Tech News

Thousands of Europe's drivers will be spied upon by their cars from 2018 when every vehicle sold could alert advertisers, insurers, councils, tax authorities, traffic wardens and police to their habits and locations, a European motoring organisation is warning.

The Federation International de l'Automobile (FIA), a Brussels-based consumer body representing 111 motoring and touring clubs and 38 million drivers, has launched a campaign urging greater safeguards for the use of information on drivers gathered by tracking devices that will soon become compulsory in all new cars. FIA spokeswoman Andrea Campbell said its:

My car, my data campaign reflected the fact that information gleaned from cars is not protected by European data legislation.

From 2018, every new car will have a wireless box for road safety, and there is talk of retro-fitting telematics boxes into older cars. It's only a small step to offering infotainment, traffic information and rest stop promotions.

Manufacturers can track you, and lock you in to their terms and conditions. So we are pushing for dedicated privacy legislation for consumer data protection, greater consumer awareness, and a fair after-market for services.

Britain's AA motoring organisation is to join the campaign. Its president, Edmund King, said:

Connected cars offer drivers a vast array of new and exciting services and they can also help with breakdowns and crashes. But drivers may be unaware of just what information is collected, how it is used, who owns it and how is it protected. We support the FIA's campaign aimed at ensuring greater transparency.

Data-connected cars gather information on driving styles, including the duration of journeys, speeds, acceleration and sudden braking, as well as details of where cars park, refuel or charge their batteries, and latest destinations entered into on-board navigation systems.  Smart systems can identify driving violations and mobile phone use, record the number of passengers and relay information about engine trouble to emergency services. Such data can be sold to third parties.

Google's chairman Eric Schmidt has said that technology companies should work on tools to disrupt terrorism - such as creating a hate speech spell-checker . Writing in the New York Times, Schmidt said using technology to automatically filter-out extremist material would de-escalate tensions on social media and remove videos before they spread .

In the wake of the Paris attacks, companies and governments have clashed over how to handle the terrorism threat. Many tech firms, buoyed by the fallout from the Edward Snowden leaks, have stood firm on encryption - with the likes of Apple and others making it near-impossible to access a locked smartphone without the password, a move that has frustrated some politicians.

So Schmidt's editorial appears to be an attempt to ease these tensions and show a willingness from technology companies to help. Schmidt wrote:

As with all great advances in technology, expanded Web access has also brought with it some serious challenges, like threats to free speech, qualms about surveillance and fears of online terrorist activity.

For all the good people can do with new tools and new inventions, there are always some who will seek to do harm. Ever since there's been fire, there's been arson.

We should build tools to help de-escalate tensions on social media - sort of like spell-checkers, but for hate and harassment. We should target social accounts for terrorist groups like the Islamic State, and remove videos before they spread, or help those countering terrorist messages to find their voice.

Without this type of leadership from government, from citizens, from tech companies, the Internet could become a vehicle for further disaggregation of poorly built societies, and the empowerment of the wrong people, and the wrong voices.

And of course there will plenty of interest from many others seeking to censor, for many other reasons less laudable than trying to prevent terrorism.

Anikka Albrite, August Ames and Manuel Ferrara all performed in a scene like nothing ever seen before. That scene was the world's first Synthologram porn scene produced for virtual reality viewing.

Adult industry performers and insiders got a preview the scene and experience the technology one week early on September. Along with the Synthologram scene, the new studio HoloFilm Productions LLC will show off the world's first hologram porn, featuring Lily LaBeau and Brent Ray Fraser. Brian Shuster, CEO of HoloFilms explained:

Hologram and Synthologram porn are the holy grails of adult content. It's what porn fans have dreamt about for years, and it's what's going to get the money back into the business This has to be seen to be believed! Not only is this porn better than anything that's ever been created before, but it currently cannot be pirated. We intend to keep it that way.

One Reddit poster was in for a nasty surprise after he installed Windows 10 and woke up the next day to discover pictures from his porn collection scrolling across his desktop.

Those who have used Windows Phone will be familiar with their photos appearing in the scrolling tiles on the phone's home screen, but those who are new to Windows 10 might not be prepared for the exposure the operating system will give their snaps.

Redditor FalloutBoS posted his warning:

Loaded up WIN 10 last night and left it on to do its thing. Woke up to wife asking why I set it to rotate all my porn images right on the desk top view. I have no idea how to shut that feature off and that computer is staying shut down until I do. Free windows and a free trip to the doghouse. Thanks Microsoft!!!

