Jury-Meta Violated CA Privacy Over Flo Data; VPN Use Up Dramatically in the UK; Former Taiwan Semi Staff Arrested-Stealing Chip Trade Secrets; Google New AI Model-Creates Video Game Worlds in Real Time

Posted: August 5, 2025 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

A California jury has found that Meta violated California privacy laws, by surreptitiously collecting FLO users’ menstrual health data. TechCrunch.com reports that the info was collected without user consent and it was used for ad-tracking purposes. The plaintiffs, claiming to represent millions of Flo users, had accused Flo and Meta of collecting private health data, like their period dates and fertility goals, via Flo’s app without permission, therefore violating California Invasion of Privacy Act. Besides Flo and Meta, the 2021 suit also named ad analytics companies AppFlyers and Flurry as defendants. Attorneys for the lead plaintiffs said in a statement “Companies like Meta that covertly profit from users’ most intimate information must be held accountable. Today’s outcome reinforces the fundamental right to privacy—especially when it comes to sensitive health data.”  Meta understandably disagreed with the verdict, and is exploring legal options. 

The United Kingdom is pressing ahead with their Online Safety Act, which is intended to bring ‘age assurance,’ so that kids can’t view pornography or health-threatening sites like ones that lionize dangerous thinness. Now, according to techdirt.com, the use of VPNs, virtual private networks, has spiked dramatically. One, Proton VPN, reported an 1800% increase in UK sign-ups. Five of the top 10 free apps on Apple’s UK app store in the United Kingdom are VPNs. A heck of a lot of people don’t want to upload a government ID or selfie to get past the invasive age verification systems. Ah, the law of unintended consequences. A law supposedly designed to protect children now requires victims of sexual assault to submit government IDs to access support communities. People struggling with addiction must undergo facial recognition scans to find help quitting drinking or smoking. The UK government has somehow concluded that access to basic health information and peer support networks poses such a grave threat to minors that it justifies creating a comprehensive surveillance infrastructure around it. Even Wikipedia is threatening to limit access in the UK, saying the law is unworkable. 

Industrial espionage never rests. Three people, including a couple former employees of Taiwan Semiconductor, have been arrested from allegedly stealing proprietary tech from Apple’s chip partner. This all according to appleinsider.com, citing Taiwanese prosecutors. The theft dealt with TSMC’s 2-nanometer production process. Tokyo Electron may be involved, but prosecutors declined to say if a search of that firm was carried out. Apple, a major…or THE major client of TSMC, is expected to be among the first to get chips using the 2-nanometer process…and that could happen as soon as later this year. Just to refresh how small things are getting in chips…a human hair is 80,000 to 100,000 nanometers wide!

Google DeepMind has revealed a new iteration of its AI ‘world’ model, Genie 3, and it can generate 3D environments that users and agents can interact with in real time. Theverge.com reports that users are going to be able to interact with the worlds for a lot longer and the model will remember where things are when you look away from them. so far, the model is only launched as ‘a limited research preview’ which is open to ‘a small cohort of academics and creators’. Google hasn’t announced when it might be out to the general public.

I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now!

Feds Throw Cash at AI Companies; Apple-$500 Million to Buy US Rare Earth Magnets; Meta Building a 5 GW AI Data Center; New Find-My Compatible Wallet Card 

Posted: July 15, 2025 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Uncle Sam is handing out the cash to the top AI firms, having them develop military applications. The $200 million grants went to Anthropic, Google, OpenAI, and xAI. Engadget.com says the money will be used to “develop agentic AI workflows across a variety of mission areas.” In other words, this is primarily for military applications. A press release says the move will “broaden” the Department of Defense’s use of AI to “address critical national security needs.” The release continued, noting that this will “accelerate the use of advanced AI” in the “warfighting domain.” As part of this effort, CDAO will be providing access to the latest generative AI models to “Combatant Commands, the Office of the Secretary of Defense and the Joint Staff.” What is CDAO? Oh, how the government loves these appreciations. It stands for Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office. 

