Digital secretary Oliver Dowden has revealed government plans to reform data protection laws now that the UK has left the EU. The UK’s secretary of state for Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport, told reporters that the reforms, which aim to drive growth in the digital economy, would enable freer movement of information.
Over half of businesses are not actively trying to address a lack of diversity in their tech teams, according to research by methree. A further 40 per cent said they were struggling to recruit diverse entry-level tech talent.
Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) leader Arlene Foster has said that online abuse via social media platforms is the “biggest obstacle” facing women in public life. Foster urged social media companies to take more responsibility for addressing abuse by anonymous users.
A group of hackers have breached up to 150,000 Verkada surveillance cameras across hundreds of companies and organisations around the world. The hackers were able to gain access to live and archived footage from inside a Tesla factory in China and a show room in California, as well as an Alabama jail, hospital rooms, a police interview area, and a community gym, according to a report by Reuters.
A new sizing app powered by Artificial Intelligence (AI) could cut returns on clothing items by a fifth. According to Fitly.AI, the company behind the app tech, more than a fifth of all orders are returned due to the wrong size, while a further 33 per cent of purchases are dropped because of size uncertainty.
An estimated $223 billion in value would be at risk if the world’s top brands experienced a data breach, according to an Infosys-Interbrand study. This number represents 9.6 per cent of the cumulative value of the biggest global brands.
Billionaire Elon Musk’s Tesla has lost a third of its value for the third time in a year. Because investors are concerned about rising interest rates and dumping high-valuation stocks in the past few weeks, the company’s market capitalisation has dropped by nearly $300 billion since its January high of $550 million, said Reuters.
Dija, a new grocery delivery start-up founded by former senior Deliveroo employees, has launched its ten-minute delivery service in London. The company, which has around 50 riders on electric bikes and mopeds, is now delivering groceries in South Kensington, Fulham, and Hackney.
Chris Ume, the visual effects expert behind a set of Tom Cruise deepfakes that went viral on TikTok last week, has said he wants people to know that his sophisticated videos aren’t easy to replicate. Responding to fears prompted by his realistic videos about the use of this technology for misinformation, Ume told The Financial Times (FT) “it’s a fantasy that people can do this from their own computer.”
The European Banking Authority (EBA) has announced that its Microsoft Exchange Servers have been hit by a cyber-attack. The authority said that because the vulnerability is linked to its email servers, access to personal data via emails held there could have been obtained by the attacker.
A care home in Blackpool has become the first one in Britain to trial a biometric certification system for covid-19 testing, which doesn’t rely on smartphones. The system uses vein mapping technology, designed by FinGo, which enables the verification of care workers’ test results as they move between care homes. The tech also has the potential to verify vaccine credentials.
57 per cent of people working in the UK tech industry think gender roles have been set back significantly because of the pandemic, according to a survey by accelerateHER. More than a third of those surveyed said that they think women’s roles have regressed 10-20 years, because they have to shoulder the burden of home-schooling, work, and an increase in household tasks.
Square is to pay $297 million for a significant majority owner stake in Tidal, Jay-Z’s global music and entertainment platform, in a move that could help popularise blockchain. On Twitter, the payment company’s chief executive said that that it will “create ecosystems of tools for sellers and individuals” for artists on the platform and “bring fans closer together” using simple integrations for merchandise sales, modern collaboration tools, and new revenue streams.