Democratic nominee Kamala Harris has made history, yet again. This time, it’s because she hosted the largest Zoom call ever held, with over 200,000 attendees from the advocacy group ‘White Women: Answer the Call’.

The record-breaking Zoom call was the latest in a series of virtual fundraisers designed to drum up support across different demographics, with similar calls being organized by black women and “White Dudes”.

With the sitting Vice President already raking in over $16 million from these virtual grassroots campaigns, and even more from big tech donations, her fundraising campaign has already broken records after Biden’s exit. Here’s what you need to know about Harris’ unprecedented zoom call, and her bid to win over social media.

Harris’ Call With ‘White Women: Answer the Call” Breaks Record

Presidential candidate and viral meme generator Kamala Harris has made history. No, not for the reasons you may expect, but for spearheading the largest Zoom call in the platform’s history.

The Zoom call in question took place during the fundraising event ‘White Women: Answer the Call’ which drew a virtual crowd of over 200,000 supporters. For reference, that’s roughly the same amount of people that make up the population of Richmond, Virginia.

The call, which raised over $11 million for Harris’ presidential campaign, was so large it temporarily overwhelmed Zoom’s servers and even flooded the campaign’s donation link. However, except for these momentary glitches, the video call is widely considered a huge success and was the latest in a round of virtual grassroots events the Bay native has been running to drum up support across different voter demographics.

Harris’ Zoom Calls Mobilizes Support Across Different Demographics

The record-breaking call followed the success of a similar virtual call designed to mobilize Black female voters across the US. The call, which was organized by the advocacy group “Win With Back Women”, welcomed over 44,000 participants on Zoom, forcing an executive at the company to step in to increase the call’s capacity. The event was also viewed by 50,000 others from separate platforms and raised a total of $1.5 million for Harris’ campaign.

But the Presidential challenger isn’t just harnessing web conferencing software to capture female voters. On Monday night Harris ran a three-hour call titled “White Dudes for Kamala”, which raised more than $4 million in donations, and attracted over 190,000 attendants, including high-profile names like Mark Ruffalo and Jeff Bridges.

Silicon Valley Remains Split When it Comes to Harris

It’s not just grassroot voters who are throwing money at Harris’ campaign. In the 24-hour window after President Biden announced he would be stepping down from office, the former California Senator’s team received over $81 million from Democratic donors. This was the largest sum of money raised in a single day throughout the whole 2024 campaign.

While Harris has a critical stance on some hot-button tech issues like AI and privacy, she cut her teeth in San Francisco, a city renowned for its global tech industry. As a result, much of her campaign’s financial support has come from wealthy Silicon Valley donors like Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings who recently backed a campaign donation of $7 million.

Yet, while Harris has a friendly relationship with a number of wealthy tech investors, support across the industry is far from universal. Several tech titans, including controversial tech billionaire Elon Musk, have been throwing money towards Trump’s campaign this year because the Republican nominee has a much more laissez-faire approach to tech regulation.

Kamala Harris Is Doing The Internet Right

With the 2024 Presidential campaign being the first to take place after the Covid-19 pandemic, succesfully leveraging virtual technologies like social media has been a crucial trick for nominees.

Despite entering the race late, Harris has hit the ground running when it comes to her adoption of the internet. In addition to the success of her virtual rallies, the Vice President has scored a number of meme-worthy moments, including going viral for her “You think you just fell out of a coconut tree?” line at a White House event, and more recently, winning the support of internet ‘it girl’ Charlie XCX after changing her cover photo on social media platform X to a lime-green cover photo inspired by the pop stars Brat album cover.

kamala IS brat

— Charli (@charli_xcx) July 22, 2024

While Republican nominee Donald Trump has also garnered success on social media, with the New York native setting up his own popular social media company, Truth Social, and more recently using the photos of his failed assassination attempt to gain political capital, he hasn’t been able to latch onto viral moments quite as well as Harris in his current campaign.

However, whichever side of the political spectrum you fall, one thing is for certain –  social media and platforms like Zoom will continue to be a vital tools for both Harris and Trump as the 2024 presidential race enters its next phase.

Image “Kamala Harris” by Gage Skidmore is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.

It’s been discussed endlessly by governments, both Democrat and Republican, for the last few years, but the TikTok ban is real, and just weeks away.

Based on concerns of national security, and a deep-seated distrust of the Chinese government, the ban would see the app shutdown for its current 170 million US users.

However, there is light at the end of the tunnel, as a sale to a US company, or the incoming change of president, could reverse the impending ban.

When Is TikTok Getting Banned in the US?

Okay, here’s a date for your diary. TikTok will be officially banned in the US on January 19th, 2025.

Maybe. There are a number of caveats attached to this date, with the app’s future dependent on several factors.

Firstly, this date could well move. The ban is only in effect if TikTok can’t (or won’t) find a US company to handle its stateside users, and ensure that no US data is sent to China. If the government feels that progress is being made with the sale, but not quite complete by the deadline, it can extend it by up to 90 days.

Of course, if TikTok does sell before this date, then the ban is off, and it can continue its business in the US.

Bytedance had appealed against the decision, but as of December 2024, the decision was upheld by the courts, and the ban is going ahead, leaving little recourse for the social media giant.

There is the possibility that Trump, who begins his second term in January 2025 after his recent election win, could well save the Chinese social media app from annihilation in the US.

Why is TikTok Getting Banned in the US?

The reason the Biden administration is looking to ban TikTok, is in the interest of national security. US and Chinese tech companies have a somewhat troublesome relationship, and this isn’t the first time the US has come down hard on the country.

In 2022 the US banned Huawei communication equipment, as well as some smaller Chinese brands, from sale, citing security concerns.

Government officials in several countries are already banned from using TikTok for the same reason. But is it founded in fact?

As recently as July this year, the Justice department issued a warning that it had evidence that TikTok is sending personal data about US users back to China, and that internal tools allow the company to scrape the data of millions of citizens to find users’ views on issues such as gun control, abortion and voting intention.

It also suggests that the platform is capable of censoring certain subjects for US citizens, though the Justice department hasn’t been able to confirm that this functionality has been used.

There are wilder concerns, too. In March, Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, an Illinois Democrat suggested that another reason for banning TikTok in the US was due to the Chinese Communist Party experimenting with ‘mind controlling software’.

Will Donald Trump Ban TikTok?

In September 2024, Trump posted on his own social media site, Truth Social, that he would stop the current TikTok ban if elected president. Now of course, his presidency has been confirmed, but we’re still not sure if he’ll see his promise through.

Trump’s relationship with TikTok is prickly to say the least, and it was actually his government that first called for the app to be banned, back in June 2020. Despite previous security concerns, the app had flown under his radar, until a disastrous rally that month, which saw a huge rush for tickets, but an incredibly poor turnout.

The reason for this, it turned out, was due to a malicious campaign on TikTok to apply for the free tickets, and simply not use them. A spokesperson for Trump boasted over the one million ticket applications, yet attendance was just in the thousands on the day. After this event, TikTok was in Trump’s sights, and a ban pencilled in.

However, it was the Biden administration that actually reversed this ban when it came into office – quite a turnaround from where we find ourselves today.

Trump has said that he is ‘big on TikTok’, and has amassed around 11 million followers since signing up for the app in June. Whether or not he will stick to his word and stop the ban remains to be seen, but even if he does, it won’t resolve the fears to American security that prompted the ban in the first place.

What Can I Do if TikTok is Banned?

For many Americans, the thought of TikTok disappearing overnight is a disaster. It has over 170 million users in the US, and not only that, but an estimated 7 millions small businesses use the platform, and last year generated a massive $15 billion in revenue on the app.

If the ban does happen, you can expect a lot of desperate users to try everything they can to hang onto the app.

The good news is that if you’ve already downloaded the app onto your device, then it won’t suddenly disappear come January 19th 2025. If you haven’t already downloaded it, then you may want to, as chances are that it will be removed from digital store fronts as soon as the ban is actioned.

You could sideload the app by obtaining it through unofficial channels, but it’s a dangerous practice, and could open you up to viruses and spyware (more so than what the US government is already accusing China of).

Once the ban comes in, access to the service from within the US may be blocked. If this happens, a VPN will enable you to trick the app into thinking you’re connecting to it from a country where it isn’t banned (don’t bother pretending to be in India though, it’s banned there too).

If you do do this, be aware that it could play havoc with your algorithm for a bit, and you might find an influx of ‘local’ content on your front page.

What Countries Is TikTok Already Banned In?

If the US does ban TikTok, it won’t be alone. The Chinese social media app has rustled feathers in other countries too, leading to it being banned.

Of all the counties to ban TikTok to date, India is undoubtedly the largest. In 2020 it barred TikTok, as well as dozens of other Chinese apps, citing security concerns, much like the US government has.

In November 2023, Nepal banned TikTok over concerns that it was a ‘detriment to social harmony’. In 2022, the Taliban in Afghanistan blocked the app, stating that it was ‘not consistent with Islamic laws’. Even the version of TikTok that we know, isn’t available in its native China, where a more censored version is used by Chinese citizens.

Even countries where the public are still allowed free access to TikTok, you’ll find that it is banned on government devices due to security fears, including Australia, Canada, UK, France and Denmark.

Tesla founder and owner of X, Elon Musk, is showing no signs of remorse after posting a deepfake video of Vice President Kamala Harris.

Deepfake technology has gotten troublingly effective in the last few years, spurred on by substantial AI advancements. The tech has been used to perpetrate scams with the likeness of celebrities of all kinds, causing the internet to be an even more confusing place.

Now, a deepfake video of a potential presidential candidate has surfaced, with Musk reposting the parody it on X without marking it as a deepfake, against the rules set by his own social media channel. It was published on July 27th and currently has 132.1 million views.

The Deepfake Video Musk Loves

Elon Musk — is currently engaged in simultaneous online spats over the Venezuelan election and puberty blocking hormones.  has not taken down the video or change his caption, which reads: “This is amazing 😂.”

