AUNDRZ

French Law Giving Workers 'The Right To Disconnect' Goes Into Effect As of Jan. 1, French companies with more than 50 workers will be obligated to allow their employees to ignore work emails outside of work hours. Read more on NPR

Reading The Game: 'The Last Of Us' Our occasional series on storytelling in video games continues with a look at The Last of Us. Set in a world undone by a fungal apocalypse, it follows a grizzled smuggler and his surrogate daughter. Read more on NPR

U.S. Officials Say Russia Hacked A Vermont Utility Malware associated with the Russian "Grizzly Steppe" operation was found on one Burlington Electric Department laptop that was not connected to the company's grid. Read more on NPR

Amazon Echo Murder Case Renews Privacy Questions Prompted By Our Digital Footprints Smart devices like the Amazon Echo record snippets of conversation when they're being used. NPR's Scott Simon asks Scott Stein of CNET to explain what happens to the data that is collected. Read more on NPR

By CHRISTOPHER MELE from NYT Technology via New York Times

U.S. Cyberwarfare: Its Powerful Tools, Its Unseen Tactics NPR's Ari Shapiro talks to cybersecurity expert Robert Knake on what tools the U.S. has to retaliate against Russia in cyberspace. Read more on NPR

U.S. Ethics Chief Was Behind Those Tweets About Trump, Records Show Trump-style tweets from the Office of Government Ethics urging divestitures made many suspect a hack of this typically staid agency. New records shared with NPR show the author was the agency chief. Read more on NPR

By PUI-WING TAM from NYT Technology via New York Times

By J. D. BIERSDORFER from NYT Technology via New York Times

QUIZ: Test Your Knowledge Of NPR's Tech Stories From 2016 A bar owner who wants patrons to put away their phones, Internet users tracking down a vandal, a project to analyze hundreds of Rembrandt paintings — can you remember (or guess) what happened? Read more on NPR

By PUI-WING TAM from NYT Technology via New York Times

What Hashtagged In 2016? Women's Rights, Pollution And Pokemon Go They were used to clap back at a racist cartoon and express grief for the Syrian war. The world in 2016, captured in hashtags. Read more on NPR

By PUI-WING TAM from NYT Technology via New York Times

By J. D. BIERSDORFER from NYT Technology via New York Times

By DAVID BARBOZA from NYT Technology via New York Times

By DAVID BARBOZA from NYT Technology via New York Times

Several Financial Hacks Made Big Waves In 2016 Computer breaches of companies, famous people and political entities became mind numbingly common in 2016. A few hacks, however, were notable for the financial turmoil they wrought. Read more on NPR

As We Leave More Digital Tracks, Amazon Echo Factors In Murder Investigation Arkansas police have served a warrant to Amazon looking for possible recordings from a murder scene. Privacy advocates have predicted a wave of cases involving smart home devices and gadgets. Read more on NPR

By J. D. BIERSDORFER from NYT Technology via New York Times

By PUI-WING TAM from NYT Technology via New York Times

By KIT EATON from NYT Technology via New York Times

The Stories NPR One Listeners Loved The Most In 2016 Listeners of our NPR One app rated these 10 stories as the most liked, recommended and shared in 2016. Read more on NPR

A Brief History Of Food Emoji: Why You Won't Find Hummus On Your Phone There are burgers and sushi, and even the salacious eggplant, but where are the dumplings and salad? Creating a more culturally diverse menu of food emoji is harder than you think. Read more on NPR

By BRIAN X. CHEN from NYT Technology via New York Times

Outsourced: In A Twist, Some San Francisco Tech Jobs Are Moving To India Companies in San Francisco pay six-figure salaries to entry-level tech workers. But a public university there is laying off some of its own IT staff and sending the jobs to a contractor in India. Read more on NPR

By QUENTIN HARDY from NYT Technology via New York Times

By PUI-WING TAM from NYT Technology via New York Times

By J. D. BIERSDORFER from NYT Technology via New York Times

By PAUL MOZUR from NYT Technology via New York Times

Google Backs A New Digital World, But What About The Real New World? As Google invests in a startup called Improbable, a digital simulation of real cities, economies and biological systems, commentator Andrei Codrescu thinks of Communism and that dream of a new world. Read more on NPR

