FTX fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried sentenced to 25 years in prison
Enlarge / FTX Founder Sam Bankman-Fried arrives at US District Court on March 30, 2023, in New York City after…
Category: Legal Law
Biden orders every US agency to appoint a chief AI officer
The White House has announced the “first government-wide policy to mitigate risks of artificial intelligence (AI) and harness its benefits.”…
Starlink mobile plans hit snag as FCC dismisses SpaceX spectrum application
Enlarge / A Starlink user terminal during winter. Getty Images | AntaresNS Starlink’s mobile ambitions were dealt at least a…
Pornhub prepared to block Florida if child safety law takes effect
Aurich Lawson | Getty Images This week, Florida made headlines after passing HB 3, a law banning children under 14…
SCOTUS mifepristone case: Justices focus on anti-abortion groups’ legal standing
Enlarge / Demonstrators participate in an abortion-rights rally outside the Supreme Court as the justices of the court hear oral…
Florida braces for lawsuits over law banning kids from social media
On Monday, Florida became the first state to ban kids under 14 from social media without parental permission. It appears…
Justice Department indicts 7 accused in 14-year hack campaign by Chinese gov
peterschreiber.media | Getty Images The US Justice Department on Monday unsealed an indictment charging seven men with hacking or attempting…
Lawsuit from Elon Musk’s X against anti-hate speech group dismissed by US judge
Getty Images | Dan Kitwood A US judge has struck down a lawsuit brought by X against a nonprofit group…
US sues Apple, alleging it illegally monopolized the smartphone market
Enlarge / Apple CEO Tim Cook leaving the US Capitol building on Thursday, September 14, 2023, in Washington, DC. Getty…
After appeal to Musk, X suspends accounts that outed neo-Nazi cartoonist
iStock/Getty Images X has locked and suspended the accounts of journalists and researchers who shared the alleged identity of a…
Apple’s green message bubbles draw wrath of US attorney general
Getty Images | NurPhoto The US Department of Justice is angry about green message bubbles. Announcing today’s antitrust lawsuit against…
Reddit faces new reality after cashing in on its IPO
Enlarge / Steve Huffman, u/spez on Reddit, sold 500,000 of his shares in Reddit’s IPO on Thursday AFP via Getty…
Users shocked to find Instagram limits political content by default
Instagram users have started complaining on X (formerly Twitter) after discovering that Meta has begun limiting recommended political content by…
Cable ISP fined $10,000 for lying to FCC about where it offers broadband
Enlarge / “Yes, we offer Internet at your address.” An Internet service provider that admitted lying to the Federal Communications…
World’s first global AI resolution unanimously adopted by United Nations
Enlarge / The United Nations building in New York. On Thursday, the United Nations General Assembly unanimously consented to adopt…
SBF repeatedly lied to get out of “supervillain” prison term, FTX CEO alleges
Enlarge / FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried (R) departs Manhattan Federal Court after an arraignment hearing on March 30, 2023, in…
Michael Cohen loses court motion after lawyer cited AI-invented cases
Enlarge / Michael Cohen, former personal lawyer to former US President Donald Trump, arrives at federal court in New York…
FCC bans cable TV industry’s favorite trick for hiding full cost of service
Getty Images | stefanamer Cable and satellite TV companies must start advertising “all-in” prices instead of using hidden fees to…
Users ditch Glassdoor, stunned by site adding real names without consent
Glassdoor, where employees go to leave anonymous reviews of employers, has recently begun adding real names to user profiles without…
Supreme Court skeptical about restricting Biden contacts with social networks
Enlarge / Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor arrive for President Joe Biden’s State of…
Dell tells remote workers that they won’t be eligible for promotion
Starting in May, Dell employees who are fully remote will not be eligible for promotion, Business Insider (BI) reported Saturday.…
Tesla settles with Black worker after $3.2 million verdict in racism lawsuit
Enlarge / Tesla cars sit in a parking lot at the company’s factory in Fremont, California on October 19, 2022.…
“Overwhelming evidence” shows Craig Wright did not create bitcoin, judge says
Enlarge / Dr. Craig Wright arrives at the Rolls Building, part of the Royal Courts of Justice, on February 06,…
“Really bad timing”: Meta is killing misinformation analysis tool on August 14
Meta is discontinuing data analysis tool CrowdTangle on August 14. The closure will come three months ahead of the next…
US government agencies demand fixable ice cream machines
Enlarge / Taylor’s C709 Soft Serve Freezer isn’t so much mechanically complicated as it is a software and diagnostic trap…
