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Websites deceive users by deliberately hiding the extent of data collection and sharing
Websites sometimes hide how widely they share our personal information, and can go to great lengths to pull the wool over our eyes. This deception is intended to prevent full disclosure to consumers, thus preventing informed choice and affecting privacy rights.... Read more
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AI is making smart devices easier to hack—here's how to stay safe
From asking our smart speakers for the weather to receiving personalized advice from smartwatches, devices powered by artificial intelligence (AI) are increasingly streamlining our routines and decision making. The technology is seeping into our lives in subtle ways.... Read more
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Safeguarding the future of online security with AI and metasurfaces
Researchers at Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH) have advanced online security by integrating an AI-based metasurface with oblique helicoidal cholesteric liquid crystals.... Read more
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Security vulnerability in browser interface allows computer access via graphics card
Modern websites place ever greater demands on the computing power of computers. For this reason, web browsers have also had access to the computing capacities of the graphics card (Graphics Processing Unit or GPU) in addition to the CPU of a computer for a number of years.... Read more
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Meta 'temporarily' closes Threads network in Turkey
Facebook owner Meta said Monday it would "temporarily" shut down its Threads short-messaging service in Turkey after an order from Ankara's competition watchdog over data-sharing.... Read more
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US House okays renewal of controversial surveillance program
The US House of Representatives voted Friday to reauthorize an electronic surveillance program targeting foreigners, a practice officials say is critical to national security but criticized by opponents over concerns for American citizens' privacy.... Read more
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Google yanks California news sites over proposed law
Google on Friday said it is testing removing links to California news sites for some users in the western US state as legislators mull making the online search giant pay for connecting people to news.... Read more
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Meta turns to AI to protect minors from 'sextortion' on Instagram
Meta said on Thursday it was developing new tools to protect teenage users from "sextortion" scams on its Instagram platform, which has been accused by US politicians of damaging the mental health of youngsters.... Read more
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Google faces deluge of $10,000 Incognito mode lawsuits after class-action deal
Google's legal troubles over whether the search giant duped users into believing its "Incognito" browsing mode was truly private aren't over yet: A week after settling a federal class-action suit, the Mountain View company is facing an avalanche of new lawsuits in San Jose from thousands of users who claim... Read more
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AI vs humans: Influencers face competition from virtual models
Social media influencers have embraced artificial intelligence to spice up their content but they are also facing growing competition from AI-generated Instagramers, TikTokers and YouTubers.... Read more
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Microsoft says China using AI to sow division in US
China is ramping up use of AI-generated content and fake social media accounts to inflame division in the United States and elsewhere, according to the latest report from Microsoft's threat center.... Read more
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Meta to start labeling AI-generated content in May
Facebook and Instagram giant Meta on Friday said it will begin labeling AI-generated media beginning in May, as it tries to reassure users and governments over the risks of deepfakes.... Read more
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X gives free blue check to big follower accounts
Users with big followings will receive a free subscription to X, formerly Twitter—and the platform's famous blue check, the company said in another policy U-turn.... Read more
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An anonymous coder nearly hacked a big chunk of the internet. How worried should we be?
