Google's plan to block a popular web tracking tool called "cookies" is a source of concern for U.S. Justice Department investigators who have been asking advertising industry executives whether the move by the search giant will hobble its smaller rivals, Reuters reported Thursday, citing sources. From the report: Alphabet's Google a year ago announced it would ban some cookies in its Chrome browser to increase user privacy. Over the last two months, Google released more details, leading online ads rivals to complain about losing the data-gathering tool. The questions from Justice Department investigators have touched on how Chrome policies, including those related to cookies, affect the ad and news industries, four people said. Investigators are asking whether Google is using Chrome, which has 60% global market share, to reduce competition by preventing rival ad companies from tracking users through cookies while leaving loopholes for it to gather data with cookies, analytics tools and other sources, the sources added. The latest conversations, which have not been previously reported, are a sign that officials are tracking Google's projects in the global online ad market where it and No. 2 Facebook control about 54% of revenue. The ad inquiry may not lead to legal action. Executives from more than a dozen companies from an array of sectors have spoken with Justice Department investigators, one of the sources said. The government has been investigating Google's search and advertising business since mid-2019, and last October it sued Google for allegedly using anticompetitive tactics to maintain the dominance of its search engine. It has continued to probe Google's ad practices.

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An anonymous reader quotes a report from Motherboard: A surveillance contractor that has previously sold services to the U.S. military is advertising a product that it says can locate the real-time locations of specific cars in nearly any country on Earth. It says it does this by using data collected and sent by the cars and their components themselves, according to a document obtained by Motherboard. "Ulysses can provide our clients with the ability to remotely geolocate vehicles in nearly every country except for North Korea and Cuba on a near real time basis," the document, written by contractor The Ulysses Group, reads. "Currently, we can access over 15 billion vehicle locations around the world every month," the document adds. Although the company told Motherboard it has not sold the product to the U.S. government at this time, the news highlights the scale and reach of car-tracking technology, and the fact that car location data is of interest not just to insurance companies and the finance sector, but to government contractors who explicitly say they want to source the data for intelligence and surveillance purposes. [...] Included in the document is a map showing apparent vehicle locations spread across Russia, Ukraine, and Turkey, including along the border with Syria. A section of text next to the map says Ulysses' data access lets clients analyze targets "whether you want to geo-locate one vehicle or 25,000,000 as shown here." An image on the company's LinkedIn page appears to show data related to Bulgaria. [...] The document does not explain exactly how Ulysses sources its data, be that directly from automakers or OEMs, or via an aggregator company. But there are plenty of companies that could be contributing. Andrew Lewis, president of The Ulysses Group, told Motherboard in an email that "any proprietary promotional material we may have produced is aspirational and developed based on publicly available information about modern telematics equipment." Lewis added: "We do not have any contracts with the government or any of its agencies related to our work in the field and we have never received any funding whatsoever from the government related to telematics."

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A digital certificate to kick-start foreign travel should be given to citizens across the EU "without discrimination," officials say. From a report: The aim is to enable anyone vaccinated against Covid-19, or who has tested negative or recently recovered from the virus to travel within the EU. The 27 member states will decide how to use the new digital certificate. Vaccine passports have faced opposition from some EU member states over concerns they might be discriminatory. Some argue that they would enable a minority to enjoy foreign travel without restrictions while others, such as young people who are not seen as a priority for inoculation, continue to face measures such as quarantine. European Commission officials have made clear they want to avoid discrimination. Another issue raised has been that data on the efficacy of vaccines in preventing a person from carrying or passing on the virus is incomplete. Ahead of the EU's announcement, the World Health Organization (WHO) said that it was working to "create an international trusted framework" for safe travel, but that vaccinations should not be a condition. Separately, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has threatened to withhold exporting vaccines to the UK and any other countries outside the EU that do not supply doses in a reciprocal way. "We're still waiting for doses to come from the UK," she said. "So, this is an invitation to show us that there are also doses from the UK coming to the European Union."

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Fox's business model: Getting libs upset.