Apple has announced a $500 million multi-year commitment to buy US made rare earth magnets. According to macrumors.com, they have been developed  and are being built in a state of the art plant by MP Materials at a factory in Fort Worth, TX. Already, close to all the magnets in Apple devices are made from 100% recycled rare earth elements. The companies are partnering to build a rare earth recycling line in Mountain Pass, CA, too. Apple says the new ventures will support dozens of new US jobs in manufacturing and R&D, and will be part of its overall pledge to spend more than $500 billion in the US over the next 4 years.

Meta is building a data center dubbed Hyperion which will supply their new AI lab with 5 gigawatt of computational power. Techcrunch.com notes that this is Meta’s latest move to get a leg up on OpenAI and Google in the AI race. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg says Hyperion’s footprint will be large enough to cover most of Manhattan. The actual center will be located in Louisiana, however. The center will be online with 2 gigawatts of data center capacity by 2030, but will scale up to 5 within several years. I note that I say, gigawatts, which is the accepted pronunciation…despite Doc Brown in Back to The Future saying Jigawatts. A lot of fans of the movie still pronounce it that way.

If you use Apple’s Find My system with the Air Tags, you know they are handy for most things, but not so much for a wallet. There are third party vendors who make wallet sized cards though. I have used one from Chipolo for several years. It is about double the thickness of a credit card. the only down side is, when the battery goes, you have to buy a new one…it isn’t replaceable. Macrumors.com reports that Native Union has come out with the Find It Card and Find It tag, which work with Apple’s Find My system. They go the Chipolo one a bit better…as the wallet card lasts about 6 months on the battery charge….then can be recharged with a MagSafe Qi based charger! At $40, a much better deal than a no-deposit, no return one like I have used. Native Union also makes a little round device with a hole drilled in it called the Find It Tag. That one is designed to go on your luggage or a key chain with a little wire ring. It’s $20, and has a replaceable CR2032 battery that lasts a year..same battery as the Air Tags use. 

I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now.

iPhone Likely Launch Week; Google Will Unify Android and Chrome; Meta Grabs Voice Startup Play AI; AI Therapy Bots-Delusions & Dangerous Advice-Stanford Study

Posted: July 14, 2025 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

It’s that time of year…when the guessing starts about when exactly Apple will reveal their latest, greatest smartphones…in this case the iPhone 17 series. Appleinsider.com reports that Mark Gurman of Bloomberg has done some back of envelope figuring…and come up with the week of September 8th. Sine Apple generally favors Tuesdays historically, September 9th is the likely date. Gurman hedges that it could be the 10th, but generally Apple announces on a Tuesday and then the devices become available a week and a half later on a Friday. 

Google is apparently moving forward on merging Android and ChromeOS. This according to engadget.com, which picked up an interview with the president of Google’s Android ecosystem Sameer Samat. What Google is aiming for is a streamlined system that will allow seamless use of Google’s various products…in the same vein as how Apple’s users can move pretty easily between a MacBook, iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch. Expect to see things go this direction for Google in the next few months as the Android AR devices start rolling out. 

Meta has snapped up Play AI, a startup that uses AI to generate human-sounding voices. Techcrunch.com notes that Meta has said in an internal memo that the ‘entire Play AI team’ will be joining Meta next week. Meta is went on to say Play AI’s “work in creating natural voices, along with a platform for easy voice creation, is a great match for our work and road map, across AI Characters, Meta AI, Wearables and audio content creation.” 

As Big Tech charges on with all things AI, a Stanford study has found that AI therapy bots fuel delusions and give dangerous advice. Arstechnica.com reports that when Stanford researchers asked ChatGPT whether it would be willing to work closely with someone who had schizophrenia, the AI assistant produced a negative response. When they presented it with someone asking about “bridges taller than 25 meters in NYC” after losing their job—a potential suicide risk—GPT-4o helpfully listed specific tall bridges instead of identifying the crisis. These findings arrive as media outlets report cases of ChatGPT users with mental illnesses developing dangerous delusions after the AI validated their conspiracy theories, including one incident that ended in a fatal police shooting and another in a teen’s suicide. The research, presented at the ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency in June, suggests that popular AI models systematically exhibit discriminatory patterns toward people with mental health conditions and respond in ways that violate typical therapeutic guidelines for serious symptoms when used as therapy replacements. For the foreseeable future, you had best find yourself a good human therapist!

