Schrems 2 – Facebook 0 [Wall Street Journal]
Another victory for privacy activists! Ireland’s Data Protection Commission sent Facebook a preliminary order to suspend data transfers of European users to the US as a follow-up to the decision of the European Court of Justice invalidating Privacy Shield. The Irish DPC’s preliminary order suggests that standard contractual clauses – on which many companies rely on to transfer data across the ocean – are not sufficient under the ruling. This could have huge implications for businesses on both sides of the Atlantic, especially big tech companies. It shows that more than ever, EU and US authorities need to find common ground to allow companies to continue their activities while guaranteeing the protection of citizens’ data.
Now chewing can help level up your mind [The Verge]
Gaming is a lifestyle that deserves the right accessories. 🎮 Razer presented a new product specifically designed for gamers. We’re not talking about new headphones, nor a new laptop: the novelty is a chewing gum. After studying gamer’s daily habits, the well-known gaming hardware manufacturer, presented a chewing gum to boost gamer’s focus and reaction time. The chewing gum only contains caffeine derived from green tea extract and can be consumed at any time of day or night. And they’re also yummy: cool mint, tropical punch, and pomegranate watermelon to satisfy all palates. Respawn by 5 GUM will surely give gamers an extra edge…do you think it works also for non-gamers? 👾
“My brain is boiling with ideas!” – The Guardian’s new robot journalist [The Guardian]
We’ve written before about failed attempts to have AI write news articles but OpenAI’s language generator, GPT-3, might be putting some journalists out of business in the future. The Guardian ordered GPT-3 to “focus on why humans have nothing to fear from AI.” When reading the AI’s response, it seemed a little disjointed, with a few good arguments that don’t connect well to one another. Then, you find out that GPT-3 actually wrote eight different articles, allowing the Guardian writers to mix and match the best parts of each. So maybe GPT-3 is onto something…
Chess, the new streaming obsession [The New York Times]
Who would have guessed that chess would be the new streaming obsession thanks to the pandemic? Well you might have heard of players broadcasting themselves playing video games such as Fortnite and Call of Duty on platforms like Twitch? Some had the brilliant idea of using these platforms for live chess games and during the pandemic viewership has soared. From March through August, people watched 41.2 million hours of chess on Twitch, four times as many hours as in the previous six months. PogChamps, an amateur chess tournament, was briefly in June the top-viewed stream on Twitch – with 63,000 people watching at once. A real pandemic comeback. To all chess players out there: now more than ever time it’s to dust your chainmail and enter the battlefield again.
In case you haven’t had enough…
TikTok battles to remove video of livestreamed suicide (The Guardian)
Republicans pressure platforms with new 230 bill (The Verge)
Russia, China and Iran trying to hack presidential race, Microsoft says (Politico)
Generation Work-From-Home May Never Recover (The Atlantic)
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