More than a dozen prominent tech companies are urging the US Supreme Court to make it harder for law enforcement officials to obtain individuals’ sensitive cell phone data. The companies filed a friend-of-the-court brief with the Supreme Court on Monday, arguing that law enforcement officials should be required to obtain a warrant before accessing data …

Facebook has allegedly shut down an account belonging to a conservative street artist after he disparaged Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg‘s rumored presidential aspirations with a profanity. Sabo, known for skewering the politics of liberal celebrities, lost his account Sunday after creating and putting up posters in various California cities reading “F*ck Zuck 2020,” with a middle finger replacing the asterisk, …

Original video content is getting a new home at Facebook. The social network on Wednesday introduced Watch, a new video platform for programming produced exclusively for Facebook users. The new feature, which will be available on mobile, desktop and Facebook’s TV apps, is a continuation of the video push Facebook launched last year. “On Facebook, videos are discovered through friends …

Facebook has quietly retired Lifestage, a few weeks short of the teen-focused social network’s first anniversary. The app, launched in August 2016, invited teens — and teens only — to take photos or videos of various things, with categories such as what you “like” and “dislike,” “how I dance” and “my best friends.” But the app, designed to be a …

Apple is working on a screen that would allow for increased privacy on portable devices such as the iPhone and iPad, according to a patent application published Thursday. Apple’s application, entitled “Displays With Adjustable Angles-of-View,” discusses using an electrically adjustable lens array that can modify backlight illumination to narrow the display’s angle of view. While larger and wider screens have …

The US Secret Service is reportedly turning to drones to bolster security for President Donald Trump. The president’s security detail will deploy a small tethered drone during the president’s upcoming visit to his golf club in New Jersey to determine whether the unmanned aerial vehicles could be useful in protecting the president, Reuters reported Wednesday.   The drone will fly …

A tighter crackdown on VPN apps in China forced Apple to remove the software from its China App Store over the weekend, CEO Tim Cook said Tuesday during the company’s earnings call with analysts. On Saturday, Apple began informing creators of such apps that their VPN apps had been removed because they included “content that is illegal in China, which …

Snap may finally land a drone of its own. The company behind the ephemeral-messaging app is in acquisition talks with drone maker Zero Zero Robotics, The Information reported Tuesday. Zero Zero Robotics is best known for creating the selfie-centric Hover Camera Passport, a $500 compact, foldable flying camera that sports facial recognition and gesture control features. The company inked a …

Now playing: Watch this: VPN explained: A privacy primer — with robots and race… 1:39 Russia has become the latest country to declare war on VPNs. Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed legislation that prohibits the use of virtual private networks and anonymizers, Reuters reported Sunday. The new law is intended to prevent access to websites banned by the Russian …

Intel has jumped into the fray surrounding the Apple-Qualcomm patent spat by accusing the world’s biggest maker of mobile phone chips of trying to use the courts to snuff out competition. The chip giant made the allegation late Thursday in a public statement (PDF) to US International Trade Commission. The commission had requested the statement as part of its investigation …