Technology | The Guardian

Information commissioner shuts down Amazing Rentals website in wake of leak of tens of thousands of personal recordsA rental appliance company has suffered a massive data breach that has leaked tens of thousands of Australian private customers’ records online, including identification documents, Centrelink records and financial information.The leak has prompted consumer advocates to call for urgency in a planned crackdown on rogue appliance rental companies as the information commissioner took action to shut the website down. Continue reading...

The US president’s favorite social media platform has increased the allowable character limit from 140 to 280 after research found frustration among usersTwitter has doubled the character limit on tweets to allow its users to convey more meaning or emotion – or, in the case of Donald Trump, more elaborate war threats to North Korea.“This is a small change, but a big move for us. 140 was an arbitrary choice based on the 160-character SMS limit,” said chief executive Jack Dorsey, announcing the update on Tuesday. Continue reading...

Social media and screen time have a relentless impact on their students, says Shannon TurnerOne of the best actions to protect young people’s mental health (Editorial, 22 September) is to ban mobile phones in schools. Progressive schools have already done so, recognising the relentless impact that social media and screen time have on the emotional and mental health of their students. Their position is that it gives children six hours of screen-free, and social media-free time, which is desperately needed in an over-saturated digital world. The reason why this is not much more widespread is because such devices help schools control their students. As we have all known since the age of television, electronic devices make great babysitters. 2,000 pupils staring at their phones in lunch breaks are much easier to control than 2,000 who are not. But schools need to wake up to the impact they are having on children, and if not, it needs to be taken up by the Department for Education as a crisis in our schools.

From mystery boxes to smashing tanks, here are the epic multiplayer games and offbeat indie titles that held our attentionThe UK’s biggest video game event, EGX, took place this weekend, attracting around 75,000 people to the Birmingham NEC. As ever, the show floor saw both blockbuster mega-hits and offbeat independent titles jostling for space and attention, providing a varied and enjoyable browsing experience.Here are our favourite titles, excluding the games we’ve already highlighted from this year’s E3 and Gamescom shows. If you went along, add your own highlights in the comments section. Continue reading...

Company rejects complaints that US president’s tweet was in violation of its terms of service

In an effort uniting such disparate figures as Steve Bannon and Elizabeth Warren, leaders are calling for a clampdown on what some see as unchecked powerAs political polarization continues to plague Washington, a rare consensus is emerging between the left and the right that America’s largest technology companies must be subject to greater scrutiny.US lawmakers are escalating their rhetoric against Silicon Valley, an industry that has long trafficked in its reputation as a leading source of innovation but is now under fire for what critics see as vast, unchecked power. Continue reading...

Cyclists don’t just want the fastest route they want the safest or quietest – and information on bike parking would be a bonusWe all have different ways to navigate when lost – whether asking a stranger for help, consulting an old-school map or simply following our nose.But on a bike, the stakes are higher. One wrong turn and you’re in gridlocked traffic, with two lanes between your bike and the nearest pavement. In this moment, cyclists can be divided into two types: the few who stay calm and embrace getting lost, and the rest of us, who turn to a navigation app. Continue reading...

The dating app knows me better than I do, but these reams of intimate information are just the tip of the iceberg. What if my data is hacked – or sold?At 9.24pm (and one second) on the night of Wednesday 18 December 2013, from the second arrondissement of Paris, I wrote “Hello!” to my first ever Tinder match. Since that day I’ve fired up the app 920 times and matched with 870 different people. I recall a few of them very well: the ones who either became lovers, friends or terrible first dates. I’ve forgotten all the others. But Tinder has not.The dating app has 800 pages of information on me, and probably on you too if you are also one of its 50 million users. In March I asked Tinder to grant me access to my personal data. Every European citizen is allowed to do so under EU data protection law, yet very few actually do, according to Tinder. Continue reading...

Shares in Imagination Technologies climb 40% after sale to private equity firm Canyon BridgeShares in Imagination Technologies have jumped more than 40% after the UK chipmaker announced a takeover by a China-backed private equity firm that was blocked by Donald Trump from buying a US rival over national security concerns.Imagination has agreed to a 182p-a-share takeover by Canyon Bridge, which is based in Palo Alto in California and backed by state-owned Chinese fund Yitai Capital. The deal values the Hertfordshire-based company at £550m; at its peak in 2012, Imagination had a stock market value of nearly £2bn. Continue reading...