It's simple. Their audience likes to hear about liberals freaking out. If you can make them cry, even better. All they have to do is come up with a few things that piss off the libs every week, and they're gold. And if the libs don't get upset, you can just lie and say they did.

Imho they aren't the only news org doing this. As Maddow says, watch this space.

To be clear, it's not my business model or any other kind of model to get anyone upset. Quite the opposite. I want to get everyone to work with each other. It's my impossible dream.

Security researchers have uncovered a new type of macOS malware that has been used in the wild to attack iOS software developers through trojanized Xcode projects. From a report: Named XcodeSpy, the malware consists of a malicious Run Script that was added to a legitimate Xcode project named TabBarInteraction. Security firm SentinelOne, which analyzed the malware in a report published today and shared with The Record, said the malicious script ran every time the Xcode project was built, installing a LaunchAgent for reboot persistence and then downloading a second payload, a macOS backdoor named EggShell. "The backdoor has functionality for recording the victim's microphone, camera and keyboard, as well as the ability to upload and download files," said Phil Stokes, macOS malware researcher at SentinelOne. While the XcodeSpy server infrastructure that controlled the LaunchAgent was down, Stokes said they were able to discover several instances of the EggShell backdoor uploaded on the VirusTotal web-based malware scanner. Stokes said SentinelOne first learned of this malware following a tip from an anonymous researcher, who found an instance of the EggShell backdoor on the network of a US-based company. "The victim reported that they are repeatedly targeted by North Korean APT actors and the infection came to light as part of their regular threat hunting activities," Stokes said, but the researcher told The Record they were not able to definitively link the malware to a nation-state operation beyond a reasonable doubt.

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Engineers are about to conduct a critical test on the core stage of Nasa's Space Launch System.

Andrew Ross Sorkin, writing at The New York Times: A year ago this week, Doug Parker, the chief executive of American Airlines, flew to Washington to begin what became a yearlong lobbying campaign for a series of taxpayer-funded bailouts during the pandemic. He wasn't alone. The campaign also included leaders from Alaska Airlines, Allegiant Air, Delta Air Lines, Frontier Airlines, Hawaiian Airlines, JetBlue Airways, United Airlines, SkyWest Airlines and Southwest Airlines -- all with their hands extended. The flight attendant and pilot unions were also part of the lobbying. A year later, as the stock market cruises to new heights, questions should be asked about the $50 billion in grants that were used to prop up the airline industry. Was it worth it? And was it necessary? The good news is that the rescue money likely saved as many as 75,000 jobs, most remaining at full pay. And that money also kept the airlines from filing for bankruptcy, and in a position to ferry passengers all over the country to jump start economic growth as the health crisis subsides. The bad news is that it is also likely that taxpayers massively overpaid: The original grant of $25 billion in April meant that each of the 75,000 jobs saved cost the equivalent of more than $300,000. And with each additional round of bailout money, that price has grown. The truth is that shareholders of the airlines have been the biggest beneficiaries. That includes airline executives, many of whom have been paid in stock for years and stood to lose millions of dollars if their holdings were wiped out. Airline chiefs collected tens of millions per year in compensation before the pandemic, in part by boosting their companies' share prices by regularly buying back tens of billions in shares. That meant setting aside less money for a rainy day -- or, in this case, a pandemic. But here we are: Shares of United traded below $20 in May; today they are above $60. The patterns are similar for the other major carriers. Airline stocks -- lifted by taxpayers -- are up nearly 200 percent from their pandemic trough and have almost recovered their losses. It is fair to say that we socialized the airline industry's losses and largely privatized the gains.

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President Joe Biden is expected to nominate former Sen. Bill Nelson of Florida to lead NASA, settling on a longtime booster of the space program to lead the agency's return to the moon, POLITICO reported Thursday, citing sources. From the report: If confirmed by the Senate, Nelson would lead the space agency as it partners with the new crop of private space companies to establish a long-term presence on the lunar surface in preparation for sending astronauts to Mars. A Senate staffer and a second source familiar with the decision told POLITICO that the administration has picked Nelson, and that the announcement will come on Friday. Both sources spoke on background because they were not authorized to speak ahead of the formal announcement. Nelson, 78, who himself spent six days in orbit when he flew to space in 1986 aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia, served as the top Democrat on the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee during his 18 years in Congress, where he was instrumental in establishing many of NASA's current priorities.

