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Google Fined $43 Million by Australian Court for Misleading Users Over Data + More
Google Fined $43 Million by Australian Court for Misleading Users Over Data
An Australian court has ordered Google to pay roughly $43 million ($60 million AUD) for misleading users about the collection and use of their location data, an Australian competition watchdog said Friday.
The court found Google breached Australian Consumer Law between January 2017 and December 2018 by misrepresenting to some Android users what settings allowed Google to collect and use personal location data, according to the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission’s announcement.
The court found that Google represented to some users that the “Location History” setting was the only one that affected whether Google collected, kept and used data about a user’s location, but another “Web & App Activity” setting also let it collect and use the data when turned on, the watchdog said.
The watchdog estimates that 1.3 million Google account users in Australia may have been impacted.
Nearly Half of All Teens Say They Use the Internet ‘Almost Constantly,’ Survey Finds
Nearly half of U.S. teens say they use the internet “almost constantly,” according to a new survey. The survey of 1,316 teenagers delved into the technology habits of teens and was conducted by the Pew Research Center.
The percentage of teens who reported a near-constant level of online presence was markedly up from a 2015 Pew survey in which only about a quarter of teens reported that level of internet use.
The survey found that the social media platforms most frequently used by teens are changing as well, with video-focused platforms like YouTube and TikTok leading in popularity.
Facebook is no longer such a dominant force in the lives of American teens, according to the new survey. Only 32% of U.S. teens ages 13 to 17 say they now use Facebook. That’s down from the 71% of teens who said they used Facebook in a Pew survey conducted between 2014 and 2015.
CDC: Schools Can End COVID Test-to-Stay Strategy, Quarantines
U.S. News & World Report reported:
Students no longer need to quarantine at home after exposure to COVID-19, according to updated guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that comes as many prepare to head back to school for the fall.
Additionally, under the new guidance, schools no longer need to implement “test-to-stay” policies or cohort students — the practice of keeping students in the same group throughout the day to limit contact with others.
Now, students who have been exposed to the virus fall under the same guidance as adults regardless of vaccination status: Wear a high-quality mask for 10 days and get tested on day five or sooner if they have symptoms.
Quarantine is now only recommended for people in certain high-risk congregate settings like correctional facilities, homeless shelters and nursing homes.
Creighton Students’ COVID Vaccine Mandate Appeal Dismissed
The Nebraska Supreme Court on Friday dismissed an appeal by a handful of Creighton University students who sought to be exempt from the private Catholic school’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate last year, arguing that getting the shots would violate their religious beliefs against abortion.
The state’s high court said it didn’t have jurisdiction, citing its 150-year stance that people can’t appeal orders denying or granting temporary injunctions. In this case, a judge last year declined to issue a temporary injunction that would have blocked Creighton University’s requirement that all students get the COVID-19 vaccination.
Against Vaccine Mandates for Schoolchildren
The Wall Street Journal reported:
In “COVID Vaccine Mandates Heighten School Inequity” (op-ed, Aug. 9), Drs. Eliza Holland and Nikki Johnson argue against school vaccine mandates for children because black children are immunized at lower rates than the general population, and so they would be disproportionately prevented from attending school.
Apparently, racial inequity is today’s cudgel of choice. How about science-based arguments instead? Children are highly unlikely to become seriously ill or die from COVID, especially from today’s less virulent strain. Those five years old and younger are particularly unlikely to benefit from vaccination, but still partake in the risk.
California Bill Targeting Social-Media Giants for Harm to Children Dies in Legislature
The Wall Street Journal reported:
California lawmakers killed a bill Thursday that would have allowed government lawyers to sue social-media companies for features that allegedly harm children by causing them to become addicted.
The measure would have given the state attorney general, local district attorneys and city attorneys in the biggest California cities authority to try to hold social-media companies liable in court for features they knew or should have known could addict minors.
Among those targeted could have been Facebook and Instagram parent Meta Platforms Inc., Snapchat SNAP 2.72% parent Snap Inc. and TikTok, owned by Chinese company ByteDance Ltd.
