator John Romero has a rather different opinion.“I would rather have fewer things with more meaning, than a million things you don’t identify with,” he says, sitting in a Berlin bar mocked up to resemble a 1920s Chicago speakeasy. “I would rather spend more time with a gun and make sure the gun’s design is really deep – that there’s a lot of cool stuff you learn about it.” Continue reading...

Adding a screen for the time transforms the Echo Dot into the best bedroom smart speakerAmazon has a new twist on its popular cut-price Echo Dot smart speaker, now setting its sights squarely on your beleaguered bedside alarm clock with a new LED display embedded in the side.The Echo Dot with Clock is one of those true Ronseal products - it says what it does on the tin. It is literally the same as the excellent third-generation Echo Dot, but is only available in white and has a white LED display showing the time peeking through the fabric side. Continue reading...

Calculating the patterns and cycles of the past could lead us to a better understanding of history. Could it also help us prevent a looming crisis? By Laura SpinneyIn its first issue of 2010, the scientific journal Nature looked forward to a dazzling decade of progress. By 2020, experimental devices connected to the internet would deduce our search queries by directly monitoring our brain signals. Crops would exist that doubled their biomass in three hours. Humanity would be well on the way to ending its dependency on fossil fuels.A few weeks later, a letter in the same journal cast a shadow over this bright future. It warned that all these advances could be derailed by mounting political instability, which was due to peak in the US and western Europe around 2020. Human societies go through predictable periods of growth, the letter explained, during which the population increases and prosperity rises. Then come equally predictable periods of decline. These “secular cycles” last two or three centuries and culminate in widespread unrest – from worker uprisings to revolution. Continue reading...

Company reportedly gets access to health records across 21 US states via alliance with Ascension, a leading providerGoogle’s announcement of a partnership with a major healthcare provider raises fresh privacy concerns as the tech company expands its footprint into the healthcare industry.Monday’s announcement comes after the Wall Street Journal revealed Google had won access to health-related information of millions of Americans across 21 states through the partnership with Ascension – the second-largest healthcare system in the US. Continue reading...

Dara Khosrowshahi scrambles after saying Saudi Arabia’s murder of dissident was a ‘mistake’ similar to self-driving car accidentDara Khosrowshahi, the chief executive of Uber, has attempted to limit the damage after calling the murder of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi “a mistake” similar to a fatal accident that occurred during tests of his company’s self-driving car.Related: The Killing in the Consulate by Jonathan Rugman review – a dark fable of unaccountable power Continue reading...

Social media platforms do have a role to play, but real change requires political parties to take responsibility

Apps and wearable devices are touted as a way to transform health. But are we too obsessed by the ‘quantified self’?Martin Lewis owns his obsessiveness about counting steps with something approaching pride.“I’ve never done less than 10,000 steps in any day for the last three years,” he says. “But to be honest, if I do just 10,000 steps, I’m never happy. My average is nearer 25,000. It’s an obsession.” Continue reading...

Manufacturers claim their products taste like the real thing, have huge ecological benefits and could soon be in our homesAfter the success of the Greggs vegan sausage roll and the juicy-yet-meatless Impossible Burger, the next new food sensation is coming to a plate near you: 3D-printed steaks and chicken thighs.Printed meat could be on European restaurant menus from next year as Israeli and Spanish firms serve up realistic beef and chicken produced from plant protein. And, within a few years, the printers are likely to be available to buy so that consumers can produce their own at home. Continue reading...

There’s something unsettling about a private firm making powerful autonomous machines – but what’s scarier is who’s building them, and whyEarlier this year, videos of a robot being kicked, hit with a chair, and shot at by its human owners spread online. Created by an LA-based production company, Corridor Digital, the videos were a parody of those released by Boston Dynamics, a company that has been making robots since 1992.Related: Steve McQueen's school sensation, R2-D2 and a hi-tech Leonardo – the week in art Continue reading...

Easy-to-access activities that help to reduce blood pressure, cholesterol and the risk of heart diseaseLast week, research published by the British Journal of Sports Medicine found that running can reduce the risk of early death regardless of how long or at what speed you run. The research focused on 14 previous studies based on six different groups of participants, totalling more than 230,000 people over a period of between 5.5 and 35 years. The authors reported that any amount of running, even just once a week, is better than no running at all. Continue reading...

Goldman Sachs faces official inquiry as IT figures including Steve Wozniak say they got 10 times or more the credit limit received by their wivesThe algorithm used to set credit limits for the new Apple Card will be the subject of an official investigation, following tweets from a tech entrepreneur blasting the company for gender discrimination.New York’s Department of Financial Services has initiated the probe into the credit card practices of Goldman Sachs, which provides the Apple Card. In a series of Twitter posts starting on Thursday, David Heinemeier Hansson railed against the Apple Card for giving him 20 times the credit limit that his wife got, Bloomberg reported on Saturday. Continue reading...

Images of queer and plus-sized bodies are not ‘sexually suggestive’ content. So why is Instagram blocking them?Vulnerable and marginalised communities on Instagram have been calling for a wider conversation to address what they say is the platform’s censoring of queer and plus-sized bodies.Related: Instagram tightens rules on diet and cosmetic surgery posts Continue reading...

Jet-propelled British vehicle tested in South Africa before attempt to beat 763mph in 2020Under the blistering Kalahari sun, a British-made machine that looks like a mash-up between a grand prix car, a fighter plane and a spaceship has broken the 500mph mark as it bids to break the land-speed record.There have been a few frights and hitches – including a fire scare – but the hope is that within the next few days Bloodhound LSR, which has been taking shape in a college workshop on the banks of the River Severn in Gloucestershire, will whizz through the desert at about 600mph. Continue reading...