The clip uses a real campaign video but with a faked audio track using an AI generated voice over to mimic Kamala Harris. In it, fake Harris refers to herself as the “ultimate diversity hire” and a “deep state puppet.”

Musk posted just days before X was accused of suspending the account of a group called “White dudes for Harris” three hours after a fundraiser it organized raised $3 million.

The Response

In response to the controversial billionaire, who was voted the most overrated CEO in the US in February, California Governor Gavin Newson wrote: “Manipulating a voice in an “ad” like this one should be illegal.” He also nodded to the bill that the Senate is hoping to pass on AI to counter misinformation, abuse and fraud –something that Microsoft has pushed on only today.

Musk responded with: “I checked with renowned world authority, Professor Suggon Deeznutz, and he said parody is legal in America.” The original poster of the video, user @MrReaganUSA, did flag it as a parody but Musk did not.

In X’s policy on synthetic and manipulated media, it says: “You may not share synthetic, manipulated, or out-of-context media that may deceive or confuse people and lead to harm (“misleading media”).” In order to be removed or prompt action, a post must “include media that is significantly and deceptively altered,” “shared in a deceptive manner or with false context,” or result in “widespread confusion on public issues.”

X says in the policy that it will investigate “whether there are any visual or auditory information (such as new video frames, overdubbed audio, or modified subtitles) that has been added, edited, or removed that fundamentally changes the understanding, meaning, or context of the media.” This will help it determine whether a post should be taken down.

Meta has launched a tool called AI Studio that will let users build virtual versions of themselves.

Users will be able to create their own chatbot with custom personalities, traits and even interests that mirror their own.

The tool will initially be rolled out to Instagram Business account owners but then made available to all Meta users across the US in the following weeks.

Built using Meta’s own Open Source large language model, Llama 3.1, it can be accessed online and through Instagram where there is a “Create an AI chat” option. “From there, you can customize your AI character’s name, personality, tone, avatar and tagline”, says Meta.

Creative License for AI Personalities

“Anyone can create their own AI designed to make you laugh, generate memes, give travel advice and so much more. Creators can also make an AI as an extension of themselves to answer common DM questions and story replies, helping them reach more people”, states the Meta team.

Meta has provided templates to kick off creativity but there are also a crowd of chatbots already created to inspire. Chef Marc Murphy has made an AI chatbot that offers personalized tips for embracing local dining customs while you’re traveling called Eat Like You Live There! Meme creator Assistants vs. Agents has made an AI character called Sammy The Stress Ball to “help you get through your stressful work day”.

Meta Issues Guidelines on AI Use

For creators, says Meta, the tool could be a powerful way to reach more fans, with the chatbots able to answer common questions or reply in stories. Meta adds: “Creators can customize their AI based on things like their Instagram content, topics to avoid and links they want it to share. Through the professional dashboard in the Instagram app, creators can turn auto-replies on and off, and even decide who their AI replies to. Responses from creator AIs are clearly labeled, so there’s full transparency for fans.”

Meta warns in the AI Studio usage policy that users can only create an AI version of themselves and also rules out “objects that could be considered hateful, explicit or illegal.” Meta says the policies will “…keep people safe and help ensure AIs are used responsibly, so that chatting with AIs remains fun and helpful.”

A Year in the Offing

News of the alpha release of AI Studio hit headlines nearly a year ago after it was announced at the annual Meta Connect developer conference. TechCrunch reported at the time that Mark Zuckerberg said that the Meta team was expecting the use cases to be primarily e-commerce and customer support. A statement detailed that it would allow businesses to “…create AIs that reflect their brand’s values and improve customer service experiences.”

At the time, the Meta team teased that more was to come, promising a sandbox tool would be released in the coming year “…enabling anyone to experiment with creating their own AI”. It added: “As our universe of AIs continues to grow and evolve, we’ll bring this sandbox to the metaverse, giving you the chance to build AIs that adopt an even greater level of realism, embodiment, and connectedness.”

The Meta team also experimented with a range of AI chatbots last September, that were based on real celebrities including Snoop Dogg and Kendall Jenner. These failed to gain fans and have now been “retired”.

The new option to create personalised chatbots should get more attention, especially from creators desperate to reach out to more fans but limited by time and resources.

Creators will have to keep an eye on their digital counterparts though as AI chatbots aren’t without their biases and could say things that their flesh and blood owners definitely wouldn’t.

Microsoft has published an impassioned plea to lawmakers to take rapid action against AI-generated deepfakes.

Warning that deepfakes are “increasingly being used for fraud, abuse, and manipulation,” the company’s Vice Chair and President, Brad Smith, has called on members of Congress to act now to protect the public.

He warned that senior citizens and children are particularly at risk and is urging lawmakers to create a “deepfake fraud statute” to make it easier to prosecute.

Laws Need to Evolve

“While the tech sector and non-profit groups have taken recent steps to address this problem, it has become apparent that our laws will also need to evolve to combat deepfake fraud,” says Smith in the blog post.

Proposed bills on this have yet to pass into law though California, Colorado and Virginia have established regulatory and compliance frameworks for AI systems.

As well as lacking legislation, Smith argues that until now, the focus has also been too narrow. The technology industry has been concentrating on the use of deepfakes for political purposes in the lead-up to the election — Ironically, this blog post was published just a day after Elon Musk shared an unmarked deepfake of Vice-President Kamala Harris on X.

However, Smith urges that a wider awareness is needed. Industry players and lawmakers need to look at “…the broad role [deepfakes] play in these other types of crime and abuse,” he writes.

A Tool – And a Weapon

The blog post marks the publication of a 42-page report, which begins by repeating a warning that Smith made in his 2019 book, Tools and Weapons. Then, and now, he wrote about how “technological innovation can serve as both a tool for societal advancement and a powerful weapon.”

The blog speaks to the transformative power that AI is having in so many areas – including medicine. But it also details how the FBI has just taken down a Russian bot-farm that was designed to “disseminate AI-generated foreign disinformation.”

“…We find ourselves at a moment in history when anyone with access to the Internet can use AI tools to create a highly realistic piece of synthetic media that can be used to deceive: a voice clone of a family member, a deepfake image of a political candidate, or even a doctored government document.” -Smith

He warns that we are at a profound tipping point at which “…AI has made manipulating media significantly easier – quicker, more accessible, and requiring little skill,” stating simply: “As swiftly as AI technology has become a tool, it has become a weapon.”

Time to Act

The new report is a call to action to urge US lawmakers to “pass a comprehensive deepfake fraud statute to prevent cybercriminals from using this technology to steal from everyday Americans. ” Smith urges that speed is key. “We don’t have all the solutions or perfect ones, but we want to contribute to and accelerate action,” he explains.

Smith acknowledges that Congress has “a range of legislation that would go a long way toward addressing the issue” and it is working with action groups and technology giants in this area. However, he says: “We need to give law enforcement officials, including state attorneys general, a standalone legal framework to prosecute AI-generated fraud and scams as they proliferate in speed and complexity. ” This must focus on election interference; protecting the elderly from fraud; and protecting women and children from online exploitation.

With the election just months away, Smith ends by encouraging humility from tech industry players and “a bias towards action.” As the debate about the use of deepfakes rages – not least on X – Smith urges law makers and the technology industry to act right now. As he says: “The danger is not that we will move too fast, but that we will move too slowly or not at all. ”

Canva has snapped up an Australian generative AI start-up, Leonardo.Ai, taking on its 120 employees and executive team.

Canva’s users will be able to access the new AI tools – powered by Leonardo’s new foundational model, Phoenix – through its Magic Studio suite.

Leonardo.Ai was founded in 2022 with a focus on video game asset creation, reflecting the background of its founders. It is claimed to deliver “production-quality images and videos”, which Canva users will be able to access alongside the current AI offerings.

One specific tool that has gained fans is the ability to include a sketch alongside a text prompt. Leonardo.Ai then combines both to create a photorealistic output. Its users can also custom-train models with their own datasets.

Leonardo Retains Its Independence

Canva is promising that it will continue to invest in Leonardo’s standalone platform, stating “…the company’s current trajectory will be supercharged”. This will calm concerns from among the AI platform’s 19 million users worldwide that it could disappear.

JJ Fiasson, Founder and CEO, Leonardo.Ai promised an accelerated pace of development thanks to the deal. “Joining the Canva family means we can invest more deeply in scaling our AI research efforts globally, and move even faster to deliver new features and functionality to creatives worldwide,” he said in a joint statement.

AI Becoming a Must-have

Adams added that this was the right time for the acquisition. “This field is constantly evolving, and Leonardo’s technical leadership and community impact can’t be overstated. Bringing our worlds together will accelerate each of our teams’ work, taking us from strength to strength, and we can’t wait to get started,” he said.

In its latest Visual Economy Report, Canva found that 90% of the 3000 respondents agreed that the quality of visual communication has been improved by AI. Generative AI was called the Steam Engine of the Fourth Industrial Revolution at the World Economic Forum in January. In June, at the international festival of creativity – Cannes Lions – talent agency, UTA, declared that “81% of creatives believe AI will benefit their work”.

But there are concerns about where companies are getting their training data from and whether it is copyrighted material being used without permission.

As Tech.co reported in September, the gap between AI usage and AI policy continues to widen. Companies are continuing to look for AI start-ups to buy – Apple bought yet another – DarwinAI – in March. As hobbyists and professionals alike are incorporating AI tools into their workflow – the sticky issue of copyright needs to be resolved and users need to gem up on how to protect their data.

The gloves are off in the bout between the US Government and Chinese social media outfit, TikTok.

With TikTok’s forced exit from the US approaching, the US Department of Justice has laid out exactly why TikTok must either sell its US operations or close them down.

Data is central to the US Government’s argument. The most striking allegation is that while TikTok, like all social media platforms, gathers vast amounts of personal data from its 170 million users, it has been shipping this to China. This data is therefore not fenced off from the Chinese Government.