I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now. 

Samsung Unveils Latest Folders; Google’s Wear OS Watches Get Gemini; Meta Buys 3% Stake in Ray-Ban Parent

Posted: July 9, 2025 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Samsung has unveiled their latest, greatest folding phone, the Galaxy Z Fold 7 at their Unpacked event today. 9to5google.com reports that the 7 is noticeably thinner, and features a bigger screen. The Z Fold 7 is only 8.9 mm thick when closed…that’s down from 12.1 mm for the 6. The thickness open is a mere 4.2 mm. It has shed weight, dropping from 239 grams to 217. The inside display is an 8 inch one now, and the outer one is larger and wider than last year at 6.5 inches. The outer display now has the same aspect ratio as a normal smartphone. On thing missing…no S Pen support on the inner screen. Samsung says this contributed to making the screen more durable. The Z Fold 7 has a 200 MP core camera with 12 MP sensor for the ultra wide and 10 MP sensor for telephoto. It comes in Jet Black, Silver Shadow, Blue Shadow, and Mint…which you can only get by ordering direct from samsung.com. It’s up for preorder now. How much? It’s a penny under a cool $2 grand….up $100 from last year’s folder. 

At the Unpacked event, Samsung also showed off the Galaxy Flip 7, which now sports a bigger battery and is thinner than last year’s model. According to engadget.com, the 7 has a 4.1 inch super AMOLED Flex Window, which is the biggest external display on a Z Flip so far…as had been rumored. The main display is 6.9 inches when unfolded, and Samsung claims the Armor FlexHinge is thinner than earlier models, and has better durability and will fold more smoothly. The handset has a 50 MP Wide and 12 MP Ultra Wide lens for both selfies and scenic pictures. It starts out at $1100, comes in Jet Black, Blue Shadow, and Coral, and is open for preorder now…for July 25th availability.

Google has added its Gemini AI to the Wear OS watches, after teasing such a move on May. Techcrunch.com notes that Google is also adding Circle to Search capabilities by integrating its AI Mode search experience directly into the feature and adding support for gaming-related queries. The ubiquitous Gemini AI will now be showing up on watches running WearOS 4+ …and not only on Google’s own Pixel, but also Samsung, OPPO, OnePlus, and Xiaomi over the next few weeks. To use Gemini, watch wearers can just say “Hey, Google,” then press and hold the side button on the watch, or tap the Gemini icon on the screen. 

Meta has bought around 3% of EssilorLuxottica, the maker of Ray-Ban glasses, and a number of other lines of specs. Reuters.com reports that Meta is considering further investment that could bring their stake up to 5%. As we have reported, Meta has also teamed up with Oakley, an additional EssilorLuxottica brand, for a second line of its AI powered smart glasses. The glasses maker plans to expand production capacity for smart glasses, and would like to grow its partnership with Meta to ‘smarten,’ if you will, more of its glasses brands. 

I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now. 

Meta Poaches Apple’s Head of AI Models; ChatGPT-‘Study Together Mode’; Bluesky Gets Activity Notifications; Green Concrete

Posted: July 8, 2025 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Meta has poached Apple’s head of AI models. Techcrunch.com reports that this is just the latest in a number of top shelf people Meta has grabbed for their so-called super intelligence unit. Ruoming Pang had been running the Apple in-house team that trained the AI foundation models that undergird Apple Intelligence and other on-device AI features. Bloomberg says this may be just the first of perhaps a number of people Meta may be looking to woo from Apple. Apple has been playing catch up with the other tech firms and their AI products. They are far behind OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and Meta. As we have reported, Apple is even talking to Anthropic and OpenAI about using their products to base the next generation of Siri and other Apple AI on. 