Public officials can block haters—but only sometimes, SCOTUS rules
There are some circumstances where government officials are allowed to block people from commenting on their social media pages, the…
Security footage of Boeing repair before door-plug blowout was overwritten
Enlarge / National Transportation Safety Board Chair Jennifer Homendy testifies about the Boeing door-plug investigation before the Senate Commerce, Science,…
Pornhub blocks all of Texas to protest state law—Paxton says “good riddance”
Enlarge / Signs displayed at the Pornhub booth at the 2024 AVN Adult Entertainment Expo at Resorts World Las Vegas…
FCC scraps old speed benchmark, says broadband should be at least 100Mbps
Getty Images | Yuichiro Chino The Federal Communications Commission today voted to raise its Internet speed benchmark for the first…
ByteDance unlikely to sell TikTok, as former Trump official plots purchase
Aurich Lawson | Getty Images Pool Former US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is reportedly assembling an investor group to buy…
Bitcoin Fog operator convicted of laundering $400M in bitcoins on darknet
A US federal jury has convicted a dual Russian-Swedish national, Roman Sterlingov, for operating Bitcoin Fog, “the longest-running bitcoin money…
Meta sues “brazenly disloyal” former exec over stolen confidential docs
A recently unsealed court filing has revealed that Meta has sued a former senior employee for “brazenly disloyal and dishonest…
IRS has launched its free tax filing service, Direct File, in 12 states
Enlarge / Internal Revenue Service (IRS) headquarters building on January 30, 2024, in Washington, DC. Getty Images | J. David…
What Role Do Non-Disparagement Clauses Play in Constructive Dismissal Cases?
Constructive Dismissal Cases Oftentimes, when a company lays off employees, they’ll offer those workers severance pay and other benefits. In…
Some states are now trying to ban lab-grown meat
Enlarge / Cell-cultivated chicken is made in the pictured tanks at the Eat Just office on July 27, 2023, in…
50 injured on Boeing 787 as “strong shake” reportedly sent heads into ceiling
Enlarge / A LATAM Airlines Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner taxiing at Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport in Chile on March 20,…
Texas can require age-verification on porn sites, 5th Circuit judges rule
Getty Images | PA Thompson Texas can enforce a law requiring age-verification systems on porn websites, the US Court of…
On DMA eve, Google whines, Apple sounds alarms, and TikTok wants out
Aurich Lawson | Getty Images For months, some of the biggest tech companies have been wrapped up in discussions with…
Law enforcement doesn’t want to be “customer service” reps for Meta any more
Enlarge / Meta has a verified program for users of Facebook and Instagram. Getty Images | Chesnot Forty-one state attorneys…
Russia’s Starlink use sparks probe into SpaceX compliance with US sanctions
Enlarge / A Starlink terminal used by the Ukraine army for drone operations in May 2023. Getty Images | Pacific…
Florida middle-schoolers charged with making deepfake nudes of classmates
Jacqui VanLiew; Getty Images Two teenage boys from Miami, Florida, were arrested in December for allegedly creating and sharing AI-generated…
Tesla drivers who sued over exaggerated EV range are forced into arbitration
Enlarge / Tesla Superchargers. Getty Images | NurPhoto Tesla drivers who say the carmaker “grossly” exaggerated the ranges of its…
“Disgraceful”: Messy ToS update allegedly locks Roku devices until users give in
Enlarge / A promotional image for a Roku TV. Roku customers are threatening to stop using, or to even dispose…
US lawmakers vote 50-0 to force sale of TikTok despite angry calls from users
Enlarge / TikTok ad at a Metro station in Washington, DC on March 30, 2023. Getty Images | Bloomberg The…
US gov’t announces arrest of former Google engineer for alleged AI trade secret theft
Enlarge / A Google sign stands in front of the building on the sidelines of the opening of the new…
Microsoft accused of selling AI tool that spews violent, sexual images to kids
Microsoft’s AI text-to-image generator Copilot Designer appears to be heavily filtering outputs after a Microsoft engineer, Shane Jones, warned that…
Spain tells Sam Altman, Worldcoin to shut down its eyeball-scanning orbs
Enlarge / Worldcoin’s “Orb,” a device that scans your eyeballs to verify that you’re a real human. Spain has moved…
Microsoft argues Supreme Court’s VCR ruling should doom NYT’s OpenAI lawsuit
Getty Images | Aliaksandr Litviniuk Microsoft urged a federal court to dismiss part of The New York Times’ copyright lawsuit…
Oregon OKs right-to-repair bill that bans the blocking of aftermarket parts
Getty Images Oregon has joined the small but growing list of states that have passed right-to-repair legislation. Oregon’s bill stands…
Discord leaker Jack Teixeira pleads guilty, seeks light 11-year sentence
Enlarge / This photo illustration created on April 13, 2023, shows the Discord logo and the suspect, national guardsman Jack…