Data Flow to China

In the heavily redacted filing, shared by The Register, the Justice Department pointed at an internal tool called Lark that TikTok staff use for internal comms. It writes that this was used to convey “significant amounts of restricted US user data (including but not limited to personally identifiable information).”

It continues: “This resulted in certain sensitive US person data being contained in Lark channels and, therefore, stored on Chinese servers and accessible to ByteDance employees located in China.”

Data Scraped for Edgy Themes

The filing states that internal search tools – developed and run by ByteDance, the Chinese owner of TikTok – allow engineers at the company to “scrape” this data. This means engineers could search to gather specific information for political uses like “…bulk user information based on the user’s content or expressions, including views on gun control, abortion, and religion.”

But the filing goes further and next suggests that these same tools could also be used for censoring content. They support the “…triggering of the suppression of content on the platform based on the user’s use of certain words.” The Justice Department admits that policies suggest this censorship is only applied to Chinese users but adds: “…other such policies may have been used to apply to TikTok users outside of China.” The implication is that the censorship tools are there but the Justice Department can’t prove that they have been deployed for US users…yet.

TikTok Cites First Amendment

The TikTok legal team has come back fighting against the filing and is calling on the First Amendment in its defense. In a post on X, it says: “Nothing in this brief changes the fact that the Constitution is on our side. The TikTok ban would silence 170 million Americans’ voices, violating the First Amendment.” It also slammed the law that is at the heart of the wrangle as “unconstitutional” and accused the US Government of “…hiding behind secret information.”

The Justice Department pre-empted this, slapping back that calling on Freedom of Speech does not apply when it is an issue of protecting US users’ data from a foreign power. It writes: “…the PRC has a strong interest in manipulating the American information space and a demonstrated history of successfully tasking ByteDance and TikTok Global to censor discourse on their platforms outside of the United States.”

Warning Off US Partners

And there is no use turning to Oracle, suggests the filing. The database giant had hoped it could become TikTok’s US technology partner under a “national security agreement” (NSA) and, as such, become keeper of US users’ data.

The Justice Department says that the proposed offer simply isn’t good enough and data will still be flowing back to China. It also threw out the suggestion that Oracle could overseer of TikTok’s source code as unworkable.

It even suggests that Oracle might be best served walking away as ByteDance will not be transparent with any US-based partner. “Private parties also lack insight into ByteDance’s communications with PRC officials, ByteDance’s use of US user data, and ByteDance’s other TikTok-related activities,” the filing states. Therefore the US Justice team had “…determined that the Final Proposed NSA presented too great a risk because the trusted technology provider and other monitors faced massive scope and scale hurdles that could not be overcome.”

TikTok continues to fight, shaking its fist and declaring that it will “prevail in court”. As the January 19th deadline creeps closer, and the US Government actively encourages American companies to step away, this is increasingly looking like a battle it won’t win. And not only that, but other governments are eagerly watching the outcome.

Free lunches might be in short supply, but getting paid just to move to a new state is still a great way to get something for nothing. Well, depending on how much you love moving, that is.

Anyone looking for a change of pace after a big life change might be interested in picking up their roots and dropping them down in a random growing city somewhere across the country, getting paid a modest sum to make the move and work remotely. If that’s you, these states are here to help.

Some of the offers are for specific cities, while others stick to certain regions within a state. Read on for a quick summary of each deal, which ones are active as of this month, and what pros or cons you may want to consider for each opportunity.

Tulsa, OK – $10,000

Tulsa Remote wants to send you to Oklahoma with $10,000 in your pocket. The process starts with your application, after which you’ll need to complete a 30-minute virtual interview and, if selected, agree to a background check and income verification.

Your grant money will be given to you in different ways, depending on your living situation: Renters will get the $10,000 through monthly disbursements, while home buyers can get it either monthly or as a lump sum, as long as they qualify.

To qualify for this one, you must:

• Be at least 18 years old
• Be authorized to work in the United States
• Have full-time remote employment outside of Oklahoma
• Relocate to Tulsa within 12 months of approval
• Have lived outside of Oklahoma for one full year before applying

Every one of these relocation offers comes with stipulations, but Tulsa’s is among the least restrictive. You can apply here.

West Virginia – $12,000

You’ve heard all about it in the song Take Me Home, Country Roads. Now you can actually make it home, with $10,000 paid out across 12 months for your first year, followed by an additional $2,000 at the end of your second year.

It’s all courtesy of Ascend West Virginia, and they have more than just free money: you’ll get a year’s worth of free outdoor recreation, including free gear rentals and your own outdoorsy welcome trip, all worth over $2,500.

Five different areas of the state are open, as the website puts it. There’s something for everyone, whether you’re “looking for a lively college-town vibe in the Morgantown Area, quaint small-town culture in the gorgeous Greenbrier Valley, historic charm in the Eastern Panhandle, mountain town style in Greater Elkins or epic outdoor adventure in the nation’s newest national park, New River Gorge.”

Qualifications to meet include:

• Be 18 years or older
• Have a full-time remote job
• Have the ability to verify employment details and remote status

If you lose your job during the two-year stint, the grant operators will “review the situation with each participant on a case-by-case basis.”

Alaska – Around $1,312 Per Year

If you’re a fan of peace, quiet, and really, really long nights, you’ll love Alaska. More to the point, you’ll be able to snag a nice stipend to help you settle into your new state: The Alaska Permanent Fund (APF) has been around since all the way back in 1976.

It’s a permanent fund managed by a state-owned corporation that converts a small portion of oil and mining revenues into an annual per-resident stipend. As of 2023, the amount has been whittled down to $1,312.

Granted, this one isn’t for remote workers, but you’ll still get it if you have been working remotely. Plus, there’s no state income tax in Alaska. You can head over to the online portal to figure out if you qualify.

Greater Rochester, NY – Up to $19,000

The Rochester area of New York is pastoral, close to Lake Ontario, and has tough winters. Thanks to Greater ROC Relocate , you can get up to $10,000 in relocation reimbursement for moving to the area, with another $9,000 available in homebuyer incentives to those who want to purchase a home in the region.

You’ll need to:

• Be at least 18 years old
• Be eligible to work in the U.S
• Live at least 300 miles from Rochester
• Relocate within 6 months of acceptance

The website has some additional detail, but you’ll have to contact the providers in order to receive a guide that explains the finer points of how it all works.

Evansville, Indiana – $5,000

Evansville is a medium-size city that has big growth plans, and they’ll give you $5,000 in cash to help them out. The metro population is over 350,000 people, with over 75 events and festivals alongside 116
public parks to keep you busy. The average commute is under 20 minutes, too.

You’ll have a few stipulations to meet before they’ll hand you five big ones, though. You’ll need to:

• Be employed full-time and able to relocate while retaining your current position, or are self-employed and able to relocate while retaining your current clients/portfolio
• Earn at least $60,000 annually
• Be 18 years or older
• Currently reside outside of Indiana and the Greater Evansville, IN-KY region (includes Henderson County, KY)
• Relocate primary residence to Vanderburgh County within 6 months
• Be able to provide proof of the above eligibility criteria

You’ll get a bundle of other non-cash perks as well, for a total worth of $7,500. This includes a two-year membership to the Cowork Evansville coworking space, as well as tickets and passes to a range of museums, a pool, a zoo, and more. Head over here to learn about the deal.

If you’re looking to work remotely, watch out for these WFH scams.

Deals That Are Paused or Not Remote

Completely changing your city is a huge move, so you likely need some time to think about it. While you’re dragging your feet, you might as well consider a few incentive programs that aren’t currently running.

Many of the below programs will open back up at some point in the future — setting up a quick Google Alert now could put you at the front of the pack when the time comes to apply.

Hamilton, Ohio

This one’s paused, and also caters to a select crowd: You’ll need to have graduated with a STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics) degree in the last seven years. You can get up to $15,000, parcelled out in $300-400 monthly installments. Check out the site for more.

Shoals, Alabama

Applications are paused for this Alabama-centric deal, but when it opens next, your qualifications will include:

• A minimum annual income of $52,000
• Ablity to move to the Shoals within 6 months
• Full-time remote employment or self-employed outside Colbert and Lauderdale counties
• 18 or older and eligible to work in the US

On one hand, you’ll have to meet a salary threshold that other deals listed in this article don’t include. However, you’ll also be able to take this deal even if you’re self-employed, which opens up the opportunity to more remote workers than those that require an employer.

More information, including the specific areas you’ll need to be willing to move to, is available at the application portal online.

Michigan

Who doesn’t want to live 90 miles away from Chicago? Don’t answer that, just check out this deal.

It’s paused currently, but if opened in the future, applicants can get $10,000 to put towards their Michigan mortgage, which increases to $15,000 if they’re putting at least one child through public school in the area as well. In addition to the typical stipulations, you’ll have to be purchasing or building a home worth a minimum of $200,000. Check out the site for more.

Shawnee County, Topeka, KS

This one isn’t for remote workers who already have jobs: It’s a talent attraction program, aimed at getting people into full-time positions based out of Topeka. Your employer will have to be onboard with the plan, and offer to match the funds you’ll be getting from the grant.

Check out the guidelines and application process here — there’s a range of possible timelines and dollar amount committments, with $15,000 (half of which is a $7,500 employer match) available for those who purchases houses.

Arkansas

The Life Works Here initiative wants to usher you into the Ozarks, and they’ll even throw in a mountain bike alongside $10,000 to seal the deal. Remote tech workers can take advantage of this program, which the group says was “was sparked by the remote work trend and national relocation patterns.”

It’s over now, after 100 recipients survived from over 66,000 applicants – but maybe they’ll commit to a second round at some point in the future.

One of Apple’s buzziest new features this year won’t quite be ready to go when the latest iOS model launches with the iPhone 16 this September.

