An anonymous reader quotes a report from Wired: The United States has emerged as the largest investor in commercial spyware -- a global industry that has enabled the covert surveillance of journalists, human rights defenders, politicians, diplomats, and others, posing grave threats to human rights and national security. In 2024, 20 new US-based spyware investors were identified, bringing the total number of American backers of this technology to 31. This growth has largely outpaced other major investing countries such as Israel, Italy, and the United Kingdom, according to a new report published today by the Atlantic Council. The study surveyed 561 entities across 46 countries between 1992 and 2024, identifying 34 new investors. This brings the total to 128, up from 94 in the dataset published last year. The number of identified investors in the EU Single Market, plus Switzerland, stands at 31, with Italy -- a key spyware hub -- accounting for the largest share at 12. Investors based in Israel number 26. US-based investors include major hedge funds D.E. Shaw & Co. and Millennium Management, prominent trading firm Jane Street, and mainstream financial-services company Ameriprise Financial -- all of which, according to the Atlantic Council, have channeled funds to Israeli lawful-interception software provider Cognyte, a company allegedly linked to human rights abuses in Azerbaijan and Indonesia, among others. [...] Apart from focusing on investment, the Atlantic Council notes that the global spyware market is "growing and evolving," with its dataset expanded to include four new vendors, seven new resellers or brokers, 10 new suppliers, and 55 new individuals linked to the industry. Newly identified vendors include Israel's Bindecy and Italy's SIO. [...] The study reveals the addition of three new countries linked to spyware activity -- Japan, Malaysia, and Panama. Japan in particular is a signatory to international efforts to curb spyware abuse, including the Joint Statement on Efforts to Counter the Proliferation and Misuse of Commercial Spyware and the Pall Mall Process Code of Practice for States. The Atlantic Council's Jen Roberts, who also worked on the report, urged expanding Executive Order 14105 to also include spyware. He also emphasized preserving Executive Order 14093, noting that U.S. purchasing power is a key lever in shaping and constraining the global spyware market. "US purchasing power is a significant tool in shaping and constraining the global market for spyware," said Roberts.

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Google is updating Gmail with a new Purchases tab that collects all delivery-related emails in one place, along with package-tracking cards at the top of the inbox for shipments arriving that day. Engadget reports: Each card comes with a "See item" or a "Track Package" button that you can click or tap without having to search for the original delivery email. The new delivery tab will start showing up in your personal Gmail accounts starting today. In addition, Google is updating Gmail's Promotions tab, allowing you to sort the emails in it by "most relevant." Gmail will decide which brands and emails are most relevant for you based on what you've interacted with the most in the past. It will also send you "nudges" on upcoming deals and offers that are set to expire soon. You'll see the changes to the Promotions tab in the coming weeks.

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By 2028, Gartner research VP Julia Palmer predicts that VMware will lose 35% of its current workloads as Broadcom's licensing changes and rising costs push customers toward competitors like Nutanix and public clouds. The Register reports: On Wednesday at the analyst firm's Symposium event in Australia, Palmer pointed out that the Broadcom business unit recently tweaked its licensing program so that hyperscalers can no longer sell VMware subscriptions to users of their hosted VMware services. Customers must instead buy direct from Broadcom and use license portability entitlements for any VMware infrastructure they host in hyperscale clouds. Palmer said that decision shows VMware does not consider hyperscalers strategic partners, and she thinks the feeling is mutual. Hyperscalers nevertheless welcome customers who use them to run VMware workloads "because they know over time they will convert you to 'proper cloud'." Which is one reason she expects VMware will lose so many workloads: Hyperscalers will use their engagements with VMware customers to extol the virtue of public clouds. Palmer thinks VMware customers should heed that pitch. "We are all addicted to hypervisors, and that needs to change," Palmer said, not least because Broadcom's acquisition of VMware shows how lock-in to a virtualization platform can be costly. But she counseled against planning to move all workloads off VMware, as no rival vendor offers a superior platform and a full migration will take three or more years. Palmer instead advised assessing which applications are ripe for modernization and re-platforming, and shifting those -- a job that can take up to a year.

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Scammers are extorting small businesses worldwide by threatening to flood their Google Maps profiles with fake one-star reviews or demanding payment to remove reviews already posted, according to The New York Times. Fraudsters target service businesses dependent on online ratings -- movers, roofers, contractors -- demanding hundreds of dollars per incident. The Times story documents many cases, including of one Los Angeles contractor Natalia Piper, who paid $250 to multiple scammers after her rating plummeted from 5.0 to 3.6 stars. Industry watchdog Fake Review Watch documented over 150 affected businesses globally. The scammers typically operate from Pakistan and Bangladesh using WhatsApp to contact victims. Google removes most fraudulent content but offers no direct support channel for targeted businesses.

