google

Google has confirmed that one of its self-driving cars was partially responsible for a minor crash with a bus. It's the first time the company has taken a share of the blame for a prang. The cars operate through a range of technologies including ... sensors, cameras, lasers, GPS and map data. The theory is that these allow them to track the activity of other vehicles on the road and more reliably avoid crashes than cars which are subject to human driver error. California allows companies such as Google which meet set criteria to operate self-driving or "autonomous" vehicles on ... (view more)

Windows virtual assistant Cortana will soon step up scanning of emails by default, in order to make Cortana more useful. Whether its an improvement or a sign of creepiness on Microsoft's part is up for debate. The announcement comes almost 3 years ... to the date, where Microsoft publicly launched a campaign named " Don't get scroogled by Gmail ." In that campaign, Microsoft complained that Google's email scanning practice was unjust. Email Scanning Takes Note of Schedule Cortana's new email scanning is being tested among Windows Insiders - the group of users who have signed up to get ... (view more)

A popular antivirus browser extension has been labeled as a security risk by Google. The tool in question is called Web TuneUp and is a browser extension by AVG; in this case, the problem involves Web TuneUp and the Chrome Browser, but the threat ... itself likely includes other browsers as well. Web TuneUp works by validating links that appear on a web browser page, such as on a search engine results list. It then warns the user if a link points to a page that could compromise security. It's arguably overkill, given that Chrome includes similar tools - plus the fact that Google itself ... (view more)

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has hired a noted privacy campaigner to investigate Internet providers. It's part of a joint move with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to strengthen security and privacy measures in the communications ... industry. Jonathan Mayer has been hired as the FCC chief technologist in its enforcement division. In effect, he'll deal with the practical issues involved in deciding whether or not a company is following the law. It's a strong sign the commission intends to get tougher on company violations. New Appointee Exposed Google Trickery Mayer ... (view more)

Google says it should have a network of Internet-carrying balloons circling the Earth next year. It will mean users in some parts of the world will be able to get a continuous Internet connection without access to cabling, phone lines or a cellphone ... network. The idea is to use similar technology to satellite Internet, but at a considerably lower cost. The balloons, which carry radio transmitters and receivers, run on solar power. The balloons will operate 12 miles above the ground, in the stratosphere, which isn't high enough to lock into orbit like satellites. Instead, the balloons will ... (view more)

Google is to tone down security warnings for users of the Chrome browser. It believes the move won't increase user risk and may instead encourage websites to improve security. The change involves the way secure websites appear in the address bar in ... Chrome. At the moment, a website in Chrome will appear with one of four icons to the left of the address to indicate whether or not it is secure: A plain white 'blank page' icon indicates an ordinary http site, meaning there's no encryption of data passing back and forth between the website and the user's computer. A green ... (view more)

Google is offering advertisers a new service based around customer email addresses. It won't mean users will receive more spam emails, but may be considered a misuse of email list advertising. The service is called Customer Match. It involves ... advertisers uploading a list of email addresses to Google (for example, a company's mailing list); in turn, Google will then check that list against its own database of people who have signed up for a Google account. If there's a match between the two email addresses, it will then run advertisements for the company when the relevant person is ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Stacie M. writes: " Dear Dennis, I upgraded to Windows 10 over the weekend, but unfortunately many of my programs appear to be incompatible. For example, a program either gives me an error and immediately exits, or it runs but ... doesn't work properly. If I would have known that my programs won't work with Windows 10, I don't think I would have upgraded. Is there anything I can do to make my programs compatible with Windows 10? " My response: When I first upgraded to Windows 10, many of my favorite programs wouldn't work properly, either - similar to what you describe. For ... (view more)

Google has apologized after its new Photos app for mobile devices labeled two black people as gorillas. It says it is taking both immediate and long term steps to make sure the mistake never happens again. The software bug follows a series of ... incidents in which searching for racist terms on its mapping service brought up the White House as the top result, though that particular incident was a "social prank," rather than a genuine bug in the software. The Photos app for mobile devices is designed to be a single online storage place for pictures, accessible from any computer or device ... (view more)

British news agency BBC has published a list of its articles which are no longer linked to through Google, due to a controversial European law. The move means that the people who requested the pages be removed may have actually made things worse. ... The situation involves the " right to be forgotten ", a policy introduced last year by the European Court of Justice . It rules on those laws that apply across the 26 countries that are part of the European Union. The policy applies in cases where people want pages with embarrassing, outdated or privacy-threatening information about them ... (view more)