Apple Intelligence, the suite of AI tools that marks Apple’s entrance into the overheated artificial intelligence industry, will be included in iOS 18.1 — rather than being available with the initial rollout at launch.

It’s a minor hiccup in the release of Apple’s new software and won’t stop the generative intelligence takeover itself. Here’s what to know about the delay, as well as how Apple Intelligence will soon be impacting your own iPhone and Mac use.

Beta Versions of Apple Intelligence May Be Available This Week

The news is out from a Bloomberg report, which says that the launch of Apple Intelligence will be pushed back a month, from September to October 2024. This gives the company time to continue squashing bugs. The beta will be opening a lot sooner, though: Software developers will be able to access the beta versions of iOS 18.1 and iPadOS 18.1 as soon as this week.

It’s an unusual decision to release a beta version of a 0.1 follow-up software update before the initial version is even available to the public, so this choice seems to indicate that Apple’s pulling out all the stops in order to get its LLM-powered tools bug-free and available as soon as possible.

All the software associated with the iOS 18 launch will need to be ready weeks ahead of the release date, since Apple needs time to install it in the new devices while they’re in the factory.

Apple Intelligence Includes ChatGPT Integrations

The term “Apple Intelligence” covers a broad swath of AI updates: It’ll include an AI-powered re-prioritization of elements like notifications, summaries of web pages and voice notes, a retooled Siri, and integrations with OpenAI’s famed ChatGPT.

Some details have yet to be filled in on the extent of the ChatGPT integrations. As we covered last month, Apple’s SVP of Software Engineering Craig Federighi has already addressed data privacy concerns during the WWDC keynote.

“Privacy protections are built in for users who access ChatGPT — their IP addresses are obscured, and OpenAI won’t store requests. ChatGPT’s data-use policies apply for users who choose to connect their account.” – Craig Federighi

More Apple Intelligence Tools Will Keep Debuting for a While

Even when the iOS 18.1 rollout does debut the Apple Intelligence suite for the first time in October, a few features will still be missing. Siri won’t be able to parse its on-device data in order to custom-fit its answers, and it won’t be able to contextualize its responses by checking what’s on the screen, according to Bloomberg.

Apple’s iPhone innovations have been slow in recent years, and this year’s model won’t be bucking the trend: Physical advancements are minimal, so the main selling point are the software upgrades. The silver lining in the lagging updates to Apple Intelligence, then, is that Apple will continue debuting new software features for months to come after September ends.

In the modern era, scammers use any means necessary to steal personal data and financial information from users across the web, including one of the most popular music stars in the world: Taylor Swift.

Between her massive tours and her extensive discography, the pop icon has made a huge impact on the world over the last few years. She stimulates economies and she breaks attendance records, all while managing her relationship with a certain NFL star.

Unfortunately, that popularity comes with some serious caveats, with more and more scams using Taylor Swift to take advantage of unsuspecting users online.

Common Taylor Swift Scams in 2024

If you’re excited to see Taylor Swift, whether in-person or online, the last thing you want is to become the victim of a scam. That is, unfortunately, exactly where scammers are taking aim at fans when it comes to convincing them to hand over personal information and financial data.

Here are some of the common scams involving Taylor Swift that you should watch out for in 2024.

Taylor Swift concert ticket scam

As you can imagine, the massive popularity of Taylor Swift leads to some very high-priced tickets for her concerts. As a result, scammers have flocked to these events to take advantage of Taylor Swift fans, with desperate fans looking for any way to attend the shows.

One such scam sees legitimate accounts posting about available tickets in community groups on Facebook. They interact with users to get payment, and even provide a ticket for the event. Unfortunately, when you arrive at the Taylor Swift concert, the ticket doesn’t work, and you’re stuck on the outside, looking in.

Even worse, these scams are notoriously difficult to spot, because the tickets look so real, and the accounts being used are genuine Facebook accounts from real people that have been hacked.

With hacker groups breaching TicketMaster to get a hold of real tickets from Taylor Swift and other artists, so increasingly difficult to tell what’s real and what’s fake. Suffice to say, buying a Taylor Swift ticket online should always come with a healthy dose of skepticism.

Taylor Swift deepfake social media scam

Using Taylor Swift’s in-person appearances to scam unsuspecting fans is one thing, but her fame goes far beyond that. Her endorsements, for example, hold a lot of weight, given her scores of fans, and scammers have used that influence to perpetrate a wide range of online schemes to get access to personal information and financial data.

One example of Taylor Swift being used in service of online scams is a somewhat recent video that circulated on social media. It showed the pop star talking about a special deal that would allow viewers to get free Le Creuset cookware, as long as they pay a small shipping fee. Unfortunately, the Taylor Swift in question is a deepfake video designed to trick users into paying for nothing and providing personal and financial data to scammers in the process.

The scam is particularly clever because Taylor Swift is an outspoken user of Le Creuset cookware, which means that fans would be easily duped into believing the deepfake to be genuine. Unfortunately, that is very much not the case.

Why Are Taylor Swift Scams So Effective?

It’s understandable to ask why Taylor Swift scams are so common across the internet. After all, there is no shortage of celebrities that could be used for scams, so what makes Taylor Swift so special? Well, the primary reason is her overwhelming popularity.

Taylor Swift concert tickets, for example, are a highly sought-after commodity in 2024. The events in question sell out almost instantaneously, with scalpers reselling tickets for thousands of dollars — if not tens of thousands of dollars — to those that weren’t lucky enough to get access to the lottery.

As a result, scammers have taken note that fans are nothing if not desperate to see the pop star. Considering most scams are borne of desperation, like the COVID scams at the peak of the pandemic, this leaves many fans at risk of being scammed.

Other Celebrity Scams to Watch Out For

Given the improvements in AI technology and the proliferation of deepfake software, celebrity scams have become all too common in 2024. In fact, if you peruse the web long enough, you’ll almost certainly come across a celebrity endorsing a fake product or a fraudulent service in hopes of tricking a potential victim into handing over their data.

Subsequently, you should always be on the lookout for these kinds of scams, if only so you can protect yourself online and prevent any unwanted security and privacy issues in the future. Here are some celebrities that are used in these scams, so you can be extra careful:

• Dolly Parton 
• Elon Musk
• Mr. Beast
• Tom Hanks
• Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson
• Selena Gomez
• Blake Sheldon
• Jeff Bezos
• Piers Morgan
• Oprah

Simply put, if you see any of these celebrities endorsing a product, or really any famous person offering a too-good-to-be-true deal online, make sure to do your due diligence before handing over your personal data.

How to Avoid Scams in 2024

Scams have gotten problematically sophisticated in 2024. The evolution of AI technology has made many of them harder to spot than ever before, with everything from deepfake tech to phishing efforts getting a serious shot in the arm.

Subsequently, making an effort to avoid scams should be a priority for your online safety. Here are a few tips that can help you fend off scammers online in 2024:

• Verify before you buy – A quick Google search before you input financial data into a website can help you learn about scams before you fall victim.
• Check the URL – You can’t fake a web address, so be sure to check the URL on a particular website that you might think is fraudulent.
• Be informed – Staying up to date on current cybersecurity trends and possible scams, like you’re doing now, can make a big difference for your online safety.

Perhaps the best tip for avoid scams, though, is to stay vigilant. Most scams are pretty easy to spot if you’re paying attention, and that vigilance could save you a lot of money and a serious headache in the long run.

OpenAI is finally moving all the way in on Google’s territory by announcing a search engine prototype that could eventually compete with the established brand.

There’s no denying ChatGPT — the AI chatbot from OpenAI — has had a meteoric rise in popularity over the last few years. The AI chatbot has seen millions of users, thousands of integrations, and dozens of updates to make it one of the most used AI chatbots available today.

Now, with the release of an AI-powered search engine, OpenAI could make the jump from generative AI poster child to genuine household name.

OpenAI Announces SearchGPT

Announced in a company blog post, OpenAI is officially testing out an AI-powered search engine that will integrate the ChatGPT technology with existing content on the web to make searching for topics easier.

OpenAI has made it clear that SearchGPT is currently just a prototype, but that they “plan to integrate the best of these features directly into ChatGPT in the future.”

If you’re interested in being one of the first people to use SearchGPT, you can join the waitlist here, or just wait until this functionality becomes available to everyday users of ChatGPT.

What Can SearchGPT Do?

So, what exactly is SearchGPT and what can it do? Well, for starters, let’s hear what OpenAI has to say about what SearchGPT actually is.

“SearchGPT [is] a prototype of new search features designed to combine the strength of our AI models with information from the web to give you fast and timely answers with clear and relevant sources.” – ChatGPT website

Beyond that, OpenAI noted that SearchGPT will differ from other search engines in ways that may make it a more attractive option for current web users. Here are some of the things that SearchGPT can do:

• Answers questions with sources – When you ask a question or make a query, you’ll receive an answer just like ChatGPT, but you’ll also get access to links and sources for that information to make searching easier.
• Ask follow-up questions – You’ll be able to ask relevant follow-up questions to search queries, which will make the search process more conversational for users.
• Discover publisher sites and experiences – SearchGPT aims to highlight quality content more effectively so you can discover sites that mesh with your needs.

Is AI Good for Search?

To be clear, this move is far from a surprise. Generative AI has already been paired with other search engines, with Google already rolling out its Gemini functionality on its own search engine.

However, that rollout has had some decidedly mixed results. The feature — dubbed AI Overviews — had a rough launch, providing a wide range of answers that were not only incorrect but also incredibly dangerous in certain situations. From recommending users eat rocks to adding glue to cheese to make it better for pizza, the initial problems were substantial.

This led Google to discontinue the summaries for period of time, leading many to wondering if AI and search go together at all. So, will SearchGPT be able to avoid the pitfalls of its big tech counterpart? Or will the search engine prototype suffer the same hallucinations that led Google Gemini’s abysmal beginning? You’ll have to jump on the waitlist to find out.

