The Trump administration on Thursday proposed a multibillion-dollar overhaul of a U.S. air traffic control system that it said still relies on floppy disks and replacement parts found on eBay and has come under renewed scrutiny in the wake of recent deadly plane crashes and technical failures.The plan calls for six new air traffic control centers, along with an array of technology and communications upgrades at all of the nation’s air traffic facilities over the next three or four years, said Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy.“We use radar from the 1970s,” said Duffy, who compared the proposal with upgrading from a flip phone to a smartphone. “This technology is 50 years old that our controllers use to scan the skies and keep airplanes separated from one another.”How much it will all cost wasn’t immediately revealed. Duffy said he’ll work with Congress on the details.“It’s going to be billions, lots of billions,” he said.The plan has an aggressive timeline, calling on everything to be finished by 2028 although Duffy said it may take another year.Demands to fix the aging system that handles more than 45,000 daily flights have increased since the midair collision in January between an Army helicopter and a commercial airliner that killed 67 people over Washington, D.C.That crashand a string of other crashes and mishapsshowed the immediate need for these upgrades, Duffy said in front of airline officials, union leaders and family members of those who died in the crash near Reagan National Airport.The proposal sets out to add fiber, wireless or satellite technology at more than 4,600 locations, replace 618 radars and more than quadruple the number of airports with systems designed to reduce near misses on runways.Six new air traffic control centers also would be built under the plan, and new hardware and software would be standardized across all air traffic facilities.The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee last week budgeted $12.5 billion to overhaul the system, but that estimate came out before the Transportation Department revealed its plan. Duffy said the final price tag will be higher.U.S. Rep. Sam Graves of Missouri, who heads the House transportation committee, called the amount only a “down payment.”To build the system quickly, as planned, Duffy said Congress must give the Federal Aviation Administration all the money up front and streamline the permitting process.“The system we have here? It’s not worth saving. I don’t need to preserve any of this. It’s too old,” Duffy said.Trump said Thursday that the plan will revolutionize flying. “The new equipment is unbelievable what it does,” he said from the Oval Office. He began to say it may even alleviate the need for pilots before adding, “In my opinion, you always need pilots. But you wouldn’t even have to have pilots.”The newly revealed proposal appears to have wide support across the aviation industry from airline CEOs to the unions representing controllers and pilots but this is just the beginning and many details haven’t been revealed.Duffy quickly said the plan will not involve privatizing the air traffic control system, as Trump had supported in his first term.Following the midair crash near Washington, Trump promised to fix what he called “an old, broken system” and to tackle the nationwide shortage of air traffic controllers while blaming the previous Biden administration for both problems.But the weaknesses within the air traffic control system have been highlighted for years in hearings before Congress and government reports. The struggles to keep up with increasing air traffic has been recognized since the 1990s long before either Trump or Biden took office.The Trump administration’s overhaul plan will need enough funding to be more effective than previous reform efforts during the last three decades. Already more than $14 billion has been invested in upgrades since 2003 but none have dramatically changed how the system works.The FAA has been working since the mid-2000s to make upgrades through its NextGen program.One of the biggest challenges with a massive upgrade is that the FAA must keep the current system operating while developing a new system and then find a way to seamlessly switch over. That’s partly why the agency has pursued more gradual improvements in the past.The shortage of controllers and technical breakdowns came to the forefront in the last two weeks when a radar system briefly failed at the Newark, New Jersey, airport, leading to a wave of flight cancellations and delays.Without the planned upgrades, those breakdowns will be repeated around the nation, Duffy said. “Newark has been a prime example of what happens when this old equipment goes down,” he said.
Associated Press reporter Will Weissert in Washington contributed.
Josh Funk and John Seewer, Associated Press
The Federal Emergency Management Agency faced fresh upheaval Thursday just weeks before the start of hurricane season when the acting administrator was pushed out and replaced by another official from the Department of Homeland Security.The abrupt change came the day after Cameron Hamilton, a former Navy SEAL who held the job for the last few months, testified on Capitol Hill that he did not agree with proposals to dismantle an organization that helps plan for natural disasters and distributes financial assistance.“I do not believe it is in the best interest of the American people to eliminate the Federal Emergency Management Agency,” he said Wednesday.President Donald Trump has suggested that individual states, not the federal government, should take the lead on hurricanes, tornadoes and other crises. He has been sharply critical of FEMA’s performance, particularly in North Carolina after Hurricane Helene.David Richardson, a former Marine Corps officer who served in Afghanistan, Iraq and Africa, will run FEMA for the time being. He does not appear to have any experience in managing natural disasters. He currently serves as the Department of Homeland Security’s assistant secretary for countering weapons of mass destruction.The administration made no statement about any potential permanent nominee. Nor did the White House answer questions about Richardson’s background, the impact of Hamilton’s testimony or whether the president personally ordered his dismissal.An administration official, who requested anonymity to discuss a personnel matter, said Hamilton was offered another government job that would be a better fit for him, but did not say what that job would be.FEMA staff were notified of the change in leadership through a brief email.Through a January executive order, Trump established a review council tasked with “reforming and streamlining the nation’s emergency management and disaster response system,” according to Homeland Security. The 13-member council is chaired by Noem and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.During Hamilton’s appearance before a House Appropriations subcommittee Wednesday, he shared concerns about how FEMA assistance is administered. He also said the agency had “evolved into an overextended federal bureaucracy, attempting to manage every type of emergency no matter how minor.”But when Rep. Rosa DeLauro, a Connecticut Democrat, asked Hamilton how he felt about plans to eliminate FEMA, Hamilton said he did not believe the agency should be eliminated.“Having said that,” Hamilton continued, “I’m not in a position to make decisions and impact outcomes on whether or not a determination such as consequential as that should be made. That is a conversation that should be had between the president of the United States and this governing body.”In a statement Thursday afternoon, DeLauro expressed support for Hamilton and accused the Republican president of firing “anyone who is not blindly loyal to him.”“The Trump administration must explain why he has been removed from this position,” said DeLauro. “Integrity and morality should not cost you your job.”
