Technology

The Sacramento Bee reports: Amazon and Ring, the home security company owned by Amazon, will soon have to answer for their hacking incidents, according to a new lawsuit brought against the companies. John Baker Orange filed a class-action lawsuit on Dec. 26 in California, alleging that Amazon and Ring’s “lax security standards” and “defective design” left their cameras vulnerable to …

Agence France-Press reports: The Russian space agency Roscosmos is planning to install a nuclear-powered observatory on its future moon base to held spot deadly Earth-threatening asteroids. Establishing a permanent presence near the lunar south pole has been a priority for Roscosmos ever since NASA announced plans to return to the moon earlier this year. The base’s telescopes will work in …

Business Insider reports:  The Federal Trade Commission is mulling whether to file an injunction against the social networking giant that could block it from its plans to stitch together its WhatsApp messaging service with the chat features of Instagram and those of its core Facebook app. The injunction could also block the company from enforcing its rules about how apps …

The Verge reports: YouTube today announced an expansion of its anti-harassment policy that will ban video creators from insulting one another on the basis of their race, gender expression, or sexual orientation — even if the person they are insulting is a popular creator, celebrity, politician, or other public figure. The new policy comes several months after YouTube was criticized …

Reuters reports: Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday signed legislation requiring all smartphones, computers and smart TV sets sold in the country to come pre-installed with Russian software. The law, which will come into force on July 1 next year, has been met with resistance by some electronics retailers, who say the legislation was adopted without consulting them. The country’s …

The New York Times reports: In the world of e-commerce, the online review is king, the internet’s answer to walking into a store and trying out a product for yourself. An increase of just one star in a rating on Amazon correlates with a 26 percent increase in sales, according to a recent analysis by the e-commerce consulting firm Pattern. …

Axios reports: Twitter said Wednesday it was putting on hold a plan to delete inactive accounts amid concerns that accounts from deceased users would be swept up in the purge. Why it matters: While it’s great to see Twitter clearing out the accounts of living people who aren’t using them, Twitter also represents an important record of those no longer …

TechCrunch reports: Twitter’s radical “Hide Replies” feature, one of the biggest changes to how Twitter works since the invention of the Retweet, is now available to Twitter’s global user base. The company says the feature will roll out to all Twitter users across platforms by today, with only one slight tweak since earlier tests. Designed to balance the conversation on …

Yahoo Finance reports: Ford took its time. But for its first electric vehicle, the 116-year old automaker did something a little controversial. The Mustang Mach-E is an all-new, fully-electric crossover that Ford says is part of the “Mustang family.” That means it has some styling cues from the famous pony car, but that’s about it. It’s not a coupe, convertible, …

Axios reports: Amid growing health concerns over e-cigarettes, Apple will remove all 181 vaping-related apps from its mobile App Store this morning, Axios has learned. Why it matters: The move comes after at least 42 people have died from vaping-related lung illness, per the CDC. Most of those people had been using cartridges containing THC, though some exclusively used nicotine …

Reuters reports: Alphabet Inc’s Google said on Wednesday it will offer personal checking accounts next year through its Google Pay app in partnership with Citigroup Inc and a small credit union at Stanford University. The project, named Cache, comes as rivals Facebook and Apple are expanding their own efforts in consumer finance, a broad area that ranges from digital payment …

NPR reports: Like seriously, if you post something to the ‘gram and not one of your followers hits “like” is it even worth sharing? Beginning next week, some U.S. users of Instagram will be able to test this theory as the social media platform will begin hiding the “likes” counter that appears underneath a posted photo or video. “Right now …

Axios reports: More young teenagers use TikTok than Facebook, according to a new report from Morning Consult. Instagram and Snapchat still beat TikTok by wide margins, but the viral Chinese karaoke app has quickly become popular amongst Generation Z. Why it matters: TikTok is following a familiar trajectory, beginning with beating out Facebook as a more popular app for young …

The Washington Post reports: There’s a tactic spreading across the Web named after treatment usually reserved for criminals: fingerprinting. At least a third of the 500 sites Americans visit most often use hidden code to run an identity check on your computer or phone. Websites from CNN and Best Buy to porn site Xvideos and WebMD are dusting your digital …

Reuters reports: Senior government officials in multiple U.S.-allied countries were targeted earlier this year with hacking software that used Facebook Inc’s WhatsApp to take over users’ phones, according to people familiar with the messaging company’s investigation. Sources familiar with WhatsApp’s internal investigation into the breach said a “significant” portion of the known victims are high-profile government and military officials spread …

CNN reports: The fight between Facebook and the UK government’s data regulator over Cambridge Analytica has come to an end. Facebook has agreed to pay the £500,000 ($645,000) penalty imposed by the UK Information Commissioner’s Office, which found the company failed to safeguard user data gathered by political data firm Cambridge Analytica. Facebook will not admit to any liability under …

The New York Times reports: The Department of Defense on Friday awarded a $10 billion technology contract to Microsoft over Amazon in a contest that was closely watched after President Trump ramped up his criticism of Amazon’s founder, Jeff Bezos, and said he might intervene. The 10-year contract for the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure, known as JEDI, had set off …

The Washington Post reports: Two senior members of Congress, Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), asked U.S. intelligence officials late Wednesday to determine whether the Chinese-owned social-networking app TikTok poses “national security risks.” In a letter to Joseph Maguire, the director of national intelligence, the lawmakers questioned TikTok’s data-collection practices and whether the app …

Wired reports: Facebook and Congress have a lot to talk about. In the past week, the company has careened through controversies over misinformation, squabbles over election ads, and an oddly statesmanlike speech in DC that sought to put a fresh spin on the Facebook origin story. But, unless grandstanding on other Facebook issues gets in the way, Wednesday’s hearing featuring …

Via press release from the Vatican: The Click To Pray eRosary is an interactive, smart and app-driven wearable device that serves as a tool for learning how to pray the rosary for peace in the world. It can be worn as a bracelet and is activated by making the sign of the cross. It is synchronized with a free app …