Meta has been hit with a €265 million ($277 million) fine for failing to prevent millions of Facebook users' mobile phone numbers and other data from being scraped and dumped online, Independent.ie has reported. It's the second fine levied by the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) in just the past few months, following a €405 million ($402 million at the time) penalty issued in September. In just the last 18 months, Meta has tallied nearly €1 billion in fines. 

The penalty was issued in response to the leak of 533 million Facebook users' data reported in April last year. That included phone numbers, birth dates, email addresses and locations, information that could be exploited in phishing and other attacks. The private information of sitting judges, prison officers, social workers, journalists and others were posted online, the DPC said.

At the time, Meta blamed the attack on "bad actors," but Ireland's regulator said the company failed to comply with GDPR obligations of "data protection by design and default." It wrote in a news release that other data protection authorities in the EU "agreed with the decision of the DPC." 

Meta confirmed to the The Wall Street Journal that the flaw had been patched back in 2019. The company said that it will review DPC Ireland's decision, but has not yet decided whether to appeal. "Unauthorized data scraping is unacceptable and against our rules," the spokesperson added. 

Last year, the DPC fined Meta's WhatsApp €225 million ($267 million) for not providing details of how it shares European Union users' data with Facebook. It was also hit with a €17 million ($18.6 million) fine over 12 separate data breaches, and penalized €405 million ($402 million) for its handling of children’s privacy settings on Instagram. 

WhatsApp has introduced a new feature that lets you send messages to yourself like reminders and shopping lists, parent Meta has confirmed with TechCrunch. Called "Message Yourself," the feature was first spotted by WaBetaInfo several weeks ago as part of a beta test, but is now being rolled out globally to iOS and Android users in the coming weeks.

Once you get the update, you'll be able to see yourself at the top of the contacts list when creating new messages. Once you click on that, you'll be able to send yourself notes, reminders, shopping lists and anything else you might need to remember. The resulting notification, if enabled, could help make sure your self-note doesn't go unheeded. Users can also pin their Message Yourself chats to the top of a conversation list for easier access.

Until now, you could only message yourself by creating a group with just you as a member or by using the apps "click to chat" feature, both inelegant solutions at best. Rival platform Signal already offers a feature called "Note to Self" that does much the same thing, though it's buried in your contacts list rather than being available at the top. As mentioned, you should see the feature in the next couple of weeks whether on Android or iOS. 

If you've been waiting for the best possible deal on an Xbox Series S console, today is the day. For Cyber Monday, Amazon is offering a $60 discount (20 percent) plus a $40 coupon that can be applied to future purchases. That effectively gives you a $100 discount (33 percent) off the regular $300 price for today only — a great deal on a very good console. 

When the Series S came out, we called it the "next-gen starter pack" and gave it a solid 85 score. Even though it doesn't support gameplay in 4K, it plays incredibly smoothly and has a svelte look that will fit into any decor. Thanks to the FPS boost technology added to the Series S and X, older games, including many made for Xbox One, will look and perform better with faster frame rates.

Unlike the Series X, the Series S only plays digital titles, with no slot to insert physical game media. It's a great option if you have an Xbox Game Pass membership, though, which costs $10 per month for the Console tier, and $15 per month for the Ultimate tier. Either level unlocks a library with hundreds of game to download and play, while also granting discounts to many titles you might want to buy outright.

Another caveat is that the Series S has less SSD storage, with 512GB on-board compared to the 1TB for the Series X. If you like to keep plenty of titles on hand, you'll either need to shuffle them between the main disk and USB-C storage, or purchase Seagate's $200 expansion card. All told, though, it's a great option for casual console gamers, particularly considering all the backward-compatible Game Pass games — just keep in mind that the sale ends today. 

Earlier this year, Twitter confirmed that the private user data for 5.4 million users was stolen due to an API vulnerability, but the company said it had "no evidence" that it was exploited. Now, all of those accounts have been exposed on a hacker form, BleepingComputer has reported. On top of that, an additional 1.4 million Twitter profiles for suspended users was reportedly shared privately, and an even larger data dump with the data of "tens of millions" of other users may have come from the same vulnerability.

The owner of hacking forum called Breached told BleepingComputer that it was responsible for exploiting the weakness (originally obtained from another hacker called "Devil") and dumping the user records. It said that it also obtained 1.4 million Twitter profiles for suspended accounts, obtained via another API, but only shared those privately among a few individuals.

