Technology | The Guardian

Insurer withdraws initiative with hours to go as privacy campaigners criticise ‘intrusive’ attempt to analyse users’ dataAdmiral has been forced to pull a new initiative that used Facebook to analyse the personalities of car owners and set the price of their insurance after the social media site blocked it.Admiral was due to launch firstcarquote officially on Wednesday but delayed it with just two hours to go. Continue reading...

Instead of pressuring women in the tech industry to solve sexism, this feminist activist is teaching men how to stop biased behaviorIt’s a Friday afternoon at a tech startup in downtown San Francisco, and Valerie Aurora is arming men with phrases they can use to try to make their Silicon Valley environment less sexist: “Not cool.” “We don’t do that here.” “Awkward!”She wants them to use them against other men when they encounter biased comments or actions aimed at women, and tells them not to worry if they freeze the first time. “Just keep practicing and wait for the next time. I guarantee it will happen again.” Continue reading...

Smartphones and tablets become king as the share of desktop web browsing traffic shrinks to 48.7%, according to dataMobile devices are used more than traditional computers for web browsing, as smartphone and tablet use overtook desktop for the first time, October figures show.

The company is to use Facebook data to calculate customer premiums. But even more invasive ways to monetise lives are coming with the Internet of ThingsAnybody who has been overcharged by an insurance company, denied a claim or given the runaround by an insurer’s customer disservice should shudder at the idea of insurers learning how to deploy the internet as a way of monitoring customers and using their online data to determine how much they should pay.The latest, inevitable news is that Admiral, one of the UK’s biggest insurers, is to use customers’ Facebook data to help calculate how much car insurance they should pay. Continue reading...

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

The last few instalments in the simulation series have provided major improvements. But has the Football Manager team run out of energy this year?The question every annual franchise has to answer is whether the new entry in the series expands enough on the previous title to warrant a purchase. This year, and for the first time in a few seasons, Football Manager 2017 doesn’t make enough of a step to confidently recommend it outright. Though it does build on the strengths of its excellent predecessor Football Manager 2016, it doesn’t offer enough of a change for anyone outside the hardcore fanbase to warrant an immediate purchase.This feels like a strange thing to write, because in many ways – through a series of small but positive changes to the way players interact with the game – FM 2017 offers the best experience of pretending to be a football manager there’s ever been. Although the series shares the lineage of Championship Manager, FM 2017 is getting closer than ever to abolishing that game’s reputation as glorified football spreadsheet. Continue reading...

Insurer’s algorithm analyses social media usage to identify safe drivers in unprecedented use of customer dataOne of the biggest insurance companies in Britain is to use social media to analyse the personalities of car owners and set the price of their insurance.The unprecedented move highlights the start of a new era for how companies use online personal data and will start a debate about privacy. Continue reading...

At the heart of the app is the belief that mass surveillance makes the world a better, fairer place through the question: can injustice survive transparency?

Investigators hired by Alfa Bank say server logs show no sign of secretive contact after online report sparks debate between internet security expertsA US cybersecurity firm hired by a Russian bank to investigate allegations of a secret line of communication with the Trump Organization said on Tuesday there was no evidence so far of substantive contact, email or financial links.

Tennessee family blames an exploding battery – a common occurrence that has led to a mass recall – for setting their million-dollar home on fireIt has been nearly a year since the self-balancing scooters known as hoverboards were setting sales charts on fire, but the resulting litigation (from the resulting real-world fires) is just getting started.A family in Nashville, Tennessee, has filed a $30m lawsuit against Amazon, arguing that the online retailer should be held liable for the ill-fated Christmas present that burned their house down. Continue reading...

Inventor of world wide web says hackers could cause major disruption with open economic or traffic dataHackers could use open data such as the information that powers transport apps to create chaos, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the world wide web, has said.“If you disrupted traffic data for example, to tell everybody that all the roads south of the river are closed, so everybody would go north of the river, that would gridlock you [and] disable the city,” he said. Continue reading...

The search engine company publicised a critical Windows bug 10 days after informing the software firm about itGoogle and Microsoft are in a war of words after the search engine company publicised a critical Windows bug just 10 days after telling the software firm about it.The bug, which allows privilege escalation in Windows, was discovered by Google on 21 October. An attacker can use it to access things they should not be able to, and according to Google, it is already being actively exploited in the wild. Continue reading...