Its death comes after social-media companies worked aggressively to stop the bill, arguing that it would lead to hundreds of millions of dollars in liability and potentially prompt them to abandon the youth market nationwide. Meta, Twitter Inc. and Snap had all individually lobbied against the measure, according to state lobbying disclosures.
Google Wants to Fix Its Search Engine’s Misinformation Problem
Google on Thursday unveiled a handful of new features aimed at combating falsehoods on its search engine, one of the most widely used information tools on the planet. Far from its origins as a simple website that listed 10 links as search results, Google is now a sprawling and cluttered site that highlights news stories, tweets, maps, hotel bookings and more.
As the site has grown — and as misinformation peddlers have become more sophisticated — the search engine has become more vulnerable to spreading lies and wrong information.
Google said it would use its artificial intelligence systems to improve search snippets. The company will use machine learning software, called MUM, or Multitask Unified Model, to check information across multiple reliable sources that agree on the same facts. The process will allow the system to come to a general consensus, Google said, even if the sources don’t phrase the information in the same way.
Facebook and Instagram Apps Can Track Users via Their in-App Browsers
If you visit a website you see on Facebook and Instagram, you’ve likely noticed that you’re not redirected to your browser of choice but rather a custom in-app browser. It turns out that those browsers inject javascript code into each website visited, allowing parent Meta to potentially track you across websites, researcher Felix Krause has discovered.
“The Instagram app injects their tracking code into every website shown, including when clicking on ads, enabling them [to] monitor all user interactions, like every button and link tapped, text selections, screenshots, as well as any form inputs, like passwords, addresses and credit card numbers,” Krause said in a blog post.
Ring’s New TV Show Sounds Like a Dystopian America’s Funniest Home Videos
Ring, the Amazon-owned home security company that’ll sell you a camera just as swiftly as it will give law enforcement access to that same camera’s footage without a warrant, is producing a television show that sounds an invitation to participate in the surveillance state. You know, as a fun family activity.
Deadline reports that Wanda Sykes has signed on to host Ring Nation, a new America’s Funniest Home Videos-style clip show from MGM Television, Ring, and Big Fish Entertainment, the production company behind Live P.D. Described as a “daily dose of life’s unpredictable, heartwarming and hilarious viral videos” in a press release, Ring Nation will feature footage captured on people’s Ring cameras presented in a way that’s meant to be entertaining.
As one of Ring’s most thinly-veiled attempts at normalizing the idea and practice of people constantly surveilling one another, Ring Nation may also be just the reminder some folks need to avoid that particular instance of our modern-day panopticon.
Hacker Offers to Sell Data of 48.5 Million Users of Shanghai’s COVID App
A hacker has claimed to have obtained the personal information of 48.5 million users of a COVID health code mobile app run by the city of Shanghai, the second claim of a breach of the Chinese financial hub’s data in just over a month.
The hacker provided a sample of the data including the phone numbers, names and Chinese identification numbers and health code status of 47 people.
Suishenma is the Chinese name for Shanghai’s health code system, which the city of 25 million people, like many across China, established in early 2020 to combat the spread of COVID-19. All residents and visitors have to use it.
The app collects travel data to give people a red, yellow or green rating indicating the likelihood of having the virus and users have to show the code to enter public venues.
How Amazon Plans to Expand Into Mental Health Services With On-Demand Therapists + More
How Amazon Plans to Expand Into Mental Health Services With On-Demand Therapists
Insider has learned Amazon is planning to add mental health services to its portfolio — so one day you may not only have an Amazon robot cleaning your house, an Amazon doctor providing care and an Amazon store to pick out your clothes, but you could also have an Amazon therapist.
Amazon’s primary-care service, Amazon Care, plans to add behavioral health support to its growing list of medical offerings and is planning to partner with mental healthcare provider Ginger.
The service, which hasn’t been launched yet, will provide Amazon Care users on-demand access to mental health experts, such as licensed therapists or psychiatrists.
Amazon has been doubling down on its healthcare business. Just last month, the company announced plans to acquire One Medical for $3.9 billion.
Ring Cameras Amassing Info on Users and Their Neighbors
About 18% of Americans now own a video doorbell. That means a significant and growing slice of American neighborhoods are under a form of intermittent surveillance. If the surveillance video and associated data were the exclusive property of individual homeowners, it might not be of much concern.
