Sunday, March 31, 2019
New Facebook tool answers the question “Why am I seeing this post?” – TechCrunch
Facebook announced today that it is adding a feature called “Why am I seeing this post?” to News Feeds. Similar to “Why am I seeing this ad?,” which has appeared next to advertisements since 2014, the new tool has a dropdown menu that gives users information about why that post appeared in their News Feed, along with links to personalization controls.
Meant to give users more transparency into how Facebook’s News Feed algorithm works, the update comes as the company copes with several major events that have highlighted the platform’s shortcomings, including potentially harmful ones. These include its role in enabling the dissemination of a video taken during the shooting attacks on New Zealand mosques two weeks ago, which were originally broadcast using Facebook Live; a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development that accuses Facebook’s ad-targeting tool of violating the Fair Housing Act and its role in spreading misinformation and propaganda (after years of complaints and criticism, Facebook recently announced plans to downrank anti-vaccination posts and ban white nationalist content.
Facebook’s announcement says this is the first time its “built information on how ranking works directly into the app.” Users will be able to access “Why am I seeing this post?” as a dropdown menu in the right hand corner of posts from friends, Pages and Groups in their News Feed that displays information about how its algorithm decided to rank the post, including:
- Why you’re seeing a certain post in your News Feed — for example, if the post is from a friend you made, a Group you joined, or a Page you followed.
- What information generally has the largest influence over the order of posts, including: (a) how often you interact with posts from people, Pages or Groups; (b) how often you interact with a specific type of post, for example, videos, photos or links; and (c) the popularity of the posts shared by the people, Pages and Groups you follow.
The same menu will also include links to personalization options, including See First, Unfollow, News Feed Preferences and Privacy Shortcuts. The company’s blog post said that “during our research on ‘Why am I seeing this post?,’ people told us that transparency into News Feed algorithms wasn’t enough without corresponding controls.”
“Why am I seeing this ad,” a similar feature that launched in 2014, will be updated with to include more information. For example, it will tell users if an ad appeared in their News Feed because a company uploaded their contact lists, like emails or phone numbers, or if they worked with a marketing partner to place the ad.
Microsoft unveils new Surface Book 2 model with Intel’s latest quad-core processor
Microsoft is quietly refreshing its Surface Book 2 base model today. The software giant is introducing Intel’s latest 8th Gen quad-core i5 processor for the 13-inch Surface Book 2 model, and keeping the existing dual-core 7th Gen model at a discounted price of $1,299. The refreshed quad-core model will be priced at $1,499, and includes an i5-8350U which bumps the processor’s maximum boost clock speed up to 3.6GHz.
The new mid-range Surface Book 2 will also include 256GB of storage and 8GB of RAM. The processor is the only significant change, but it should make a big difference for performance. We saw impressive jumps in performance from quad-core Surface Pro 6 models compared to the dual-core chips used in previous models. Microsoft has quietly launched this new model today, following rumors the company was planning to refresh the Surface Book 2.
Microsoft is also holding a Surface event on April 17th in New York City. The company is expected to detail pricing and availability for its Surface Hub 2 hardware, and associated accessories and office furniture from Steelcase. The Verge will be covering Microsoft’s Surface NYC event, so stay tuned for all the news.
Meghan Markle and Abigail Spencer’s Friendship
Meghan Markle and Abigail Spencer met as costars on Suits, but their friendship goes far beyond the USA Network legal drama series. In addition to sharing a Sept. 4, 1981 birthday (what are the odds?), Meghan and Abigail have always supported each other and spoken highly of one another. Abigail was present at both the royal wedding and Meghan's NYC baby shower, and most recently, Abigail gushed about what a great mom Meghan is going to be. "I think it goes without saying, she's incredible," Abigail told E! News. "She's incredible and that baby is so lucky to have them as their parents." To be honest, I'm a little jealous of their friendship. See Meghan and Abgail's cutest moments ahead!
Meet Your New Neighbors in Creaks, Coming Next Year to Xbox One
At first glance Creaks may look like a dark game, but it’s actually a fun game about being in the dark. Just imagine yourself in a gloomy room. You notice a strange, sneaky figure standing in the corner. Naturally, you get scared, but once you turn on the light, you realize it’s just a harmless coat stand and suddenly, you feel relieved. And amused, perhaps.
In Creaks, we turned this principle of imagination and ambiguity into game mechanics. For example, a dangerous looking guard dog will chase you on sight, but as soon as you manage to trap it under a beam of light, it turns into a handy bedside table. Now you can climb this piece of furniture and reach a seemingly distant ladder.
Later, as you explore the strange cave-house, you encounter a bunch of different monsters, each with a different kind of behavior. Since the game emphasizes ambiguity, they are not always evil. It’s not a game where light is good and dark is bad – you’ll need to use both of their forms in order to solve various puzzles and make your way to the bottom of this towering mansion.
The idea behind Creaks is based on a phenomenon called pareidolia – a tendency to interpret abstract patterns as something known to the observer. For example, the ability to see faces or animals in clouds. This was the starting point for the design of these furniture monsters we call creaks. Usually we would just take a piece of furniture and try to come up with a monster that preserves the feeling of the original object. The art style, a combination of hatching and watercolor textures, might eventually induce you to see these pareidolic illusions everywhere.
The story has elements of ambiguity as well. The premise of Creaks is closely related to psychology, so in a way, the game takes you on a journey into the hero’s subconsciousness. On the other hand, the world of Creaks is surreal, yet physical – so it’s entirely up to you, the players, whether you’ll read the game’s story as a psychological journey, or as a trip into a rather strange neighborhood.
Keep an eye out for Creaks, coming to Xbox One in early 2020.
Sheryl Sandberg says Facebook is ‘exploring’ restrictions following Christchurch attacks – TechCrunch
In an open letter published by the New Zealand Herald, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg finally addressed the shocking mass shootings that left 50 dead at two Christchurch mosques. The first of part of the deadliest mass shooting in modern new Zealand history was live-streamed on Facebook by the attacker.
But while the site’s technology was used the broadcast the horrific attacks, Facebook has largely stayed silent on the matter in the intervening two weeks. Sandberg broke that silence in her letter, which addressed grieving families and a shaken nation. The note addresses aspects that the site could have handled better, but the company still appears to be at something of a loss for how to handle such an event.
“Many of you have also rightly questioned how online platforms such as Facebook were used to circulate horrific videos of the attack,” Sandberg writes. “We are committed to reviewing what happened and have been working closely with the New Zealand Police to support their response.”
The executive adds that the company is working on technologies to identity re-upload. The letter stops short of offering specific answers or a blueprint for its policy, going forward.
“We have heard feedback that we must do more – and we agree,” Sandberg says. “In the wake of the terror attack, we are taking three steps: strengthening the rules for using Facebook Live, taking further steps to address hate on our platforms, and supporting the New Zealand community. First, we are exploring restrictions on who can go Live depending on factors such as prior Community Standard violations.”
Both Facebook and YouTube have been subject to widespread criticism over the roles their platforms have played in propagating the images from these horrific attacks. YouTube was quick to issue a statement, noting that it would “work cooperatively with the authorities.”
Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark Trailer
I don't know about you, but I spent many a night growing up reading (and later, having nightmares about) Alvin Schwartz's Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark series. (If parking anywhere at night doesn't give you flashbacks to "The Hook," then you're made of much stronger stuff than I.) And now, because apparently he doesn't want me to sleep as an adult, either, Guillermo del Toro is bringing the iconic tales to the big screen.
The film adaptation of the same name is directed by André Øvredal, and was penned by del Toro, Daniel Hageman, and Kevin Hageman. Judging from the first teaser trailer for the horror flick, which won't hit theaters until August, it seems the creepy visuals were directly inspired by the original illustrations for Schwartz's books done by Stephen Gammell. Starring Zoe Colletti, Michael Garza, Gabriel Rush, Austin Abrams, and more, the official plot description from Lionsgate is as follows:
"It's l968 in America. Change is blowing in the wind . . . but seemingly far removed from the unrest in the cities is the small town of Mill Valley where for generations, the shadow of the Bellows family has loomed large. It is in their mansion on the edge of town that Sarah, a young girl with horrible secrets, turned her tortured life into a series of scary stories, written in a book that has transcended time — stories that have a way of becoming all too real for a group of teenagers who discover Sarah's terrifying tome."
Uh, yeah. I'm creeped all the way out. Watch the teaser, as well as a few more clips ahead, and then stock up on Z-Quil — otherwise, I'm not sure if you'll ever get a good night's sleep again.
China’s grocery delivery battle heats up with Meituan’s entry – TechCrunch
Fast, affordable food delivery service has been life-changing for many working Chinese, but some still prefer to whip up their own meals. These people may not have the time to pick up fresh ingredients from brick-and-mortar stores, so China’s startups and large companies are trying to make home-cooked meals more effortless for busy workers by sending vegetables and meats to apartment doors.
The fresh grocery sector in China recorded 4.93 trillion yuan ($730 billion) in total sales last year, growing steadily from 3.37 trillion yuan in 2012 according to data collected by Euromonitor and Hua Chuang Securities. Most of these transactions still happen inside wet markets and supermarkets, leaving online retail, which accounted for only 3 percent of total grocery sales in 2016, much room for growth.
Ecommerce leaders Alibaba and JD.com have already added grocery to their comprehensive online shopping malls, nestling in the market with more focused players like Tencent-backed MissFresh (每日优鲜), which has raised $1.4 billion to date. The field has just grown a little more crowded with new entrant Meituan, the Tencent-backed food delivery and hotel booking giant that raised $4.2 billion through a Hong Kong listing last year.
Screenshots of the Meituan Maicai app / Image: Meituan Maicai
The service, which comes in a new app called “Meituan Maicai” or Meituan grocery shopping that’s separate from the company’s all-in-one app, set out in Shanghai in January before it muscled into Beijing last week. The move follows Meituan’s announcement in its mid-2018 financial report to get in on grocery delivery.
Meituan’s solution to take grocery the last mile is not too different from those of its peers. Users pick from its 1,500 stock keeping units ranging from yogurt to pork loin, fill their in-app shopping carts and pay via their phones, the firm told TechCrunch. Meituan then dispatches its delivery fleets to people’s doors in as little as 30 minutes.
The instant delivery is made possible by a satellite of physical “service stations” across neighborhoods that serve warehousing, packaging and delivering purposes. Placing offline hubs alongside customers also allows data-driven internet firms to optimize warehouse stocking based on local user preferences. For instance, people from an upscale residential area probably eat and shop differently from those in other parts of the city.
Meituan’s foray into grocery shopping further intensifies its battle with Alibaba to control how Chinese people eat. Alibaba’s Hema Supermarket has been running on a similar setup that uses its neighborhood stores as warehouses and fulfillment centers to facilitate 30-minute delivery within a three-kilometer radius. For years, Meituan’s food delivery arm has been going neck-and-neck with Ele.me, which Alibaba scooped up last year. More recently, Alibaba and Meituan are racing to get restaurants to sign up for their proprietary software, which can supposedly give owners more insights into diners and beef up customer engagement.
As part of its goal to be an “everything” app, Meituan has tried out many new initiatives in the lead-up to its initial public offering but was also quick to put them on hold. The firm acquired bike-sharing service Mobike last April only to shutter its operations across Asia in less than a year for cost-saving. Meituan also paused expansion on its much-anticipated ride-hailing business.
But grocery delivery appears to be closer to Meituan’s heart, the “eating” business, to put in its own words. Meituan is tapping its existing infrastructure to get the job done, for example, by summoning its food delivery drivers to serve the grocery service during peak hours. As the company noted in its earnings report last year, the grocery segment could leverage its “massive user base and existing world’s largest intra-city on-demand delivery network.”
Katie Holmes and Jamie Foxx Walking in NYC March 2019
Katie Holmes and Jamie Foxx's relationship has been plagued by breakup rumors as of late, but it appears they were just that: rumors. On Tuesday, the couple was spotted taking a stroll through Central Park in NYC. The 40-year-old actress bundled up in a denim trench coat and knit hat, while the 51-year-old actor also did the same in a black coat and a beanie. Katie and Jamie looked relaxed as they braved the cold and chatted.
The pair has been quietly dating since 2013, but breakup reports began swirling in February after Jamie reportedly announced that he was single during an Oscars charity gala. Given that Katie and Jamie are very private with their relationship, it's possible that he was only joking. The actor was also recently seen hanging out with ex-girlfriend Kristin Grannis in LA, however, they do share 9-year-old daughter Annalise, so we're sure they see each other a lot. The last time we saw Katie and Jamie together was during their PDA-filled vacation in Miami over the holidays, and from the looks of it, they're still going strong!
What the Lyft IPO means for IPO-ready unicorns – TechCrunch
Welcome back to this week’s transcribed edition of Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast that unpacks the numbers behind the headlines. We’re running an experiment for Extra Crunch members that puts the words of our wildly popular venture capital podcast, Equity, in your eyes instead of your ears.
This week, Kate Clark and Alex Wilhelm recorded an emergency episode to discuss Lyft’s IPO, which debuted Friday. The crew has been talking about the ridesharing company for a long time and this week, it closed its first day of trading up 9% after a 21% opening pop. So if you don’t like podcasts but still want the goodness that is Equity, you can have a read of this week’s episode below. It’s been edited for clarity.
For access to the full transcription, become a member of Extra Crunch. Learn more and try it for free.
Kate Clark: Hello and welcome to Equity. I’m tech crunches, Kate Clark and I’m joined today by Alex Wilhelm of Crunchbase news.
Alex Wilhelm: Hey everybody.
Kate Clark: How’s it going?
Alex Wilhelm: We’ve been doing a lot of Equity lately. I almost feel bad, but also all the IPOs we’ve been waiting for are finally here, so I’m kind of excited and glad.
Kate Clark: I mean, yeah. A couple extra episodes is the least we can do given that one of the most highly anticipated IPOs ever was just completed today. But I think we’re all a little bit relieved that the Lyft extravaganza has sort of come to a, well, I guess it’s not over now we just get to report on their earnings.
Alex Wilhelm: Yeah. But I mean at least this portion of the story is complete. Like we’ve been talking about them eventually going public for quarters and quarters now. Now it’s just Lyft had a good or bad quarter, it’s a two minute story and we can move on.