SBF asks for 5-year prison sentence, calls 100-year recommendation “grotesque”
Enlarge / Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried arrives for a bail hearing at US District Court on August 11, 2023,…
A big boost to Europe’s climate-change goals
Enlarge / Materials such as steel, cement, aluminum, electricity, fertilizer, hydrogen, and iron will soon be subject to greenhouse gas…
X quietly revived anti-misgendering policy that Musk dropped last year
Last April, Twitter quietly edited its abuse and harassment policy to no longer explicitly ban deadnaming (calling transgender people by…
Elon Musk sues OpenAI and Sam Altman, accusing them of chasing profits
Elon Musk has sued OpenAI and its chief executive Sam Altman for breach of contract, alleging they have compromised the…
WhatsApp finally forces Pegasus spyware maker to share its secret code
WhatsApp will soon be granted access to explore the “full functionality” of the NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware—sophisticated malware the Israeli…
Report: Boeing may reacquire Spirit at higher price despite hating optics
Amid safety scandals involving “many loose bolts” and widespread problems with Boeing’s 737 Max 9s, Boeing is apparently considering buying…
Judge mocks X for “vapid” argument in Musk’s hate speech lawsuit
It looks like Elon Musk may lose X’s lawsuit against hate speech researchers who encouraged a major brand boycott after…
Tesla must face racism class action from 6,000 Black workers, judge rules
Enlarge / Tesla factory in Fremont, California, on September 18, 2023. Getty Images | Justin Sullivan Tesla must face a…
CenturyLink left customers without Internet for 39 days—until Ars stepped in
Aurich Lawson | Getty Images When a severe winter storm hit Oregon on January 13, Nicholas Brown’s CenturyLink fiber Internet…
Amazon refuses to pay screenwriter for the right to reboot Road House
The screenwriter who penned the original screenplay for the 1989 cult classic film Road House, R. Lance Hill, is suing…
Judge issues restraining order keeping DOE from tracking bitcoin miners
Earlier this month, the US Department of Energy (DOE) announced its intention to gather basic information about the energy consumed…
OpenAI accuses NYT of hacking ChatGPT to set up copyright suit
OpenAI is now boldly claiming that The New York Times “paid someone to hack OpenAI’s products” like ChatGPT to “set…
Unsealed court doc shows why Apple rejected Microsoft’s offer to buy Bing
After failing for almost a decade to convince Apple to ditch Google and set Bing as Safari’s default search engine,…
Kagan: Florida social media law seems like “classic First Amendment violation”
Enlarge / The Supreme Court of the United States in Washington D.C. in May 2023. Getty Images | NurPhoto The…
Reddit admits more moderator protests could hurt its business
Reddit filed to go public on Thursday (PDF), revealing various details of the social media company’s inner workings. Among the…
India’s plan to let 1998 digital trade deal expire may worsen chip shortage
India’s plan to let a moratorium on imposing customs duties on cross-border digital e-commerce transactions expire may end up hurting…
How your sensitive data can be sold after a data broker goes bankrupt
In 2021, a company specializing in collecting and selling location data called Near bragged that it was “The World’s Largest…
Avast ordered to stop selling browsing data from its browsing privacy apps
Getty Images Avast, a name known for its security research and antivirus apps, has long offered Chrome extensions, mobile apps,…
Yelp: It’s gotten worse since Google made changes to comply with EU rules
Anjali Nair; Getty Images To comply with looming rules that ban tech giants from favoring their own services, Google has…
Vending machine error reveals secret face image database of college students
Aurich Lawson | Mars | Getty Images Canada-based University of Waterloo is racing to remove M&M-branded smart vending machines from…
Snapchat isn’t liable for connecting 12-year-old to convicted sex offenders
A judge has dismissed a complaint from a parent and guardian of a girl, now 15, who was sexually assaulted…
ISPs keep giving false broadband coverage data to the FCC, groups say
Getty Images | Andrey Denisyuk Internet service providers are still providing false coverage information to the Federal Communications Commission, and…
Report: 75K loyal Redditors can snag shares before Reddit goes public
Thousands of the most dedicated Reddit users will have a chance to snag shares when the company goes public in…
Twitter security staff kept firm in compliance by disobeying Musk, FTC says
Enlarge / Elon Musk at the New York Times DealBook Summit on November 29, 2023, in New York City. Getty…
Musk claims Neuralink patient doing OK with implant, can move mouse with brain
Enlarge / A Neuralink implant. Neuralink Neuralink co-founder Elon Musk said the first human to be implanted with the company’s…
