Facebook said Wednesday that it is banning ads that make false claims about products tied to the new coronavirus. The social network said it is removing ads that feature a product and imply a limited supply, seeking create a “sense of urgency” in their mention of coronavirus. Ads that guarantee a cure or prevention are also banned, it said. For&#82...

At the 2020 RSA Conference in San Francisco, protecting the upcoming presidential election was a hot topic, from thwarting cyberattacks at polling places to preventing fake headlines from going viral.

Officials in Monterey County on Wednesday gave the green light on a massive clean-energy battery farm project in Moss Landing spearheaded by Tesla and PG&E that officials say would the largest of its kind in the world, according to a report from KSBW-TV.

Apple reportedly is trying to block the distribution of a former employee’s book about its App Store, saying the author reveals trade secrets that could harm the company’s competitive advantage, according to a report from Business Insider citing German media.

At Facebook, Stan Chudnovsky oversees the Messenger chat app that’s used by well over 1 billion people each month. He’s playing a key role in helping Facebook integrate that app with its other chat tools, WhatsApp and Instagram Direct. The massive project has already gotten pushback from regulators worried about Facebook’s size and power. Governmen...

Employees at Apple stores must be paid for time they spend waiting for managers or security guards to search their bags to make sure they’re not stealing anything, the California Supreme Court ruled Thursday.

Fresh from his flight back from Australia, a Bay Area film maker is using technology to help save wildlife, many of which are on the brink of extinction.

Electric automaker Tesla on Thursday announced plans to offer $2 billion in common stock, and CEO Elon Musk has indicated he will buy as much as $10 million, or about 13,000 shares, according to a company filing.

A federal judge is refusing to exempt ride-hailing company Uber and on-demand meal delivery service Postmates from a broad new California labor law while she considers their lawsuit.

An Apple engineer who died when his Tesla Model X hit a concrete barrier on a Silicon Valley freeway had complained before his death that the SUV’s Autopilot system would malfunction in the area where the crash happened. The complaints were detailed in a trove of documents released Tuesday by the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board, which is ...

At Galaxy Unpacked 2020 in San Francisco, Samsung took the wraps of the folding Galaxy Z Flip, a clamshell-style phone featuring a bendable glass display. The world’s largest smartphone maker also introduced its new flagship line of smartphones, the 5G Galaxy S20 series.

More than 50,000 Californians reported being victims of online crime last year, new Federal Bureau of Investigation data show. Their combined losses totaled more than half-a-billion dollars, the FBI said. The FBI’s 2019 Internet Crime Report summarizes cyber-crime complaints reported through the agency’s Internet Crime Complaint Center,...

The issue of misleading political messages on social media has arisen again, as President Donald Trump tweeted an edited video showing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi repeatedly tearing up his State of the Union speech as he honored audience members and showed a military family reuniting. Pelosi did tear the pages of her copy of the speech — but only af...

Federal regulators on Thursday cleared the way for a Mountain View startup to use self-driving robot vehicles on the nation’s roads for its grocery delivery service, the company announced in its blog.

Facebook joined YouTube, Twitter and payment service Venmo on Wednesday in demanding that a facial recognition company stop harvesting user images to identify the people in them, which the startup does as part of its work with police.

Google on Tuesday confirmed that some people recently received private videos from strangers that were uploaded to Google Photos.

An app meant to speed things up slowed everything down during the Iowa caucus, and now some are asking if today’s technology is capable of helping the election process.

Twitter will begin to label and in some cases remove doctored or manipulated photos, audio and videos that are designed to mislead people. The company said Tuesday that the new rules prohibit sharing synthetic or manipulated material that’s likely to cause harm. Material that is manipulated but isn’t necessarily harmful may get a warnin...

Apple is temporarily closing its 42 stores in mainland China, one of its largest markets, as a new virus spreads rapidly and the death toll there rose to 259 on Saturday. The iPhone maker said in a statement it was closing stores, corporate offices and contact centers in China until Feb. 9 “out of an abundance of caution and based…

Twitter and Pinterest are taking new steps to root out voting misinformation designed to suppress participation in the November elections. Twitter unveiled a new tool Wednesday that will make it easier for users in the U.S. to report tweets containing misleading information about registering to vote or casting a ballot. The platform said ...

A federal jury has decided that Apple Inc. and Broadcom Inc. must pay $1.1 billion to the California Institute of Technology for infringing on patents.