However, that’s not the case. For example, Ring, the company behind the top-selling brand, maintains a vast database of its users and their cameras. Ring is an Amazon subsidiary, thanks to the tech giant‘s 2018 purchase of the company for over $1 billion.
Ring gets your name, phone number, email and postal address and any other information you provide to it — such as payment information or your social media handles if you link your Ring account to Facebook, for instance. The company also gets information about your Wi-Fi network and its signal strength, and it knows you named your camera “Secret CIA Watchpoint,” as well as all the other technical changes you make to your cameras or doorbells.
Maybe you’ve opted against buying a Ring doorbell out of privacy concerns. That’s fine, but don’t forget that your neighbor’s Ring camera may be watching you — or even listening to you. Tests have found Ring cameras can record audio from 20 feet away.
Twitter Activates ‘Steps’ to ‘Protect’ Midterms, Fight ‘Misleading Narratives’
Twitter announced on Thursday that it would implement several measures to “protect civic conversation” in the run-up to the midterm elections, saying users “deserve to trust the election conversations and content they encounter” on the social media platform.
In an announcement titled, “Our approach to the 2022 U.S. midterms,” the company explained that it aims “to enable healthy civic conversation on Twitter while ensuring people have the context they need to make informed decisions.”
The company is “activating enforcement” of its “Civic Integrity Policy,” specifically designed to combat “harmful misleading information.” Twitter will be rolling out various measures, including blocking certain accounts from sharing links or content it deems false.
Likewise, the social media company will be “educating” users on how to identify fake news.
UnitedHealth Deal Questioned by DOJ on Risk of Data Misuse
The Justice Department held out a 2021 internal audit of UnitedHealth Group Inc.’s data practices as evidence that the healthcare giant’s proposed acquisition of Change Healthcare Inc. should be blocked.
An internal audit of UnitedHealth’s data policies found the company had “no effective means of enforcement if or when data misuse is discovered or reported,” according to evidence presented by prosecutors during an antitrust trial Wednesday.
The DOJ has sued to block the deal, saying it would give UnitedHealth access to sensitive information about rival health insurers. The case is a test of the Biden administration’s antitrust agenda. A ruling for the Justice Department could have implications for other mergers where valuable data would change hands.
Chicago Public Schools 2022-2023 COVID Guidelines: Mask and Vaccine Mandates Are out, ‘Close Contact’ Procedures Are in
With Chicago Public Schools’ back-to-school start date just over a week away, summer break for students and teachers is coming to a close. And now that COVID vaccinations are approved for children 6 months and older, guidelines and policies have shifted for the upcoming school year, with officials stressing the importance of vaccine protection over masking.
But as the classroom inches closer, the city remains at what the Centers for Disease and Control and Prevention classifies as a “high” community transmission of the virus.
“Only about 9% of Chicagoans under five have gotten that first dose,” Chicago Public Health Department commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady said during a Facebook Live update Tuesday. However, vaccines will not be mandated for 2022-2023, and neither will masks — with Arwady stressing that as COVID continues to evolve, so too will guidelines around the virus.
COVID Curbs Affect Cities Across China, Including Xinjiang and Tibet
Several COVID-hit Chinese cities from the country’s east to west imposed fresh restrictions and lockdowns on their populations on Thursday to contain flare-ups that are again threatening to disrupt local economies.
Reducing people’s unnecessary movement for a few days — a softer type of lockdown — as soon as dozens of new cases emerge is a key practice of China’s “dynamic COVID-zero” strategy. The aim is to avoid turning efforts to halt an outbreak into the extended nightmares seen in Shanghai and Wuhan.
The uncertainty over how long such smaller lockdowns may last — because Omicron’s high transmissibility makes it harder to clear infections — has hurt business confidence and made people less willing to travel.
Federal Trade Commission Expected to Launch Effort to Expand Online Privacy Protection
The Wall Street Journal reported:
The Federal Trade Commission is expected to begin writing federal rules to expand online privacy protections as soon as Thursday, according to people familiar with the matter.
If adopted, the rules could impose significant new responsibilities on businesses that handle consumer data, including potentially barring certain kinds of data collection practices, the people said.
