ICT news

• Android's Emergency Call Shortcut Is Flooding Dispatchers With False Calls

  23-06-2023 23:40 via news.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Police forces in the UK are seeing a "record number" of false calls to 999, the UK's emergency services number, and the culprit is apparently Android. As the BBC reports, Android 12 added an easy-access feature for emergency services: just press the power button five times, and your phone will dial emergency services for you. That's apparently pretty easy to do accidentally when a phone is sitting in your pocket, or if you have a wonky power
  
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• SEC Approves First Leveraged Bitcoin Futures ETF

  23-06-2023 23:00 via slashdot.org
  
  The SEC has approved the first leveraged cryptocurrency ETF in the United States, which will allow customers to gain bitcoin exposure by putting up only half the value of the bitcoin. The ETF is set to launch on Tuesday and corresponds with the CME Bitcoin Futures Daily Roll Index. CoinDesk reports: The regulator has not denied the application for the 2x ETF, Volatility Shares Chief Investment Officer Stuart Barton said, paving the way for its launch this upcoming Tuesday. "It's exciting to see
  
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• US Vendor Accused of Violating GDPR By Reputation-Scoring EU Citizens

  23-06-2023 22:20 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  TeleSign, a U.S.-based fraud prevention company, has allegedly collected data from millions of EU citizens and processed it in the United States using automated tools without their knowledge. The complaint "alleges that TeleSign is in violation of the GDPR's provisions that ban use of automated profiling tools, as well as rules that require affirmative consent be given to process EU citizen's data," reports The Register. From the report: The complaint was filed by Austrian privacy advocacy group
  
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• Two Lawyers Fined For Submitting Fake Court Citations From ChatGPT

  23-06-2023 21:40 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: A US judge has fined two lawyers and a law firm $5,000 after fake citations generated by ChatGPT were submitted in a court filing. A district judge in Manhattan ordered Steven Schwartz, Peter LoDuca and their law firm Levidow, Levidow & Oberman to pay the fine after fictitious legal research was used in an aviation injury claim. Schwartz had admitted that ChatGPT, a chatbot that churns out plausible text responses to human prompts, inven
  
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• Doctor Walmart Will See You Now

  23-06-2023 21:00 via science.slashdot.org
  
  American retailers see opportunities in the primary-care business. From a report: With his long white coat, stethoscope, genially soothing manner and wonky eagerness to discuss "population health management" and "patient-centred" medicine, Ronald Searcy seems the Platonic ideal of a primary-care doctor. The most unusual thing about him is where he works: a compact facility complete with examination rooms, dentist's office, phlebotomy lab and X-ray room tucked into a Walmart in north-west Arkansa
  
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• Titan Sub CEO Dismissed Safety Warnings as 'Baseless Cries', Emails Show

  23-06-2023 20:33 via news.slashdot.org
  
  Warnings over the safety of OceanGate's Titan submersible were repeatedly dismissed by the CEO of the company, email exchanges with a leading deep sea exploration specialist show. From a report: In messages seen by the BBC, Rob McCallum told OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush that he was potentially putting his clients at risk and urged him to stop using the sub until it had been classified by an independent body. Mr Rush responded that he was "tired of industry players who try to use a safety argument
  
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• EPA is Putting Together a Youth Council

  23-06-2023 19:32 via news.slashdot.org
  
  The EPA is assembling its first-ever National Environmental Youth Advisory Council, a group of young people to weigh in on issues that affect their communities. From a report: "We can't tackle the environmental challenges of our time without input from our younger communities, who've long been at the forefront of social movements," EPA Administrator Michael Regan said in a press release yesterday. The worst effects of climate change are still ahead as greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels k
  
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• Reddit Sales Growth Slowdown Preceded Fight Over New API Fees

  23-06-2023 18:52 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  A stark business reality faced Reddit before a user uprising engulfed its site this month: slowing sales growth. From a report: Reddit's revenue rose 38% in 2022 to about $670 million last year, two people familiar with the matter said, faster than many other internet ad firms but a steep slowdown from the more than doubling of revenue the company experienced in 2021 over 2020. The slowdown adds to uncertainty about Reddit's hopes of going public. It comes in the wake of a highly public battle b
  