The Justice Department’s inspector general has found additional problems with the accuracy of wiretap applications the FBI has submitted in national security investigations

As millions are studying and working from home, that surge in online traffic can lead to slowdown for everyone in the household.

iPhone users with questions about COVID-19 can now look to Siri for answers.

Apple has developed a new website and app that will provide a screening tool for COVID-19 symptoms as well as up-to-date information from trusted sources about the coronavirus outbreak. The software announced Friday was developed in partnership with the Centers for Disease Control, the White House-led coronavirus task force and the Federa...

In the last week, a group of thirty volunteers from tech companies like Apple, Amazon and Alphabet put together a website called “covidnearyou” that aims to track the coronavirus as it spreads.

Apple has updated its voice assistant to provide users with a step-by-step questionnaire if they ask variations of, “Hey Siri, do I have the coronavirus?”

More Americans are self-quarantining amid the coronavirus pandemic as some states and municipalities enact shelter-in-place orders to require social distancing. Technology and social media are becoming more vital as the coronavirus outbreak is now seen across each of the 50 states. President Donald Trump said that the country and our way of life ma...

A former engineer in Google’s self-driving division who became the focus of a criminal investigation that rocked Silicon Valley has pleaded guilty to a count of trade secrets theft, NBC News reports.

The White House and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are asking Facebook, Google and other tech giants to give them greater access to Americans’ smartphone location data in order to help them combat the spread of the coronavirus, NBC News reports.

The Trump administration is alleging that a foreign disinformation campaign is underway aiming to stoke fear amid the coronavirus pandemic

Tech experts say the U.S. internet won’t have any trouble handling spikes in traffic from the millions of Americans who are now working from home to discourage the spread of the new coronavirus

Apple CEO Tim Cook says the tech giant’s retail operation outside of China is going online-only for two weeks as part of efforts to fight the global viral pandemic

Companies also agreed to waive late fees and open Wi-Fi hot spots to Americans who need them.

Chelsea Manning’s legal team says the former intelligence analyst tried to take her own life Wednesday, but was transported to a hospital where she is recovering.

Amazon is working on a cure for the common cold in a years-long, top secret effort called “Project Gesundheit,” according to three people familiar with the effort.

A decade ago, Beijing bureaucrats pondered how to assimilate the mostly Muslim minorities in China’s far west, saying their religion and culture were “incompatible with the requirements of modern industrial production.”

You might be washing your hands a lot, but you should also keep your phone clean

Google is canceling in-person attendance for one of its most important events, Google I/O, due to the spreading of the coronavirus, a company spokesperson confirmed. The company said in an email to attendees that it will refund those who bought tickets. The company also confirmed that it has halted international employee travel and is advising curr...

The Geneva auto show was canceled after the Swiss government banned all large events to halt the spread of the new coronavirus

Pedestrians — perhaps distracted by smartphones or strolling more at night due to warming temperatures — are being killed in traffic accidents at the highest rate in 30 years, researchers said Thursday.

Facebook on Thursday announced its decision to cancel its annual F8 software developer conference due to concerns surrounding the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak. The conference was scheduled to take place on May 5 and 6 in McEnery Convention Center in San Jose, California. Around 5,000 people attended last year’s event, a company spokeswom...

The Democratic National Committee has warned its presidential candidates to be cautious after Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign reported that an “impersonator” with a domain registered overseas had posed as one of its staffers and sought conversations with members of at least two other campaigns.

A former Amazon manager alleges that her supervisor made her scour the social media accounts of applicants to determine their race and gender, and then fired her when she complained, NBC News reports.

Raise a controller for Kazuhisa Hashimoto. Gamers were paying tribute Wednesday to the Japanese producer credited with inventing a cheat code popular in scores of classic Nintendo titles like Gradius, Life Force and Contra after news spread of Hashimoto’s death. Hashimoto developed the code “up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right,...

The Pentagon is adopting new ethical principles as it prepares to accelerate its use of artificial intelligence technology on the battlefield

The branch of the U.S. military that oversees information technology and communications has suffered a potential breach of service members’ personal information, NBC News reported.

Refund checks totaling more than $34 million will be sent to consumers who allegedly were tricked by Office Depot, Inc. and a software provider into buying computer repair products and services, the Federal Trade Commission announced.

The information of more than 10 million people who stayed at MGM Resorts, including data appearing to belong to government officials, was posted on a hacking forum this week, NBC News reports.