Congress is also considering legislation to impose new rules to give Americans more control over their personal data, but it is unclear if there are enough votes to ensure passage this session. A group of state attorneys general has raised concerns that the bill could pre-empt tougher privacy standards adopted at the state level.
The new FTC rules could take years to enact, and the commission could follow several different paths, the people said. One option would be to declare certain data collection practices unfair or deceptive, using its authority to police such conduct.
Meta Begins Default End-to-End Encryption Tests on Facebook Messenger
Meta’s expanding end-to-end encryption on its Messenger platform. The company is now testing the privacy feature as the default setting for certain chats, as announced in a Thursday press release.
E2E encryption is the gold standard for online data privacy. With E2E, messages can theoretically only be viewed by the sender and the intended recipient(s) — even Meta shouldn’t be able to see the content of chats sent with this level of encryption.
Though the company first introduced E2E encryption as an option in 2016, this is the platform’s first major step towards actually making the privacy setting the default — something that’s critical for users’ true online security.
Previously, Meta has indicated that default E2E is the ultimate goal for Facebook and beyond, yet the timing of today’s announcement is hard to ignore. It comes in the immediate aftermath of the news that Meta shared Messenger chats with police in a criminal case concerning a 17-year-old’s abortion.
Online Privacy in a Post-Roe World
The case of a Nebraska woman charged with helping her teenage daughter end her pregnancy after investigators obtained Facebook messages between the two has raised fresh concerns about data privacy in the post-Roe world.
Since before the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June, Big Tech companies that collect personal details of their users have faced new calls to limit that tracking and surveillance amid fears that law enforcement or vigilantes could use those data troves against people seeking abortions or those who try to help them.
History has repeatedly demonstrated that whenever people’s personal data is tracked and stored, there’s always a risk that it could be misused or abused. With the Supreme Court’s overruling of the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion, collected location data, text messages, search histories, emails and seemingly innocuous period and ovulation-tracking apps could be used to prosecute people who seek an abortion — or medical care for a miscarriage — as well as those who assist them.
House Administrators Warn Lawmakers Against TikTok Use
“The ‘TikTok’ mobile application has been deemed by the House’s Chief Administration Officer (CAO) Office of CyberSecurity to be a high risk to users due to its lack of transparency in how it protects customer data, its requirement of excessive permissions and the potential security risks involved with its use,” the office wrote in a memo released Tuesday.
The advisory comes with no shortage of ways the app could access personal information, including checking a location device once an hour, and noting that the app “continually requests access” to a user’s contacts and external storage.
“TikTok actively harvests content for identifiable data. TikTok ‘may collect biometric identifiers and biometric information as defined under US laws,’ including ‘faceprints’ and ‘voiceprints,’ from videos users upload to their platform,” the advisory states.
It also may be able to access the device phone number, Wi-Fi network names, SIM card serial numbers, GPS status information and subscription information.
There’s No ‘Reset Password’ for Your DNA + More
There’s No ‘Reset Password’ for Your DNA
The battle over reproductive rights thrust the importance of our fundamental right to privacy back into the center of everyday life. From menstrual cycle tracking apps to Google searches for abortion services, our relationship with the privacy of our personal information shifted underneath our feet. That’s why our fight for genetic privacy is so vital.
Think about it. When a consumer signs up to do a genetic test, she may do so to discover her ethnic heritage, find a distant family member, or learn the chances she may one day be at risk for a hereditary disease.
What she likely does not expect is that data may be accessible by some of the world’s most repressive regimes, used in warrantless law enforcement searches, or commercialized by pharmaceutical companies. Unfortunately, that is exactly what can happen to consumers’ genetic data today.
Unlike other unique identifiers, such as a Social Security number or login credentials, our genome cannot be changed — even if it’s compromised. The consequences of this information landing in the wrong hands are profound, from employment and insurance discrimination to social surveillance and political targeting.
Musk Sells $6.9 Billion in Tesla Shares Ahead of Twitter Trial
Elon Musk has sold millions of Tesla shares in recent days, raising nearly $7 billion, to prepare for the possibility he might be forced to buy a company he no longer wants.
