YouTube and Gmail ads are about to get a little less annoying for some. Google today is adding parenting and pregnancy, weight loss and dating to its list of “sensitive categories” on user ad controls. Users will be able to restrict ads from these categories on both YouTube and Google Display. The ad filters won’t apply to Google search results or Google Shopping, but a spokesperson confirmed that this could happen in the future.

“Providing transparency and control has always been a priority for us so we’re expanding our tools, enabling the choice to see fewer pregnancy and parenting, dating, and weight loss ads. We’ll continue to listen to user feedback and study which categories to expand this feature to in the future,” said Karin Hennessy, group product manager for ad privacy at Google in a statement.

Targeted ads have come under fire for being particularly intrusive and even harmful for certain users. For example, alcoholics or gambling addicts could be triggered by ads for tequila and online casinos. Those who suffer from eating disorders or body dysmorphia could experience something similar with weight loss ads, and so platforms are trying to strike a delicate balance that keeps their users happy while not alienating their advertisers.

In response to accusations of discriminatory ads, Meta this year removed the ability for advertisers to target users based on sensitive topics, such as health, race or ethnicity, political affiliation, religion or sexual orientation. Twitter has also banned political ads and climate change denial ads from its platform. Both Facebook and Instagram block ads featuring weight loss products and cosmetic surgery targeted to minors. Instagram users can set their ad topic preferences so they’ll see fewer ads from certain categories. Google has already blocked targeted ads for users below the age of 18 years old, and in 2020 allowed users to limit how many ads they would encounter on the topics of gambling or alcohol. 

Given the sizable share of the online ad market it currently holds, Google's decision to let users opt out of additional sensitive ad categories means those who might be harmed (or just annoyed) by them will hopefully be exposed to them less frequently.

The time has come to say farewell to Bethesda’s PC games launcher. Starting today, players can transfer their games library, as well as DLC, virtual currency, in-game items and their friends list to their Steam account. Users still have until May 11th to play their heart out on the Bethesda PC launcher. On that date, the PC launcher will no longer allow access to any games. But users can still access their Bethesda.net accounts and transfer their games over to Steam after May 11th.

Players who are ready to migrate should make sure to read the detailed instructions on Bethesda’s website first. Any games users already own or purchases they’ve made will be available free on Steam. But keep in mind that the transferring process could get a bit hairy. While most game saves will automatically transfer, some will require players to manually transfer them over to Steam. For example, DOOM Eternal players will have to manually copy their saved files to their Steam folder. Bethesda has some updated instructions for DOOM Eternal players here. Fallout 76 players should note that there's a special tool available to help make the migration easier, as well as an extensive FAQ they should read first. Wolfenstein: Youngblood at present isn’t available for transfer, so players won’t be able to carry over their progression on that game to Steam. But in-game skins and DLCs should transfer normally.

While migrating your library may seem annoying, Bethesda is sweetening the pot by making a number of new games available on Steam for the first time. These include The Elder Scrolls Arena, The Elder Scrolls Daggerfall, Creation Kit for Fallout 4 and Skyrim Special Edition, and Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory. Fallout 76’s Public Test Server is now available on Steam as well.

Facebook is reportedly unable to account for much of the personal user data under its ownership, including what it is being used for and where it’s located, according to an internal report leaked to Motherboard.

Privacy engineers on Facebook’s Ad and Business Product team wrote the report last year, intending it to be read by the company’s leadership. It detailed how Facebook could address a growing number of data usage regulations, including new privacy laws in India, South Africa and elsewhere. The report’s authors described a platform often in the dark about the personal data of its estimated 1.9 billion users.

The engineers warned that Facebook would have difficulty making promises to countries on how it would treat the data of its citizens. “We do not have an adequate level of control and explainability over how our systems use data, and thus we can’t confidently make controlled policy changes or external commitments such as ‘we will not use X data for Y purpose,’" wrote the report’s authors. "And yet, this is exactly what regulators expect us to do, increasing our risk of mistakes and misrepresentation.”

