At theAmerican Folk Art Museum, notions of home are explored through objects that, at their best, create an intimate bond across centuries between visitors and the people who once owned them.

Selling your data GM faces ban on selling driver data that can be used to raise insurance rates GM sold geolocation and other driving data without adequate consent, FTC says. Jon Brodkin Jan 17, 2025 1:51 pm | 44 OnStar and SOS buttons in a Chevrolet vehicle on May 3, 2024. Credit: Getty Images | Smith Collection/Gado OnStar and SOS buttons in a Chevrolet vehicle on May 3, 2024. Credit: Getty Images | Smith Collection/Gado Story textSizeSmallStandardLargeWidth *StandardWideLinksStandardOrange* Subscribers only Learn moreGeneral Motors and its subsidiary OnStar agreed to a settlement that prohibits them from sharing driver location and behavior data with third parties, the Federal Trade Commission announced yesterday. The proposed settlement comes less than a year after GM responded to public backlash by announcing that it stopped sharing driving data from its connected cars with companies such as LexisNexis.The FTC said it "is taking action against General Motors (GM) and OnStar over allegations they collected, used, and sold drivers' precise geolocation data and driving behavior information from millions of vehiclesdata that can be used to set insurance rateswithout adequately notifying consumers and obtaining their affirmative consent." GM did not admit to or deny the allegations.GM and OnStar "will be banned for five years from disclosing consumers' sensitive geolocation and driver behavior data to consumer reporting agencies," the FTC said. Under the settlement, "consumer reporting agency" means a firm that collects or evaluates "consumer credit information or other information on consumers for the purpose of furnishing consumer reports to other parties and which uses any means or facility of interstate commerce for the purpose of preparing or furnishing consumer reports."A New York Times report last year described how the data sharing works. "After LexisNexis and Verisk [a data broker that works with the insurance industry] get data from consumers' cars, they sell information about how people are driving to insurance companies," the NYT report said. "To access it, the insurance companies must get consent from the driverssay, when they go out shopping for car insurance and sign off on boilerplate language that gives insurance companies the right to pull third-party reports."A pending class-action lawsuit against GM, OnStar, and LexisNexis alleges that the defendants deceived and harmed consumers.The FTC said its complaint alleged that "GM used a misleading enrollment process to get consumers to sign up for its OnStar connected vehicle service and the OnStar Smart Driver feature." Lina Khan, who is in her final week as FTC chair, said that "GM monitored and sold people's precise geolocation data and driver behavior information, sometimes as often as every three seconds."Settlement not quite finalizedThe proposed settlement was approved in a closed meeting by the FTC's three Democrats, with the two Republicans recorded as absent. The pending agreement will be subject to public comment for 30 days after publication in the Federal Register, and a final FTC decision will be made under the Trump administration.In addition to location data, the GM/FTC settlement covers "radio listening data regarding specific content, channel, or station; hard braking, hard acceleration, hard cornering, crossing of a designated high-speed threshold, seat belt usage, or late-night driving; and trip time and duration for such events." GM and OnStar agreed to delete data collected before the settlement and ask third parties to delete data previously shared with them.GM also "must allow consumers to disable the collection of Location Data from their Vehicles to the extent the Vehicle is equipped with the necessary technology."GM issued a press release on the settlement. "Last year, we discontinued Smart Driver across all GM vehicles, unenrolled all customers, and ended our third-party telematics relationships with LexisNexis and Verisk," GM said. "In September, we consolidated many of our US privacy statements into a single, simpler statement as part of our broader work to keep raising the bar on privacy... As part of the agreement, GM will obtain affirmative customer consent to collect, use, or disclose certain types of connected vehicle data (with exceptions for certain purposes)."Affirmative consent is not required for purposes such as providing driver data to emergency responders, responding to customer-initiated communications, complying with government requests and legal requirements, and investigating product quality or safety problems. While the ban on sharing driving data lasts only five years, the overall settlement would be in place for 20 years.Jon BrodkinSenior IT ReporterJon BrodkinSenior IT Reporter Jon is a Senior IT Reporter for Ars Technica. He covers the telecom industry, Federal Communications Commission rulemakings, broadband consumer affairs, court cases, and government regulation of the tech industry. 44 Comments