Chris Megerian and Gabriela Aoun Angueira, Associated Press
Since 1974, William Stout Architectural Books in San Franciscos Jackson Square has been one of the citys most iconic destinations for its seemingly endless stock of art, design, and architecture books. As the store was approaching its 50th year in business with a fresh owner, the Eames Institute for Infinite Curiosity, it discovered a problem: It had run out of stickers to label its books. Then it discovered another problemit didnt have a formalized logo to print more.But as luck would have it, a fairly competent design firm resided just across the street that offered to help: LoveFrom.Its a store we loved. And if we didnt get to design [their brand], it would have been like, we wish we could have done that! says Chris Wilson, designer at LoveFrom. Its something that falls into that category of projects we do for the love of doing themquite organic by just being in the neighborhood and going in the store.[Image: LoveFrom]The ongoing health and legacy of San Francisco is a core reason that Jony Ive founded his studio in his favorite neighborhood, Jackson Square, which sits in the shadow of the Transamerica Pyramid. Ive first visited the neighborhood in 1989, and fell in love with William Stout, along with other local gems. When he left Apple to build LoveFrom, he did so here, right next door to Laurene Powell Jobss Emerson Collective, around the corner from his hardware startup with Sam Altman called io Products. After acquiring nearly $90 million in real estate, Ive is a landlord to several businesses in the neighborhood where hes offered to lower rents, and LoveFrom has offered pro bono design services to many of its neighbors, like the local three Michelin star restaurant Quince, hoping that rising tides raise all boats. It all makes for a nice story. But the effect of this financial and creative investment on the ground level really has been something to watch. Ive visited the neighborhood several times over the past few years, and have witnessed firsthand how the once sleepy blocks are now bustling with activitylike a successful game of SimCity playing out IRL.The William Stout bookstore is a preservation project unto itself, acquired by the Eames Institute in 2022, ensuring that the beloved destination will stick around into the foreseeable future. We dont want it to disappear, says Lauren Smith, chief experience officer at the Eames Institute, who takes our call from deep in the William Stout stacks. Its important to the San Francisco design community and the neighborhood. There arent many architecture book stores left in the world.[Image: LoveFrom]Rebuilding a brandWhen Wilson and fellow LoveFrom designer Antonio Cavedoni (who in a past life developed Apples San Francisco typeface) began searching for the stores original logo, they learned William Stout never really had one; instead, the companys small sign wrote out the stores name in the typeface Washington upon a square placard, and that seemed to inform letterheads and other brand assets. It was a bit quirky and a bit architectural, but it didnt feel codified into a larger, scalable brand system. We kind of thought there was something to hold onto there, says Wilson. Theres a lot of stuff that was a bit odd and a bit weird. We loved some of that, but we just wanted to rationalize these things.The team started by breaking down the core square into five equal quadrants. Then, they looked more closely at the typeface to fill them. Washington was a contemporary (albeit retro) typeface when the store opened. A mix of serif and sans serifs, some of its cleaner geometries (like a perfect circle O) made it appealing for a design store, but the Art Deco stylewhile spiritedfelt too prescriptive of one particular era to represent the entirety of William Stouts purview.[Image: LoveFrom]The obvious choice would have been to do what many do in this situation (and indeed, what William Stout had to do fill some of its brand needs throughout the years): opt for Futura, a now ubiquitous geometric typeface that has similar qualities to Washington. But instead, LoveFrom modified Washington into a new typeface it calls LF Washington with permission from Russell Bean, the creator of the typeface. Designers evened out the cap heights of Washington, while lowering the midlines that made for the high waisted Art Deco look. Meanwhile, LoveFrom drew new numbers that moreclosely align with the new letterforms.LF Washington sings on William Stouts new sign. (The LoveFrom industrial design team created it custom out of enameled steel.) But it also looks straightforward as it balances atop photos to promote William Stout events. For times that the typeface needs to be more expressive, or playful, Cavedoni was inspired by another 1970s typefacesAvant Gardeapproach to ligatures with its overlapping Os and letters nested inside other letters. Later, Cavedoni was joyed to discover that Frank Lloyd Wright took an all-around similar approach in his own branding, making all these decisions feel pretty appropriate for an architectural bookstore.[Image: LoveFrom]The brand beyond the typeAs the team considered the brand colors, it started with those on the original sign: black, white, and red. LoveFrom mostly stuck with this color system, but it expanded a palette of synergistic hues inspired by two of Le Corbusiers famed color studies. LoveFrom contracted illustrator Satoshi Hashimoto to create a series of illustrations. His vaguely mid-century cartoon style captures a kinetic energy that, as Wilson explains, juxtaposes the more formal architectural typography. We wanted to soften [the type] with the warmth of what it feels like to walk in the store, says Wilson. Theres some jazz playing, the doors open, and you see the light inside the store.Its yet another illustration of LoveFroms sense of whimsy offsetting its stricter approaches to geometry. These illustrations are perfect tote bag or T-shirt fodder, but they also introduce a subtle and sweet part of William Stouts e-commerce UX.Anyone visiting the newly launched William Stout website will be welcomed by an illustration of the shops storefront, drawn by Hashimoto. But what they might not realize until visiting again is that this storefront (and its solitary tree) changes with the seasonsyellow in the fall and adorned with multicolor lights in the winter. The front door is sometimes open and sometimes closed (matching the open/closed hours of the building). And if you look really closely, you will spot a bird somewhere in the scenewhich was something of a mascot for Ray and Charles Eames. Click on it, and youll be ushered to the Eames Institute. While not technologically complex, the evolving illustration a clever way to bridge a physical store with a digital shop that Im a bit surprised I havent seen before.The website is definitely a way for us to get a bigger reach; were a very small square foot storefront in San Francisco, says Smith. But we want that shopping experience to feel like coming into the store.The new William Stout brand and website is live today.
When the state of New York adopted a new whole-of-state approach to cybersecurity a few years ago, encompassing everything from transit to schools to power and water supplies, officials were still reeling from an attack that plunged part of Long Island into the paper-and-fax era of the 90s.