Data entry jobs are typically considered entry-level positions, open to anyone who can read data and type out copy. In addition, any fully remote job can be completed by anyone from anywhere, even halfway around the world.

Put those two types of jobs together, and you have the holy grail of low barriers to entry. And as a result, there’s a lot of competition for a limited number of job postings. Can you get one? Should you even try? That’s a tough question to ask, but we can help you decide.

Read on for a look at what’s really required for data entry, what career progression might look like for someone working in data management, and how you can get a foot in the door in today’s highly competitive remote-work environment.

Examples of Remote Data Entry Jobs

All the positions listed below were active as of July 2024 and are entirely remote. While not all of them are billed as “data entry” in the title description, data entry is a major facet of each position. They’re all entry-level positions, too — even if they have “specialist” in the description.

And, before you ask: Yes, that last position is for a gig staffing platform called “NoGigiddy.” We can’t make this stuff up.

• Data Entry Specialist – Remote At ABC Legal (Chicago, Illinois, US)
• Work at Home Data Entry Agent – Part Time (Kent, Washington)
• Data Entry Specialist (Chicago, Illinois, US)
• Online Ads Reviewer (Remote, US)
• Data Entry Specialist – Caremetx (Remote, US)
• Remote Intake Specialist – AdaptHealth (Ashland, KY)
• Online Data Collector – Trutone Electronics (Remote, US)
• Data Entry Specialist – CP Engineers (Sparta Township, New Jersey, US)
• Remote Data Entry Clerk – NoGigiddy (Miami, Florida, US)

How do you spot open roles like these? What job titles are worth considering in order to widen your search? We’ll get into those questions in the next couple of sections.

How To Find Remote Data Entry Jobs in 2024

Don’t just do a simple Google search. In 2024, you need a slightly more sophisticated approach to combing through online job boards.

You can start by trying the usual boards, but you’ll have better luck with slightly more specialized job boards. For example, Dice.com is a tech-focused job board, so you’ll find plenty of data entry positions there, with slightly less competition than you’ll find with the hugest job search boards. LinkedIn, Indeed, and Monster Jobs, on the other hand, are already swamped with hundreds of applicants to any entry-level position.

Google searches can work, however, as long as you know a few tricks. If you’ve been applying long enough, you’ve probably noticed application-hosting websites like Greenhouse, which provide a backend service for receiving applications, even though they aren’t searchable like Indeed. These are called Applicant Tracking Systems, or ATS, and you actually can search them, if you Google the phrase “site:” followed by the ATS website.

For example, a Google search of “data entry apply site:boards.greenhouse.io” will pull up any Greenhouse pages that include the words “data” or “entry,” and that feature the “apply” button that applications include. If you click the “Tools” button, you can make sure that you’re only seeing recent pages from the past 24-hour period.

Here are a few searches to get you started:

• “remote data entry site:jobs.lever.co“
• “remote data entry site:ashbyhq.com“
• “remote data entry site:recruiting.paylocity.com“
• “remote data entry site:jobs.workable.com“
• “remote data entry site:people.*“
• “remote data entry site:careers.*“
• “remote data entry site:jobs.smartrecruiters.com“

Feel free to add your own keywords — perhaps something related to the nearest major city, or that includes a rare skill that you’re great at. Speaking a second language can be a big help.

Data Specialists vs. Data Analysts vs. Data Scientists

Data entry is an easy job, but it crosses over with similar, but much more highly specialized and highly paid tech positions. Here are the biggest data-related jobs to know about.

• Data Entry: Enter data or otherwise update records in a database
• Data Specialists: Manage and organize data
• Data Analysts: Analyze data to identify trends and patterns
• Data Scientists: Create models to predict future trends

We kept each of these definitions as short as possible for a reason: There’s always some wiggle room when it comes to defining a job role. Some specialists might pick out trends, while some analysts might create data models.

After gaining experience with the right database protocols and programming languages, you might be able to move up from data entry to work as a specialist, or from a specialist to an analyst. You’ll be compensated well for your efforts: Data scientist salaries in most major cities start in the low six-figures.

Data Entry Alternative Positions

Sometimes, finding a great job position online is all about expanding your search terms. If you’re searching for job titles that the average person might not consider, you’ll have less competition and can stand out.

If you’re just getting started, you’ll want “data entry” and similar positions that encompass related entry-level skills. Consider if any of these positions might be a fit for you:

• Data processor
• Data transcriber
• Research assistant
• Payroll clerk
• Timekeeping clerk
• Secretary
• Word processor

If you want to zoom in on a specific industry, try the handful of business sectors that frequently need data entry clerks: healthcare, finance, retail, and transportation.

Job Interview Prep: Questions and Answers to Know

Getting the job interview is the tough part. Once you have it, you can likely guess a lot of the questions you’ll be asked, and you can come up with thoughtful responses ahead of time.

We’ve listed all 39 of the most common job interview questions, and suggested what types of answers will likely work best for you to give in response. Don’t forget to ask your own intelligent questions back, either: We have a guide on that, too.

Finally, you might want to send a thank you email after the interview is over.

In the end, though, the job market is tough for everyone right now. This is thanks in part to companies paring down their payroll in hopes of using AI tech to keep their bottom line strong. The only sure way to succeed is to keep looking for new paths towards the position you want, as cliche and unhelpful as that might sound to someone hundreds or thousands of applications into their search.

US security vendor KnowBe4 has just revealed that a North Korean hacker tricked them with an AI image and stolen ID.

The hacker immediately attempted to load malware into the company’s system but was not successful. According to CEO and founder Stu Sjouwerman, “no data was lost, compromised, or exfiltrated on any KnowBe4 systems.”

The incident is now an active FBI investigation, although the hacker has not been confirmed as a nation state actor just yet. Here’s how this somewhat embarrassing mistake happened, and how it could have been a lot worse.

Hacker Passed Background Check With Stolen ID

The hacker was able to get through all of the company’s typical new-hire routines: He responded to a job posting, sent resumes, attended four video conference interviews, passed background checks and “all other standard pre-hiring checks,” and provided references.

Once hired and sent a Mac workstation, the hacker loaded malware.

How did the hacker beat the background checks? With a genuinely valid but stolen US identity, paired with an AI-enhanced image that matched the hacker’s own face. Here’s the original stock photo image on the left, with the enhanced version on the right.

The image was eventually detected by software, and the company’s InfoSec Security Operations Center was able to flag the issue, bringing on cybersecurity company Mandiant and the FBI.

Any Tips to Avoid This in the Future?

Sjouwerman notes in his blog post about the incident that new employees have “highly restricted” access to information when they first start, which proved to be the right move in this case.

He also offered further general advice for businesses that want to avoid this specific problem themselves:

• Scan remote devices to ensure no one is accessing them remotely
• Improve vetting with a focus on the employee’s physical presence being where they claim it is
• Improve resume scanning
• Use video interviews and verify past work
• Check that the laptop’s shipping address is the same as where the new employee claims to live

The “what to look out for” section also lists “attempt to execute malware.” If you’re ever hired at a cybersecurity firm, don’t do that!

How Did KnowBe4 Handle It All? Very Publically.

You’ve got to hand it to KnowBe4: If some cybersecurity companies were compromised by a hacker, they might be tempted to protect their reputation by keeping quiet about the whole matter. In sharp contrast, KnowBe4 broke the news itself in a blog post, with a follow-up FAQ page about the entire incident to boot.

“Do we have egg on our face? Yes. And I am sharing that lesson with you. It’s why I started KnowBe4 in 2010. In 2024 our mission is more important than ever.” – CEO Stu Sjouwerman

By sharing the news themselves, the company can control their own narrative. More importantly, though, they can highlight just how easily a hacker can slip through the cracks of even the best security systems.

Thanks to the prevalence of stolen databases online, millions of IDs are already leaked and available. Yours might even be among them, if you’ve ever used companies as popular and widespread as, say, Xfinity (more than 35 million customers were affected in a 2023 breach) or Ticketmaster (well over half a billion customers were impacted in a breach earlier this year).

In a couple of days, France will be hosting the 2024 Olympic Opening Ceremony, kickstarting the next chapter of the historical sporting event.

Yet, with this year’s ceremony being the first to involve the International Olympic Committee’s new AI Agenda, the Paris Olympics will look a lot different from previous Games that have come before.

From AI-powered surveillance technology to new judging support systems, the unprecedented initiative is set to transform the core pillars of the sporting ceremony and hopefully, usher in a new era of efficiency. We take a look at what changes you should be expecting in the first-ever AI Olympic Games.

What Is the Olympic AI Agenda?

The AI landscape has shifted monumentally since Tokyo hosted the 2020 (one) Summer Olympics, with the technology’s rapid development sending ripples across every core industry. Rather than playing a game of AI catch-up, the IOC has decided to push the boundaries of AI innovation forward by launching The Olympic AI Agenda – its most far-reaching technological agenda to date.

The Olympic AI Agenda is an initiative that reimagines the way AI technology can be applied to sports. First introduced in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park during the 2012 London Olympic Games, it was the third installment of a trilogy of strategy documents created by the IOC, and was officially launched in April this year.

According to IOC President Thomas Bach, the goal of the initiative is to “set the course for the AI future of sport with responsible leadership by embracing the change while preserving the Olympic values”. The agenda establishes a governance and oversight framework to identify both the risks and positive potential associated with AI in sports. It will be deployed in several high-impact areas we outline below, from training to broadcasting.

7 Ways AI Is Being Used To Transform the Olympics

The IOC’s pioneering initiative is set to impact most aspects of the historic sporting event. Here are some ways that the Olympic Games are integrating AI into their operations.

1. Training

Even before athletes enter the arena, AI is being used to help them reach their potential. Specifically, trainers are using advanced AI algorithms to analyze athletes’ techniques, improve their training regimes, and minimize injuries. In addition to cultivating more personalized training routines, and using data-powered insights, AI is also being used to simulate training companions.

