Tag: Government
An app tasked with reporting the results of the Iowa caucus has crashed
A smartphone app tasked with reporting the results of the Iowa caucus has crashed, delaying the result of the first major count in nominating a Democratic candidate to run for the U.S. presidency. The result of the Iowa caucus was due to be transmitted by smartphone apps from delegates across…
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Maxar and NASA will demonstrate orbital spacecraft assembly with a new robotic arm
NASA has awarded Maxar an estimated $142 million contract to demonstrate in-orbit spacecraft refueling and assembly of new components using a custom robotic platform in space. The space infrastructure dexterous robot, or SPIDER, program will be part of NASA’s Restore-L mission to demonstrate automation of proposed orbital tasks like reconfiguring…
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Carriers ‘violated federal law’ by selling your location data, FCC tells Congress
More than a year and a half after wireless carriers were caught red-handed selling the real-time location data of their customers to anyone willing to pay for it, the FCC has determined that they committed a crime. An official documentation of exactly how these companies violated the law is forthcoming.…
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Amazon quietly publishes its latest transparency report
Just as Amazon was basking in the news of a massive earnings win, the tech giant quietly published — as it always does — its latest transparency report, revealing a slight dip in the number of government demands for user data. It’s a rarely seen decline in the number of…
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Facebook will pay $550 million to settle class action lawsuit over privacy violations
Facebook will pay over half a billion dollars to settle a class action lawsuit that alleged systematic violation of an Illinois consumer privacy law. The settlement amount is large indeed, but a small fraction of the $35 billion maximum the company could have faced. Class members — basically Illinois Facebook…
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Aurora can now give the public rides in its self-driving cars
Aurora has been given permission by California regulators to transport passengers in its self-driving vehicles, TechCrunch has learned. The California Public Utilities Commission granted Aurora a permit, which was posted on its website Wednesday, to participate in the state’s Autonomous Vehicle Passenger Service pilot. Aurora confirmed the approval. “This permit lets us…
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