Cruise Automation Inc., the self-driving car startup General Motors Co. acquired for “north of $1 billion” in 2016, has hit the streets of San Francisco with a beta test of a self-driving taxi service. The new service, called “Cruise Anywhere,” is initially being tested by company employees and involves the use of a dedicated app ...

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has affirmed an earlier decision that invalidates a claim by a company that essentially would have given it control of podcasting, including the right to claim a fee from every person who creates a podcast. The case was brought by the Electronic Frontier Foundation against Personal Audio LLC, ...

Updated Wednesday A Google Inc. software engineer who wrote a controversial polemic on the how women are not suited to technology jobs, among other things, has been fired for breaching company diversity policy. James Damore, a Harvard University graduate who according to his LinkedIn page worked as a “senior software engineer,” was shown the door ...

Popular virtual private network provider Hotspot Shield has been accused of spying on its users and injecting its own advertising into web pages, according to a newly filed Federal Trade Commission complaint. The accusations come from the Center for Democracy & Technology, which claims in its 14-page filing that Hotspot Shield is monitoring its users in breach ...

A British model is alleged to have been kidnapped and offered for sale on the darknet by the “Black Death Group,” a shadow organization that facilitates human trafficking. Twenty-year-old Chloe Ayling claims to have been lured for a modeling shoot to Milan, Italy, where she was then kidnapped on July 11 and taken to a ...

The price of a single bitcoin broke through $3,000 over the weekend, surging as initial interest in an alternative version of bitcoin launched last week declined. The price of bitcoin peaked at $3,323.93 in trading Saturday before dropping to $3,248.35 Sunday evening, according to figures from Coindesk. Along with the record price, bitcoin’s market capitalization also ...

The U.S. Army has issued a blanket ban on all drones manufactured by Dà-Jiāng Innovations Science and Technology Co. Ltd., better known as DJI, over “cyber vulnerabilities” relating to the Chinese drone maker. First published Friday by drone industry site SAUS News, the Army memo, issued Aug. 2, stated that “due to increased awareness of cyber vulnerabilities ...

A new version of the infamous Cerber ransomware now steals bitcoin from wallets, according to newly published research. Gilbert Sison and Janus Agcaoili from Trend Micro Inc. detail the new version in a blog post, explaining that the new version of Cerber, which has gone through six separate versions with various differences in its routines, targets ...

Startup incubator Science Inc. is delving into the world of initial coin offerings with an ICO that will raise money for a new blockchain-focused investment fund. The Science Blockchain Fund, believed to be looking to raise between $50 million and $100 million according to The Wall Street Journal, intends to use the funds to invest in companies ...

Android users will be presented better-performing apps in the Google Play Store as the search giant announced that it has started ranking apps in search results. Now, “quality apps,” those that rate highly on “performance and quality expectations,” now appear above apps that have excessive battery usage, slow rendering times and crashes. According to Google Play Product Manager Andrew Ahn, ...