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Apple has issued a legal challenge against the British government over a demand to create a backdoor for encrypted iCloud accounts, as reported by Financial Times. The company has filed a complaint in the hopes to reverse the order. The iPhone maker made its appeal to the Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT), which is an independent judicial body. This comes after a leak revealed the order from the UK government, which tasked Apple with building the aforementioned backdoor for iCloud encrypted backups. This was an attempt by the government to try to force the company to make data available to law enforcement. Apple didnt acquiesce. Instead, the iPhone maker announced that it would end national access to the strongly encrypted version of iCloud storage, also known as Advanced Data Protection. The 2016 Investigatory Powers Act is what allows UK authorities to demand access to encrypted accounts in this way, but its believed that this is the first time it has faced a legal challenge. The IPT has accepted Apples case and will consider whether the UKs demands were lawful. The case could be heard as soon as this month. It remains unclear if the hearing will be open to the public, as the UK government is likely to argue that the case should be restricted on the grounds of national security. Apple hasnt commented on its legal action against the UK government, merely pointing to a statement it made last month. This statement read, in part, that "we have never built a back door or master key to any of our products or services and we never will." UK security minister Dan Jarvis has defended the demand for access to encrypted accounts on a case-by-case basis, saying that "the Investigatory Powers Act contains robust safeguards and independent oversight to protect privacy and ensure that data is obtained only on an exceptional basis, and only when it is necessary and proportionate to do so." The original request would have allowed UK law enforcement access to an encrypted iCloud account after obtaining a warrant that was approved by a judge. Its worth noting that not even Apple has access to this data.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/apple-is-now-fighting-the-uk-over-its-demand-for-backdoor-access-to-icloud-accounts-171234908.html?src=rss
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Marketing and Advertising
Google is shaking up Search. Again. Nearly a year after the company rolled out AI Overviews to everyone in the US, it's preparing to add a dedicated AI tab to its search engine. AI Mode is powered by a Gemini 2.0 model Google has trained to find and organize information out on the web. Its findings are then presented in an interface designed to make it easier to ask follow-up questions. In short, it's a proper response to ChatGPT Search. "The goal and vision for [AI Mode] is to empower people to search for anything effortlessly," says Robby Stein, vice president of product for Google Search. According to Stein, AI Mode came out of feedback Google received related to AI Overviews. Since rolling out that feature to more than 1 billion users, he says people have told Google they want more AI-generated summaries from Search; in fact, some people are apparently adding "AI" to the end of their searches to prompt Google to respond with an AI Overview. AI Mode gives those people exactly that. When you go to use the feature, Gemini employs a "query fan-out" technique to conduct multiple concurrent searches across a variety of topics and data sources. It will also make use of Google's proprietary information systems, including the company's Knowledge Graph, to supplement information it finds online. In the version of AI Mode Google is making available to Google One AI Premium subscribers today, not every interface element the company has planned for the feature is in place just yet, but the idea is that the tool will create a rich visual experience. For instance, if you ask AI Mode to compare different sleep trackers, in the future you might see Gemini generate a comparison chart. Notably, Google displays sources more prominently in AI Mode than it does currently with AI Overviews. As you can see from the screenshots the company shared, links to websites feature prominent images. Additionally, in cases where AI Mode isn't confident it can produce an authoritative answer, the tool will default to displaying a regular list of search results. Google In testing, Stein says Google has seen people use AI Mode differently than they do a traditional search engine. On average, testers wrote queries that were about twice as long and asked follow-up questions about a quarter of the time. "We're seeing people bring more complicated questions to this surface and also go back and forth to clarify, learn and go deeper." If you have a sense of déj vu reading about AI Mode, it's because it offers some of the same utility you'll find through Google's Deep Research tool. Like that feature, AI Mode will create a plan before it attempts to tackle your query, but you won't need to wait half-an-hour or even a few minutes for a response. "I think our intent for this version is to offer an experience people can use everyday, in the movement, and be able to get a response while they wait, relatively quickly," says Stein. If you're a Google One AI Premium subscriber, you