Associated Press

News Agency

Leak of billionaires' tax data draws GOP outcry over privacy

Republicans in Congress are alarmed by the leak of confidential IRS data to the investigative news organization ProPublica, enabling it to reveal that famous billionaires including Warren Buffett, Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg paid little in U.S. income tax at times. A senior IRS official said Thursday that a federal criminal investigation into the leak […]

Own an Echo? Amazon may be helping itself to your bandwidth

Do you own an Amazon smart device? If so, odds are good that the company is already sharing your internet connection with your neighbors unless you’ve specifically told it not to. On Tuesday, the company launched a program that forces users of many Echo smart speakers and Ring security cameras to automatically share a small […]

Oklahoma prison inmates to begin receiving computer tablets

Inmates at an Oklahoma prison began receiving special computer tablets this week, as part of a Department of Corrections plan to provide secure tablets to everyone incarcerated in state prisons. The devices, specially designed by prisons communications company Securus Technologies, will include free content such as prison policies, access to a law library, some books […]

US drops Trump order targeting TikTok, plans its own review

The White House dropped Trump-era executive orders intended to ban the popular apps TikTok and WeChat and will conduct its own review aimed at identifying national security risks with software applications tied to China, officials said Wednesday. A new executive order directs the Commerce Department to undertake what officials describe as an “evidence-based” analysis of […]

EXPLAINER: Just how vulnerable is the internet?

An outage at a little-known firm that speeds up access to websites knocked a lot of top internet destinations offline on Tuesday, disrupting business and leisure for untold millions globally. The problem was quickly resolved. The company, Fastly, blamed a configuration error in its technology. But the incident — Fastly’s traffic dropped 75% for about […]

Automakers face a threat to EV sales: Slow charging times

If the auto industry is to succeed in its bet that electric vehicles will soon dominate the roads, it will need to overcome a big reason why many people are still avoiding them: fear of running out of juice between Point A and Point B. Automakers have sought to quell those concerns by developing EVs […]

Jeff Bezos will blast into space on rocket's 1st crew flight

Outdoing his fellow billionaires in daredevilry, Jeff Bezos will blast into space next month when his Blue Origin company makes its first flight with a crew. The 57-year-old Amazon founder and richest person in the world by Forbes’ estimate will become the first person to ride his own rocket to space. Bezos announced his intentions […]

France fines Google for abusing 'dominant' ads position

Google is being fined 220 million euros ($268 million) by France’s antitrust watchdog for abusing its ‘dominant’ position in online advertising. The search engine giant is also promising to overhaul the way its platform is used for buying and selling digital ads, at least in France, which could have repercussions on its ongoing legal fights […]

Swaths of internet down, outage at cloud company Fastly

Numerous websites went offline Tuesday after an apparent widespread outage at the cloud service company Fastly. Dozens of high-traffic websites including the New York Times, CNN, Twitch, Reddit, and the U.K. government’s home page, could not be reached. San Francisco-based Fastly acknowledged a problem just before 1000 GMT. It said in repeated updates on its […]

Apple previews new software for iPhone, other gadgets

Apple kicked off its second annual all-virtual developer conference with a keynote that outlined new updates to its software for iPhones and other devices. The presentation highlighted more privacy options for paid iCloud accounts and a “Find My” service that helps find errant AirPods, but included no major product announcements. The latest renovations in Apple’s […]