Webtagr - Technology News Summarizer

Allstate Sued for Secretly Tracking Drivers via GasBuddy and Other Apps

2025-01-14

Texas is suing Allstate, alleging the insurance company and its data subsidiary Arity used data from apps like GasBuddy and Life360 to secretly track drivers and adjust or cancel policies. The lawsuit claims Allstate paid millions to these apps to install tracking software, collecting trillions of miles of location data from over 45 million people, violating Texas' Data Privacy and Security Act. This marks the first-ever state action targeting comprehensive data privacy violations, raising serious concerns about data privacy in the insurance industry.

(arstechnica.com)

Tech insurance app tracking

Millions of Accounts Vulnerable Due to Google OAuth Flaw

2025-01-14

A new study reveals a critical vulnerability in Google's "Sign in with Google" authentication flow, potentially exposing millions of Americans' data. Attackers can purchase domains from defunct startups, recreate former employees' email accounts, and gain access to various SaaS services linked to those accounts, including HR systems and chat platforms containing sensitive information. The researcher reported the issue to Google, which initially marked it as "won't fix." Only after the researcher's Shmoocon talk was accepted did Google reopen the issue and pay a bounty. While Google is working on a fix, millions of accounts remain vulnerable.

(trufflesecurity.com)

Tech

Proton Raises Over $1 Million to Support a Better Internet

2025-01-14

Proton's annual charity fundraiser, a raffle for Lifetime Accounts, raised over $1 million, a record-breaking amount, to support organizations fighting for privacy, freedom of expression, and human rights worldwide. This brings the total raised over seven years to over $4 million. The funds will go to 10 organizations chosen by the Proton community, in addition to those supported in previous years. Beyond financial contributions, Proton provides free services in regions with privacy threats, supports open-source projects, and actively combats online censorship. This success highlights the power of community action towards building a better digital future.

(proton.me)

Tech Charity Online Privacy

Dissecting MrBeast: Algorithm-Driven Content Creation at its Finest

2025-01-14

Blogger Kevin Munger reveals the secret behind YouTube megastar MrBeast's success: a maniacal obsession with YouTube's algorithm. It's not about superior production or inherent content quality, but precise manipulation of metrics like CTR, AVD, and AVP. MrBeast and his team meticulously optimize content to maximize these numbers, generating massive views and revenue. The article argues that MrBeast's 'success' isn't artistic, but a data-driven creation process, even tailoring team members' information intake ('information diet') to perfectly align with algorithmic preferences. This raises profound questions about the nature of 'creation' in the algorithm age and the redefined meaning of 'authenticity'.

(kevinmunger.substack.com)

Tech YouTube Algorithm Influencer Economy Data-Driven

Blue Origin Delays New Glenn Launch Again

2025-01-14

Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket launch, initially scheduled for Tuesday morning, was scrubbed due to ice buildup in a purge line on an auxiliary power unit. A second attempt was planned for early Tuesday, but was ultimately postponed until Thursday morning due to unfavorable weather conditions (70% chance) and a scheduling conflict with another rocket launch.

(arstechnica.com)

Tech rocket launch

FSFE's 2024 Recap: Fighting for Software Freedom

2025-01-14

The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) released its 2024 year-end review, highlighting its progress in promoting free software. This includes participation in FOSDEM, work on DMA implementation, the fourth Youth Hacking 4 Freedom (YH4F) edition, and presence at the Chaos Communication Congress. Key initiatives involved pushing for broader interoperability from Apple, sustainable funding for open-source ecosystems, and promoting freedom in software, hardware, and data. Looking ahead to 2025, the FSFE plans to continue its advocacy and community building efforts.

(fsfe.org)

Tech

Reversible Computing: A Potential Energy Efficiency Game Changer?

2025-01-14

The energy efficiency bottleneck plaguing the chip industry may soon be overcome by reversible computing. This technology cleverly avoids information erasure to save energy, theoretically achieving up to a 4,000x energy efficiency improvement. Vaire Computing is working to commercialize this technology, which has remained in academia for three decades. They plan to launch their first reversible computing chip prototype in Q1 2025, designed to recover energy used in arithmetic circuits. Future plans include energy-efficient processors for AI inference. While challenges remain, this technology offers a new hope for the computing field after the slowdown of Moore's Law.