On top of all that, security expert Chad Loder has revealed that tens of millions more Twitter records may have been collected using the same API. Once again, data collected may include private phone numbers along with public information. Loder posted a redacted sample on Mastodon, as he was banned on Twitter several days ago for unknown reasons. It could contain over 17 million records, BleepingComputer was told.

The breaches leaked users' private phone numbers and email addresses, which could be used for phishing and other scams. That information could also be exploited to uncover identities from private Twitter accounts. As usual, be very wary of any suspicious emails or texts claiming to come from Twitter — and if you're thinking about using two-factor authentication, now would be a good time.  

Stable Diffusion, the AI that can generate images from text in an astonishingly realistic way, has been updated with a bunch of new features. However, many users aren't happy, complaining that the new software can no longer generate pictures in the styles of specific artists or generate NSFW artworks, The Verge has reported. 

Version 2 does introduce a number of new features. Key among those is a new text encoder called OpenCLIP that "greatly improves the quality of the generated images compared to earlier V1 releases," according to Stability AI, the company behind Stable Diffusion. It also includes a new NSFW filter from LAION designed to remove adult content.

Other features include a depth-to-image diffusion model that allows one to create transformations "that look radically different from the original but still preserve the coherence and depth from an image," according to Stability AI. In other words, if you create a new version of an image, objects will still correctly appear in front of or behind other objects. Finally, a text-guided inpainting model makes it easy to switch out parts of an image, keeping a cat's face while changing out its body, for example.  

Stability AI

However, the update now makes it harder to create certain types of images like photorealistic images of celebrities, nude and pornographic output, and images that match the style of certain artists. Users have said that asking Stable Diffusion Version 2 to generate images in the style of Greg Rutkowski — an artist often copied for AI images — no longer works as it used to. "They have nerfed the model," said one Reddit user.

Stable Diffusion has been particularly popular for generating AI art because it's open source and can be built upon, while rivals like DALL-E are closed models. For example, the YouTube VFX site Corridor Crew showed off an add-on called Dreambooth that allowed them to generate images based on their own personal photos.

Stable Diffusion can copy artists like Rutkowski by training on their work, examining images and looking for patterns. Doing this is probably legal (though in a grey area), as we detailed in our explainer earlier this year. However, Stable Diffusion's license agreement bans people from using the model in a way that breaks any laws.

Despite that, Rutkowski and other artists have objected to the use. "I probably won’t be able to find my work out there because [the internet] will be flooded with AI art," Rutkowski told MIT Technology Review. "That’s concerning." 

Twitter plans to launch its updated Verified program next Friday with manual authentication and different colored check marks for different types of users, Elon Musk has tweeted. "Gold check for companies, grey check for government, blue for individuals (celebrity or not) and all verified accounts will be manually authenticated before check activates," he said. 

Musk previously stated that Twitter would "probably use [a] different color check for organizations than individuals." However, this is the first time he's revealed what those colors will likely be. It's not clear if all verified users including government and industry will have to pay Twitter Blue fee of $8 per month. 

In a subsequent tweet, Musk added that "individuals can have secondary tiny logo showing they belong to an org if verified as such by that org." However, all individual users will have the same blue check mark "as [the] boundary of what constitutes 'notable' is otherwise too subjective," he said.

Musk originally launched his new verification program with the idea that anyone who joins Twitter Blue for $8 a month would get a blue checkmark. As many predicted, though, the system quickly became a goat rodeo due to account impersonation and was shut down after just 48 hours. In one instance, an Eli Lilly impersonator tweeted that "insulin is free now," forcing the company to apologize for the tweet. Another Eli Lilly impersonator then apologized for the apology.

Musk originally said that the revised Verified program would launch on November 29th, but his latest tweet puts the date at December 2nd. 

After gradually expanding access to its so-called full self-driving (FSD) beta for the last few years, Tesla is opening it up to anyone who has paid for it, Elon Musk announced in a tweet. "Tesla Full Self-Driving Beta is now available to anyone in North America who requests it from the car screen, assuming you have bought this option," he said. 

FSD is an extension of Tesla's "Autopilot" driver-assist feature, expanding on the latter with automated functions like automated steering in cities, automatic parking, smart vehicle summoning and traffic light/stop sign recognition. The feature is a paid upgrade priced at $15,000 following a price hike of $3,000 in September. 

Tesla first promised to launch full self-driving features in 2018, but they only finally appeared in July 2021 to a small number of "expert and careful drivers." It was released more widely in the version 9.0 beta, but testers were limited to an early access program. On the last FSD release, Tesla dropped the requirement for at least 100 Autopilot miles and an 80 safety score, and now anyone who wants it can have it. 

