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As Sheryl Sandberg mounts apology tour, company is under fire again over special privacy privileges not granted to regular users

AggregateIQ, which played a pivotal role in the Brexit campaign, suspended after reports it may have improperly obtained user data

Moved intended to stall spread of false information and ‘prevent future abuse in elections’Facebook is stepping up its efforts to fight fake news and political misinformation, with new controls intended to ensure authenticity and transparency among advertisers and publishers on the site.CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote in a post shortly after the moves were announced: “These steps by themselves won’t stop all people trying to game the system. But they will make it a lot harder for anyone to do what the Russians did during the 2016 election and use fake accounts and pages to run ads.” He also threw his company’s support behind the Honest Ads Act, a US Senate bill: “Election interference is a problem that’s bigger than any one platform ... This will help raise the bar for all political advertising online.” Continue reading...

Taping over the lens is just the first step in keeping online snoopers out of your businessHere is what the former FBI director James Comey said when he was asked back in September 2016 if he covered his laptop’s webcam with tape.“Heck yeah, heck yeah. Also, I get mocked for a lot of things, and I am much mocked for that, but I hope people lock their cars … lock your doors at night. I have an alarm system, if you have an alarm system you should use it, I use mine.” Continue reading...

This week’s edition of Upside looks at experimental projects that offer a peek into the futureNew technologies are often touted as the solutions to our problems, as well as decried as the cause of all manner of social ills. We are told that increasing automation of jobs will mean more of us spending less time working, with ever greater responsibility handed over to software, sensors and the cloud.This week we visited some experimental projects that could offer a glimpse of our future, to see how people are grappling with the possibilities and problems of technological innovation. Continue reading...

The game-makers behind studio Vague Pixels used to squeeze in coding after their homework. Now they’re hoping that their frenetic action game Alter Army takes offJaipur has a population of around three million people, but only one video game development studio – or so Vague Pixels claims. Founders Mridul Bansal and Mridul Pancholi are set to release their debut game, the frenetically paced action platformer Alter Army, at the end of the month. An early build of the game shows enormous potential – it’s a little rough-hewn, as you’d expect from an unfinished version, but it’s energetic, characterful and boasts an entertainingly hard challenge. What makes it more remarkable is that it’s been created in less than two years by 16-year-olds with no game design experience.In fact, as Bansal explains to me over a patchy Skype connection, the pair were barely 14 when they started working together. He had recently moved schools when he met Pancholi; they were classmates, but rarely spoke. “One day we heard each other talking about computers and game development, and we thought we should discuss it,” Bansal recalls. “I went to his house and we decided to start a project so we could polish our skills.” Continue reading...

The Facebook chief has carefully crafted his image of boy genius turned mature leader. Now he’s losing control

An OECD report suggests robots could soon take 66m jobs from humans. That isn’t as bad as previously expected. But who will be first to lose their jobs to machines?Subscribe and review: Acast, Apple, Spotify, Soundcloud, Audioboom, Mixcloud. Join the discussion on Facebook, Twitter or email us at podcasts@theguardian.comA new report from the OECD – the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development – looked at the extent to which jobs may soon be automated in 32 different countries, and found that 66 million people are at risk of losing their job to machines. That means 14% of jobs currently held by humans could soon be managed by robots. The level of risk varies from industry to industry and country to country, but in the UK about 10% of jobs are considered at high risk. Continue reading...

Company acknowledges revelations in CNBC report but says project was put on hold, with no data ‘shared or analyzed’Facebook was in discussions with major medical institutions about sharing user and patient data for a research project, the social media company admitted on Thursday, after revelations in a news report .The report, from CNBC, said the proposed plan included using a process to match data for individuals in both sets, which would be anonymized, to research how such information sharing could improve individual patient care. Continue reading...