can begin testing AI Mode starting today on desktop and mobile. For everyone else, Google has a few enhancements to AI Overviews to tide you over. When it announced Gemini 2.0 at the end of last year, the company said enhancing AI Overviews with the new model was a priority. If you live in the US, the next time you use Search to find the answer to a math or coding question, the platform will turn to Gemini 2.0 to generate the accompanying AI Overview. It will also use the system for multi-modal inputs. Stein says users can expect faster and better responses as a result, and in the future the company will enable the model for a broader variety of queries. Separately, Google is making AI Overviews available to more people. In nearly every market where it's available, teens can now start using the feature, and you no longer need to sign in to your Google account to see the summaries.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/ai-mode-adds-a-dedicated-search-chatbot-to-google-170016310.html?src=rss
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Marketing and Advertising
Digg is getting another reboot with two of the most prominent names of the Web 2.0 era leading the charge. Founder Kevin Rose has bought it back for an undisclosed sum. Roses partner in this endeavor is a very interesting one. Alexis Ohanian, a co-founder of Reddit which was at one point the sites biggest rival acquired Digg alongside Rose. They surely have hopes that Digg can go toe-to-toe with Ohanians former company once again. According to a press release, Rose and Ohanian have teamed up to revive the social platform with a fresh vision to restore the spirit of discovery and genuine community that made the early web a fun and exciting place to be. The former rivals plan to tap into their knowledge of what did and didnt work at Digg and Reddit over the years to help make the relaunch a success. Rose and Ohanian, both now venture capitalists, have also been meeting with community leaders from online forums (including Reddit) to try and better understand what gets in their way or frustrates them in order to address those factors in the new Digg. The new Digg will have a mobile-first approach too. Since this is 2025, of course theres an AI element here. The plan is to make Digg distinct from other services by focusing on AI innovations designed to enhance the user experience and build a human-centered alternative. Rose suggested to The New York Times that AI could help with moderation and allow for fun quirks, like translating a discussion among sci-fi enthusiasts into Klingon. "At various times over the years I had been approached to repurchase Digg; it never felt right. The technologies to solve our biggest pain points didn't exist," Rose said. "Just recently we've hit an inflection point where AI can become a helpful co-pilot to users and moderators, not replacing human conversation, but rather augmenting it, allowing users to dig deeper, while at the same time removing a lot of the repetitive burden for community moderators". Justin Mezzell, an experienced product design exec and a longtime collaborator of Roses, is CEO of Digg. Rose is the companys board chair and key advisor. Ohanian also sits on Diggs board and will be an advisor. Digg has had a long and winding road to get to this point. It was an early darling of the social media era as it went toe-to-toe with Reddit to curate the best of the internet through submissions from users, who would upvote (or Digg) the things they liked to push it further up the homepage similar to how Reddit works. However, Digg's early success gave way to attempts to game the system, while a contentious 2010 redesign caused a mass exodus of users to Reddit. The company was sold off in parts in 2012, with LinkedIn and The Washington Post Company buying some aspects. A startup studio and venture capital company called Betaworks bought the Digg brand and relaunched it as a site where editors curated the content. That approach continued on until now, even after Digg was sold to an advertising company in 2018. The most recent version of Digg was still pretty solid, as it continued to offer a nice blend of curated material from around the web as well as some original writing from its editors. There were some hints that Rose was getting back in the Digg mix. After several years away, Rose and co-host Alex Albrecht resumed their Diggnation podcast last year. In December, a post on the Digg X account showed a screenshot of the app's icon with a bubble indicating that there were 3825 notifications. The same number is in the X account's header image. Some have taken that as a hint that the relaunch will take place on March 8 (3/8/25). In any case, Rose suggested the plan is to start small and ramp up Digg's features in the coming months. Heres hoping that, as part of this revival, the company reanimates Digg Reader, a much-missed RSS reader from the Betaworks era. And while were bringing new life to staples of the Web 2.0 era, for the love of all that is well and good in this world, can someone please bring back StumbleUpon too?This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apps/digg-is-getting-another-revival-this-time-with-an-injection-of-ai-161205428.html?src=rss
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Marketing and Advertising
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