Court blocks $1 billion copyright ruling that punished ISP for its users’ piracy
Getty Images | OcusFocus A federal appeals court today overturned a $1 billion piracy verdict that a jury handed down…
LockBit ransomware group taken down in multinational operation
Law enforcement agencies including the FBI and the UK’s National Crime Agency have dealt a crippling blow to LockBit, one…
EU accuses TikTok of failing to stop kids pretending to be adults
The European Commission (EC) is concerned that TikTok isn’t doing enough to protect kids, alleging that the short-video app may…
Report: Apple is about to be fined €500 million by the EU over music streaming
Brussels is to impose its first-ever fine on tech giant Apple for allegedly breaking EU law over access to its…
Apple’s iMessage is not a “core platform” in EU, so it can stay walled off
Getty Images Apple’s iMessage service is not a “gatekeeper” prone to unfair business practices and will thus not be required…
How a musician accused of fraud got his music back on Spotify, iTunes
Enlarge / Musician Benn Jordan, who performs under the alias The Flashbulb, successfully defended his music against streaming fraud allegations.…
Air Canada must honor refund policy invented by airline’s chatbot
After months of resisting, Air Canada was forced to give a partial refund to a grieving passenger who was misled…
Apple disables iPhone web apps in EU, says it’s too hard to comply with rules
Getty Images | NurPhoto Apple is removing the ability to install home screen web apps from iPhones and iPads in…
Elon Musk’s X allows China-based propaganda banned on other platforms
Lax content moderation on X (aka Twitter) has disrupted coordinated efforts between social media companies and law enforcement to tamp…
Twitter front-end Nitter dies as Musk wins war against third-party services
Aurich Lawson | Getty Images An open source project that let people view tweets without going to Twitter.com has shut…
AMC to pay $8M for allegedly violating 1988 law with use of Meta Pixel
On Thursday, AMC notified subscribers of a proposed $8.3 million settlement that provides awards to an estimated 6 million subscribers…
Backdoors that let cops decrypt messages violate human rights, EU court says
Enlarge / Building of the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg (France). The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR)…
Musk’s X sold checkmarks to Hezbollah and other terrorist groups, report says
Getty Images | NurPhoto A watchdog group’s investigation found that terrorist group Hezbollah and other US-sanctioned entities have accounts with…
Cryptocurrency maker sues former Ars reporter for writing about fraud lawsuit
Enlarge / Image from Bitcoin Latinum’s website Bitcoin Latinum The cryptocurrency firm Bitcoin Latinum has sued journalists at Forbes and…
Judge rejects most ChatGPT copyright claims from book authors
A US district judge in California has largely sided with OpenAI, dismissing the majority of claims raised by authors alleging…
Court orders Elon Musk to testify for SEC, rejects his claim of “harassment”
Enlarge / Elon Musk leaves court in San Francisco, California Jan. 24, 2023. Getty Images | Bloomberg A federal court…
Amazon hides cheaper items with faster delivery, lawsuit alleges
Amazon rigged its platform to “routinely” push an overwhelming majority of customers to pay more for items that could’ve been…
Russian forces now using Musk’s Starlink on Ukraine front line
Enlarge / Ukraine’s GUR military intelligence unit made its claim following multiple reports in recent days that Russian forces are…
US funds $5B chip effort after lagging on semiconductor innovation
Enlarge / US President Joe Biden speaks before signing the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022. The Biden administration announced…
Reddit beats film industry again, won’t have to reveal pirates’ IP addresses
Getty Images | NurPhoto Movie companies have lost a third attempt to unmask Reddit users who posted comments discussing piracy.…
Over a decade later, climate scientist prevails in libel case
Enlarge / Climate scientist Michael Mann. This is a story I had sporadically wondered whether I’d ever have the chance…
Female ex-exec told she lacked “docility and meekness” sues TikTok
One of TikTok’s senior-most female executives, Katie Ellen Puris, is suing TikTok and its owner ByteDance, alleging wrongful termination based…
Canada declares Flipper Zero public enemy No. 1 in crackdown on car theft
Enlarge / A Flipper Zero device https://flipperzero.one/ Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has identified an unlikely public enemy No. 1…
Some Calif. cops still sharing license plate info with anti-abortion states
Dozens of California police agencies are still sharing automated license plate reader (ALPR) data with out-of-state authorities without a warrant,…
These states are basically begging you to get a heat pump