Israel's government moved closer Friday to approving a cease-fire deal struck with Hamas.Officials in Benjamin Netanyahu's cabinet approved a deal, which still requires wider approval from the government.Netanyahu's office said the deal was on track to be finalized by Sunday.Israel on Friday moved closer to ratifying a cease-fire and hostage release deal it struck with Hamas that would end 15 months of fighting in Gaza.The security cabinet of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave its approval on Friday afternoon local time.The next step is for the wider Israeli government to give approval to the deal.Netanyahu's office said Friday "the Government has approved the framework for the return of the hostages. The framework for the hostages' release will come into effect on Sunday, January 19, 2025.". A White House official said Thursday that they are confident the deal will move forward as planned.Hopes for a deal to end the fighting and free the hostagesThe agreement, expected to be a major breakthrough in the Middle East conflict, is meant to halt the bloodshed and facilitate the release of some of the remaining hostages. Relatives and friends of people killed and abducted by Hamas react to the cease-fire announcement during a demonstration in Tel Aviv on Wednesday. AP Photo/Oded Balilty "At long last, I can announce a cease-fire and a hostage deal has been reached between Israel and Hamas," President Joe Biden said in a televised announcement Wednesday afternoon.US officials helped broker the deal in Qatar.In a written statement, he said the deal would stop the fighting in Gaza, surge much-needed humanitarian assistance to Palestinian civilians, and reunite hostages with their families. Hours later, Israeli strikes reportedly killed dozens of Palestinians in Gaza.On October 7, 2023, as part of Hamas-led terror attacks against Israel, Hamas and other militants kidnapped 251 people from Israel and killed around 1,200 across the country.Hamas and its allies still hold 98 hostages, an Israeli government spokesperson said Tuesday, though at least 34 of them are thought to have died in captivity.How the cease-fire agreement could be implementedThe deal, if formally approved by Israel's government, is set to include multiple phases.The first stage is expected to include 33 hostages most of whom are alive released on "humanitarian" grounds, an Israeli spokesperson told reporters at a briefing. This will consist of women, children, older people, as well as hostages who are sick. Destroyed buildings are seen from a U.S. Air Force plane flying over Gaza in March 2024. AP Photo/Leo Correa, File When asked how many Palestinian prisoners Israel was willing to release in exchange, the spokesperson said that the country "is prepared to pay a heavy price, in the hundreds."The Israeli military confirmed that it's preparing for the return of the hostages. On Wednesday, Qatar's prime minister said the deal would go into effect Sunday.Biden, flanked by Vice President Kamala Harris and Secretary of State Antony Blinken, had told reporters that the first phase of the deal included a full cease-fire. If ratified, it's expected to last six weeks and includes the withdrawal of Israeli forces from all the populated areas of Gaza.A second phase, which is still being worked out, would see a "permanent end" to the war, Biden said.The president added that this phase would include the release of the remainder of the living hostages, with the rest of the Israeli forces withdrawing from Gaza.In the third phase, any remains of hostages who have been killed would be returned to their families, and a major reconstruction plan would be set in motion for Gaza. Israeli soldiers board an armored vehicle to enter Gaza at the border in southern Israel in December 2024. AP Photo/Tsafrir Abayov To date, 117 hostages have been returned alive to Israel, including 105 freed as part of a prisoner exchange in November 2023.The cease-fire deal intends to end the brutal conflict, which has seen large areas of Gaza destroyed and left the militant group severely battered. The Hamas-run health ministry says Israel's military offensive in the coastal enclave has killed more than 46,000 people. It does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.Negotiations for a cease-fire deal have been ongoing for many months, but news that Israel and Hamas were close to reaching an agreement emerged earlier this week, hinting that, at last, there could be movement.President-elect Donald Trump said his victory in November directly contributed to the deal coming to fruition. "We have achieved so much without even being in the White House," he wrote in a post on his Truth Social platform.