OK America: What's Another Word For Dongle? A website called The Outline sought to a find better name for the device known as the "dongle." The staff there came up with replacement names, and they narrowed the list down to three. Readers voted. The winner? With 50 percent of the vote: dongle. Read more on NPR

By J. D. BIERSDORFER from NYT Technology via New York Times

Experts Hope Trump Makes Cybersecurity An Early Priority From state-sponsored hacking of government systems to criminal enterprises stealing credit card numbers, strengthening the nation's cyber defenses is taking on growing importance. Read more on NPR

In Countless Little Objects, A Database Hopes To Find Something More: A Name About 100 migrants perish every year trying to sneak around Border Patrol checkpoints in South Texas. Now, a searchable database lets relatives find photos of their missing loved one's personal items. Read more on NPR

For Christmas Thrills Without The Spills, More Decorators Turn To Lasers It's a new way to deck the house for the holidays. Laser lights project decorations without a need of a ladder, but Christmas light purists say they don't compare to the old-fashioned bulbs. Read more on NPR

By QUENTIN HARDY from NYT Technology via New York Times

By DAVID STREITFELD from NYT Technology via New York Times

New Orleans Residents Share Decades Of Photos With The Same Santa A tweet this week prompted dozens of New Orleans residents to post their childhood photos with the same Santa Claus. He's been a part of Christmas there for decades. Read more on NPR

New Orleans' Beloved Santa Makes The Twitterverse Believe In Christmas Magic Joy to the ward! New Orleans' ageless Seventh Ward Santa Claus inspires a Twitter reunion of generations. Read more on NPR

By J. D. BIERSDORFER from NYT Technology via New York Times

By JIM KERSTETTER from NYT Technology via New York Times

When A School's Online Eavesdropping Can Prevent A Suicide Administrators now have the power to track students' browsing on school-issued laptops, even at home. That can help spot a student in distress. But the implications are complicated. Read more on NPR

CIA Director Urges Caution In U.S. Response To Russia Hacking John Brennan told NPR some retaliation techniques were "beneath this country's greatness." On the war in Syria, Brennan said he did not believe the violence would end, despite the fall of Aleppo. Read more on NPR

By VINDU GOEL and MARK SCOTT from NYT Technology via New York Times

Dancer, Prancer, Runner — And Artist? Holiday Cheer, Courtesy Of GPS Glancing at a map, Owen Delaney noticed a London park's fountain resembled Rudolph's big nose. So, he decided to trace the famous reindeer by tracking his run. Then he tackled other holiday favorites. Read more on NPR

Uber Pulls Self-Driving Cars From California Roads Uber recalled its self-driving cars from California roads after facing regulations from the state. Read more on NPR

By J. D. BIERSDORFER from NYT Technology via New York Times

By JIM KERSTETTER from NYT Technology via New York Times

The Classroom Where Fake News Fails Fake news is everywhere, and many Americans in this digital age struggle to sort fact from fiction. The fix: Teach them when they're young. Read more on NPR

By CHRISTOPHER MELE from NYT Technology via New York Times

Uber Stops Self-Driving Test In California After DMV Pulls Registrations Uber will have to park its self-driving cars in California for now. The state's Department of Motor Vehicles said it revoked the registrations of 16 vehicles owned by the ride-hailing company. Read more on NPR

Wikipedia Announces The Most Edited Articles Of 2016 Wikipedia's most edited articles of 2016 range from the obvious to the outlandish. Read more on NPR

India Wants To Go Cashless. But It's Easier Said Than Done Paper money is scarce as a result of a government edict. But a couple of major obstacles stand in the way of the cashless society. Read more on NPR

Uber And Snapchat Team Up To Zero In On Your Friends Now, if you give Uber access to your phone contacts, you could set a person, rather than a location, as a destination of your ride — and get a prompt to Snapchat the waiting friend in the meantime. Read more on NPR

By J. D. BIERSDORFER from NYT Technology via New York Times

By JIM KERSTETTER from NYT Technology via New York Times

By GREGORY SCHMIDT from NYT Technology via New York Times

Why Aren't There More Women In Tech? A Tour Of Silicon Valley's Leaky Pipeline We start at an after-school program for middle-schoolers and end at tech companies that are supposed to be front-runners on diversity. Where do girls and women drop out from the tech talent pipeline? Read more on NPR

By KIT EATON from NYT Technology via New York Times

Students: Colleges Are Tracking You Online. It Can Help You Graduate Some campuses are testing new tools that give professors access to real-time data on student engagement and performance. Read more on NPR