The new app Lex was born out of Personals, a photo-free Instagram service that emulated traditional newspaper ads

As implants grow more common, experts fear surveillance and exploitation of workers. Advocates say the concerns are irrationalOn 1 August 2017, workers at Three Square Market, a Wisconsin-based company specializing in vending machines, lined up in the office cafeteria to be implanted with microchips. One after the other, they held out a hand to a local tattoo artist who pushed a rice-grain sized implant into the flesh between the thumb and forefinger. The 41 employees who opted into the procedure received complimentary t-shirts that read “I Got Chipped”.This wholesale implant event, organized by company management, dovetailed with Three Square Market’s longer-term vision of a cashless payment system for their vending machines – workplace snacks purchased with a flick of the wrist. And the televised “chipping party” proved to be a savvy marketing tactic, the story picked up by media outlets from Moscow to Sydney. Continue reading...

This year’s BlizzCon, a 35,000-strong event in California for fans of World of Warcraft, Overwatch and Hearthstone, was embroiled in a battle over free speech and ChinaEric did not imagine this would be how he would spend his first BlizzCon. The 26-year-old World of Warcraft (WoW) player from Glendale, California, was at the annual fan event in Anaheim held by Blizzard, the games company behind global hits such as Warcraft, Overwatch and more. Each year, more than 35,000 people pack into the city’s vast convention centre to play games, attend talks and share in their fandom.But at this year’s event, held last weekend, there was a different feel. Instead of WoW cosplay, Eric was sporting a mask as worn by Hong Kong protesters to shield their faces from tear gas and facial recognition. And rather than joining in with the hype during panels about the forthcoming World of Warcraft: Shadowlands expansion, he was outside the convention centre handing out “Liberate Hong Kong” flyers, adorned with the protestors’ adopted symbol, the Overwatch character Mei. Continue reading...

Like the big banks, big tech uses its lobbying muscle to avoid regulation, and thinks it should play by different rules. And like the banks, it could be about to wreak financial havoc on us all. By Rana Foroohar‘In every major economic downturn in US history, the ‘villains’ have been the ‘heroes’ during the preceding boom,” said the late, great management guru Peter Drucker. I cannot help but wonder if that might be the case over the next few years, as the United States (and possibly the world) heads toward its next big slowdown. Downturns historically come about once every decade, and it has been more than that since the 2008 financial crisis. Back then, banks were the “too-big-to-fail” institutions responsible for our falling stock portfolios, home prices and salaries. Technology companies, by contrast, have led the market upswing over the past decade. But this time around, it is the big tech firms that could play the spoiler role.You wouldn’t think it could be so when you look at the biggest and richest tech firms today. Take Apple. Warren Buffett says he wished he owned even more Apple stock. (His Berkshire Hathaway has a 5% stake in the company.) Goldman Sachs is launching a new credit card with the tech titan, which became the world’s first $1tn market-cap company in 2018. But hidden within these bullish headlines are a number of disturbing economic trends, of which Apple is already an exemplar. Study this one company and you begin to understand how big tech companies – the new too-big-to-fail institutions – could indeed sow the seeds of the next crisis. Continue reading...

Competition watchdog says fibre-to-node gives advertised download speed less often than other technologies

Social network says scrutiny that followed edited clip serves accountabilityFacebook would allow the Conservative party to promote its “doctored” video of Keir Starmer as a paid-for advert during the election campaign, the social network has confirmed. But the company has announced a policy aimed at cracking down on pages that conceal their ownership in order to mislead users.The executive Rebecca Stimson said the public debate that followed the airing of footage of the senior Labour MP in an ITV interview justified the company’s policy of allowing political misinformation on the site. Continue reading...

Reports say firms may act over concerns that practice risks damaging democratic normsGoogle and Facebook are both considering new rules banning the micro-targeting of political ads, according to reports.Critics of political advertising online have long worried that the ability to display specific messages to small sections of the electorate runs the risk of damaging democratic norms, by allowing candidates to present different platforms to different demographics. Continue reading...

The best pay-TV experience comes at significant cost, but at least you get what you pay forThree years on from launch, Sky’s Q pay-TV service has changed quite a lot, and so has the competition, both from old and new players. So is the satellite broadcaster’s box still the one to beat?When Q launched in 2016 it dragged Sky’s pay-TV platform kicking and screaming into the TV-anywhere age first ushered in by services such as Netflix. Continue reading...

Jim doesn’t need a high-end mobile, but would like something he can rely on at a decent priceMy Nokia Lumia 820 smartphone is approaching obsolescence after six years’ use. Apart from that, I used a second-hand iPhone for a week before it failed, but I have never used an Android phone. I am clearly not someone who places a premium on having the latest phone, but I would like something I can rely on. I don’t use phones for music on the go – I still use iPods – and I very rarely watch videos on them: I use my laptop for that. I have a sim-only contract and the idea of spending £700 or so on a phone doesn’t really apply to my wants, needs or financial reality. JimEvery Windows smartphone user should be thinking about this topic, because Microsoft will stop supporting the platform roughly a month from today, on 10 December 2019. Obviously, this won’t be as traumatic for as many people as the end of Windows 7 support on 14 January 2020, but it does mark the end of an era. And the end of an error. Continue reading...