Technology

More than 3 billion phone coordinates collected by a US data broker expose the detailed movements of US military and intelligence workers in Germany—and the Pentagon is powerless to stop it.

Email's been here for years. But the reason Substack wants you to call your creative work by their brand name is because they control your audience and distribution, and they want to own your content and voice, too. You may not think you care about that today, but you will when you see what they want to do with it.

I know you think you have control over your subscribers on Substack. But understand this: every single new feature Substack releases, from their social sharing to their mobile apps, is proprietary and locks you into their network. They don't let your writing live on your own website or domain under your control unless you pay them for the privilege. And it'd be a shame if something happened to those subscription dollars you're counting on, wouldn't it? Even when you say "but my readership is growing!" know that most new subscribers come from other writers referring their readers to you. Somehow... Substack wants credit for those writers making that choice? Even though it was your writing that inspired it? That's not some magical network effect thanks to Substack! That's just the internet, working as it was supposed to.

Links are powerful — that's why Instagram and Twitter and Threads punish and limit them, and why Substack tries to take credit for them. And that's why "wherever you get your podcasts" is such a radical concept — like email, it's a medium that the tech tycoons don't, and can't, own. People can read your writing "wherever they get their email".

We constrain our imaginations when we subordinate our creations to names owned by fascist tycoons. Imagine the author of a book telling people to "read my Amazon". A great director trying to promote their film by saying "click on my Max". That's how much they've pickled your brain when you refer to your own work and your own voice within the context of their walled garden. There is no such thing as "my Substack", there is only your writing, and a forever fight against the world of pure enshittification.

Substack is, just as a reminder, a political project made by extremists with a goal of normalizing a radical, hateful agenda by co-opting well-intentioned creators' work in service of cross-promoting attacks on the vulnerable.

Google's Gemini chatbot can now remember things like info about your life, work, and personal preferences.

The U.K.’s CMA has okayed Alphabet's partnership and investment in AI rival Anthropic, concluding that it doesn't qualify for investigation.

Though President-elect Donald Trump has been expected to stop the looming ban on TikTok, his political appointments suggest otherwise.

Hosted in the Schwarz Group's data centres; client-side encryption with BYOK? Google Workspace goes native.

Carr says he wants to punish broadcast media and dismantle "censorship cartel."

Parents test if school leaders can be prosecuted over failure to report AI nudes.

India's competition watchdog has ordered WhatsApp to stop sharing user data with other Meta units for advertising purposes for five years and also levied India's competition watchdog has fined Meta $25.4 million for antitrust violations related to WhatsApp's 2021 privacy policy.

Would you 3D print your shoes one day?

Say hello to the super-speedy 27-inch UltraGear GX7.

The newsletter platform Substack still isn’t turning a profit, even as its writers make millions.

The Microsoft 365 Admin Portal is being abused to send sextortion emails, making the messages appear trustworthy and bypassing email security platforms.

Telegram’s trying to build an all-in-one super app.

X boosted Musk’s posts as he engaged with the election.

Study: https://eprints.qut.edu.au/253211/1/A_computational_analysis_of_potential_algorithmic_bias_on_platform_X_during_the_2024_US_election-4.pdf