Death is coming for the old-school gas furnace—and its killer is the humble heat pump. They’re already outselling gas furnaces…
Cable TV companies tell FCC: Early termination fees are good, actually
Getty Images | Jeffrey Coolidge Cable and satellite TV companies are defending their early termination fees (ETFs) in hopes of…
Texas firm allegedly behind fake Biden robocall that told people not to vote
Enlarge / US President Joe Biden speaks on the phone in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington,…
Large cryptocurrency miners in US now have to report energy use to government
Enlarge / A worker installs a row of new mining machines at the largest bitcoin mining facility in the US,…
Four bolts were missing from Boeing 737 before door plug blew off, NTSB says
Enlarge / Rows 25 and 26 in the Boeing plane that lost a door plug during flight. NTSB Four important…
EU right to repair: Sellers will be liable for a year after products are fixed
Getty Images | SimpleImages Europe’s right-to-repair rules will force vendors to stand by their products an extra 12 months after…
4chan daily challenge sparked deluge of explicit AI Taylor Swift images
4chan users who have made a game out of exploiting popular AI image generators appear to be at least partly…
Elon Musk’s $56 billion pay plan voided as shareholders beat Tesla in court
Aurich Lawson / Duncan Hull / Getty Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s $55.8 billion pay package was unfair to the electric…
Zuckerberg says sorry for Meta harming kids—but rejects payments to families
Enlarge / Mark Zuckerberg discussed Meta’s approaches to child safety at the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing January 31, 2024. During…
Comcast reluctantly agrees to stop its misleading “10G Network” claims
Comcast Comcast has reluctantly agreed to discontinue its “Xfinity 10G Network” brand name after losing an appeal of a ruling…
eBay to pay $59M after DOJ ties pill press sales to fentanyl drug rings
eBay has agreed to pay $59 million after the US Department of Justice accused the online marketplace of selling thousands…
Elon Musk proposes Tesla move to Texas after Delaware judge voids $56 billion pay
Enlarge / Tesla CEO Elon Musk speaks at Tesla’s “Cyber Rodeo” on April 7, 2022, in Austin, Texas. Getty Images…
How does the duty of good faith apply in wrongful dismissal cases?
apply in wrongful dismissal cases The sudden loss of a job is a traumatic experience for many people, and it…
Republicans in Congress try to kill FCC’s broadband discrimination rules
Enlarge / US Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.) speaks to the press on June 13, 2023, in Washington, DC. Getty Images…
FCC to declare AI-generated voices in robocalls illegal under existing law
Getty Images | Thamrongpat Theerathammakorn The Federal Communications Commission plans to vote on making the use of AI-generated voices in…
Cops arrest 17-year-old suspected of hundreds of swattings nationwide
Enlarge / Booking photo of Alan Filion, charged with multiple felonies connected to a “swatting” incident at the Masjid Al…
Exploring Reddit’s third-party app environment 7 months after the APIcalypse
Last year, Reddit sparked massive controversy when it dramatically changed the prices and rules associated with accessing its API. The…
Cops bogged down by flood of fake AI child sex images, report says
Law enforcement is continuing to warn that a “flood” of AI-generated fake child sex images is making it harder to…
SIM-swapping ring stole $400M in crypto from a US company, officials allege
The US may have uncovered the nation’s largest “SIM swap” scheme yet, charging a Chicago man and co-conspirators with allegedly…
Lawsuit: Citibank refused to reimburse scam victims who lost “life savings”
Enlarge / The Citibank logo on a bank in New York City in January 2024. Citibank has illegally refused to…
Amazon’s $1.4B Roomba bid fails, leading to iRobot layoffs and CEO resignation
Getty Images Amazon will no longer pursue a $1.4 billion acquisition of iRobot, maker of Roomba robot vacuums after the…
Apple warns proposed UK law will affect software updates around the world
Apple is “deeply concerned” that proposed changes to a United Kingdom law could give the UK government unprecedented power to…
HP CEO evokes James Bond-style hack via ink cartridges
Last Thursday, HP CEO Enrique Lores addressed the company’s controversial practice of bricking printers when users load them with third-party…
Google and AT&T invest in Starlink rival for satellite-to-smartphone service
Enlarge / Illustration of AST SpaceMobile’s cellular satellite. AST SpaceMobile Google, AT&T, and Vodafone are investing $206.5 million in AST…
Republicans in 20 states urge Supreme Court to uphold state social media laws
Getty Images | OsakaWayne Studios Republican officials from 20 states, including 19 state attorneys general, are backing Florida and Texas…
Mugger take your phone? Cash apps too easily let thieves drain accounts, DA says