For example, Indian table tennis player Sathiyan Gnanasekaran has previously trained with a table tennis robot promoted by the IOC, while other athletes have used hyperrealistic virtual reality software.

“It can generate speeds and spin on the ball which no humans can manage. As a result, my receiving ability has improved, and the flicks have also gotten better.” – Table tennis player Sathiyan Gnanasekaran told The Times of India how an AI bot has improved his training

While our brains respond slightly differently when training with AI companions, some experts, like Daniel Ferris, a Ph.D professor of biomedical engineering, claim that using the technology could actually “be better than training against a human opponent”.

2. Judging

While AI has been used to judge athletes in previous Games, the 2024 ceremony will utilize the technology to track performance even more closely. Since AI can be used to analyze capabilities too intricate for the human eye, the technology is expected to usher in a new era of judging accuracy.

No sport is adopting this strategy more than gymnastics. In 2023, the International Gymnastics Federation (IGF) employed a new Judging Support System (JSS) to capture the movements of gymnastics and evaluate them based on the sports rule book. After its success at the most recent world championships, the JSS will be making its debut at its first Olympic Games in France.

London 2012 Olympic gymnast and Tech.co Managing Editor, Jennifer McIlveen, has been impressed by the development of Fujitsu’s JSS Software and is looking forward to seeing how it may assist judges and spectators during the Paris 2024 Games.

“Fine margins in the angle of a handstand or degree to which a gymnast shows splits could be the difference between a gold or silver medal winning score. So, to have technology help ensure fair decisions in this blink-and-you’ll-miss-it sport, can give both competitors and fans more confidence in the results.” – Jennifer McIlveen OLY, Tech.co Editor and Olympian

3. Surveillance

AI is also going to be used to improve the safety of Paris 2024 attendees. The Games’ surveillance system will rely on AI-powered cameras to automatically flag potential security threats. After these cameras detect risks, they will relay issues to security personnel, where workers can take action to confirm risks and resolve them.

While the use of AI isn’t normally permitted in French surveillance activities, the country passed a law in March of 2023 that allows the use of AI security in large-scale events like the Olympics. Specifically, the law permits the technology to be used to identify crowd surges, the presence of weapons, signs of fire, abandoned objects, and other abnormal risks.

4. Social media

The IOC has designed a new AI-powered monitoring system to protect athletes from online abuse. The mechanism will use artificial intelligence to monitor hundreds of thousands of social media accounts and will flag any potentially abusive messages to the relevant platforms.

The IOC also created an AI chatbot to make important information more accessible to athletes. The Intel-powered Athlete365 platform was designed to provide easy and quick answers to frequently asked questions on topics like social media guidelines, Rule 50 regulations, anti-doping rules, and more.

5. Energy management

AI is also being used to curb unnecessary energy usage in the Paris arena. The energy usage in Paris will be monitored in real-time using digital-twin technology. The new environmentally conscious system will help organizers see where they need power, where they need to place cameras, and if they need to address any potential accessibility issues.

 According to Ilario Corna, the IOC’s Chief Technology Officer, the committee “started gathering various operational data as far back as 2020” to make the management of the 2024 Games more energy efficient.

6. Broadcasting recaps

Artificial Intelligence will also be transforming the Olympic experience for each viewer. The Official AI Platform Partner for Paris 2024, Intel, has been developing a new Automatic Highlights Generation system capable of automatically compiling key sporting moments into tailored highlight reels. The technology was trained on Olympic archive videos and can be customized to meet the needs of different media outlets.

AI will also be leveraged by NBC’s Peacock service to improve events coverage, online and in the Peacock app. It will be used to recreate the voice of Al Michaels, an American sports broadcaster with over 50 years of industry experience, from 5,000 hours of live coverage. His voice will be used to create 10-minute highlight playlists every day, tailored to each user’s topic and sporting preferences and packaged as ‘Your Daily Olympic Recap’.

Image: NBC

7. Timekeeping

The Olympic Broadcasting Ceremony (OBS) has partnered with Swiss luxury watchmaker Omega to improve the accuracy of timekeeping throughout the Paris 2024 Games. Specifically, they will be using AI to carry out intelligent stroboscopic analysis across sports such as beach volleyball, tennis, diving, and more.

This AI-tracking system will help viewers better understand the movements and biomechanics of athletes, and the insights will also improve reporting accuracy by helping commentators keep a firmer handle on athletes’ positions.

Images: OMEGA

A damning report by the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) has found AT&T to be responsible for its February outage that blocked over 92 million voice calls, 25,000 of which were calls to emergency services.

The agency found that the outage resulted from a range of preventable factors including a lack of peer review processes, inadequate lab testing, and a failure to follow basic internal procedures.

While the FCC confirmed the 12-hour outage wasn’t caused by a cyber attack, the 29-page report has done little to repair AT&T’s poor credibility, with the popular telecommunications still receiving backlash from a recent data breach that compromised the information of over 109 million customers.

AT&T Outage Blocked Millions of Calls, Report Reveals

If you failed to make calls with AT&T on February 22, 2024, you weren’t alone – with a new report by the FCC finding that the nationwide system outage blocked a total of 92 million calls throughout its 12-hour duration – with 25,000 of those being attempts to reach 911.

The independent agency found that the outage blocked service on a total of 125 million registered devices, with users across 50 states as well as Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico being impacted. In addition to calls, 5G data services were also unavailable, preventing AT&T customers from browsing the web and streaming content for the 12-hour time period.

The outage also cut off services to the devices operated by FirstNet for over two hours, the wireless broadband network designed for First Responders throughout the US, causing further disruption to emergency services and prolonging the amount of time it took for dispatchers to coordinate effective responses.

With AT&T previously keeping the extent of the blunder hidden, the FCC’s damning investigation is a bad look for a company that’s already in hot water for its recent cybersecurity failings. What’s more, while AT&T vaguely explained that the outage was sparked by an “incorrect process” after it took place, the FCC found they may be more culpable than they initially claimed.

Service Interruption Could Have Been Prevented With Basic Tests, FCC Finds

As detailed in the FCC’s report, the government agency agrees that the telecom company’s 12-hour outage was caused by a software update that went wrong.

However, the FCC also found AT&T guilty of failing to follow internal company procedures, as well as lacking a basic peer review process – the outage was caused by a lone employee who made the network enter Protection Mode after misconfiguring a single network element.

The FCC also called the Dallas-based company out for failing to test crucial updates before they go live.

The report states that in addition to AT&T’s ineffective peer review process, the company failed to sufficiently test changes before they took place. According to the agency, AT&T “either failed to effectively emulate the live environment” or “failed to test the impact of this misconfiguration on the wider network”.

The telecommunications giant’s omission to carry out a “post-installation test” was also likely why the issue took over 12 hours to resolve, the FCC concluded. Testing the error as soon as it took place may have “helped detect the misconfigured network element more quickly, thereby allowing AT&T Mobility to initiate corrective action more expeditiously”, according to the agency.

More Damning Details Emerge About AT&T’s Cyber Attack

While the FCC and FBI agree that AT&Ts nationwide outage was not a result of poor cyber hygiene, more information has surfaced about the carrier’s 2022 data breach.

Earlier this month, the company admitted that over 109 million customer accounts containing call and text records from 2022 were downloaded illegally in April. According to Reuters, the scale of the attack was concerning, with almost all AT&T cellular and landline customers who used the service between May and October 2022 being impacted.

An external investigation by AT&T found that hackers exfiltrated the sensitive files from a third-party workspace platform Snowflake. The company subsequently paid the hacking group $370,000 in cryptocurrency to delete these files and closed off the vulnerability responsible for the hack. However, it’s impossible to determine whether AT&T’s ransom payment was successful.

AT&T was also brought under fire earlier this year when it was revealed that the details of 70 million customer accounts, including names, phone numbers, and social security numbers, were leaked online in a similar hack. If you were an AT&T customer in August 2021, you can find out if your data has been compromised in the hack here.

Multinational social media giant Meta could face hefty fines worth billions of dollars following the European rollout of its “ad-free” subscription plans for Facebook and Instagram. The EU’s Consumer Protection Cooperation (CPC) Network informed the company via a letter this week that it had potentially violated EU consumer law.

While there are numerous additional investigations ongoing, yesterday’s announcement referred to specific concerns the CPC has over Meta’s “pay or consent” model. They believe the business models have breached multiple stipulations of the EU’s Unfair Commercial Practices Directive and Unfair Contract Terms Directive.

The CPC has given Meta until September 1 to respond with workable solutions – or potentially incur huge financial penalties. While Meta will no doubt argue its case, it will want to avoid a repeat of the $1.3 billion fine it was ordered to pay to the EU last May in the aftermath of another data privacy lawsuit.

Meta’s “Free” Plan is Misleading, CPC Alleges

Last October saw Meta launch a paid subscription plan across the European Economic Area (EEA), European Union (EU), and Switzerland, that gave users of Facebook and Instagram a choice: opt in to their paid, ad-free service from €9.99 a month, or retain your “free” account. 

But by doing the latter, they’d be providing their consent to Meta to use their personal data. The CPC stipulates that this “pay or consent” model is unclear and that the use of the word “free,” is misleading, considering Meta is profiting from the data being provided by non-paying European users. 

Branding Meta’s practices “sneaky,” Věra Jourová, VP of the European Commission for Values and Transparency, championed the EU’s strong consumer protection laws and vowed that individuals must have sufficient transparency to make informed decisions. “We now take action to safeguard this right,” she added.

Other Key Concerns of the CPC Commission

Along with this misleading use of the word “free”, the CPC flagged several other elements of Meta’s new business model that could be deemed “unfair” and in breach of several EU legal directives:

• Confusing users with multiple hyperlinks leads people to different sections of the Terms of Service or Privacy Policy, leaving it to them to piece together how their personal data would be used by Meta.
• Using imprecise terms and language. For example, glossing over the fact that the ad-free option wouldn’t prevent other social media users from sharing content that included ads.
• Preventing users from entering their accounts until they’d made a decision between a paid subscription or agreeing that Meta could use their personal data. That meant consumers were under “undue pressure to choose rapidly between the two models” without time to consider the implications.