The ride-hailing service has offered a vague ‘apology’ now its London licence is under threat, but it has failed to address the issuesDara Khosrowshahi became chief executive of Uber because his predecessor, Travis Kalanick, had become a liability. Uber’s private equity backers knew there was little hope of getting the taxi service firm’s shares listed on a stock market while Kalanick was at the helm, annoying regulators and inflaming every dispute that crossed his desk. Khosrowshahi, fresh out of Expedia, would be the antidote to the co-founder’s aggression.It should be no surprise, then, that the new man has adopted a gentler tone in response to Transport for London’s decision last week not to renew Uber’s licence. “On behalf of everyone at Uber globally,” declared Khosrowshahi on Monday, “I apologise for the mistakes we’ve made.” Continue reading...

Exclusive: hackers may have accessed usernames, passwords and personal details of top accountancy firm’s blue-chip clientsOne of the world’s “big four” accountancy firms has been targeted by a sophisticated hack that compromised the confidential emails and plans of some of its blue-chip clients, the Guardian can reveal.Deloitte, which is registered in London and has its global headquarters in New York, was the victim of a cybersecurity attack that went unnoticed for months. Continue reading...

Apple’s ‘most durable glass ever in a smartphone’ claim likely to be put to the test with first iPhone 8 accidents, but repairs won’t be cheap, reports sayThe iPhone 8 and 8 Plus have glass backs that, if smashed, cost more to replace than the screen.

Tech is all-powerful and all-pervasive. The gaming industry reflects (and lampoons) this better than any other medium, and politicians should take noteDigital technologies have transformed everyday life. They’ve profoundly altered how we interact, express ourselves and frame our identities – and that’s just for starters. While in many cases these changes have been for the better, in others, Silicon Valley’s sleek aesthetics and fancy buzzwords have turned out to mask new forms of profiteering, surveillance and control. If we want digital technologies to be a force for good, it’s crucial to understand what’s at stake – not least for regulators, politicians and policymakers. Fortunately, we already have a fictional form that can help us do just that: the humble videogame.Related: Don’t lock up young offenders – send them to top boarding schools instead | Afua Hirsch Continue reading...

Facebook founder and rumoured aspirant presidential candidate traveled to Philly for ‘the best cheesesteak in the land’ – and posted about it eight timesMark Zuckerberg wants you to know he is a normal human being who loves cheesesteak cheesesteak cheesesteak cheesesteak cheesesteak cheesesteak cheesesteak cheesesteak.He wants you to know he loves cheesesteak so much so that he posted a picture of his visit to The Original Pat’s King of Steaks, with the caption “Traveled all the way to Philadelphia for the best cheesesteak in the land.”

The place to talk about games and other things that matterIt’s Monday. Continue reading...

The hyper-accelerated tag team brawling series returns with a beginner-friendly riot of mega combos – but the first casualty is nuanceOver the course of two decades, the Marvel vs Capcom franchise has mutated into a sprawling crazy quilt of exuberant brawling. Look for a unifying theme and it seems to be loopy excess, with overflowing character rosters, screen-filling hyper combos and a fondness for mob-handed tag-team battles. “Gonna take you for a ride!” declared Marvel vs Capcom 2’s jazzy selection screen ear-worm, and if the shield-chucking, hellfire-hosing action could occasionally be chaotic to the point of confusion, it was certainly never dull.Six years on from Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom (a buffed-up version of the third instalment that boosted its warrior headcount to an impressive 48) and here comes a new challenger. In Marvel Vs Capcom Infinite, the conflict implied in the title has become inextricable. A diabolical team-up by Marvel’s tetchy AI zealot Ultron and Mega Man’s lantern-jawed nemesis Sigma has forcibly fused the two corporate universes together, creating an uncanny hybrid dimension. Continue reading...

A cutting-edge VR workout, a platformer with hidden depths and an old favourite spruced up for the present dayPSVR, CCP Games, cert: 3

In the same way we wouldn’t expect a woman to prevent street harassment by never leaving her house, in her new book, Quinn argues we cannot advise people to prevent online threats by just staying offlineWhen I speak to Zoe Quinn, she’s worried.The game developer is in Los Angeles for the west coast leg of her book tour, but she’s just had a serious threat made against her, directed at her next tour stop. She has to decide what to do. This comes on the heels of an appearance at New York’s historic bookstore the Strand, where Quinn gamely handled a man who jeered at her from the audience. Continue reading...