A founding member of the PayPal Mafia is the man that Donald Trump has chosen to help America take over Greenland. Ken Howery, who formerly served as the chief financial officer of the online payments app, is also known for his longstanding ties to two other pivotal members of that aforementioned mafia: tech billionaires Elon Musk and Peter Thiel. Howery, who previously served in the first Trump administration as the U.S. ambassador to Sweden between 2019 and 2021, has been selected as Trumps new ambassador to Denmark. Trump has stated that he wants to buy Greenland from Denmark, though officials from the Scandinavian country have repeatedly said that the territory is not for sale. Trump, not to be deterred, has insisted that hes going to make it happen and has even said he wouldnt rule out the use of military force to seal the deal. Howery still needs to be confirmed by the Senate for the role. If he is, he will be tasked with trying to maneuver a deal that critics have deemed insane. While Trump hasnt been particularly clear about why he wants Greenland, its generally agreed upon that the territory is of significant geostrategic importance. During the Cold War, the U.S. notably attempted to build a network of nuclear missile launch sites in Greenland for use in a second-strike capacity against the Soviet Union. The effort was a tightly held secret and, allegedly, the U.S. never even informed the Danish government it was doing this. Howerys potential involvement in the new pivotal administration role is just more evidence of the PayPal mafias political ascendance under the new Trump administration. Like many of the PayPal crew, Howery and Thiel were college buddies at Stanford. Howery wrote for The Stanford Review, Thiels student newspaper, and, together, the two would go on to create Founders Fund, the powerful venture capital firm that has backed some of the most successful tech companies in Silicon Valley, including Facebook, SpaceX, and others.As far as U.S. State Department officials go, Howery seems to enjoy an unusually colorful social life. Indeed, nearly half a dozen times throughout the Times piece, reporters refer to his capacity to party. Howery is reportedly known for his extravagant social outings, including a Halloween party at a castle in Transylvania in 2022, where Thiel and other billionaires appeared. A previous Times story from 2022 also notes how Howery threw himself a birthday party at an imposing 19th-century castle outside Stockholm in November of 2020.During the pandemic, Musk spent significant time living out of Howerys mansion in Houston, and in 2021, he is said to have hosted a party there where guests were forced to sign non-disclosure agreements. At that party was Joe Rogan (who platformed Trump during the election and has hosted Musk many times on his podcast), Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale, techno-optimist doofus Jamie Wheal, and other well-known VIPs, many of whom have ties to the broader techno-libertarian network that circulates around Thiel. We previously reported that the Network State movementa weird political movement that wants to build its own privately-owned, cryptocurrency-powered citieshas also expressed interest in purchasing Greenland and using it to trial its techno-colonization efforts. Dryden Brown, the CEO of the Network State-linked Praxis project, has even claimed that acquiring Greenland is part of his movements broader plan. The Network State movement has received considerable financial support from Thiel, who also financially supported Trump during his first presidential run in 2016.

Nature, Published online: 15 January 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-00117-zNations consider increasing universities involvement in military research.

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Mob Entertainment--the development studio behind the jumpscare-heavy survival horror game known as Poppy Playtime--is suing Google over what it calls "scam" games that are ripping off the studio's intellectual property (via Polygon).The studio filed the lawsuit earlier this week, claiming that Google has allowed a number of illegal knockoff versions of Poppy Playtime into the Google Play store. Among the unofficial (and unauthorized) games are Poppy Playtime Chapter 3 and Poppy Playtime Chapter 4, neither of which were created by Mob Entertainment. Both games--developed by an entity known as Daigo--are still available for download on the Google Play store at the time of writing.These two games are proving especially vexing for Poppy Playtime's creators due to the fact that the game is episodic in nature. Mob Entertainment argues that by allowing illegitimate games to use "Poppy Playtime" in their titles and (indicate that said games are new episodes), Google is allowing other entities to profit from the Poppy Playtime brand by fooling fans into thinking they're playing new chapters of the game.Continue Reading at GameSpot

Like Indiana Jones' whip and hat, the breathing device is another essential tool in Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. The breathing device allows you to breathe and swim underwater safely, opening up even more ways to explore while playing as the iconic adventurer. Although it's possible to come across secret areas that require the breathing device quite early in the game, you won't be able to grab it until much later in the story. Consequently, you might wonder when and how to get the breathing device in Indiana Jones and the Great Circle and what you need to do in order to get it.

Important ChangesIntroduced LuminousIntensity (expressed in candela) and Illumination (expressed in lux) classes.Replaced Spot/Point lights specular and diffuse intensities with a single LuminousIntensity value.Replaced Directional lights specular and diffuse intensities with a single Illumination value.The specular, diffuse, sheen, clearcoat, and scattering models are now fully replaceable.The default lighting model is now glTF's.

