A jury found Meta liable for nearly 44 million violations of New Mexico's consumer protection law, and US District Judge Francis J. Mathew imposed a $25 billion penalty, the largest ever levied against the company. New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez had rejected an $18 billion multistate settlement Meta reached with other states earlier this year and pursued the case separately, seeking up to $40 billion. Mathew's ruling cites trial evidence that Meta's leadership, including Mark Zuckerberg, knew the company was misleading the public about data control, misinformation and other practices since 2010.
arstechnica.com
· 2026-10-22
A New Mexico judge ruled that Meta must pay $25 billion in civil penalties after a jury found more than 43 million violations of the state's unfair practices law tied to the Cambridge Analytica data scandal. The judge calculated the maximum penalty of $5,000 per violation, totaling over $219 billion, before reducing it to $25 billion. Meta's chief legal officer C.J. Mahoney said the company plans to appeal, calling the ruling an attempt to tax speech.
theverge.com
· 2026-10-21
A profile recounts the career of a DEA special agent known as 'Lili,' a Russian immigrant and Ivy League graduate who became one of the agency's leading cryptocurrency investigators. Her expertise in tracing digital money eventually led her to evidence implicating members of her own family in a fraud scheme, according to the account.
wired.com
· 2026-10-21
Apple has opened a claims website for customers eligible under its $250 million settlement over false advertising claims about AI features promised for the iPhone 15 and 16. The lawsuit, brought by Clarkson Law Firm, alleged Apple advertised Apple Intelligence capabilities that weren't actually available at launch; eligible buyers can expect payouts between $25 and $95 per device. The court gave preliminary approval in July, and a later order moved the final approval date up by seven months.
cnet.com
· 2026-10-18
With Congress still unable to pass national legislation covering autonomous vehicles, cities and states are increasingly writing their own rules for robotaxi operators. The resulting patchwork of local regulations has emerged after years of federal inaction, even as companies like Waymo expand robotaxi service into more cities.
theverge.com
· 2026-10-18
A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction halting enforcement of Utah's SB 73, which required adult websites to detect users' physical locations and block or age-verify anyone using a VPN. The court found the law likely violates the Constitution's restrictions on states burdening people and businesses outside their borders, since it would force sites to verify every visitor worldwide. EFF, which opposed the law, called the ruling a win for digital privacy rights.
yro.slashdot.org
· 2026-10-17
A financial planning explainer details how cryptocurrency, legally treated as a digital asset rather than money, can become permanently inaccessible to heirs if owners fail to plan ahead. The piece distinguishes custodial wallets, where a third party like an exchange or bank manages assets and can transfer them more easily after death, from noncustodial wallets, where only the owner holds the passwords needed for access.
wired.com
· 2026-10-17
A technical blog post explains Monte Carlo simulation methods, tracing the technique's origins to Stanislaw Ulam and John von Neumann's nuclear weapon calculations after World War II. It demonstrates the approach with a classic example: estimating pi by randomly 'throwing darts' at a square containing an inscribed quarter circle and comparing the ratio of hits inside the circle to total throws. The author notes that even with 1,000 samples the estimate remains imprecise, suggesting roughly 10 billion samples are needed for accuracy.
eli.thegreenplace.net
· 2026-10-13
Internet law professor Eric Goldman participated in a Reddit AMA with r/WebScrapingInsider, answering questions about the legal landscape of web scraping in the United States. He opened by clarifying his remarks were general legal information, not legal advice, and noted his focus was strictly on US law. Goldman described his background as an internet law generalist teaching since 1996, covering scraping and trespass-to-chattels doctrines as part of a broader portfolio including UGC liability, trademark law, and Section 230.
blog.ericgoldman.org
· 2026-10-12
Graylark Technologies has built a feature called Raven, an extension of its GeoSpy tool, that lets police departments including the LAPD and Miami-Dade Sheriff's Office upload an interior photo—even of a washing machine—to find matching short-term rental listings on sites like Airbnb, Vrbo and Zillow. Rather than a reverse image search, Raven identifies distinctive visual details and cross-references them against listing photos and text, which 404 Media found includes direct quotes from rental descriptions.
techspot.com
· 2026-10-12
Flock Safety plans to lay off about 270 employees, roughly 18 percent of its 1,500-person workforce, effective at the end of October, according to sources cited by Reuters. The cuts follow a recent employee buyout program reported by WIRED, and it remains unclear how many departures are voluntary versus involuntary layoffs.
engadget.com
· 2026-10-09
Richard Garriott says he will regain ownership of the Ultima series from EA in 2027, using a US copyright provision that lets original rights holders reclaim IP 35 years after selling it, with no payment required. He confirmed he notified EA of his intent in April this year, and the publisher acknowledged the request and said it would comply with the law.
techspot.com
· 2026-10-09
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