Don't make my mistake, keep your private pictures out of My Pictures, no matter how deep you hide them in sub folders.

A website called FreeVRGoggles.com is giving out Google Cardboard-like virtual reality goggles to users in the US. The site is sponsored by BaDoinkVR.com, a porn website that deals in virtual reality content for the porn industry. In fact, BaDoinkVR was amongst the first to offer such free Cardboard VR headsets in order to promote such content.

What better way to bring VR to the mainstream than for it to be adopted by the porn industry right? It is somewhat inevitable too. VR obviously makes sense for the industry, which has been looking for better ways to reach the public for a long time now. The one word that has always been attached to virtual reality is immersive , which means that it's no surprise that the pornographic industry wants to use it.

While providing content over a Samsung Gear VR , Oculus Rift or other more expensive VR headsets would cost a bomb, the Google Cardboard and its various adaptations (like the OnePlus Cardboard ) provides just the opportunity the industry has been looking for.

It seems like Oculus Rift founder Palmer Lucky doesn't make the decisions at the company anymore, if a new report regarding pornography and the virtual reality headset is anything to go by.

While Lucky previously said he would never block porn content or games , when the device launches -- a spokesman has confirmed to Business Insider that not only will they not allow pornography on their app store, they'll block any porn content being submitted.

Oculus were also asked about the use of the headset for violent gaming but the company was non committal saying:

Oculus only distributes developer content that meets their terms of service, but they aren't open to discuss what those terms are at this time.

However Palmer Lucky also previously said that the device is an open platform, which leaves the door open to other companies developing side-loading apps, games, and so on, that are not included in the official app store.

An app that blanks out swear words in e-books hasn't gone down well among writers including Chocolat author Joanne Harris, who have explained that the app is censoring their work without permission.

The app operates on a sliding scale from clean , which removes only the strongest swear words, to squeaky clean which even takes out damn .

Harris wrote a scathing critique of the Clean Reader application which has been designed to help parents shield their children from strong language. Condemning the app on her blog, in a post titled why I'm saying "fuck you" to Clean Reader , Harris likened the programme to examples of suppression from history. She said:

Anyone who works with words understands their power. Words, if used correctly, can achieve almost anything. To tamper with what is written -- however much we may dislike certain words and phrases -- is to embrace censorship. We've been down this road before. We should know where it leads by now. It starts with blanking out a few words. It goes on to drape table legs and stick fig leaves onto statues.  It progresses to denouncing gay or Jewish artists as "degenerate". It ends with burning libraries and erasing whole civilizations from history.

Apps like Clean Reader change the text without the author's permission.  They take the author's words and replace them -- sometimes very clumsily -- on the basis of some perceived idea of "bad words" versus "good words".  No permission is sought, or granted. There is no opt-out clause for authors or publishers.

Laurie Penny, a journalist and author, added: There's now an app for taking the swearwords out of books. I find this fucking horrifying .

Charlie Stross, a science fiction writer wrote on Twitter: This - from an author's point of view - is an obscenity: algorithmic censorship of ebooks.

Update: How the app works

29th March 2015. See  article from  freethinker.co.uk

How it works is that you load your ebook into the app via iTunes; you can then select one of three filter levels, from mild censorship to the full monty; and the app does a find-and-replace using a database of "offensive" words selected by the Maughans, replacing them with "clean" versions.

For instance, body parts in the genital region of women are all turned into "bottom"; "fuck" becomes "freak"; "breast" becomes "chest", "whore" becomes "hussy"; and "bitch" becomes "witch" (which could get somewhat confusing if the book actually discusses dogs). "Sex" is changed to "love", "penis" to "groin" and "blowjob" to "pleasure". (See a fuller list here ).

The adult virtual world Red Light Center has confirmed a virtual reality version of the site that will use the Oculus Rift headset

Utherverse Digital is making its X-rated virtual world Red Light Center compatible with Oculus Rift.  The virtual world lets you visit bars, hotels and clubs for virtual adult fun

The naughty online destination, based on Amsterdam's red light area, will effectively become the first massively multiplayer online game available for the virtual reality headset.

Utherverse CEO told VentureBeat in an interview:

Porn and sex and social interaction is universal. It appeals to almost everybody. This is yet another example of porn and sex leading technology forward.

Red Light Center works like Second Life or any other virtual world - letting you create an avatar and interact with other players as well as non-playable characters (NPCs). The site originally launched in 2005 and, according to Shuster, has around 25 million registered users who pay a monthly subscription.