So it’s nice to have gotten here. But can we go back to the beginning and there’s not a lot of steps Kate, that though you and I have been tracking very almost religiously, but for a lot of people probably not as close. So I was thinking we could kind of go back to the beginning of Lyft’s public journey and quickly walk everyone through the numbers, if that makes sense.
Rob Lowe Almost Played McDreamy on Grey’s Anatomy
Image Source: Getty / Frederick M. Brown
In an alternate universe, there's a chance actor Rob Lowe is out there playing Derek "McDreamy" Shepherd on Grey's Anatomy. Of course, in this universe, the role was originated by Patrick Dempsey, who had us all swooning from the minute he saunters into Meredith Grey's life up until he leaves the medical drama in tragic fashion in season 11. But according to Lowe, the role of McDreamy was almost his, and turning it down apparently cost him $70 million.
During a recent episode of the podcast WTF With Marc Maron, the 55-year-old Parks and Recreation star joked about how he frequently turns down roles. Eventually the conversation steered toward the iconic role in Shonda Rhimes's long-running ABC show, which Lowe initially discussed in his 2014 memoir, Love Life.
"Dude, I turned down Grey's Anatomy. That probably cost me $70 million," he joked with Maron. "Eh, it's just money . . . I watched it when it came out, and when they started calling the handsome doctor 'McDreamy,' I was like, 'Yeah, that's not for me.'"
Despite losing out on the monumental payday, Lowe said he has no regrets — after all, turning down Grey's meant he went on to star in similarly beloved shows like Parks and Recreation and Brothers and Sisters. But as for why he declined to star as Dr. Shepherd, Lowe recalls in his memoir that he was torn between signing on to Grey's or another show, called Dr. Vegas. He ended up picking the latter, which only lasted five episodes in 2004.
Image Source: Everett Collection
"After a week of negotiating, my deal was done, although not yet signed," he wrote of his role in Dr. Vegas. "It was then that I got an urgent call from the producers of a potential new show for ABC called Grey's Anatomy . . . I agreed to meet with the people making Grey's Anatomy. I had read it and loved it — the writing was crisp, real and very entertaining — and it's always been a good idea to hear out talented people."
According to Lowe, the producers immediately offered him the role of Derek, but he found himself waffling about whether it was the right decision. At the time, CBS had been churning out a steady stream of hits, and Dr. Vegas would air on that network, as opposed to Grey's Anatomy's home on ABC.
"Grey's was a much better script; in fact, there was no comparison," he recalled. "[But] year after year after year, all of ABC's new dramas flopped. CBS was on a hot streak that continues to this day. Although Grey's was a much better script, I chose Dr. Vegas. The odds were just too stacked."
In the end, Dempsey made the role his own, and we couldn't have asked for a better take on Derek Shepherd. But it's kind of fun to imagine a version of the character who says "literally" a bit more than the average human, don't you think?
CMU team develops a robot and drone system for mine rescues – TechCrunch
On our final day in Pittsburgh, we find ourself in a decommissioned coal mine. Just northeast of the city proper, Tour-Ed’s owners run field trips and tours during the warmer months, despite the fact that the mine’s innards run a constant 50 degrees or so, year round.
With snow still melted just beyond the entrance, a team of students from Carnegie Mellon and Oregon State University are getting a pair of robots ready for an upcoming competition. The small team is one of a dozen or so currently competing in DARPA’s Subterranean Challenge.
The multi-year SUbT competition is designed to “explore new approaches to rapidly map, navigate, search, and exploit complex underground environments, including human-made tunnel systems, urban underground, and natural cave networks.” In particular, teams are tasked with search and rescue missions in underground structures, ranging from mines to caves to subway stations.
The goal of the $2 million challenge is design a system capable of navigating complex underground terrains, in case of cave-ins or other disasters. The robots are created to go where human rescuers can’t — or, at very least, shouldn’t.
The CMU team’s solution features multiple robots, with a foul-wheeled rover and a small, hobbyist style drone taking center state. “Our system consists of ground robots that will be able to track and follow the terrain,” says CMU’s Steve Willits, who serves as an adviser on the project. “We also have an unmanned aerial vehicle consisting of a hexacopter. It’s equipped with all of instrumentation that it will need to explore various area of the mine.”
The rover uses a combination of 3D cameras and LIDAR to navigate and map the environment, while looking for humans amid the rubble. Should it find itself unable to move, due to debris, small passage ways or a manmade obstacle like stairs, the drone is designed to lift off from the rear and continue the search.
All the while, the rover drops ultra rugged WIFI repeaters off its rear like a breadcrumb trail, extending its signal in the process. Most of this is still early stages. While the team was able to demonstrate the rover and drone in action, it still hasn’t mastered a method for getting them to work in tandem.
Testing the robots will begin in September, with the Tunnel Circuit That’s followed in March 2020 by the manmade Urban Circuit and then a Cave Circuit that September. A final event will be held in September 2012.
Saturday, March 30, 2019
A look at new power banks from OmniCharge and Fuse Chicken – TechCrunch
When you’ve been doing this job long enough, you start to develop strange interests (though some might compellingly argue that strange interests are a prerequisite). Lately for me it’s been power banks. Quite possibly the least sexy product in all of consumer electronics outside of the ever-ubiquitous dongle.
I don’t know what to tell you. Blame the fact that I’m traveling every other week for this job. There are also all of the liveblogs from years’ past that got cut off in the last few minutes as my poor ancient MacBook put itself to sleep during those last precious battery percentages. Low batteries give me anxiety. I’m the guy who’s the first to notice when your phone’s screenshot is below 10 percent.
So the power bank has become constant accessory in my life, both home and on the road. Until last year, I used to carry a massive one that was just north of 20,000mAh. The peace of mind to back pain ration seemed sensible enough, but I learned the hard way that, not only do Chinese airports have a limit on battery size, they chuck yours in the trash without a second thought if you go over. It’s a quick way to lose $150.
The good news, however, is that between USB-C, wireless charging and the magic of crowdfunding, it seems we might be living through the golden age of the power bank. I know, right? What a time to be alive.
Point is, there are a lot of choices out there. Anker and Amazon’s house brand RAVPower both offer some good options on a budget. There’s also mainstay Mophie for those who don’t mind paying a bit of a premium for design.
Fuse Chicken was actually a brand that was new to me when they hit me up to try out their latest product. It’s a name I definitely would have remembered — because, honestly, it’s pretty terrible. Memorable, but terrible. Maybe that’s why the company went with such a mundane name for what’s a really interesting charger.
My dad ones told me that he gave my sister and I boring first names because we had such an unusual surname. I have no idea if this is true, but it’s an interesting story and could well apply here.
The Universal is a good example of making the most of out a form factor. It manages to jam a lot of features in without creating a Frankenstein’s Monster worthy of the name Fuse Chicken. On its face, the product looks like a black and white version of Amazon’s default power bricks. It serves that purpose, of course, coupled with a trio of swappable international wall adapters (bonus points for travelers).
But the brick also sports a 6,700mAh battery inside, so you can continue charging gadgets while unplugged. That’s ideal for a phone — you can keep a laptop alive for a bit as well, but you’re going to burn through that pretty quickly. There’s also a wireless charging pad up top, so you can power up another phone or, say, a new set of AirPods at the same time. The side of the device features a small display showing off how much juice is left.