By FARHAD MANJOO from NYT Technology via New York Times

By MIKE ISAAC from NYT Technology via New York Times

By J. D. BIERSDORFER from NYT Technology via New York Times

This Doll May Be Recording What Children Say, Privacy Groups Charge Privacy advocates have filed a complaint with U.S. regulators about the Internet-connected doll called My Friend Cayla. They say the toy can record and transmit everything children say to it. Read more on NPR

By VINDU GOEL from NYT Technology via New York Times

Warning: This Christmas Carol May Haunt Your Dreams A team of scientists at the University of Toronto has taught a computer to compose and perform its own Christmas song — one perhaps destined to be on a Westworld soundtrack. Read more on NPR

By JIM KERSTETTER from NYT Technology via New York Times

By DAISUKE WAKABAYASHI from NYT Technology via New York Times

Privacy Advocates Claim Interactive Doll Spies On Children Could the toys under your Christmas tree be spying on you? Consumer groups point to an interactive doll they say encourages children to give up personal data, in violation of the law. Read more on NPR

Smartphone Strategies For Families Just In Time For The Holidays Kids and iPhones — it's a complicated world. For All Tech Considered, NPR's Robert Siegel talks with Amanda Lenhart, who studies how children and families use technology, to help navigate this in time for gift giving. Read more on NPR

This Christmas Song Brought To You By The World's Tiniest Radio Receiver Engineers made a radio receiver with building blocks the size of two atoms. One benefit of a radio so small you can barely see it: The machine works at extremely high temperatures. Read more on NPR

By JIM KERSTETTER from NYT Technology via New York Times

By J. D. BIERSDORFER from NYT Technology via New York Times

By QUENTIN HARDY from NYT Technology via New York Times

By KATIE BENNER and SAPNA MAHESHWARI from NYT Technology via New York Times

How One Couple Fought For The Legal Right To Leave A Bad Yelp Review The lawsuit was one of the cases that inspired the new law — the Consumer Review Fairness Act — that aims to curb one avenue businesses have used to sue customers for posting negative online reviews. Read more on NPR

Jonathan Puckey's Radio Garden Knows No Borders A new website called Radio Garden allows users to spin a virtual globe and click on live radio around the world. NPR's Ailsa Chang speaks with the site's designer Jonathan Puckey. Read more on NPR

Employing Third Party Fact-Checking, Facebook Unveils New Plan To Curb Fake News Stories Facebook says it will work with third party fact checkers to weed out fake news on its site. NPR's Ailsa Chang speaks with Alexios Mantzarlis of the Poynter Institute, a partner in this effort. Read more on NPR

By FARHAD MANJOO and DAISUKE WAKABAYASHI from NYT Technology via New York Times

German Authorities Enlist Online Hunters To Combat Radicalization Of Muslim Youth German authorities are using online hunters who sift through websites and videos to find Muslim extremists and monitor their recruitment efforts. Read more on NPR

By MIKE ISAAC from NYT Technology via New York Times

By MIKE ISAAC from NYT Technology via New York Times

By MARK SCOTT from NYT Technology via New York Times

California Is First State To Set Energy-Efficiency Limits For Computers The California Energy Commission approved standards for the amount of energy computers and small servers can use when they are on, off, idling or asleep. The rules will roll out between 2018 and 2021. Read more on NPR

By J. D. BIERSDORFER from NYT Technology via New York Times

By PUI-WING TAM from NYT Technology via New York Times

How Can We Look Past (or See Beyond) Our Digital Filters? Eli Pariser explains why being trapped in "filter bubbles" is bad for us and bad for democracy. He says we don't get exposed to information that could challenge or broaden our worldview. Read more on NPR

By VINDU GOEL and NICOLE PERLROTH from NYT Technology via New York Times

By MIKE ISAAC from NYT Technology via New York Times

By MIKE ISAAC from NYT Technology via New York Times

Uber Launches Self-Driving Cars In California, Over State's Objections Does Uber need a permit to test self-driving cars in San Francisco? "We don't believe we do," the company says. But the state Department of Motor Vehicles disagrees and is threatening legal action. Read more on NPR

By PUI-WING TAM from NYT Technology via New York Times

By J. D. BIERSDORFER from NYT Technology via New York Times