Engineer who quit over military drone project warns AI might also accidentally start a war
A new generation of autonomous weapons or “killer robots” could accidentally start a war or cause mass atrocities, a former top Google software engineer has warned.
Laura Nolan, who resigned from Google last year in protest at being sent to work on a project to dramatically enhance US military drone technology, has called for all AI killing machines not operated by humans to be banned.
Continue reading...Independent panel criticises Sidewalk Labs over ‘frustratingly abstract’ proposals for new tech-oriented neighbourhood
A controversial smart city development in Canada has hit another roadblock after an oversight panel called key aspects of the proposal “irrelevant”, “unnecessary” and “frustratingly abstract” in a new report.
The project on Toronto’s waterfront, dubbed Quayside, is a partnership between the city and Google’s sister company Sidewalk Labs. It promises “raincoats” for buildings, autonomous vehicles and cutting-edge wood-frame towers, but has faced numerous criticisms in recent months.
Continue reading...FTC has fined Google $136m and company will pay an additional $34m to New York state to resolve similar allegations
Google’s video site YouTube has been fined $170m to settle allegations it collected children’s personal data without their parents’ consent.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) fined Google $136m and the company will pay an additional $34m to New York state to resolve similar allegations.
Continue reading...Visiting hacked sites was enough for server to gather users’ images and contacts
An unprecedented iPhone hacking operation, which attacked “thousands of users a week” until it was disrupted in January, has been revealed by researchers at Google’s external security team.
The operation, which lasted two and a half years, used a small collection of hacked websites to deliver malware on to the iPhones of visitors. Users were compromised simply by visiting the sites: no interaction was necessary, and some of the methods used by the hackers affected even fully up-to-date phones.
Continue reading...Google-owned service says it discovered channels ‘behaved in a coordinated manner’ against pro-democracy protests
YouTube has disabled 210 channels that appeared to be part of a coordinated influence campaign against pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong.
The action by the Google-owned service came as Twitter and Facebook accused the Chinese government of backing a social media campaign to discredit Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement and sow political discord in the city.
Continue reading...Officials to look into whether Facebook, Google, Amazon and Apple are unlawfully limiting competition
The US justice department is opening a broad antitrust review into major technology firms, as criticism over the companies’ growing reach and power heats up.
The investigation will focus on growing complaints that the companies are unlawfully stifling competition.
Continue reading...The greatest economic threat facing Europe is of falling hopelessly behind the US and China in adopting the next generation of technology. That is the view of many across Europe’s industrial and financial sectors who watch with wonder the proxy battle between the US and Chinese administrations on behalf of their tech giants.
Business leaders from Dublin to Warsaw are open-mouthed – not so much at the often-bizarre tug of war between the two sides as at the fact that these economic blocs can lay claim to almost all the world’s tech giants.
Continue reading...Books by James Williams and Carles Boix offer fascinating takes on how we can combat anger and distraction online
We’re having problems with the internet and big tech, principally Alphabet (Google/YouTube), Amazon, Apple and Facebook. The government has taken note.
Related: 'Facebook is dangerous': tech giant faces criticism from Congress over Libra currency
Continue reading...Justice minister Andrew Little says tech giant’s contempt for murdered backpacker’s family is unacceptable
Tech giant Google is “flipping the bird” at New Zealand laws by refusing to change any company policy after it broke suppression orders related to the murder case of British backpacker Grace Millane.
Last December, a 27-year-old Auckland man appeared in the city’s high court charged with murdering Millane. His name was suppressed but it appeared in Google’s “what’s trending in New Zealand” email that went out to thousands of subscribers.
Continue reading...New functionality automatically deletes history of places users have visited
It is now slightly easier to opt out of Google’s panopticon, with the introduction of new controls from the search engine to automatically clear your data after a set period of time.
By default, Google saves a permanent history of everything a user has searched for, every website they have visited, activity from any other app, site or device that uses Google services, and a record of their physical movements gleaned from using Google Maps or an Android device.
Continue reading...Stakeholders say unanswered questions remain over scale of Sidewalk Labs’ hi-tech redevelopment scheme for city’s waterfront
The Google sister company behind a controversial, hi-tech redevelopment scheme for a swath of Toronto’s waterfront has released the first detailed outline of an ambitious project, but stakeholders say that unanswered questions remain over data collection and the scale of the plan.
