Category: Technology

U.S. authorities have broadly expanded the use of a smartphone app during the coronavirus pandemic to ensure immigrants released from detention will attend deportation hearings, a requirement that advocates say violates their privacy and makes them feel they're not free. More than 125,000 people — many of them stopped at the U.S.-Mexico border — are now compelled to install the app known as SmartLink on their phones, up from about 5,000 less than three years ago. It allows officials to easily check on them by requiring the immigrants to send a selfie or make or receive a phone call when asked. Although the technology is less cumbersome than an ankle monitor, advocates say tethering immigrants to the app is unfair considering many have paid bond to get out of U.S.…

Facebook said Thursday that because of the invasion of Ukraine, it has temporarily eased its rules regarding violent speech. Moscow's internationally condemned invasion of its neighbor has provoked unprecedented sanctions from Western governments and businesses, but also a surge of online anger. "As a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, we have temporarily made allowances for forms of political expression that would normally violate our rules like violent speech such as 'death to the Russian invaders,'" Facebook's parent company Meta said in a statement. "We still won't allow credible calls for violence against Russian civilians," it added. Facebook made its statement after a Reuters report, citing the firm's emails to its content moderators, which said the policy applies to Armenia, Azerbaijan, Estonia, Georgia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Russia,…

Twitter says it has created a version of its microblogging service that can be used by Russians despite the regular version of the service being restricted in the country. The service will be available via a special “onion” URL on the darkweb that is accessible only when using a Tor browser. Onion URLs and Tor have long been used by those seeking to work around censorship as well as those who are involved in illegal activities on the darkweb. The announcement of the new site was made by a software engineer who does work for Twitter. “This is possibly the most important and long-awaited tweet that I've ever composed. “On behalf of @Twitter, I am delighted to announce their new @TorProject onion service,” wrote Alec Muffett. ...

A Ukrainian man charged last year with conducting one of the most severe ransomware attacks against U.S. targets has been extradited to the United States and made a court appearance Wednesday, the U.S. Justice Department said. According to an August 2021 indictment, Yaroslav Vasinskyi accessed the internal computer networks of several victim companies and deployed Sodinokibi/REvil ransomware to encrypt the data on their computers, the Justice Department said in a statement. Vasinskyi was allegedly responsible for the July 2021 ransomware attack against Florida software provider Kaseya, the department said. Reuters could not reach a representative of Vasinskyi. Kaseya did not immediately return a message seeking comment. The Ukrainian national was accused in the indictment of breaking into Kaseya over the July 4 weekend last year and simultaneously distributing with accomplices…

A bipartisan group of lawmakers has written a letter asking the Department of Justice to determine whether online retailer Amazon engaged in obstruction of Congress during an investigation of the company's competitive practices.  The letter said the company had "engaged in a pattern and practice of misleading conduct" that suggested it had sought to influence or obstruct an investigation into how it operates.  The House Judiciary Committee conducted a 16-month probe into how Amazon, Apple, Google and Facebook operated.  During the investigation, lawmakers focused on Amazon's use of private-label products and collection of third-party data.  Amazon allegedly copied popular products in India and then manipulated search results to increase the sales of its own products, Reuters reported.  The committee's letter to DOJ alleges Amazon made untrue or misleading statements when…

Russia's blocking of Facebook is a symptom of its broader effort to cut itself off from sources of information that could imperil its internationally condemned invasion of Ukraine, experts say. The often-criticized social network is part of a web of information sources that can challenge the Kremlin's preferred perspective that its assault on Ukraine is righteous and necessary. Blocking of Facebook and restricting of Twitter on Friday came the same day Moscow backed the imposition of jail terms on media publishing "false information" about the military. Russia's motivation "is to suppress political challenges at a very fraught moment for (Vladimir) Putin, and the regime, when it comes to those asking very tough questions about why Russia is continuing to prosecute this war," said Steven Feldstein, a senior fellow at the…