A count of Securities and Exchange Commission filings shows Musk sold 7,924,107 shares of his electric vehicle company Friday through Tuesday for $6.9 billion.
The sales come as Musk is preparing for a contentious court battle with Twitter, which is suing the world’s richest man to prevent him from backing out of the $44 billion acquisition announced in April. Much of Musk’s wealth is tied up in his companies and other investments, and he has been using his Tesla shares toward some of the purchase costs.
Dozens of Whole Foods Stores Will Soon Let You Pay With Just a Scan of Your Palm
Amazon’s palm-scanning technology is expanding to 65 Whole Foods locations across California. The checkout devices were introduced in 2020 as part of the Amazon One payment service, allowing customers to pay with a scan of their palm. This is the biggest rollout by the company yet, with the first new Whole Foods locations adding support today in Malibu, Montana Avenue and Santa Monica.
Customers can set up Amazon One by registering their palm print using a kiosk or at a point-of-sale station at participating stores. To register, you need to provide a payment card and phone number, agree to Amazon’s terms of service, and share an image of your palms. Once completed, you can take items to checkout and not have to take out your wallet — or even your phone. A hover of your hand over the device is all that’s needed to pay and leave.
Several Whole Foods locations have already been testing the palm-scanning tech in the LA area as well in Austin, Seattle and New York. It’s also been available at the company’s Amazon Style store in Glendale and at select Amazon Go and Fresh stores.
DOJ Is Preparing to Sue Google Over Ad Market as Soon as September
The U.S. Justice Department is preparing to sue Google as soon as next month, according to people familiar with the matter, capping years of work to build a case that the Alphabet Inc. unit illegally dominates the digital advertising market.
An ad tech complaint, which Bloomberg had reported was in the works last year, would mark the DOJ’s second case against Google following the government’s 2020 lawsuit alleging the tech titan dominates the online search market in violation of antitrust laws.
The DOJ’s ad tech probe is an example of the federal government’s push to rein in the largest U.S. technology platforms after nearly a decade during which regulators took little to no action.
The Federal Trade Commission has sued Meta Platforms Inc. seeking to force it to sell off Instagram and WhatsApp and is investigating Amazon.com Inc. over its control of online retail.
Anti-Big Bang Theory Scientists Face Censorship by International Journals
The New Indian Express reported:
Scientists from across the globe, including India, who are refuting the Big Bang theory on cosmology are facing resistance and censorship from journals and archives of international repute where they get their research papers published for peer review.
Twenty-four astronomers and physicists from 10 countries including reputed astrophysicist Jayant V Narlikar of Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics ®, Prof Sisir Roy of National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS) and Prof Amitabha Ghosh of Indian National Science Academy (INSA) ® from India are among the scientists protesting the censorship of papers that are critical of the Big Bang hypothesis by the open pre-print website arXiv.
“As scientists engaged in the study of the cosmos and the relation of phenomena in space to those here on Earth, we strongly protest arXiv’s censorship of controversial papers on cosmology and specifically on the Big Bang hypothesis.
“Run by Cornell University, arXiv is supposed to provide an open public forum for researchers to exchange pre-publication papers, without undertaking to peer-review them. But in June 2022, arXiv was rejected for publication in three papers that are critical of the validity of the Big Bang Hypothesis. No specific reason was given for these rejections,” the scientists wrote.
HIPAA Faces Test in New Abortion Reality
Doctors are weighing the legal risks of turning over ultrasounds and other personal health records if prosecutors or law enforcement demand the information to enforce state abortion bans.
The new post-Roe landscape is testing the suitability of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA. The landmark federal privacy law restricts how health providers share medical information, but it doesn’t prevent them from sharing it with law enforcement.
In Texas, anti-abortion lawyers have started filing pre-lawsuit petitions to depose abortion providers in order to gain information about abortions, the Texas Tribune reported.
President Biden recently directed the Department of Health and Human Services to consider actions “to strengthen the protection of sensitive information related to reproductive healthcare services and bolster patient-provider confidentiality.”