It’s great having a bank that’s also a plug, though like Apple’s brick, it’s much too massive to plug into many vertical outlets. I learned this lesson the hard way on a recent coast to coast flight. Thankfully, though, it’s compatible with Apple’s extension cable.
OmniCharge, meanwhile, is a company I’ve been following since their earliest Kickstarter days. Matter of fact, the aforementioned power bank that’s currently sitting in a Chinese garbage dump is one of their products. R.I.P. noble battery pack.
The Omni Mobile 12,800 mAh is a much more basic product that the company’s earliest offerings. There’s no display for power information here — instead you have to rely on four lights to let you know how much juice is left.
As with most of the company’s products, I do quite like the design language. It’s subtle and unobtrusive and fits nicely inside a backpack. It’s definitely too big for carrying around in a pocket, however. Thanks the wonders of USB it will charge a laptop, as well, though once again, you’re going to run through that 12,800 mAh pretty quickly, if you do.
The Fuse Chicken and OmniCharge run $85 and $99, respectively. They’ve both served me well as travel companions these last few weeks. Here’s to long flights and avoiding life’s landfill.
Watch the creepy first trailer for AMC’s new horror series, NOS4A2
AMC has released the first trailer for its upcoming adaptation of Joe Hill’s horror novel, NOS4A2. The network also announced that the series will premiere alongside the next season of Fear the Walking Dead on June 2nd, 2019.
First published in 2013, NOS4A2 follows the story of Victoria “Vic” McQueen (played by Ashleigh Cummings in the series), who discovers that she has a supernatural ability to find lost things by riding her bike across a strange bridge. She crosses paths with a man named Charlie Manx (played by Zachary Quinto), who kidnaps children to take them to supernatural place called Christmasland, where he feeds off of their souls and corrupts them. Vic was the only child to have ever encounter Manx and escape and those experiences have haunted her later in life. Year later, Manx has found a new child to spirit away to Christmasland: her son.
AMC debuted the trailer earlier today, and screened the first episode of the series for audiences at Wondercon in Anaheim, California. The trailer is as creepy as you’d expect, showing off Quinto’s Manx and his 1938 Rolls-Royce Wraith (the title of the story comes from his vanity plate) as he works to kidnap children, while Vic vows to destroy him and his world.
In 2017, Hill told The Verge that he saw the novel as “a horror story about horror stories in the way that It is a horror story about horror stories.” AMC announced that year that it was developing the project with an eye towards a direct-to-series pickup, and picked up the series last year.
NOS4A2 isn’t the only project based on Hill’s work that’s in the adaptation pipeline. Last year, Netflix picked up the comic series he created along with Gabriel Rodriguez, Locke & Key. The streaming service will also release a film adaptation of In The Tall Grass, the novella he cowrote with his father, Stephen King, sometime this year, while Sudder’s anthology series Creepshow will feature an adaptation of his short story “By the Silvery Waters of Lake Champlain” sometime this year. On top of all that, Hill will release a collection of short stories, Full Throttle later this fall, along with a novel, Up The Chimney Down, in 2020.
Chris Evans’s Reaction to Avengers: Endgame
If there's anything Marvel fans are well-versed in, it's knowing that their favorite heroes are always in imminent danger. Since Iron Man first graced our screens back in 2008, fans of the Avengers have learned to check out every possibility for death, and prepare themselves for fatalities (RIP, Quicksilver). And even though it felt like Avengers: Infinity War was the peak level of devastation that Marvel could reach, there's no doubt we're in for more. The premiere of Avengers: Endgame is in less than a month, and apparently the first hour is enough to make Captain America get emotional.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, actor Chris Evans opened up about seeing the upcoming fourth installment of the Avengers franchise, and he seemed overwhelmed by how good the film actually is. "Uh, it's — I mean — it's a good one," he said. "It's a real good one. I saw, like, the first hour of it."
Obviously, Evans isn't allowed to say much of anything about the film because Marvel has more eyes on their actors than the NSA, but what he did say was enough to get any fan's blood rushing. According to Evans, the first hour of the film (which runs three hours and two minutes long in total) was enough to get him in his feelings. "Man, this one's really good. I choked up like three times," he said.
He got choked up three times in just in the first hour?! Not to be dramatic or anything, but a lot can go down in one hour, folks. It only took, like, five minutes for everyone to completely turn to dust after Thanos snapped his fingers — entire universes could go down in one hour! There are so many reasons Evans could have gotten choked up during the first half of the film, especially since that's when we'll likely see how the remaining Avengers have dealt with the aftermath of Thanos's snap. The emotional trailers for the film shows glimpses of a world that's still grieving over losing half its population, and a band of Avengers who will do "whatever it takes" to bring back their fallen. But what exactly will it take?
At one point during his interview, Evans joked that he only watched Endgame up until, "I die by Tony's hand. I just said, 'You know what? I can't watch this.'" Obviously (hopefully), it's a joke, but it's also a reminder that Evans's contract with Marvel and near decade-long run as Steven Rogers is officially over. There's a very real possibility that Endgame could see the death of his Captain America. Though, we'd imagine that seeing his own character's demise might make Evans a little more than just "choked up."
We'll have to wait until Endgame hits theaters on April 26 to figure out what exactly had Evans all emotional, but that won't stop us from cooking up our own theories in the meantime!
Now Available on Xbox One with Xbox Game Pass, Operencia: The Stolen Sun from Zen Studios
Hard to believe, but we’re finally here – launch day for Operencia: The Stolen Sun! On behalf of all of us at Zen Studios who have poured our hearts and souls into this first-person dungeon crawler for the last two years, I’d like to invite you to check out our launch trailer…and then perhaps move on to playing the whole game with Xbox Game Pass! It’s also available for $29.99 on the Microsoft Store for Xbox One.
I touched on it in a longer post about the game a few weeks ago, but being part of the Xbox Game Pass program is a dream come true for everyone here at Zen. We realize that reviving a subgenre that piqued in the ‘80s and ‘90s might not put Operencia on the top of your must-buy list, no matter how great it is (and we do think it’s pretty great!). But when it’s right there at no additional cost with your Xbox Game Pass subscription…why not give it a try? We hope that the easy access to our modernized approach to the old-school “blobber” will not only get more people to play the game (and that’s what we want most of all!), but perhaps its success will even inspire other developers to further revitalize such games with their own unique spins.
Of course, the biggest “unique spin” of our own would be the Central European mythology and folklore that inspired the settings and characters. With Zen being based in Hungary, an added degree of regional pride drives every aspect of this game, and we hope that shines through. I’m personally an American, but working on this has educated me on the area’s lighthearted folktales, enchanting mythology, and even some legends that are so darkly twisted, you really have to wonder what kind of demented minds dreamed them up.
It’s an odd mix – but a very delightful one! We have them all in Operencia… And we can’t wait to hear what you have to say about it.
So please, let us know at @OperenciaRPG on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, and visit our website at www.OperenciaRPG.com. But most importantly…get to downloading the game with your Game Pass right now!
Operencia: The Stolen Sun is available now on Xbox One with Xbox Game Pass. Click here for more details.
What Does the Color Red Mean in Us Movie?
