Weekend Tech Roundup January 06, 2024

Google Just Disabled Cookies for 30 Million Chrome Users. Here’s How to Tell If You’re One of Them.

Today marks the first of many upcoming moments of silence in Google’s years-long plan to kill cookies. As of this morning, the Chrome web browser disabled cookies for 1% of its users, about 30 million people. By the end of the year, cookies will be gone in Chrome forever—sort of. – Thomas Germain Read More

Meet ‘Link History,’ Facebook’s New Way to Track the Websites You Visit

Facebook recently rolled out a new “Link History” setting that creates a special repository of all the links you click on in the Facebook mobile app. You can opt out if you’re proactive, but the company is pushing Link History on users, and the data is used for targeted ads. As lawmakers introduce tech regulations and Apple and Google beef up privacy restrictions, Meta is doubling down and searching for new ways to preserve its data harvesting empire. – Thomas Germain Read More

Wait, Is Bitcoin Going to Die?

The price of Bitcoin crashed nearly 10% on Wednesday, falling from $45,000 to below $41,000 in mere hours, hurting crypto’s best bull run in a year. But what, or who, could have been the culprit behind the crash? The day before, CNBC’s host of Mad Money, Jim Cramer, directed his powerful investing advice towards Bitcoin. – Maxwell Zeff Read More

Montana and North Carolina Lawmakers Just Came for Pornhub, So Now You Can’t

After months of edging, Montana and North Carolina lawmakers have finished off Pornhub. Users in those states lost access to the adult site on Jan. 1 as new laws require people to verify their age to watch porn. That would have meant uploading a picture of your ID before you watch sorority sisters figure out how to pay the pizza delivery boy. To spare us all, Pornhub’s parent company, Aylo, just removed access to its adult sites for those states altogether. – Maxwell Zeff Read More

13-Year-Old Becomes First Person to Beat Tetris on NES

Classic puzzle game Tetris has been around for over three decades, and in that time, plenty of people have reached its various endings, usually by clearing four rows of bricks at once like a digital demolitioner. That’s a challenge in and of itself, but now, someone has taken the concept of “beating Tetris” to the extreme by playing the NES game so hard it straight-up crashed, a phenomenon also known as the “kill screen.” – Levi Winslow Read More

How a Group of Train Hackers Exposed a Right-to-Repair Nightmare

Earlier this month, Polish hackers known as Dragon Sector accused one of Poland’s largest train makers, Newag, of intentionally bricking its own trains when they’re repaired by third parties. Newag threatened to sue Dragon Sector, but the story exploded as an example of why we deserve the right-to-repair and the company is facing an investigation from the Polish Office of Competition and Consumer Protection (UOKIK). On Wednesday, the Polish hackers went on the offensive, telling Newag, “We’ll see you in court,” on the stage of a conference, and described how Dragon Sector reverse engineered a train. – Maxwell Zeff Read More

23andMe to Data Breach Victims: It’s Your Fault!

What happens when a company loses a bunch of user data? Typically, they apologize and sheepishly beg for forgiveness. Not so with 23andMe. The popular genomics company, which suffered a pretty terrible data breach last year, has instead opted to tell pissed off customers that they probably should’ve picked a better password if they didn’t want their data boosted. – Lucas Ropek Read More

Starbucks App Traps Users in ‘Vicious Cycle’ of Shaken Espresso, Says Consumer Advocate

A consumer protection group alleged Starbucks’ mobile app traps users in a vicious cycle of beverage buying in a December complaint to Washington’s Attorney General. The coffee chain’s mobile app allegedly uses “dark patterns” to make low funds on a Starbucks Card unusable, forcing you to add $10 or lose that money altogether. – Maxwell Zeff Read More

Will You Click Windows’ New Copilot Button?

Microsoft’s AI Copilot key is coming to computers this year.

Elon Musk’s X Is Worth 71% Less Than He Bought It For, Says Fidelity

A mutual fund that helped Elon Musk buy X now says the platform is worth 71.5% less than the $44 billion it was purchased for in 2022, according to Axios Sunday. Fidelity cut the valuation of Musk’s social media platform by more than 10% in November when Elon Musk shared his thoughts on Jews and told advertisers to “go f**k yourselves.” – Maxwell Zeff Read More

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