Facebook’s main obstacle to tracking down user data appears to be the company’s lack of “closed-form” systems, the report states. In other words, the company’s data systems have “open borders” that mix together first-party user data, third-party user data and sensitive data. To describe how difficult it is to track down specific Facebook’s data, the report’s authors came up with the metaphor of pouring a bottle of ink into a lake… and then trying to get it back in the bottle:

“This bottle of ink is a mixture of all kinds of user data (3PD, 1PD, SCD, Europe, etc.) You pour that ink into a lake of water (our open data systems; our open culture) … and it flows … everywhere. How do you put that ink back in the bottle? How do you organize it again, such that it only flows to the allowed places in the lake?”

More succinctly, a former Facebook employee who spoke anonymously to Motherboard said the question of where data goes inside the company is "broadly speaking, a complete shitshow."

The authors state that Facebook previously had "the 'luxury' of addressing [new privacy regulations] one at a time," like the EU’s GDPR and the California Consumer Privacy Act. But subsequent years brought more data protection legislation from all over the world, including India, Thailand, South Africa and South Korea. The document casts doubt on if Facebook has been able to comply with such legislation, and if it's equipped to weather the "tsunami" of new laws that make similar restrictions. (A Facebook spokesperson denied to Motherboard that the company is not currently complying with privacy regulations.)

“Considering this document does not describe our extensive processes and controls to comply with privacy regulations, it's simply inaccurate to conclude that it demonstrates non-compliance," the spokesperson told Motherboard. New privacy regulations across the globe introduce different requirements and this document reflects the technical solutions we are building to scale the current measures we have in place to manage data and meet our obligations,”

DARPA’s RACER program has been developing off-road autonomous combat vehicles that can travel as fast as crewed systems. The agency has now selected Intel to develop a simulation platform for these off-road AVs. The aim of the project, known as RACER-Sim, is to create computer models that mimic the type of rugged, unstructured terrain that these vehicles commonly encounter. Intel Labs will work with the Computer Vision Center in Barcelona and the University of Texas at Austin to craft these simulation tools.

“We brought together a team of renowned experts from the Computer Vision Center and UT Austin with the goal of creating a versatile and open platform to accelerate progress in off-road ground robots for all types of environments and conditions,” said Intel’s Autonomous Agents Lab director German Ros in a statement.

Developing AVs that can operate on backroads, hilly areas and other types of rough terrain have been a major challenge for the industry. Traditional lidar and camera sensors are designed for predictable settings like roads and highways. Off-the-road AVs must operate in a much more challenging environment, driving on extreme terrain with rocks, debris and vegetation.

Over the next two years, Intel will work on speeding up the process of designing off-the-road combat AVs. During the first phase, it will create new simulation platforms and map generation tools that can mimic off-the-road environments. Intel during the second phase will implement the new algorithms without relying on robots, a measure designed to cut costs and time.

The Pentagon for many years has been working on autonomous technologies for the U.S. military, including unmanned underwater vessels, pilotless fighter jets and more. But the cybersecurity and safety risks of such systems pose a real challenge to their everyday use.

You can watch a preview of what RACER-Sim will look like in the video below:

Apple hired Littler Mendelson — an anti-union law firm known for high-profile clients such as Starbucks, McDonald’s and Nissan — reportedThe Verge. The decision to retain the firm comes shortly after 100 workers at Apple's retail location in Atlanta’s Cumberland Mall petitioned the National Labor Relations Board last week to hold a union election. The tech giant has yet to formally respond to the petition. 

Apple workers at the Atlanta retail store are hoping to join the Communications Workers of America. The CWA has played a significant role in organizing tech industry workers in recent months, including its involvement in organizing drives Activision Blizzard subsidiary Raven Software and Verizon Wireless. 

