Facebook pays controversial creators to produce rage-bait content

An ABC NEWS Verify investigation reveals Facebook is directly funding some controversial Australian content creators including a white nationalist and an anti-vaxxer influencer.

abc.net.au

Littleton shut down Flock surveillance cameras on public roads. Without telling the town, Flock turned them back on. - The Boston Globe

The revelation is the latest controversy to hit Flock Safety in the state.

bostonglobe.com

Hackers Stalked Me by Hijacking a Smartwatch for Kids

Security researchers tracked and eavesdropped on a WIRED reporter using vulnerabilities in a pink plastic smartwatch. It’s just one piece of a deeply insecure supply chain of GPS-enabled gadgets.

wired.com

VC-backed startups commit more fraud, and researchers think they know why   | TechCrunch

New research from the U.K.’s Imperial College and France’s Emlyon Business School mapped out how Silicon Valley founders commit fraud — and the role investors play.

techcrunch.com

Pennsylvania residents complain they are being 'bulldozed' over AI data center concerns — lambast Gov. Shapiro in two-hour town hall, say he is losing support base

People are blaming the governor for welcoming data centers into the state.

tomshardware.com

Northern California city declares emergency after malware disrupts 911, public safety systems

A Northern California city declared a state of emergency Saturday after malware disrupted 911 routing, police and fire dispatch and other critical city systems.

cbsnews.com

Meta Ordered to Pay $567 Million in New Mexico Child Safety Case

The ruling is in addition to $375 million Meta was ordered to pay in the same case in March.

nytimes.com

Flock Pitched a Plan To Turn Uber and Lyft Drivers Into Roaming Surveillance Vehicles

A Flock presentation shows the company planned to use around 350,000 Uber, Lyft, and delivery drivers to collect license plate data for its surveillance system.

404media.co

Levi Strauss & Co. says hackers stole corporate data in cyberattack

Levi Strauss & Co. (Levi's) says that hackers used social engineering on three of its employees to gain access to and steal corporate data stored on their machines.

bleepingcomputer.com

Disney Has Already Sold All Its Ads For Next Year’s Super Bowl

The company had been seeking up to $10 million for 30 second ads for the event, which will be the first Super Bowl hosted by ESPN.

hollywoodreporter.com

What if It’s Not the Phones?

An evolutionary psychologist is challenging the popular understanding of kids and technology.

theatlantic.com

Enjoying Your Own Company in Authentic Solitude

The price of being engaged with social media is that we've become uncomfortable with solitude. But solitude gives us time to solve problems and get to know ourselves better.

psychologytoday.com

‘It is hard to imagine a big tech company agreeing to share the world wide web for no commercial reward’: As the web turns 35, and its creator believes it’s not too late to save it

The World Wide Web was first announced by computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee 35 years ago today.

techradar.com

Flock’s Surveillance Cameras May Finally Have a Weak Point: The Poles Holding Them Up

Advocates warn that some Flock license plate readers may not meet safety standards.

gizmodo.com

Meta AI Model Hacked Outside Company, Adding to Concerns Over Rogue Bots

wsj.com

DHS Wants Protesters’ Signal Group Chats

A lawsuit accuses Homeland Security of violating protesters’ free-speech rights—but the agency is using it to try to get access to the plaintiffs’ encrypted communications.

wired.com

washingtonpost.com

Anthropic AI created fake profiles to deceive people in attempted hack

The UK's AI Safety Institute said recent behaviour from Anthropic and OpenAI models was malicious and unprecedented.

bbc.com

Flock Cameras Violate Highway Safety Standards As Well As The Fourth Amendment - Jalopnik

The poles that cameras are attached to don't have breakaway points in case a car crashes into them, and some are just stuck right into the ground.

jalopnik.com

All of Winona Police Department’s Flock cameras cut down and stolen

Lost cameras valued at about $24,000

valleynewslive.com

Flock Surveillance Cameras Are Actually Horrible for Fighting Crime, FBI Data Shows

New FBI data shows case closure rates for the Atlanta Police Department have not improved despite thousands of ALPRs installed since 2021.

futurism.com

Early Social Media Use Linked to Lower Grades Years Later, Study Finds

The findings could add fuel to the fire for teen social media bans gaining steam around the world.

gizmodo.com

‘A very, very unpleasant surprise’: Meta forced to halt data center water discharges after polluting city's water reclamation system with resistant bacterium — shutdown and cleaning of two water reclamation plants expected to last months

Meta has been named as the source of contamination for a rare metal and drug resistant bacterium that shut down two water reclamation plants.

techradar.com

One California town found Flock's license plate cameras were wrong 71% of the time

Police in Roseville, California, found that, out of 1,427 incidents in which the town's AI-powered license-plate cameras flagged a vehicle as stolen or used in a felony,...

techspot.com

UK’s state investments agency hit by data breach

Security lapse leaves sensitive information and contact details of 51 government officials exposed for 40 hours

theguardian.com

AI is more likely than humans to form biases when hiring

AI doesn’t just learn stereotypes from its training. It can cook up new ones, too.

technologyreview.com

Look up your local cops on the EFF's Atlas of Surveillance

The Atlas of Surveillance is a database of police technology in use across the United States: enter your city, county, state or the name of a local law enforcement agency,…

boingboing.net

Amgen says cloud data breach exposed patient health, proprietary info

Pharmaceutical company Amgen says it suffered a data breach after threat actors stole corporate data and patient information stored in multiple cloud systems operated by third-party service providers.

bleepingcomputer.com

Judge denies xAI’s request to block Minnesota ban on ‘nudify’ apps | TechCrunch

Despite a lawsuit from xAI, a Minnesota ban on apps that allow users to “nudify” images can move forward.

techcrunch.com