We are, horrifyingly, less than 365 days away from another US presidential election year. But before that, we have another annual election of infinitely less dire and thus stressful consequences—picking which mutant joins the X-Men. And unlike years previous, you don’t have to be a diehard X-fan to know who all of the…
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) requested documents from Tesla related to the company’s Autopilot and so-called “Full Self-Driving” features, according to a Tesla financial filing submitted Tuesday. In part of Tesla’s most recent quarterly report to investors and the Securities and Exchange Commission, the…
The European Union is eager to crack down on Big Tech’s alleged privacy abuses, but the reliance on individual countries to enforce General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) rules has led to lengthy cases with punishments that are frequently modest. There will soon be pressure to act decisively, however. The European Commission will now require that EU nations share overviews of “large-scale” GDPR investigations every two months. This includes “key procedural steps” and actions taken — national regulators will have to show they’re moving forward.
The tougher approach comes after the EU Ombudsman recommended closer monitoring of Big Tech cases that fall under the Irish Data Protection Commission, which regulates Meta and other industry giants. The rights group Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) made a complaint to the Ombudsman accusing Ireland’s commission of being too slow and lenient against privacy violations. Just weeks ago, Europe’s Data Protection Board forced Ireland to raise a data processing fine against Meta from €28 million to €390 million ($30.4 million to $423.3 million).
As Bloombergobserves, the European Commission is already issuing reports every two years on the overall status of GDPR enforcement. However, it hasn’t conducted thorough, frequent reviews of individual countries’ privacy regulators. This new requirement will theoretically hold all EU member states accountable if they delay investigations or don’t apply the law when necessary. This could include legal repercussions at the European Court of Justice.
Critics might not be happy with the transparency. Ireland and other nations will share their progress on a “strictly confidential basis,” according to the Commission. The public might not know if a regulator is mishandling a case unless the EU takes visible action in response. Nonetheless, this may encourage Meta, Amazon, Google and other tech heavyweights to take European privacy laws more seriously — they may see quicker investigations and stiffer fines.
The New York Republican has been under scrutiny for a long series of apparent lies about his background and campaign finances.
In some genuinely disappointing news, FX has canceled Kindred, the television adaptation of Octavia Butler’s seminal novel about a young woman who travels back and forth in time between her ancestor’s slave-holding estate in Baltimore and her life in present-day California. While I found the show a little slow at…
NASA’s Perseverance rover landed on Mars on February 18, 2020, and has since been spending every Martian sol exploring the western end of Jezero Crater, imaging the Martian surface, and—vitally—collecting rock samples that will be shipped to Earth in the early 2030s.
Before it eventually imploded, the crypto lender Celsius Network promised users it would not be any regular bank—no, it would be bigger than a bank—and users could “unbank” themselves by funneling some of their funds to Celsius. Users would gain interest while Celsius would gingerly handle your crypto for you,…
There’s a lot of opinions flying around about the pros and cons of the future of ChatGPT, but Arvind Narayanan—a computer science professor from Princeton University—thinks the hype is still overblown at this point.
Vice President Kamala Harris will today award the Congressional Space Medal of Honor for the first time since 2006. The recipients are Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken, who became the first astronauts to fly to space on a crewed SpaceX mission in 2020. The pair, who traveled to the International Space Station and stayed there for almost two months, will receive the honor for their bravery.
Hurley and Behnken were part of the first crewed spaceflight from US soil since the last Space Shuttle mission in 2011. They both also flew on the Space Shuttle, and Hurley was on the program’s final flight.
Hurley and Behnken’s Demo-2 mission was the first crewed flight under NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. Five other SpaceX crews have since flown to the ISS.
The Congressional Space Medal of Honor is typically given to mark a first in space travel, as The Washington Post notes. Previous recipients include Neil Armstrong, Alan Shepard (the first American to travel to space), John Glenn (the first American in orbit) and Frank Borman (commander of Apollo 8, the first lunar orbit mission). The award was also granted posthumously to the crew of Apollo 1 and those who died aboard the Challenger and Columbia shuttles.
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