REI pulls AI-generated bike ad after Meta turns it into a two-handlebar monstrosity
AI-generated ads are getting harder to spot, unless they add handlebars to both ends of a bike
What is the most commonly used password?
It takes less than a second to crack the world's most popular password. Do you know what it is?
Europe's digital euro is one step closer, designed to cut out Visa and Mastercard
The digital euro would enable private offline payments and launch in 2029
LastPass customer names, emails, and support records stolen in third-party breach, vaults unaffected
Another security headache for the password manager
Meta is building a prediction market app, but it will launch without real-money bets
Another Zuck carbon copy could be on the way
Ripple effect: Never one to miss an opportunity to jump on a bandwagon (or steal someone else's idea), Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has directed a small team to create a prediction market app. The big difference is that it won't use actual money for trades – though that could change at some point.
Cloudflare teams up with Chrome, Edge, and Firefox to tackle bot traffic without CAPTCHAs
PACT would let trusted sites vouch for users anonymously, though questions remain over who gets that trust
Polymarket paid influencers to fake winning bets, built dummy websites to pull it off
A WSJ investigation found 10 creators posted 1,100+ videos of fake wagers totaling $1.9 million
Meta wants a child safety bill rewritten to shield it from lawsuits over harm to kids
Meta and Google already lost their first child safety trial this year, with $6 million in damages
Kalshi calls itself a hedging platform now, but critics say it's still just sports betting in disguise
Push into Wall Street looks a lot like a strategy to dodge sports betting regulation
Court says Ohio can require parental consent for children using social media
The law requires platforms likely to be used by under-16s to verify ages and obtain parental approval
Firefox has an ambitious new roadmap, the browser is also losing millions of users a month
Can the open source browser get its mojo back before turning into history's footnote?
Chrome update fixes 33 security flaws, including seven critical bugs
Google Chrome remains the default browser for billions of users. Latest release 149.0.7827.156 is largely a security update, but a significant one, fixing 33 vulnerabilities including seven rated critical and numerous high-severity flaws tied to memory corruption, WebRTC, extensions, passwords, and authentication systems.
UK confirms social media ban for kids is coming – Meta, YouTube, and Snapchat respond
Keir Starmer says he won't compromise on children's safety, but Australia's experience shows bans are hard to enforce
EA launches new platform to put even more ads inside games
They "enhance" the player experience, apparently
The rise of "dopamine sites": fake food delivery and shopping apps that satisfy cravings without spending a cent
Researchers say the trend satisfies a need for instant gratification in uncertain times
The FBI built a fake town in Alabama to study and simulate real-world cyberattacks
More than 200 servers power simulations to stress-test America's digital infrastructure
Fox to acquire Roku in $22 billion deal, its largest ever
Fox bets billions on owning the pipes over the content
Justice Department seizes websites that published deepfake nudes of famous women
The sites allegedly targeted celebrities, politicians, journalists, athletes, and other public figures
SpaceX goes public in the largest IPO ever, and Musk crosses the trillion-dollar line
What $135 (or more) a share buys: a rocket business, Starlink, and a very, very large bet on AI
Why it matters: The largest IPO in history did two things at once: it made Elon Musk the world's first trillionaire, and it quietly converted a privately held rocket company into a stock that millions of investors may soon own whether they chose to or not. SpaceX isn't asking Wall Street to price its launches or its satellites. It's asking the market to bet that a rocket company is on its way to becoming one of the most valuable AI companies on Earth, and to start paying for that future today.
Chris Seedor once spent 1,500 Bitcoin on a GPU. Now he insures crypto fortunes
After receiving an early bitcoin windfall, he is building protection for self-custody investors
The end of uBlock Origin in Chrome is now weeks away, not months
Ad-Verse: Google announced the transition from Manifest V2 browser add-ons a few years ago, but kept a few well-known "secrets" available to support legacy extensions. Now, Chromium developers have explained that MV2-based extensions are completely going away in just a few weeks.
Canada introduces social media ban for under 16s
But platforms can apply for an exemption if they convince regulators their child protection measures are strong enough
Signal attacks UK plan to scan devices for nude images as "mass surveillance"
The UK says tech firms could face fines if they fail to adopt stronger protections for children
Windows 11 will soon have an option for removing web results from local search queries
Microsoft appears to answer users' complaints
PSA: Scammers are getting their fake shopping sites into ChatGPT's results
Convincing copycats use near-identical domain names and layouts while dangling discounts of up to 80%