Search company cuts access to feature, called battery status API, which allows websites to request information about the capacity of a visitor’s deviceMozilla Firefox is dropping a feature that lets websites see how much battery life a visitor has left, following research showing that it could be used to track browsers.The feature, called the battery status API, allows websites to request information about the capacity of a visitor’s device, such as whether or not it’s plugged in and charging, how long it will last until it is empty, and the percentage of charge remaining. Continue reading...

Along with similar declines in the PC industry, tablet sales fall for five quarters with only budget models showing growthSales of tablet computers fell by more than 6m over the past year as the market contracted 14.7%, according to a report.At a time when consumers are questioning whether they really need both a computer and a tablet or either along with a smartphone, the only part of the market to grow was the sub-$200 offerings.

Forged rail tickets are now being sold as well as drugs and passports, in an explosion of goods on offer from dark web retail servicesMachine guns, class-A drugs, stolen credit cards and … a return ticket to Hastings. The shopping list of the “dark web” consumer, more used to a wild west better known for the highly illegal and illicit, appears to have taken a more ordinary diversion.At least that’s the impression left by an investigation into the sale of forged train tickets on hidden parts of the internet. BBC South East bought several sophisticated fakes, including a first-class Hastings fare, for as little as a third of their face value. The tickets cannot fool machines but barrier staff accepted them on 12 occasions. Continue reading...

Philip Hammond has announced a £2bn investment into UK cybersecurity. But what exactly does that cover? Can you have cybercrime without hacking? And could your kitchen appliance turn against you?The chancellor, Phillip Hammond, has announced a £1.9bn investment in Britain’s cybersecurity strategy. The money is to be used to protect the country from hacking attacks on all fronts, from opportunistic raids on individuals and businesses to focused cyberwar led by state-run teams.Hammond has promised a big sum, but the world of hacking is easily large enough to occupy all that money and more. It’s double the amount set out for a similar strategy in 2011, but has to deal with a world where cybercrime has moved from science-fiction novels and Hollywood movies to our banks, phones and even kettles. Continue reading...

Human impact and a booming bird population are devastating the Mojave desert tortoise. But one man is trying some unusual methods to save themA baby desert tortoise is no match for a raven. The tiny reptile’s soft shell is easily pierced, offering the bird a tantalizing fix of delicious entrails.Related: World on track to lose two-thirds of wild animals by 2020, major report warns Continue reading...

The billionaire tech investor in a speech painted a dark picture of America as he praised the GOP nominee as a ‘political outsider’ who would reverse US declinePeter Thiel has defended his support of Donald Trump, dismissing concerns about the Republican nominee’s anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim campaign positions as the result of the media “taking Trump literally” but not “seriously”.Thiel used a speech Monday at the National Press Club in Washington to praise the Republican candidate as a “political outsider” who would reverse America’s decline. Continue reading...

Growing online threat putting national and personal security at risk, says chancellorOutdated computer systems are allowing malicious hackers to target everyone from companies at board level to individuals in their living rooms, according to the chancellor, who is promising to strike back against cyber-attacks.

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

Waiting times for black Seattle passengers were 35% longer, and Boston drivers cancelled rides for black passengers more than twice as frequently, study foundA new academic study has found “a pattern of discrimination” against passengers with African American-sounding names by Uber and Lyft drivers.The findings call into question a central narrative of ride-hail apps that they solve the entrenched and humiliating problem of hailing a cab for black passengers. Continue reading...

The famous Sega video game character will reportedly be brought to the big screen with a combination of CGI animation and live actionLess than two weeks after leaving the Deadpool 2 project after “creative differences” with star Ryan Reynolds, director Tim Miller has revealed he is working on bringing Sonic The Hedgehog to the big screen.The director is working on a film about the Sega character, according to the Hollywood Reporter, which claims it will be a hybrid of CGI animated and live action representation of the character who was first introduced to the world in 1991. Continue reading...

Rights groups such as the ACLU expressed deep concern over censorship in letter to Mark Zuckerberg, particularly when posts are removed at the request of policeA coalition of more than 70 civil rights groups have written to Facebook demanding that the company clarifies its policies for removing content and alleging that it has repeatedly removed posts documenting human rights violations.In a letter addressed to CEO Mark Zuckerberg, the rights groups – including the ACLU, Center for Media Justice, SumOfUs and Color of Change – express deep concern over the censorship, particularly when posts are removed at the request of police. Continue reading...