(spectrum.ieee.org)

Tech chip technology

NZ Sheep Farmer Predicted AI Doom 161 Years Ago

2025-01-14

In 1863, New Zealand sheep farmer Samuel Butler penned a letter predicting a future where AI could dominate humanity. Drawing parallels between the rapid advancement of machinery and Darwinian evolution, he envisioned machines evolving consciousness and supplanting humans as Earth's dominant species. His concerns, including machine consciousness, self-replication, and humanity losing control of its creations, resonate in later works like Asimov's *The Evitable Conflict* and *The Matrix*. Butler's prescient warnings, made in a time with almost no computing technology, highlight enduring anxieties about AI safety and strikingly mirror current concerns about advanced AI's potential risks.

(arstechnica.com)

Tech

Russia Engulfed in Hundreds of Arson Attacks: A Calculated Campaign of Psychological Warfare?

2025-01-14

Hundreds of arson attacks have swept across Russia, targeting banks, post offices, and police cars. The Kremlin attributes this to a campaign of psychological warfare aimed at destabilizing the country. However, some cases present puzzling details. An elderly man arrested for setting fire to an ATM claimed he was acting under the instructions of unidentified telephone scammers. These incidents raise questions about the perpetrators and their motives, highlighting potential vulnerabilities within Russian society.

(www.economist.com)

Tech Russian Arson Attacks Psychological Warfare Social Instability

Mysterious X-ray Flashes Accelerate from Nearby Supermassive Black Hole

2025-01-14

Astronomers have observed a supermassive black hole, 1ES 1927+654, 270 million light-years away, emitting periodic X-ray flashes that have increased in frequency from once every 18 minutes to once every 7 minutes over two years. Researchers hypothesize this is due to a white dwarf star spiraling dangerously close to the black hole's event horizon. This white dwarf appears to be performing a delicate balancing act, shedding matter to prevent it from falling in. This discovery challenges our understanding of black hole environments and offers a chance to verify the theory using future gravitational wave detectors like LISA.

(news.mit.edu)

Tech X-ray white dwarf

Why I Ditched Chrome for Firefox and Never Looked Back

2025-01-14

Frustrated with Chrome's performance on an older PC, the author switched to Firefox and was pleasantly surprised. Firefox not only matched Chrome's functionality but offered superior tab management (Firefox View), built-in Pocket for saving links, robust privacy features (Firefox Relay), a convenient screenshot tool, and AI chatbot integration. Additional thoughtful touches like picture-in-picture, customizable search engines, network settings, and auto-muting videos sealed the deal. The author recommends Firefox as a superior alternative.

(www.howtogeek.com)

Tech

Global Plant CO2 Uptake Far Higher Than Previously Thought

2025-01-14

New research reveals that plants globally are absorbing roughly 31% more carbon dioxide than previously estimated. Scientists used novel models and measurements, tracking the pathway of a compound called carbonyl sulfide (OCS) through photosynthesis, to more accurately assess global terrestrial gross primary production (GPP). The findings suggest that tropical rainforests may be a much larger carbon sink than previously thought from satellite data, highlighting the significance of natural carbon sequestration for climate change mitigation. This work significantly improves Earth system simulations and climate predictions, providing crucial data for more precise forecasts of future atmospheric CO2 and its impact on global climate.

(www.ornl.gov)

Tech Photosynthesis Carbon Cycle Climate Change

Singapore Leverages AI to Tackle Aging Population Challenges

2025-01-14

Facing a growing elderly care crisis and a severe nursing shortage, Singapore is turning to artificial intelligence for solutions. The article highlights AI's role in preventive care, showcasing projects like SoundKeepers, an AI tool using voice biomarkers to detect early signs of depression in seniors, and the use of humanoid robots like Dexie to combat loneliness. While acknowledging AI's potential, the article also raises concerns about over-reliance on technology replacing human connection and emphasizes the importance of privacy protection.

(restofworld.org)

Tech Elderly Care Singapore

Carnarvon's NASA Dish Receives First Signal in Nearly 40 Years

2025-01-14

A 29-meter-wide satellite dish in Carnarvon, Australia, once used by NASA, has received its first signal in almost 40 years. After a 20-year lease by Canadian aerospace company ThothX and extensive refurbishment, including cleaning decades of pigeon droppings and manually rotating the massive dish, the team successfully received a signal. The dish will now be used to track orbital traffic and "adversary" spacecraft, becoming a key component of ThothX's global satellite tracking network.

(www.abc.net.au)

Tech Space Satellite

PostgreSQL Named DBMS of the Year 2024 (Again!)

