A 77-year-old sues a cop for wrongly targeting her home with the ‘Find my’ App, the FBI investigates attacks on North Carolina and Amazon will invite users to share their data for $2 per month.
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That’s all the tech news that’s trending right now, welcome to Hashtag Trending. It’s Wednesday December 7 and I’m your host, Samira Balsara.
77-year-old Ruby Johnson is suing a Denver cop after she was confined in a squad car for hours in January, Ars Technica reported. She wasn’t told what was happening, neither was she offered any water and ended up missing her daily medications. Later, she found out about a stolen truck—reportedly with six guns and an iPhone stashed inside—wrongly believed to be parked in her garage based on no evidence other than her home being located within a wide blue circle drawn by a “Find My” iPhone app. “This illegal search has destroyed Ms. Johnson’s sense of safety and security in the home that has been her castle for 40 years,” Johnson’s complaint reads. The Denver Police Department said they have apologized to Johnson and vowed to train police officers on the use of ‘Find my’ App.
The FBI is joining legal forces in investigating attacks on two electrical substations in North Carolina’s power grid that left 45,000 people or 60 per cent of North Carolina’s Moore County without power and heat over the weekend. As of Monday, only 7000 customers had their power restored. The Moore County Sheriff office said that they are investigating the incident as a criminal occurrence as evidence indicated that intentional vandalism took place, including damages by gunfire. No arrests have been made yet.
Some Amazon users will be invited to earn $2 per month for agreeing to share their traffic data with the company via the Ad Verification Program. Amazon will track what ads participants saw, where they saw them, and the time of day they were viewed. This includes Amazon’s own ads and third-party ads on the platform, Business Insider reported. According to Amazon, this program will help the company offer more personalized-ad experiences to customers that reflect what they have previously purchased. Customers who didn’t get invited can get added to a waitlist and potentially join later, an Amazon spokesperson told Insider.
Two women have filed a class-action lawsuit against Apple alleging that hidden Airtags were used by former partners to stalk them. Designed to find lost belongings, Airtags have been largely misused. Updates introduced to Airtags in 2021 focused on privacy, like informing a person if they have been near an Airtag for long or reminding users that stalking is a crime when they first connect to the device. The lawsuit, which was filed on December 5 in San Francisco, says the product is still dangerous because Apple estimates that it takes four-to-eight hours of tracking before any alert is sent. The plaintiffs seek damages to be determined at any future trial.
That’s all the tech news that’s trending right now. Hashtag Trending is a part of the ITWC Podcast network. Add us to your Alexa Flash briefings or your Google Home daily briefing. Make sure to sign up for our Daily IT Wire newsletter to get all the news that matters directly in your inbox every day. Also, catch the next episode of Hashtag Tendances, our weekly Hashtag Trending episode in French, which drops every Thursday morning. If you have a suggestion or a tip, drop us a line in the comments or via email. Thank you for listening, I’m Samira Balsara.