I am very happy that the rights of Uber drivers are being protected by the courts, but it is worth remembering that Uber isn’t just successful because it is cheap, it also offers a remarkably convenient service which is head and shoulders above what was available before (Uber is misleading drivers about its legal defeat, claims union, 30 October).It is a joy to be able to see my car coming down the street rather than wandering the high street looking for a black cab or engaging in repeat conversations with a minicab operator (“he’s just coming, love – he’ll be there in three minutes, definitely”), followed by a 25-minute wait, occasionally a total no show. It is amazing to be driven from point A to point B in a foreign city without having to have the right cash or speak the language. I was wary at first, because of the social implications of the gig economy, but conversations with drivers have all been remarkably positive too. Continue reading...

A pair of tweets promoting the game caused outcry and ridicule at the insensitive nature of the campaignEA games has removed a pair of tweets promoting its new world war one-set first person shooter Battlefield 1 after they sparked outcry and ridicule at the tone-deaf nature of the campaign.Accompanied with the hashtag “#justWWIthings”, the two tweets were sent over the weekend. The first, posted on Friday, contained an animated gif of a number of WW1-era soldiers posing in front of a collapsing airship, captioned “when your squad is looking on point #justWWIthings”; the second, posted on Sunday, was an animated gif of a soldier being burned with a flamethrower, captioned “When you’re too hot for the club #justWWIthings”. Continue reading...

The first-person shooter returns with a bunch of new multiplayer modes and a lone campaign that seeks to add emotional weight to the thundering actionIt’s always worth remembering where Titanfall developer Respawn Entertainment came from. The studio was founded by the creators of Call of Duty and staffed by some of the most skilful stalwarts in the first-person shooter genre; from the best entries in Activision’s behemoth franchise all the way back to 2002’s Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, Respawn’s collective has made great cinematic shooters, and this team knows how to reinvent, rethink and reignite the genre. Titanfall 2 expands the multiplayer concept established by the original sci-fi shooter two years ago, adds an incredible single-player campaign and acts as a bold reminder of how brilliant this band of veteran gunslingers really is.As with the original game, Titanfall 2’s core ideas exist on two parallel playing fields. Firstly, there’s the Pilot, a superhuman soldier capable of hyper athletic wall-running and double-jumping, with split-second reflexes that make for unrivalled marksmanship. They are the masters of any gun, the ultimate commander of any squad, and they treat the battlefield more like a jungle gym than a place of warfare. Obstacles and debris are not safe cover in the eyes of a Pilot. Instead they are opportunities for movement in order to turn impossible odds into a cakewalk. Continue reading...

Reader mode is a Safari feature, which strips out most of the formatting from a webpage, removing adverts, navigation links and commentsTwitter is testing a new feature on its iOS app which turns on Apple’s “Reader” mode by default on every link opened in its in-app browser.First introduced in 2010, and ported to iOS in 2011, Reader mode is a oft-forgotten feature in Safari that strips out most of the formatting from a webpage, removing adverts, navigation links, comments, and almost everything else except for the main content of a text-based article. Continue reading...

Left yourself with nothing to do this Halloween? Go on one of these spooky adventures and ensure you get absolutely no sleep at allIf you’ve already had your Halloween party this weekend and were planning a quiet night in front of the TV, hiding from trick or treaters, we’ve got another idea for you.All of the following horror titles are easily available for download on console or PC, so by early this evening you could be scaring the bejesus out of yourself, looking for ghosts in an abandoned castle, or running into a poorly lit bathroom to escape a clown doll. Continue reading...

At one time it was used for diagnostics, but the world moved on. Now Apple finally has too with its new laptop, the first of a brave new line of chimeless MacsApple has finally put one of the most annoying and potentially embarrassing aspects of the MacBook Pro to bed: the Mac startup chime is no more.

Facebook has repeatedly tried to take on Snapchat by replicating its features or by buying them inFacebook has been trying to steal Snapchat’s thunder for a while, but this weekend the social network beat even its own covetous record.On Friday came the news that Facebook is testing a new camera in its main app that offers Snapchat Lens-style photo and video filters to users. The camera, available to users in Ireland for now, is accessed by swiping right on the homescreen of the Facebook app. Continue reading...

The place to talk about games and other things that matterMonday. Continue reading...

