Tech News

1. Data Privacy Settlement:

   • Google will pay Texas $1.4 billion to settle two data privacy lawsuits regarding location tracking and facial recognition without consent. 👉 news.bloomberglaw.com 👉 cnbc.com 👉 reuters.com

2. App Store Dispute:

   • Epic Games has resubmitted Fortnite to the U.S. App Store for review after a court win, testing Apple's new App Store rules. 👉 9to5mac.com 👉 theverge.com
   • Apple faces scrutiny over measures to keep App Store commissions, potentially weakening its credibility in future lawsuits. 👉 nytimes.com^$

3. Wearable Fitness Tracker Controversy:

   • Whoop is facing backlash for requiring subscribers to pay for the Whoop 5.0 upgrade, reversing earlier promises of free hardware upgrades. 👉 theverge.com 👉 arstechnica.com
   • Whoop launches Whoop 5.0, its latest screenless wearable, including a medical grade version with Healthspan, showing users how they are aging physiologically. 👉 theverge.com

4. AI and Job Market:

   • Nvidia's CEO, Jensen Huang, suggests AI will affect every job, and those who don't use AI may be replaced by those who do. 👉 finance.yahoo.com
   • The prompt engineering role in AI is diminishing as AI systems are used to generate optimal prompts, making it a standard skill rather than a dedicated position. 👉 fastcompany.com

5. International Relations and Tech:

   • Mexico is suing Google for allegedly changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to "Gulf of America" on Google Maps for U.S. users. 👉 bbc.com 👉 theguardian.com
   • A U.S. senator introduced a bill to require location verification mechanisms for export-controlled AI chips to limit China's access to advanced semiconductor technology. 👉 reuters.com

6. Cybersecurity Breaches and Attacks:

   • LockBit ransomware gang hacked, victim negotiations exposed. 👉 bleepingcomputer.com
   • FBI: End-of-life routers hacked for cybercrime proxy networks. 👉 bleepingcomputer.com
   • SonicWall urges admins to patch VPN flaw exploited in attacks. 👉 bleepingcomputer.com

7. Labor and Employment:

   • CrowdStrike to cut 5% of its workforce, citing AI efficiencies. 👉 theguardian.com
   • Tech companies warn they may pull back from US investment pledges if Congress doesn't fully reinstate the R&D tax deduction pared back in Trump's 2017 tax bill. 👉 bloomberg.com^$

8. Business and Finance:

   • 37signals is completing its migration from AWS to on-premises infrastructure, expecting to save $1.3 million annually on storage costs alone. 👉 theregister.com
   • HR tech firm Rippling raises new funding at $16.8 billion valuation, no IPO plans. 👉 reuters.com
   • Snowflake challenger ClickHouse is in talks to raise hundreds of millions led by Khosla Ventures at a $6B valuation, triple its valuation from 2021. 👉 theinformation.com

9. Google and AI:

   • Google to use on-device AI to detect tech support scams on Chrome. 👉 bleepingcomputer.com
   • Google agrees to pay $50M to settle a lawsuit accusing it of systemic racial bias against Black employees. 👉 reuters.com
   • Google rolls out AI-powered defenses to help combat scams on Chrome, including by using Gemini Nano, its on-device LLM, in Enhanced Protection mode on desktop. 👉 techcrunch.com

10. Cybercrime and Law Enforcement:

    • Police dismantles botnet selling hacked routers as residential proxies. 👉 bleepingcomputer.com
    • Germany takes down eXch cryptocurrency exchange, seizes servers. 👉 bleepingcomputer.com
    • A US judged sentenced an Arizona man to the maximum 10.5 years in prison after his deceased victim gave the court an impact statement via an AI-generated video. 👉 nbcnews.com

11. Software Vulnerabilities and Attacks:

    • Chinese hackers behind attacks targeting SAP NetWeaver servers. 👉 bleepingcomputer.com
    • Supply chain attack hits npm package with 45,000 weekly downloads. 👉 bleepingcomputer.com
    • Cisco fixes max severity IOS XE flaw letting attackers hijack devices. 👉 bleepingcomputer.com
    • A malicious Python package targeting Discord developers with remote access trojan (RAT) malware was spotted on the Python Package Index (PyPI) after more than three years. 👉 bleepingcomputer.com

12. Education Sector Cyberattacks:

    • PowerSchool hacker now extorting individual school districts. 👉 bleepingcomputer.com
    • Education giant Pearson hit by cyberattack exposing customer data. 👉 bleepingcomputer.com
    • A Florida bill, which would have required social media companies to provide an encryption backdoor for allowing police to access user accounts and private messages, has failed to pass into law. 👉 techcrunch.com

13. Healthcare Data Breaches:

    • Ascension says recent data breach affects over 430,000 patients. 👉 bleepingcomputer.com

14. Palworld Legal Issues:

    • Palworld developer Pocketpair says a 2024 update was due to “ongoing litigation” and a new update is “yet another compromise”, as it disputes Nintendo's claims 👉 eurogamer.net

15. Operating Systems:

    • Huawei unveils its first laptop running HarmonyOS 5, after its Windows license for PCs expired in March 2025, and plans a full reveal on May 19. 👉 scmp.com

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