Friday, February 14, 2025

Sources: Mark Zuckerberg's overtures to President Trump have unsettled employees and are part of an effort to shift antitrust scrutiny off Meta and onto Apple (Jonathan Vanian/CNBC)

Jonathan Vanian / CNBC:
Sources: Mark Zuckerberg's overtures to President Trump have unsettled employees and are part of an effort to shift antitrust scrutiny off Meta and onto Apple  —  Mark Zuckerberg kicked off 2025 with an Instagram video that outlined his vision for what he called restoring “free expression” …



The doge.gov website tracking Elon Musk's cuts to the federal government pulls from a database editable by anyone, say two sources who found the vulnerability (Jason Koebler/404 Media)

Jason Koebler / 404 Media:
The doge.gov website tracking Elon Musk's cuts to the federal government pulls from a database editable by anyone, say two sources who found the vulnerability  —  The doge.gov website that was spun up to track Elon Musk's cuts to the federal government is insecure and pulls from a database …



Sources: the White House plans to renegotiate some Chips Act awards after reassessing requirements, and has signaled delays to some upcoming disbursements (Reuters)

Reuters:
Sources: the White House plans to renegotiate some Chips Act awards after reassessing requirements, and has signaled delays to some upcoming disbursements  —  The White House is seeking to renegotiate U.S. CHIPS and Science Act awards and has signaled delays to some upcoming semiconductor disbursements …



Thursday, February 13, 2025

Sony reports PlayStation 5 sales in Q3 were 9.5M, the best quarter since its launch, and hits 75M total PS5 sales; MAUs across its platform rose 43% YoY to 129M (Andy Robinson/Video Games Chronicle)

Andy Robinson / Video Games Chronicle:
Sony reports PlayStation 5 sales in Q3 were 9.5M, the best quarter since its launch, and hits 75M total PS5 sales; MAUs across its platform rose 43% YoY to 129M  —  PS5 SHIPMENTS ARE NOW NECK-AND-NECK WITH PS4  —  PlayStation 5 enjoyed its best-ever holiday period in 2024 …



Elon Musk and right-wing influencers redefine "doxxing" to include reporting on government employees; free speech advocates say they aim to intimidate the press (Ken Bensinger/New York Times)

Ken Bensinger / New York Times:
Elon Musk and right-wing influencers redefine “doxxing” to include reporting on government employees; free speech advocates say they aim to intimidate the press  —  Right-wing influencers are criticizing journalists who have published public information about government employees.



Experts say Southeast Asian students in Taiwan's work-study programs often end up as low-paid labor in the chip industry under the guise of "practical training" (Hsiuwen Liu/Rest of World)

Hsiuwen Liu / Rest of World:
Experts say Southeast Asian students in Taiwan's work-study programs often end up as low-paid labor in the chip industry under the guise of “practical training”  —  Student-interns are paid for low-skill factory tasks and spend little time in the classroom.



Wednesday, February 12, 2025

A letter to US senator Ron Wyden shows data broker Datastream, which was selling US military location data, got the data from Lithuanian adtech company Eskimi (Wired)

Wired:
A letter to US senator Ron Wyden shows data broker Datastream, which was selling US military location data, got the data from Lithuanian adtech company Eskimi  —  In a letter to a US senator, a Florida-based data broker says it obtained sensitive data on US military members in Germany from a Lithuanian firm …



Analysis of credit and debit card data: Shein's US sales fell 16% to 41% for five days from February 5 and Temu fell up to 32% after Trump targets China trade (Bloomberg)

Bloomberg:
Analysis of credit and debit card data: Shein's US sales fell 16% to 41% for five days from February 5 and Temu fell up to 32% after Trump targets China trade  —  Online shopping giants Temu and Shein have seen a sustained drop in sales in the week after US President Donald Trump scrapped …



Researcher Johann Rehberger shows a hack to override Gemini's prompt injection defenses, letting long-term memories be permanently planted for future sessions (Dan Goodin/Ars Technica)

Dan Goodin / Ars Technica:
Researcher Johann Rehberger shows a hack to override Gemini's prompt injection defenses, letting long-term memories be permanently planted for future sessions  —  In the nascent field of AI hacking, indirect prompt injection has become a basic building block for inducing chatbots …



Anthropic cuts its list of unauthorized secondary market sellers from eight to four after the initial notice caused panic and pushback from investors (Yazhou Sun/Bloomberg)

Yazhou Sun / Bloomberg : Anthropic cuts its list of unauthorized secondary market sellers from eight to four after the initial notice cau...