The Cumberland Mall location is the first Apple Store in the US to file to unionize. But it likely won’t be the last. Earlier this month workers at Apple’s Grand Central location began collecting signatures to start a union. A worker at a New York store told The Verge the company had already begun holding captive audience meetings, a hallmark of union avoidance strategies. 

Hourly workers at Apple retail stores nationwide have complained of low pay, difficult working conditions and few opportunities for advancement. Many Apple employees were asked to work long hours or overtime during the pandemic, often at risk to their own health. Despite its steady ascent to becoming one of the world’s most profitable companies, the wages of its retail employees have not kept pace with either Apple's growth or the country's ballooning inflation, according to workers. 

“We are fortunate to have incredible retail team members and we deeply value everything they bring to Apple. We are pleased to offer very strong compensation and benefits for full time and part time employees, including health care, tuition reimbursement, new parental leave, paid family leave, annual stock grants and many other benefits,” Apple spokesperson Nick Leahy told The Verge, in a statement that did not in any capacity touch on the company's relationship with Littler Mendelson. 

“By retaining the notorious union busting firm Littler Mendelson, Apple’s management is showing that they intend to try to prevent their employees from exercising their right to join a union by running the same playbook as other large corporations,” said CWA Secretary-Treasurer Sara Steffens. “The workers at Starbucks, another Littler client, aren’t falling for it and neither will the workers at Apple.”

Are an Apple Store worker thinking about or starting to organize your location? We'd like to hear from you. Download Signal messenger for iOS or Android and send a text confidentially to 646 983 9846.

You'll finally have a chance to host that r/legaladvice happy hour, or take your friends from r/animalpics to the zoo. Reddit is investing $1 million in its Community Funds program, which aims to help users get their projects and ideas off the ground. 

The program will officially open for applications in June, at which point Reddit’s entire community will be invited to apply. The platform will award anywhere between $1,000 and $50,000 to help users launch their projects, events and other ideas. The only conditions are that the projects benefit a certain Reddit community and don’t promote an outside company, product or project. Other than that, the sky appears to be the limit. Reddit lists several example projects, including online conferences, talks, outdoor festivals, concerts, workshops, magazines and short films.

Reddit first tested out the Community Funds concept last October, with a pilot run that funded 13 different projects, including a community billboard contest, a digital conference for historians, Christmas gifts for families undergoing financial difficulties and a comic book contest.

“Community Funds aligns with our mission of bringing community, belonging, and empowerment to everyone in the world. We believe that empowering communities to do more by awarding funds to support their best ideas is one way we can accomplish this,” said Reddit in its blog post announcing the program.

Projects will be selected based on their “creativity, feasibility, and community impact”, according to Reddit. Interested applicants should look out for more submission details and guidelines from Reddit, which it plans to release in the upcoming weeks. 

Instagram is experimenting with a new Templates feature for Reels that will let users copy video formats from other Reels videos, reportedBusiness Insider. Templates are already an incredibly popular feature we’ve seen on TikTok, and are often the basis for viral challenges and trends on the platform. The Templates feature on Reels is still in beta testing mode, with only a small number of influencers able to access it. 

Meta confirmed the news to TechCrunch. “We are always working on new ways to make Reels simpler to create. We are testing the ability for you to make a reel using an existing Template from another reel,” a Meta spokesperson toldTechCrunch in an email.

As influencer Josephine Hill describes in the tweet below, Templates gives users the option to select “Use as template” on any Reels video in order to replace video clips with your own. While the current version of Templates on Reels gives users a number of preset options, the new feature appears to give the option of using any Reels video as a template.

Instagram has rolled out many TikTok-like features on Reels in the past in an effort to keep up with the reigning Gen Z app of choice. Some recent examples include a Remix feature, the ability to collaborate on videos, new music features and visual replies. Given that Instagram head Adam Mosseri last year said the platform would double-down on video in 2022, we’ll likely see even more new innovations in the months to follow.