COVID Vaccine Mandate for Canadian Military Will Be ‘Tweaked,’ Says Defense Chief
Canada’s top military commander said he will “tweak” the COVID-19 vaccine mandate for the Armed Forces in the next few weeks but defended vaccine requirements as necessary to keep the military ready to respond to any emergency.
The public service vaccine mandate was suspended in June but the military one persists, a fact that has heightened criticism of the military’s policy.
Chief of the defense staff Gen. Wayne Eyre’s comments appear to contradict a draft copy of a revised vaccine policy obtained by the Ottawa Citizen last month, which suggested vaccine requirements for military personnel would be lifted.
The draft document, which officials say has not been approved by Eyre, said military personnel, as well as new recruits, would no longer have to attest to their vaccination status.
One of 5G’s Biggest Features Is a Security Minefield
True 5G Wireless data, with its ultrafast speeds and enhanced security protections, has been slow to roll out around the world. As the mobile technology proliferates — combining expanded speed and bandwidth with low-latency connections — one of its most touted features is starting to come into focus. But the upgrade comes with its own raft of potential security exposures.
A massive new population of 5G-capable devices, from smart-city sensors to agriculture robots and beyond, are gaining the ability to connect to the internet in places where Wi-Fi isn’t practical or available. Individuals may even elect to trade their fiber-optic internet connection for a home 5G receiver.
But the interfaces that carriers have set up to manage internet-of-things data are riddled with security vulnerabilities, according to research that will be presented on Wednesday at the Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas. And those vulnerabilities could dog the industry long-term.
There Are Two Factions Working to Prevent AI Dangers. Here’s Why They’re Deeply Divided.
There are teams of researchers in academia and at major AI labs these days working on the problem of artificial intelligence (AI) ethics, or the moral concerns raised by AI systems.
These efforts tend to be especially focused on data privacy concerns and on what is known as AI bias — AI systems that, using training data with bias often built in, produce racist or sexist results, such as refusing women credit card limits they’d grant a man with identical qualifications.
Today, that often means that AI ethicists and those in AI alignment are working on similar problems. Improving the understanding of the internal workings of today’s AI systems is one approach to solving AI alignment, and is crucial for understanding when and where models are being misleading or discriminatory.
Australia’s Central Bank Working With BIS to Launch Digital Currency System
Australia’s Reserve Bank is launching a pilot program over the course of the next year in collaboration with the Bank for International Settlements (the central bank of central banks) to test the “benefits” of a blockchain ledger-based digital currency system. The central bank is added to a long list of participants in BIS efforts to introduce CBDCs (central bank digital currencies) with the target goal of launching them globally by 2025-2030.
It’s important to note that substantial economic changes would have to occur within the next few years in order to make CBDC a viable option for the general public. Though many people use electronic transactions as a matter of convenience, a large portion of the population still prefers cash.
In the U.S., surveys within the last few years show that at least 37% of Americans still choose cash over other methods of payment like credit and debit cards. In Australia, the number stands at around 32%.
CBDCs, much like all blockchain-based currency mechanisms, are inherently devoid of privacy. By its very design, blockchain tech requires a ledger of transactions than can be tracked by governments if they so choose. Physical cash, though fiat in nature, is at least anonymous.
Europe Staves off Facebook Blackout — for Now
Europeans have been saved from a summer shutdown of social media sites Facebook and Instagram by … European Union bureaucracy. An Irish draft decision to block the social media sites’ parent company Meta’s data transfers from Europe to the U.S. is stuck in the process, as regulators from across the EU butt heads over the details.
In July, POLITICO reported that Ireland’s privacy regulator had decided to block Facebook’s owner Meta from using a last legal mechanism called standard contractual clauses (SCCs) to transfer large chunks of data like family pictures and direct messages across the Atlantic.
The Irish decision followed a 2020 European Court of Justice ruling that deemed major flows of data between Europe and the U.S. illegal because they expose Europeans to U.S. government surveillance risks.
Meta has repeatedly said that a decision blocking its transfers would force it to shutter its Facebook and Instagram offerings in Europe.
Sleep Expert Warns ‘Serious Health Risks’ Over Viral TikTok Trend + More
Sleep Expert Issues ‘Serious Health Risks’ Warning Over Viral TikTok Trend
People are taping their mouths shut overnight in the latest bizarre online trend — and one expert told Newsweek that the craze poses “serious” issues.
