Month: June 2022

Changpeng Zhao: tech chief in the eye of the cryptocurrency storm

The founder of Binance, the world’s largest digital currency exchange, is on a mission to talk to governments and regulators even as investors retreat Changpeng Zhao does not like ambiguous words. Which is just as well: the crypto industry, in which he is a leading figure, is in turmoil and crying out for clarity. The …

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How TikTok is turning a generation of video addicts into a data goldmine

The Chinese tech giant is taking surveillance capitalism to a new level. It’s almost enough to make you feel sorry for Zuckerberg Question: what do men and Excel have in common? Answer: they’re always automatically turning things into dates when they’re not. To younger people – that is, anyone under the age of 20 – …

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Tech firms under pressure to safeguard user data as abortion prosecutions loom

Private information collected and retained by companies could be weaponized to prosecute abortion seekers and providers After the US supreme court overturned Roe v Wade on Friday, calls increased for tech companies to take a stand about the use of online data to incriminate individuals seeking or providing abortion services. Abortion and civil rights advocates …

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UK security services must seek approval to access telecoms data, judges rule

Liberty hails decision that prior independent authorisation is needed for people’s communications data The security and intelligence services must acquire “prior independent authorisation” to obtain people’s communications data from telecom providers, a civil rights campaign group has said, after it won a high court challenge. Liberty hailed a “landmark victory” and said two judges ruled …

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‘You see somebody washing a window, stop, and look’: Melissa Breyer’s best phone picture

The New York photographer on the mystery deli worker daydreaming while she worked Melissa Breyer has never met the woman she shot in the window of a Brooklyn deli on her morning run, but she considers the image something of a self-portrait. “When I first moved to New York,” she says, “I was an artist …

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Electricity used to mine bitcoin plummets as crypto crisis widens

Consumption down by third since 11 June, with even sharper falls among other cryptocurrency networks The amount of electricity consumed by the largest cryptocurrency networks has decreased by up to 50% as the “crypto winter” continues to eat at the incomes of “miners” and financial contagion spreads further throughout the sector. The electricity consumption of …

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Primary-age children’s screen time went up by 83 minutes a day during pandemic – study

Global analysis finds increase most sharp among age group, prompting concerns about impact on health Screen time during the Covid pandemic increased the most among primary schoolchildren, by an extra hour and 20 minutes a day on average, according to the first global review of research. The sharp rise in screen time was associated with …

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Apple and Android phones hacked by Italian spyware, says Google

Report claims Milan-based RCS Lab developed tools to spy on private messages and contacts of targeted devices An Italian company’s hacking tools were used to spy on Apple and Android smartphones in Italy and Kazakhstan, Alphabet Inc’s Google said in a new report. Milan-based RCS Lab, whose website claims European law enforcement agencies as clients, …

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