The Israeli military says it it has thwarted an attempt by the Hamas militant group to hack soldiers’ phones by posing as young, attractive women on social media

Facebook’s green light for political campaigns to pay prominent social media users to spread their messages is highlighting the difficulties around setting rules for the fast-changing world of online political campaigning. The company’s rule change comes days after Democratic presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg exposed a loophole in Facebook’s po...

Google’s Earth View has released 1,000 new, and very colorful, photos of Earth’s landscape, Google Earth Product Manager Gopdal Shah announced Tuesday.

A study from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has found serious security concerns in a voting app used in elections in West Virginia, Denver, Oregon and Utah

A senior Puerto Rico official says the island’s government has lost more than $2.6 million after falling for an email phishing scam.

Organizers of the world’s biggest mobile technology fair are pulling the plug over worries about the viral outbreak from China.

Samsung on Tuesday unveiled a new foldable phone, the Galaxy Z Flip

Between 2018 and 2028, more than 500,000 new jobs are expected to be added to the computer and information technology workforce, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. But despite this growing demand for talent, the tech industry has made slow gains in providing equal opportunity for both men and women in the field. In 2018, accordi...

FBI Director Chris Wray says Russia is engaged in “information warfare” heading into the 2020 presidential election

A prosecutor at the outset of an espionage trial has blamed a former CIA employee for what he called the biggest leak of classified defense information in the agency’s history

Audio content for kids is on the rise. But navigating all the audiobooks, podcasts and music can be a chore for parents. One-stop platforms carrying all three are popping up. That’s driven in part by a bump in podcast listening.

Workplace harassment is a huge problem in the Bay Area. And by some estimates, as many as 75% of all incidents never get reported. But a tech company has an easy solution and all you need is a smartphone app. The #NotMe app is a new way to report any kind of harassment anonymously on your phone. Harassment often goes…

Facebook has rolled out a tool that lets users see exactly which third-party apps and websites share their data with Facebook. The tool also includes a toggle to turn this off.

Apple is still reaping huge profits from the iPhone while mining more moneymaking opportunities from the growing popularity of its smartwatch, digital services and wireless earbuds. That combination produced a banner holiday season for a company whose fortunes appeared to be sliding just a year ago amid declining sales for the iPhone, its marquee p...

Dozens of Lyft employees will lose their jobs in what the San Francisco-based ride-hailing company is calling a corporate restructuring, according to a report in the New York Times.

A “white hat” hacker group on Monday claimed responsibility for hijacking the social media accounts for the NFL and multiple football teams. OurMine, a Saudi Arabian hacking account that promotes its own cyber security services, said it hacked a number of the league’s accounts on its Twitter page, NBC News reported. The first team...

Boeing’s 777X, a new generation of the wide-body aircraft, completed its maiden flight on Saturday — marking a milestone for the company struggling through the increasing fallout from two fatal crashes of its best-selling 737 Max. Bad weather postponed an attempt at the first flight on Thursday and again on Friday. The first flight, which took off ...

The company that controls the dot-org online universe is putting the registry of domain names up for sale, and the nonprofits that often use the suffix in their websites are raising concerns about the move. About 15 people protested Friday outside the Los Angeles headquarters of the regulatory body for domain names, the Internet Corporation for Ass...

The results are finally in for the first chocolate chip cookie bake-off in space. While looking more or less normal, the best cookies required two hours of baking time last month up at the International Space Station. It takes far less time on Earth, under 20 minutes. And how do they taste? No one knows. Still sealed in individual baking…...

FedEx is warning customers about a scam involving fake text messages and emails, saying people should not click on the link to set “delivery preferences” The company tweeted a statement Wednesday saying it does not send “unsolicited texts or emails requesting money, package or personal information.” “Have you received ...

It is often said that it’s lonely at the top, but loneliness on the job is a growing issue well beyond the corner office.

American workers are feeling more isolated, and younger workers are experiencing loneliness more so than their older co-workers, according to a new Cigna study.

Need a ride? Or an extra pair of feet? Twitter user @JReneex posted a screenshot of several Uber transportation options for a trip to LaGuardia Airport last week that had users either raising their eyebrows or sharing a laugh. The first two options show standard ride vehicles, while the last one offers the unconventional choice of a “Walking Buddy”...