Just before Christmas in 2021, a group of hackers, leveraging aging systems and outdated firewalls, quietly slipped into a computer in the Suffolk County clerk’s office and began spreading out across the network. It didnt help that, over the following months, local officials ignored multiple warningsincluding from the FBIthat something was amiss. When a ransomware attack eventually began months later, city services, including 911 operations, were knocked offline; some websites were out for months. Even though it didnt pay the ransomthe hackers, linked to the group AlphV/BlackCat, would lower their demand to $650,000the county eventually paid over $25 million to get its systems back up. The damage didn’t stop there either, with the data of residents and employees, such as Social Security numbers and drivers license numbers, still floating around the dark web.
The next year, Gov. Kathy Hochul made moves to step up the states cyber posture, including boosting cyber spending and launching a statewide cyber strategy, an approach that unifies services and integrates local governments into its larger plan. As part of a 2023 regulatory overhaul, public and private entities across the state are now required to take specific measures to secure systems and to disclose cyber incidents and ransomware payments to the state.
In 2022, Hochul also appointed the states first chief cyber officer, Colin Ahern, to lead cross-agency efforts to keep New York safe from attacks. Previously first deputy director of New York Citys Cyber Command and acting chief information security officer for the city, Ahern got his start in cybersecurity in the Army reserves. He retired as a company commander in the Army Cyber Brigade, where he oversaw the creation of a specialized cyberspace operations organization.
Gov. Hochul named Colin Ahern New York’s first chief cyber officer in 2022 [Photo: Office of Governor Kathy Hochul]
Given his resumé, Ahern is particularly attuned to the ways governments at all levels can collaborate around better cybersecurity. For years, New York and other states have relied on federal support in the form of information sharing and technical resources backed by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency (CISA), as well as millions in cyber funds. A four-year, $1 billion federal grant program that launched in 2022 has proved especially helpful for cash-strapped localities, where IT resources are stretched thin, technology is be out-of-date, and security practices may be minimal.
Still, states need more help: Nearly two in five state-level CISOs say they are not getting the support they need to keep threats at bay, according to a Deloitte survey last fall. And that number could rise: at CISA, recent budget cuts have decimated technical services states rely on, and put those federal funds at risk.
Fast Company spoke with Ahern about the impact of the federal cuts on states, the role that Washington can and should play in state-level cybersecurity, and the AI-backed threats that keep him up at night.
This interview has been edited for clarity.
There are big questions now about how cuts in Washington are impacting cybersecurity at the state and local level. But before all that: what does the threat landscape look like right now?
The threat landscape continues to deteriorate really across two axes. Number one: we see a significant convergence, really accelerating in the last three or four years, that collapses the distinction between different threat actors.
There are the advanced persistent threat actors [APTs], aka nation-state actors, like those interested in espionagelike the so-called Salt Typhoon hacks allegedly perpetrated by the Chinese Ministry of State Security against the telecommunications industryor military-focused preparations for cyber warfare. That includes Volt Typhoon, the alleged penetration by the People’s Liberation Army of China into our critical infrastructure, including water and power and other things.
The third category has always been financially motivated cybercrime of varying degrees of sophistication. On the low end, script kiddies, hacktivists, individuals. And on the high end, the increasingly accelerated professionalization of the cybercrime industry, magnified by a couple of things. Most principally, the ability to rapidly monetize the access to these systems via ransomware, and then extract value from those compromises in the form of a double extortion. And the whole ransomware ecosystem.
Right now, what we’ve seen is this convergence, a collapse from these three distinct groups, with their three distinct capabilities and three distinct target sets and three distinct motivations. We’re now seeing a collapse into everything and all of the above. You’re seeing Russian state-affiliated actors, astroturfing or moonlighting as ransomware operators. You’re seeing an increasingly blurred distinction between espionage and cyber warfare, like Salt Typhoon and Volt Typhoon.
And then you’re seeing the capabilities resident in these three different threat actor groups really not become that distinct at all. And that’s not because everyone’s getting worse. That’s actually because everyone’s getting better. And on top of that, everyone’s getting better at the same time as increasing government digitization, post-COVID consumer expectations, and other things. People have more and more technology systems, and they expect more and more of them. And that increases the threat surface. So the convergence along these two axes really means that everyone really has to raise their game.
How has New York State’s upped its ame in recent years?
I think New York State has a very important and powerful story to tell. In August of ’23, the governor released the state’s first ever whole-of-state cybersecurity strategy, and it really laid out a vision for making the state more unified by increasing access to cybersecurity tools and services, and making us more resilient by continuing to invest in critical infrastructureespecially lifeline critical infrastructureboth from a capital, grant perspective, but also in minimum standards that the state can promulgate. There’s also a focus on preparation, because we can either succeed together or we can fail separately.
We’re in the final stages of our budget, and we have several legislative and financial enhancements to the state cyber posture that the governor has made since she got into office. For example, she’s doubled the size of the Cyber Analysis Unit, the Computer Crimes Unit, and the Internet Crimes Against Children’s Center at the New York State Police. She’s invested tens of millions of dollars in shared services for local governments. Her shared services program covers nearly 100,000 government computers in 55 counties in more than 30 cities, villages, towns, police departments and sheriff’s offices across the state.
So the governor has, I think, an extremely impressive record of delivering efficient, scalable, value-added services to local governments and county governments especially, who are under-resourced to say the least.
Are there things that are really keeping you up at night now, in terms of types of attacks and types of targets?
I have two little kids, so a lot of stuff keeps us up at night but I would say artificial intelligence. We’ve really seen the ability of AI to rapidly enhance the capability of moderately sophisticated threat actors. A person who knows their way around Kali Linux, a person who knows what a git commit is, who now can, with the use of AI, really enhance their own capabilities.
Say you have a situation in which you have a very popular open source package, then there’s a new path release for that open source package. Previously, to reverse engineer a security vulnerability from a recent software patch is both time consuming, tedious, error-prone and requires non-trivial expertise.
So we’re not saying that Joe, Josephine, anybody could do this, but you take a person who kind of knows what they’re doing already and knows what they want: Now, with the aid of AI, they themselves can do work that used to take other very highly-skilled people days or even weeks. They now have the ability to rapidly reverse engineer software packagesin particular, open source packages where the source code is therefore widely known and inspectableand then rapidly extract the vulnerability, weaponize that vulnerability in the form of an exploit, and then use that.