2025-01-14

DB-Engines has announced PostgreSQL as its DBMS of the Year for the second year running, marking its fifth overall win. Outpacing 423 other monitored systems, PostgreSQL solidified its position as the most popular database management system in 2024. The release of PostgreSQL 17, with performance enhancements and expanded replication, further cemented its success. Snowflake took second place, its cloud-based architecture and multi-cloud support driving its popularity. Microsoft's Azure SQL Database and SQL Server remain strong contenders.

(db-engines.com)

Tech

Meta's Fact-Checking Failure: The Limits of Truth in the Age of Disinformation 2.0

2025-01-14

Meta's abandonment of its fact-checking initiative sparks debate. The author argues that fact-checking struggles against sophisticated disinformation 2.0, involving AI and algorithms. The LA wildfires serve as a case study: claims about budget cuts impacting the fire response are not simply true or false, but involve multiple assumptions and interpretations. Fact-checking, while valuable, isn't a silver bullet. We need to address deeper drivers like political biases and cognitive biases to effectively combat disinformation.

(weaponizedspaces.substack.com)

Tech fact-checking disinformation

Ransomware Gang Exploits AWS Native Encryption

2025-01-14

A new ransomware group, dubbed 'Codefinger,' is targeting AWS S3 buckets and leveraging the cloud giant's own server-side encryption with customer-provided keys (SSE-C) to encrypt victims' data. They use leaked AWS keys to encrypt files with AES-256 and set a 7-day self-destruct timer. This unique approach exploits AWS's own security features, making data recovery difficult without the attacker's key. Security experts recommend restricting SSE-C usage, regularly auditing AWS keys, and implementing the principle of least privilege to mitigate risk.

(www.theregister.com)

Tech ransomware AWS security cloud security

NYC Congestion Pricing: 43K Fewer Cars in Manhattan's Core

2025-01-14

Data from the MTA shows Manhattan's congestion pricing initiative has yielded significant results in its first week. An average of 43,000 fewer vehicles entered the toll zone daily, a 7.5% reduction. While slightly below projections, this decrease has led to faster bus speeds (up to 40%) and improved traffic flow. The revenue will fund transit improvements, though the policy faces opposition from some congressmen. Transit advocates praise the immediate positive impacts.

(gothamist.com)

Tech Congestion Pricing Traffic NYC

$765M Bitcoin Landfill Dig Fails: Judge Rules Against Man

2025-01-14

A British man, James Howells, lost his 11-year legal battle to excavate a landfill site in search of a hard drive containing 8,000 bitcoins, now worth $765 million. A judge ruled against Howells, citing environmental concerns and legal precedents stating the landfill owns all deposited waste. The claim was also barred by the statute of limitations. Howells, who claims the hard drive was mistakenly discarded, expressed disappointment, calling the ruling a miscarriage of justice.

(arstechnica.com)

Tech bitcoin environmental concerns

Malicious NPM Packages Targeting Cursor.com Deployed by Snyk Researcher

2025-01-14

A Snyk security researcher deployed several malicious NPM packages targeting Cursor.com, a popular AI coding company. These packages, named things like "cursor-retreival" and "cursor-always-local", collect system data and send it to an attacker-controlled server upon installation. The attack leverages dependency confusion, aiming to trick Cursor employees into installing these public packages. While the OpenSSF package analysis scanner flagged and reported these malicious packages, NPM hasn't yet marked them as such. This highlights limitations in software supply chain security tools and emphasizes the importance of careful NPM package installation.

(sourcecodered.com)

Tech software supply chain security

Blizzard Traps Luxury Train Near Donner Pass for Three Days

2025-01-13

In January 1952, a fierce blizzard trapped the luxury passenger train, City of San Francisco, near Donner Pass for three days. 226 passengers endured freezing temperatures, carbon monoxide poisoning, and food shortages. Initially, passengers played cards and sang to pass the time, but conditions worsened as power and heating failed. Passengers resorted to burning furniture for warmth, and carbon monoxide poisoning occurred. The stranded passengers were eventually rescued with the help of the army, highway department, and volunteers. This event highlighted humanity's vulnerability to natural disasters and the over-optimism regarding technology's ability to conquer all.

(www.smithsonianmag.com)

Tech Blizzard Train Disaster Survival Story

NY's $15 Broadband Law Takes Effect After ISP Defeat

2025-01-13

New York's Affordable Broadband Act, requiring ISPs to offer low-cost plans to low-income residents, is now in effect after a lengthy legal battle. Following a Supreme Court decision against industry challenges, the law mandates $15 or $20 monthly plans with varying speeds. The law aims to bridge the digital divide, particularly after a federal program expired, leaving millions without subsidized internet. Small ISPs may seek exemptions, while larger providers face penalties for non-compliance.