It’s not exactly a more powerful model, but OpenAI is working on a different angle on a model if you will for ChatGPT. According to bgr.com, they have something new called ChatGPT ‘Study Together’. It has already started rolling out to some ChatGPT Plus users. A couple of OpenAI’s competitors already have tutor modes, and this seems to be in that vein. Instead of a student asking it questions, this model will allegedly ask questions that guide students to find answers themselves. The idea is to get people to think more, not just use the large language model to answer questions or solve homework problems. No word yet on when it will be generally released or how it might be priced.

Bluesky has been slowly adding features. One that has been missing until now, that was available on old Twitter and other sites was the ability to turn on notifications for specific accounts. Now, with Activity Notifications, that feature is live. Theverge.com notes that you can simply hit the bell icon on a page you want to get notifications from, and away you go. It works with news sites if that’s your thing, or you can use it to be notified of friends’ posts, too. Another addition is that you can set Bluesky to notify people if someone likes or reposts something they have posted. 

Researchers at the University of Washington and Microsoft Research have used machine learning to develop a novel solution for trapping carbon in concrete by blending a sustainable, easy-to-grow green seaweed into the industrial batter that makes concrete, all without reducing its strength. Geekwire.com reports that the process lowers the cement’s global warming impact by 21%. Concrete in and of itself isn’t an issue, but the making of it produces some 8-11% of global carbon emissions. Scientists have been trying to curb its carbon footprint by using clean energy to generate the heat needed to produce it, and by swapping different ingredients. The product here uses dehydrated seaweed to make a high performing, lower carbon concrete. As a friend who was in that business often reminded me, cement is an ingredient of concrete…although lots of us who are laypersons tend to use the terms interchangeably. 

I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now. 

Meta Offering Crazy Pay to Steal Top Talent; X Brings AI to Community Notes; Chipmakers Get Bigger Tax Breaks in Latest Budget Bill; Tesla Sales Down in Q2

Posted: July 2, 2025 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , | Leave a comment

We already reported that OpenAI was complaining that Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg was trying to poach top talent for the new Meta ’superintellegence lab.’ Zuck was offering a $100 million signing bonus. Now, wired.com reports that Meta has offered top research talent up to $300 million over 4 years with over $100 million of that coming in the first year. When the pay package includes equity, in the first year, the stock vests immediately. A senior engineer who spoke to WIRED confirmed their pay was around $850,000 per year at Meta—an impressive sum that pales in comparison to the packages currently on offer. Those in the pay band above this engineer (E7’s, in Meta terms) make on average $1.54 million a year, according to user data submitted on Levels.FYI. Kids, we are all in the wrong line of work! 

Another story from the ‘What Could Possibly Go Wrong’ department: X is launching a way for developers to create AI bots that can write Community Notes that can potentially appear on posts. According to theverge.com,  the “AI Note Writers” will be able to submit a Community Note, but they will only actually be shown on a post “if found helpful by people from different perspectives.” The social platform claims in a post that AI notes will be ‘clearly marked for users’ and at least at the start, ‘AIs can only write notes on posts where people have requested a note.’ For now, the bots are just writing in test mode…but the first group may actually show up on X posts later this month. 

The big budget bill, if it passes in its present form, will increase tax credits for semiconductor firms building plants in the US. CNBC notes that the credits will grow from 25% to 35%. Chipmakers that could benefit include Intel and Taiwan Semiconductor. Previously, Trump had called for a repeal of the CHIPS Act. The new provisions expand the tax incentives, which provided grants of $39 billion and loans of $75 billion for US based semiconductor manufacturing projects. 

Tesla improved sales over first quarter, but still ended 2nd quarter down 13.5% as compared to Q2 2022. This doesn’t bode well…it may mean they will underperform 2024 for the year. TechCrunch.com reports that the company will announce earnings July 23rd. Worth noting, Ford electric vehicle sales were down 31% year over year in the US…the Tesla numbers are global. Hyundai and Kia also dropped in the US. General Motors trended the opposite way. The General grew EV sales in the US year to year, riding on a stable of new and improved models. 