Fans of Jordan Peele's latest box office smash, Us, may have spent hours digging up Easter eggs and analyzing eerie imagery only to discover that one of the film's most prominent metaphors is the use of the color red. This motif begins as the film opens on a seaside amusement park one Summer evening in 1986. An 8-year-old girl named Adelaide strolls along the boardwalk with her inattentive parents. Moments later, Adelaide wanders off alone, drawn to a mysterious energy emanating from a funhouse on the beach. The second she begins her solo journey, the color red becomes a dominant symbolic force attempting to warn our doomed protagonist of the dangers to come.
Warning: major spoiler follow.
If you recall, the last thing Adelaide grips in her hand before she enters the house of horrors is a bright red candied apple. The camera lingers on the fruit's glossy surface before she enters the maze. Soon she finds herself the victim of a vicious kidnapping, at which point, the last thing she sees is a bright red exit sign that she can never quite reach. Ferried deep underground by her doppelgänger, Adelaide eventually winds up handcuffed to a bed. Her "Thriller" t-shirt replaced with a "Hands Across America" sweatshirt, and the line of figures emblazoned across the garment are red in color — eventually becoming the emblematic inspiration that draws her lost soul back to the surface world.
Red Equals Warning
When the Us trailer first arrived back in December 2018, Peele revealed to Entertainment Weekly that he gave Lupita Nyong'o 10 horror classics to study so she'd have a better understanding of the monster mythology behind the Tethered. This list included The Sixth Sense, which famously uses the color red to indicate anything in the real world tainted by the supernatural world. Sound familiar? The opening sequence of Us uses red to symbolize a similar overlapping of realms and to underscore the emotional trauma Adelaide endures during each of those colorful encounters. However, the young girl's final interactions with the color through the Hands Across America logo also provide an anchor — motivational memories if you will — that she's able to retain from her old life and build upon to obtain her freedom, as demonstrated by the bright red jumpsuits worn during her rebellion with the Tethered.
Red Equals Blood
The film's costumer designer, Kym Barrett, told Fashionista that once Peele made it clear he wanted to make the garments red, she realized the Tethered should appear like bloodstains within each camera frame. "I wanted them to really bleed out from the background," Barrett explained.
This desire for the Tethered to stand out visually from the Wilsons heightens the dichotomy between the apparent foes. Thus, the first phrase uttered by the doppelgängers feels especially creepy for the audience. "We are Americans," the Tethered croak. Red-blooded Americans. What should be a unifying element has become a divider. Young Adelaide has come home to roost, but now all bets are off and bloodshed will be the red that decides her freedom.
Red Equals Fire
In ancient Greek mythology, fire was considered a living entity passed down by the gods. Prometheus, feeling sorry for man's weakened plight, raided the workshop of Hephaestus and Athena on Mt. Olympus. He stole fire, gave the valuable gift to man, and taught us the science behind its use. This domestication of fire became the symbolic birth of civilization and, like the sun, fire became a source of life by providing light and heat. But like almost every element of this film, there lies a duality in the meaning. On one hand, fire sustains life, in fact, in Judeo-Christian circles, God uses fire to communicate with Moses through a burning bush; however, fire also symbolizes the internal torment of hell. This perhaps explains, at least metaphorically, why the Tethered dwell underground.
At their most extreme, flames can act as horrific mass graves. This, of course, becomes how Pluto dies when Jason backs his doppelgänger into a horrendous wall of fire.
Red Equals Communism
When the young Adelaide from 1986 returns to the surface world, she is reborn as Red. The name is significant because it speaks to her mission — to usurp the surface dwellers and redistribute the spoils so they are available to all her people as needed. In this instance, the color may act as sly nod to communism. Although Us is marketed as a horror tale, the allegoric connections to our current political landscape and the need to redistribute wealth to our marginalized masses raises the metaphor to new levels.
Red Equals Rebellion
In 1777, red became the color of the American Revolution and a symbol of a successful uprising. What does this historical fact have to do with Us? Everything. In a post-Trump era, Us is essentially about how America's misplaced fear of outsiders may lead to its own self-destruction; the choice of red over other colors in the spectrum plays into our country's current political divide.
Peele commented on this idea to The Verge during a question and answer session at the film's South by Southwest premiere: "We're in a time where we fear the other, whether it's the mysterious invader that we think is going to come and kill us and take our jobs, or the faction we don't live near, who voted a different way than us. We're all about pointing the finger. And I wanted to suggest that maybe the monster we really need to look at has our face. Maybe the evil, it's us."
Control Time as Paladins’ Newest Champion, Today on Xbox One
Paladins’ new Champion, Atlas, the man out of time, joins the Realm today! For the past few months, the team here at Evil Mojo Games has been hinting at Atlas’ existence as part of an ongoing lore story that brought the Paladins and the Magistrate to the Shattered Desert. Mysterious portals appeared, radiating an otherworldly power… and bringing Atlas back from the future to stop a dangerous threat.
In Atlas’ future, there is no light. The Realm is lost. Only an all-consuming force known as the Darkness remains.
Atlas was born into this dark future as the son of a legendary Judge. Each day he fought to survive, and each night he found solace in stories of the Realm that was. These stories gave Realmkind hope, but their final stand against the Darkness failed tragically. All hope was lost… but one.
Atlas studied old books of Crystal magic and mastered the control of time. He researched old tales of what started all this, of how the world had fallen. And then Atlas stepped into the past, determined to save the Realm — and stop the Darkness — by changing the course of history.
When you play as Atlas, you’ll feel his mastery of time in every ability. With Stasis Field, you can summon a wall that slows down the enemy team’s bullets and arrows. You can rewind time for yourself… and your opponents. And if things become too grim for Atlas to handle, he can even banish foes from the space-time continuum.
We haven’t even talked about Atlas’s weapon, the Crono-Cannon, which brings future-fantasy technology to the Realm’s present. His incredible gun arm offers four different firing modes that vary with your charge on each shot. Fire a single long-range blast, or a burst of close-range projectiles; You can truly tailor your gameplay style with this Champion!
Atlas isn’t the only new content live in today’s update! The Battle Byte Battle Pass is out now. With over 100 great rewards, this new Battle Pass brings the nostalgia of retro-gaming to the Realm. You’ll earn Battle Pass experience with every game you play, leveling up your Battle Pass and unlocking rewards. Plus: Navigate through pixels on the 8-Bit Speeder Mount — instantly unlocked with purchase of the Battle Byte Battle Pass.
And, of course, this update concludes our multi-patch End Times event. Don’t miss out on the incredible Omega skins and your last chance to play the End Times game mode.
The Future’s End Update brings a lot of exciting new content to Paladins that we hope you’ll love. We’ll see you in the Realm, Champions!
Covert data-scraping on watch as EU DPA lays down “radical” GDPR red-line – TechCrunch
An interesting decision came out of Poland’s data protection agency this week after the watchdog issued its first fine under Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
On the surface the enforcement doesn’t look so remarkable: A ‘small’ ~€220K fine was handed to a Sweden-headquartered European digital marketing company, Bisnode, which has an office in Poland, after the national Personal Data Protection Office (UODO) decided the company had failed to comply with data subject rights obligations set out in Article 14 of the GDPR.
But the decision also requires it contact the close to six million people it did not already reach out to in order to fulfil its Article 14 information notification obligation, with the DPA giving the company three months to comply.
Bisnode previously estimated it would cost around €8M (~$9M) in registered postal costs to send so many letters, never mind the burden of handling any related admin.