So AI is really reducing the flash-to-bang time of patch-to-exploit: Where it used to be seven days, 15 days, 30 days, now we’re seeing one day, two days, three days. And those were capabilities that only APTs used to have. Now you can go on Hacker News and find out how to do it.
How would you describe the role of the federal government in the state’s cybersecurity?
We think the state has been a good partner to the federal government. We have partnered closely. And it’s no secret that we’re watching with concern, like many, the cuts across federal agencies, the lack of confirmed leaders in key positions, and overall signs of that nature. In a circumstance where world events continue to conspire to make cyber increasingly relevant and important, states have tools. But states need the federal government to lead on coordination, unification, major incident response. And that’s not even to mention there’s things that only the federal government can do, be they offensive or interstate or other issues.
Are there other things that you think the federal government is best positioned to do when it comes to cybersecurity? And what benefits to states are you most worried about losing?
I actually led a bipartisan public comment at the end of the Biden administration on the CIRCIA (the Cyber Incident Reporting for Critical Infrastructure Act). This was actually legislation passed in Trump 1 about the required disclosure of cyber attacks.
So we think that one of the things that only the feds can really do is this information sharing and operational collaboration. Our commentwhich was signed by South Carolina and Ohio and New Jersey and on and onreally talked about how states and the federal government need to not just share information, but collaborate, in order to resolve the impacts that we potentially see from devastating cyber attacks, especially those against critical infrastructure. Everyone’s talking about supply chains these days, but a damaging cyber attack could very well take a long time to replace if those systems need to actually be replaced.
Many are confused about what the funding cuts in Washington will mean for state cybersecurity. I wonder what it looks like from your side: are people scrambling to try to figure out contingencies for the future? Are they scratching their heads?
All the above. Good information can be difficult to come by, but we continue to engage with our federal partners and our elected representatives in both houses, in both parties. But we’ve made very clear publicly and otherwise to the administration that we have partnered with the federal government for decades on these issues, and we want and expect that to continue.
And obviously we’ve been worried about some of the enormously concerning reporting we’ve seen out of Elon Musk’s DOGE about data. We want Republicans, we want Congress to exercise their oversight powers, like the governor has said on numerous occasions.
Do you think that there are certain things that need to change in terms of how the federal government and the states think about cyber? Do you see reasons for optimism?
I think there is some optimism. I would note that the two most significant advancements in the capabilities of the US governmentto coordinate defensive activity and even prosecute and hold our adversaries at riskhappened really under Trump’s first administration, with the creation of the Cybersecurity Infrastructure and Security Agency, and the significant expansion of their capabilities, resources, and appropriations. Then, I think there were some significant coordination advancements under Biden’s term, including the first national cyber director. So we’d like that forward momentum to increase and even increase in pace. But it remains to be seen how that’ll play out.
One thing I would note is, there have been some recent bipartisan moves to take a hard look at how we’re organized in cyber. In December of last year, there was an amendment added to the National Defense Authorization Act talking about the need to study how the U.S. government and especially the Dept. of Defense is organized in cyber, a.k.a., The Cyber Forces study [to examine the viability of a new armed service]. It was actually watered down at the end of the Biden administration, but it remains in the law, and I think there’s wide acknowledgement that we need to take a look at how we’re organizing. And that amendment had bipartisan support and multiple sponsors in both parties in Congress, so I think there’s some optimism on that front.
Speaking of bipartisanship, how do you think about the political tint that’s shaded the conversation about cybersecurity?
It’s unfortunate, because I think there’s wide acknowledgement that we need to essentially do two things at once, and do them even faster and better than before.
On the one hand, we all need to collectively raise our game because the adversaries are continuing to raise theirs, and that means falling in love every single day with the basics: multi-factor authentication, patching systems, risk management, certain response plans, et cetera.
And on the other hand, our adversaries are seeking to do bad things, and we need the capabilities, especially those that can only be resident in the federal government, to deter them in cyberspace. And we should be very clear about what we find not acceptable: attacks against critical infrastructure, hospitals and schools, et cetera.
And we could be somewhat circumspect in the manner in which we will deter our adversaries. We wouldn’t wanna give ’em a playbook or anything like that, but certainly the use of economic tools, sanctions, some of the indictments that have come down from the Dept. of Justice, naming and shaming cyber actors, including Russians and Chinese ones, and obviously offensive cyberspace operations. We need all of those tools to be ready, willing, and able to be used in furthering our national interest.
Where do you see the US’s interest in offensive capabilities, in more aggressive actions, fitting in alongside a defensive mindset?
Retired Rear Admiral Mark Montgomery and I wrote a piece in the Washington Post talking about some recent reportingwhich was later denied in some fashion, ex post factoabout cessation of planning for Title 10 [offensive] Russian cyber operations. So we’re on the record as saying that we need an all-of-the-above approach, and we need to be planning. But in addition to that, I do think that the Trump administration has been very clear that they seek to hold our adversaries at risk, that they are interested in deterrence. They’ve made no secret of that, and I applaud that.
It just seems reasonable that we can’t expect different results with the same capabilities, the same organizations, so time will tell. Senator Kristin Gillibrand from New York has been extremely influential on the issue of the Cyber Forces for many years. We’ve worked closely with her staff, and I’ve written publicly in support of her amendment [requiring the Pentagon to study the creation of a Cyber Force]. But like I said, it would be unfortunate for that to be caught up in the political maelstrom that it potentially could be.
Trade wars tend to escalate cyber tensions too. How much of a concern are the White House’s tariffs from a cybersecurity perspective?
I think a significant concern, and the governor has been extremely vocal and clear on the role of uncertainty and the importance of our trade partnerships, especially our partnerships with our NATO allies. New York is the gateway to Europe, as she said. But we also have an extremely close relationship with Canada.
One thing I’d say on the tariff front isand the governor actually has met with the counsel general, and has discussed this ad nauseum publicly: we have important projects that deliver power from Canada, our close trading partner. One is called the Champlain Hudson Power Express. It brings hydro electric power north from Canada and south into New York. And I don’t know if you’ve heard of this thing called artificial intelligence, but it requires enormous amounts of power [laugh]. And for us to maintain our competitive edge, New York is actually in the process of building one of the largest semiconductor software foundries in the world: Micron Technologies, tens of billions of dollars of investment, tens of thousands of direct and indirect jobs.