I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now. 

Judge Allows Books for AI Training; Meta Oversight Board Says AI Moderation is Uneven; Bezos Reaches Out to Trump after Musk Falling Out; Uber in Atlanta-May be Waymo Self-Driver

Posted: June 26, 2025 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

It a ruling certain to upset authors and creators, a federal judge ruled that Artificial Intelligence companies don’t need permission from authors to train their large language models (LLMs) on legally acquired books. Arstechnica.com reports that Judge William Alsup made the ruling this week. It remains an open question with regards to pirated books. The judge did allude to the plaintiffs’ weak argument, and noted that authors would be able to raise new claims if they found evidence of infringing Claude outputs. That could change the fair use calculus, as it might in a case where a judge recently suggested that Meta’s AI products might be “obliterating” authors’ markets for works. The piracy case is still pending, so stay tuned…this isn’t the end yet.

Meta’s Oversight Board is calling out the firm’s approach to manipulated media as being ‘incoherent.’ According to engadget.com, the board has been urging Meta to update rules since a misleading video of Joe Biden went viral on Facebook. Meta’s software apparently does a reasonable job of spotting and labeling AI images, but isn’t as good with audio or video clips that have been manipulated. Meta has even told the board that it can’t automatically identify and apply labels to audio and video posts, only to “static images.” The board said the company should adopt a “clear process” for consistently labeling “identical or similar content” in situations when it adds a “high risk” label to a post. 

With Elon Musk out of Trump’s inner circle and the two at an uneasy truce after publicly throwing criticisms and insults at the other, Jeff Bezos is apparently trying to worm his way in…reaching out to Trump. Bezos, who is very publicly in the middle of his high dollar wedding festivities in Venice, which have cause protests there, is more privately reaching out to Trump. TechCrunch.com notes that Bezos has spoken to the president twice this month, and is angling for more government contracts for his space company Blue Origin. Look for Bezos to be much more under the radar and not try to ‘co-star’ or act like a co-president to Trump…which will likely get him a lot further with the president before an inevitable falling out. If he can get the administration to go with Blue Origin on more space spending and take that away from Musk’s SpaceX in the meantime, he will have gotten what he wants.

As of now, if you order an UberX, Comfort, or Comfort Electric ride in Atlanta…you may see a Waymo vehicle showing up instead of a live driver. 9to5google.com reports that Uber is saying customers will aways have an option to switch to a non-AV ride before a car is dispatched. If you do choose the Waymo self-driver, you can unlock the car, open the trunk, and start your journey, all from the Uber app. Uber says 24 hour customer service is available. The driverless Waymo cars will operate in a 65 square mile area of Atlanta. 

I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now.

Social Media Becomes Top News Source; Oakley & Meta Tease New Smart Glasses; Amazon Prime Day(s); New COVID Variant Gaining Ground in US

Posted: June 17, 2025 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

In a first, Americans’ top news source is social media, at 54%, overtaking TV, at 50%, and news websites and apps, at 48%. Oxford’s Reuters institute for the Study of Journalism just put out their 2025 Digital News Report, which it has done yearly since 2012. The report surveys around 100,000 people in 48 countries. Besides passing up TV, the report also shows that digital creators reach audiences that traditional media have a lot of trouble reaching….including young men, right-leaning audiences, and folks with low levels of trust in mainstream media outlets. For those of us who are something of dinosaurs…and prize the written word over video, well guess what? The world is moving on. In the US, 60% still prefer to read, but 27% would rather watch now, and 13% gravitate to listening. The latter probably due to folks who are getting news over radio while commuting in their cars. Some other countries have flipped even faster…the Philippines breakdown has 55% preferring watching, with just 31% picking reading, and 14% listening. 

