GoKawiil
Tech News
Patagonia has changed its online store so that new and secondhand items appear together in the same shopping experience, rather than in separate resale and retail sections. The update went live as of today, according to the report.
The newsletter Not-Ship reports that Amazon's combined fees—referral commissions, fulfillment charges and advertising costs—can take nearly half of a seller's sale price, even though its base commission of about 15% matches eBay and Walmart. It notes these fee structures are central to the US Federal Trade Commission's pending antitrust case against Amazon.
A hands-on test of Meta's Muse, a personal AI assistant, shows it can research products and complete purchases on a user's behalf. In doing so, it bypasses the review websites and retailers whose content and listings informed its recommendations, meaning those sites receive no traffic or referral credit from the sale.
Bumble announced a $1.3 billion acquisition agreement with Ithaca Holdings that would take the dating app private. The deal follows a strategic review by an independent board committee, with founder Whitney Wolfe Herd abstaining from the vote but planning to stay involved alongside Ithaca executives Ravi Gupta and John Hegeman. Bumble's latest quarter showed revenue down 15.2% year over year to $211 million and paying users down 16.4% to about 3.2 million.
Amazon's About You page, a personalization feature introduced in May, is drawing renewed attention online as users share screenshots of oddly specific inferences the system has made about them. Examples shared on Threads and Reddit include descriptions like having 'flat buttocks,' 'mismatched trash bins,' and 'owns a tiny funnel.' The page lets users view and edit the attributes Amazon has inferred to tailor shopping recommendations.
A demonstration described in the piece shows how websites can assign visitors a persistent 'fingerprint' based on device and browser characteristics, a tracking identifier that remains consistent even after clearing cookies or using a VPN, though it changes across different devices or browsers. The technique relies on JavaScript-based scripts run via ad networks, and the author notes that disabling JavaScript blocks this specific method, though network-level tracking can still occur. The piece frames this as a successor to third-party cookies, which became harder to use after EU-driven consent banner regulations.
Women who run or appear prominently on social media platforms, including Mariam, administrator of a 400,000-member Facebook group for women in the UAE, report receiving a surge of unsolicited messages from men policing their dress, behavior and visibility online. These messages, often framed in religious terms, range from demands to cover up to outright sexual harassment, prompting some women to disable messaging features entirely. The pattern is linked to a subset of the broader online 'manosphere' that recasts antifeminist, male-grievance ideology in Islamic religious language.
A personal blog post recounts several public figures who recently announced stepping back from online life: Salma left DevRel and social media entirely for an individual-contributor role, Chad Whitacre retired to rural Pennsylvania to make a zine about religion, and Brett Codes publicly declared he is done using AI tools and video. The author frames these as a pattern of people opting out of digital-industry pressures.
A Cornell University student who filed a lawsuit accusing seven fraternity members of gang rape has had her anonymity targeted by online vigilantes trying to unmask her. Her attorney, Thomas Guiffra, says three unrelated women have been wrongly identified as the plaintiff and subjected to harassment, while the real accuser is also receiving threats on social media.
Microsoft will add .msix and .msixbundle files to Outlook's default blocked attachment list starting early November, rolling out to Exchange Online users with general availability expected by mid-November. Once applied, Outlook on the web and the new Outlook for Windows will block users from sending, receiving, opening or downloading these file types by default. Admins can whitelist the formats via the AllowedFileTypes property if their organization needs them.
Ofcom is investigating whether Meta failed to conduct proper risk assessments before releasing the Instants feature on Instagram in May. The regulator claims the company did not adequately evaluate potential illegal or harmful content risks associated with the disappearing photo tool. Meta states it conducted risk analyses and informed Ofcom prior to launch, and will cooperate with the investigation.
Data shows an increase in depression and anxiety among Canadian men aged 15 to 24 over a decade, with self-reported mood disorders climbing from 11% to 16% and anxiety from 4% to 10%. Personal stories highlight the stigma and silence surrounding mental health struggles in young men, influenced by societal expectations of masculinity.