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An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Verizon lost an attempt to overturn a $46.9 million fine for selling customer location data without its users' consent. The US Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit rejected Verizon's challenge in a ruling (PDF) issued today. The Federal Communications Commission fined the three major carriers last year for violations revealed in 2018. The companies sued the FCC in three different courts, with varying results. AT&T beat the FCC in the reliably conservative US Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, while T-Mobile lost in the District of Columbia Circuit. Although FCC Chairman Brendan Carr voted against (PDF) the fine last year, when the commission had a Democratic majority, his FCC urged the courts to uphold the Biden-era decisions. A ruling against the FCC could gut the agency's ability to issue financial penalties. The different rulings from different circuits raise the odds of the cases being taken up by the Supreme Court. Today's 2nd Circuit ruling against Verizon was issued unanimously by a panel of three judges, and it comes to the same legal conclusions as the DC Circuit did in the T-Mobile case. The court did not accept the carrier's argument that the fine violated its Seventh Amendment right to a jury trial and that the location data wasn't protected under the law used by the FCC to issue the penalties. "We disagree [with Verizon]," the 2nd Circuit ruling said. "The customer data at issue plainly qualifies as customer proprietary network information, triggering the Communication Act's privacy protections. And the forfeiture order both soundly imposed liability and remained within the strictures of the penalty cap. Nothing about the Commission's proceedings, moreover, transgressed the Seventh Amendment's jury trial guarantee. Indeed, Verizon had, and chose to forgo, the opportunity for a jury trial in federal court. Thus, we DENY Verizon's petition." Until 2019, the ruling said Verizon operated a location-based services program that sold customer location data through intermediaries like LocationSmart and Zumigo, who then resold it to dozens of third-party entities. Instead of directly managing consent and notifications, Verizon "largely delegated those functions via contract" to its partners, a system that came under scrutiny after a 2018 New York Times report exposed security breaches. One major misuse involved Securus Technologies, which "was misusing the program to enable law enforcement officers to access location data without customers' knowledge or consent, so long as the officers uploaded a warrant or some other legal authorization," the ruling said. Verizon argued that Section 222 of the Communications Act only covered call-location data, but the court ruled that device-location data also qualifies as protected customer information.

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Perplexity AI is the latest AI startup to be hit with a lawsuit by copyright holders, accused by Encyclopedia Britannica and Merriam-Webster of misusing their content in its "answer engine" for internet searches. From a report: The reference companies alleged in New York federal court on Wednesday that Perplexity unlawfully copied their material and diminished their revenue by redirecting their web traffic to its AI-generated summaries.

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Sega allegedly orchestrated a police raid to recover Nintendo development kits it had accidentally disposed of during an office relocation from Brentford to Chiswick Business Park. An anonymous UK reseller purchased the items -- including Game Boy Advance, DSi, 3DS, Wii, and Wii U development consoles plus prototype games like Sonic Chronicles and Mario & Sonic at the Winter Olympic Games -- for roughly $13,575 from a removals worker handling Sega's office clearance. City of London Police arrested the seller July 14, 2025, on money laundering charges, deploying approximately ten officers to seize the hardware. The seller claims the search warrant was defective and authorized Sega representatives to participate in the raid. Nintendo development kits remain the hardware manufacturer's property regardless of possession, outlet Time Extension writes. Police requested the seller relinquish ownership two days after releasing him from eight hours in custody, which he refused. Sega has not responded to multiple legal letters or six separate pre-action protocol claims from the seller.

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An anonymous reader shares a report: Everyone's favorite CEO, Warner Bros. Discovery head David Zaslav, thinks HBO Max is ripe for a price hike. Speaking at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia and Technology Conference (doesn't that sound like a fun time?) Zaslav argued that his company's premium output can command a premium price. "The fact that this is quality -- and that's true across our company, motion picture, TV production and and streaming quality -- we all we think that gives us a chance to raise price," he said, according to The Hollywood Reporter. "We think we're way underpriced." The recently re-re-branded HBO Max currently starts at $9.99 per month, including ads, peaking at $20.99 per month for its premium plan, roughly in line with its rivals.

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Roku plans to dramatically expand its advertiser base from 200 to 100,000 companies using generative AI tools, CFO Dan Jedda told investors at recent conferences. The streaming platform, which commands over 20% of US TV viewing and reaches half of broadband households, is currently "roughly half sold out" on ad inventory. Jedda said small businesses can create commercials "within minutes" using AI tools Roku has integrated into its self-serve platform.