So, as ever, the strength of data protection enforcement under GDPR is a lot more than the deterrent of top-line fines. It’s accompanying orders that can really rearrange business practices.
Local press reports that Bisnode has said it will delete the sanctioned records, presumably rather than shell out to send millions of letters. It also intends to challenge the UODO’s decision, initially in Polish courts — relying on caveats contained in Article 14 which relate to how much effort a data controller has to expend to contact people to tell them it’s processing their data.
It’s reportedly willing to fight all the way up to Europe’s top court, if necessary. (We’ve reached out to Bisnode for confirmation of its next steps.)
Any legal challenge to the UODO’s enforcement decision could therefore end up clarifying (and/or setting) some harder limits around covert scraping of personal data, if it reaches the CJEU — potentially affecting operators in multiple industries and sectors such as business intelligence, advertising and even cyber threat intelligence. So Privacy watchers have pricked up their ears.
“The decision is seen as radical, as it interprets Article 14 literally,” Dr Lukasz Olejnik, independent cybersecurity and privacy advisor, and research associate at the Center for Technology and Global Affairs at Oxford University, tells TechCrunch.
“UODO has taken a very principled position, arguing that the company business model is fully based on processing scraped data, and that the company has taken a decision willingly. UODO also argues that the company was aware of the obligation, as it did contact part of the people via email.”
While there are big and potentially costly implications for data-scrapers across various industries down the legal line, depending on how Bisnode’s appeal/s pan out, Olejnik adds a judicious caveat — noting that “each case might be different and have its specifics”.
There’s certainly no guarantee that the DPA’s decision will lead to a de facto ban on covert commercial data-scraping.
But there is fresh legal uncertainty for those quietly helping themselves to public databases of Europeans’ personal data. While repurposing such stuff for a commercial use may also be far more expensive than you think.
Right to be informed
Article 14 of the GDPR creates an obligation on data controllers to inform people whose personal data they intend to process when the information in question has not been directly obtained from them. So, for instance, when personal data has been scraped off the public Internet.
The relevant chunk of the regulation is pretty long — but key points include that the person whose data has been scraped must be informed who has their data (which includes anyone the data has been shared with, and any proposed international transfers); the types of data obtained; what is going to be done with; and the legal basis for the processing.
Data subjects must also be informed of their right to complain so they can object if they don’t like what you want to do with their data.
The information obligation is also purpose specific; so if the data controller later wants to do something else with the scraped data there’s an obligation to send a new Article 14 notice.
Data subjects must be informed, at the latest, within a month of obtaining their information (as well as per intended purpose). While if the data is to be used for direct marketing the subject must be informed the first time they get sent a communication, if not sooner.
In the case of Bisnode it obtained a variety of personal data from public registers and other public databases pertaining to millions of entrepreneurs and business owners — including their names, national ID numbers and any legal events related to their business activity.
Registered addresses and/or company addresses appear to have been standard in the public data it scraped but other contact data was not, and Bisnode only obtained email addresses for a small sub-set of the individuals. It subsequently sent emails to those people — fulfilling its Article 14 information obligation in their case.
But, at issue, is that instead of sending text messages or snail mail notifications to all the other people whose email addresses it did not have — aka the vast majority; some 5.7M people — Bisnode made a conscious decision not to reach out to them directly. Instead it posted a notice on its website in the stated belief that fulfilled its Article 14 obligations.
“We recognise the right for sole proprietors to be informed of the fact that their data is processed by us. In this case, Bisnode has complied to the General Data Protection Regulation Art. 14 by posting the information on our website,” it wrote in an initial statement following the UODO’s decision, also posted on its website.
“We question the DPA’s interpretation of what is considered a proportionate effort. In the instances we have had email addresses (679,000 addresses), there we have sent out Art. 14 information via email, but to demand in addition that 5.7 million records of sole proprietors and members of corporate bodies of companies et al, be informed via postal mail or telephone cannot be considered a proportionate effort,” it added.
“In our view, information via email, other digital channels or via advertisements in national daily newspapers is preferable for recipients as well as senders.”
The DPA drastically disagrees — hence the penalty and other enforcement action.
Explaining its decision the watchdog says Bisnode clearly knew about its obligations under Article 14 and thereby made a conscious decision not to directly inform the majority of people whose personal data it had obtained for business purposes on cost grounds alone — when it should rather have accounted for its legal obligations related to data acquisition as a core component of business costs.
“The President of UODO states that the mere inclusion of information required in art. 14 par. 1 and par. 2 of the Regulation 2016/679, on the Company’s website, in the situation where the Company has the address data (and sometimes also phone numbers) of natural persons running a sole proprietorship (currently or in the past), enabling traditional mailing of correspondence containing information required by this provision (or transferring them by telephone), cannot be considered as sufficient fulfilment by the Company of the obligation referred to in art. 14 par. 1-3 of Regulation 2016/679,” runs the relevant chunk of legalese in the UODO decision [translated from Polish via Google Translate].
“The Company, as a professional in this type of activity, should be required to shape the business side of its business, which would take into account all the costs necessary to ensure its compliance with legal provisions (in this case, the provisions on the protection of personal data),” it adds, going on to further press its view that Bisnode’s decision not to reach out to inform the vast majority of individuals because it decided it was too expensive is exactly the problem, especially as its core business relies on processing people’s data.
The DPA’s decision also notes that Bisnode decided against sending SMS messages to another sub-set of people whose telephone numbers it did hold — again claiming as an excuse “the high costs of such an action”.
On the €8M figure which the company estimated would be the cost of posting Article 14 notifications to the 5.7M, the watchdog says there was in fact no obligation to send registered letters specifically (which is how Bisnode seems to have arrived at that estimate); or indeed to use any specific communication medium.
So it could presumably have sent (cheaper) standard mail, or even used its own staff (or hired temps) to spend a couple of days manually posting notifications to the individuals concerned. (Sidenote: Maybe there’s a new type of data notification compliance-tech robot/drone delivery startup to be created here… Knock-knock! Article14 delivery bot at the door to read you your rights…)
The UODO points out that GDPR’s Article 14 provision does not specify any particular means of fulfilling the obligation to inform. It just requires the data controller actually reach out.
An active manner vs disproportionate effort
The “essence of fulfilling the obligation” is to act in “an active manner”, it writes — so that means providing information to a data subject without them having to participate in enabling their own notification.
So just posting a passive notification under a tab on a website, as Bisnode did, would seem to go against that essence — as it clearly requires the people whose data is involved expending effort to find out.
And if they don’t even know their data was scraped in the first place how would they know where — or even to — go looking? It’s very unlikely they’d just stumble upon the notification by chance on Bisnode’s website and join the dots. Not without some kind of wider broadcast announcing its presence.
“The need for active notification is emphasized by the Article 29 Working Party, in the Transparency Guidelines under Regulation 2016/679 adopted on 29 November 2017 (most recently amended and adopted on 11 April 2018),” the UODO’s decision further notes, citing guidance from an influential pan-EU data protection oversight body that’s now known as the European Data Protection Board and responsible for helping ensure consistency of application of GDPR across the bloc.
In a press release accompanying its decision, the UODO also makes a point of specifying the number and proportion of people who objected to Bisnode using their data after it did contact them directly (i.e. by email) — writing: “Out of about 90,000 people who were informed about the processing by the company, more than 12,000 objected to the processing of their data.”
