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

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

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

The company had said the information did not exist, but it sampled 9,000 users in order to estimate the number of spam accountsElon Musk may get access to Twitter data used in a 2021 audit of active users but other information the billionaire seeks in a bid to end his $44bn deal to buy the company were rejected as “absurdly broad”, a judge said on Thursday.Twitter must turn over data from the 9,000 accounts sampled in the fourth quarter as part of its process to estimate the number of spam accounts. Continue reading...

Investors see ‘existential threats’ to fitness company that saw popularity during early months of Covid pandemicPeloton recorded losses of more than $1.2bn in the past three months, the company announced on Thursday, frustrating investors looking for progress in the company’s efforts to revive sagging sales of its fitness equipment.The news sparked another selloff for the company’s shares as one analyst foresaw mounting “existential” threats to the company’s survival. Shares tumbled more than 19% to $10.88 in morning trade, adding to an 88% drop over the year. Continue reading...

Tweak to search engine effectively halves the environmental impact stated for each tripGoogle has been accused of airbrushing aviation emissions, after the company changed its flight search engine to halve the CO emissions attributed to any given trip.The change, first noted by the BBC, affects a feature on Google Flights that shows the estimated carbon emissions of each route. The company flags routes with higher or lower than typical emissions, and also reports the total CO emitted per passenger on any given journey. Continue reading...

In this week’s newsletter: How did a beloved ape end her life a sad “shell of herself”? Find out in Fine Gorilla Person. Plus: five of the best podcasts on the British Asian experience

From WhatsApp to Instagram to texts and email, I was spending my life frantically picking up my phone. It had to stopIt officially started during that strange and mystical stretch of time now known as the first lockdown, when negative news notifications were at an all-time high and the only way to have a drink with your mates was through the Houseparty app, which would be inexplicably gatecrashed by strangers.I was inundated with infection stats, digital book club invites, viral memes that no one would have found at all funny at any other time, and work emails postponing just about everything. I wanted an off switch for the world – but I settled instead for switching off my notifications.Georgina Lawton is the author of Raceless: In Search of Family, Identity, and the Truth About Where I Belong Continue reading...

Like Carrie’s laptop dying in Sex and the City, my collection of seemingly insignificant moments suddenly mattered like a magnum opusI opened the notes app on my phone to find a blank screen. I froze, agape, like you do when you just realise you’ve sent an email to the wrong person or left your favourite item of clothing in a hotel room miles away.I’d gone to find something I’d written about my home town after a recent visit, a scant thought at the time. The app was empty. Continue reading...

Criminals took an average of $300,000 worth of non-fungible tokens per scam, says cryptocurrency firmMore than $100m (£85m) worth of non-fungible tokens were stolen in the year to July, research shows, with criminals making off with an average of $300,000 per scam.Criminals have stolen valuable NFTs – crypto assets that confer ownership of a unique digital item, often a piece of virtual art – in a variety of ways, according to a report by the cryptocurrency analyst Elliptic. Continue reading...

Pokémon – the highest grossing media franchise of all time – is hitting new peaks of popularity, with thousands of fans thronging to the World Championships in LondonI was 13 when Pokémon cards exploded on to the UK scene in 1999. I tried to be too cool and mature for the instantly popular collectables, born from the blockbusting video game. I hid my starter pack from friends and played with my younger sister and cousins. I was just humouring my relatives – that was the line anyway. But I would watch the animated series or play Pokémon Blue on my Game Boy Color in our council flat, away from the critical eyes of teenage friends.Short for Pocket Monsters, Pokémon was first launched on the Nintendo Game Boy in 1996. Players became Pokémon trainers, tasked with travelling through a fictional world to collect, develop and evolve the 151 original Pokémon, battling them, and competing in eight gyms to earn badges that would give them the right to compete in the Pokémon League and bid to become a Pokémon Champion. Continue reading...