Formed in a fury to counter Russia’s blitzkrieg attack, Ukraine’s hundreds-strong volunteer “hacker” corps is much more than a paramilitary cyberattack force in Europe's first major war of the internet age. It is crucial to information combat and to crowdsourcing intelligence. “We are really a swarm. A self-organizing swarm," said Roman Zakharov, a 37-year-old IT executive at the center of Ukraine's bootstrap digital army. Inventions of the volunteer hackers range from software tools that let smartphone and computer owners anywhere participate in distributed denial-of-service attacks on official Russian websites to bots on the Telegram messaging platform that block disinformation, let people report Russian troop locations and offer instructions on assembling Molotov cocktails and basic first aid. Zahkarov ran research at an automation startup before joining Ukraine's digital self-defense corps. His…

The Russian war on Ukraine is also happening online, as people share images from around Ukraine. Caught in the middle are U.S. technology firms, which have taken steps to curtail Russian propaganda and make changes for Ukrainians’ safety. But it’s a fine line to walk as VOA’s Michelle Quinn reports.     Produced by: Matt Dibble   ...

Software giant Microsoft announced Friday that it is suspending “all new sales of Microsoft products and services in Russia” over that country’s invasion of Ukraine. “Like the rest of the world, we are horrified, angered and saddened by the images and news coming from the war in Ukraine and condemn this unjustified, unprovoked and unlawful invasion by Russia,” the company said in a statement. The company added that it was ‘stopping many aspects of our business in Russia in compliance with governmental sanctions decisions.’ Many companies have announced they are ending or limiting their activity in Russia. Some companies include Apple, Nike and Dell Technologies. Microsoft added that it will continue to work with Ukraine to protect the country from Russian cyberattacks, noting it already had during an attack on…

A consortium of U.S. states announced on Wednesday a joint investigation into TikTok's possible harm to young users of the platform, which has boomed in popularity, especially among children.  Officials across the United States have launched their own investigations and lawsuits against Big Tech giants as new national regulations have failed to pass, partly because of partisan gridlock in Congress.  The consortium of eight states will look into the harm TikTok can cause to its young users and what the company knew about such possible harm, California Attorney General Rob Bonta said a statement.   Leading the investigation is a coalition of attorneys general from California, Florida, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Nebraska, New Jersey, Tennessee and Vermont. The investigation will focus, among other things, on TikTok's techniques to boost young user engagement,…

Some of America's best-known companies including Apple, Google, Ford, Harley-Davidson and Exxon Mobil rebuked and rejected Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, under steady pressure from investors and consumers decrying the violence.  Late Tuesday, Apple said it had stopped sales of iPhones and other products in Russia, adding that it was making changes to its Maps app to protect civilians in Ukraine.  Tech firms including Alphabet's Google dropped Russian state publishers from their news, and Ford Motor, with three joint venture factories in Russia, told its Russian manufacturing partner it was suspending operations in the country. Motorcycle maker Harley-Davidson suspended shipments of its bikes.  Exxon wants out of Russia Exxon Mobil Corp said it would discontinue operations in Russia and was taking steps to exit the Sakhalin-1 venture, following in…

Avalanche forecasters use a slew of technology to predict avalanche risk and help lovers of backcountry winter sports to be prepared. From Boulder Colorado, Shelley Schlender reports. Video editors - Shelley Schlender, Luis Da Costa. ...

As Russia's war in Ukraine plays out for the world on social media, big tech platforms are moving to restrict Russian state media from using their platforms to spread propaganda and misinformation. Google announced Tuesday that it's blocking the YouTube channels of those outlets in Europe "effective immediately" but acknowledged "it'll take time for our systems to fully ramp up." Other U.S.-owned tech companies have offered more modest changes so far: limiting the Kremlin's reach, labeling more of this content so that people know it originated with the Russian government, and cutting Russian state organs off from whatever ad revenue they were previously making.  The changes are a careful balancing act intended to slow the Kremlin from pumping propaganda into social media feeds without angering Russian officials to the point…

