Meta to scale back employee tracking, parliament concerns over Palantir grow

Meta is scaling back its plan to start tracking its employees’ computer activity, according to an internal memo sent on Tuesday. In April the company received criticism from its own staff after it announced a new tool would log their keystrokes and mouse clicks to train its AI models. Now, according to Reuters, new controls will allow employees to pause the data collection for “up to 30 minutes at a time” as well as request exemptions from the initiative altogether. Meta declined to comment on the record. It follows weeks of backlash from employees, including some who started a petition against the move which now has more than 1,500 signatures. BBC 

Britain’s reliance on US tech firm Palantir in transforming public services is an “unacceptable point of weakness” that could leave people’s private information “at the mercy” of foreign actors, MPs have warned. The Commons Science, Innovation and Technology Committee has published a report about the firm’s involvement in bodies including the Financial Conduct Authority and the NHS amid growing privacy concerns. Founded in 2003, Palantir is a data analytics company contracted by governments, militaries and other large organisations around the world. Sky News 

Wi-Fi on Britain’s trains almost never works, official research has found, underscoring the blight of patchy coverage plaguing commuters. A major new survey by Ofcom revealed that onboard Wi-Fi provided by train companies worked properly just 1pc of the time, making it all but impossible for passengers to connect. The regulator blamed the shoddy service on outdated technology and data-speed caps imposed by train operators. Telegraph 

Should the AI-powered drones of the future have a licence to kill? The question is becoming ever more pressing as governments and the defence industry acknowledge that drone systems will play an increasingly crucial role in future warfare. With drones being deployed in huge numbers in the Ukraine war and AI being used to assist bombing missions in the Iran conflict, there is an expectation among some observers that weapons will have to operate with increased operational autonomy, which means they will need something approximating a moral framework. The Guardian 

It’s something many of us have experienced: You go on your phone to check something and – in the blink of an eye – you’ve been scrolling for an hour. People estimate more than a third of time on their phones is spent without a clear purpose, according to a new report. Dr Eleanor Drage of Cambridge University said “this isn’t just a question of people making unwise choices,” but that we are “undermined by the immersive nature of the technology”. BBC 

Apple is working on a split-screen app landscape adaptation feature for iOS 27, according to a known leaker.

In a new post on Weibo, the leaker known as “Fixed Focus Digital” said Apple is developing a “Parallel View” capability for iOS, aimed at solving the platform’s longstanding weakness with large-screen and landscape layouts. Parallel View is a feature in Huawei’s HarmonyOS that automatically adapts smartphone apps for wide displays at the system level, without requiring developers to redesign their apps. Mac Rumors