Groups that have worked with Facebook to flag dangerous content reveal it took more than four days for it to respond when messages started circulatingA consortium of civil society, human rights and monitoring groups in Myanmar have criticised Mark Zuckerberg’s response to the spread of hate speech on the platform and accused the social media giant of failing to act quickly enough to curtail dangerous messages that incited violence inside the country.Earlier this week, Zuckerberg told Vox Facebook’s systems had detected a pair of chain letters spreading around Myanmar on Facebook Messenger last year. One warned of an imminent attack by Muslims on 11 September. Continue reading...

World’s eighth largest firm needs governance structure to provide better oversight than its founderThe most revealing answer given by Mark Zuckerberg on Wednesday was his shortest. Asked if Facebook’s board had discussed whether he should step down as chairman, a move that would still leave him as chief executive, he replied: “Not that I’m aware of.”It’s probably safe to assume Zuckerberg would have known about any such discussions among his fellow directors, so take his answer to mean: no, Facebook’s board has heard the calls for the appointment of an independent chair, from New York City’s pension fund for example, and decided to ignore them. Continue reading...

CEO to appear before Senate judiciary and commerce committees in addition to House, amid investigation of Cambridge Analytica claimsMark Zuckerberg has agreed to testify before a joint hearing of two Senate committees, in addition to his appearance before a House committee next week.The Facebook CEO will appear before the Senate judiciary and commerce committees on Tuesday, and then the House energy and commerce committee on Wednesday. Continue reading...

Information commissioner is investigating use of personal information in political campaignsThe UK Information Commissioner’s Office is investigating 30 organisations, including Facebook, as part of its inquiry into the use of personal data and analytics for political purposes.The information commissioner, Elizabeth Denham, said: “As part of my investigation into the use of personal data and analytics by political campaigns, parties, social media companies and other commercial actors, the ICO is investigating 30 organisations, including Facebook. Continue reading...

Number of accounts removed in second half of 2017 represents a drop for second period in a rowTwitter removed more than 270,000 accounts around the world for promoting terrorism in the second half of 2017, according to the company’s latest transparency report.

Mobile adventure game Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery, which will allow players to become students at the wizarding school, will be launched on 25 AprilHarry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery, the much-anticipated mobile adventure game that will allow players to become a student at the wizarding school, will be launched on 25 April, developer Jam City has announced.The game, which was revealed on the Pottermore site last autumn, will also feature six actors reprising their roles from the Harry Potter movies, including Michael Gambon as Professor Dumbledore, Dame Maggie Smith as Professor McGonagall and Warwick Davis as Professor Flitwick. Continue reading...

Thomas wants to avoid Windows 10’s update problems on small laptops with only 32GB of storage. He’s asking about installing Windows 7 instead, but there are better optionsIs it possible to install Windows 7 on an Asus notebook with 32GB of storage? I don’t need the complexities of Windows 10 and its updating problems. I just need a light machine for travelling that gives me access to email and a word processor. ThomasAs a rule of thumb, you should never try to install an old operating system on new hardware, unless it has been tested to run it. Microsoft released Windows 7 in 2009, almost nine years ago. The hardware in Windows machines has changed since then, and you may not be able to find the drivers needed to make your Asus work with Windows 7. Continue reading...

The Facebook founder has said in a conference call to reporters that his company 'didn't do enough' to prevent companies like Cambridge Analytica from abusing tools on the platform. Zuckerberg said he accepted this was his 'mistake' and that the company should have done more

Academics around the world voice ‘huge concern’ over KAIST’s collaboration with defence company on autonomous weaponsArtificial intelligence researchers from nearly 30 countries are boycotting a South Korean university over concerns a new lab in partnership with a leading defence company could lead to “killer robots”.

Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology demonstrates a robot designed for rescue missions or helping people with disabilities. The institute is facing a boycott from artificial intelligence researchers from nearly 30 countries over concerns that a new lab that has partnered with a leading defence company could lead to 'killer robots' Continue reading...