For two years running , California’s wildfires have sent plumes of smoke across Silicon Valley. So far, that hasn’t spurred much tech innovation aimed at addressing extreme-weather disasters associated with climate change. It’s true that tech companies from enterprise software-maker Salesforce to financial-technology firm Stripe&nbsp...

Netflix is holding its ground in the video streaming wars.

Google’s chief executive called Monday for a balanced approach to regulating artificial intelligence, telling a European audience that the technology brings benefits but also “negative consequences.” Sundar Pichai’s comments come as lawmakers and governments seriously consider putting limits on how artificial intelligence is used. “There is no ques...

A California man says social media might have saved his life, NBC News reports. Alex Griswold, 24, says that after he posted a lighthearted video on TikTok last month, viewers urged him to have the mole on his back checked out by a doctor. Two people who saw Griwold’s “what it’s like being married” video warned him that the ...

Two of the first three states to vote in the Democratic presidential race will use new mobile apps to gather results from thousands of caucus sites — technology intended to make counting easier but that raises concerns of hacking or glitches.

Spacewalking astronauts had to make do with fewer lights and camera views from one helmet Wednesday while performing critical battery work outside the International Space Station. It was the second pairing of NASA’s Jessica Meir and Christina Koch outside the orbiting lab. Last October, they teamed up for the world’s first all-female sp...

When is a photograph of nude bodies artistic or titillating? A woman’s exposed nipple a political statement or erotica? A video of childbirth might show genitalia. Should what someone considers a celebration of life be censored? In 1964, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart famously wrote in a case about obscene material that he could tell the...

With more than 71,000 people expected to pour into Levi’s Stadium Sunday to watch the 49ers play in the NFL Conference Championships, the team is relying on technology to make sure fans have a great experience.

It is the hope of some dating app users that the connections they form online will last a lifetime.

Teams from Northwestern University and Washington University are teaming up in the development of an implantable device that can sense when a person is overdosing on opioids and can deliver a life-saving injection of naloxone.

The National Security Agency has discovered a major security flaw in Microsoft’s Windows operating system and tipped off the company rather than exploit it for its own intelligence needs. Microsoft made a software patch to fix it available Tuesday and credited the agency for discovering the flaw. The company said it has not seen any evidence ...

For the second time in a week, Amazon has acknowledged that its employees improperly accessed customer data. The company notified customers Friday that it fired several employees after they shared customer email addresses and phone numbers with third parties. The news was first reported by TechCrunch. “The individuals responsible for this incident ...

Big changes could be coming to the food delivery business, where companies have been struggling with high costs and fickle consumers. Grubhub Inc. — the second-largest player in the U.S. market by sales — is considering putting itself up for sale, The Wall Street Journal reported late Wednesday, sending shares up almost 13%. The stock continued to ...

Microsoft says it has developed a technique to detect online predators using video games to try to sexually exploit children. The chat function in online multiplayer games is one place where predators have tried to groom children for sexual purposes.

David Drummond, the legal chief of Google parent company Alphabet, is leaving at the end of the month, following accusations of inappropriate relationships with employees. Alphabet did not give a reason for Drummond’s departure in a short regulatory filing Friday. The company said in November that its board was investigating sexual miscon...

The annual CES technology conference in Las Vegas runs through Friday and offers a forum for companies to unveil their products and services for the coming year.

Uber sent an email to riders Thursday detailing some changes the company says are intended to keep as many drivers on the road as possible. But it means users won’t always know what their ride will cost until it’s over.

Facebook is reaffirming its freewheeling policy on political ads, saying it won’t ban them, won’t fact-check them and won’t limit how they can be targeted to specific groups of people. Instead, Facebook will offer users slightly more control over how many political ads they see and make its online library of such ads easier to use.

A battle playing out in Oregon is pitting residents of a tiny coastal town with no stoplights or cellphone service against a tech giant. Locals in Tierra del Mar are trying to stop Facebook from using property in their community as a landing spot for an undersea cable connecting America with Asia.

Cyber criminals for the second time in a week have targeted Contra Costa County. Pittsburg Unified School District’s superintendent informed families this week of the cyber attack and said “we will be teaching and learning like back in the day…without laptops and internet.” The news comes after Contra Costa County on Friday ...

The Trump administration on Wednesday unveiled its most recent round of guidelines for autonomous vehicle makers that rely on voluntary standards despite calls for specific regulations. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao announced the proposed guidelines in a speech at the CES gadget show in Las Vegas, saying in prepared remarks that “AV 4.0” wil...