The autonomous robotic sunshade and other news

BBC Click's Lara Lewington looks at some of the best of the week's technology news stories.

'Why I hacked the government'

Hacker Jake Davis says he was motivated by the idea of the internet as a 'Utopian space'

UK's online shoppers top global spending survey

UK households spent the equivalent of $5,900 (£4,611) using payment cards online in 2015.

Juicero: Juicing boss defends $400 machine

Juicero ridiculed after it emerges sachets of ingredients can be squeezed just as easily by hand.

Tesla recalls 53,000 cars over brake issue

Some Model X and Model S vehicles are affected, but there have been no reports of accidents.

Cameroon ends internet shutdown on orders of President Paul Biya

Online access is restored three months after it was cut off in English-speaking areas over protests.

Russia's secret

Stem subjects - science, technology, engineering, maths - have an image problem. But not in Russia.

Smart nation

Smart bus stops and virtual hospitals are all part of Singapore's smart plans but what do citizens think?

USAF F-35A stealth jets train at RAF Lakenheath

United States Air Force stealth jets are training in Suffolk on their first overseas deployment.

Wi-fi connected 'smart' juicer criticised

A smart juicing device has been criticised on social media after journalists found you could squeeze a similar amount of juice using your hands.

Celebrities warned over Instagram ads

It is the first time the US consumer regulator has intervened on the issue.

Bose sued for logging listening habits

A lawsuit alleges the firm is gathering data on listening habits without getting permission.

Credit card with a fingerprint sensor revealed by Mastercard

A biometric sensor on the card will be used to verify users' identities when making purchases.

Jet-propelled sky taxi tested in Germany

Plane-maker Lilium hopes to launch a five-seater sky taxi service in the future.

In India, people can now use their thumbs to pay at stores

In its bid to boost digital payments, India introduced Bhim, a smartphone app that lets users make cashless payments and transfer funds.

But the Android and iOS versions of Bhim, which stands for Bharat Interface for Money, ran into two roadblocks – many Indians don’t have smartphones and those who have phones cannot always afford data connections.

On Friday, India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched Bhim-Aadhaar, a merchant interface for the Bhim app that allows Indians to pay digitally at stores using their thumb imprint through a merchants’ biometric-enabled device, which could be a smartphone having a reader and running the Bhim app.

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Facing the future

They may threaten the human workforce, but they are crucial to the modern economy.

Smartphone pitfalls

Are smartphones empowering poor Kenyans or simply causing more problems than they solve?

Tarzan on test

How a robot designed to swing between cables could help farmers monitor crops.

Brian Eno's app Reflection uses science to create music

Music pioneer Brian Eno discusses his generative music app Reflection.

Flying car prepares for launch

Anna Holligan went to see what Dutch developers claim is a world first.

Industrial strategy 'must help' UK creative industries

Ministers told film-making, music, and video games are becoming important parts of industry.

Driving test: Learners must be able to use sat navs

Four changes in December will introduce "more real life scenarios" to the test, ministers say.

Callisto Group hackers targeted Foreign Office data

The UK's Foreign Office was targeted by highly motivated and well-resourced hackers over several months in 2016.

Burger King advert sabotaged on Wikipedia

Public changed Whopper burger page to say it was "worst hamburger product" and contained "cyanide".

Artificial intelligence: How to avoid racist algorithms

Why do so many algorithms seem to echo human bias?

Airbnb account hijackers burgle homes

Airbnb is making security changes after a BBC probe into thefts involving the rental service.

Boy learns to drive on YouTube for McDonald's joyride

The Ohio boy drove his sister to the restaurant and obeyed all traffic laws, police say.

Katie Price calls for online trolls register

The former glamour model and her son talk to BBC 5 live about online trolls and cyber-bullies.

Headset homage to Lemmings released and other tech news

BBC Click's Dan Simmons looks at some of the best of the week's technology news stories.

Amazon ramps up smart speakers battle against Google

Amazon is allowing other firms to use its far-field microphone technologies for free.

Yahoo faces Chinese dissidents' lawsuit

A fund of more than $17m set up to help Chinese dissidents was misspent, a law suit alleges.

Toyota develops robotic leg braces for older people

The brace works by sensing and adapting to the way the wearer walks, providing "just enough support".

Nike to investigate 'misuse' of logo in race hate merchandise

The US sportswear company responds after Amazon and eBay remove products with a Gypsy and Traveller racial slur.

Virtual reality headsets seek cord-free future

AMD is looking to cut the cords on VR with its investment in start-up Nitero

DNS record will help prevent unauthorized SSL certificates

In a few months, publicly trusted certificate authorities will have to start honoring a special Domain Name System (DNS) record that allows domain owners to specify who is allowed to issue SSL certificates for their domains.

The Certification Authority Authorization (CAA) DNS record became a standard in 2013 but didn't have much of a real-world impact because certificate authorities (CAs) were under no obligation to conform to them.