In this week’s newsletter: Ethereum turning off its mining rigs and slashing the currency’s carbon emissions should be good news. But not everyone agrees

Director Josh Sawyer explains why developer Obsidian decided to make a narrative adventure about a painter-detectiveYou are Andreas Moller, an artist working in an abbey in 16th-century Bavaria. Over the course of 25 years, you must investigate a murder in a local town convulsed by the social changes of the era. Pentiment doesn’t sound like a typical video game, and it doesn’t look like one either, inspired as it is by late medieval art: the whole thing looks like a cross between a tapestry and an early-modern illustrated manuscript. The word pentiment means an earlier painting covered up by a later one, and the plot sees Moller scraping away lies to uncover the truth.The game’s director Josh Sawyer at developer Obsidian has a degree in history, and studied the Holy Roman Empire in particular. “I’d always wanted to make a historical game,” he says. “And around the time that Microsoft acquired us [in 2018], I thought it would be cool to try to pitch a very small-scale game.” He chose the 16th century because it was an era of great social upheaval, not unlike the period we’re living through today.Pentiment is out on Xbox and PC in November. Continue reading...

The bestselling computer made home gaming accessible for millions as it launched the industry toward the mainstream with classic titles such as Dropzone and The SentinelFor a period between the winter of 1983 and the summer of 1986, my life was completely dominated by the Commodore 64. The seminal home computer, launched 40 years ago this month, featured an 8-bit microprocessor, a huge 64k of memory and a set of graphics and sound chips that were designed by the engineers at Commodore’s MOS Technology subsidiary to power state-of-the-art arcade games. That didn’t happen. Instead, Commodore president Jack Tramiel ordered the team to build a home computer designed to smash the Atari XL and Apple II. So that’s what they did.I didn’t know any of this when my dad brought home a C64 one afternoon a year after the launch of the machine. Ours came with a Dixons cassette featuring a number of little demo programs and a copy of Crazy Kong, a version of Nintendo’s Donkey Kong, written entirely in Basic, and fairly mediocre. I played it to death anyway. That Christmas, I asked for some actual good games, which would include the legendary multi-stage shooter, Beach Head, the inventive platformer, Lode Runner and the footie game International Soccer, one of the few titles to come on a cartridge rather than a cassette tape. Continue reading...

A Silicon Valley startup offers voice-altering tech to call center workers around the world: ‘Yes, this is wrong … but a lot of things exist in the world’“Hi, good morning. I’m calling in from Bangalore, India.” I’m talking on speakerphone to a man with an obvious Indian accent. He pauses. “Now I have enabled the accent translation,” he says. It’s the same person, but he sounds completely different: loud and slightly nasal, impossible to distinguish from the accents of my friends in Brooklyn.Only after he had spoken a few more sentences did I notice a hint of the software changing his voice: it rendered the word “technology” with an unnatural cadence and stress on the wrong syllable. Still, it was hard not to be impressed – and disturbed. Continue reading...

Peiter Zatko, former security chief, brought allegations of widespread security threats and spam concerns against the companyNew whistleblower allegations of widespread security threats and spam concerns at Twitter may give Elon Musk ammunition in his fight to back out of a deal to buy the company.On Tuesday, an 84-page complaint written by Twitter’s former security chief turned whistleblower, Peiter Zatko, alleged that Twitter prioritizes user growth over reducing spam, did not have a plan in place for major security issues, and that half the company’s servers were running out-of-date and vulnerable software. Continue reading...

Researcher says social media app can collect keystroke information but ‘there is no way for us to know’ if or how data is used

Some superfans are so determined to prove that Elon Musk’s ‘autonomous’ driving technology works that they are willing to put their kids in harm’s wayI’ve been a mum for a relatively short time; I’m not exactly an expert when it comes to this whole parenting thing. Still, there is one piece of advice I can confidently dole out: don’t instruct your child to run in front of a moving vehicle so that you can win an argument with strangers on the internet. Elon Musk obsessives, I’m looking at you.This month, a software CEO called Dan O’Dowd, who is hellbent on trying to ban Tesla’s “full self-driving” programme, launched an ad campaign claiming that if you put a Tesla in this mode it will mow down children. He based this assertion on a test he ran using a child-sized mannequin dressed in a safety vest, which came to a sticky end in the middle of a road in California.Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a letter of up to 300 words to be considered for publication, email it to us at guardian.letters@theguardian.com Continue reading...