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• Hospital Cyber Attacks Surge, Risking Struggling Bottom Lines

  23-06-2023 18:15 via it.slashdot.org
  
  Cyberattacks on US hospitals are on the rise, adding a layer of financial pressure onto an industry still struggling to recover from the pandemic. From a report: Health facilities have been hit with 226 digital incursions affecting 36 million people this year, on track to be more widespread than 2022 attacks, according to John Riggi, the national advisor for cybersecurity and risk at the American Hospital Association. Cyber raids on hospitals more than tripled in the past five years and have bec
  
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• Facebook To End News Access in Canada Over Incoming Law on Paying Publishers

  23-06-2023 17:20 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Meta plans to end access to news on Facebook and Instagram for all users in Canada once a parliament-approved legislation requiring internet giants to pay news publishers comes into effect, the company said on Thursday. From a report: The legislation, known as the Online News Act, was approved by the Senate upper chamber earlier on Thursday and will become law after receiving royal assent from the governor general, a formality. The legislation was proposed after complaints from Canada's media in
  
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• Coinbase Wins at Supreme Court as Ruling Reinforces Arbitration

  23-06-2023 16:41 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  The US Supreme Court sided with a Coinbase unit in a ruling that reinforces the ability of companies to channel customer and employee disputes into arbitration. From a report: The justices, voting 5-4, ruled that lawsuits filed in federal court must be put on hold while a defendant presses an appeal that would send the case to arbitration. Business groups rallied behind Coinbase in the case, saying that letting litigation go forward would impose unnecessary costs. Consumer advocates said judges
  
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• Sony's PlayStation Chief Privately Said Microsoft's Activision Deal Wasn't About Xbox Exclusives

  23-06-2023 16:06 via games.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader shares a report: Sony's PlayStation chief, Jim Ryan, believed that Microsoft's proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard wasn't about locking games as Xbox exclusives, according to a newly unsealed email. Microsoft counsel revealed the exchange between Ryan and Chris Deering, former CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment, discussing the announcement of the deal last year. "It is not an exclusivity play at all," said Ryan. "They're thinking bigger than that and they have the cas
  
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• SMS Phishers Harvested Phone Numbers, Shipment Data From UPS Tracking Tool

  23-06-2023 15:00 via it.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from KrebsOnSecurity: The United Parcel Service (UPS) says fraudsters have been harvesting phone numbers and other information from its online shipment tracking tool in Canada to send highly targeted SMS phishing (a.k.a. "smishing") messages that spoofed UPS and other top brands. The missives addressed recipients by name, included details about recent orders, and warned that those orders wouldn't be shipped unless the customer paid an added delivery fee. In a
  
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• VMware Releases Security Update for vCenter Server and Cloud Foundation

  23-06-2023 14:00 via cisa.gov
  VMware has released a security update to address multiple memory corruption vulnerabilities in vCenter Server and Cloud Foundation. A cyber threat actor could exploit these vulnerabilities to take control of an affected system.
  CISA encourages users and administrators to review VMware Security Advisory VMSA-2023-0014 and apply the necessary updates.
  
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• Quality of New Vehicles In US Declining On More Tech Use, Study Shows

  23-06-2023 12:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Quality of new vehicles sold in the United States is declining as factors such as growing use of technology and lower build quality of certain parts are making the models more "problematic", according to automotive consultant J.D. Power. Reuters reports: Build quality of certain parts such as audio systems and cup-holders have resulted in quality issues, the report said, which collected data from 93,380 purchasers and lessees of 2023 model-year vehicles. Automakers have been leaning on software
  
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• E3 Is Not Returning Anytime Soon

  23-06-2023 09:00 via games.slashdot.org
  
  According to a report (PDF) from the Los Angeles City Tourism Commission, E3 has been canceled in LA in 2024 and 2025. The Verge reports: Apparently, the city does not expect E3 to return in 2024 or 2025. This news seems at odds with the messaging from E3's organizers, ReedPop and the ESA. Earlier this year, the ESA -- the trade organization that runs E3 -- announced it was partnering with ReedPop, the entertainment company that runs large fan conventions like New York Comic-Con and Penny Arcade
  