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A new minister in Albania charged to handle public procurement will be impervious to bribes, threats, or attempts to curry favour. That is because Diella, as she is called, is an AI-generated bot. From a report: Prime Minister Edi Rama, who is about to begin his fourth term, said on Sept 11 that Diella, which means "sun" in Albanian, will manage and award all public tenders in which the government contracts private companies for various projects. "Diella is the first Cabinet member who isn't physically present, but is virtually created by AI," Mr Rama said during a speech unveiling his new Cabinet. She will help make Albania "a country where public tenders are 100 per cent free of corruption." The awarding of such contracts has long been a source of corruption scandals in Albania, a Balkan country that experts say is a hub for gangs seeking to launder their money from trafficking drugs and weapons across the world, and where graft has reached the corridors of power.

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Wind and solar power generated more than a third of Brazil's electricity in August, the first month on record the two renewable sources have crossed that threshold, according to government data made public on Thursday and analyzed by energy think tank Ember. AP: The clean energy sources accounted for 34% of the country's electricity generation last month, producing a monthly record of 19 terawatt-hours (TWh), enough to power about 119 million average Brazilian homes for a month, Ember told The Associated Press. That surpassed the previous high of 18.6 TWh set in September 2024. The milestone came as hydroelectric output, Brazil's dominant power source, fell to a four-year low. "Brazil shows how a rapidly growing economy can meet its rising need for electricity with solar and wind," said Raul Miranda, Ember's global program director based in Rio de Janeiro.

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Apple's Live Translation feature for AirPods won't reach European Union users when it launches next week. The restriction applies to users physically located in the EU who also have EU-registered Apple Accounts. Apple hasn't specified reasons for the limitation, though the EU's Artificial Intelligence Act and GDPR impose requirements on speech processing and translation services. The feature enables real-time translation between English, French, German, Portuguese, and Spanish on AirPods Pro 2, AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation, and the newly announced AirPods Pro 3. Translation requires iOS 26 on iPhone 15 Pro or newer models.

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Global automakers are licensing Chinese electric vehicle technology to accelerate development and cut costs. Audi built its E5 Sportback in 18 months using SAIC's batteries, powertrain and software after the Zeekr 001 "shocked quite everyone" in 2021, according to Stefan Poetzl, president of SAIC Audi Sales and Marketing. Toyota and Volkswagen have joint development agreements for China-specific models using GAC and Xpeng technology respectively. Renault and Ford plan to develop global models on Chinese platforms, according to Reuters. The licensing deals provide Chinese automakers additional revenue amid domestic price wars. Ready-made Chinese EV chassis and software can save billions of dollars and years of development time, industry experts told the publication. CATL and other Chinese suppliers are expanding chassis production for domestic and international customers.

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An anonymous reader shares a report: Within the nightly builds of the Firefox web browser is finally the ability to support playback of Matroska "MKV" content. Enabled just within the Firefox Nightly builds for now or opting in within the media.mkv.enabled preference is the ability to support MKV playback. Initially just AVC/H.264 and AAC within MKV containers are supported but other codec support will be expanded over time. For the past eight years there has been this feature request for supporting Matroska/MKV playback support.

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India's massive IT sector faces a lengthy period of uncertainty with customers delaying or re-negotiating contracts while the U.S. debates a proposed 25% tax on American firms using foreign outsourcing services, analysts and lawyers told Reuters. From a report: The sector is likely to be on the receiving end of a bill which, though unlikely to pass in its nascent form, will initiate a gradual shift in how big-name firms in the world's largest outsourcing market buy IT services, they said. Still, with U.S. firms having to pay the tax, those heavily reliant on overseas IT services are likely to push back, setting the stage for extensive lobbying and legal battles, analysts and lawyers said. India's $283 billion information technology sector has thrived for more than three decades exporting software services, with prominent clients including Apple, American Express, Cisco, Citigroup, FedEx and Home Depot. It has grown to make up over 7% of GDP. However, it has also drawn criticism in customer countries over job loss to lower-cost workers in India. Last week, U.S. Republican Senator Bernie Moreno introduced the HIRE Act, which proposes taxing companies that hire foreign workers over Americans, with the tax revenue used for U.S. workforce development.

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Snapchat has been accused by a Danish research organisation of leaving an "overwhelming number" of drug dealers to openly operate on Snapchat, making it easy for children to buy substances including cocaine, opioids and MDMA. The Guardian: The social media platform has said it proactively uses technology to filter out profiles selling drugs. However, research by Digitalt Ansvar (Digital Accountability), a Danish research organisation that promotes responsible digital development, has found evidence of a failure to moderate drug-related language in usernames. It also accused Snapchat of failing to respond adequately to reports of profiles openly selling drugs. Researchers used profiles of 13-year-olds and found a multitude of people selling drugs on Snapchat under usernames featuring keywords such as "coke," "weed" and "molly." When researchers reported 40 of these profiles to Snapchat, the company removed only 10 of them. The other 30 reports were rejected, they said.