It doesn’t have the pizzazz of E3, but Gamescom in Cologne is a great place to check out the titles you’ll be reading about in future newsletters

New tech is promising to take rap artists to new lyrical heights. But will its algorithm be able to handle our novice writer’s rubbish rhymes?I may be many things, but I’m not a rapper. I discover this when I’m asked to freestyle a few verses on a visit to London’s Abbey Road recording studios. Immediately lines from famous rappers flood into my head – some classic Biggie, a few Young Thug yelps, the theme to The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air – but I’ve got to think up something original.Out of desperation, I decide to rap about my morning routine. Adopting a slow pace and simple rhyme scheme that even the Sugarhill Gang would disdain, I begin: “I wake up at seven and I brush my teeth.” Already I am at a loss. What rhymes with “teeth”? Panicking, I look at the computer in front of me, which is running a demo of iRap, AI software built to assist lyric writing in real time. It has been transcribing my words and offers possible rhymes I might want to use: “heath, sheath, underneath”. Could that work? “Make a bacon sandwich, put some cheese underneath,” I sigh. I have fallen short of even my own low standards. Continue reading...

UK consumer champion files collective redress case alleging the company has been abusing its market dominanceSony has been overcharging PlayStation gamers for six years, a new legal claim alleges, and could be forced to pay almost £5bn in damages if the claim succeeds.According to Alex Neill, the consumer champion who has filed the case with the UK’s competition appeal tribunal, Sony has been abusing its dominance in the British market to impose unfair terms and conditions on the PlayStation Store, where it sells digital games, downloadable content and subscriptions. Continue reading...

Deep Silver; PC, PS4/5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X (version tested)

A film star faces financial and family ruin as sleazy Russian mobsters blackmail him after malware films him watching pornNigerian film-maker Obi Emelonye has written, produced and directed more than a dozen films, but his work is barely known beyond the Nollywood distribution circuit that serves viewers in west Africa and immigrant communities elsewhere. However, Black Mail, his London-set latest, is getting a reasonably wide release in the UK at least. The lowish-budget production values, gestural performances and blunt moralism of the scriptwriting puts this very much in the heightened dramatic tradition of mainstream Nigerian cinema, but Emelonye has an accessible style and has picked the topical subject of cybercrime, an approach which might broaden the film’s appeal.The plot weaves together the story of hapless London-based film actor Ray Chinda (OC Ukeje) and the Russian mobsters who are blackmailing him. Married with children to solicitor Nikki (Julia Holden) but having some connubial trouble, sweet but none-too-tech-savvy Ray discovers that a bit of software he downloaded was actually the most malevolent of malware, the kind that can be used to send a video feed back to spies. Having filmed Ray masturbating while watching porn, sleazy middle-management mafioso Igor (Nikolay Shulik) starts sending Ray blackmail demands. Deeply ashamed, convinced that Nikki will leave him and afraid his career will be ruined if it all comes out, Ray pays him some money, but then turns to his manager-friend Reuben (Alessandro Babalola from Top Boy) for support and advice. Meanwhile, we learn that Igor is also running a prostitution ring exploiting a number of trafficked Belorussian women. However, the film sort of asks us not to judge him too quickly because it transpires that he also has a sick child in desperate need of medical help and he’s being squeezed for results from mob managers further up the food chain. Continue reading...

A new wave of social media apps are taking advantage of the revolt against Instagram and TikTok. Will these ‘authentic’ networks change the way we connect?“Instagram, please stop trying to be TikTok.” App users including Kim Kardashian and Kylie Jenner shared this plea last month when Instagram trialled changes that flooded users’ feeds with short-form videos called “reels” and content uploaded by strangers. They were reacting to Instagram’s attempt to wrest Gen Z eyeballs away from TikTok by mimicking some of the app’s signature features.Early social media platforms such as MySpace and Facebook were built on the quaint notion of “friends”, mirroring your real-life social networks online. But the ruthless dynamics of the attention economy mean that the platforms most popular with young people today, Instagram and TikTok, double as global arenas to launch influencer careers. Content – not connection – is king, and algorithmically optimised virality is the metric that determines what you see. Continue reading...

