Europe is scaling back its landmark privacy and AI laws
Europe is scaling back its landmark privacy and AI laws After years of staring down the world’s biggest tech companies and setting the bar for tough regulation worldwide, Europe has blinked. Under intense pressure from industry and the US government, Brussels is stripping protections from its flagship General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) — including simplifying […]
Your online reservations are telling restaurants all about you
Your online reservations are telling restaurants all about you Are you a red wine drinker? A high spender? Or perhaps you’re a slow eater, the sort who takes up a restaurant’s table for longer than they’d like. You might not even know – but OpenTable does. Those are just a few of the notes that […]
Privacy laws can’t keep up with ‘luxury surveillance’
Privacy laws can't keep up with 'luxury surveillance' With Meta’s new range of smart glasses, Mark Zuckerberg is pitching a vision of the future that sci-fi authors have been warning about for decades – one where privacy is truly dead, and everyone is recording everyone else at all times. This in itself is nothing new. […]
‘There isn’t really another choice:’ Signal chief explains why the encrypted messenger relies on AWS
'There isn't really another choice:' Signal chief explains why the encrypted messenger relies on AWS After last week’s major Amazon Web Services (AWS) outage took Signal along with it, Elon Musk was quick to criticize the encrypted messaging app’s reliance on big tech. But Signal president Meredith Whittaker argues that the company didn’t have any […]
The rise of “catch a cheater” apps exploits our worst human tendencies
The rise of "catch a cheater" apps exploits our worst human tendencies When people sign up for a dating site like Tinder, they don’t expect their profiles and personal information to be searchable – especially by a scorned lover, or worse. But that’s what popular apps like Cheaterbuster or CheatEye seem to be doing under […]
Welcome to the ‘papers, please’ internet
Welcome to the 'papers, please' internet This is The Stepback, a weekly newsletter breaking down one essential story from the tech world. For more on the downward spiral of the internet, follow Adi Robertson. The Stepback arrives in our subscribers’ inboxes at 8AM ET. Opt in for The Stepback here. How it started Back in […]
Apple pulls ICEBlock from the App Store
Apple pulls ICEBlock from the App Store Apple has removed the “Waze but for ICE sightings” app ICEBlock from its App Store, as reported previously by Business Insider. A post from its developer relayed Apple’s App Review message about the ban, saying, “We just received a message from Apple’s App Review that #ICEBlock has been […]
Adam Mosseri’s ‘we’re totally not spying on you’ video is raising a lot of questions
Adam Mosseri's 'we're totally not spying on you' video is raising a lot of questions Today, the same day that Meta announced that it will soon use your AI chats to personalize the ads it shows you, Instagram head Adam Mosseri made a “myth busting” video attempting to set the record straight on a persistent […]
Proton Mail’s updated app adds an offline mode
Proton Mail's updated app adds an offline mode Proton has launched a major update for its encrypted Mail app, which not only adds a refreshed layout but also includes a new offline mode. That means you’ll now have full access to your inbox when you don’t have an internet connection, giving you the ability to […]
Google will use hashes to find and remove nonconsensual intimate imagery from Search
Google will use hashes to find and remove nonconsensual intimate imagery from Search On Wednesday, Google announced a partnership with StopNCII.org to combat the spread of non-consensual intimate imagery (NCII), the company announced today. Over the next few months, Google will start using StopNCII’s hashes to proactively identify nonconsensual images in search results and remove […]