However, Tesla is rolling out FSD widely at a time when it's under scrutiny from regulators. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) recently expanded its investigation into a series of Tesla crashes involving first responders to most models. In a separate probe, it's also looking into more than 30 incidents involving Autopilot. 

Musk has promised full self-driving with no one behind the wheel for some time now. Most recently, he said he thought it could arrive this year, but backed off those claims in Tesla's latest earnings report. Tesla's stock has been on a steep decline of late, following Elon Musk's $44 billion purchase of Twitter. 

Hulu has jumped into the Black Friday action with steep discounts on its Hulu with Ads plan. You can grab a year of the service for $2 per month ($23.88 for the year), savings yourself a hefty $6 per month or 75 percent off the regular $8 per month rate.

This basic plan includes access to the entire Hulu library of shows and movies that can be streamed on up to two devices at once, with six user profiles, max. Content includes popular films and series like The Handmaid's Tale, Dopesick, Atlanta and Prey. The main thing missing from this plan compared to Hulu’s $11.99 monthly no-ads plan is you can download things for offline viewing with the more expensive option (and no ads, as the name obviously implies). The deal is in effect until November 28th, so it's best to act soon if you're interested. 

Disney is also having a sale on its primary Disney+ premium plan that includes Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars and National Geographic content. Until December 7th, you can get 12 months of the plan for $80, saving $16 over the current $96 price. However, Disney+ is set to go up to $11 per month on December 8th, so jumping in now will save you 39 percent over subscribing later. The plan will automatically renew on an annual basis, so if you don't want to pay the higher price later, be sure to set a reminder to cancel in your calendar. 

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Elon Musk is refusing to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in travel bills accumulated by Twitter employees before he took over the company, The New York Times has reported. The company is on a drastic cost-cutting campaign and Musk has reportedly issued orders to slow or even halt payments to vendors and contract services. The move has sparked complaints from Twitter insiders and vendors who are owed millions of dollars in back payments. 

Musk brought in allies from Tesla, his family office and The Boring Company with the directive to "cut, cut, cut," according to the article. As such, Twitter is asking staff to review, renegotiate or even not pay some outside vendors, according to NYT's sources. Some areas under review include computing costs, travel, software services, real estate and even in-office cafeteria food. 

Twitter is reviewing partnerships with sports leagues like the NFL and NBA, along with media companies including Condé Nast and Fox. It's also trying to renegotiate deals with tech firms like Amazon and Oracle that provide computing services. In addition, corporate credit cards have been shut off, free lunches eliminated and expense report payments delayed. And the company has reportedly not delivered checks previously promised to charitable organizations. 

Musk took on $13 billion in loans as part of his acquisition of the social network, with interest payments supposedly amounting to $1 billion each year. He has told employees that the "economic picture ahead is dire" and "bankruptcy is not out of the question." Twitter has slashed half of its 7,500-strong work force, seen mass resignations and reportedly terminated a majority of its contractors, many of whom worked on policing content.

Foxconn's largest iPhone factory in Zhengzhou, China has been hit by worker protests including violent confrontations, Bloomberg has reported. Videos show hundreds of workers marching and confronting a manager, along with several instances of violence. Employees are reportedly upset over COVID restrictions and bonuses, while a video seen by Engadget Chinese suggests a food shortage might have triggered the protests.

One clip shows workers shouting "Defend our rights! Defend our rights!" while confronting police, while another shows a group of employees surrounding a manager in a conference room. In the latter, one person says "I'm really scared about this place, we all could be COVID positive," while another adds "you are sending us to death." 

Other videos show white-suited individuals attacking someone with sticks, and workers surrounding and rocking an occupied police vehicle. In several clips, workers complained that they were never sure about receiving meals and about inadequate COVID protections. News agencies including Reuters have not yet verified the authenticity of some of the videos, though.

With continued COVID-19 outbreaks, Foxconn has implemented strict "closed loop" quarantine rules, forcing staff to work and live on-site, isolated from the outside world. "It's now evident that closed-loop production in Foxconn only helps in preventing COVID from spreading to the city, but does nothing (if not make it even worse) for the workers in the factory," a Hong Kong advocacy group told Reuters. Thousands of workers may have fled the factory campus, according to other employees, forcing Foxconn to offer bonuses and higher salaries to retain staff. 

Last month, Foxconn drastically reduced iPhone production at the same plant over COVID concerns, forcing Apple to announce that iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max shipments would be delayed. The company's Zhengzhou plant is the world's largest iPhone factory with 200,000 workers, responsible for 70 percent of production of the devices.