The record allows a domain owner to list the CAs that are allowed to issue SSL/TLS certificates for that domain. The reason for this is to limit cases of unauthorized certificate issuance, which can be accidental or intentional, if a CA is compromised or has a rogue employee.

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Sponsored gamers

The University of Utah becomes the first US college to offer scholarships for competitive video gaming.

The good stuff

Philanthropy tech is on the rise, from gaming with a conscience to video ads earning cash for charities.

How free wi-fi is transforming India's rail stations

Free high-speed wi-fi is now being offered at 115 stations on India's railway network.

Jay Z pulls most of his music off Spotify in streaming battle with Tidal

Spotify confirms that "some" of Jay Z's back catalogue has been removed "at the request of the artist".

Teen dumps boyfriend using music streaming playlist

Utah student Kirsten Titus has dumped her boyfriend using a creatively crafted Spotify playlist.

CEO Secrets: Yogscast boss tells YouTubers 'Do it for love'

The boss of Yogscast, which has 23 million subscribers, reveals his secrets for success on YouTube.

Man creates a jet engine powered suit and other news

BBC Click's Kathleen Hawkins looks at some of the best of the week's technology news stories.

Amazon's Alexa turns on Ford car's engine

The virtual assistant can also give the vehicle a health check and find nearby stores.

Rocket launch firm blasts onto Milan stock market

Avio, dubbed Europe's answer to SpaceX, expects demand for satellites to rise in the coming years.

Minecraft: New marketplace for community creators

Minecraft to allow community creators to sell their content officially in the game for the first time.

Dallas warning sirens 'set off by hacker'

All 156 warning sirens in Dallas suddenly sounded just before midnight on Friday, waking people up.

'NSA malware' released by Shadow Brokers hacker group

The Shadow Brokers group released a password for the hacking tools after failing to sell them.

Google's AI seeks further Go glory

AlphaGo will soon challenge a Chinese teenager, recognised by many as the world's top player.

Plane-tracking app explores airspace in 3D

Hundreds of planes can be seen flying above the UK in a new plane-tracking app.

US lawmakers demand to know how many residents are under surveillance

Two powerful U.S. lawmakers are pushing President Donald Trump administration's to tell them how many of the country's residents are under surveillance by the National Security Agency.

In a letter sent Friday, Representatives Bob Goodlatte and John Conyers Jr. asked the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to provide an estimate of the number of U.S. residents whose communications are swept up in NSA surveillance of foreign targets. Goodlatte, a Republican, is chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, and Conyers is the committee's senior Democrat.

Committee members have been seeking an estimate of the surveillance numbers from the ODNI for a year now. Other lawmakers have been asking for the surveillance numbers since 2011, but ODNI has failed to provide them.

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Twitter pulls lawsuit after US government backs down

Twitter has withdrawn a lawsuit against the U.S. government after the Customs and Border Protection backed down on a demand that the social media outlet reveal details about a user account critical of the agency.

The lawsuit, filed Thursday, contended that the customs agency was abusing its investigative power. The customs agency has the ability to get private user data from Twitter when investigating cases in areas such as illegal imports, but this case was far from that.

The target of the request was the @alt_uscis account, one of a number of "alt" accounts that have sprung up on Twitter since the inauguration of President Donald Trump. The accounts are critical of the new administration and most claim to be run by current or former staff members of government agencies.

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Fake news: Should we know how to spot it?

Facebook's director of policy for Europe says it's up to people to educate themselves

An air traffic control system... for drones

Singapore researchers are working on a system of air lanes to keep drones on a safe path.

Winning a Bafta Games award 'unexpected'

The Bafta Games award winners tell Newsbeat how they're feeling after most the world's prestigious gaming ceremony.

YouTube channels need 10,000 views for adverts

YouTube video creators will now have to pass a viewing threshold before earning advertising revenue.

McLaren to 3D-print parts at Bahrain F1 Grand Prix trackside

The British race team will redesign parts to suit track conditions at the Bahrain Grand Prix.

Wonga data breach 'affects 245,000 UK customers'

The payday lender says bank account numbers and home addresses were among the information stolen.

Google adds search results 'fact check' flag

Websites debunking fake news stories will be displayed more prominently in search results.

Twitter forces US to drop demand for Trump critic's details

A government agency wanted the identity of a Trump critic, but has withdrawn their request.

In mining user data, U.S. ISPs must weigh cash vs. privacy

U.S. internet service providers are about to face temptation.

Now that the broadband privacy rule repeal is almost certain, will they sell their customers’ data to marketers, or will they keep it private?

The U.S. broadband industry is telling consumers not to worry. Verizon, for instance, said that it remains committed to protecting users’ privacy.

What that exactly means is unclear, and some in the industry are skeptical.

Major broadband providers will be enticed to monetize their customers’ data in ad-heavy ways, said Dane Jasper, CEO of Sonic, a small ISP in California.

