The state of Texas has filed a lawsuit against Mark Zuckerberg's company, Meta, for its facial recognition technology. At the same time, Elon Musk's Neuralink has been accused of animal cruelty, and a hacker has discovered a way to create an unlimited amount of cryptocurrency.
You can find all the important technology news of the week in the RBC-Ukraine article.
Meta has been accused of violating human rights
The state of Texas is taking legal action against Mark Zuckerberg's company Meta. The Attorney General Ken Paxton stated that the company breached privacy laws by using facial recognition technology on the social network.
The attorney general stated, 'Through this illegal activity, Facebook used the personal information of both users and non-users to expand its empire and generate historic windfall profits.'
NASA shared a video of preparing the satellite for flight
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) demonstrated the process of sealing a satellite into a rocket fairing. The satellite will be launched into space on March 1st.
The picture displays the geostationary environmental satellite GOES-T, which is owned by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The GOES-T mission leader, Rex Engelhardt, said, 'Now it’s getting real, GOES-T is fully assembled and ready to launch. Next week we’ll be doing final launch reviews and training teams on their launch consoles in preparation for launch day.'
Driver’s license will soon be added to the iPhone
Apple is planning to enable the addition of a driver’s license and state ID to the Wallet app. It's highly probable that this feature will be available with the iOS 15.4 update.
It's important to note that the states of Arizona and Georgia were the first to support the idea. Additionally, Connecticut, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Oklahoma, and Utah will soon join the list.
iPhone 6 Plus will no longer receive updates
Apple has designated the iPhone 6 Plus as a vintage device. The phone was first released in 2014.
The smartphone will no longer receive updates or security patches from the company. In September 2023, Apple will also cease phone repair services, although you can still use the official Self Service Repair tool to order individual parts for repairs.
A hacker discovered a way to generate an unlimited amount of cryptocurrency
Jem Freeman, the Cydia iOS jailbreak developer, received a $2 million reward for discovering a vulnerability in the Optimism project account. This led to the creation of an unlimited number of Ethereum cryptocurrencies.
The vulnerability was never exploited by any attackers, except for one Etherscan startup employee who accidentally activated it.
The issue was promptly addressed.
Japan created a lunar rover with arms
In Japan, they designed a versatile lunar rover with an upper body resembling a human torso.
During the tests, the robot successfully completed the following checks:
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passed all relief tests;
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removed parts of the solar panel and carried out a series of assembly tasks;
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collected lunar samples;
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climbed a 15-20 degree slope.
“eSmartphone” Zelensky will be impossible to sell
Already in April, citizens of Ukraine over 60 who have been vaccinated against coronavirus will be able to receive a free smartphone in accordance with the eSmartphone project.
As Alexey Vyskub, Deputy Minister of Digital Transformation, noted, SIM cards for phones will be registered according to the passport and then linked to the device.
“Mobile operators offer us to install a special application that will allow us to control the invariability of using the device. This is one of the approaches,” the deputy minister added.
TikTok and YouTube collect more personal user data than other apps
According to the investigation, Youtube and TikTok collect data, which is then transferred to a third party.
However, Youtube uses 10 trackers out of 14. Most of the platform needs to track the user’s browsing history and location in order to show them relevant ads. The remaining 4 – go to a third party.
TikTok scored the most. The app transmits 13 out of 14 trackers.
Neuralink charged with animal cruelty
The nonprofit Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine has accused Elon Musk-owned Neuralink of animal cruelty.
According to the investigation, the company is responsible for 23 deaths among monkeys that died or were euthanized due to various injuries, infections or accidental incidents.
Google announces Chrome OS Flex operating system
The new operating system will be a great investment for users of older computers, including Macs.
Google promises security, fast device performance, automatic updates and cloud management.
“Install Chrome OS Flex on your PCs and Macs to be secure, load quickly, stay up-to-date, auto-update in the background, and be managed from the cloud,” Google said in a statement.