EA’s head of development addresses last year’s Battlefront II controversy and going from a three-person team to making multimillion-dollar gamesIn 2017, there were 7,672 games released on Steam, the world’s most popular video game service. That’s 21 games every single day. (For context, in 2013 that number was 565.) As of January 2018, if you filter out the dross, the average Steam game sells about 1,000 copies, according to independent data-crunching by publisher No More Robots. This is the dispiriting reality that independent game developers are working with: at this month’s Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, there were queues up and down the hallway for a talk entitled “Making indie games that sell”.Patrick Söderlund is the executive vice-president of one of the biggest game publishers in the world, EA – a company far removed from these problems, making multimillion-dollar games with studios that employ hundreds of people. Twenty years ago, though, he was part of a three-person team working out of an apartment in Sweden, making the original Battlefield games that have since become one of EA’s largest money-makers. It’s partly this experience that has led him to believe that big publishers such as EA should help independent games get made. Continue reading...

Facebook suspects 300,000 Australians had data shared with Cambridge AnalyticaAustralia’s privacy commissioner has launched an investigation to determine whether Facebook breached the Australian privacy act. The investigation was announced after the US social media giant revealed up to one in 50 local users may have had their personal information accessed by Cambridge Analytica.Facebook has admitted 311,127 Australian users are likely among the up to 87 million users worldwide whose data was unknowingly and “improperly” shared with the British political consultancy agency. Continue reading...

Shooting suspect appears to be a frustrated YouTuber who claimed the site censored her views through its ‘monetization’ policiesThe apparent motive in Tuesday’s shooting at YouTube’s headquarters is shining a light on the video-sharing platform’s complicated relationship with its most dedicated users – so-called “creators” who earn a share of the advertising revenue for their videos.Nasim Najafi Aghdam travelled to the company’s Silicon Valley campus and opened fire, shooting three people before killing herself, because she was “upset with the policies and practices of YouTube,” police said Wednesday. Continue reading...

The app helped revolutionise the community’s approach to HIV. Sharing that data undoes all its good workGay men have always needed safe spaces, somewhere they could congregate without fear of stigma and judgment or, even more essentially, persecution and violence. Over the past several decades, those spaces were more often than not gay bars and clubs, where gay men flocked to be themselves in a way that wasn’t always possible in “polite society”. The fact that there were also scores of men at those establishments looking for casual encounters wasn’t just a bonus, it was often the entire point.Related: Grindr shared information about users' HIV status with third parties Continue reading...

The role-playing adventure books sold 20m copies in the 80s, before being eclipsed by video games. Now they’re back with a new story by Charlie Higson, can they captivate the web generation?Ian Livingstone calls it the “five-fingered bookmark”: that grip known to children of the 80s and 90s. You’d insert a finger into various sections of your Fighting Fantasy adventure game book in order to be able to return if, say, your choice to drink the “sparkling red liquid” and turn to section 98 turned out to be a bad one, or if attacking the Mirror Demon “from another dimensional plane” proved fatal.“You used to see it on public transport everywhere,” says Livingstone, who with Steve Jackson dreamed up Fighting Fantasy back in the early 80s. “It’s like peeking around the corner. You can’t call it cheating – it’s taking a sneak peek.” Continue reading...

Nasim Najafi Aghdam injured three people at San Francisco office before killing herselfPolice in California have named a woman who opened fire at YouTube’s headquarters in a suburb of San Francisco, injuring three, before killing herself.Officials from the San Bruno police department identified her as Nasim Najafi Aghdam, who was in her late 30s. Continue reading...

Firm working on version of EU data protection law but Mark Zuckerberg stops short of confirming all changes will apply to US usersFacebook is rolling out stronger privacy protections to users ahead of the introduction of Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), but Mark Zuckerberg will not promise all future changes will apply to the company’s American users.Although the initial tranche of changes, announced last week, will be available worldwide, Zuckerberg refused to commit to GDPR becoming the standard for the social network across the world. Continue reading...