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Audiobooks should start at the beginning of the book, skipping the forewords, prefaces, dedications, notes on the 18th edition. Or make it two files so I can listen to the preambles at the end, if I care.

Mobile app developer Kosta Eleftheriou, who publicly called out Apple earlier this year for negligence with regard to policing iOS scams and copycat apps on the App Store, has filed a lawsuit against the iPhone maker in California. From a report: He's accusing the company of exploiting its monopoly power over iOS apps "to make billions of dollars in profits at the expense of small application developers and consumers." Eleftheriou's company KPAW LLC, which he co-owns with his partner Ashley Eleftheriou, filed its complaint in Santa Clara County on Wednesday. It details the development and release timeline of Eleftheriou's Apple Watch keyboard app FlickType. At the time he began accusing Apple of abetting App Store scams early last month, Eleftheriou revealed that his FlickType app had been targeted by competing software he says either didn't work well or didn't work at all, and yet nonetheless chipped away at this sales and App Store rankings through false advertising and the purchase of fake reviews. After he complained, he said Apple did not do enough to combat the scams, though Apple did later remove some of the apps he called attention to.

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An anonymous reader shares a report: Last week in Washington, the Democratic-controlled U.S. House passed a sweeping labor law overhaul that would make it much easier for gig workers to prove they're actually employees with full-fledged union rights, rather than contractors as their bosses claim. Two days later in Democratic-ruled Connecticut, state lawmakers met by video conference to consider a less adversarial approach: Creating a special industrywide version of bargaining for gig workers, without making them employees. "It is clear that these platform apps are here to stay," state Senator Julie Kushner, a former United Auto Workers regional director who now co-chairs the Connecticut legislature's Labor and Public Employees Committee, said in an interview. "What's really important is that we look at, how do we adjust so that we are getting the benefit of the platform, and the approach to work, but also making sure that we are not ignoring workers' rights in the equation?" The legislative proposal in Connecticut, spearheaded by a worker guild funded by Uber and Lyft, is a stab at the sort of compromise that some gig executives and union leaders have been seeking: boosting gig workers' rights, without granting them the full suite of protections that employees get under U.S. law. It reflects the eagerness of some lawmakers to find common ground between tech and labor and avoid the sort of pitched battle that's been raging in California and reverberating in boardrooms, union halls and government offices around the world. This week, Uber announced that it would reclassify its 70,000 U.K. drivers as "workers" eligible for minimum wage and paid vacation, among other benefits, after losing a national Supreme Court case. Harmony hasn't materialized so far in Connecticut: The companies don't support the current proposal. In testimony submitted last week, Uber said the bill as written "raises many concerns and creates a new, incredibly complicated process without the necessary due diligence and input from all stakeholders." Lyft, the second-largest ride-hailing company in the U.S, said the bill could harm "the flexibility and control that drivers currently enjoy."

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Facebook says it has created a wristband that translates motor signals from your brain so you can move a digital object just by thinking about it. From a report: The wristband, which looks like a clunky iPod on a strap, uses sensors to detect movements you intend to make. It uses electromyography (EMG) to interpret electrical activity from motor nerves as they send information from the brain to the hand. The company says the device, as yet unnamed, would let you navigate augmented-reality menus by just thinking about moving your finger to scroll. A quick refresher on augmented reality: It overlays information on your view of the real world, whether it's data, maps, or other images. The most successful experiment in augmented reality was Pokemon Go, which took the world by storm in 2016 as players crisscrossed neighborhoods in search of elusive Pokemon characters. That initial promise has faded over the intervening years, however, as companies have struggled to translate the technology into something appealing, light, and usable. Google Glass and Snap Spectacles bombed, for example: people simply did not want to use them. Facebook thinks its wristband is more user friendly. Does it work the way Facebook claims? Too soon to tell. The product is still in research and development at the company's internal Facebook Reality Labs, and I didn't get to have a go. No word yet on when it will be released or how much it will cost, either. Years in the making: Facebook acquired startup CTRL-labs in September 2019 for between $500 million and $1 billion. CTRL had been working on its own wrist-based EMG device, and its head, Thomas Reardon, now leads Facebook's AR/VR research team. At the press preview, Reardon said the device was "not mind control." He added, "This is coming from the part of the brain that controls motor information, not thought."