Pioneers of virtual reality are enabling us to experience everything from childbirth to sexism. But for the ‘hyperempathetic’ there’s nothing you can teach us about each other’s feelingsThis weekend an art show in support of End Violence Against Women (EVAW), a charity dedicated to doing what it says on the tin, is providing a virtual reality (VR) experience: stepping into the shoes of women experiencing sexism and street harassment. The idea is to “give men and women a visceral understanding of what it is really like to be attacked in the street or on public transport just because you are a woman”. Having only used VR once, but being suitably psyched by the intensity that I was left squealing like a child, I’m imagining it’s going to be pretty powerful. But the really interesting thing about EVAW’s VR, in my opinion, is that it feels emblematic of the millennial generation.I wholeheartedly refute the “special snowflake” label – daubed on us by miserable, greying baby boomers and sometimes, ironically, the alt-right. But I do believe certain sections of our generation, myself included, are hyperempathetic. We want everyone to acknowledge other people’s different struggles and work on ways to make their lives easier. And in some ways, I do wonder if VR of this kind is almost unnecessary for some of my peers, given how empathetic they are already? Continue reading...

Strong support for ride-sharing firm whose boss vows to show it is a ‘great company meaningfully contributing to society’More than half a million people have signed a petition calling for Transport for London to reverse its decision to strip Uber of its licence to operate in the capital, making it the fastest growing petition in the UK this year.The campaign Save Your Uber in London was set up by the ride-sharing firm on the Change.org website after it was announced on Friday that it would not have its licence renewed when it expires on 30 September. Continue reading...

Apple’s star might be shining a little less brightly with the iPhone 8, which is overshadowed by impending release of the £999 iPhone XAs the iPhone 8 goes on sale, questions remain over the demand for Apple’s latest offering following smaller crowds outside stores and a muted customer reaction.The iPhone 8 and 8 Plus, two of the three new iPhones in Apple’s 2017 lineup, went on sale around the world, starting in Australia where hundreds of people have usually gathered outside Apple’s Sydney city store for previous launches. But instead of queues winding down the street there were fewer than 30 people lining up before the store opened on Friday. Continue reading...

As a driver, I enjoyed the early years. Then the company slashed fares in an attempt to crush its rivals, forcing us all to work longer hours for less payI’ve been an Uber driver for five years, so you’d expect me to be furious that Transport for London wants to stop the company operating in the capital. Not a bit of it.I could not be happier with TFL’s ruling that Uber is not a “fit and proper” private car hire operator. Continue reading...

Mayor Sadiq Khan has surprised Londoners and infuriated Uber drivers. What does this mean for you?The London mayor’s transport authority has surprised Uber and its 40,000 drivers by refusing to renew the ride-hailing company’s operating licence. We answer your questions about the decision.Why has Uber lost its licence in London? Continue reading...

The ride-hailing firm was stripped of its London licence on Friday after it was deemed the company was not a 'fit and proper' private car hire operator. The London mayor Sadiq Khan says he fully supports the decision to revoke Uber’s licence, but there was mixed reaction on the streets

The travel service faces a string of concerns about its practices that will be aired during a long appealThe end is far from nigh for Uber, but Transport for London’s decision not to renew its licence is another wounding blow. Even after the controversies that the ride-hailing app has faced worldwide and the concerted opposition of unions, employment-rights lawyers and black-cab drivers, few expected TfL’s verdict that Uber is not a “fit and proper” firm to run taxis in the capital.

Ride-hailing app has been told it is not ‘fit and proper’ to hold a licence in the capital. We asked for your views on thisUber has had its application for a new licence in London rejected. The decision was made on the basis that the company was considered not a “fit and proper” private car hire operator.Related: Uber stripped of London licence due to lack of corporate responsibility Continue reading...

Drivers worry about how they will feed their families and service thousands of pounds of debt racked up to buy carsThousands of families are facing financial disaster after Transport for London made the shock announcement the company’s minicab operating licence will end in just over a week, unless it appeals.A few voiced satisfaction that a company which they claim had flooded the market with cheap labour, driving earnings below the level of the national minimum wage, could be forced out of the capital. But most were anxious about how they would feed their families and service thousands of pounds of debt racked up to buy cars. Continue reading...

Transport for London has decided to strip Uber of its London licence. Whether you’re a driver or a regular user of the app, we’d like to hear from you

To celebrate the 25th birthday of the Championship Manager games, we asked for your greatest accomplishments in the virtual dugout. You excelled yourselves Continue reading...