Popular apps like Venmo, Zelle, and Cash App aren’t doing enough to protect consumers from fraud that occurs when unauthorized…
Instagram stops letting random accounts send messages to teenagers
Some teens will now have their Facebook and Instagram accounts defaulted to a setting that blocks strangers from sending direct…
NSA finally admits to spying on Americans by purchasing sensitive data
The National Security Agency (NSA) has admitted to buying records from data brokers detailing which websites and apps Americans use,…
Facebook suffers big loss in lawsuit against data-scraping company
Getty Images | NurPhoto One year after Meta sued a data-scraping company, a federal judge this week threw out Meta’s…
X can’t stop spread of explicit, fake AI Taylor Swift images
Explicit, fake AI-generated images sexualizing Taylor Swift began circulating online this week, quickly sparking mass outrage that may finally force…
eBay lays off 1,000 employees, about 9 percent of full-time workforce
Getty Images | Justin Sullivan eBay is laying off approximately 1,000 employees in a move that reduces its full-time workforce…
Amazon Ring stops letting police request footage in Neighbors app after outcry
Amazon Ring has shut down a controversial feature in its community safety app Neighbors that has allowed police to contact…
Stop telling everyone that TurboTax is “free,” FTC orders Intuit
Getty Images | Bloomberg The Federal Trade Commission yesterday ruled that TurboTax maker Intuit violated US law with deceptive advertising…
Patreon: Blocking platforms from sharing user video data is unconstitutional
Patreon, a monetization platform for content creators, has asked a federal judge to deem unconstitutional a rarely invoked law that…
Meta relents to EU, allows unlinking of Facebook and Instagram accounts
Meta will allow some Facebook and Instagram users to unlink their accounts as part of the platform’s efforts to comply…
Robocall with artificial Joe Biden voice tells Democrats not to vote
Enlarge / President Joe Biden at a Rose Garden event at the White House on May 1, 2023, in Washington,…
Cable firms to FTC: We shouldn’t have to let users cancel service with a click
Getty Images | RoyalFive Lobbyists for cable companies and advertisers yesterday expressed their displeasure with a proposed “click-to-cancel” regulation that…
Apple lets devs use alternate in-app payment options, still takes commissions
Getty Images | NurPhoto A chapter in the ongoing Epic v. Apple court case closed yesterday when the US Supreme…
Supreme Court may overturn precedent governing climate regulations
Getty Images | Rudy Sulgan The Supreme Court on Wednesday heard arguments for overturning the so-called Chevron doctrine, one of…
FCC chair defends broadband discounts for poor people against Republican attack
Enlarge / FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel at a Senate subcommittee hearing on September 19, 2023 in Washington, DC. Getty Images…
Fujitsu bugs that sent innocent people to prison were known “from the start”
Enlarge / Paul Patterson, co-CEO of Fujitsu’s European division, testifies for a public inquiry in London on January 19, 2024.…
Amazon’s purchase of Roomba-maker iRobot likely to be blocked by EU
Getty Images | SOPA Images European Union regulators intend to block Amazon’s attempt to purchase Roomba-maker iRobot, The Wall Street…
Apple Watch no longer sold with blood oxygen monitoring after patent battle loss
Enlarge / The Apple Watch Ultra 2. Apple Starting today, if you buy an Apple Watch Series 9 or Watch…
TSMC predicts delays, less advanced chips at second Arizona fab
Enlarge / US President Joe Biden speaks during a “First Tool-In” ceremony at the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. facility under…
How a 27-year-old busted the myth of Bitcoin’s anonymity
Sam Rodriguez JUST OVER A DECADE AGO, Bitcoin appeared to many of its adherents to be the crypto-anarchist holy grail:…
Teen sued Utah over social media law requiring curfew for minors
Enlarge / Utah high school student Hannah Zoulek sued Utah to block the Social Media Regulation Act from taking effect…
Chrome updates Incognito warning to admit Google tracks users in “private” mode
Getty Images | Anadolu Google is updating the warning on Chrome’s Incognito mode to make it clear that Google and…
Climate denialists find new ways to monetize disinformation on YouTube
Content creators have spent the past five years developing new tactics to evade YouTube’s policies blocking monetization of videos making…
Meta verification proved useless—and my family is still locked out of Instagram
Enlarge / Meta has a verified program for users of Facebook and Instagram. Getty Images | Chesnot The trouble began…
Verizon won’t stop charging $3.30 “Telco Recovery” fee, may raise it again
Enlarge / A Verizon store in New York on July 3, 2023. Getty Images | Bloomberg Verizon Wireless customers may…
Actor paid to pose as crypto CEO “deeply sorry” about $1.3 billion scam