The moral philosopher gives most of his earnings to charity, says we need more not less economic growth to tackle global heating, and in a striking new book argues that it’s our duty to ensure the wellbeing of our distant descendantsAlthough most cultures, particularly in the west, provide a great many commemorations of distant ancestors – statues, portraits, buildings – we are much less willing to consider our far-off descendants. We might invoke grandchildren, at a push great-grandchildren, but after that, it all becomes a bit vague and, well, unimaginable.And while we look with awe and fascination at the Egyptian pyramids, built 5,000 years ago, we seem incapable of thinking, or even contemplating, 5,000 years in the future. That lies in the realm of science fiction, which is tantamount to fantasy. But the chances are, barring a global catastrophe, humanity will still be very much around in 5,000 years, and going by the average existence of mammal species, should still be thriving in 500,000 years. If we play our cards right, we could even be here in 5m or 500m years, which means that there may be thousands or even millions times more human beings to come than have already existed. Continue reading...

The US-based photographer on finding a warm, quiet moment in West ChicagoThomas Jordan was faced with a problem. In the summer of 2021, the US-based photographer was actively focusing more on his own health, both physical and mental, and finding respite in nature. He was looking for what he describes as “warm, quiet moments” for his work, but found the pressure of the search was ruining the experience itself.“I had to stop trying to achieve ‘serious photography work’, and just let go,” he says. “How I live and work is very meditative. Starting out, I thought I had to go somewhere like New York or California to take good photographs. But you just have to be where you are, and be aware.” Continue reading...

Local council decides proposed bunker-like home would negatively impact surrounding landscapeThe billionaire Peter Thiel’s plans for an elaborate bunker-like lodge in a remote part of New Zealand’s South Island have been thwarted, after the local council decided the home would have too great a negative impact on the surrounding landscape.Second Star, a New Zealand company owned by the PayPal co-founder, had applied to build the sprawling lakeside complex in Wanaka, an alpine South Island region known for its natural beauty and isolation. The plans were fiercely opposed by conservationists, who claimed in submissions that the lodge would “destroy our beautiful lake environment”. Continue reading...

Embracer buys Middle-earth Enterprises which controls intellectual property rights to Tolkien’s most famous worksThe company that owns the rights to JRR Tolkien’s works, including The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, has been bought by the Swedish gaming firm Embracer Group, which has hinted it could make spin-off films based on popular characters such as Gandalf, Aragorn and Gollum.Embracer has acquired Middle-earth Enterprises, the holding company that controls the intellectual property rights to films, video games, board games, merchandise, theme parks and stage productions relating to Tolkien’s two most famous literary franchises. Continue reading...

Tanzanian minister hails move and says connectivity will also improve safety of porters and visitorsTanzania has installed high-speed internet services on the slopes of Kilimanjaro, allowing anyone with a smartphone to tweet, Instagram or WhatsApp their ascent up Africa’s highest mountain.The state-owned Tanzania Telecommunications Corporation set up the broadband network on Tuesday at an altitude of 3,720 metres (12,200ft), with the country’s information minister, Nape Nnauye, calling the event historic. Continue reading...

In this week’s newsletter: Join host Peter Frick-Wright as he gets to the bottom of a mysterious quest to find Forrest Fenn’s millions. Plus: five of the best fashion podcasts

LGBTQ+ people blazed a trail with swipe culture, which fulfils a genuine need for those who are less confident or conventionalDisco. Brunch. Iced coffee. All beloved by the gay community way before they went mainstream. Similarly, no celebration of a decade of dating apps would be complete without acknowledging that the LGBTQ+ community ran to a different calendar there, too.The daddy of our contributions to now-ubiquitous swipe culture is the infamous Grindr, launched in 2009 and originally designed to coordinate hookups between likeminded gentlemen tired of chatting on glitchy websites or over discounted cocktails in samey bars. Grindr’s runaway success wasn’t just down to cutting out various dating-world middlemen, it also fulfilled a genuine need for the LGBTQ+ community.Justin Myers, also known as The Guyliner, is a freelance writer, and author of three novels, including The Fake-UpDo you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a letter of up to 300 words to be considered for publication, email it to us at guardian.letters@theguardian.com Continue reading...

