Appeals court backs ruling that Uber, Lyft should treat drivers as employees

Uber and Lyft lost in court in Thursday, as the First Appellate District court in San Francisco affirmed a preliminary injunction placed against the companies last month. That ruling said there’s “overwhelming likelihood” the two companies are miscla...

Microsoft contractors reportedly reviewed Cortana clips on insecure PCs

New details have emerged about how Microsoft operated its Cortana and Skype grading programs in the past. Building on a Vice report from last summer, The Guardian says that for several years, the tech giant contracted a company in China that used alm...

California governor signs labor law meant to fix the gig economy

It was really just a matter of time, but it's now official: California Governor Gavin Newsom has signed the state's Assembly Bill 5 into law. The measure is intended to reclassify many gig economy workers as employees by applying a test that determi...

Apple fires hundreds of contractors hired to listened to Siri recordings

Apple fired more than 300 contractors in Cork, Ireland, The Guardian reports. The contractors were hired as part of a "grading" program that reviewed audio recorded by Siri. News broke last month that those contractors often heard sensitive informati...

Microsoft contractors listened to what people told their Xbox consoles

Microsoft contractors reportedly listened to Xbox owners too. Earlier this month, we learned that contractors heard audio snippets from Skype calls and Cortana interactions. Now, Vice reports that Microsoft contractors also listened to audio picked u...

Microsoft contractors listen to some Skype calls and Cortana commands

Microsoft is the latest company charged with listening to its users calls and voice commands. A report by Vice found that contractors are listening to bits of conversations collected through Skype's translation service. Some contractors are also list...