Safety
Apple and Google Play remove three dating apps after FTC warning about underage users
The Federal Trade Commission said today that Google and Apple have removed three dating apps from their app stores because they could potentially be used by sexual predators to find…
Alphabet’s Sidewalk Labs is developing visual cues to indicate when their tech is monitoring you
Alphabet’s subsidiary focused on urban tech development, Sidewalk Labs, is now trying to reinvent signage for smart cities. These signs aren’t to direct the flow of traffic, or to point…
Electronic Arts has fixed a vulnerability in its online gaming platform Origin after security researchers found they could trick an unsuspecting gamer into remotely running malicious code on their computer.…
Twitter now lets users appeal violations within its app
Twitter today announced a new feature that will allow users to appeal directly within the Twitter app a tweet that’s in violation of Twitter’s rules. When users post content in…
Arizona Beverages, one of the largest beverage suppliers in the U.S., is recovering after a massive ransomware attack last month, TechCrunch has learned. The company, famous for its iced tea…
TikTok is launching a series of online safety videos in its app
On the heels of news that TikTok has reached 1 billion downloads, the company today is launching a new initiative designed to help inform users about online safety, TikTok’s various…
California to close data breach notification loopholes under new law
California, which has some of the strongest data breach notification laws in the U.S., thinks it can do even better. The golden state’s attorney general Xavier Becerra announced a new…
Featured Article
Police license plate readers are still exposed on the internet
Smile! You’re on camera. At least, your license plate is. You might have heard of automatic license plate recognition — known as ALPR (or ANPR in the U.K. for number plates). These cameras are dotted across the U.S., and are controlled mostly by police departments and government agencies to track license plates — and people —…
YouTube will ‘ramp up’ enforcement of its policies against dangerous challenges and pranks
YouTube announced several policy updates today, including more stringent enforcement of its ban on videos of dangerous challenges and pranks. In a FAQ posted to its support site, YouTube wrote…
Report: A manager at Uber’s self-driving unit warned executives about safety issues just days before fatal crash
Less than a week before an Uber self-driving SUV prototype struck and killed a pedestrian in Tempe, Arizona last March, a manager sent executives an email cautioning that its autonomous…
Facebook says it removed 8.7M child exploitation posts with new machine learning tech
Facebook announced today that it has removed 8.7 million pieces of content last quarter that violated its rules against child exploitation, thanks to new technology. The new AI and machine…
Researchers at Indiana University have confirmed that stringent password policies – aside from being really annoying – actually work. The research, led by Ph.D. student Jacob Abbott, IU CIO Daniel…
Facebook Workplace adds algorithmic feed, Safety Check and enhanced chat
Workplace, the version of Facebook tailored to enterprises that has over 30,000 organizations as paying customers, is ramping up the service today with a rush of new features to help…
FEMA just sent a ‘Presidential Alert’ to millions of U.S. phones
Millions of Americans were sent a “Presidential Alert” to their phones today as a test to simulate a real message from the president in a national emergency. At 2:18pm ET,…
Uber gets better about safety with ride checks and address anonymization
On the heels of the rape and murder of a Didi ride-hailing passenger in China, Uber has announced some new features to ensure safety for both the passenger and the…
Didi makes more safety changes — and will pause night services while it does
Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi has detailed further safety measures incoming to its platform following a second murder of a female passenger last month. The 20-year-old woman had been using Didi’s Hitch…
China announces transportation industry reform, days after murder of Didi carpooling passenger
The Chinese government announced it will reform the transportation industry to safeguard passengers, three days after a female passenger was allegedly raped and murdered by a Didi Chuxing driver last…
Facebook launches a digital literacy library aimed at educators
Facebook this morning announced the launch of a new set of educational resources focused on helping young people think critically and behave thoughtfully online. The Digital Literacy Library, as the…
A few folks have reported a new ransomware technique that preys upon corporate inability to keep passwords safe. The notes – which are usually aimed at instilling fear – are…
Didi will resume late night Hitch rides, but only allow drivers to pick up passengers of the same sex
Didi Chuxing’s inter-city carpooling service will resume night operations on a limited basis about a month after a female passenger was allegedly murdered by an unregistered driver who accessed the…
LifeDoor crowdfunds the production version of its fire-thwarting door-closer
At CES in January I was pleasantly surprised by the LifeDoor, a smart home gadget that’s actually worth having. These little boxes automatically close doors when smoke detectors go off,…
Women’s Safety XPRIZE $1M winner is a smart, simple panic button
Devices like smartphones ought to help people feel safer, but if you’re in real danger the last thing you want to do is pull out your phone, go to your…
In a post today, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi announced a slew of new features for the app, designed to address growing concerns over rider safety. A majority of the additions…
LifeDoor closes your home’s doors automatically to protect against fires
It turns out that in case of a fire in your home, a closed door is the best barrier against spreading smoke, heat and flames. But who’s going to run…
Germany’s Federal Network Agency (Bundesnetzagentur) issued a blanket ban on smartwatches aimed at children this week — and asked parents who’d already purchased such a device to destroy them, for…
Twitter details how it reviews and enforces rules around hate speech, violence and harassment
Twitter has been under fire lately (slash always) for its methods to deal with harassment and abuse on its platform. In an effort to provide some insight into its thinking,…
New Tesla voluntary recall applies to 11,000 Model X vehicles
Tesla is taking a “proactive measure” out of an “abundance of caution,” the company says, in handling an issue with a cable used in the adjusting of second-row seating in…
At this point in the game there should be a single page on every corporate website, preferably accessible from its front page, that includes the name and all contact details…
Veo Robotics gives industrial robots a sixth sense for safely working around people
Everyone knows the robots are coming, so we should probably get to work figuring out how we can coexist. That’s the mission of Veo Robotics, which is working on a…
Between robots’ ‘safe’ and ‘unsafe’ zones, a sort of robot friend zone proposed
It goes without saying that working with robots and heavy machinery is more than a little dangerous. While better practices and ethical companies are still less common than they should…
