Geek News

Facebook has admitted the company has been secretly deleting messages sent on Messenger by founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg. “After Sony Pictures’ emails were hacked in 2014 we made a number of changes to protect our executives’ communications,” says a Facebook spokesperson in a statement to TechCrunch . “These included limiting the retention period for Mark’s messages in Messenger. We did so in full compliance with our legal obligations to preserve messages.” Old Facebook messages sent by Zuckerberg have simply vanished in some existing threads, and TechCrunch reports that affected messages no longer appear in Facebook’s download your information tool. Recent messages from Zuckerberg reportedly remain in some users’ inboxes, and the... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "https://ift.tt/2GDMQqA"

Crisis on the Planet of the Apes is Now Available on Steam and is 33% off!* 5 years since its outbreak, the Simian Flu has wiped out half of humanity. You are an ape with advanced intelligence, captured and held prisoner in a remote scientific facility. Climb, jump and shoot through the chaos of an apocalyptical world to escape with your fellow apes and return home. *Offer ends April 16 at 10AM Pacific Time via Steam RSS News Feed "https://ift.tt/2GWEYzU"

Animals Dinosaurs stomped all over this remote Scottish island and left the prints to prove it. Why are researchers so interested in dinosaur footprints anyways? They aren’t quite as visually striking as complete dinosaur skeletons, but scientists can get a lot of… via Popular Science "https://ift.tt/2Eom2om"

Technology Consider choosing what DNS service you use. Don’t worry, it’s easier than it sounds. There is a small, simple step you can take right now that promises to make your online browsing faster and more private. via Popular Science "https://ift.tt/2EnhNJC"

Twitter has defended its handling of misinformation and abuse in the aftermath of this week’s shooting at YouTube’s headquarters. In a blog post titled “Serving the Public Conversation During Breaking Events,” trust and safety VP Del Harvey laid out how Twitter tried to provide “credible and authentic” information about the attack, even as some users spread hoaxes about the shooter’s identity. Harvey writes that Twitter doesn’t have a system for verifying information accuracy, reiterating Twitter’s stance that it isn’t an “arbiter of truth.” However, it watches for deliberate misinformation that violates rules against harassment, hate speech, spam, or violent threats. Harvey says that after the shooting, Twitter “suspended hundreds of... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "https://ift.tt/2Ix08Sk"

Facebook began speaking with hospitals last year about the possibility of matching anonymized user profiles with health data in an effort to improve medical care, according to a CNBC report exposing the program . Facebook confirmed its work to CNBC but said it had hit “pause” on the program last month — presumably following the Cambridge Analytica scandal — to focus on “doing a better job of protecting people’s data” and being clearer about how it’s used. The plan had been to get hospitals to share anonymized medical information — such as health issues and age, but not name — and match it up with anonymized Facebook accounts that appeared to belong to those same people, according to the report. It would then somehow use insights from... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "https://ift.tt/2GANqFz"

The much-anticipated Supreme Court case US v. Microsoft — which could have decided the extent of American jurisdiction over foreign servers — is now, for all intents and purposes, dead. On March 30th, the Department of Justice moved to drop the lawsuit as moot, and today, Microsoft filed to agree with the motion . While the Supreme Court has yet to officially drop the case, it’s a foregone conclusion that they will. Both the government and Microsoft agree that the newly passed CLOUD Act renders the lawsuit meaningless. In US v. Microsoft , federal law enforcement clashed with Microsoft over the validity of a Stored Communications Act warrant for data stored on a server in Dublin. The CLOUD Act creates clear new procedures for procuring... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "https://ift.tt/2GA694i"

Since people can store personal data in blockchains, the technology could fall under the purview of the upcoming European change to privacy law. But blockchain technology may be fundamentally incompatible with Europe’s new privacy rules, Washington, DC think tank Coin Center said today in a new post . The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will take effect on May 25th this year, more than two years after it was first signed into law. Under the new rule, if an EU citizen requests that their personal data be erased from a company’s records, the company will have to obey. But with blockchain, a complete erasure of any stored personal data might not be possible, experts told The Verge . “Modifying data on a blockchain is very hard,”... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "https://ift.tt/2EmUoIj"

Space Think keeping a desk plant alive is tough? Try farming in Antarctica. Lettuce on the moon might sound like the name of a prog-rock song, but that’s the eventual plan. This morning, Germany’s Aerospace Centre DLR announced that their… via Popular Science "https://ift.tt/2EnAJI8"

Facebook is adding a new augmented reality feature called target tracking, which lets people launch AR experiences by pointing their phone at an image. Target tracking is in a closed beta for developers, but Facebook users can check out simple, animated experiences on posters from Ready Player One and A Wrinkle In Time. They can also get the experience by scanning a QR code. A toolkit for developers should be released publicly later this spring. This is a very standard augmented reality feature, similar to the “living pictures” made by some high-tech novelty printers . But Facebook is claiming that its system will work more smoothly and consistently than other AR platforms, and that will be simple for people to turn their posters or... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "https://ift.tt/2q8sxaC"

Dota Plus: * Adjusted the Hero Level XP and Shard reward curve to make earlier levels more easily attainable, with the total XP to reach Level 25 (and total Shards rewarded) remaining the same. Users' total earned XP for each hero thus far have been remapped to the new level and users were granted any missing shards that they may have missed in the new curve. * Common relics are now available for direct purchase for 5000 shards each, in addition to the existing random roll option. via Steam RSS News Feed "https://ift.tt/2q7uhQH"

Google is expanding YouTube TV to support Firefox, as spotted by YourTechExplained , marking the first browser to work with Google’s over-the-top streaming service that isn’t Chrome (which you’ll recall is also owned by Google.) The added Firefox support comes from a quietly updated support page noting the change, although sadly it just seems that only Firefox is getting the update from Google for now — there’s no word on Safari, Edge, or other browsers getting Google’s blessing to work with YouTube TV at this time. YouTube TV costs $40 per month ( after a recent price bump ), and also has apps for iOS, Android, Apple TV, and Roku , in addition to Chrome and Firefox on browsers. Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "https://ift.tt/2IwSIyB"

Mophie has announced a new wireless charger, the Wireless Charge Stream Pad Plus , via MacRumors . It’s essentially an updated version of the Wireless Charging Base that the company announced in partnership with Apple when the iPhone maker first launched the iPhone X and iPhone 8 with wireless charging last year. Like the Wireless Charging Base, the Wireless Charge Stream Pad Plus is a Qi-based wireless charger, but unlike the earlier version — which has the hallowed position of being one of the two chargers that Apple sells in its stores — the updated version offers a full 10 watts of wireless charging, instead of the 7.5W maximum that the Wireless Charging Base offered. That boils down to allowing faster charging on devices like... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "https://ift.tt/2q9UQ7Q"