Nintendo’s dog with a ’fro makes us all slaves to the rhythm, while the toys-to-life genre gets another boost3DS, Nintendo, cert: 7

The victory against Uber by drivers and the GMB is an important one, and not just for the many workers suffering the effects of bogus self-employment and poverty wages at the hands of big companies (Uber drivers triumph in rights battle, 29 October). The rise of Uber has affected the livelihoods of traditional taxi firms all over the country and the pressure to drive down fares has compromised passenger safety.Hedge-funded Uber’s success started with the Tory-Liberal coalition government’s deregulation legislation, which received the royal assent 18 months ago. While the consultation around the bill was going on, I supported the taxi trade here in Medway and many other drivers’ associations and their trade unions who lobbied against deregulation because they knew it would drive down wages and weaken the powers of local councils to determine how many cabs were licensed, or to maintain safe working practices. Continue reading...

After a long period as a mid-market manufacturer, rapid shift signals a reaction to the changing shape of the PC marketApple released its latest laptops on Thursday, a new range of computers to replace the ageing range of Retina MacBook Pros. They are thinner and lighter than their predecessors, with a new touch bar at the top of the keyboard and a fingerprint sensor replacing the power button.They are £750 more than the machines they replace were – though their price has also gone up. The larger of the two new MacBook Pros, the 15in with Touch Bar, is the first laptop the company has released with a starting price of more than £2,000 for more than a decade: it begins at an eye-watering £2,349, with build-to-order options taking it well north of £4,000. Continue reading...

Whether you’re struggling to get gig tickets or being fat-shamed by an app – AI is calling the shots. Weren’t these algorithms supposed to be on our side, not making thing worse?

Reporter Alan Yuhas highlights the bogus stories, clickbait and disinformation framed as trending ‘news’ by one of the world’s most powerful companiesLast month Facebook announced it would join a coalition with Twitter and more than 20 news organizations to tamp down on the proliferation of fake news on the social network. Since that announcement, conspiracy theories and explicitly fake news have continued to slip past Facebook’s algorithm.The company did, however, confront a September 11 conspiracy theory post that it had circulated around the anniversary of the attack. It took down the entire trending topic – including on the anniversary itself – rather than selectively edit out the false stories. Adam Mosseri, the company’s News Feed product vice-president, insisted earlier this month that Facebook is not a publisher or media company. Continue reading...

Internet security is time-consuming and increasingly useless. Now, technology firms are racing to find a new universal ‘open sesame’ to our digital livesI’m old enough to remember a life in which you could confidently expect your skill for guessing passwords to be redundant by about the age of nine. That was when your mate down the road finally overcame his love of spy games and his obsessive desire not to allow you past his front door or into his garden shed without you first establishing his favourite crisp flavour. Unfortunately, however, it seems that mate, who subsequently spent his lunch hours in the school’s windowless computer room, up to his knees in punch cards, has long since taken over the world.Related: Banks' online security is failing customers, says Which? Continue reading...

Discover your inner aviator, from the entry level Parrot Mambo to the high-spec DJI PhantomWe all have our own way of transcending the banality of everyday life. A good book, going to the gym, watching our football teams struggle to reach the heights or avoid the lows. Taking to the sky with a drone is peak escapism, an adrenaline blast that, for a few short minutes, raises the pulse, puts a stupid grin on your face and revives childhood dreams.With so many jostling for your attention, though, which drone do you choose? Some drones are small and cheap, can be used to terrorise pets and are controlled only with your smartphone. Others have fancy cameras, the range of a light aircraft and can get you in trouble with the law… but how on earth do you choose which one to buy? Continue reading...

Internet luddite Werner Herzog offers a sporadically fascinating glimpse of a vast and complex subjectThe entire scope of the digital age – from the birth of the internet, to artificial intelligence, to catastrophist predictions of the end of days – is crammed into 96 idiosyncratic minutes in this latest documentary by Werner Herzog. And while Herzog’s defiantly esoteric line of commentary works with some subjects – suicidal penguins, for example, in Encounters at the End of the World – he does seem out of his depth at times while navigating this vast and complex subject. Herzog’s USP here is that, as a luddite who doesn’t even carry a mobile phone, he is essentially a technological tourist, an outsider looking into the digital world. It’s a sporadically fascinating film that dips its toe into many different themes where perhaps it should have chosen to immerse itself in just one or two. Continue reading...

