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This week was a surprisingly heavy news week, and I actually had a chance to write about a lot of it, despite how busy I’ve been. Because of that, the format for this rewind will be a little different. Only the biggest stories will get a new recap section, the rest will be just links.

But, hey, that doesn’t mean they’re not important! They’re only on the list because I thought they are important enough to share. So be sure to check them out!

In This Article:

Leaf and Core Recap

Google Will End Forced Arbitration

Google employees outside of the Google headquarters

Google’s own employees protesting the company. Photo: James Martin/cnet

Finally, Google has relented. They’ve promised to end forced arbitration for all employees. Now, if employees face harassment or assault in the workplace, they can go to a lawyer and pursue a lawsuit, if they desire. Forced arbitration only protects the company and the abusers, so this gives power back to employees and victims. Read more here.

Happy Hacking Keyboard Professional 2 Review

I don’t like every product I review. The HHKB was an incredibly fun keyboard to review, and I loved some aspects of it. The style, the initial tactility on the switches, the small size, and even the fact that it is lighter than all of my other mechanical keyboards made it fun. However, a terrible layout and finger fatigue ruined it for me. Find out more in this read, complete with a sound check and mini review video!

You Can Buy Cellebrite iPhone Hacking Tools for $100 on eBay

Email from Cellebrite asking users not to leak their devices. It specifically asks policing agencies to treat the equipment with "the highest degree of security."

Even Cellebrite’s email asking buyers not to resell their equipment leaked.

You know those hacking tools the FBI says would never fall into the hands of ordinary people and hackers? They were wrong, and literally everyone in technology warning them about those tools was right. You can now buy those tools online for a surprisingly low price. Your security is now at risk because someone tried to sell a hack to law enforcement rather than tell Apple, Google, Microsoft, and others about their vulnerabilities so they could be fixed.

Conservative Shareholders Wanted to Force Board Members to Disclose Political Ideology. They Failed.

What do you do if you’re an Apple Shareholder who’s not happy just seeing profits and share prices going up? What if you’re upset that Apple’s hiring too many women and minorities, and feel like they should stop producing more electricity than they use or cut down more trees? Why, you force board members to disclose their political leanings, that’s what!

Fortunately, only 1.7% of Apple’s shareholders were on board with the move.

Ubisoft Makes Unintentionally Homophobic Assassin’s Creed DLC Slightly Better

In January, Ubisoft released DLC that forced gay Assassin’s Creed Odyssey characters into a straight relationship. They called it “Growing Up.” They didn’t see how that could be seen as homophobic. After working with GLAAD, they came up with a patch to improve the DLC, but it’s still far from perfect. Ubisoft hasn’t promised to make the changes that would prevent this kind of homophobia from coming out.

Around the Web

Oppo Bringing 10x Zoom Smartphone Camera to Market: Michael Zhang, Petapixel

Smartphone cameras are limited by the amount of space they have to take up. The iPhone has an unsightly bump just for that camera lens. However, what if a camera needs more space between the lenses and the sensor to work? You can’t have a phone that’s 30cm thick, right? That’s where Oppo’s periscope design comes in. With this, Oppo has added optical image stabilization and 10x zoom in a small package. Oppo’s competition will have to catch up.

EFF Calls on Apple to Let Users Encrypt iCloud Backups as Part of ‘Fix It Already’ Initiative: Juli Clover, MacRumors

Apple is all about privacy. However, they don’t encrypt your iCloud backups in a method that prevents them from viewing it. This has come in handy when Apple has had to fulfill information requests from police or the FBI, but also creates a point where hackers could access user data. Because Apple now stores iCloud backups from iPads and Macs, they could be backing up your work, which, depending on your job, could be highly sensitive material. Only you should have access to that.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) agrees. They’ve asked Apple to empower their users to encrypt their own backups. Apple has said they’re working on this in the past, but it’s been some time with no resolution. While iMessages are encrypted end to end, the backups of those messages may not be.

Mozilla Partners With News Subscription Service Scroll to Build an Ad-Free Internet: Chaim Gartenberg, The Verge

Scroll isn’t out yet. However, it’s an upcoming news subscription service that promises to allow you to read your favorite news content without seeing ads. This comes at the cost of a monthly subscription. However, rather than making you manage 10 subscriptions, you pay for just one, and get all the content you want. They already have some big partners, including, Buzzfeed, Gizmodo Media Group, Slate, USA Today, and Vox, so expect plenty of news.

Mozilla is partnering with the service, though Scroll hasn’t said how. It could be through a browser extension, or perhaps something like Mozilla’s partnership with Pocket, which put the features of the third part service front and center. Scroll isn’t even out yet, and Apple may have their own answer to it by the end of the month.

As an underpaid tech journalist, I can’t wait for better monetization options.

How Alphabet’s Jigsaw Think Tank is Fighting Radicalization Online: Georgina Ustik, The Next Web

The web is a dangerous place. You could easily expose your private information. In most hands, this wouldn’t be a problem. However, if you’re the member of a group trolls often target, like people of color, LGBTQ people, Jewish people, Muslims, or women (especially women), then you could be in a dangerous situation.

Furthermore, we have to ensure that the web is a place for people to speak freely. By filtering out hate speech, harassment, and threats, we create a space where everyone is comfortable speaking. The only way to protect free speech is through proper moderation. Jigsaw provides AI backed moderation for large comment sections and websites where humans couldn’t possibly moderate everything.

Moderating to provide a safe space for everyone to express an opinion isn’t censorship. It’s not a bad thing either. It eliminates the censorship imposed on marginalized groups by harassers online. However, what about places that have true censorship? For them, Jigsaw provides an encrypted VPN to help them bypass government censorship. This two-pronged approach makes the web safer for everyone, facilitating open discussion and free speech.

You can read more about Jigsaw and an interview with Patricia Georgiou, Head of Business Development at Jigsaw, here.

Gab Browser Extension Puts a Far-Right Comments Section on Every Site: Saqib Shah, Engadget

Alex Jones of Infowars, screaming during a podcast or video.

Alex Jones, host of conspiracy theory network, InfoWars, banned from many social networks for far-right views, harassment, and hate speech.

Speaking of free speech, let’s talk about the people who hurt it the most online, yet believe they’re standing up for it. Gab is the “free speech” social network used by the alt-right. Banned from Twitter for telling a woman you were going to rape and kill her for speaking out in favor of a woman’s right to choose? Gab’s your place! No longer welcome on Twitter after trying to harass a trans woman to the point of suicide? To Gab with you! Did a woman make a video game, and that just made you want to go on a killing spree? Gab!

Gab is full of the people who tried, and failed, to silence people on other social networks through harassment. They’ve been banned from every comment section and decent place of discussion for trying to hamper the free speech of others with their own harassment and hate speech.

But now they have their own super secret comment section. That way, they can talk to each other on any website through their browser extension. Maybe they can discuss getting the rest of the 1.7% together to protest those mean people at Apple who aren’t cutting down enough trees anymore.

Or they could use their newfound platform to gather and harass someone on their own website. Fun. If only the trolls stayed under their bridges, or, more accurately, their parents’ basement.

Leaf and Core’s Weekly Rewind: Progressive Values and Lack Thereof, a Topre Keyboard, Cheap Hacking Tools, and More!