The Nintendo Switch 2 was finally revealed, and it looks more like a Steam Deck than its predecessors ever did. Its new design paints over the iconic red and blue Joy-Cons with a black finish you could almost mistake for Valves handheld PC. Details are slim on whats inside the Switch 2 as we wait to learn more in April, but for now, we can look at how it stacks up against the Steam Deck as a portable gaming device based on what was shown.Heres all the specs we can surmise about the Switch 2 from the trailer and how they compare to the Steam Deck.System sizeNintendo stretched the Switch 2s overall size out a little bit to accommodate its larger screen. While we dont have specific measurements, we did the math based on the teaser video and found that its about 14% larger than the original Switch (with Joy-Cons included). That makes the Switch 2 about 4.5 inches tall and 10.7 inches wide. The Steam Deck is a little larger at 4.6 inches tall and 11.7 inches wide.Screen sizeA report from last year said that the Switch 2 will have an 8-inch LCD screen, and the video looks close to that. Our measurements put the Switch 2s screen at 7.8 inches, a sizable upgrade from the original Switchs 6.2-inch LCD screen, and its actually a tiny bit bigger than that of both models of the Steam Deck. The Steam Deck OLED has a 7.4-inch touchscreen, and its LCD cousin has only a 7-inch touchscreen.Screen resolutionResolution remains a mystery for the Switch 2. Leaks suggest it might still have a 720p screen like the original console, but will be able to use upscaling tech similar to Nvidias DLSS to hit 4K when docked. That would put it just under the Steam Decks 1,280800 resolution, a difference you wouldnt notice without holding the screen real close to your face. But the Steam Deck can output up to 8K using its USB-C port, and the newest model has an OLED screen. Picture quality on the Switch 2 will have blacks that look more gray and duller colors than the Steam Deck OLED, but itll probably have a better battery life because of it.CPU/GPUHeres where the speculation happens. According to leaks from someone getting their hands on the Switch 2 motherboard, the system will run on an Nvidia custom Tegra T239 processor. Analysts predict itll reach a similar power level as the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Its unclear how much of that power will be tied to having it docked or not, though. If thats true, the Switch 2 will be slightly faster than the Steam Deck OLEDs Zen 2 processor, but when you take into account its rumored 12 GB of memory compared to the Steam Decks 16 GB of memory the differences will be minimal.StorageThe Switch 2s storage situation isnt something you can glean from a fancy teaser video. More rumors courtesy of the motherboard leak suggest the Switch 2 will have 256 GB of UFS 3.1 storage, a huge jump up from the original systems 32 GB of storage. It might also have a slot for microSD Express cards with up to 128 TB of capacity. The Steam Deck OLED beats the Switch 2 with a 512 GB NVMe SSD for internal storage in its base model and a 1 TB NVMe SSD in its upgraded version. But keep in mind, PC games are often a lot larger than Nintendo games, so the difference might not matter much. And Valves device only supports microSDXC and microSDHC cards, which gives the Switch 2 a slight advantage in terms of data transfer speeds.PortsNintendo surprised us with not one, but two USB-C ports on the Switch 2. And just like the previous model, itll have a 3.5 mm headphone jack (take that, Apple!). The Steam Deck only carries one USB-C port along with its headphone jack and, unlike the Switch 2, it doesnt have a fancy kickstand.Battery life and other specsThe Switch 2s battery life is up in the air still. Leaks can only tell us so much, because a lot of it will depend on how its hardware and software will work in concert. The original Switchs battery life ranges from around two and a half to six and a half hours, so the Switch 2 could last a little longer. The Steam Deck is a similar story: Its battery is rated for between three and 12 hours of gameplay, depending on what youre playing and how high you have the graphics settings cranked up.And that leaves us with that mysterious button and the mouse-like Joy-Cons on the Switch 2. Rumors say the new button is a C button, but nobody seems to have any idea what it does. And even though were pretty sure the Joy-Cons can be used as mice, we have no idea how you actually use them. We are certain the Switch 2 doesnt match the Steam Decks dual trackpads that also work as big buttons.