Twitter announced Monday that it will start labeling and making it harder for users to see tweets about the invasion of Ukraine that contain information from Russian state media outlets like RT and Sputnik. “For years we've provided more context about state-affiliated media while not accepting ad $ or amplifying accounts,” Twitter said in a tweet. “With many looking for credible info due to the conflict in Ukraine, we're now adding labels on Tweets linking to state media & reducing the content's visibility.”   Twitter said it had seen over 45,000 tweets a day from people sharing links to Russian state media, much more than coming from state-sponsored accounts. Twitter began to de-amplify Russian state media accounts in 2020 and had earlier banned Russian state media from advertising. The announcement…

YouTube on Saturday barred Russian state-owned media outlet RT and other Russian channels from receiving money for advertisements that run with their videos, similar to a move by Facebook, after the invasion of Ukraine. Citing "extraordinary circumstances," YouTube said in a statement that it was "pausing a number of channels’ ability to monetize on YouTube, including several Russian channels affiliated with recent sanctions." Ad placement is largely controlled by YouTube. Videos from the affected channels also will come up less often in recommendations, YouTube spokesperson Farshad Shadloo said. He added that RT and several other channels would no longer be accessible in Ukraine due to "a government request." Ukraine Digital Minister Mykhailo Fedorov tweeted earlier on Saturday that he contacted YouTube "to block the propagandist Russian channels such as Russia…

The Biden administration announced on Tuesday actions taken by the federal government and private industry that it says will bolster the supply chain of rare earths and other critical minerals used in technologies from household appliances and electronics to defense systems. They say these steps will reduce the nation’s dependence on China, a major producer of these elements. White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara has this report. ...

The United States and its Western allies are bracing for the possibility that a Russian invasion of Ukraine would have a ripple effect in cyberspace, even if Western entities are not initially the intended target. "I am absolutely concerned," U.S. Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco told the virtual Munich Cyber Security Conference on Thursday when asked about the chances of catastrophic spillover from a cyberattack on Ukraine. "It's not hypothetical," Monaco said, pointing to the June 2017 "NotPetya" virus, engineered by Russia's military intelligence service, the GRU. The virus initially targeted a Ukrainian accounting website but went on to hobble companies around the world, including Danish shipping giant Maersk and U.S.-based FedEx. "Companies of any size and of all sizes would be foolish not to be preparing right now," Monaco…

U.S. auto safety regulators have launched another investigation of Tesla, this time tied to complaints that its cars can come to a stop for no apparent reason.   The government says it has 354 complaints from owners during the past nine months about "phantom braking" in Tesla Models 3 and Y. The probe covers an estimated 416,000 vehicles from the 2021 and 2022 model years.   No crashes or injuries were reported.  The vehicles are equipped with partially automated driver-assist features, such as adaptive cruise control and "Autopilot," which allow them to automatically brake and steer within their lanes.  Documents posted Thursday by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration say the vehicles can unexpectedly brake at highway speeds.   "Complainants report that the rapid deceleration can occur without warning, and…

Google said Wednesday it plans to limit tracking and data sharing for users of its Android operating system, which is used by over 2.5 billion people around the world. The change, which won’t take effect for at least two years, comes in response to growing pressure on tech companies to increase privacy by limiting tracking. Google, which dominates the online advertising market, currently assigns IDs to each Android device and then collects highly valuable data on users that allows advertisers to target them with ads based on their interests and activities. Google said it would test alternatives to those IDs or get rid of them entirely. “These solutions will limit sharing of user data with third parties and operate without cross-app identifiers, including advertising ID,” the company said in a…

A Nigerian rights group has filed a lawsuit to force authorities to publish an agreement reached with Twitter in January to lift a block on the social media company. The rights group says the failure by Nigerian authorities to publish all the details of the agreement raises concerns about citizens’ rights and censorship. A Nigerian rights group, the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), said this week that authorities ignored its request last month to publish the agreement. The lawsuit seeks a court order compelling authorities to publish details of the agreement reached with Twitter before the company restored access to the site in Nigeria. Nigeria suspended Twitter last June for deleting a tweet from President Muhammadu Buhari that threatened regional separatists and referred to the 1960s war in the…

The technology industry has long employed mostly men in technical roles. But a nonprofit group in Seattle, Washington is trying to change that. VOA’s Natasha Mozgovaya reports. ...