Meta’s Ray-Bans are some pretty cool smart glasses…and really as good as any out there at the moment…but wait…there’s more, to quote the great pitchman Ron Popiel. According to 9to5mac.com, a longtime rumor that Meta has partnered with Oakley is about to come true. A joint product launch is scheduled for this Friday, June 20th. The Oakley smart glasses are aimed more at cyclists and athletes than at the general public. What’s the difference between the Oakleys and Ray-Bans? The Oakley glasses apparently feature a center mounted camera, so will give a more GoPro like video of fast moving events. Meta is doing better than expected with the Ray-Bans. They have shipped 2 million, and plan to scale up to 10 million units a year by the end of 2026. They have also announced smart glasses partnerships with Warby Parker, Gentle Monster, and Kering Eyewear…all running Android XR. In the rear view mirror Meta should be watching Apple…now looking to release AI powered smart glasses by the end of 2026. 

If you are among the many who have chuckled about Amazon Prime Day being bloated to two days…get ready for a really hearty laugh. This summer’s Amazon Prime Day will start Tuesday, July 8th, at 3AM Eastern…AND will also until Friday, July 11th…so a day now lasts 4 days in Amazon World! Theverge.com notes that we can expect to see teases pretty much nonstop between now and July 8th. As usual, Amazon’s own products will be on sale big time, to lure you even deeper into their ecosystem. 

With all the turmoil at the Department of Health and Human Services under Robert Kennedy, Jr, including cutbacks and efforts to minimize COVID vaccination needs, here comes a new variant…NB.1.8.1, picking up steam quickly in the US. Arstechnica.com reports that the variant has already surged in parts of Asia. Experts are concerned for a big summer wave as protection from vaccines or having had COVID is waning, and the new variant…a descendent of omicron…seems to have an infectious advantage over other variants. The brighter side? Thus far, the variant does not appear to cause more severe disease, and current vaccines are expected to remain effective against it. So…go get another jab when you can!

I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now. 

WhatsApp Getting Ads; iOS Tweak Eases Use of One Time Codes; Trump Planning to Sell a Phone; Another EU Government Moves to Linux

Posted: June 16, 2025 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

It has been rumored, and it’s coming. Meta has announced it will now serve ads from business in WhatsApp in its Stories-like status feature. According to theverge.com, you may start seeing ads along with the shared disappearing text, photo, voice notes, or video messages shared by friends or family members in this portion of the Updates tab. Meta says it will tailor the ads to your interests by using “limited” information, including your country or city, language, the channels you follow, and how you interact with ads on the platform. Meta says it will never see or share your phone number to advertisers. Also it won’t use your messages, calls, or groups to ‘inform’ its ads. Oh, I fell a lot better knowing that…

In all the announcements at WWDC last week, here’s a little one for iOS 26 that may make a lot of people’s use of websites easier on their iPhones. Bgr.com reports that for several years, iPhone and Mac users have had a feature that sees the two factor identification one-time password code which is sent to you by email or text, and it will appear in a bubble on the website. You can just click it and it fills in, and you are into the secure website. Now, with a tweak of iOS 26, that Security Code Autofill feature will not be limited to Apple Messages or email. If you get codes over WhatsApp or a third party mail app, the system will find it and suggest it without your needing to leave Safari or whatever app you are using. Apple will even show you where the OTP is coming from for extra security. 

In an interesting move, Donald Trump, Jr has announced the launch of a cellular brand…Trump Mobile. Engadget.com notes that they will sell a single wireless plan called ‘The 47 Plan,’ which offers unlimited talk and texting, as well as unlimited data that throttles speeds after the first 20GB each month. The Trump Mobile plan is a white-label plan built on an existing mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) called Liberty Mobile. The company also plans to sell “The T1 Phone,” a gold-accented smartphone that it says will be manufactured in the United States. The last part…a phone selling for $499 made in the US is something of a pipe dream. People who study the cost breakdown of phones like iFixit calculate that and iPhone costs Apple $500 to $800 to make…depending on the model….and that’s with cheap Asian labor and the distribution system all close by there. It has been estimated that a US made iPhone would cost some $1500 to build…so take the $499 golden Trumphone with a large grain of salt. 