In the future our cars will be smarter than we are. But for now at least you can hold your own against the Kia SoulPrice: £12,805

Users of the platform remind us what we stand to lose when this weird and wonderful corner of the internet ceases to existTwitter’s announcement on Thursday that it would be discontinuing Vine prompted a public outpouring of grief in six-second, endlessly looped increments.We shared some of the classics of the genre on Friday but social media users have continued to nominate their favourites over the weekend, serving only to remind us of how much we stand to lose when this weird and wonderful corner of the internet closes down. Continue reading...

Volvo fears that other road users could drive erratically in order to take advantageThe first self-driving cars to be operated by ordinary British drivers will be left deliberately unmarked so that other drivers will not be tempted to “take them on”, a senior car industry executive has revealed.One of the biggest fears of an ambitious project to lease the first autonomous vehicles to everyday motorists is that other road users might slam on their brakes or drive erratically in order to force the driverless cars into submission, he said. Continue reading...

The room-rental website, now worth $30bn, faces a critical year as city authorities clamp downIn the back room of a pub in Kentish Town, a group of middle-class Londoners are perched on velvet-covered stools, eating hummus and talking about property. On the wall, above a pile of empty beer kegs, a slide presentation is in progress. A video of Airbnb’s recent advert shows smiling hosts opening their front doors and declaring their support for Sadiq Khan’s post-Brexit “London is open” campaign.The audience of Airbnb hosts are there after receiving individual invitations from the company to a “home sharers” meet-up – a concept largely unfamiliar to the slightly bemused crowd. Jonathan, an enthusiastic Californian Airbnb employee, who was recently seconded to London to set up the clubs, is happy to explain: “Homesharing clubs are simply a way of organising this into something … that has a unified voice … then actually takes actions as a collective,” he says, in a less than clear answer. Continue reading...

Tesla chief executive Elon Musk addresses an audience in Los Angeles as he unveils his company’s newest energy product - solar roof tiles. Musk outlined the benefits of an “integrated future” which would allow consumers to charge electric vehicles with renewable solar power, showcasing the tiles on homes once used as the set for US drama Desperate Housewives

I used the horn so much that I can now do a passable impression of it, like David Attenborough and the woodpeckerThe Toyota hybrid range is like a variety of bird – there’s the one you see everywhere, the Prius, and for some reason that makes the rarer ones more exciting. The Rav4, as handsome a hybrid as I’ve seen in a while, has a sporty cousin, the C-HR. I can’t, if I’m honest, tell you what’s better about it (the styling is a bit boxier and more aggressive) but I can tell you that not one but two delivery guys clocked the Rav, said, “Nice car, but…” and got their phones out to show me the C-HR. In a lesson for progressives everywhere, the hybrids have shed their do-gooding image just by being so very new.Related: Honda Jazz car review: ‘Like driving your regular car after packing it for a holiday’ Continue reading...

Some overseas users visiting UK have better coverage roaming than people using British networks, says cross-party report

Employment tribunal judge’s ruling will send shockwaves through companies using the same business modelYaseen Aslam. James Farrar. Remember those two names, because they are giant-killers. This summer the men took on not just one £50bn multinational, but an entire business model. On Friday, they won.As minicab drivers for Uber, Aslam and Farrar were deemed to be self-employed. The status meant they were denied the most basic rights that other workers take: no minimum wage, no sick pay, no paid holiday. But as an employment tribunal judge heard over several days in July, that classification was both wrong and unfair. And he agreed.

Topline profits down 80% for the dating site as more internet daters opt for mobile-based Tinder and other free appsThe dating website Match.com suffered a collapse in profits last year as fickle Britons turned to free smartphone apps to find a date.Topline operating profits at the UK’s biggest dating website plunged by 80% to £1.6m in the year to 31 December. Turnover was also down more than 10% at £38.2m as apps such as Tinder changed the nature of online dating. Continue reading...

Landmark employment tribunal ruling states firm must also pay drivers national living wage and holiday pay with huge implications for gig economyUber drivers are not self-employed and should be paid the “national living wage”, a UK employment court has ruled in a landmark case which could affect tens of thousands of workers in the gig economy.The ride-hailing app could now be open to claims from all of its 40,000 drivers in the UK, who are currently not entitled to holiday pay, pensions or other workers’ rights. Uber immediately said it would appeal against the ruling. Continue reading...

Uber drivers James Farrar and Asif Hanif gives their reactions on Friday after a court ruled in favour of drivers being classified as workers, not self-employed. The change in title means that Uber’s workers will have to be paid the national living wage. Uber workers were not entitled to holiday pay and other rights because they were classified as self-employed. Now as workers they will receive both