Month: October 2016

(credit: David Ramos/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

According to a new report by Reuters citing anonymous intelligence officials, in 2015, Yahoo covertly built a secret “custom software program to search all of its customers' incoming emails for specific information.”

Reuters noted that Yahoo “complied with a classified US government directive, scanning hundreds of millions of Yahoo Mail accounts at the behest of the National Security Agency or FBI, said two former employees and a third person apprised of the events.” It is not clear what data, if any, was handed over.

Presuming that the report is correct, it would represent essentially the digital equivalent of a general warrant—which is forbidden by the Fourth Amendment, as Electronic Frontier Foundation lawyer Andrew Crocker noted on Twitter.

Late last year, we got news that General Motors would work with the US Army to develop a hydrogen-fuel-cell-powered pickup truck. On Monday at an annual US Army association meeting, GM took the wraps off the beast, which the Army will test in Michigan over the next year.

The US Army’s tank research center collaborated with GM to build the Chevy Colorado ZH₂, which has a reinforced body that’s six-and-a-half feet tall and seven feet wide. The truck will chew up terrain with 37-inch tires and a special suspension built for off-road handling.

The ZH₂ has a single motor that’s powered by a hydrogen fuel cell and a battery. The advantage of that hydrogen fuel cell is that the only byproduct is water, and the electricity-powered engine is quieter than a traditional combustion engine. It also gives off less heat, which GM said would help the car in stealth situations, where the Army would want to reduce acoustic and thermal signatures. According to Wired, the ZH₂’s hydrogen fuel cell produces two gallons of water an hour.

Enlarge / Moxie Marlinspike is the founder of Open Whisper Systems. (credit: Knight Foundation)

The American Civil Liberties Union announced Tuesday that Open Whisper Systems (OWS), the company behind popular encrypted messaging app Signal, was subpoenaed earlier this year by a federal grand jury in the Eastern District of Virginia to hand over a slew of information—"subscriber name, addresses, telephone numbers, email addresses, method of payment"—on two of its users.

Further, OWS was prevented for at least several months from publicly disclosing that it had received such an order until the ACLU successfully challenged it.

While details of the case remain sealed, the ACLU published a number of partially redacted court documents, including its initial response to the FBI.

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SAN FRANCISCO—Google unveiled an entire line of products today, and, as part of that push, the company is taking on the Amazon Echo with a voice assistant box of its own. "Google Home" packs all of Google's voice-command technology into an unassuming white cylinder.

The $129 Google Home answers factual questions, controls smart home devices, and plays music. It handles all the same "OK Google" voice commands that the Google smartphone can handle, but in an AC-powered, stay-at-home appliance. The hope is that an AC version is faster and more reliable than a power-sipping smartphone implementation.

Along with Google Allo, Google Home marks the launch of the "Google Assistant." The Assistant is a revamp of Google's search technology into a more human "chat bot" presentation. If you personify Google's collection of ones and zeros and ask a silly question, it will play along and offer a quirky answer.