Which highlights the fact that informing people about commercial and marketing-related uses of their data can, and usually does, result in a bunch of them saying ‘no don’t do that’ — an outcome that’s not exactly aligned with the interests of a marketing company like Bisnode which obviously wants to maximize the reach of its database.
But a shrinking marketing database may well be the price of respecting people’s privacy rights and doing business legally in Europe. And Bisnode’s interpretation of what is and isn’t “proportionate”, vis-a-vis Article 14, does look self-servingly aligned with its own business interests rather than with the rights of EU citizens.
If the legal rights of EU people to know what’s being done with their personal data can just be sidestepped by a data controller holding only selective types of contact data (for instance) that risks putting a pretty big loophole in the data protection framework. (Although in a similar case from a few years ago the UODO reached a different decision in regards another company that did not have addresses at its disposal.)
There are some caveats included in Article 14 — allowing for a data controller to dispense with the requirement to inform data subjects if doing so “proves impossible or would involve a disproportionate effort” — but they are conspicuously linked in the text of GDPR to non-commercial examples: “[I]n particular for processing for archiving purposes in the public interest, scientific or historical research purposes or statistical purposes”.
Safe to say, a b2b marketing business doesn’t fit the bill there.
A further caveat — which removes the obligation to inform the data subject if it is “likely to render impossible or seriously impair the achievement of the objectives of that processing” — would also seem a tough one to argue for a marketing purpose such as Bisnode’s.
It’s true that, as the complaints following its emailed Article 14 notifications indicate, there will very likely be a proportion of objections from those informed about a marketing purpose for their data. But the complaint stats cited by the UODO reveal that only a minority (~13%) of those emailed actively objected to Bisnode’s use of their data — a figure that does not seem so catastrophically large as to “seriously impair” the company’s overall business objective.
Of course it will be for judges to decide on all these details. But the looming legal fight will be around what constitutes “proportionate effort” — and in which circumstances those Article 13 caveats are allowed to apply.
“The ‘disproportionate effort’ in Article 14(5) is the core issue,” agrees Olejnik. “While including information solely on a website might be sufficient in some cases, but it is not clear if this applies in this case in particular. It is rather clear that the majority of people affected have no idea that their data are processed.”
“What the courts decide is anyone’s guess. It will be a truly interesting case to observe,” he adds.
In terms of immediate practical implications flowing from the UODO’s decision Olejnik says those are also unclear for now — not least because of Bisnode’s plan to fight all the way up to the CJEU if it can. (Meaning its appeal process could take years.)
“The company is also saying in public that its different EU branches are following a similar practice, but did not draw the attention of DPA,” Olejnik continues, adding: “It is however clear that some form of information obligation needs to be made. I believe this is an interesting precedent.
“While it may be shocking to some, this is the GDPR enforcement in action. Prior to enforcement, many would doubt if some text of GDPR means what it means. Well, it appears that to DPAs, it might indeed mean what it mean, if you know what I mean.”
The growing cost and risk of personal data
There is arguably a rather similar story going on, in parallel, around ‘free and informed’ consent under GDPR in relation to online ad targeting — which has turned into a major legal battleground since the regulation came into force last year. Multiple complaints remain in play targeting various data-for-ads tech platforms, as well as attacking core adtech processes for using and sharing personal data without proper consent and/or adequately robust protection.
With the GDPR not yet a year old, major enforcements are still lacking. But there are signs regulators are preparing to draw equally firm lines in the sand on this front too.
Given all the effort going into obfuscating and/or trying to ‘compliance-wash’ how the adtech industry strip-mines personal data, those most systematic personal data-harvesters similarly appear to have calculated that the cost of fully informing individuals is simply too high.
Also because they surely stand to lose a big chunk of their marketing muscle if every user whose personal information is being exploited for ads was offered a genuine, fully informed and entirely free choice to say no way.
But that doesn’t mean they can just sidestep the requirement. Enforcement is coming for any lurking lack of compliance there too.
Zooming out, it’s not clear what proportion of personal data is scraped from the Internet vs being actively provided by the user (albeit, not necessarily freely and willingly provided — as is the nub of this GDPR ‘forced consent’ complaint, for instance).
“Obtaining such comparative data would difficult at a scale,” admits Olejnik.
There’s no doubt plenty of nefarious actors engage in ‘fully unlicensed’ online data-scraping to run illegal spam campaigns or sell it to hackers planning phishing expeditions. And clearly no regulation under the sun that will put a firm lid on that. Though increased legal risk may at least provide a disincentive to less hardened cyber criminals.
In the commercial sector, where regulation has a more powerful bite, the lines between scraping and ‘providing’ data are frequently self-servingly blurred by the entities involved — seeking to workaround the law.
So, again, robust enforcement decisions that get upheld by jurisprudence are sorely needed to define and set down firm red-lines about how people’s data can be respectfully handled.
Let’s also not forget the scandalous acts of the now defunct political data company, Cambridge Analytica, which covertly scraped personal data off of Facebook’s platform to build psychographic profiles of American voters to try to influence domestic political outcomes — something which would certainly constitute a breach of Article 14, i.e. were such actions applied to EU peoples under the bloc’s current data protection regime.
An egregious example like Cambridge Analytica shows the clear logic of GDPR creating a framework for protecting people from non-disclosed use of their personal information — by offering a check against unwelcome misuse. As indeed does Facebook’s long history of abject failure to properly protect user data.
It’s not clear whether GDPR could have stopped a rogue actor like Cambridge Analytica. Though the heftier fines baked into the regime do mean data-scraping is no longer the ‘help yourself, free for all’ it apparently was back in 2014.
At the same time, multiple Facebook businesses remain under investigation in Europe: The Irish DPA has ten open investigations against multiple Facebook-owned platforms over questions of GDPR compliance. So watch that space. (And watch, too, Facebook announcing a sudden ‘pivot’ to ‘privacy… )
Covertly harvesting personal at scale now finally involves serious legal risk — at least in Europe.
And in light of the UODO’s strong stance on Article 14 there’s a little more reason for data scrapers to worry more.
Full disclosure
One final note on UODO and Bisnode: In a slightly odd quirk, the watchdog decided not to publicly name the company — choosing to pseudonymize it by editing out certain details from the published decision text.
It’s not clear why the DPA did so. Nor was its attempt to hide the name effective. Olejnik says he was quickly able to reverse its pseudonymization. While Bisnode also subsequently chose to out itself by going public with its disagreement.
Other European DPAs do disclose the targets of their decisions as a general rule. So it’s definitely a leftfield choice by the Polish watchdog.
A spokesperson for the UODO told us it does not always avoid disclosing the name of entities subject to its decisions but in this case said its president took the view that “information about the administrative fine and its justification is sufficient” — adding that in its view the most important element is to inform the public about decisions issued and “their substance”, including providing details of the decisive arguments in its decision-making process.
But given the lack of a specific justification and especially the weakness of the pseudonymization Olejnik suggests not publicly naming Bisnode was a questionable decision.
“Based on the information from the decision it did not take me much time to ‘reverse’ the pseudonymization and reveal the company name. This puts the decision behind pseudonymization under question,” he suggests. “Though I believe the public has a right to expect transparency in the first place — the decision to pseudonymize was controversial in the first place. To say the least, it forbids users to learn about the case, the misuse, and potentially even learn if they may have been affected.”
