Happy Monday, we hope you had a wonderful weekend. Let’s catch up on five things happening in the technology world.
1. A U.S. state to ban non-gas-guzzling cars
Starting over in the U.S. and instead of introducing a law to ban the sale of petrol cars, the state of Wyoming wants to secure their future. Brought to our attention by Teslarati, covered initially by KGAB, the State of Wyoming is considering phasing out the sales of electric vehicles by 2035 to “ensure the stability” of its oil and gas industry. The text of the Bill cites the importance of the oil and gas industry to Wyoming’s economy. You can peruse the legislation here.
2. Spy software at the centre of Canadian court case
A Canadian accountant has been ordered by a court to repay her employer for “time theft” after it emerged she was using company time for personal tasks. Why is this relevant here? Well, what gave it away was spy software. According to a report from CBS News, the court ruling marks one of the first instances in which such technology has been used to order a worker to repay an employer for slacking off on the job. Stay vigilant out there, folks.
3. Crime (gold) foiled
A bit of a change of pace and the Australian Federal Police has said its forensic team is using precious metals such as gold and silver in an evidence recovery technique that can develop fingerprints on cash along with other items including plastics, glass, mobile phones, firearms and other weapons. The technique, known as Vacuum Metal Deposition (VMD), was responsible for the detection of dozens of fingerprints, some of which were identified to alleged criminals, on seizures of Australian currency. VMD involves the thermal evaporation of metals, primarily gold or silver and zinc inside a custom-built chamber.
4. Musk’s trial to take place on Twitter turf
Over the weekend, a judge told Tesla CEO Elon Musk and his attorneys that, no, the court won’t move his upcoming securities fraud trial out of San Francisco even if there’s a dwindling number of people in the Bay Area with a positive opinion of the Twitter owner. Federal judge Edward Chen rejected the claim that the jury pool in the San Francisco area is biased against him. Tesla investors have accused the Tesla CEO of committing securities fraud when, in 2018, Musk tweeted about taking the electric vehicle company private. The Tesla investors have alleged Musk’s tweets were “indisputably false” and cost them billions when the Tesla stock saw wild market swings. The trial is set to start January 17.
5. $7.7M fine in France for TikTok
France’s data protection authority has fined TikTok UK and TikTok Ireland €5,000,000 (about $7.7 million in Aussie terms) for making it difficult for users of the platform to refuse cookies and for not sufficiently informing them about their purpose. The fine, brought to our attention by BleepingComputer, with info on it available via the authority’s website, comes after it was determined the design behaviour was a violation of Article 82 of France’s data protection laws, which is a national regulation that conforms with Europe’s GDPR.
BONUS ITEM: A bus full of good boys and girls to start your week right.
See you tomorrow!