Several senior members of President Joe Biden's administration led the charge Thursday for a significant practical expansion of the nationwide use of electric vehicles. The federal government is "teaming up with states and the private sector to build a nationwide network of EV chargers by 2030 to help create jobs, fight the climate change crisis, and ensure that this game-changing technology is affordable and accessible for every American," said Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg outside the headquarters of the U.S. Department of Transportation. In the largest investment of its kind, the Biden administration is to distribute $5 billion to begin building up to a half million roadside rapid charging stations across the country for electric cars and trucks. To rid EV drivers of "range anxiety," there will be a "seamless network"…

Media giant News Corp is investigating a cyberattack that has accessed the email and documents of some of its employees and journalists. On Friday, New York-based News Corp, whose entities include The Wall Street Journal and the New York Post, sent an internal email to staff, stating that it had been the target of "persistent nation-state attack activity." "On January 20th, News Corp discovered attack activity on a system used by several of our business units," David Kline, News Corp chief technology officer, wrote in the email. News Corp said that as soon as it discovered the attack, it notified law enforcement and launched an investigation with the help of Mandiant, a cybersecurity firm. The cyberattack affected a "limited number of business email accounts and documents" from News Corp headquarters…

At the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, China is using technology to keep athletes and visitors safe as part of its pandemic precautions. But for visitors, the use of technology can come with security and privacy concerns. Michelle Quinn reports. Carolyn Presutti contributed. ...

More than a decade ago, technology giant Apple began telling its smartphone customers that if something was worth doing, “There’s an app for that.” Starting now, the same can be said of fighting terrorism. The U.S. National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) Monday launched its aCTknowledge mobile app, ready for download from the Apple app store and from the NCTC website. "The app is a one stop shop to get unclassified counterterrorism information,” a NCTC official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity in order to discuss the center’s foray into mobile apps. Officials said a version should also be available in the coming months from Google Play, and that the information will also be available in a desktop version.  But while the app is public, access to the full suite of…

News Corp disclosed on Friday it was the target of a cyberattack that accessed data of some employees, with its internet security adviser saying the hack was likely aimed at gathering "intelligence to benefit China's interests." The publisher of the Wall Street Journal said the breach, discovered in late January, accessed emails and documents of a limited number of employees, including journalists, but added that cybersecurity firm Mandiant had contained the attack. "Mandiant assesses that those behind this activity have a China nexus, and we believe they are likely involved in espionage activities to collect intelligence to benefit China's interests," David Wong, vice president of consulting at Mandiant, told Reuters. The Chinese Embassy in the United States did not immediately respond to a request for comment. "Although we are in…

The same technology companies that helped drag the U.S. stock market back from the depths of the pandemic recession in 2021 led the market into a sharp plunge on Thursday after Meta Platforms, the company that owns Facebook, revealed that user growth on its marquee product has hit a plateau, and revenue from advertising has fallen off sharply. Meta was not the only U.S. tech company to suffer on Thursday. Snap Inc., the owner of Snapchat; Pinterest, Twitter, PayPal, Spotify and Amazon all suffered sharp sell-offs during trading. U.S. tech stocks are facing a variety of major challenges right now, including a possible economic slowdown, changes to privacy rules, increased regulatory pressure and competitive challenges that have pushed users — especially young people — to new platforms such as TikTok.…

A single lightning bolt that leapt across three U.S. states has been identified as the longest ever, the U.N. weather agency said Tuesday. Dubbed a megaflash, the rare low-rate horizontal discharge covered 768 kilometers (477 miles) between clouds in Texas and Mississippi in April 2020. It was detected by scientists using satellite technology and its distance - beating the previous record by 60 kilometer - confirmed by a World Meteorological Organization committee. "That trip by air[plane] would take a couple of hours and in this case the distance was covered in a matter of seconds," WMO spokesperson Clare Nullis said. Another megaflash that occurred above Uruguay and Argentina in June 2020 also set a record, as the longest-lasting at 17.1 seconds, the WMO said. While these two newly cataloged megaflashes…