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Amazon is developing augmented-reality glasses with a full-color display, microphone, speakers, and camera, aiming for consumer release in 2026-27. It's also expected to release a separate version for delivery drivers, with a bulkier build and built-in navigation display to streamline package drop-offs. "Amazon initially plans on making 100,000 units of the glasses for delivery drivers, called 'Amelia' internally," reports The Verge, citing a report from The Information (paywalled).. "Reuters reported on the glasses last year, saying they would offer drivers 'turn-by-turn navigation on a small embedded screen.'"

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Researchers in China have developed a "DNA cassette," a retro-styled plastic tape embedded with synthetic DNA strands that can store up to 36 petabytes of digital data -- enough to hold every song ever recorded. New Scientist reports: Xingyu Jiang at the Southern University of Science and Technology in Guangdong, China, and his colleagues created the cassette by printing synthetic DNA molecules on to a plastic tape. "We can design its sequence so that the order of the DNA bases (A, T, C, G) represents digital information, just like 0s and 1s in a computer," he says. This means it can store any type of digital file, whether text, image, audio or video. One problem with previous DNA storage techniques is the difficulty in accessing data, so the team then overlaid a series of barcodes on the tape to assist with retrieval. "This process is like finding a book in the library," says Jiang. "We first need to find the shelf corresponding to the book, then find the book on the corresponding shelf." The tape is also coated in what the researchers describe as "crystal armor" made of zeolitic imidazolate, which prevents the DNA bonds from breaking down. That means the cassette could store data for centuries without deteriorating. While a traditional cassette tape could boast around 12 songs on each side, 100 meters of the new DNA cassette tape can hold more than 3 billion pieces of music, at 10 megabytes a song. The total data storage capacity is 36 petabytes of data -- equivalent to 36,000 terabyte hard drives. The research has been published in the journal Science Advances.

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Today's Java snippet comes from Capybara James.

The first sign something was wrong was this:

private Map<String, String> getExtractedDataMap(PayloadDto payload) { return setExtractedDataToMap(payload); }

Java conventions tell us that a get method retrieves a value, and a set method mutates the value. So a getter that calls a setter is… confusing. But neither of these are truly getters nor setters.

setExtractedDataToMap converts the PayloadDto to a Map<String, String>. getExtractedMap just calls that, which is just one extra layer of indirection that nobody needed, but whatever. At its core, this is just two badly named methods where there should be one.

But that distracts from the true WTF in here. Why on Earth are we converting an actual Java object to a Map<String,String>? That is a definite code smell, a sign that someone isn't entirely comfortable with object-oriented programming. You can't even say, "Well, maybe for serialization to JSON or something?" because Java has serializers that just do this transparently. And that's just the purpose of a DTO in the first place- to be a bucket that holds data for easy serialization.

We're left wondering what the point of all of this code is, and we're not alone. James writes:

I found this gem of a code snippet while trying to understand a workflow for data flow documentation purpose. I was not quite sure what the original developer was trying to achieve and at this point I just gave up

[Advertisement] Picking up NuGet is easy. Getting good at it takes time. Download our guide to learn the best practice of NuGet for the Enterprise.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from NBC News: Global warming in the United States is amping up the country's sweet tooth, a new study found. When the temperature rises, Americans -- especially those with less money and education -- drink lots more sugary beverages and a bit more frozen desserts. That amounts to more than 100 million pounds of added sugar (358 million kilograms) consumed in the nation a year, compared to 15 years earlier, according to a team of researchers in the U.S. and United Kingdom. When temperatures go between 54 and 86 degrees (12 and 30 degrees Celsius), the amount of sugar the average American consumes goes up by about 0.4 grams per degree Fahrenheit (0.7 grams per degree Celsius) per day, based on researchers tracking of weather conditions and consumers' purchases. At 54 degrees, the amount of added sugar for the average American is a little more than 2 grams. At 86 degrees, it's more than 15 grams. Beyond that, appetites lessen and added sugar falls off, according to the study in Monday's Nature Climate Change. "Climate change is shaping what you eat and how you eat and that might have a bad effect on your health," said study co-author Duo Chan, a climate scientist at the University of Southampton. "People tend to take in more sweetened beverages as the temperature is getting higher and higher," Chan said. "Obviously under a warming climate that would cause you to drink more or take in more sugar. And that is going to be a severe problem when it comes to health." The findings have been published in the journal Nature Climate Change.

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