ByteDance has reportedly agreed to divest TikTok’s US operations to a consortium including Oracle and Silver Lake. The deal, set to close by January 22, 2026, aims to address national security concerns but still needs Chinese approval.
Google has expanded its AI verification feature from images to videos. The Gemini app can now scan uploaded clips to detect if they were created or edited using Google’s own AI models. The system looks for an “imperceptible” watermark, but its real-world effectiveness is still untested.
The Federal Trade Commission is reportedly investigating Instacart’s use of an AI-powered pricing tool. This follows a study showing the app charged different users different prices for identical grocery orders at the same time.
According to Forbes, the Shiftphone 8 comes pre-loaded with the privacy-focused e/OS, a version of Android that strips out all Google services. The phone itself features hardware kill switches for the camera and mic, a removable battery, and a Qualcomm QCM6490 chipset with 12GB RAM and 512GB storage
Google Labs has launched “CC,” an experimental AI agent that connects to your Gmail, Calendar, and Drive to manage your day. It’s free for now, but the cost is your data. Users in the U.S. and Canada can join a waitlist.
The first iOS 26.3 beta includes the new interface for forwarding iPhone notifications to third-party devices, a requirement under the EU’s Digital Markets Act. Apple’s implementation is predictably restrictive, allowing only one accessory at a time and warning users about data sharing.
Researchers discovered a massive, unsecured database containing 4.3 billion professional profiles scraped from LinkedIn. The 16-terabyte trove of detailed personal and work history data is a goldmine for targeted phishing and identity-based attacks. This leak shows how data aggregation itself create
President Trump’s executive order seeks to preempt state AI laws, threatening federal funding for states with “onerous” regulations. Critics, including Democratic lawmakers and Public Citizen, call the move illegal “bluster” and promise a legal challenge. The order targets recent laws in Colorado an
Coupang CEO Park Dae-jun has resigned in the wake of a massive data breach. The incident, which began in June, exposed the personal information of nearly 34 million people in South Korea.
The privacy-focused Brave browser is launching an AI browsing assistant. It’s available now, but only for brave testers on the Nightly channel with major security caveats.
