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OpenAI removes ChatGPT feature after private conversations leak to Google search

Want smarter insights in your inbox? Sign up for our weekly newsletters to get only what matters to enterprise AI, data, and security leaders. Subscribe Now OpenAI made a rare about-face Thursday, abruptly discontinuing a feature that allowed ChatGPT users to make their conversations discoverable through Google and other search engines. The decision came within hours of widespread social media criticism and represents a striking example of how quickly privacy concerns can derail even well-inten

How to limit which photos you share with apps like Facebook and Instagram

9to5Mac is brought to you by Incogni: Protect your personal info from prying eyes. With Incogni, you can scrub your deeply sensitive information from data brokers across the web, including people search sites. Incogni limits your phone number, address, email, SSN, and more from circulating. Fight back against unwanted data brokers with a 30-day money back guarantee. With iOS 17, Apple introduced a new privacy setting that gives users much more granular control over which apps can access their p

Microsoft Authenticator won't manage your passwords anymore - or most passkeys

D3Damon/Getty Images For most of this year, Microsoft has been warning users that they will no longer be able to use its Authenticator mobile application for user ID and password management. As reported by CNET on July 29, 2025, "In June, the company stopped letting users add passwords to Authenticator…. And starting Aug. 1, you'll no longer be able to use saved passwords." Also: How passkeys work: The complete guide to your inevitable passwordless future To me, the dire warnings of this pend

Age Verification Doesn't Need to Be a Privacy Footgun

“Won’t someone think of the poor children?” they say, clutching their pearls as they enact another stupid law that will harm the privacy of every adult on Earth and create Prior Restraint that inhibits the freedom of speech in liberal democracies. If you’re totally ignorant of how things work, the proposal of “verifying you’re an adult” before you access adult content sounds, superficially, like a reasonable thing to do. But it’s a patently stupid idea at every level. Age Verification Makes Th

Understanding the Complete Identity Management Ecosystem

Confused by the growing identity management landscape? This comprehensive guide breaks down every IAM category—from traditional workforce identity to emerging AI agents. Learn how CIAM, PAM, Zero Trust, and 15+ other solutions connect in the modern security ecosystem. 🔐 Identity management has grown from simple password systems into a complex web of specialized tools and technologies. Each piece serves a specific purpose, but understanding how they all fit together can be confusing. This guide

The anti-abundance critique on housing is wrong

The sharpest criticisms of the book Abundance have sometimes come from the antitrust movement. This group, mostly on the left, insists that the biggest problems in America typically come from monopolies and the corruption of big business. In housing, for example, Ezra Klein and I write that a key bottleneck to homebuilding in the last few decades has been legal barriers to construction, including zoning laws and minimum lot sizes. This is a mainstream view supported by economists and scholars w

Amazon CEO wants to put ads in your Alexa+ conversations

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy sees an opportunity to deliver ads to users during their conversations with the company’s AI-powered digital assistant, Alexa+, he said during Amazon’s second-quarter earnings call Thursday. “People are excited about the devices that they can buy from us that has Alexa+ enabled in it. People do a lot of shopping [with Alexa+]; it’s a delightful shopping experience that will keep getting better,” said Jassy on the call with investors and Wall Street analysts. “I think over

Benchmarking MicroPython

In the Q&A session following my EuroPython 2025 presentation about the Microdot web framework, a member of the audience asked me what the performance of MicroPython running on a microcontroller is. This took me a bit by surprise, because while I knew that microcontrollers are slow and underpowered devices, I really had no way to quantify this. I never questioned the supposedly low performance, because it was never a problem for me. My answer to the question was that microcontrollers cannot repl

'Fantastic Four: First Steps': What to Know About Post-Credits Scenes

Marvel's newest movie is here, and we have good and bad news. The good: You don't have to do any homework before seeing The Fantastic Four: First Steps, according to Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige. The bad: It's the last Marvel flick we're getting until 2026. More good: It has a super Rotten Tomatoes score. More bad: You'll miss out if you don't stick around to watch the credits. The Fantastic Four: First Steps premiered in theaters last week and kicks off Phase Six of the Marvel Cinemati

I'll Never Go Camping Without This Backpack That Can Charge My Phone 18 Times

CNET’s key takeaways This solar-rechargeable power station is also a backpack that can carry my camping essentials. I was able to charge my laptop six to nine times, my phone 18 times and my drone five times in one charge cycle. The Bluetti Handfree 2 backpack costs $599 at full price, but it is often on sale for $450. It's heavy. It weighs 16.5 pounds by itself before adding other gear. The Bluetti Handsfree 2 backpack, which is also a solar-rechargeable power station, is my new outdoor ess

