In the news...
- Washington Takes Aim at DeepSeek [nytimes.com]
"Although tech companies have professed little existential worry about DeepSeek — and indeed have announced that they’ll continue to spend heavily on A.I. infrastructure, despite their Chinese rival’s claim to do more with less — U.S. policymakers have confronted multiple worries."
"One is that China has obliterated the U.S. technological lead in A.I. But the other is that DeepSeek could become another way for Beijing to suck up Americans’ personal information — concerns that were also raised about TikTok."
- X Is Blocking Links to Signal, a Secure Messaging Platform Used by Federal Workers [techcrunch.com]
"Elon Musk’s X (formerly Twitter) is blocking links to Signal.me, a URL shortener used by the private messaging app Signal that allows users to send out a link that’s used to contact them directly through the service. The blocks, which impact direct messages, public posts, and profile pages," reports Rebecca Bellan. "The change comes as DOGE (the Department of Government Efficiency) takes aim at federal agencies, including NASA and the Department of Education, leaving workers turning to Signal’s encrypted messaging platform to securely share information and blow the whistle on potentially harmful activity."
- Critics Say New Google Rules Put Profits Over Privacy [bbc.com]
Imran Rahman-Jones explains that Google plans to implement "fingerprinting" which "...collects information about a person's device and browser and puts it together to create a profile of that person."
"The information is not explicitly collected in order to advertise to people... For example, a person's screen size or language settings are legitimately needed in order to display a website properly. But when that is combined with their time zone, browser type, battery level - and many other data points - it can create a unique combination of settings which makes it easier to work out who is using a web service." Those details, along with IP addresses, were "previously prohibited by Google for ad targeting."
"Privacy campaigners have called Google's new rules on tracking people online 'a blatant disregard for user privacy.'"
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