Enlarge / A screenshot from Jack Gamble’s video outing Stephen Harrison as HyperVerse’s fake CEO, posted on Gamble’s “Nobody Special…
“Such signal, much wow”: Starlink’s first texts via “cellphone towers in space”
Enlarge / Starlink satellites with direct-to-cell capability. SpaceX SpaceX is showing off the first text messages sent between T-Mobile phones…
Child abusers are covering their tracks with better use of crypto
For those who trade in child sexual exploitation images and videos in the darkest recesses of the Internet, cryptocurrency has…
EPA expands “high priority” probe into AT&T, Verizon lead-contaminated cables
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is expanding its investigation into potential risks posed by lead-covered cables installed nationwide by major…
Reddit must share IP addresses of piracy-discussing users, film studios say
For the third time in less than a year, film studios with copyright infringement complaints against a cable Internet provider…
eBay hit with $3M fine, admits to “terrorizing innocent people”
eBay has agreed to pay $3 million—the maximum criminal penalty possible—after employees harassed, intimidated, and stalked a Massachusetts couple in…
Report: Deepfake porn consistently found atop Google, Bing search results
Popular search engines like Google and Bing are making it easy to surface nonconsensual deepfake pornography by placing it at…
US judge blocks Ohio Republicans’ “troublingly vague” social media law
Getty Images | Matt Cardy A federal judge blocked an Ohio state law that would prevent minors from using social…
Amazon lays off 500 Twitch employees, hundreds more at MGM and Prime Video
Getty Images | NurPhoto Amazon today is laying off 500 employees at Twitch and several hundred more at its MGM…
SEC says X account was hacked as false post causes bitcoin price swings
Getty Images | Chesnot The Securities and Exchange Commission’s X account was hacked yesterday and briefly displayed a post falsely…
Facebook, Instagram block teens from sensitive content, even from friends
Meta has begun hiding sensitive content from teenagers under the age of 18 on Facebook and Instagram, a company blog…
Consumer group wants to end $255M “gift card loophole” for Starbucks and others
Enlarge / Starbucks’ Rewards programs are a key part of their revenue. How the company deals with unspent amounts in…
Elon Musk drops price of X gold checks amid rampant crypto scams
There’s currently a surge in cryptocurrency and phishing scams proliferating on X (formerly Twitter)—hiding under the guise of gold and…
23andMe told victims of data breach that suing is futile, letter shows
23andMe is “shamelessly” blaming victims of a data breach impacting 6.9 million users, a lawyer representing victims pursuing a class-action…
TurboTax maker Intuit’s $100 million tax credits challenged by US lawmakers
Getty Images | SOPA Images TurboTax maker Intuit’s tax breaks are being questioned by four US lawmakers who object to…
Crypto hedge fund CEO may not exist; probe finds no record of identity
Enlarge / A still from a HyperVerse video featuring CEO Steven Reece Lewis. For years, rumors spread on social media…
SpaceX charged with illegally firing workers behind anti-Musk open letter
Enlarge / Elon Musk speaks with members of the media at the AI Safety Summit on November 1, 2023 in…
Vizio settles for $3M after saying 60 Hz TVs had 120 Hz “effective refresh rate”
Enlarge / A marketing image for Vizio’s P-series Q9 TV. Vizio has agreed to pay $3 million to settle a…
Since Elon Musk’s Twitter purchase, firm reportedly lost 72% of its value
Getty Images | DNY59 Fidelity’s latest valuation of its stake in X implies that Elon Musk’s social network is worth…
FDA would like to stop finding Viagra in supplements sold on Amazon
If you were to search for a product called “Mens Maximum Energy Supplement” on Amazon, you’d be bombarded with everything…
Google agrees to settle Chrome incognito mode class action lawsuit
Getty Images Google has indicated that it is ready to settle a class-action lawsuit filed in 2020 over its Chrome…
NY Times sues Open AI, Microsoft over copyright infringement
Enlarge / Microsoft is named in the suit for allegedly building the system that allowed GPT derivatives to be trained…
Elon Musk will see you in court: The top Twitter and X Corp. lawsuits of 2023
Enlarge / Elon Musk speaks at the Atreju political convention organized by Fratelli d’Italia (Brothers of Italy) on December 15,…
Cable lobby and Republicans fight proposed ban on early termination fees
Getty Images | RoyalFive The Federal Communications Commission has taken a step toward prohibiting early termination fees charged by cable…
Adobe gives up on $20 billion acquisition of Figma
Adobe has abandoned its proposed $20 billion acquisition of product design software company Figma, as there was “no clear path…
US agency tasked with curbing risks of AI lacks funding to do the job
Aurich / Getty US president Joe Biden’s plan for containing the dangers of artificial intelligencealready risks being derailed by congressional…