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Nvidia is effectively doubling the price of GeForce Now, its cloud streaming service. The company will add a new subscription tier on Thursday called Priority membership, which will cost $9.99 a month or $99.99 a year, Nvidia announced in a blog post. From a report: GeForce Now allows people to play PC games that they already own via cloud streaming. The games themselves are hosted on Nvidia's servers, then streamed to the player on devices of all kinds, such as computers, laptops, smartphones, tablets, and browsers. Players can stream games they own on platforms like Steam, the Epic Games Store, Battle.net, and Uplay -- as long as GeForce Now supports the games in question. Before Thursday's membership changes, Nvidia offered two options for GeForce Now users. The free tier only required an Nvidia account, but limited playtime to one-hour sessions. The Founders tier, which cost $4.99 per month or $24.99 for six months, provided players with "priority access" to cloud servers, sessions of up to six hours, and ray-traced graphics. The new Priority membership will take the place of the Founders option. Priority members will get the same features as Founders for the new twice-as-high price. This new membership option will open sometime on Thursday.

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Startups hope there's no turning back for online learning, even as more students return to the classroom. From a report: After a tough year of toggling between remote and in-person schooling, many students, teachers and their families feel burned out from pandemic learning. But companies that market digital learning tools to schools are enjoying a coronavirus windfall. Venture and equity financing for education technology start-ups has more than doubled, surging to $12.58 billion worldwide last year from $4.81 billion in 2019, according to a report from CB Insights, a firm that tracks start-ups and venture capital. During the same period, the number of laptops and tablets shipped to primary and secondary schools in the United States nearly doubled to 26.7 million, from 14 million, according to data from Futuresource Consulting, a market research company in Britain. "We've seen a real explosion in demand," said Michael Boreham, a senior market analyst at Futuresource. "It's been a massive, massive sea change out of necessity." But as more districts reopen for in-person instruction, the billions of dollars that schools and venture capitalists have sunk into education technology are about to get tested. Some remote learning services, like videoconferencing, may see their student audiences plummet. "There's definitely going to be a shakeout over the next year," said Matthew Gross, the chief executive of Newsela, a popular reading lesson app for schools. "I've been calling it 'The Great Ed Tech Crunch.'" Yet even if the ed-tech market contracts, industry executives say there is no turning back. The pandemic has accelerated the spread of laptops and learning apps in schools, they say, normalizing digital education tools for millions of teachers, students and their families. "This has sped the adoption of technology in education by easily five to 10 years," said Michael Chasen, a veteran ed-tech entrepreneur who in 1997 co-founded Blackboard, now one of the largest learning management systems for schools and colleges. "You can't train hundreds of thousands of teachers and millions of students in online education and not expect there to be profound effects."

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Google announced a $7 billion investment in the U.S. that will create at least 10,000 new jobs this year, a drop from the $10 billion it promised it would invest in 2020 before the pandemic swept the country. From a report: The Alphabet unit is investing in offices and data centers, including more than $1 billion in its home state of California, Google Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai said in a statement on Thursday. Part of the investment will be used for data center expansions in Nebraska, South Carolina, Virginia, Nevada and Texas, Pichai said. In early 2020, Google said it would invest over $10 billion into offices and data centers in a range of states, including California, New York and Texas. This was also a drop from the $13 billion it pledged in 2019 to invest in order to expand in rural areas such as Nevada, Nebraska and Oklahoma. However, in April last year Pichai said Google would slow hiring for the remainder of 2020, "recalibrating the focus and pace of our investments in areas like data centers and machines." Google had 135,300 staff at the end of 2020, and has said it will let employees work from home until July 2021.

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