Data about every internet user is shared hundreds of times each day as companies bid for online advertising slots, a report suggests.
The study, by the Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL), found that the average European user's data is shared 376 times per day. The figure rises to 747 times daily for U.S.-based users, the report claims.
Revenue from digital advertisements is what keeps most internet services free to use.
The ICCL is currently engaged in legal action...
Switzerland voted Sunday to boost the availability of transplant organs by making everyone a potential donor after death unless they have expressly objected, reports Medical Xpress.
The legal change, approved by 60% of voters in a referendum, marks a dramatic shift from the current system.
Under the existing laws, transplants are only possible if the deceased person consented while alive – and their wishes are often unknown. In such cases, the decision is left up to relatives, who...
Last year, scientists at Scripps Research and Toscana Life Sciences studied the blood of 14 COVID-19 survivors to find the most potent antibodies against the SARS-CoV-2 virus. One of the leading molecules that emerged – now in stage II/III trials in Italy – was an antibody dubbed J08, which seemed to be capable of both preventing and treating COVID-19.
Now, the same group – a collaboration between scientists at Scripps Research and in Italy and France –...
Bernard Bigot, a French scientist leading a vast international effort to demonstrate that nuclear fusion can be a viable source of energy, has died, Phys.org reports. He was 72.
The organization behind the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, or ITER, said Bigot died Saturday from an unspecified illness. The organization's director general since March 2015, Bigot was approaching the midway point of his second term, due to end in 2025.
An ITER statement described his death as "a...
Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned his Finnish counterpart that joining NATO and abandoning Finland's neutral status would be a "mistake".
He told Sauli Niinistö there was no threat to Finland's security, the BBC reports.
The exchange came during a phone call made by the Finnish president, ahead of a formal request that Finland is expected to announce soon. Sweden has also indicated its intention to join the western alliance, following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Finland shares a...
North Korea today (Saturday) reported 21 new deaths and 174,440 more people with fever symptoms as the country scrambles to slow the spread of COVID-19, reports Medical Xpress.
The new deaths and cases, which were from Friday, increased total numbers to 27 deaths and 524,440 illnesses amid a rapid spread of fever since late April. North Korea said 243,630 people had recovered and 280,810 remained in quarantine. State media didn't specify how many of the...
A total lunar eclipse will grace the night skies this weekend, providing longer than usual thrills for stargazers across North and South America, Phys.org reports.
The celestial action unfolds Sunday night into early Monday morning, with the moon bathed in the reflected red and orange hues of Earth's sunsets and sunrises for about 1.5 hours, one of the longest totalities of the decade. It will be the first so-called blood moon in a year.
Observers in...
Elon Musk has said his $44-billion deal to buy Twitter is on hold after he queried the number of fake or spam accounts on the social media platform.
He said he was waiting for information "supporting calculation that spam/fake accounts do indeed represent less than 5% of users."
Musk has been vocal on cleaning up spam accounts. However, analysts speculated he could be seeking to renegotiate the price or even walk away from the takeover.
Musk added later that...
It's not every day that someone comes across a new state of matter in quantum physics, the scientific field devoted to describing the behaviour of atomic and subatomic particles in order to elucidate their properties.
Yet this is exactly what has been done by an international team of researchers that includes Andrea Bianchi, University of Montreal physics professor and researcher at the Regroupement québécois sur les matériaux de pointe, and his students Avner Fitterman and...
There has been a sustained cyber-conflict over Ukraine that could still escalate, a senior U.S. intelligence official has told the BBC.
Despite warnings, major cyber-attacks on the West have so far not materialized.
But Russia should not be underestimated, said Rob Joyce, director of cyber-security at the National Security Agency.
Meanwhile, independent hackers targeting Russia in support of Ukraine could also spark escalation, he warned.
"I'm still very worried about the threats emanating from around the Russia-Ukraine situation,"...