Banks use your deposits to loan money to fossil-fuel, emissions-heavy firms
When you drop money in the bank, it looks like it’s just sitting there, ready for you to withdraw. In…
Binance to pay $2.7 billion fine after hiding shady transactions from feds
Enlarge / Founder and CEO of Binance Changpeng Zhao, commonly known as “CZ,” in May 10, 2022, in Rome, Italy.…
FTC suggests new rules to shift parents’ burden of protecting kids to websites
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is currently seeking comments on new rules that would further restrict platforms’ efforts to monetize…
Child sex abuse images found in dataset training image generators, report says
More than 1,000 known child sexual abuse materials (CSAM) were found in a large open dataset—known as LAION-5B—that was used…
EU will hold 3 major porn sites to same regulations as Meta, X
ToolX via Getty Images Three of the world’s biggest pornography sites will be hit with new regulatory curbs including stricter…
Republicans slam broadband discounts for poor people, threaten to kill program
Enlarge / Senate Minority Whip John Thune (R-S.D.) speaks to reporters after the weekly Senate Republican caucus lunch on November…
Google’s loss to Epic Games leads to $700M settlement with users, states
After Epic Games proved that Google’s Android app store monopoly violates antitrust law, Google has agreed to pay a $700…
Disgraced Nikola founder Trevor Milton gets 4-year sentence for lying about EVs
Enlarge / Trevor Milton, founder of Nikola Corp., arrives at court in New York on Monday, Dec. 18, 2023. Milton…
Musk’s X hit with EU’s first investigation of Digital Services Act violations
Getty Images | Chris Delmas The European Union has opened a formal investigation into whether Elon Musk’s X platform (formerly…
Judge rejects Elon Musk’s attempt to avoid testifying in Twitter stock probe
Getty Images | Bet_Noire Elon Musk can’t avoid testifying in an investigation into whether he violated federal securities laws, a…
TikTok requires users to “forever waive” rights to sue over past harms
Some TikTok users may have skipped reviewing an update to TikTok’s terms of service this summer that shakes up the process…
Twitch quickly reverses policy that “went too far” allowing nudity
Just two days after updating its policy to allow for more nudity, Twitch has announced that it’s immediately “rolling back…
This “smoking gun” killed the McDonald’s ice cream hackers’ startup
A little over three years have passed since McDonald’s sent out an email to thousands of its restaurant owners around…
Marketer sparks panic with claims it uses smart devices to eavesdrop on people
We’ve all experienced it or heard about it happening: Someone has a conversation about wanting a red jacket, and then…
Elon Musk told bankers they wouldn’t lose any money on Twitter purchase
Elon Musk privately told some of the bankers who lent him $13 billion to fund his leveraged buyout of Twitter…
Suspects can refuse to provide phone passcodes to police, court rules
Getty Images | releon8211 Criminal suspects can refuse to provide phone passcodes to police under the US Constitution’s Fifth Amendment…
SpaceX blasts FCC as it refuses to reinstate Starlink’s $886 million grant
Enlarge / Starlink satellite dish. Getty Images | olegda88 SpaceX is furious at the Federal Communications Commission after the agency…
Trains were designed to break down after third-party repairs, hackers find
Enlarge / Dragon Sector uploaded a video to social media after discovering an “undocumented ‘unlock code’ which you could enter…
CVS, Rite Aid, Walgreens hand out medical records to cops without warrants
All of the big pharmacy chains in the US hand over sensitive medical records to law enforcement without a warrant—and…
Ted Cruz wants to stop the FCC from updating data-breach notification rules
Enlarge / Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Thursday, November 30, 2023. Getty Images |…
Tesla again threatens to sue Cybertruck buyers who try to resell the cars
Enlarge / Tesla Cybertruck displayed at Lincoln Center in New York. Getty Images | Roman Tiraspolsky Tesla has revived a…
Google’s Android app store monopoly violates antitrust law, jury finds
Enlarge / Artist’s conception of Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney jumping for joy at news of the verdict. Epic Games…
YouTuber pilot regrets intentionally crashing plane, gets 6 months in prison
Trevor Jacob, a 30-year-old YouTuber pilot who intentionally crashed his plane to drive up views on a sponsored video, has…
Apple admits to secretly giving governments push notification data
Governments have been secretly tracking the app activity of an unknown number of people using Apple and Google smartphones, US…
Cable lobby to FCC: Please don’t look too closely at the prices we charge
Getty Images | imagedepotpro The US broadband industry is protesting a Federal Communications Commission plan to measure the affordability of…