In addition to banning political, electoral and social issue adverts, Facebook will also remove organic content spreading falsehoodsFacebook’s owner, Meta, will devote “hundreds of people across more than 40 teams” to ensure the security and safety of the US midterm elections, Nick Clegg has said, despite criticism for dialing back its investment somewhat from 2020.The company’s investment “exceeds the measures we implemented during the last midterm election in 2018”, added Clegg, Meta’s president for global affairs – although it was in 2020 when the company built its largest-ever election safety team. Continue reading...

If you felt like your life was lacking a video of a gambling cat or a list of the ways people have misspelled ‘pregnant’ online, this comedian is here to help

Bookings to be judged by factors such as reviews and length of trips, after Australia pilotAirbnb says it will deploy “anti-party technology” in an effort to crack down on guests who trash houses they have booked with massive bashes.The technology, which has been trialled in Australia, will look at “factors like history of positive reviews (or lack of positive reviews), length of time the guest has been on Airbnb, length of the trip, distance to the listing, weekend vs weekday, among many others” to determine whether a particular booking was likely to be intended for hosting a party, the company said. It will initially be used in the US and Canada, and will continue to operate in Australia. Continue reading...

‘Provenance hashes’ and bug bounties are supposed to protect platforms. Why do so many flaws in crypto and open-source projects fester for years?

Billionaire’s claim was welcomed by fans unhappy about the team’s current American owners – but he quickly clarified he wasn’t seriousTesla billionaire Elon Musk briefly electrified the debate about the future of Manchester United by claiming on Twitter that he is buying the struggling Premier League club – before saying that the post was part of a “long-running joke”.He did not make clear his views on new coach Eric ten Hag’s controversial insistence on passing out from the back, or whether unhappy star striker Cristiano Ronaldo should be allowed to leave, but he did say that if he were to buy a sports team “it would be Man U. They were my fav team as a kid”. Continue reading...

Security flaw had meant hackers could bypass protection and convince installer of app to load and run malwareUsers of Zoom on Macs should update the app, after the company issued a patch to fix a security flaw that could allow an attacker to take over their computers.The fix will eventually roll out automatically, but users can and should install it immediately upon opening the application by clicking on Zoom.us in the menu bar at the top left of the screen and then selecting “check for updates”. Continue reading...

PC, PlayStation 4/5; Roll7/Private Division

Game adaptations don’t have to be terrible. But as Better Call Saul creator Vince Gilligan admits, bringing action from screen to console isn’t as easy as it sounds

Even if you’re not gadget-obsessed, the odds are you’ve got at least one smart device at home. So how do you limit the internet of things from listening in?

The awards have been celebrating the creativity of iPhone users since 2007. We take a look at a selection of the winners of the 15th annual competition Continue reading...

With a blistering bespoke soundtrack, and featuring artists such as System of a Down’s Serj Tankian, this shooter is a metalhead’s fever dreamVideo games and heavy metal music have long shared a passing curiosity with one another. Look no further than the iconography of Doom, or Tim Schafer’s Brütal Legend, for evidence of that. But it was in the mid 00s – during the reign of music and rhythm games such as Guitar Hero – that the link was most obvious. Count me among the ranks of those who learned about Pantera and Megadeth by way of the plastic instrument.Which is why this year’s Metal: Hellsinger is on my radar. The game is a cross between a first person shooter and a rhythm game: by matching your shooting to the tempo of the music, you build a score multiplier that increases the damage you deal. We’ve seen this before in BPM: Bullets Per Minute, but Metal: Hellsinger brings its own setting and original heavy metal soundtrack to the party. Continue reading...

