Month: January 2026

US authorities reportedly investigate claims that Meta can read encrypted WhatsApp messages

A lawsuit filed last week alleges tech firm ‘can access virtually all’ private communications, a claim the company has denied US authorities have reportedly investigated claims that Meta can read users’ encrypted chats on the WhatsApp messaging platform, which it owns. The reports follow a lawsuit filed last week, which claimed Meta “can access virtually …

US authorities reportedly investigate claims that Meta can read encrypted WhatsApp messages Read More »

What to know about the jury trials of Meta, Snap, TikTok and YouTube

Hundreds of parents, teens and school districts have claimed social media is intentionally addictive and harmful Social media companies will have to answer to a jury – for the first time – for allegations that their products are intentionally addictive and harmful to young users’ mental health. Hundreds of parents, teens and school districts sued …

What to know about the jury trials of Meta, Snap, TikTok and YouTube Read More »

Urban Outfitters, Dreams and Royal Parks cafes criticised for use of gig economy app

TUC urges ministers to bring forward changes to protect workers amid concerns over apps such as Temper The fashion retailer Urban Outfitters, the bed specialist Dreams and the operator of several Royal Parks cafes have been criticised for the use of the gig economy app Temper to take on staff – some of whom can …

Urban Outfitters, Dreams and Royal Parks cafes criticised for use of gig economy app Read More »

Elon Musk had more extensive ties to Epstein than previously known, emails show

Newly released files from DoJ show the pair making plans in 2012 and 2013 for the Tesla CEO to visit Epstein’s island Epstein files latest: updates as more files released Elon Musk had more extensive – and more friendly – communications with the financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein than previously publicly known, according to …

Elon Musk had more extensive ties to Epstein than previously known, emails show Read More »

Can you guess our screen time? A priest, pensioner, tech CEO and teenager reveal all

From the person who scrolls on the toilet to the one without any social media, what do their digital habits tell us? • Will Storr: we have lost so much of ourselves to smartphones – can we get it back? Dayeon, 16: the teenager who spends less than an hour a day on screens Continue …

Can you guess our screen time? A priest, pensioner, tech CEO and teenager reveal all Read More »

We have lost so much of ourselves to smartphones: can we get it back?

My use of mobile phones has been compulsive – has it been for better or for worse? • From a priest to a pensioner, a teenager to a tech CEO: can you guess our screen time? In 2003, the Stanford social scientist BJ Fogg published an extraordinarily prescient book. Persuasive Technology: Using Computers to Change …

We have lost so much of ourselves to smartphones: can we get it back? Read More »

Electric ​cars ​go ​mainstream as ​adoption ​surges ​across ​rich and ​developing ​nations

A wave of affordable Chinese-made EVs is accelerating the shift away from petrol cars, challenging long‑held assumptions about how transport decarbonisation unfolds • Don’t get Down to Earth delivered to your inbox? Sign up here Last year, almost every new car sold in Norway, the nature-loving country flush with oil wealth, was fully electric. In …

Electric ​cars ​go ​mainstream as ​adoption ​surges ​across ​rich and ​developing ​nations Read More »