According to The Verge, Meta could be fined up to 4 percent of annual revenue in each of the member states that its accused of misleading consumers in. Considering Meta’s takings in Europe last year amounted to over $30 billion, the financial penalty will likely be eye-watering.

Why Did Meta Introduce a Subscription Plan?

The CPC’s action against Meta has been pretty swift following the social media platform’s roll-out of subscription plans for Instagram and Facebook, which were announced in October of last year. But why did Meta roll this out in the first place?

“We introduced this choice, called ‘Subscription for no ads,’ as our consent solution to comply with a unique combination of connected and sometimes overlapping EU regulatory obligations with differing compliance deadlines,” the company explained in a blog post published at the time.

With this being the case, Meta will likely remain adamant that their new business models do in fact comply with relevant EU regulations. “Subscriptions as an alternative to seeing advertising are a well-established and economically viable business model spanning many industries, from news publishing and gaming to music and entertainment” the blog post continues. “That’s why we believe it is the best compliance solution.”

But it isn’t us they need to convince. The company only has a few months left in which to address the CPC’s concerns. If not, come September 1, they could face the threat of extensive sanctions.

Google has scrapped its plans to protect Chrome users from third-party cookies, four and a half years after it first promised to implement the privacy feature. The web browser remains the most popular on the market, despite having been cited as one of the least secure web browsers available.

In a blog post Monday, Google announced that instead of “deprecating third-party cookies,” they were in the process of proposing an updated approach that “elevates user choice.” So, what does this mean for the three billion people using Chrome to surf the web every day?

We get into what the future of data privacy looks like for Chrome users below, as well as how to keep your data protected.

Google’s U-Turn Explained

After repeated back and forth discussions between advertisers and regulators, the goal to purge Chrome of third-party cookies has fallen flat on its face. Anthony Chavez, VP of Google’s Privacy Sandbox, revealed the change of plans in a blog post yesterday titled “A new path for Privacy Sandbox on the web.”

The pivot comes after Google acknowledged in April that repeated years-long delays to the plans since 2020 were due to “ongoing challenges related to reconciling divergent feedback from the industry, regulators and developers.”

Google had initially set out, as Chavez phrased it, to “meaningfully improve online privacy while preserving an ad-supported internet”. Now, they’re rethinking the solution.

Ads, which are fuelled by third-party tracking cookies, may be an irritant to many but Chavez argues that they support “a vibrant ecosystem of publishers, connect(ing) businesses with customers, and offer(ing) all of us free access to a wide range of content.”

So what alternative has Google proposed? Without giving away any specifics, Google stated that their new solution intends to “elevate user choice.” Instead of snuffing cookies out, Google is maneuvering to “introduce a new experience in Chrome that lets people make an informed choice that applies across their web browsing.”

These vague next steps might not be enough to quash the concerns of people who’ve waited years for Google’s promised changes to materialize. With no clear plan or timeline yet made public, what’s next for Chrome users when it comes to data privacy?

The Future of User Privacy on Google Chrome

For the foreseeable future, Google Chrome will automatically have third-party cookies enabled, which means online advertisers can continue to monitor your browsing habits. Google described the company’s journey to creating a more “private web” as “the next phase of a journey”.

Some online users are speculating that part of this “updated approach” to data privacy may involve users relying on Google’s semi-anonymous Topics API, which was rolled out in 2021.

Topics API admittedly reduces the risk of third-party data access by storing your web history locally, providing users with more control over their personal information. Yet the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has cautioned that all it really does is hand control of data tracking over to Google.

While it is slightly more privacy friendly, Topics API doesn’t prevent you being targeted by ads based on your browsing history, even without third-party cookies. Thankfully, there is a way that this can be switched off.

How To Increase Your Web Browsing Privacy

There are a number of recommended ways to maintain your privacy online, even as a Chrome user, including disabling Site-suggested ads and Ad measurement.

Web browsers alternatives to Chrome include Safari and Firefox, which give you the power to hide from third-party tracking. Safari is also notable for offering a range of privacy-enhancing features, including intelligent tracking prevention, fingerprinting prevention, smart search, and extension monitoring.

A Virtual Private Network (VPN) will also help to keep you safe online by masking your computer’s IP address and encrypting your data. Learn more about these useful tools in Tech.co’s guide to the Best Free VPNs.

Thanks to virtual collaboration tools such as Slack and Zoom, employees are no longer bound to physical office spaces. However, going remote doesn’t always mean fewer overheads, whether you’re traveling the world as a digital nomad, or building a work-from-home set-up from scratch.

If you’re looking to ease the financial burden associated with flexible working, there are a number of tax deductions you may be eligible for. From home office deductions to vehicle mileage expenses, a lot of these deductions are relatively unknown but can end up saving you a fortune altogether.

To make sure you’re not spending a cent more than you should be, we’ve rounded up some important WFH tax deductions that you should know about in 2024, as well as some that you shouldn’t bother applying for.

Which Remote Workers Can Apply For Tax Deductions?

You’re currently only able to write off business expenses on tax forms if you’re an independent contractor or a self-employed worker in the US. While W-2 employees used to be eligible for work-from-home tax deductions, this changed after a tax reform in 2018 and is set to remain in place until at least 2025.

There are some important further details, too. Only some states – such as New York, Alabama, and California – allow taxpayers to claim back costs associated with working from home on their state income tax returns.

The Fair Labor Standards Act states that all US employees are entitled to reimbursement if WFH costs cause an employee’s earnings to fall below the federal minimum wage.

Which Tax Deductions Are Remote Workers are Entitled to?

Think you’re eligible? Here are some remote expenses that you could potentially write off on your income taxes:

1. Home office deductions
2. Educational and development expenses
3. Office supplies and equipment 
4. Vehicle mileage
5. Business travel expenses
6. Health insurance premiums
7. Retirement contributions

1. Home office deductions

Self-employed and contracted employees are likely to be able to claim home office deductions if their working space is used for no other purpose. If you’re eligible, you could be able to make deductions for a range of home-related expenses including mortgage interest, property taxes, homeowners insurance, utility bills, and more. You’ll only be able to deduct the portion of home expenses related to your home office though, as opposed to the costs associated with your whole property.

In rarer cases, remote W-2 employees may be eligible for home-office deductions too, if their home office is used exclusively for work and their employer isn’t able to provide them with a suitable office elsewhere.

2. Educational and development expenses

Educational expenses related to your profession are likely to be tax deductible. This means if you’re taking a learning or development course, either online or in-person, its licensing cost and the costs of accompanying materials like books could be deductible.

This is normally only the case for self-employed and independently contracted workers. However, plenty of regular employers offer workers training budgets as part of their employee benefits package, so it’s always worth checking your work contract to see what growth opportunities you’re entitled to.

3. Office supplies and equipment

Remote self-employed workers and independent contractors can deduct up to $1,050,000 for office supplies like printer ink, paper, and stationary, as well as equipment like desks, laptop stands, and office chairs. However, for the items to qualify, they need to be deemed essential for you to carry out your job, and can’t be seen as luxuries.

4. Vehicle mileage

If your job requires you to be on the move, you may also be able to deduct tax on your vehicle’s mileage. Typically, you’re able to claim the dedication by calculating the actual expense incurred, or by using the IRS standard mileage rate.

If you decide to claim back these tax expenses, we’d recommend keeping a note of the distance you’ve driven for business purposes, compared to distances covered for personal reasons. We also advise keeping track of all car-related expenses such as insurance, registration fees, parking, and maintenance, as these costs may be eligible for tax exemptions too.

5. Travel expenses

If you’re a remote worker who needs to travel for business purposes, the costs associated with these trips may be tax deductible. This could include the cost of public transport on trains and buses and even potentially airfares.

You’ll likely be able to deduct the costs of other business expenses as well – for example, food, accommodation, and entertainment – as long as they’re necessary to the nature of your job.

6. Health insurance premiums

If you’re a self-employed worker who currently covers the cost of health insurance, you may be able to deduct tax premiums for yourself, your spouse, and your dependents. Qualifying health insurance includes medical insurance, some qualifying long-term care coverage, and all Medicare premiums (parts A, B, C, and D).

However, self-employed workers are only able to claim these write-offs if neither they nor their spouse are eligible for an employer-subsidized healthcare plan. The amount they’re able to deduct is also likely to be dependent on their age range, with elder applicants typically being eligible for larger tax deductions.

7. Retirement contributions

Self-employed remote workers on certain retirement plans may be able to deduct these contributions, reducing their taxable income as a result. Qualified plans include 401(K) and SIMPLE-IPA. However, it’s important to note that your SEP or IRA retirement account contributions are not tax-deductible.

What WFH Tax Deductions Can’t You Claim?

While remote workers are eligible for a wide variety of tax deductions, there are a lot of expenses that won’t be able to be written off. The most common reason claims are rejected is because they’re too personal, while non-deductible claims will also be void. To help the process go as smoothly as possible, here are some tax deductions you should avoid filing:

• Non-business travel including personal mileage costs and personal public transportation costs
• Home rent or mortgage expenses related to areas of your property outside of a dedicated home office
• Personal meals, snacks, or beverages that haven’t been directly related to business activities
• Non-work-related clothing that isn’t uniform or industry-specific

Once you’ve worked out which deductions you could be eligible for and armed yourself with the necessary documents and receipts, you’re ready to submit your claim.

Filing your taxes for the first time? You can rest assured, there are specialist accounting platformed designs to make the processes as straightforward as possible. Read our guide to the best accounting software for the self-employed to find out which tool is best for you.

With President Joe Biden stepping down from the Presidential race and endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris, all eyes have turned to the potential Democratic nominee, and her take on hot-button issues like big tech, privacy rights, and artificial intelligence (AI).