(arstechnica.com)

Tech broadband low-income

Mastodon Goes Nonprofit: Decentralization Takes Center Stage

2025-01-13

Decentralized social network Mastodon announced its transition to a European nonprofit organization. Founder Eugen Rochko will hand over management of key platform components to this new entity, preventing single-person control. This move distinguishes Mastodon from centralized networks controlled by CEOs like Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg. Mastodon will continue operating mastodon.social and mastodon.online, remaining open-source and free. The shift reflects Mastodon's commitment to decentralization and community governance, addressing recent concerns about ownership in open-source projects.

(techcrunch.com)

Tech Nonprofit

How Government Subsidies Made High-Fructose Corn Syrup King

2025-01-13

This article details the rise of high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) in America, revealing a story of government subsidies, tariffs, and political maneuvering. ADM, a powerful food processing company, leveraged its political connections to secure subsidies for domestic corn and tariffs on imported sugar, making HFCS significantly cheaper than cane or beet sugar. This led to its widespread adoption by giants like Coca-Cola and Pepsi. Despite recent health concerns surrounding HFCS, its entrenched economic and political position makes its decline unlikely.

(thehustle.co)

Tech High-fructose corn syrup Government subsidies Agricultural policy

EU Scrutinizes Apple's New App Developer Fees

2025-01-13

Bloomberg reports that Apple's new fees for app developers are under scrutiny by the European Union's antitrust regulators. Concerns have been raised that the new "core technology fee" could inflate costs for software makers. The EU is investigating whether the new charges will be passed on to consumers and whether developers will be forced to adjust their business models. Apple claims that 85% of developers on its App Store don't pay any commission.

(finance.yahoo.com)

Tech Antitrust

Zuckerberg: AI to Replace Mid-Level Meta Engineers

2025-01-13

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently predicted that AI will replace the work of mid-level software engineers at the company by 2025. He envisions AI handling coding tasks, leading to cost savings for Meta. This statement has sparked considerable debate, with concerns about potential widespread job displacement. These announcements follow Meta's plans to replace third-party fact-checkers with community notes and scale back Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion initiatives.

(www.businessinsider.com)

Tech Job Displacement

Microsoft Tests 45% M365 Price Hike in Asia, Citing AI Features

2025-01-13

Microsoft is testing a 45 percent price increase for its M365 suite in six Asian countries, claiming the hike is necessary to ensure customers have early access to powerful AI features. The move has sparked outrage among subscribers, with many accusing Microsoft of price gouging, especially in regions with high living costs. While Microsoft says users can opt for a cheaper plan without AI features like Copilot, finding this option proves difficult. This test may foreshadow global M365 price adjustments, reflecting Microsoft's massive investment in AI.

(www.theregister.com)

Tech

Debunking California Wildfire Myths: Fact vs. Fiction

2025-01-13

Amidst the raging California wildfires, misinformation has spread online. Governor Newsom's office released a statement debunking false claims about budget cuts, forest mismanagement, water shortages, and the causes of the fires. In reality, the number of CalFire personnel and the budget have nearly doubled, with significant increases in forest management spending. Reservoirs are full, refuting water scarcity claims. Investigations into the fire's origins are underway, with officials denying claims of satanic rituals. California is deploying extensive resources to combat the unprecedented wildfires.

(gavinnewsom.com)

Tech California Wildfires Misinformation Government Response

UK Unveils Ambitious AI Blueprint to Become Global Leader

2025-01-13

The UK Prime Minister recently announced a sweeping AI plan aiming to establish the nation as a global leader in artificial intelligence. Key initiatives include creating dedicated AI Growth Zones to expedite infrastructure development, building a new supercomputer, and boosting AI adoption across public and private sectors. This strategy projects a potential 1.5% annual productivity increase, creation of tens of thousands of jobs, and significant improvements in public services. With over £14 billion in private investment committed, the plan demonstrates a substantial government commitment to AI.

(www.gov.uk)

Tech government policy economic growth

Nvidia Fires Back at Biden's AI Chip Export Restrictions

2025-01-13

The outgoing Biden administration unveiled a final rule on AI diffusion, restricting exports of AI chips to most countries while granting exemptions to key allies. Nvidia vehemently criticized the move, arguing it will harm US technological leadership and potentially evaporate 80% of the GPU market. The company claims the rule is overly restrictive, lacks proper legislative review, and stifles innovation. While framed as an 'anti-China' measure, Nvidia contends it will control technology globally, impacting even widely available consumer hardware.

(www.theregister.com)

Tech export restrictions

Category: Tech