Have you ever thought that maybe QAnon’s coded messages are just randomly typed? On Monday, security researcher Mark Burnett tweeted a keyboard heat map of a chunk of QAnon codes, saying “these are not actual codes, just random typing.” The order of the characters suggests whoever typed them might also play a musical instrument and …

Going off the grid with Google is harder than you might expect. Google services on Android devices and iPhones track and store your location data even if you turn location history off in your privacy settings, according to an Associated Press investigation. You can turn off location history any time, but some Google apps still store your time-stamped location data, …

Blue light from your smartphones and laptops can accelerate blindness, according to a new study. Researchers from the University of Toledo say long periods of time exposed to blue light, the kind phones, tablets and televisions give off, can damage vision and generate poisonous molecules in the eye’s light-sensitive cells. The researchers suggest this could accelerate macular degeneration and other …

Facebook, the world’s largest social network, said Thursday it’s banning websites that host and share blueprints of 3D-printed guns. “Sharing instructions on how to print firearms using 3D printers is not allowed under our Community Standards,” said a company spokesperson in an email statement. “In line with our policies, we are removing this content from Facebook.” BuzzFeed News reported the …

Siri may soon get better at recognizing the name of your favorite local watering hole or burger joint. Apple’s Siri Speech Recognition Team said Thursday that it’s improved the voice assistant’s ability to identify names of local destinations and points of interest. Virtual assistants have been great with big brand names like Starbucks, but they’ve had a harder time recognizing …

Researchers want Facebook to change its rules, making it easier for journalists and academics to undertake investigations and studies on the social network. The Knight First Amendment Institute, a nonprofit organization at Columbia University, on Monday sent a letter asking CEO Mark Zuckerberg to amend Facebook’s terms of service and create a “safe harbor” for social media research and public …

Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones is quickly disappearing from the internet, though some accesses to his site Infowars is still available on the web. After we inquired this afternoon about the Infowars company page, LinkedIn responded that it has removed the page from its platform. “We have removed the InfoWars company page for violating our terms of service. We value the …

DJI now has super cute drones. On Monday, the drone maker said it’s teamed up with Line Friends to create a mini drone that features the cute bear icon, Brown. The Line Friends (Brown) I Spark can do everything a standard Spark drone can do, such as quick launch, selfie taking, tracking and more. “Similar to other things we carry …

Airbnb is serious about business travel.  To back that up, the home-rental company on Monday shared updates about how people use its professional community, which was recently rebranded as Airbnb for Work to “better encompass the unique benefits only Airbnb can offer today’s modern workforce.” Airbnb for Work bookings tripled from 2015 to 2016, and then tripled again from 2016 …

Amazon has removed a number of books espousing neo-Nazi and white supremacist ideology after a study revealed such paraphernalia available on its site.   The Partnership for Working Families and the Action Center on Race and the Economy found listings for “baby onesies, toys, children’s Halloween costumes, flags, clothing, and jewelry emblazoned with nazi, neo-nazi, white nationalist, anti-Semitic, Islamophobic, and …