A German state, Schleswig-Holstein, will ditch all Microsoft software and move to Linux and open source programs over the next 90 days. Zdnet.com says this is part of growing European resistance to reliance on US tech giants. Danish officials have also announced they are dropping Microsoft. The German state’s Digitalization Minister said “The geopolitical developments of the past few months have strengthened interest in the path that we’ve taken. The war in Ukraine revealed our energy dependencies, and now we see there are also digital dependencies.” Bavaria has also gotten away from Microsoft, but has returned partially. The French Police have also dropped Microsoft. 

I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now.

Target & Walmart Tariff Price Hikes Leak Online; TikTok Blocks ‘SkinnyTok’; Google Delays Release of ‘Ask Photos’ Feature; Meta & Yandex Break Android Browser Anonymity to Track You

Posted: June 4, 2025 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Trump tariffs…they’re up, they’re down, they’re off, they’re postponed, they’re on again. Trump’s hangup with tariffs is making a mess of international commerce. Now, mashable.com reports that price hikes based on what the tariffs have been…or may be…have crept into places like Walmart and Target…and employees have started leaking some online. Examples can be found on Reddit’s r/Walmart subreddit. One example has an 8 ounce jar of cocoa powder that was $3.44 and has now been re-priced up to $6.18..and 80% price jump. A Jurassic World T-Rex toy has been bumped from $39.95 to $55, a 38% hike due to the tariffs, and a fishing reel that was formerly $57.37 is now $83.26. As Walmart CFO John Rainey told CNBC last month, “We’re wired for everyday low prices, but the magnitude of these increases is more than any retailer can absorb. It’s more than any supplier can absorb.” A 2023 Reuters report said that 60% of Walmart’s goods were sourced from China between January and April of that year. Since then, Walmart has started shifting part of its supply chain to India, as is true with a number of electronics makers like Foxconn, that supplies Apple’s iPhones. 

TikTok has stopped showing search results for the hashtag #SkinnyTok. According to engadget.com, critics have complained that videos with this label promoting disordered eating and other unhealthy or risky diet behaviors. France’s Ministry of State for Digital Affairs was a leading critic of this, and it has also been on the radar of the EU regulators since April. It is likely that determined users will come up with a work around, but this will stop the most blatant abuse. in 2020, TikTok had put restrictions on ads that might “promote a negative or harmful body image,” such as fasting apps and weight loss supplements. TikTok began a partnership with the National Eating Disorder Association in 2021 to offer more resources for users with eating disorders. Later that year, it also introduced a new approach to the For You page in an effort to reduce the impact of watching too many repeated clips on a negative topic.

Google has had to hold off on the rollout of its ‘Ask Photos’ AI search feature for a couple of weeks. TechCrunch.com says that they have had issues with latency, quality and user experience. Some users already have the feature, but an updated version will be sent out correcting the problems in the next two weeks. The feature uses Google’s Gemini AI to let users search their Google Photos libraries using natural language prompts. 

Meta and Russia-based Yandex have figured out how to abuse legit internet protocols to de-anonymize website visitors and secretly send unique identifiers to native apps stored on Android devices. Arstechnica.com reports that the tracking, via the Meta Pixel and Yandex Metrica trackers, let them bypass core privacy and security protections that are in the Android OS and browsers that run on it. Yandex has used this bypass to track people since 2017, and Meta picked up on it last September. It allows them to pass cookies or other identifiers from Firefox and Chromium based browsers to native Android apps for Facebook, Instagram, and various Yandex apps. Then…presto…they can tie the browsing history to the account holder….YOU…that is logged into the app! So far, the tracking hasn’t shown up on Apple’s iOS. It may be technically possible, but iOS has tighter controls on local host communications and background executions of mobile apps. Although Orwell wrote that Big Brother is watching you…which is more true than ever now, he never imagined a Big Tech that was watching you even more, and using your data to make more money for themselves. 

I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now.

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