Outside the world of open-source software, it's likely few people would have heard about XZ Utils, a small but widely used tool for data compression in Linux systems. But late last week, security experts uncovered a serious and deliberate flaw that could leave networked Linux computers susceptible to malicious attacks.... Read more
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Elon Musk's X has a new safety leader, nine months after predecessor left the social media platform
Elon Musk's X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, has named a new head of safety nine months after the last executive to hold the position departed from the social media company.... Read more
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Browsing in incognito mode doesn't protect you as much as you might think
Although a private browsing mode known as "Incognito" in Google's widely used Chrome browser has been available for nearly a decade, a legal settlement involving the way it works has cast new attention on this commonly available setting.... Read more
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Google to delete incognito search data to end privacy suit
Google has agreed to delete a vast trove of search data to settle a suit that it tracked millions of US users who thought they were browsing the internet privately.... Read more
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'Grave step backwards': Meta shuts monitoring tool in election year
A digital tool considered vital in tracking viral falsehoods, CrowdTangle will be decommissioned by Facebook owner Meta in a major election year, a move researchers fear will disrupt efforts to detect an expected firehose of political misinformation.... Read more
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Gmail revolutionized email 20 years ago. People thought it was Google's April Fool's Day joke
Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin loved pulling pranks, so much so they began rolling outlandish ideas every April Fool's Day not long after starting their company more than a quarter century ago. One year, Google posted a job opening for a Copernicus research center on the moon. Another... Read more
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OpenAI unveils voice-cloning tool
OpenAI on Friday revealed a voice-cloning tool it plans to keep tightly controlled until safeguards are in place to thwart audio fakes meant to dupe listeners.... Read more
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How AI discriminates and what that means for your Google habit
Safiya Umoja Noble swears she is not a Luddite. But she does think we could all learn a thing or two from the machine-bashing textile craftsmen in 19th-century Britain whose name is now synonymous with technological skepticism.... Read more
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Big tech told to identify AI deepfakes ahead of EU vote
The EU called on Facebook, TikTok and other tech titans on Tuesday to crack down on deepfakes and other AI-generated content by using clear labels ahead of Europe-wide polls in June.... Read more
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Researchers highlight potential cybersecurity threats to trucking industry, supply chain
Researchers at Colorado State University have published a new paper that details vulnerabilities in commercial trucking systems that could allow hackers to take control of, steal data from, or even disrupt entire fleets by spreading malware unnoticed between vehicles.... Read more
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Five things to know about Reddit
Wall Street will see one of the year's most highly anticipated IPOs this week, when the nearly two decade old social media platform Reddit goes public, set for Thursday.... Read more
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One Tech Tip: How to spot AI-generated deepfake images
AI fakery is quickly becoming one of the biggest problems confronting us online. Deceptive pictures, videos and audio are proliferating as a result of the rise and misuse of generative artificial intelligence tools.... Read more
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Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak wins latest round in lawsuit vs. YouTube over Bitcoin scam
Steve Wozniak has won the latest round in a legal battle of Silicon Valley titans after a San Jose appeals court ruled YouTube can't count on a controversial communications law to shield itself from responsibility for a scam that used the legendary Apple's co-founders' likeness.... Read more
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YouTuber Mr. Beast's Amazon reality competition to offer $5 million prize
MrBeast, YouTube's most profitable content creator, is bringing his "biggest project ever" to Amazon with a $5 million prize.... Read more
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Apple in talks to bring Google's Gemini AI to iPhone: Report
Apple is in advanced negotiations with Google to adopt its powerful Gemini AI models for the iPhone, Bloomberg reported on Monday.... Read more
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Team develops blockchain-based method to protect and manage personal data on the internet
Entering a website and accepting cookies is a very common and oft-repeated gesture when navigating the Internet. But this small action, which is often done automatically and without thought, entails security risks: By consenting to cookies, you lose control over your sensitive information, as you cannot review the conditions you... Read more
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Is Reddit's IPO worth it? Social media site aims to go public 'out of necessity,' says finance expert
Despite never having made a profit in its nearly 20-year history, Reddit, the site that bills itself as "the front page of the internet," is gearing up to go public, targeting a valuation of about $6.5 billion.... Read more
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Australia demands tech giants tackle 'extremist' content
Australia's internet watchdog hit Google, X and Meta with legal notices on Tuesday, demanding the tech giants explain how they are clamping down on "violent extremist material".... Read more
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Monsters, asteroids, vampires: AI conspiracies flood TikTok
From vampires and wendigos to killer asteroids, TikTok users are pumping out outlandish end-of-the-world conspiracy theories, researchers say, in yet another misinformation trend on a platform whose fate in the United States hangs in the balance.... Read more
