Why it matters: Government agencies are notoriously slippery when it comes to any attempt at probing their use of controversial technologies, but that won't stop the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) from trying. Privacy advocates believe that facial recognition, in particular, can enable persistent, undetectable government surveillance on a massive scale that erodes everyone's expectations of privacy.

Back in December, the American Civil Liberties Union sued Homeland Security for its 'stingray' phone surveillance program that has long been in use by US' border

Recap: Amazon has already convinced a judge to temporarily halt Microsoft's work on the JEDI contract. Now, the Pentagon is launching a 120-day review of the contract. It's unknown whether this will lead to another bidding war or if Microsoft will keep its $10 billion prize.

The Pentagon has filed court documents indicating that it wants to reconsider the $10 billion Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) contract as first reported by CNN Business . According to the court documents, the

Facepalm: US President Donald Trump today announced that search giant Google is in the process of creating a website focused on the COVID-19 virus outbreak. The website would act as a form of pre-testing triage and will help to give US citizens some much-needed direction in this challenging time... except Google is not working on such website, but a much smaller company called Verily, a subsidiary of Alphabet, is on the early stages of developing one, but is not even ready to work on

What just happened? Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Ajit Pai today announced a new policy intended to keep Americans online during the ongoing coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. The policy, dubbed the Keep Americans Connected Pledge, will aid many individuals who may soon find themselves unable to work due to direct COVID-19 infection, or collateral damage caused by the virus (such as workplace closures).

The Keep Americans Connected Pledge requires participating companies to adhere to three specific rules. Each telecom must:

• .

In brief: Apple on Friday confirmed what everyone had suspected – the in-person segment of its annual Worldwide Developers Conference isn’t happening this year due to current health situations.

Instead, Apple will host WWDC in June as an online event complete with a web-based keynote and sessions. Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of software engineering, said that with all of the new products and technologies they’ve been working on, WWDC 2020 is going to be big.

“I

WTF?! Comcast has done it again - the company says it accidentally published the personal information of 200,000 customers, including names, addresses, and phone numbers. Affected customers have been given $100 in credits and the possibility to change their phone numbers at no cost, which is probably not enough. This has invited a lot of criticism on support forums and could lead to a class-action lawsuit.

According to a report from the Denver Post last week, the company accidentally

In brief: Microsoft originally planned to host its annual Build developer conference in Seattle in mid-May. The in-person portion of the event has since been scrapped due to ongoing concerns about Covid-19, or the coronavirus.

Earlier this week, Washington Governor Jay Inslee put a ban on events that attract more than 250 people. The ban is in effect for several counties across the state including King County, where Microsoft’s hometown is located.

A Microsoft spokesperson told The Verge that they will

Bottom line: The coronavirus may have you cooped up in your home, but you don't have to be alone. Niantic wants you to still be able to play Pokémon Go from your living room or backyard. It's temporarily modifying the game so that you can remain a recluse until the coronavirus has run its course.

Niantic has released updates to Pokémon Go that make it easier to play indoors. Polygon reports that the developer said it is “prioritizing” features that can be enjoyed in

What just happened? Remedy Entertainment on Twitter this week shared a teaser for its first of two planned expansions for Control, the August 2019 action-adventure game that delves deep into the paranormal.

This first bit of DLC, dubbed The Foundation, is scheduled to arrive on March 26. In true teaser fashion, the 21-second clip doesn’t reveal much. We hear protagonist Jesse Faden mention that Helen Marshall, head of operations at the Federal Bureau of Control, has been missing for