Yuval Noah Harari responds to an account of the artificial intelligence era and argues we are profoundly ill-prepared to deal with future technologyArtificial intelligence will probably be the most important agent of change in the 21st century. It will transform our economy, our culture, our politics and even our own bodies and minds in ways most people can hardly imagine. If you hear a scenario about the world in 2050 and it sounds like science fiction, it is probably wrong; but if you hear a scenario about the world in 2050 and it does not sound like science fiction, it is certainly wrong.Technology is never deterministic: it can be used to create very different kinds of society. In the 20th century, trains, electricity and radio were used to fashion Nazi and communist dictatorships, but also to foster liberal democracies and free markets. In the 21st century, AI will open up an even wider spectrum of possibilities. Deciding which of these to realise may well be the most important choice humankind will have to make in the coming decades. Continue reading...

The place to talk about games and other things that matterIt’s Friday. Continue reading...

The vehicles could build a ‘gold mine’ of personal data for private companies, and a profile of users, Queensland law expert saysDriverless vehicles could build a “gold mine” of personal data for private companies and would make it easier for them to target people as consumers, an Australian law professor has warned.Des Butler, of the Queensland University of Technology, said the privacy risks involved in driverless vehicles were a “sleeper issue” that regulators were yet to fully consider, even though car manufacturers say the technology could be on roads in Australia by 2020.

Facebook’s systems didn’t fail when they let Russians target American voters with divisive political messages. They workedMark Zuckerberg marked his return from paternity leave Thursday with a concerted effort to put lipstick on the pig of Facebook’s role in swaying the 2016 presidential election. In a Facebook live address from an earth-toned, glass-walled office, the chief executive laid out a series of steps the company will take to “protect election integrity and make sure that Facebook is a force for good in democracy”.Related: Facebook to give Congress thousands of ads bought by Russians during election Continue reading...

Mark Zuckerberg says providing ads will ‘help government authorities complete the vitally important work of assessing what happened’ in the electionFacebook will provide to Congress the contents of 3,000 advertisements purchased by Russians during the 2016 US presidential race, Mark Zuckerberg announced on Thursday following weeks of scrutiny surrounding the social network’s potential role in influencing elections.The CEO said in a Facebook live video that the company would provide the controversial ads to government officials to support ongoing investigations in the US and as part of the social media company’s renewed efforts to protect the “integrity” of elections around the world. Continue reading...

Paul gave up his broadband contract when he went travelling. Having survived using mobile, he wonders if he could do without a landline altogetherWhen we went travelling, we gave up our Virgin contract for an internet and TV package. We have been using Three’s “Feel at home” for mobile phone internet access on data roaming quite successfully. Now, going home, I am wondering about signing up for Three’s 40GB HomeFi. It has to cover our home internet needs – two computers, two mobile phones – in central Edinburgh. I’m not bothered about internet TV because we can get a new DVD player/Freeview HD recorder. Would this be feasible? PaulThe general answer is no. Today, most people are better off paying for a wired internet connection. The specific answer is: it depends.

Quick switch simply disconnects phone from access points and devices rather than turning off the radios, in move criticised by security researchersThe new, redesigned Control Centre in iOS 11, which appears to allow users to toggle various settings such as turning wifi and Bluetooth off, doesn’t actually turn them completely off.Control Centre has a plethora of quick toggles, designed to allow users to quickly change a few key settings including activating the flashlight, turning off screen rotation and controlling the display’s brightness. Continue reading...

I was once a sharp shooter but I’m being outgunned by younger competitors. If this was the real military, I’d be honourably dischargedThere comes a point in every athlete’s career when they realise they are what commentators often euphemistically refer to as “off the pace”. They’re not winning those 50/50 balls anymore, they’re not as fast, they’re getting injured more often and it’s taking longer to recover. The same thing happens in competitive video games, and I think it’s pretty much happened to me.Earlier this month, games publisher Activision ran two closed beta tests for Call of Duty: WWII, the latest title in the blisteringly fast online multiplayer shooter series. Betas are early previews in which a selection of people are invited to play the game online while the developers study the data to make sure the servers work and that nothing gets in the way of the shooting. Continue reading...

Chief operating officer announces policy change after social network allowed advertisers to seek out ‘Jew haters’, saying company ‘never intended’ such usageFacebook is tightening controls on its advertising targeting tools, chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg announced in a statement acknowledging that the ability for advertisers to target “Jew haters” until last week was “totally inappropriate and a fail on our part”.The policy change follows an embarrassing report by ProPublica on Thursday that the company’s ad-buying system allowed advertisers to target users interested in antisemitic subjects. Subsequent reporting found additional bigoted terms in Facebook’s system that could be used to target advertisements. Continue reading...