We are conditioned to view data as a threat, but it can be the opposite, if all parties understand the deal into which they are entering“Raise your hands if you trust Facebook, if you trust Google, if you trust government.” It was spring 2017, and I was leading a debate with young people in Canberra. “Has anybody heard of Cambridge Analytica?” Heads shook.I explained behavioural communication. How Cambridge Analytica built “psychographics” from Facebook data to measure personality and motivation – what you choose and why you choose it – with the intention of influencing how people vote. The room fell silent, people looked alarmed. Continue reading...

Morrow, who has overseen rollout of national broadband network, says role has been ‘sometimes frustrating’The NBN chief executive, Bill Morrow, will quit his role by the end of the year, ending four years heading the rollout of the national broadband network during which he oversaw a massive change of direction in the nation’s largest infrastructure project.

Company says the Internet Research Agency, which is among those charged by a US grand jury with conspiracy to defraud, has abused the platformFacebook has removed 135 accounts which it believes are linked to the Russia-based Internet Research Agency (IRA), an organisation accused of spreading divisive messages across the internet, supporting the Russian government and attempting to weaken its rivals.The social media giant said the IRA - among those charged by a US grand jury with conspiracy to defraud the United States - has no place on Facebook after abusing the service. Continue reading...

A shooting at YouTube's headquarters in San Bruno, California, left at least three injured and the female suspect, Nasim Najafi Aghdam, dead in an apparent suicide. The San Bruno chief of police, Ed Barberini, confirmed the shooter died at the scene and that several people were taken to hospital, three with gunshot wounds

Police say they have no details about motive in attack at company’s California headquarters as victims are treated at nearby hospital• YouTube shooting: police identify woman who opened fire at HQA shooting at YouTube’s California headquarters left at least three people wounded and a female suspect dead of an apparent suicide, police said Tuesday.

Music app copies Silicon Valley’s obsession with control through unequal voting rightsSpotify’s arrival on the New York Stock Exchange is revolutionary only in one way. The music streaming service refused the usual public offering of stock and chose a “direct listing”, in which the price of the shares is set by buyers and sellers in the market without the help of investment bankers’ expensive underwriting and “stabilisation” services. Smart move: Spotify will have saved itself a few tens of millions of dollars in fees.But, in another respect, Spotify has become a public company in a depressingly familiar fashion. Its founders are wedded to keeping vice-like control via a share structure with unequal voting rights. For unequal, read unfair: Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzen own 38.9% of the ordinary shares but they have created “beneficiary certificates” with super-charged voting rights that only they can own. Include those holdings and Ek and Lorentzen have 80.4% of the votes. Continue reading...

Xbox One, PC; Rare/Microsoft

Music streaming firm has 157m customers and could be valued at $25bn in its New York IPOSpotify is poised to make its stock market debut on Tuesday, in a flotation on the New York Stock Exchange that could value the company at $20bn-$25bn (£14.2bn to £17.8bn) according to analysts.The music streaming business was launched 12 years ago as a free-to-use service, funded by advertising. Spotify now has 157 million customers, and has managed to convert 71 million of those into paying users of its premium subscription service. Continue reading...

Intel shares fall 6% after Apple said to be planning to design chips for computers in-houseApple is reportedly planning to drop Intel chips from its Mac computers as early as 2020, replacing them with processors designed in-house in the same way the company manufactures iPhones and iPads.The plan, reported by Bloomberg, has been rumoured for several years, as Apple has taken on more chip design for devices. The company’s A-series of processors, currently capped by the A11 Bionic chips used in the iPhones 8, 8 Plus and X, are all designed by the company for specific purposes, and based on an architecture licensed from British firm ARM. Continue reading...

Company said sharing data with partners to test and optimise its platform was ‘industry practice’Gay dating app Grindr has come under fire for sharing information about users’ HIV status or locations with two companies enlisted to optimise its software.Norwegian nonprofit research group Sintef uncovered Grindr’s data sharing with two companies – Apptimize and Localytics – and concern spread in the US after BuzzFeed reported the findings. Continue reading...