Harris boasts a long friendship with Silicon Valley, but the Oakland native isn’t afraid to call out some of the biggest names in tech and roll out stricter regulations aimed at protecting consumers – specifically when it comes to AI.

With some polls suggesting that the current US Vice President could have a competitive advantage over Biden, we explore what her take on tech could mean for the future of the industry, and how her views contrast to those held by Republican nominee, Donald Trump.

Kamala Harris’s Friendly Relationship With Big Tech

As a Bay Area native, and former attorney general and senator of California, there’s no denying that potential Democratic nominee Kamala Harris has a much longer and more intimate history with Silicon Valley than current President Joe Biden.

After receiving backing from many big tech titans during her run for state attorney general in California over a decade ago, she still shares close ties with the industry today.

Harris attended the wedding of Napster co-founder Sean Parker over a year ago, for instance, and her brother-in-law is Tony West, Uber’s chief legal officer.

Since her bid for the presidency, she has received a flood of donations and public displays of support from powerful tech executives too, including Silicon Valley ‘super angel’ Ron Conway, co-founder of LinkedIn and long-time democrat donor Reid Hoffman, and CEO of Salesforce, Marc Benioff. But while these close relationships suggest that Harris would be interested in maintaining business as usual, she also hasn’t been afraid to hold tech titans to account.

The presumptive Democratic candidate has previously called out social media CEOs, like Mark Zuckerburg for his company’s role in spreading misinformation during her time as a senator. Harris has also remained steadfast on tech privacy, specifically when it comes to protecting female reproductive rights in light of the repeal of Roe vs Wade, commenting that big tech companies should be “regulated in a way (to) ensure the American consumer can be certain that their privacy is not being compromised” during the 2020 presidential campaign.

Harris Believes That AI Presents “Existential Threats”

Harris has also been very outspoken about the challenges surrounding AI. Since being appointed as AI czar soon after Biden came into power, the Vice President has been committed to laying down the law in the industry, repeatedly commenting on the “existential threats” society is facing from the technology in public addresses, as well as the short-term risks.

Harris even warned top tech CEOs, including OpenAI’s Sam Altman and Microsoft’s Satya Nadella, that they have a ‘moral, legal responsibility’ to mitigate the risks of AI, and agrees with Biden that protecting the public from its danger doesn’t have to come at odds with advancing innovation. 

“When a woman is threatened by an abusive partner with explicit deepfake photographs, is that not existential for her? When a young father is wrongfully imprisoned because of bias? Is that not existential for his family?”  – Vice President Kamala Harris at the Global Summit on AI Safety in London

Harris honed in on issues such as AI scams, deepfake technology, and algorithmic bias in a 2023 address at the Global Summit on AI Safety in London, suggesting that the Vice President could roll out targeted policies to limit disruption of AI if she came into power.

However, with the Biden Administration still falling behind European governments when it comes to enshrining AI safeguards into law, it’s too soon to tell if Harris’s potential crackdown would be substantial enough to impact the average US citizen.

Donald Trump Is Less Concerned About AI Risks

Donald Trump’s disdain for Silicon Valley is no well-kept secret. Just last week the Republican frontrunner and former US President threatened to put Mark Zuckerburg in jail while accusing him of committing election fraud, and Trump also recently called out big tech companies for being “too big” and “too powerful” in an interview with Bloomsburg Businessweek.

However, just like Harris, Trump is currently receiving a wealth of donations and endorsements from tech billionaires supporting his libertarian, pro-business ideology, sparking concerns that the nominee won’t crack down on monopolies if he comes into power later this year.

Trump has also been a vocal critic of AI, claiming that the technology might be “the most dangerous thing out there” after a slew of deepfake images and videos emerged of him at the start of the year. Yet, with Republican delegates pushing to roll back federal restrictions on AI last week, and Trump calling for fewer AI guardrails himself, it’s likely that his return to power would only accelerate the unrestrained use of the technology, and exacerbate potential risks for consumers.

If you’re exploring the world of companies offering remote jobs right now, you’re in luck. At the world’s largest companies – in both the tech sector and beyond – there’s a huge range of roles that you can complete from the comfort of your own home in 2024.

In this guide, we’ll run through some of the most recently-listed remote roles Apple is currently taking applications for, the ups and downs of remote working, and why more and more employees are demanding flexible working arrangements.

If you’re not set on working for the tech behemoth and are open to exploring other options, check out our guides to remote jobs currently open at Microsoft and Google.

Fully Remote jobs to Apply for at Apple in 2024

On Apple’s jobs portal, there are currently 64 open roles at the tech giant with the “Home Office” tag – and more than half of them were posted in the last three weeks. Here are some of the most recent listings:

• Healthcare Enterprise Account Executive, Major Accounts (Nashville)
• Retail Account Lead (Madrid, Spain)
• Distributed Database Engineer (Washington DC)
• K-12 Education Account Executive (Columbus)
• K20 Education Leadership Executive (Montreal)
• US Channel Sales Enablement Manager (New York City
• Apple Support College Program At Home Advisor (multiple locations)
• ER Business Partner (Austin_)
• Healthcare Enterprise Account Executive, Major Accounts(Dallas)
• Senior Machine Learning Research Engineer (Munich)
• Browser Security Researcher (Seoul, South Korea)
• AIML – Partnerships Lead, Siri Response (Cupertino)

Each position is connected to a physical location, but don’t worry – the location on the job portal is still designated as “Home Office” for all of the above listings.

Remote Working: The Ups and Downs

As is the case with basically any working arrangement – flexible or not – there are upsides and downsides. These will vary depending on the stage of your career that you’re at, whether you’re a parent, and what industry you work in.

The big upside that hybrid and remote workers mention the most – at least in our experience – is the freedom that comes with the added flexibility and control over your work-life balance.

The rise of digital nomad visas – which have made it far easier for remote workers to live in other countries – has even made escaping the static city lifestyle feasible for those who want to travel the world while they’re young.

For those less inclined to globetrot, the ability to claw back an hour or so of the morning and evening commute that would otherwise be spent driving into the office or packing into a busy train at rush hour is another welcome advantage.

Naturally, as well as getting some valuable time back each working day, remote workers save significant amounts of money on gas or public transport costs each month.

However, remote working isn’t all plain sailing. There is some evidence that remote working – or more specifically, not coming into the office – can have a detrimental impact on your career. Remote workers are more likely to be overlooked for promotions, several studies have shown, as they aren’t as present in the office.

There are other downsides, too – especially for the most junior members of the workforce. Generations of office workers have developed key social skills from being in a building, five days a week, with their much more senior peers. Their Gen-Z counterparts – many of whom are reaching their mid-20s with little to no office experience at all – have missed out on formative experiences.

If you confine people to a working environment where every interaction is via messages – and therefore intentional – opportunities for off-the-cuff conversations and inter-company networking start to dry up. And, in this sense, remote roles can be a tad isolating.

Workers are Demanding Hybrid Working Options

A recent study we covered in Tech.co showed that 42% of prospective employees in Europe would reject a job offer if there were no hybrid working options. This is a higher percentage than was recorded in other studies published over the past few years.

It seems that it’s becoming more and more difficult for businesses to contractually obligate employees to come into the office five days a week – or even for any time at all – when so many companies are now fully remote work, for good or for bad.

In terms of talent recruitment, in some industries, it’s become much the same as shooting yourself in the foot. But it’s not just new employees that many businesses are struggling to convince to come into the office.

Many big tech companies – most notably Google – struggled to get employees already on their payroll back into the office after the pandemic, with two-thirds of the company’s staff reporting they were unhappy with the decision in a survey conducted at the time.

The resistance to return-to-office mandates is so strong that some managers are even leveraging RTO policies to make underperforming employees jump before they’re pushed.

For better or worse, it’s rapidly become a key deal-breaker factor for millions of skilled knowledge workers – and with this in mind, it’s hard to see the trend ever reversing.

A data breach of personal and medical information has made cybercrime victims of 12.9 million people.

The huge data breach has impacted customers of the Australian healthcare provider MediSecure. The information exposed is connected to prescriptions distributed by the company’s systems from March 2019 to November 2023.

The Australian Government is urging people who think they have been impacted to be “alert for scams”. The Australian Federal Police are now investigating.

Nature and Extent of the Breach

The extent of the breach was revealed to the public in May, and MediSecure, reeling from the attack, has now gone into administration.

The company was one of two that operated a prescription delivery service in Australia up until late 2023. However, it lost the contract to a rival.
In its time operating, it held personal and sensitive information, including contact and health information, of millions of Australians. It was this data that was “stolen by a malicious third-party actor”

The company has continued to update customers and in a statement on May 31 said that the data set “had been made available on a dark web forum” The company urged caution from the public, saying: “We urge Australians to not go looking for this data. Accessing stolen sensitive or personal information on the dark web only promotes future cyber-criminal activities against Australian businesses.”

What Can Customers Do?

In a statement, the Department of Home Affairs has now laid out the details of the breach. But it has also provided information as to where possible victims can get guidance on everything from spotting scams to protecting their personal information. It is also aware that the nature of the attack might distress some people; and mental health support is available.

It adds that the national prescription service has not been affected and healthcare providers can still prescribe and dispense medicines.

The news comes as another major healthcare provider – this time in the US – is still counting the cost of a breach.

The ransomware attack on Change Healthcare may impact as many as a third of Americans. This would be a catastrophic 110 million individuals. This dwarfs the Anthem attack of 2015, which involved the records of 78.8 million people.

According to The HIPAA Journal, the cost of the response to February’s attack on Change Healthcare is now predicted to be between $2.3 billion and $2.45 billion. However, the expense of notifying all customers hasn’t been included in this.

Both attacks have left millions of people rightly concerned that their personal information is available to bad agents who will repeatedly use it to try and scam them. Both will have also seriously dented the public’s confidence in the medical providers who have access to the most personal of our details.