Category: Technology

California Gov. Jerry Brown has approved the nation's strongest net neutrality law, prompting an immediate lawsuit by the Trump administration and opening the next phase in the battle over regulating the internet. Advocates of net neutrality hope California's law, which Brown signed Sunday to stop internet providers from favoring certain content or websites, will push Congress to enact national rules or encourage other states to create their own. However, the U.S. Department of Justice quickly moved to halt the law from taking effect, arguing that it creates burdensome, anti-consumer requirements that go against the federal government's approach to deregulating the internet. "Once again the California Legislature has enacted an extreme and illegal state law attempting to frustrate federal policy," U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in a statement. The Federal…

According to the latest report by the Committee to Protect Journalists in Pakistan, fatal violence against journalists has declined, but fear and self-censorship have grown. In this era, five Pakistani American students at Harvard University have created a startup that challenges censorship using the latest block-chain technology. Their mission is "making journalism truly free." Saqib Ul Islam visited Harvard's innovation lab to bring us the story of a new company called "Inkrypt." ...

Google Chief Executive Sundar Pichai has agreed to testify before the U.S. House Judiciary Committee later this year over Republican concerns that the company is biased against conservatives, a senior Republican said Friday. Republicans want to question Google, the search engine of Alphabet Inc, about whether its search algorithms are influenced by human bias. They also want to probe it on issues such as privacy, classification of news and opinion, and dealing with countries with human rights violations. Pichai met with senior Republicans on Friday to discuss their concerns, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy said. McCarthy told reporters after the meeting that it was "very productive" and "frank." "I think we've really shown that there is bias, which is human nature, but you have to have transparency and fairness," McCarthy…

The security breach Facebook announced Friday that affected 50 million users was a setback for the social media giant, which has been working for months to regain customers' trust over how it handles their data. In addition to the 50 million users whose log-on information could have been accessed by hackers, the company required as a precaution another 40 million to log on to be able to get on their accounts. Facebook said it reported the breach of the company's code, which the firm said it fixed, to law enforcement. The social media company was not sure Friday whether any personal information had been gathered or misused, but it scrambled to address the issue, which was discovered earlier in the week. Facebook users may find they have to relink their…

VOA contributor Greta Van Susteren talks with Brad Smith, Microsoft's President and Chief Legal Officer about the tech giant's new Artificial Intelligence program. ...

The ride-hailing service Uber has agreed to pay $148 million to settle claims that it concealed a massive data breach that exposed personal information of drivers and customers.  In November 2016, Uber learned that hackers had accessed personal data of about 600,000 Uber drivers, including their driver's license numbers. Hackers also had stolen email addresses and cellphone numbers of 57 million riders worldwide.  The claims, filed in every U.S. state and the District of Columbia, said rather than inform the drivers involved, Uber hid the breach for more than a year and paid ransom to ensure the data wouldn't be misused. "This is one of the most egregious cases we've ever seen in terms of notification; a yearlong delay is just inexcusable,'' Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan told The Associated…

U.S. communications and social media titans are urging lawmakers to craft strong, uniform protections for Americans' personal data without squashing innovation. The Senate Commerce Committee heard testimony Wednesday from Apple, Amazon.com, Google, Twitter, and AT&T executives at a time when data breaches are commonplace, many Americans are mystified or unaware of how their personal data may be used or shared, and jurisdictions from the European Union to the state of California have taken action to safeguard consumers. "Privacy means much more than having the right to not share your personal information. Privacy is about putting the user in control when it comes to that information. We believe that privacy is a fundamental human right, which should be supported by both social norms and the law," said Apple's vice president for…

The Trump administration is hoping Congress can come up with a new set of national rules governing how companies can use consumers’ data that finds a balance between “privacy and prosperity.” But it will be tricky to reconcile the concerns of privacy advocates who want people to have more control over the usage of their personal data — where they’ve been, what they view, who their friends are —and the powerful companies that mine it for profit. Senior executives from AT&T, Amazon, Apple, Google, Twitter and Charter Communications are scheduled to testify at the hearing, amid increasing anxiety over safeguarding consumers’ data online and recent scandals that have stoked outrage among users and politicians. Sen. John Thune, a South Dakota Republican who heads the Senate Commerce Committee, opened Wednesday’s hearing…

Many materials change shape when exposed to heat, electricity or some other kind of energy. That change is usually random, but scientists are now learning how to direct that energy to turn the material into a predetermined shape. VOA’s George Putic visited a lab at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh that experiments with morphing materials. ...

When Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger sold Instagram to Facebook in 2012, the photo-sharing startup’s fiercely loyal fans worried about what would happen to their beloved app under the social media giant's wings.  None of their worst fears materialized. But now that its founders have announced they are leaving in a swirl of well wishes and vague explanations, some of the same worries are bubbling up again — and then some. Will Instagram disappear? Get cluttered with ads and status updates? Suck up personal data for advertising the way its parent does? Lose its cool?  Worst of all: Will it just become another Facebook? “It”s probably a bigger challenge (for Facebook) than most people realize,” said Omar Akhtar, an analyst at the technology research firm Altimeter. “Instagram is the only…

The Indian edition of dating app Tinder is testing a new feature which gives women an additional level of scrutiny before they allow men to start messaging conversations, with a view to rolling the function out globally. The "My Move" feature allows women to choose in their settings that only they can start a conversation with a male match after both have approved each other with Tinder's swiping function. Normally, the app gives both parties to a successful match - where both have swiped yes on the other's photograph - the right to text each other immediately. Tinder has been testing the function for several months and plans to spread it worldwide if the Indian rollout proves successful. Rival dating-app Bumble already only allows the female party to a heterosexual…

Music streaming services Spotify and Deezer joined European business and industry bodies in calling on EU regulators to take tougher action to curb what they say are the unfair practices of online platforms. EU governments are set in the coming weeks to come up with a joint position on a proposed platform-to-business (P2B) law which is meant to ensure greater transparency and fairness in the digital economy. Driven by concerns over privacy and data protection, the European Union has in recent years introduced tougher rules to regulate online markets dominated by U.S. tech giants such as Google, Apple and Amazon. But in a joint letter, businesses and industry bodies such as the European Publishers Council and the European Association of Craft, Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises, said the P2B proposal did…

The co-founders of Instagram are resigning their positions with the social media company.   Chief Executive Kevin Systrom said in a statement late Monday that he and Mike Krieger plan to leave the company in the next few weeks.   Krieger is chief technical officer. They founded the photo-sharing app in 2010 and sold it to Facebook in 2012 for about $1 billion.   There was no immediate word on why they chose to leave the company but Systrom says they plan to take time off to explore their creativity again. Representatives for Instagram and Facebook didn't immediately respond to after-hours messages from The Associated Press.   Instagram has seen explosive growth since its founding, with an estimated 1 billion monthly users and 2 million advertisers. ...

A race by U.S. tech companies to build a new generation of powerful "quantum computers" could get a $1.3 billion boost from Congress, fueled in part by lawmakers' fear of growing competition from China. Legislation passed earlier in September by the U.S. House of Representatives would create a 10-year federal program to accelerate research and development of the esoteric technology. As the bill moves to the Senate, where it also has bipartisan support, the White House showed its enthusiasm for the effort by holding a quantum summit Monday. Scientists hope government backing will help attract a broader group of engineers and entrepreneurs to their nascent field. The goal is to be less like the cloistered Manhattan Project physicists who developed the first atomic bombs and more like the wave of…

Facebook has hired Ajit Mohan of the Indian streaming service Hotstar to run its India division, in the midst of accusations from the Indian government that the company’s WhatsApp messaging service has helped trigger mob violence. Mohan has been CEO of Hotstar since 2016, according to his LinkedIn. Mohan’s appointment comes during a period of intense criticism from the Indian government towards the social media giant. False messages about child kidnappers circulated anonymously on WhatsApp have triggered violent mobs that beat and killed bystanders suspected of being involved in crimes several times during the past year. The Indian government has warned Facebook it will treat the company as a legal abettor to violence if it does not develop tools to better combat the spread of false information. Facebook has expanded…

New technologies are helping people who are disabled with physical, cognitive, vision and hearing problems. Some promising new tools include a digital glove that translates sign language, and tactile windows for people who are blind. More from VOA's Deborah Block. ...

Self-driving technology is making online shopping a more convenient, more cost-effective experience. One new startup in San Jose, California, is launching a fully driverless delivery service, which many predict is something customers will be seeing a lot more of in the future. Faiza Elmasry takes a look at how these driverless cars are making people's lives easier, in this report narrated by Faith Lapidus. ...

Facebook Inc. said Thursday that it would no longer dispatch employees to the offices of political campaigns to offer support ahead of elections, as it did with U.S. President Donald Trump in the 2016 race. The company and other major online ad sellers, including Alphabet Inc.'s Google and Twitter Inc., have long offered free dedicated assistance to strengthen relationships with top advertisers such as presidential campaigns. Brad Parscale, who was Trump's online ads chief in 2016, last year called on-site "embeds" from Facebook crucial to the candidate's victory. Facebook has said that Democratic challenger Hillary Clinton was offered identical help, but she accepted a different level than Trump. Google and Twitter did not immediately respond to requests to comment on whether they also would pull back support. Facebook said it could offer assistance to more candidates globally by focusing on offering support through an…