The tag “#mouthtaping” has 23 million views across the platform and some videos on the technique have reached the millions.
“Unfortunately mouth taping is an extreme way of encouraging nose breathing that has some serious health risks,” explained sleep expert James Wilson, AKA The Sleep Geek, who works with organizations, sports teams and individuals.
A large cause of concern is the risk of sleep apnea, narrow nostrils or something blocking your nasal airways.
‘I Didn’t Really Learn Anything’: COVID Grads Face College
Nearly a third of Angel Hope’s high school career was spent at home, in virtual classes that were hard to follow and easy to brush aside. Some days he skipped school to work extra hours at his job. Some days he played games with his brother and sister. Other days he just stayed in bed.
“It was like school was optional. It wasn’t a mandatory thing,” said Hope, 18, of Milwaukee. “I feel like I didn’t really learn anything.”
Across the country, there are countless others like him. Hundreds of thousands of recent graduates are heading to college this fall after spending more than half their high school careers dealing with the upheaval of a pandemic.
They endured a jarring transition to online learning, the strains from teacher shortages and profound disruptions to their home lives. And many are believed to be significantly behind academically.
Facebook Gave Nebraska Cops a Teen’s DMs so They Could Prosecute Her for Having an Abortion
A Nebraska teenager is facing criminal charges alleging she aborted a fetus in violation of state law after authorities obtained her Facebook messages using a search warrant. Seventeen-year-old Celeste Burgess, who is being tried as an adult along with her mother Jessica Burgess, is awaiting trial in Madison County District Court on charges that they broke a Nebraska law banning abortions after 20 weeks.
This marks one of the first instances of a person’s Facebook activity being used to incriminate her in a state where abortion access is restricted — a scenario that has remained largely hypothetical in the weeks following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. Nebraska currently outlaws abortions beyond 20 weeks. On Monday, Republican lawmakers in the state failed to secure enough votes to decrease that window to 12 weeks.
While Celeste told police that she had suffered a miscarriage, they continued to investigate, serving Facebook with a search warrant to access Celeste and Jessica’s Facebook accounts. They subsequently found messages between the mother and daughter allegedly detailing how Celeste had undergone a self-managed abortion with Jessica’s help. There are four states that ban abortion at 24 weeks and more than a dozen that broadly ban it at the start of fetal viability.
COVID: Children Struggling With Speech Following Lockdowns
A couple has spoken about how their child is struggling with speech and language skills after being isolated during the pandemic.
“A lot of kids were quite isolated, and not able to have the normal socialization because obviously everyone was locked in at home,” said three-year-old Ethan’s mum Louise.
One speech expert told BBC Wales referrals had increased after COVID. The Welsh government has launched a scheme to help children whose speech and language skills were affected by the lockdowns.
Group of 23 States Tells U.S. Court CDC Lacks Authority to Set Transit Mask Rules
A group of 23 state attorneys general led by Florida told a federal court on Monday that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) lacks the legal authority to impose a nationwide transportation mask mandate to address COVID-19.
The CDC sought “an unprecedented masking mandate regulating every breath of millions of Americans,” said the brief in support of the group that sued to overturn the mask mandate.
The group, which included Arizona, Georgia, Indiana, Missouri, Ohio, Texas and Virginia, urged the appeals court to reject the CDC’s “overreach.”
A group of 17 Republican U.S. lawmakers including Senator Rand Paul and Representative Thomas Massie also filed a brief Monday arguing the CDC lacked the authority to impose masking requirements.
NBA Reportedly Warns Players They Still Can’t Play in Toronto Without COVID Vaccination
NBA players won’t be permitted to travel to Canada to play the Toronto Raptors next season without being vaccinated against COVID-19 or receiving an approved medical exemption.
Bleacher Report and ESPN reported on Monday that the league sent a memo to players reiterating the Canadian policy that was in place last year and has impacted MLB games this summer. Per the reports, players who miss time because of their vaccination status won’t be paid for missed games. Teams are required to list those players as “Out: Health and Safety Protocols.”
