Today’s Tech Sightings: Elon Musk: We’re Probably Living in a Video Game Speaking at California’s Code Conference, the founder of Tesla and SpaceX Elon Musk warned that the lines between the real world and increasingly-sophisticated simulated environments could become so blurred that it will be hard to distinguish reality from simulation. The scenario is not […]
Musk: We’re Probably Living in a Video Game; the Future With AI
Android’s Location Data Jackpot; Google Search Adds Privacy Controls
Today’s Tech Sightings: Police Filing Warrants for Android’s Vast Store of Location Data If you use Google Maps on your Android device, you should know the software has a feature that builds a comprehensive history of the places you visit. Google’s Location History system collects the information, which is then used in Maps. The resulting […]
Twitter Eases 140-Character Limit; Google Toys With Killing Passwords
Today’s Tech Sightings: Twitter Makes Important Changes to Its 140-character Limit, Ditching ‘@mention’ Twitter is moving forward with changes to its 140-character limit that take links and @replies out of the word count. Pictures and other attachments will no longer count toward the 140-character count. A retweet button will also be added to personal tweets. […]
Chinese Proposals Tighten Internet Control; Law Firm Hires AI Robot
Today’s Tech Sightings: US: Proposed Chinese Regulations Could Fragment the Internet China is planning to push forward with new proposals requiring domain names to be registered through government-licensed providers. If the new rules are approved, they would also prevent some websites whose content is broadly defined as prohibited from registering. In a statement, U.S. officials […]
Facebook Reassures Thai Users After Arrests; UK Hospital Hires Watson
Today’s Tech Sightings: Facebook Tells Thai Users Their Data Not Given to Government Recent arrests for violations of Thailand’s Computer Crime Act have sparked fears Facebook might have failed to protect user privacy from the country’s military government. But Facebook issued a statement to reassure users it has not shared their information with the government […]
US Congress Targeted With Ransomware; Facebook Denies Censoring Content
Today’s Tech Sightings: Congress Warned About Cybersecurity After Attempted Ransomware Attack on House The U.S. House of Representatives’ technology staff warned legislators that their third-party email apps were increasingly being targeted by malware attacks. In an internal email obtained by TechCrunch, the staff advised legislators that access to YahooMail and Gmail will be blocked on […]
Spy Hacking Group Targets Asia; Elderly Find Refuge in Technology
Today’s Tech Sightings: Spy Hacking Group Targeting Asian Governments Spotted Microsoft’s latest Security Intelligence Report says hackers have been spying on Asian governments since 2009. Dubbed PLATINUM, this particular hacking group has carried out a number of cyber espionage campaigns against government and private targets in Asia, according to Tim Rains, security editor of the […]
Cisco: 12 Million PCs Have Backdoors; IoT’s Privacy Dilemma
Today’s Tech Sightings: Cisco Finds Backdoor Installed on 12 Million PCs Researchers working with U.S. technology firm Cisco have discovered software that installed backdoors on 12 million computers around the world. The software, found by Cisco’s Talos security intelligence and research group, was developed by a French online advertising firm called Tuto4PC that has been under […]
What Chatbots Say About US; Will Big Data Kill Privacy?
Today’s Tech Sightings: What Chatbots Reveal About Our Own Shortcomings The latest obsession on the technology landscape these days are chatbots, artificial intelligence programs that help Internet surfers get content, services and shopping without any help from humans. Facebook, Microsoft and other tech leaders are looking to capitalize on this technology. Citing a recent incident […]
Encrypting the Entire Web; Facebook’s New Plan to Connect the World
Today’s Tech Sightings: A Scheme to Encrypt the Entire Web Is Actually Working Encryption is slowly becoming the enemy, so to speak, as lawmakers, at least in the U.S., rush to enact legislation that would either add back doors to mobile devices or force tech companies to comply with government requests to unlock certain smartphones. […]