Category Archives: Blog

If one thing was made clear today, it’s that Congress is woefully unequipped to be debating encryption and backdoors for law enforcement with the major tech giants. But that surely didn’t stop them from doing so anyway!

On Tuesday, the Senate Committee on the Judiciary held a hearing titled “Encryption and Lawful Access: Evaluating Benefits and Risks to Public Safety and Privacy.”

In plain speak, the Congressional hearing was about big tech’s security protocols to protect your personal data and the police’s frustration in not being able to access that data.

Apple’s Manager of User Privacy, Erik Neuenschwander, and Facebook’s Product Management Director for Privacy and Integrity in Messenger, Jay Sullivan, were both on the panel representing their respective employers. Both of these privacy professionals explained (numerous times) how each of their products worked. They patiently walked through how, in some cases, it’s literally impossible for Apple and Facebook to provide information to law enforcement because the companies themselves don’t have access to the information in question either. Read more…

More about Facebook, Apple, Politics, Encryption, and Congressional Hearing

Just because you’re fraudulently raking in hundreds of millions of dollars doesn’t mean you have to be such a jerk about it. 

It’s clear no one passed this message along to the three men arrested today for their alleged part in a $722 million globe-spanning cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme. In a Dec. 10 press release from the Department of Justice, the men stand accused of a years-long effort to fool investors into believing they ran a bitcoin mining pool — all the while disparaging anyone stupid enough to believe their supposed lies.   

Starting in 2014, Matthew Brent Goettsche and Jobadiah Sinclair Weeks, both of Colorado, along with Joseph Frank Abel of California, allegedly ran BitClub Network — a service that promised to take investors’ money and put it toward mining cryptocurrency.  Read more…

More about Bitcoin, Scams, Blockchain, Cryptocurrency, and Tech

Created by La Fábrica de Inventos, Stop and Safe seeks to prevent users from injuring themselves while working. Read more…

More about Tech, Mashable Video, Safety, Future Blink, and Work Tools

Oil behemoth Exxon won a big climate trial on Tuesday. 

But critically, while New York State Supreme Court judge Barry Ostrager found the company did not deceive investors about the risks posed by sinking money into future oil projects, Ostrager emphasized this doesn’t excuse Exxon from its role in warming the planet. 

“Climate science wasn’t on trial, and the judge acknowledged that,” said Carroll Muffett, a lawyer and president of the Center for International Environmental Law.

“Nothing in this opinion is intended to absolve ExxonMobil from responsibility for contributing to climate change through the emission of greenhouse gases in the production of its fossil fuel products,” wrote Ostrager. “ExxonMobil does not dispute either that its operations produce greenhouse gases or that greenhouse gases contribute to climate change. But ExxonMobil is in the business of producing energy, and this is a securities fraud case, not a climate change case.” Read more…

More about Science, Lawsuit, Climate Change, Exxon, and Science

Playing a real person like Rob Bilott can be difficult for any actor. Mark Ruffalo talks about what he learned from Rob and how Anne Hathaway helped him get out of his head.  Read more…

More about Mashable Video, Golden Globes, Mark Ruffalo, Anne Hathaway, and Dupont

There is a lot of debate about the optimal viewing order for all nine Star Wars films, so we’re here to put that debate to bed once and for all. Read more…

More about Entertainment, Disney, Mashable Video, Star Wars, and Star Wars The Rise Of Skywalker

Employees accused Korey of publicly shaming them in Slack channels and overworking customer service representatives. Read more…

More about Tech, Mashable Video, Slack, Away, and Steph Korey

Created by Barbossa, the Beard Behaviour straightener is self-described as being for “today’s man” and could lead to longer, straighter beard hair. Read more…

More about Tech, Mashable Video, Future Blink, Haircare, and Beard Behaviour

Rossi Lorathio Adams II brought a gun to a domain name fight. 

The 27-year-old social media influencer was sentenced to 168 months in jail on Monday for a 2017 plot involving viral videos, a pantyhose-sporting henchman, a gun, and the rather asinine catchphrase “Do It For State.” 

Needless to say, things didn’t exactly work out the way the aspiring digital-media mogul hoped. 

The plot is detailed in a Dec. 9 press release from the Department of Justice. Adams, it seems, fancied himself an entrepreneur — he ran the social media company “State Snaps,” which he founded in 2015 while attending Iowa State University.  Read more…

More about Influencers, Tech, and Web Culture

The CEO and co-founder of popular luggage startup Away is resigning just days after her internal Slack messages were made public.

Steph Korey, who co-founded the suitcase company in 2015, is stepping down from her CEO role and will be replaced by Lululemon Athletica’s chief operating officer, Stuart Haselden, the company announced. The former CEO will remain on Away’s board and will act as executive chairman of the company.

Korey’s departure comes days after The Verge published a damning account of the now former CEO’s management style. Employees quoted in the article accused Korey of creating a toxic work environment where workers were publicly shamed by executives in company Slack channels and customer service representatives were routinely overworked. Read more…

More about Tech, Startups, Away, Tech, and Startups