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• The People Paid To Train AI Are Outsourcing Their Work To AI

  23-06-2023 05:30 via slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from MIT Technology Review: A significant proportion of people paid to train AI models may be themselves outsourcing that work to AI, a new study has found. It takes an incredible amount of data to train AI systems to perform specific tasks accurately and reliably. Many companies pay gig workers on platforms like Mechanical Turk to complete tasks that are typically hard to automate, such as solving CAPTCHAs, labeling data and annotating text. This data is then
  
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• Ford Gets $9.2 Billion To Help US Catch Up With China's EV Dominance

  23-06-2023 04:02 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  The US government is providing a conditional $9.2 billion loan to Ford for the construction of three battery factories, the largest government backing for a US automaker since the 2009 financial crisis. "The enormous loan [...] marks a watershed moment for President Joe Biden's aggressive industrial policy meant to help American manufacturers catch up to China in green technologies," reports Bloomberg. From the report: The new factories that will eventually supply Ford's expansion into electric
  
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• 'Kissing or Licking' Microphone Is Sexual, Twitch Says

  23-06-2023 03:25 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Earlier this week, Twitch introduced Content Classification Labels to help streamers label their content when they're doing something "mature." Streamers are supposed to use Content Classification Labels when their content contains the following: Mature-Rated Games; Sexual Themes; Drugs, Intoxication or Excessive Tobacco Use; Violent and Graphic Depictions; Significant Profanity or Vulgarity; and/or Gambling. Interestingly, kissing or licking a microphone falls under "Sexual Themes." From a repo
  
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• Harvard's New Computer Science Teacher Is a Chatbot

  23-06-2023 02:45 via news.slashdot.org
  
  Starting this fall, students enrolled in Computer Science 50: Introduction to Computer Science (CS50) will be encouraged to use AI to help them debug code, give feedback on their designs, and answer individual questions about error messages and unfamiliar lines of code. PCMag reports: "Our own hope is that, through AI, we can eventually approximate a 1:1 teacher [to] student ratio for every student in CS50, as by providing them with software-based tools that, 24/7, can support their learning at
  
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• LexisNexis Is Selling Your Personal Data To ICE So It Can Try To Predict Crimes

  23-06-2023 02:02 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Intercept: The legal research and public records data broker LexisNexis is providing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement with tools to target people who may potentially commit a crime -- before any actual crime takes place, according to a contract document obtained by The Intercept. LexisNexis then allows ICE to track the purported pre-criminals' movements. The unredacted contract overview provides a rare look at the controversial $16.8 million a
  
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• US Might Finally Force Cable-TV Firms To Advertise Their Actual Prices

  23-06-2023 01:20 via news.slashdot.org
  
  The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has proposed new rules to crack down on hidden fees charged by cable and satellite video providers. "My administration's top priority is lowering the cost of living for the middle class, and that includes cracking down on companies' use of junk fees to hide true costs from families, who end up paying more as a result," Biden said in a statement on Tuesday. Ars Technica reports: As Biden noted, the FCC "proposed a new rule that would require cable and s
  
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• Xbox Admits Defeat in 'Console Wars'

  23-06-2023 00:40 via games.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader shares a report: The courtroom showdown between the FTC and Microsoft over the tech company's proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard kicked off this morning. First announced in early 2022, the pending transaction has been scrutinized by various global regulatory bodies. Xbox has frantically worked to appease their concerns. While addressing its potentially dominant position, Microsoft lamented its third-place position and admitted defeat in the ongoing "console wars."
  Pa
  
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• Korea Will Deploy 'Anti-Piracy AI' After Major Piracy Site Reincarnation

  23-06-2023 00:02 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from TorrentFreak: With tens of millions of regular monthly visitors, South Korean piracy site Noonoo TV made powerful enemies. The stand-off reached the boiling point in March when broadcasters formed a new anti-piracy coalition and warned of punishing legal action. Noonoo TV responded by throwing in the towel but after clone site 'Noonoo TV Season 2' appeared online, the government says it will develop an AI anti-piracy system that will stop any 'Season 3' v
  
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