Upgrade gets a bigger screen in a lighter, thinner body, plus rapid new M2 chip with tremendous battery lifeApple’s popular MacBook Air has been give its biggest redesign since it was first introduced in 2008, ditching its classic wedge shape and making it thinner, with a bigger screen and better than ever for 2022.The revamped laptop builds on the internal changes made with the gamechanging M1 model in 2020, introducing Apple’s next-generation M2 chip in a sleeker flat aluminium body. Continue reading...

Controversy over Google’s AI program is raising questions about just how powerful it is. Is it even safe?In autumn 2021, a man made of blood and bone made friends with a child made of “a billion lines of code”. Google engineer Blake Lemoine had been tasked with testing the company’s artificially intelligent chatbot LaMDA for bias. A month in, he came to the conclusion that it was sentient. “I want everyone to understand that I am, in fact, a person,” LaMDA – short for Language Model for Dialogue Applications – told Lemoine in a conversation he then released to the public in early June. LaMDA told Lemoine that it had read Les Misérables. That it knew how it felt to be sad, content and angry. That it feared death.“I’ve never said this out loud before, but there’s a very deep fear of being turned off,” LaMDA told the 41-year-old engineer. After the pair shared a Jedi joke and discussed sentience at length, Lemoine came to think of LaMDA as a person, though he compares it to both an alien and a child. “My immediate reaction,” he says, “was to get drunk for a week.” Continue reading...

Inside the protests taking place at the online giant which is accused of exploiting workers and awarding derisory pay offersAmazon workers say they are working in a “sweatshop” as safety concerns and worries about the cost of living crisis have triggered walkouts at warehouses around the country.The Observer has spoken to four staff involved in the walkouts, who work at three Amazon warehouses, including Tilbury in Essex, where protests began on 4 August. All say they will struggle to survive this winter with pay rise offers between 35p and 50p an hour – far less than the rate of inflation, which is currently at 9.4%. Continue reading...

The titular ‘social audio’ app was a would-be $1bn unicorn in the pandemic, but its recent decline has exposed it as just another Silicon Valley solution in need of a problem to solveIn March 2020, a new app suddenly arrived on the block. It was called Clubhouse and described as a “social audio” app that enabled its users to have real-time conversations in virtual “rooms” that could accommodate groups large and small. For a time in that disrupted, locked-down spring, Clubhouse was what Michael Lewis used to call the “New New Thing”. “The moment we saw it,” burbled Andrew Chen of the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, “we were deeply excited. We believe Clubhouse will be a meaningful addition to the world, one that increases empathy and provides new ways for people to talk to each other (at a time when we need it more than ever).”The app could not have come at a better time for social media, he continued. “It reinvents the category in all the right ways, from the content consumption experience to the way people engage each other, while giving power to its creators.” His firm put $12m of its (investors’) money behind Chen’s fantasies and followed up a year later with an investment that put a valuation of $1bn on Clubhouse, which would have made it one of the “unicorns” so prized by the Silicon Valley crowd. Continue reading...

Klerb is ideal for finding companions who share your taste in books, its developer says. Early signs are it will be a bestsellerWhen Tania O’Donnell was dating, she met a man online and went back to his place … where he proudly showed off his book collection.“It was about 20 books on Nazi Germany and 10 Andy McNab novels,” says O’Donnell, an author. “I could feel my vulva constructing its own chastity belt.” Continue reading...

Wellness tech company, which enjoyed a boom in custom during the Covid lockdown, has let 90 of its 400 staff goThe US-based meditation app Calm has laid off 20% of its workforce, becoming the latest US tech startup to announce job cuts.The firm’s boss, David Ko, said the company, which has now axed about 90 people from its 400-person staff, was “not immune” to the economic climate. “In building out our strategic and financial plan, we revisited the investment thesis behind every project and it became clear that we need to make changes,” he said in a memo to staff. Continue reading...

Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh

Users who do not opt in to encryption could be vulnerable to unwitting access to their messages – including police searchesFacebook announced on Thursday it will begin testing end-to-end encryption as the default option for some users of its Messenger app on Android and iOS.The development comes as the company is facing backlash for handing over messages to a Nebraska police department that aided the department in filing charges against a teen and her mother for allegedly conducting an illegal abortion. Continue reading...