And so these tariffs: obviously the economic uncertainty, the impact to real people’s lives, bank accounts, is important. But for us to maintain an edge in cyber, AI and semiconductors, we need our trading partners. We need clean energy. And these are not issues that happen in silos or vacuums from each other.
Apple could owe you part of a class action lawsuit settlement centered around the companys voice assistant, Siri. The settlement was reached in January, and Apple agreed to set aside $95 million to pay people who allegedly had their conversations or queries recorded after unintentionally activating Siri.
Heres what you need to know about the settlement, key dates, and how to determine whether you can participate in the $95 million payout.
What is the settlement about?
Back in 2014, Apple added a Hey, Siri hotword command that, when spoken, automatically triggers Siri on a compatible Apple device to listen to what is being said. The feature was meant to be useful to users by allowing them to trigger the voice assistant without having to physically press or tap a button.
But sometimes people could trigger Siri using the Hey, Siri voice command unintentionally or accidentally. The lawsuit alleged that the resulting words or conversations Siri picked up after these unintended activations were then shared with third parties or advertisersand thus had their privacy violated.
As with nearly every class action lawsuit that it settled, Apple denied any wrongdoing. As the iPhone maker told Fast Company in January, “Apple settled this case to avoid additional litigation so we can move forward from concerns about third-party grading that we already addressed in 2019. We use Siri data to improve Siri, and we are constantly developing technologies to make Siri even more private.
Now, users who are included in the settlement can begin filing claims for their share of the $95 million.
Who is included in the Siri settlement?
Not everyone who owns an Apple device is included in the settlement. In order to be part of the settlement class, you must meet several requirements, according to the official settlement website. Those include:
You must have owned or purchased a Siri-enabled iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, MacBook, iMac, HomePod, iPod touch, or Apple TV.
Those devices must have been owned or purchased between September 17, 2014 and December 31, 2024.
You must reside in the United States and/or its territories.
Your confidential or private communications must have been obtained by Apple and/or were shared with third parties as a result of an unintended Siri activation.
How do I know if I am included in the settlement?
People who are known to be included in the settlement will have received an email or postal communication saying they have been identified as a settlement member.
However, if you have not received such communication but still believe that you may be a settlement member, you can contact the settlement administrator.
How much can I get from the settlement?
The amount you received from the $95 million settlement depends on various factors. Apple agreed to pay out $95 million to settle the class action suit, but some of that $95 million will go to pay for things like attorneys fees and other costs.
Whatever is left over will be distributed to the settlement members on a pro rata basis. Claimants are allowed to submit claims for up to five devices. Payments per device will be capped at $20 each.
That means that a claimant is most likely to receive no more than $100. However, note that the settlement website says that payment amounts could increase or decrease depending on the number of claims filed. The final payment amount per device will not be known until all claims are submitted.
What should I do if I am part of the settlement?
If you are part of the settlement, you should file a claim using the claim form on the settlement website.
Keep in mind that you only have until July 2, 2025, to file a claim. Any claims are expected to be paid after the final court hearing in August 2025.
Full details of the class action settlement can be found on the settlement website here.
From his first moments on the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica, Pope Leo XIV gave three important clues about what kind of leader of the 1.4-billion-member Catholic Church he will be.
Leo, formerly U.S. Cardinal Robert Prevost, was elected by the world’s cardinals on Thursday as the new pope on the second day of the conclave to choose a successor to Pope Francis, who died last month.
He is the first pope from the United States, but holds dual citizenship in Peru, where he was a missionary for decades before becoming a cardinal.
Leo’s first clue was his choice of name. Popes often use this choice to send their first major signal about the priorities of their new papacy.
Francis took his name from the 13th century St. Francis of Assisi, who rejected wealth and wanted to care for the poor.
The last pope to take the name Leo, Leo XIII, focused much of his 1878-1903 papacy on advocating for the rights of workers, calling for fair pay, fair working conditions, and the right to join unions.
“By picking the name Leo XIV, he shows he is committed to the social teaching of the church,” said Rev. Thomas Reese, a Jesuit commentator who follows the papacy closely.
Leo’s second clue was his choice of language and the words he spoke, which put a clear emphasis on the need for peace, something Francis also often focused on.
None of his speech to the crowds gathered in St. Peter’s Square was in English, but rather Italian, the language of the papacy, and a brief foray into Spanish to greet his former community in Peru. He did not mention the U.S.
“La pace sia con tutti voi!” (Peace be with you!), Leo’s first words in public, echoed the ones Catholics use in their celebrations but also offered an immediate message of peace in a world riven with conflict.
Before heading into the secret conclave on May 7, the world’s cardinals issued a statement lamenting the conflicts “in Ukraine, the Middle East, and many other parts of the world” and making a “heartfelt appeal” for peace.
The new pope said he wanted to share God’s peace, calling it “a disarmed peace and a disarming peace” that is “humble and persevering.”
Leo also mentioned Francis, who offered his last blessing to crowds in Rome on Easter Sunday, the day before he died of a stroke after battling double pneumonia for weeks.
“We still have in our ears that weak, but always courageous voice of Pope Francis,” he said.
Leo asked permission to offer the same blessing Francis used just a few weeks ago, saying: “God loves us, God loves everyone, and evil will not prevail. We are in the hands of God.”
Leo’s third clue was in his choice of attire.
Unlike Francis, who spurned all the trappings of the papacy including on the first day he was elected in 2013, Leo wore a traditional red papal garment over his white cassock.
Although Leo follows in the tradition of Francis, he signalled he is a new, and different, pope.
Joshua McElwee, Reuters
As recently as 2021, Figma was a one-product company. That product was Figma Design, the dominant tool for creating app and web interfaces. The companys subsequent addition of offerings such as FigJam (whiteboarding) and Figma Slides (presentations) was hardly a frenzied land grab.
But the announcements Figma made this week at its Config conference in San Francisco cover so much ground that my impulse was to interpret them as a massive, sprawling new attempt to take on . . . well, almost everybody.