The Anti-Abundance Critique on Housing Is Dead Wrong

The sharpest criticisms of the book Abundance have sometimes come from the antitrust movement. This group, mostly on the left, insists that the biggest problems in America typically come from monopolies and the corruption of big business. In housing, for example, Ezra Klein and I write that a key bottleneck to homebuilding in the last few decades has been legal barriers to construction, including zoning laws and minimum lot sizes. This is a mainstream view supported by economists and scholars w

Programmers aren’t so humble anymore, maybe because nobody codes in Perl

Perl was once everywhere. Or at least it felt that way. Around the turn of the millennium, it seemed that almost every website was built on the back of this scripting language. It processed massive amounts of text—mechanisms for doing this powerfully and easily were part of the language—and it was even used in bioinformatics, munging and churning through genetic data. Based on one list, the companies that used Perl ranged widely: Amazon, Google, Yahoo, Deutsche Bank, Akamai, Citibank, Comcast, M

Celebrating 40 Years of the Weirdest, Nerdiest Week in Movie History

“Don’t cannibalize the audience” is an unwritten mantra in Hollywood. If a movie that is coming out has a similar subject matter or serves a similar viewership as one you are releasing, you try and put some distance between them so as not to ruin your chances of success. If two movies come out that are too similar, it’s likely to split the audience and hurt both of them. That seems like a no-brainer point of view. And yet, 40 years ago this week, three movies were released in a seven-day span th

Today's NYT Connections Hints, Answers and Help for Aug. 1, #782

Looking for the most recent Connections answers? Click here for today's Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles. Today's NYT Connections puzzle could be tough. But I admit I really liked the nostalgic blue category. Read on for clues and today's Connections answers. The Times now has a Connections Bot, like the one for Wordle. Go there after you play to receive a numeric score and t

Amazon's gloomy earnings forecast overshadows better-than-expected results

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy speaks during the GeekWire Summit in Seattle on Oct. 5, 2021. Amazon shares slid more than 3% in extended trading on Thursday after the company reported second-quarter results that exceeded expectations, but it gave light operating income guidance for the current period. Here's how the company did, compared with estimates from analysts polled by LSEG: Earnings per share: $1.68 vs. $1.33 estimated $1.68 vs. $1.33 estimated Revenue: $167.7 billion vs. $162.09 billion esti

Proton now offers a two-factor authentication app

Things have been busy for the privacy-first company, Proton. Just last week, they released the AI chatbot Lumo, and today, the company rolled out Proton Authenticator, its open-source and multiplatform 2FA app. What’s 2FA again? Two-factor authentication is a login method that adds an extra layer of security to further make sure that you are the legitimate owner of the account you’re trying to access. With 2FA activated, you’re usually asked for a code from a 2FA app after entering your passwo

Programmers Aren't So Humble Anymore–Maybe Because Nobody Codes in Perl

Perl was once everywhere. Or at least it felt that way. Around the turn of the millennium, it seemed that almost every website was built on the back of this scripting language. It processed massive amounts of text—mechanisms for doing this powerfully and easily were part of the language—and it was even used in bioinformatics, munging and churning through genetic data. Based on one list, the companies that used Perl ranged widely: Amazon, Google, Yahoo, Deutsche Bank, Akamai, Citibank, Comcast, M

Microsoft Predicts These Jobs Are Safe From AI

Much ink has already been spilled about the threat of AI to various labor markets. As new forms of automation seep into industries, folks want to know which jobs are endangered and which are safe. Well, a new study published by Microsoft researchers purports to show which positions have the most AI “applicability,” and which do not. From the research, you might assume you could predict which careers have longevity and which may soon go the way of the Dodo—although the report itself denies that t

Twitter’s former Trust and Safety head details the challenges facing decentralized social platforms

Yoel Roth, previously the head of Twitter’s Trust and Safety, now at Match, is sharing his concerns about the future of the open social web and its ability to combat misinformation, spam, and other illegal content, like child sexual abuse material (CSAM). In a recent interview, Roth worried about the lack of moderation tools available to the fediverse — the open social web that includes apps like Mastodon, Threads, Pixelfed, and others, as well as other open platforms like Bluesky. He also remi

SEC debuts 'Project Crypto' to bring U.S. financial markets 'on chain'

The Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday debuted "Project Crypto," an initiative to modernize securities rules and regulations to allow for crypto-based trading. "To achieve President Trump's vision of making America the crypto capital of the world, the SEC must holistically consider the potential benefits and risks of moving our markets from an off-chain environment to an on-chain one," SEC chair Paul Atkins said in remarks to an "American Leadership in the Digital Finance Revolution

Microsoft: Russian hackers use ISP access to hack embassies in AiTM attacks

Microsoft warns that a cyber-espionage group linked to Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) is targeting diplomatic missions in Moscow using local internet service providers. The hacking group tracked by Microsoft as Secret Blizzard (also known as Turla, Waterbug, and Venomous Bear) has been observed exploiting its adversary-in-the-middle (AiTM) position at the internet service provider (ISP) level to infect the systems of diplomatic missions with custom ApolloShadow malware. To do this, th

Slow

Slow What problems can human beings only solve over a very long period of time? And how can we build institutions that solve those problems? Below is a list of marvellous projects which human beings have undertaken over an exceptionally long time. Many examples contributed by people on Twitter. The focus is on goal-directed projects (e.g., a scientific experiment or a building), less on more decentralized or unplanned changes (e.g., languages, domestication of livestock, cities, religions). O

Death Row Inmate’s Attorneys Say Heart Implant Will Repeatedly Shock Him as He’s Executed

Attorneys for a death row inmate in Tennessee who’s scheduled to be executed Aug. 5 warn that his implanted heart device will repeatedly shock him during his execution, torturing him by trying to keep him alive as he’s killed by lethal injection. A judge ordered the device deactivated, but a local hospital in Nashville now says it won’t participate, according to a report from the Associated Press. Byron Black, 69, received an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) in May 2024, which works

Proton launches free and open-source Authenticator app to take on Google and Microsoft

What just happened? Swiss technology company Proton has expanded its privacy-focused software lineup with the launch of Proton Authenticator, a free and open-source two-factor authentication app. Best known for its encrypted webmail service, Proton also offers a VPN, password manager, cloud storage, and an online document editor. Proton Authenticator is positioned as a privacy-focused alternative to authentication apps from Google, Microsoft, Authy, and Duo. It replaces legacy SMS-based verific

Read This Before You Trust Any AI-Written Code

We are in the era of vibe coding, allowing artificial intelligence models to generate code based on a developer’s prompt. Unfortunately, under the hood, the vibes are bad. According to a recent report published by data security firm Veracode, about half of all AI-generated code contains security flaws. Veracode tasked over 100 different large language models with completing 80 separate coding tasks, from using different coding languages to building different types of applications. Per the repor

Google AI Model Helps Us See the Planet as We Never Have Before

It's a view of Mother Earth as we've never seen her, and it just might help us solve some our most existential issues. Google has launched a new AI model called AlphaEarth Foundations, which can take images and measurements from satellites and other sources to create current and accurate digital representations of lands and waters. With all this data, scientists and researchers can monitor problems like water scarcity, deforestation and crop health. Google says AlphaEarth's AI modeling has alr

States Are Moving to Protect Access to Vaccines

With US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. already shaking up federal vaccine policy, some states are stepping in to preserve access to lifesaving shots in anticipation of further changes. The federal government has historically had a major influence on vaccine policy through the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), formed in 1964 to develop science-based recommendations on how vaccines should be used. The recommendations are almost always adopted by the

Figma’s stock soars in its highly anticipated IPO, market cap instantly hits $45B

Figma began trading on the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday after a long delay. It soared so quickly that trading was halted for a short time due to market volatility. The price is currently bouncing between $101 and $112 with a mid-day market cap of $45 billion, Yahoo Finance reports. The company and existing investors sold shares at the IPO price of $33 per share. Quite the pop. There has been so much demand for this stock that people on X are posting funny pictures of their orders being

This handy NordVPN tool flags scam calls on Android - even before you answer

NordVPN / Elyse Betters Picaro / ZDNET ZDNET's key takeaways NordVPN can detect a scam call before you answer it. The Scam Call Protection is only for NordVPN Premium Android users. Future features include caller ID for legitimate calls and an option to report. Your phone rings, but the call is from an unknown number. Should you pick it up? It could be important. Or it could be a scam call. You're not sure what to do. Well, a new tool from the folks at NordVPN could help you decide. Scam C

Go Assembly Mutation Testing

While maintaining and developing the Go cryptography standard library, we often spend significantly more time on testing than on implementation. That’s good and an important part of how we achieve our excellent security track record. Ideally, this would be especially true for the least safe parts of the library. However, testing assembly cores presents unique challenges, due to their constant-time nature. This has been a long-standing issue. For Go 1.26, I am working on introducing a mutation