The NBA does not require players to be vaccinated against COVID-19, but local, regional and national laws can prohibit players from traveling or playing without being vaccinated. Canada requires international travelers entering the country to be vaccinated against COVID-19.
The requirement impacted multiple players last season including Philadelphia 76ers guard Matisse Thybulle, who missed three playoff games in Toronto because he’s not fully vaccinated. Brooklyn Nets guard Kyrie Irving also missed a March 1 regular season game at Toronto because of his vaccination status.
Norwegian Cruises to Drop Vaccination Requirement, Ease Testing Rules
Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings will end its vaccine requirement for customers and loosen coronavirus testing rules next month, the company announced Monday.
Starting Sept. 3, fully vaccinated travelers who are 12 or older will no longer have to test before boarding a ship on Norwegian Cruise Line, Oceania Cruises and Regent Seven Seas Cruises.
Travelers in that age group who are unvaccinated or who do not show proof of vaccination will be allowed onboard as long as they present a negative PCR or antigen test taken in the 72 hours before boarding. Children under 12 will have no testing or vaccination requirements.
Requirements could still vary depending on local regulations at different ports, “including but not limited to Canada, Greece and Bermuda,” the announcement said.
Snapchat Rolls out Parental Controls
Snapchat will allow parents to view who their teen users are connecting with on the app without viewing the content of the messages, the company said in a blog post on Tuesday. The feature is under the new Family Center on the app and comes after increased scrutiny from lawmakers over youth safety on Snapchat and other apps.
Parents can also confidentially report any accounts that may be concerning to Snapchat.
Snapchat will roll out additional features to the Family Center in the fall, including content controls for parents and the ability for teens to notify their parents when they report an account or piece of content.
Over the last year, Snapchat and other social media apps have faced mounting pressure from lawmakers and advocacy groups to increase safety features for teen users.
WhatsApp Is Going to Stop Letting Everyone See When You’re Online
WhatsApp announced several new privacy updates on Tuesday, including the ability for users to check their messages without other people knowing. The platform will soon allow people to control who can see when they’re online, prevent others from taking screenshots of certain messages and leave groups without notifying entire channels.
WhatsApp has long touted its use of end-to-end encryption, which means only the sender and recipient of a message can see its contents. And like other private messaging platforms, it already allows users to send messages that disappear after set periods of time.
However, last year, WhatsApp was heavily scrutinized after an update to its terms of service.
At the time, many users expressed concerns about a section of WhatsApp’s privacy policy that detailed what is shared with parent company Facebook, which has a troubled reputation when it comes to protecting user data.
Big Tech Just Got One Step Closer to Squashing Key U.S. Antitrust Bill
Sponsors of a key bipartisan antitrust bill have tried for months to secure a Senate vote and potentially pass “the first major bill on technology competition” to come before the Senate “since the dawn of the Internet.”
Now, The Wall Street Journal reports, that bill will remain “in limbo” as Congress has failed to schedule a vote before its recess. This could signify that Big Tech companies will prevail — through intense lobbying and criticism — and prevent the bill from passing a Senate floor vote. In just one week this summer, one industry group reportedly spent $22 million in ads against the bill.
The bill is controversial because it targets large companies like Amazon, Alphabet, Meta and Apple. It stops them from self-preferencing business practices, like promoting their products above others or forcing smaller businesses to buy ad space to compete.
Critics, like Google, say the law could threaten everything from the quality of online services to national security, but supporters, like bill co-sponsor Representative David Cicilline (D-RI), say much of the criticism boils down to “lies coming from Big Tech.”
TikTok Parent ByteDance Just Bought a Hospital Group in China
TikTok’s parent company ByteDance is making some pretty heavy bets on the healthcare space as it acquired Amcare, which runs high-end children’s and women’s hospitals across China.
The buyout cost ByteDance $1.5 billion, according to Bloomberg. A spokesperson for Xiaohe Health, ByteDance’s healthcare business, confirmed the acquisition but declined to comment on the deal size.
The transaction is turning some heads in the tech industry. For one, China has over the past few years ramped up anti-competition regulations on tech companies and blocked major consolidation deals, including Tencent’s proposal to combine the country’s top two live streaming platforms for gamers.