Figma Make turns prompts into AI-generated code? Shades of GitHub Copilot, Cursor, and numerous other AI programming tools. Figma Sites provides features for constructing, hosting, and updating websites? Well, thats a content management system, like WordPress, Squarespace, and Wix. Figma Buzz helps companies create marketing assets that retain a degree of consistency, with AI help if desired? Sounds akin to Canva and Adobes Canva rival, Express. Figma Draw lets people create free-form vector illustrations? So does Adobes 38-year-old Illustrator.
Figmas Config conference at San Franciscos Moscone Center [Photo: Courtesy of Figma]
When I asked Figma cofounder and CEO Dylan Field whether the company was indeed trying to compete directly with so many well-established players in multiple categories, he discounted the notion. Instead, he told me, the new products all support its original focus on turning raw concepts into shippable software. The Figma journey that we’re trying to support users on is going from idea to product, he told me. Everything’s truly through that lens.
Still, it would be a mistake to regard Figmas news as NBD. Even if its original product was a design tool, two-thirds of its users arent designers. Theyre all the other people inside companies who play roles in product creation, and even if all the company does is address their needs, it will brush up against new rivals. As Field likes to declare, Creativity is the new productivity. Figma might be in as good a position as anyone to spread that vision to additional classes of software.
As a business, Figma also has every incentive to think big. Its been almost a year and half since its $20 billion deal to be acquired by Adobe fell apart over antitrust concerns, leaving it as an independent entity pursuing a self-contained vision. Last month, it confidentially filed a draft S-1 form with the Securities and Exchange Commission, beginning the process that will eventually lead to it going public. The more optimistic investors are about the companys ability to keep growing, the better its IPO will fare.
Figma Buzz [Image: Figma]
(Figma Designs ubiquity as a UX design tool is manifestly obvious90% of designers who responded to a 2023 survey said they used itbut as a private company, Figma is secretive about hard numbers relating to its business. It does say that 85% of users are outside the U.S., proving that its a global phenomenon. But the last time it talked about financial return was in September 2022, as part of the Adobe deal announcement. Back then, it said that it expected to do $400 million in revenue that year, with a gross profit of 90%. More current information will come out as part of the IPO process.)
As Figma has decided which new products it might build, it hasnt had to look far. Like Excel and Photoshop, Figma Design is the kind of tool that people grow comfortable with and call into service for jobs well beyond its theoretical mandate. Rather than turn it into too much of a kitchen sink, the company has tended to spin out tasks into new purpose-built apps. All of them have a familial resemblance and work together as a suite.
The centrality of Figma Design does serve to set the companys latest products apart from others in the same general zip code. Maybe Figma Buzz will win some hearts based purely on its quality. But it seems even more likely that people will pick it over Canva or Adobe Express because its optimized to serve workflows that are already Figma-centric. It’s very easy to be able to push a template from Figma Design to the Buzz surface, Field says. And then people know exactly what they can edit. They can go edit it, insert images, or go find a different template if they so choose, and know that they’re on brand. Or they can go off the rails if they want to.
Then theres AI, which was already in the air at Config 2023. At last years conference, the company announced a design-generating feature called Make Designs, whichlike AI rollouts all over the tech industrygot off to a bumpy start. After controversy ignited on Twitter over the eeri similarities between a weather app it designed and the one Apple ships on the iPhone, Figma pulled back the feature and reworked it.
Even now, designers are still puzzling out how they feel about AI. In a new study commissioned by Figma, only 31% said they currently use the technology for their core work, 69% were satisfied with it, and 54% thought it improved quality. All those figures were notably lower than ones reported in the same study by developers.
Uncertainty over AI might be a sign the killer apps havent arrived. People value efficiency, Field says. And so where we can help there, that’s really important. But also, they really value raising the ceiling and making it so they’re able to do better work. And I think that’s where AI has not yet had the impact it should.
Customer feedback might help explain Figmas careful positioning of its new AI features. The company says some organizations may ship products created by Make, which lets users start with something theyve roughed out in Figma Design and then use prompts to generate code. Mostly, though, its emphasizing the potential to quickly turn flat designs into rich prototypes that help push progress along. Another application: adding a dash of custom interactivity to websites powered by Figma Sites.
Figma Make [Image: Figma]
AI is also present in both Figma Design and Figma Buzz in the form of image generation features based on OpenAIs latest GPT-Image-1 model. But when I spoke with Field, he seemed less excited by the prospect of turning over image creation to a machine than by Figma Draw, a classical sort of illustration tool for people who want to hand-create imagery thats precise, reflects a distinctive style, and may even mimic work done with old-school art implements such as a paintbrush. If Draw has any AI at all, it didnt matter enough to merit a mention in the blog post introducing the product.
We have a lot of opportunity to build tools for folks [to] be more divergent and have more craft and stand out, Field told me. And we think that’s the differentiator that’ll make people win over time. As some organizations lean too heavily on AI, were going to see more and more bland, look-alike products. Its nice to think that doubling down on unmistakably human creativity could be a competitive advantage. And that Figma wont stray too far from its traditional emphasis on helping create such work, even as it figures out how to make AI make sense.
Youve been reading Plugged In, Fast Companys weekly tech newsletter from me, global technology editor Harry McCracken. If a friend or colleague forwarded this edition to youor if you’re reading it on FastCompany.comyou can check out previous issues and sign up to get it yourself every Friday morning. I love hearing from you: Ping me at hmccracken@fastcompany.com with your feedback and ideas for future newsletters. I’m also on Bluesky, Mastodon, and Threads, and you can follow Plugged In on Flipboard.
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Uncertainty has become a defining feature of life today, a reality that challenges workplace leaders to adapt rapidly, make decisions with limited information, and foster stability amid constant and sometimes highly erratic change.
At the same time, this uncertainty directly affects employees, making it incumbent upon leaders to provide the support and direction their teams need to successfully navigate an unpredictable world with both resilience and clarity.
It goes without saying that the role of a leader has grown increasingly more complex, requiring us to instill stability, foster adaptability, and maintain focus without being overwhelmed by the relentless pace of change.
In just the past month in America, weve witnessed the introduction, removal, and reintroduction of tariffs, massively disrupted supply chains, a whipsawing stock market (putting everyones retirement savings at risk), major companies mandating a return to office work, and the emergence of artificial intelligence technologiesinnovations sparking equal parts excitement and fear as they reshape industries and raise questions about job security and the future of work.
