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Facebook has settled a class action lawsuit that claimed the company collected and stored facial templates for its users between June 7, 2011, and Aug. 19, 2020, when the settlement was approved. “Individuals could be eligible for cash payouts of $200 to $400,” reports Patch. From the report: In 2015, lawsuits were filed against Facebook over its use of “face …

Amazon appears to be making good on its effort to keep tightening privacy for its Alexa-powered devices, even after the hot-button issue has cooled down this year. From a report: The most notable change is a new option to automatically delete your voice recordings immediately after they are processed by Alexa. A written transcript of these recordings will still be …

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Nikkei Asian Review: The debate on universal basic income has gained momentum in South Korea, as the coronavirus outbreak and the country’s growing income divide force a rethink on social safety nets. The concept was thrust into the spotlight in the country when Gyeonggi Province Gov. Lee Jae-myung proposed a basic income of …

Alexander Nix, the former boss of Cambridge Analytica, has been banned from serving as a company director for seven years over “potentially unethical” behavior linked to his position at the center of a global scandal. The Guardian reports: The Insolvency Service said Nix had allowed companies to offer potentially unethical services, including “bribery or honey-trap stings, voter disengagement campaigns, obtaining …

Ring’s latest home security camera is an autonomous drone, called the Always Home Cam, that can fly around inside your home to give you a perspective of any room you want when you’re not home. “Once it’s done flying, the Always Home Cam returns to its dock to charge its battery,” reports The Verge. “It is expected to cost $249.99 …

Enlarge / One of many devices introduced today, the 4th-generation Echo devices is a cloth-covered sphere with a halo at the base, contrasting with the squat plastic cylinders of earlier generation Echoes. (credit: Amazon) Today at Amazon’s hardware launch event, the company announced new Ring, Echo, Eero, and Fire devices. Amazon also announced a new gaming service called Luna, which …

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Motherboard: The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) finally acknowledged Wednesday that photos that were part of a facial recognition pilot program were hacked from a Customs and Border Control subcontractor and were leaked on the dark web last year. Among the data, which was collected by a company called Perceptics, was a trove …

dkatana writes: The GSMA and Fira Barcelona announced today that next year’s MWC Barcelona won’t take place at the usual dates (early March). It has been postponed to late June to minimize the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. That has been a shock to Barcelona, as MWC is the most profitable event in the city. The biggest technology show brings …

At its 2020 hardware event today, Amazon announced a cloud gaming platform called Luna. The news isn’t too surprising: the service has been rumored since last year, previously codenamed “Tempo,” while an Amazon-made game controller leaked out just ahead of today’s event. From a report: It’s not clear when Luna will launch widely, but it will initially be available on …

Enlarge / Major developers are sick and tired of Apple’s rules and they’ve made a website about it. (credit: Coalition for App Fairness) Exactly how much power app store owners should have over developers has been a contentious issue lately, and now several high-profile app developers are banding together to form the “Coalition for App Fairness.” The group describes itself …