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Gemini's flawed AI racial images seen as warning of tech titans' power
For people at the trend-setting tech festival here, the scandal that erupted after Google's Gemini chatbot cranked out images of Black and Asian Nazi soldiers was seen as a warning about the power artificial intelligence can give tech titans.... Read more
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Reddit reveals FTC inquiry into deals licensing its users' data for AI training
Reddit said Friday that the Federal Trade Commission has opened an inquiry into the social media platform's sale, licensing or sharing of its users' posts and other content to outside organizations for use in training artificial intelligence models.... Read more
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OpenAI partners with Le Monde and Prisa Media
OpenAI on Wednesday announced partnerships with French daily Le Monde and Spanish conglomerate Prisa Media, saying it intends to develop news-related uses of its ChatGPT artificial intelligence tool.... Read more
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Cyberattack leaves health care providers reeling weeks later
Following a cyberattack on the largest health insurer in the United States last month, health care providers continue to scramble as insurance payments and prescription orders continue to be disrupted and physicians lose an estimated $100 million a day.... Read more
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Italy says ChatGPT breached privacy rules
Italian authorities have accused OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, of breaching EU data protection law, giving the US firm 30 days to respond.... Read more
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How to protect your data privacy: Expert provides steps you can take and explains why you can't go it alone
Perfect safety is no more possible online than it is when driving on a crowded road with strangers or walking alone through a city at night. Like roads and cities, the internet's dangers arise from choices society has made. To enjoy the freedom of cars comes with the risk of... Read more
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Computer scientists invent simple method to speed cache sifting
Computer scientists have invented a highly effective—yet incredibly simple—algorithm to decide which items to toss from a web cache to make room for new ones. Known as SIEVE, the new open-source algorithm holds the potential to transform the management of web traffic on a large scale.... Read more
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Fake Biden robocall to New Hampshire voters highlights how easy it is to make deepfakes
An unknown number of New Hampshire voters received a phone call on Jan. 21, 2024, from what sounded like President Joe Biden. A recording contains Biden's voice urging voters inclined to support Biden and the Democratic Party not to participate in New Hampshire's Jan. 23 GOP primary election.... Read more
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New research addresses predicting and controlling bad actor AI activity in a year of global elections
More than 50 countries are set to hold national elections this year and analysts have long sounded the alarm on the threat of bad actors using artificial intelligence (AI) to disseminate and amplify disinformation during the election season across the globe.... Read more
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Researchers propose a Web 3.0 streaming architecture and marketplace
Web 3.0 is an internet paradigm that is based around blockchain technology, an advanced database mechanism. Compared to Web 2.0, the current internet paradigm, Web 3.0 provides some added advantages, such as transparency and decentralized control structures. This is because Web 3.0 is designed to work over trustless and permissionless... Read more
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Faulty machine translations litter the web
Near the end of the last century, Bill Gates saw the prospect of unifying citizens of nearly 200 countries, speaking more than 7,000 languages, coming together in common dialogue through the suddenly burgeoning web community.... Read more
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OpenAI bans bot impersonating US presidential candidate
ChatGPT creator OpenAI removed a bot impersonating a longshot US presidential candidate's voice, enforcing limits on how political campaigns can use its AI capabilities.... Read more
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Researchers propose new scheme for Internet of Things that uses fog computing
Researchers from RUDN University have proposed a new scheme for the Internet of Things network. It uses flying drones that process data instead of cloud data centers, which speeds up the network. The results were published in Drones.... Read more
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YouTube's MrBeast posts video on Musk's X
YouTube sensation MrBeast posted a full video on Elon Musk's X for the first time this week, giving the struggling social media platform a boost.... Read more
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Microsoft expands Office AI Copilot to consumers, smaller companies
Microsoft Corp. is opening up its artificial intelligence assistant to consumers and making the corporate version available to smaller companies as it tries to increase the number of paying customers for the new services.... Read more
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OpenAI to launch anti-disinformation tools for 2024 elections
ChatGPT maker OpenAI has said it will introduce tools to combat disinformation ahead of the dozens of elections this year in countries that are home to half the world's population.... Read more
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Data brokers know everything about you—what the FTC case against ad tech giant Kochava reveals
Kochava, the self-proclaimed industry leader in mobile app data analytics, is locked in a legal battle with the Federal Trade Commission in a case that could lead to big changes in the global data marketplace and in Congress' approach to artificial intelligence and data privacy.... Read more
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Canada should not fall behind on implementing safety measures for children online, says researcher
Recent legislation about age verification for adult content sites has sparked an interesting scenario in the Canadian parliament. On Dec. 13, Bill S-210, An Act to restrict young persons' online access to sexually explicit material, passed the second reading in the House of Commons with a vote of 189 to... Read more