Its a lot for all of us to deal with.
Through my own leadership experience, Ive learned that its absolutely pointless to try to control chaosand far wiser to coach teams on how to thrive in spite of it. The following are five strategies Ive used over the course of my career that workplace leaders can adopt to help their people negotiate complexity and perform at their bestregardless of what turbulence the universe throws our way:
1. Be a Rational Optimist
In todays world, its all too easy for pessimism to seep into our consciousness and negatively shape how we interact with those we lead. Being an abject pessimist, however, is entirely at odds with effective leadership, as it curtails productivity, stifles creativity, narrows perspective, and stands in the way of meaningful progress.
Yet, while pessimism can directly undermine progress, leaning too far into optimism also carries its own risks. Effective leadership requires striking a balanceoffering hope and inspiration while remaining realistic about the challenges ahead.
In his book Same as Ever: A Guide to What Never Changes, New York Times bestselling author Morgan Housel makes this exact point by urging leaders to be rational optimists. He emphasizes that our role as leaders is to imbue a deep belief in people that difficult challenges can indeed be overcome, while also being very honest about the strong likelihood that theyll face setbacks, surprises, and disappointments along the way.
When people know to expect a rough road ahead, choosing hope over despair naturally opens the door to opportunities and more creative solutions.
2. Foster Team Connection and Belonging
When teams face uncertain times, the belief that everyone is in this together is a powerful force for fostering unity, sustaining morale, and motivating employees to collaborate and support each other to overcome major challenges. This is why leaders who prioritize team connection create environments where individuals feel secure enough to navigate difficulties together.
The goal is to cultivate a team culture where no one feels isolated and everyone is inspired to have each other’s backtruly embodying the spirit of all for one and one for all. Recent research shows that feelings of belonging are the glue that holds teams together, as well as being the cornerstone of employee well-being.
For leaders, creating this sense of belonging requires nurturing deeper relationships with our employees and learning their concerns. Its also about fostering an environment where differences are celebrated, inclusion is more than a buzzword, and every voice carries weight. Togetherness can be a great source of strength.
3. Proactively Build Team Resilience
Long before crises or unexpected setbacks arise, leaders must not only remind employees that risk is an inherent aspect of every business. They must equip them to respond emotionally, to even the smallest hurdles, with confidence and resilience. As Nassim Taleb, the author of bestselling books on randomness and complexity, wisely advises, leaders should prioritize preparation over prediction, focusing on flexibility and readiness rather than relying on forecasts that are often uncertain or incomplete.
One way to achieve this is by regularly engaging employees in what if discussionsposing questions like, How would we respond if this situation happened? Additionally, empowering teams to collaboratively brainstorm solutions to everyday challenges on their own will help build their adaptability and creativity muscles, so they are ready when needed.
Finally, workplace leaders must cultivate their own self-mastery during challenging times. Learning how to maintain composure, reframe setbacks as opportunities, and display optimism in the worst of times is a collective skill set that demands diligent effort and commitment to develop. In the end, leaders must model the behavior theyll expect from their team.
4. Influence Through Stories, Less Through Data
In Same as Ever, Morgan Housel clarifies that humans are wired for stories, not spreadsheets. Highlighting how storytelling creates clarity and sparks action, he explains, We dont think in terms of odds and probabilities; we think in terms of narratives. Unlike raw data or abstract concepts, stories resonate deeply because they are inherently relatable and emotionally engaging.
Imagine a CEO whos suddenly faced with a market downturn. Instead of bombarding employees with forecasts and financial metrics, telling stories about times in the past when their company was faced with great difficultiesand triumphedis a transformative way of framing the current challenge as being equally surmountable.
According to Housel, We live in a world where people are bored, impatient, emotional and need complicated things distilled into easy-to-grasp scenes. So, craft stories that make the unknown feel conquerable, and watch them resonate with your teams.
5. Set Reasonable Expectations
When unforeseen disruptions occur, projects often veer off schedule, and teams fall behind on critical targets. These setbacks are pivotal moments for leadership, as the urge to quickly regain momentum can place employees in an untenable position, feeling as if theyre fighting against the universe.
In these circumstances, wise leaders display patience and avoid placing undue pressure on their teams by setting unrealistic goals. Instead, they emphasize that while external factors may be uncontrollable, effort is always within their influenceeven in the absence of guarantees. In the 1970s, Disneys stock dropped 70%. Walt Disney responded by setting modest internal goals, assuring employees that he believed the company would recover through steady, determined action. His measured approach proved to foster resilience across the organization.
Navigating rough seas
In times of turbulence, the tems that will thrive are those who work cohesively, maintain an optimistic yet pragmatic outlook (acknowledging that big challenges may not have simple solutions, but can be conquered), and are trained to pivot rather than freeze when circumstances seem most dire. And, while we might wish for life to be easier and our objectives more readily attainable, we should also always remember that a smooth sea never made a skilled sailor.
Branded is a weekly column devoted to the intersection of marketing, business, design, and culture.
Its the promotional event nobody asked for: You could call it Tariff Deal Days. From auto dealers to underwear brands, companies are cajoling consumers to buy now before tariffs jack up prices, cause shortages, or both. Despite constant uncertainty about how a U.S. versus everybody trade war might play out, the widespread consensus that prices will rise is translating into short-term marketing hook.
Some brands have taken a blunt tone in messages to customers and on social media. Underwear maker MeUndies CEO criticized the tariffs with an expletive in an Instagram postbefore announcing a tariff-inspired discount code. Lingerie and swimsuit brand Bare Necessities touted a pre-tariff sale in a text to customers that was picked up by CNBC and others: We didnt know how to spell tariff last week, but we do know this: Up to 30% off is a good idea! Clothing brand Universal Standard emailed customers about a Mystery Box promotion offering deals on pieces already in its warehouses and thus un-tariffed. In an attention-getting message to shoppers, luggage brand BÉIS conceded price increases were likely on the way even though weve considered everything from company-wide ramen diets to asking our CEO to start an OnlyFans. The message: Buy now!