There is perhaps no small irony in a privacy watchdog choosing to ineffectively withhold the name of a company that had failed to inform a large number of private individuals that it covertly held their data.
Mariah Carey Birthday Party Pictures 2019
Mariah Carey rang in her 49th birthday (or "anniversary," as she likes to call it) on Wednesday, and her party was filled with lots of love and one hilarious surprise. The singer shared photos and videos from her pink- and purple-themed bash on Instagram, including one that shows her 7-year-old twins, Monroe and Moroccan Cannon (whom she parents with ex-husband Nick Cannon) spraying her with silly string. "You hate me!" Mariah jokingly screams as everyone yells, "We love you!" Mariah is currently in the midst of her Caution World Tour, but we're glad she made time to celebrate her "anniversary." Happy birthday, Mimi!
This Week on Xbox: March 29, 2019
We know you’re busy and might miss out on all the exciting things we’re talking about on Xbox Wire every week. If you’ve got a few minutes, we can help remedy that. We’ve pared down the past week’s news into one easy-to-digest article for all things Xbox! Or, if you’d rather watch than read, you can feast your eyes on our weekly video show above. Be sure to come back every Friday to find out what’s happening This Week on Xbox!
Xbox Game Pass at PAX East 2019
The Xbox Game Pass team is excited to announce we’ll be packing up and heading to Boston for PAX East from March 28-31, where we’ll showcase an array of new gaming experiences so you can discover your next favorite game! Whether you’re joining us in person or following along… Read more
State of Decay 2 Free Choose Your Own Apocalypse Now Available
Starting today, the ever-growing State of Decay 2 community can take the ultimate zombie survival game to its deadliest level with the launch of the Choose Your Own Apocalypse Update. This update introduces the Dread Zones and Nightmare Zones as two new difficulty modes… Read more
Classic RPG Final Fantasy VII Now Available on Xbox One
When it was released in 1997, Square-Enix’s Final Fantasy VII was lauded as an instant classic by gamers all over the world. Combining a deep turn-based combat system, never-before-seen character and party customization options, gorgeous full motion video cutscenes, cutting edge 3D graphics… Read more
All The News from ID@Xbox Game Pass
Today, during the first-ever episode of ID@Xbox Game Pass, we gave fans a closer look at upcoming ID@Xbox program titles set to arrive with Xbox Game Pass the same day as their global launch, as well as shared new details of ID@Xbox and Xbox Game Pass activities at PAX East… Read more
New Games with Gold for April 2019
Welcome to another Games with Gold reveal for Xbox One and Xbox 360! In April on Xbox One, survive Mars as a feared mage-warrior in The Technomancer, then experience the remake of a sci-fi classic in Outcast: Second Contact. On Xbox 360, and Xbox One via Backward Compatibility… Read more
Enter the World of Demons and Magic in DC Universe Online: Justice League Dark
Have you sensed the coming darkness? The DC Universe is full of threats – some tangible, visible, straightforward – and the superheroes who rise to face them are well known. But there are other threats, darker threats, dangers more nebulous, arcane, and ancient… Read more
Now Available on Xbox One with Xbox Game Pass, Operencia: The Stolen Sun from Zen Studios
Hard to believe, but we’re finally here – launch day for Operencia: The Stolen Sun! On behalf of all of us at Zen Studios who have poured our hearts and souls into this first-person dungeon crawler for the last two years, I’d like to invite you to check out our launch trailer…and then perhaps… Read more
Control Time as Paladins’ Newest Champion, Today on Xbox One
Paladins’ new Champion, Atlas, the man out of time, joins the Realm today! For the past few months, the team here at Evil Mojo Games has been hinting at Atlas’ existence as part of an ongoing lore story that brought the Paladins and the Magistrate to the Shattered Desert… Read more
Control is Available Now for Pre-Order on Xbox One
Hi, Xbox fans! Today is an incredibly exciting day for the teams at 505 Games and Remedy Entertainment. We’re thrilled to announce that the Xbox One community can now pre-order Control digitally on the Microsoft Store. Set in a unique and ever-changing world… Read more
Keep Farming Like Never Before with the Anderson DLC for Farming Simulator 19
We’re exceptionally proud of Farming Simulator 19, the biggest and best game we’ve ever made at Giants Software, but that doesn’t mean we can’t keep making it better. We’ve been improving the game with great free features and patches, but now we’re releasing on Xbox One… Read more
Enter for a Chance to Win a Pair of Custom Xbox One X Consoles inspired by Shazam!
When you were a kid, did you ever wish you could be a super hero – or at least be best friends with one? With the upcoming release of New Line Cinema’s new DC movie “Shazam!,” from Warner Bros. Pictures, we’ll get to see this wish come true for Freddy Freeman, whose best friend… Read more
Killing Floor 2: Cyber Revolt Seasonal Update Bolts onto Xbox One Today
The cyberpunk revolution is back this year in Killing Floor 2 and we’re packing heavy new Horzine tech hardware to push back the relentless Zed horde, fresh new cyber gear and outfits, a brand-new map, and a litany of quality of life improvements. Have you ever wanted to hold the power… Read more
Some Secrets to Success in Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
Well, they’ve done it again. With Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, FromSoftware has succeeded in creating a game that pairs highly technical risk/reward combat and ultra-tough foes to craft a game that is at times very challenging, but always extremely rewarding. Much like their previous games… Read more
Celebrating Latinx in Gaming 2019 Recap
Moving into the middle of the week of Game Developer’s Conference the show gets into the general sessions of talks and the expo floor opens up. It’s also the busiest day for our Gaming for Everyone team as we throw three community events in one day! Starting the day with brunch… Read more
Build Your Own Cars, Planes, and Hovercrafts in Trailmakers
Have you ever played a racing game and thought to yourself: “I wish I could put a jet engine on this car. Maybe two … or five?” If you just said “YES!” out loud, then today is your lucky day because Trailmakers is launching onto Xbox One Game Preview. In Trailmakers you build your own… Read more
Multiple Adventures Await as Stories: The Path of Destinies Arrives on Xbox One
If you’re yearning for adventure you’ll be thrilled to hear that the award-winning action-RPG Stories: The Path of Destinies from developer Spearhead Games is now available on the Microsoft Store for Xbox One and it contains an array of daring escapades for you to embark upon… Read more
Metro Exodus Adds New Game+ and More with the Free Ranger Update
Metro Exodus owners get a free update today – the Ranger Update adds a New Game + mode as well as a host of new features, improvements, and fixes. New Game+ is a new mode that unlocks on completion of the story and allows you to start a new campaign with all the weapons… Read more
Introducing Miles & Kilo, Out Now on Xbox One and Windows 10
When playing a platformer, do you ever find yourself throwing caution to the wind and start racing through it masterfully like an unstoppable daredevil? That feeling and playstyle are what I really wanted to tap into when I first started making games. Before Miles & Kilo… Read more
Next Week on Xbox: New Games for April 2 to 5
Welcome to Next Week on Xbox, where we cover all the new games coming soon to Xbox One! Every week the team at Xbox aims to deliver quality gaming content for you to enjoy on your favorite gaming console. To find out what’s coming soon to Xbox One, read on below… Read more