OnlyFans has temporarily paused accounts and payments for its Russian creators, reportedMotherboard. The UK-based platform — up until now — was one of the few Western tech companies to keep its door open to Russian users. Although OnlyFans momentarily blocked access to Russian creators in February, it soon restored the accounts, saying that full functionalities would be available “as long as we have the payment methods to support them.”

But now even tighter payment restrictions appears to have forced OnlyFans’ hand.

“OnlyFans is a creator first business. Over the past few months we have explored several options to continue providing our services to creators impacted by the Russia / Ukraine war. However, due to a further tightening of payment restrictions to and from Russia, OnlyFans can no longer properly serve our Russian creator community. As a result, we are taking steps to temporarily pause accounts where payments are received in Russia. We have asked impacted creators to contact support@onlyfans.com who can help address any queries regarding their accounts,” said a statement provided to Motherboard by OnlyFans.

It's unclear if OnlyFans users in Russia can still access their accounts and pay for services on the platform. Engadget has reached out for clarification and will update if we hear back.

Spending and earning money in Russia has become even more difficult in recent weeks as countries continue to pile on sanctions. Russian creators and merchants have been barred from making money on a number of Western platforms, including Twitch, YouTube, Etsy, Fiverr and Meta-owned Instagram and Facebook. Visa, Paypal, American Express and Mastercard have suspended operations in the country, making it impossible for many Russians to receive or send foreign payments. A partial SWIFT ban on Russia means that a number of its major banks are unable to make transactions with the rest of the world.

The FCC's crackdown on Russian ties to US telecom is making headway. The agency voted today to fine Montana-based wireless carrier Truphone for not disclosing that it is indirectly owned by Russian oligarchs, reportedReuters. Any company with an FCC common carrier license has to receive approval from the agency before letting a foreign entity hold more than 25 percent of its equity or voting interests. For violating that rule, the agency proposed a fine of $660,639 and is requiring Truphone to repeat parts of the FCC’s vetting process.

The ownership of Truphone and control of its FCC licenses were repeatedly transferred to foreign entities without proper vetting by the FCC, according to a press release. 

FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks told Reuters that the company has been indirectly owned by "a small group of Russian oligarchs since at least 2011 ... With the importance of the internet and the shifting national security environment facing our nation, protecting our communications networks has never been more critical."

One of those Russian oligarchs is Chelsea Premier League football club owner Roman Abramovich, who has been sanctioned by the UK, EU and Canada. Truphone raised $200 million from funds owned by Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich, making him a minority owner. The company acknowledged its ties to Abramovich in a statement back in April, and said an outside advisory firm would be reviewing its strategic operations.

Truphone is only the latest company to fall under FCC scrutiny. Last month the agency put Russian cyber firm Kaspersky Labs on its national security threat list, meaning that US firms are banned from using FCC subsidies to pay for its services.

A California judge today granted Activision’s motion to dismiss a class-action lawsuit filed by investors who asserted the company misled them about sexual harassment allegations at the company, including probes by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and California’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH). First reported by Bloomberg Law, the judge ruled that the plaintiffs failed to meet the threshold to pursue their claims under federal securities law.

First filed in August 2021 by a group of individual investors that includes Jeff Ross and Gary Cheng, they allege the EEOC and DFEH probes were intentionally downplayed by Activision in SEC filings, which calling them “routine”. But the judge argued these investors' claims to be an example of “fraud-by-hindsight,” wherein companies which suffer bad outcomes are unfairly accused of having been able to predict them.

“Plaintiffs contend that the media’s reaction to news of the regulatory investigations and Defendants’ statement in response to the DFEH Action 'belies any notion' that the regulatory investigations were ordinary or routine. But such allegations constitute 'fraud-by-hindsight' and absent particularized, temporal facts, are insufficient to support a claim of securities fraud,” wrote Judge Percy Anderson of the US District Court of the Central District of California.

A US district court recently approved an $18 million dollar settlement between the videogame company and the EEOC. The lawsuit by California’s DFEH is still pending. While the motion to dismiss is a setback for the investors, they have 30 days to file an amended complaint.