While these Tariff Deal Days campaigns have been piling up lately, moves toward converting the looming tariff threat into a sales call to action were bubbling up even before the Trump administrations Liberation Day announcement of its sweeping tariff regime on April 2. At least one Subaru dealer began promoting pre-tariff savingsbasically estimating a tariffs potential future cost to shoppers and positioning it as discountin late March. Sticker company Stickerjunkie admitted it was as uncertain as everyone else about price hikes in a March Instagram post promoting a Pre-Tariff Sale of its own. Other brand responses have ranged from limited-time markdowns to more general encouragement to shop before theyre forced to raise prices.
Partly this is about signaling transparency and a were-all-in-this-together vibe to consumers in a muddled and ominous retail environment. But its also about getting sales on the books: Smaller brands and businesses may be particularly motivated to get more cash on hand as soon as possible to buy time to rethink supply chains and otherwise weather whatever that trade battles turn into in the months ahead, and beyond.
And many consumers seem to be in a similarly uncertain state thats left many open to deals. Theres an expectation that certain products are going to be expensive, so having a promotion today is very valuable, a KPMG analyst told NBC, citing a survey from the accounting firm finding roughly half of consumers are looking for pre-tariff deals.
The flurry of pre-tariff branding moves comes on the heels of months of cautious watching and waiting by advertisers about whats going to happen, and how to communicate with customers about it. A few, including Chipotle and Rivian, are currently saying they wont raise prices. Others, such as Ford, are highlighting their best made-in-America stories. (About three-quarters of Ford vehicles are manufactured in the U.S., a fact thats now marketing gold, according to Adweek; that said, Ford has also announced trade-war-related price bumps for three of its models.) Still othersfrom Adidas to Walmart to Mattelare simply warning of likely price hikes; Black & Decker and Shein have started them. Many ad agencies expect ad budgets will be cut by up to 10% this year.
Another notable strategy has come from discount online retailer Temu, which has begun breaking out and labeling the export feethat is, tariff coststhat is driving up its prices. Amazon reportedly considered a similar move before the Trump administration harshly criticized the idea. But consumers seem to want such informationnearly three-quarters of adults in one poll said they would be at least somewhat interested in seeing tariff impacts quantified.
Maybe that thirst for clarity isnt surprising, given the marketplace chaos that seems likely headed our way this year. In fact, while pre-tariff branding events will presumably be fleeting, the most important thing brands may achieve with their openly tariff-centric marketing is a sense of openness and communication with consumers. A protracted trade war will mean escalating rhetoric and frustrating uncertainties, and for better or worse brands will have to figure out the best way to be part of that conversation.
After a two-year battle with regulators, a federal judge ruled in late December to block the merger of grocery behemoths Kroger and Albertsons. The deal fell apart after facing significant pushbackand a lawsuitfrom the Federal Trade Commission under the Biden administration, in part over concerns that unionized grocery workers would have less leverage to negotiate wage increases and respond to layoffs following a merger.
Those concerns were not unfounded: The overwhelming majority of grocery workers (92%) are frontline staff in nonsupervisory positions, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statisticsand as industry leaders, Kroger and Albertsons employ 28% of grocery workers across the country. Hourly wages for all grocery workers have effectively stagnated for the past two decades, hovering just under $18 in 2024 when adjusted for inflation, and weekly earnings have actually dropped by 15%.
A new report by the nonprofit organization Economic Roundtablewhich draws heavily on surveys of Kroger and Albertsons workers in California, Colorado, and Washington conducted by the United Food and Commercial Workers unionsuggests that understaffing at these grocery stores impacts many workers and exacerbates the industry-wide issue of depressed wages. For many grocery employees, chronic understaffing and being denied additional hours on the job without a meaningful increase in hourly pay makes it even more difficult to earn a living wage.
The report’s authors argue that reduced staffing at grocery stores has affected the shopping experience for consumers, as workers struggle to keep shelves fully stocked and manage their workload. Three-quarters of workers surveyed by UFCW said they struggled to finish assigned tasks during shifts.
Kroger itself reported 14.1% fewer labor hours per store in 2023 than in 2019. But the Economic Roundtables report estimates that Kroger decreased labor hours despite increased demand due to e-commerce sales, leading to a labor shortfall of 21% relative to 2019. At Albertsons, which the report found was already understaffed in 2019, the shortfall amounted to 13%.
In a statement to Fast Company, a Kroger spokesperson said, We are committed to improving associates wages and benefits while keeping prices affordable for customers. We intentionally staff our stores to keep them running smoothly and creating an outstanding customer experience. Our decisions are data-driven to balance workload, schedules and customer service. Unrealistic demands by UFCW that do not reflect today’s competitive retail landscape will jeopardize the long-term sustainability of unionized businesses and advance non-union competitors. (Albertsons did not respond to a request for comment.)
The rise of lower staffing levels alongside wage stagnation also measurably affects workers ability to manage their finances and cover basic expenses. In the UFCW surveys, many grocery workers report getting their hours cut or being denied additional hours by their employera trend that is also captured by BLS data, which indicates that average weekly hours logged by nonsupervisory workers have dropped 11% since 2003 to under 29 hours. Grocery workers are also more likely, on average, to be part-time employees relative to workers in other industries, with the share of workers being 58% greater.
By and large, the workers surveyed believed their pay did not fairly compensate them for their workload and experience, and that they saw themselves as essential frontline workers but were not treated as such by their employers. Many of them reported struggling to afford monthly expenses like rent, with more than two-thirds of grocery workers claiming to not have secure housing.
Only 16% of grocery workers said they made enough money to cover basic expenses. On average, annual pay for nonsupervisory grocery workers in the regions surveyed is just over $25,000and many such workers are eligible for Medicaid and other federal programs that help support low-income families.
Over the past few decades, wage stagnationand the yawning gap between worker pay and executive compensationhas impacted rank-and-file employees across industries. Even so, many workers have actually seen a bump in pay: According to the Economic Roundtable report, weekly earnings have increased by 15% over the past 20 years for production and nonsupervisory workers in other industries. Grocery workers, however, have experienced the opposite, leading to a 50% gap in pay relative to workers in other industriesa shift that the report finds has also coincided with a notable decline in union membership across the grocery industry.