The 1,500-page plan unveiled in Toronto on Monday reveals that Sidewalk Labs intends to spend C$1.3bn (US$900m) on the project that will involve “raincoats for buildings”, heated and illuminated sidewalks, affordable housing, tall timber structures and innovations to support sustainability and environmentalism.
Continue reading...News Media Alliance says revenue was almost as much as that of entire online news industry, although some question methodology
Google made $4.7bn in advertising from news content last year, almost as much as the revenue of the entire online news industry, according to a study released on Monday.
According to the News Media Alliance, between 16% and 40% of Google search results are news content. Google’s revenue from its distribution of news content is only $400m less than the $5.1bn brought in by the United States news industry as a whole from digital advertising last year.
Continue reading...Project with Google’s Sidewalk Labs comes under increasing scrutiny amid concerns over privacy and data harvesting
A “smart city” project in Canada has hit yet another snag, as mounting delays and privacy concerns threaten the controversial development along the Toronto’s eastern waterfront.
The 12-acre Quayside project, a partnership between Google’s Sidewalk Labs and the city of Toronto, has come under increasing scrutiny amid concerns over privacy and data harvesting.
Continue reading...Technology firm’s Ad Exchange processing of users’ personal data being investigated
The Irish data protection commission has opened an investigation into Google over suspected infringements of European Union privacy rules.
The statutory inquiry will probe whether Google’s online Ad Exchange violated general data protection regulations (GDPR) covering the sharing of personal data of internet users, the watchdog said in a statement on Wednesday.
Continue reading...Trade wars, like real ones, are very much easier to start than to stop. The decision by Google to withhold its software from future Huawei smartphones, even if it will continue to support those presently on the market, comes after considerable pressure from the US government. Even so, it is a move that all parties will regret.
The pain for Huawei is obvious. Although it has been stockpiling chips and, presumably, preparing other defences, there is nothing it can sell to consumers outside China that does not depend on American software, and little that does not depend on American chips. As much as half of its global market could disappear, and that is without counting the 5G networking equipment which was the proximate cause of this quarrel. The ultimate cause, of course, is the American fear of losing its position of global pre-eminence, and the Chinese determination to realise that fear.
Continue reading...‘Appalled’ Democrat urges action after Guardian revealed Google has given $150,000 in free ads to opaque anti-abortion group
Google is facing pressure in Washington to immediately remove online advertisements for “fake medical clinics” that are designed to “mislead” women who are seeking an abortion.
Related: Google has given $150,000 in free ads to deceptive anti-abortion group
Continue reading...Finance ministers say Europe is increasingly dependent on Chinese and US technology
It boasts the world’s second biggest economy, a huge consumer market of about 500 million people and prodigious pools of talent and capital, not to mention two of the world’s most important financial centres.
But Europe is struggling to match its great rivals, the US and China, in creating the kind of global firms that increasingly dominate the 21st-century marketplace.
Continue reading...Obria Group’s ads suggest it provides abortion services, when in fact it tries to persuade women not to terminate pregnancies
Google has given tens of thousands of dollars in free advertising to an anti-abortion group that runs ads suggesting it provides abortion services at its medical clinics, but actually seeks to deter “abortion-minded women” from terminating their pregnancies.
Related: Abortion: judge strikes down Kentucky restriction but governor to appeal
Continue reading...Biggest fall since October 2012 follows worse-than-expected quarterly results
Google’s share price has had its biggest fall in nearly seven years, wiping $70bn (£54bn) off its market value, after disappointing sales figures sparked investor fears that advertisers have been shifting their business to digital rivals such as Facebook and Amazon.
Shares in Alphabet, the parent company of Google and YouTube, fell at one point by more than 8% on Tuesday, the biggest fall since October 2012, after the company produced first quarter results on Monday that were worse than expected.
Continue reading...People had to get by without the search engine giant before it was launched in 1998. But is it possible to live your life – and do your job – without it these days?
Halfway through my week without Google, my wife mentions that she would like to go out to see a film that evening, and I agree to deal with the logistics. In what I initially think is an inspired move, I drop by the local cinema on the way home and scribble down all the film times in my notebook. Then my wife insists on going to a different cinema.
“Can I do this by phone?” I ask her. “Is 118 still a thing?”
Continue reading...