The European Union's consumer protection chief said Thursday she's growing impatient with Facebook's efforts to improve transparency with users about their data, warning it could face sanctions for not complying. EU Consumer Commissioner Vera Jourova turned up the pressure on the social media giant, saying she wants the company to update its terms of service and expects to see its proposed changes by mid-October so they can take effect in December.   "I will not hide that I am becoming rather impatient because we have been in dialogue with Facebook almost two years and I really want to see, not the progress — it's not enough for me — but I want to see the results,'' Jourova said.   The EU wants Facebook to give users more information about how their data…

When Behnoush Babzani turned 35, she threw a party. She also used her birthday to ask friends to donate to a cause she cares about deeply: helping people who need bone marrow transplants. She herself received a bone marrow transplant from her brother. “It’s not that my body was making cancerous cells, it was that my body was making no cells,” she said. “So think about the boy in the bubble. I had to be isolated. I didn’t have an immune system to protect me.” Using a new feature on Facebook, Babzani in a few clicks posted a photo of herself in a hospital gown when she was receiving treatment and she asked her friends to help raise $350.   WATCH: Facebook's Birthday Fundraiser Feature Brings Smiles to Charitable Causes…

Facebook has always been a convenient way to send birthday wishes to friends. But many users have started taking advantage of a new feature introduced a year ago by the popular social networking site to turn birthday wishes into donations to help a favorite cause. And it's turned into a huge success for charities. In its first year, Facebook's birthday fundraiser feature raised more than $300 million for charities around the world. Michelle Quinn has more. ...

EU regulators are quizzing merchants and others on U.S. online retailer Amazon's use of their data to discover whether there is a need for action, Europe's antitrust chief said on Wednesday. The comments by European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager came as the world's largest online retailer faces calls for more regulatory intervention and even its potential break-up because of its sheer size. Vestager said the issue was about a company hosting merchants on its site and at the same time competing with these same retailers by using their data for its own sales. "We are gathering information on the issue and we have sent quite a number of questionnaires to market participants in order to understand this issue in full," Vestager told a news conference. "These are very early days…

How to communicate with someone who speaks a different language?  It's an age-old problem. But now with an explosion of translation apps and devices, Michelle Quinn reports that overcoming language barriers is becoming easier. ...

German luxury car brand Audi this week staged the global launch of a new electric sport utility vehicle on the home turf of rival Tesla, and highlighted a deal with Amazon.com Inc. to make recharging its forthcoming e-tron models easier. The Audi e-tron midsize SUV will be offered in the United States next year at a starting price of $75,795 before a $7,500 tax credit. It is one of a volley of electric vehicles coming from Volkswagen AG brands, as well as other European premium brands including Daimler-owned Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Volvo Cars and Jaguar Land Rover. All aim to expand the market for premium electric vehicles and also to grab a share of that market from Palo Alto, Calif.-based Tesla, which has had the niche largely to itself. "I want…

A volunteer medic and the man whose life he saved. A lawmaker whose Facebook post calling for protests in Kyiv's Maidan square helped bring down a president. These are some of the characters featured in a virtual reality reconstruction of the bloodiest day in the 2013-14 street demonstrations in Ukraine, when dozens of protesters were killed in the final moments of Viktor Yanukovich's rule. Ahead of the fifth anniversary of the protests, a group of 14 journalists, designers and information technology engineers developed a program that lets a user to walk through the area around Maidan square. Videos of people who were there on Feb. 20 — the bloodiest day of violence — pop up to relate their experiences and explain the significance of particular spots. A transparent blue wall marks where…

SpaceX, Elon Musk's space transportation company, on Monday named its first private passenger as Japanese businessman Yusaku Maezawa, the founder and chief executive of online fashion retailer Zozo. A former drummer in a punk band, billionaire Maezawa will take a trip around the moon planned for 2023 aboard its forthcoming Big Falcon Rocket spaceship, taking the race to commercialize space travel to new heights. The first person to travel to the moon since the United States' Apollo missions ended in 1972, Maezawa's identity was revealed at an event on Monday evening at the company's headquarters and rocket factory in the Los Angeles suburb of Hawthorne. Maezawa, who is most famous outside Japan for his record-breaking $110 million purchase of an untitled 1982 Jean-Michel Basquiat painting, said he would invite six…

There's a push to keep a remote Icelandic nature reserve free from any internet or phone signals to preserve the area's tranquility. But not everyone is on board with the proposed digital free zone. VOA Correspondent Mariama Diallo reports. ...

Lasers might soon be the newest line of defense for vulnerable aircraft that are key to keeping other military planes in battle. Air tankers are getting an upgrade next month with the introduction of the new Boeing KC-46 Pegasus, carrying up to about 96,000 kilograms of highly flammable aviation fuel. The long-awaited plane will be able to refuel other aircraft off its wings and to receive fuel from another tanker while its refueling a plane. VOA Pentagon correspondent Carla Babb has more. ...