At a Global Citizen event in New York, The Napster founder and early president of Facebook says it took the election of Donald Trump to alert people of the need to take their activism offline to be heardSean Parker is one of the biggest names associated with the earliest days of social media, but the tech billionaire on Tuesday urged those interested in activism – especially against the Trump administration – to go offline if they wanted to make their voices heard.Related: How social media saved socialism Continue reading...

Admission comes as British PM and French president propose fining firms that move too slowly to remove extremist contentFacebook has conceded that technology companies could do more to counter online extremism after Theresa May and the French president, Emmanuel Macron, proposed fining firms that move too slowly to remove extremist content being shared by terrorist groups.The social media giant told a meeting between political leaders and its own executives as well as others from Google and Microsoft at the United Nations general assembly in New York that it is now employing thousands of content reviewers around the globe and a staff of 150 people dedicated to countering terrorism on its platform in an attempt to remove more extremist content. Continue reading...

Taiwanese smartphone and VR headset maker could become in-house manufacturer for Google-branded productsThe Taiwanese smartphone and virtual reality headset manufacturer HTC will halt shares from Thursday, pending the “release of material information” following media reports of a purchase by Google’s parent, Alphabet.The once-powerful smartphone market player, which started life as a manufacturer of other brands’ handsets and now makes the Vive VR headset, has seen sales fall year on year for the best part of half a decade as competition from Chinese and South Korean rivals increased. Continue reading...

Unlike Google Glass and Snapchat’s Spectacles, the glasses reportedly won’t feature a camera, instead focusing on linking to Amazon’s voice assistantAmazon is planning to release a pair of Alexa-enabled smartglasses as the latest addition to its range of voice-controlled devices, according to reports.Unlike most previous smartglasses, such as the ill-fated Google Glass experiment and Snapchat’s Spectacles, the Amazon glasses won’t feature a camera in any form, bypassing the privacy concerns that have plagued the form-factor in the past. Continue reading...

As hundreds of thousands flee a brutal campaign by the Myanmar military, the social media company labels an insurgent group a ‘dangerous organization’Amid international accusations that Myanmar’s military is engaging in “ethnic cleansing” of the Rohingya Muslim minority, Facebook designated a Rohingya insurgent group a “dangerous organization” and ordered moderators to delete any content “by or praising” it.

The place to talk about games and other things that matterIt’s Wednesday. Continue reading...

Companies including Google have lobbied against bill that would hold websites liable for publishing information ‘designed to facilitate sex trafficking’A bill to combat sex trafficking that has pitted US lawmakers against Silicon Valley was at the center of debate on Tuesday, as one Republican senator decried the selling of human beings online as “one of the dark sides of the internet”.

In a region where companies like Uber and Airbnb have cashed in on unauthorized cabs and boarding houses, vendors trying to make a living selling food without a license face police crackdownsFrom their spot on the sidewalk outside San Francisco’s Dolores Park, Miguel Muniz and Juan Anguiano could see children running around the playground and hundreds of hipsters lounging on a grassy hillside amid games of beer pong and men hawking loose joints in mason jars.But the pair of palateros, or ice cream vendors, were hesitant to go to the place near the jungle gym where they would have the best shot at selling $2 ice cream bars. Park rangers would confiscate their carts and give them tickets, they said, if they ventured inside the park’s perimeter. Continue reading...

Royal Society of Arts survey suggests technology could phase out mundane roles, raise productivity and bolster wagesFour million jobs in the British private sector could be replaced by robots in the next decade, according to business leaders asked about the future of automation and artificial intelligence.

Maligned Atlanta-based agency finally goes public on earlier data breach, which happened in March, following reports company only notified payroll customersEquifax, the credit monitoring agency that lost personal data of 143 million US customers in a massive hack in May, has revealed that it was also the victim of an earlier breach in March.The earlier breach was serious enough for the company to notify customers, and bring in the information security firm Mandiant to investigate. But the millions of Americans whose personal data the company stockpiles to power its services are not technically customers of the company, and so it did not inform them. Continue reading...

New version of Apple’s smartphone and tablet software includes customisation and multitasking additions, and will be available for download todayApple’s iOS 11 will be available to download on iPhones and iPads everywhere from today, adding various new features including the ability to customise Control Centre for the first time.