With new signs set to warn of hedgehogs crossing surely it’s time motorists were given prior notice of lots of other distressing phenomena? Here are a few suggestionsSigns warning motorists to watch out for hedgehogs are to appear on UK roads to reverse plummeting numbers – down from 30m in the 1950s to under 1m today. But here are a few other signs we’d like to see: Continue reading...

Music streaming service’s NYSE flotation comes amid fierce competition in the sector and high volatilitySpotify is poised to press the play button on a stock market float that will test investors’ faith in its future prospects, amid mixed fortunes for fast-growing technology companies.Analysts said the performance of the music streaming service’s shares on its first day of trading on Tuesday would gauge market opinion on whether it can stave off fierce competition for music fans’ wallets and eventually make a profit. Continue reading...

The director has received positive reviews for his first sci-fi movie in over a decade. But do you find his digital wonderland convincing or overly corporate?

British commissioner wants more transparency and limits on harvesting data for political endsA senior EU official has called for action against internet companies that harvest personal data, as Brussels prepares to move against those spreading “fake news” following the Cambridge Analytica revelations.Sir Julian King, the European commissioner for security, wants “a clear game plan” on how social media companies are allowed to operate during political campaigns to be ready for the 2019 European elections.

Tech companies are finding innovative and lucrative ways to clean the air in our homes, while sales of purifying plants are bloomingFirst it was clean eating; now it’s clean breathing. Sales of air purifiers are soaring, with the global market expected to be worth £6.2bn by 2024.The trend is in response to the rise in asthma and allergies linked to poor air quality inside buildings. Research says it can be up to five times more polluted than air outside, with chemicals from cleaning products, aerosols and perfume rivalling diesel fumes as causes of contamination. Continue reading...

Part April Fool, part radical design solution… The Pop.Up.Next drone and car transporter sounds too good to be truePop.Up.Next drone and car transporter

The data-mining scandal offers a unique chance to reclaim our private information and use it in a way that will benefit us allThe continuing collapse of public trust in Facebook is welcome news to those of us who have been warning about the perils of “data extractivism” for years.It’s reassuring to have final, definitive proof that beneath Facebook’s highfalutin rhetoric of “building a global community that works for all of us” lies a cynical, aggressive project – of building a global data vacuum cleaner that sucks from all of us. Like others in this industry, Facebook makes money by drilling deep into our data selves – pokes and likes is simply how our data comes to the surface – much like energy firms drill deep into the oil wells: profits first, social and individual consequences later. Continue reading...

After the Cambridge Analytica data-breach row many users are looking to switch their social media accounts. What sites and apps could prove an option?For too many people considering leaping aboard the #DeleteFacebook bandwagon, the answer is simple: switch your photo and video sharing to Instagram and your messaging to WhatsApp. But what many do not realise is that both of those apps are owned by Facebook – since September 2012 and October 2014 respectively.It is a mark of the company’s dominance of the social media landscape – Facebook has 2.13 billion monthly active users, WhatsApp 1.5 billion and Instagram 800 million – that finding a single alternative is difficult. Continue reading...

Emil Michael was hired by SoftBank as it invested in Uber following crisis over sexual harassment allegationsA controversial former Uber boss, who was one of the ride-hailing service’s most senior executives when it was engulfed in crisis last year, was paid $4m (£2.8m) in consultancy fees by the venture capital firm brought in to revive the company’s fortunes.Emil Michael received the payment for advice given to the technology investor SoftBank as it acquired a 17.5% stake in Uber at the turn of the year. Continue reading...

After revelation of controversial memo by senior executive, leaked posts show staff decrying disloyalty at companyFacebook employees are calling for a crackdown on suspected leakers and questioning whether “spies” have infiltrated the corporation, according to leaked internal posts that suggest the social media giant’s workforce is becoming defensive in the face of critical public scrutiny.The posts were a response to the leak of a memo by a senior Facebook executive who defended the social network’s negative effects on society. Continue reading...