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WikiLeaks’ Assange gets relief from left victory in Ecuador

The win in Ecuador’s presidential elections of leftist government candidate Lenin Moreno will likely have provided relief to WikiLeaks' founder Julian Assange, who had been threatened with eviction from the country’s embassy in London by the opposition candidate.

The election in the South American country had aroused interest in part because the conservative opposition candidate, Guillermo Lasso, had said that if elected he would evict Assange within 30 days of assuming  power, because it was costing the country too much to keep him at the embassy.

The embassy is being constantly monitored by U.K. police ever since Assange slipped into it in 2012 and was granted asylum by the Ecuador government. Police say they will arrest Assange if he comes out of the embassy to meet an extradition request from Sweden in connection with an investigation into a sexual assault. Assange supporters are concerned that he may be moved from Sweden to the U.S. to face charges in connection with several leaks of confidential U.S. government information.

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Politicians' web browsing history targeted after privacy vote

Two GoFundMe campaigns have raised more than US$290,000 in an effort to buy the web browsing histories of U.S. politicians after Congress voted to allow broadband providers to sell customers’ personal information without their permission.

It’s unclear if those efforts will succeed, however. Even though Congress scrapped the FCC’s ISP privacy rules last week, the Telecommunications Act still prohibits telecom providers from selling personally identifiable information in many cases. 

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Data for sale

Trump may repeal an Obama-era internet privacy rule - how does this impact users?

Bogus boss scam

Incidents of fraudsters posing as the boss and demanding staff make payments is on the rise.

UK losing online extremism battle, research suggests

Home Secretary Amber Rudd says she wants to tackle the issue "head-on".

Clean sailing

Diesel-powered ferries are big polluters, so could electric engines be a cleaner option?

Fake funding

After GoFundMe vows to refund people that fall victim to fraudulent pages, we have some tips on how to spot a fake crowdfunding campaign.

Cyber-patriots

Henri Astier assesses the risks from the rise and rise of France's online far right.

New Facebook rocket icon links to 'complementary' second news feed

A rocket icon appears on people's menu bars, linking to content "that might be interesting".

UK official wants police access to WhatsApp messages

A senior U.K. official is asking that law enforcement should be given access to encrypted messages on WhatsApp and similar services, a demand that is likely to fuel an ongoing debate over whether companies should create backdoors into their encryption technologies for investigators.

Khalid Masood, the terrorist who killed four people outside Parliament on Wednesday, had sent a message on WhatsApp a little before the attack, according to reports.

“We need to make sure that organizations like WhatsApp, and there are plenty of others like that, don't provide a secret place for terrorists to communicate with each other,” Home Secretary Amber Rudd said on BBC One's Andrew Marr Show on Sunday.

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Microsoft's Docs.com is sharing dangerously sensitive personal files and information

If you use Microsoft’s Docs.com to store personal documents, stop reading this and make sure you aren’t inadvertently leaking your private information to the world.

Microsoft sets any documents uploaded to the document sharing site as public by default—though it appears that many users aren’t aware of it. That means anyone can search Docs.com for sensitive personal information that wasn’t manually set private. PCWorld found social security numbers, health insurance ID numbers, bank records, job applications, personal contact details, legal correspondence, and drivers license numbers with just a few minutes of searching.

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How to keep a private stash of bookmarks in Chrome

Incognito Mode in Chrome can keep your browsing history secret unless you have a nosy Internet Service Provider, and you’re not using a VPN. But one thing incognito doesn’t keep secret are any bookmarks you’ve got. If you’ve ever wanted to keep a private collection of bookmarks the Chrome extension Hush is one solution.

The extension only works in incognito mode and encrypts your store of private bookmarks that can only be accessed with the password.

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Congress dismantles Internet privacy rules, allowing ISPs to sell your web history

The U.S. House of Representatives has followed the Senate in voting to repeal privacy rules that can prevent broadband providers from selling customers’ internet-browsing histories and other data without their permission.

On Tuesday, the House voted 215-205 to do away with the privacy rules that the U.S. Federal Communications Commission passed last year. The rules had yet to come into effect.

They require broadband carriers to first obtain opt-in approval from customers before using and sharing their sensitive personal information, such as web browsing history, geo-location data and what applications they've used.

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Privacy advocates plan to fight Congress' repeal of Internet privacy rules

Privacy advocates haven’t given up the fight after the U.S. Congress voted to allow ISPs to sell customers’ browsing histories and other personal information without their permission.

On Tuesday, the House of Representatives voted 215 to 205 to strike down ISP privacy regulations approved by the Federal Communications Commission only months ago. House’s passage of a resolution of disapproval followed a Senate vote to pass the same resolution days earlier. 

President Donald Trump is expected to sign the Republican-pushed bill. But Senator Ed Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat, said he will introduce new legislation to require the FCC to pass new ISP privacy rules.

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Team Indus: India's race to the moon

India's Team Indus is one of five groups in a race to put a privately funded spacecraft on the Moon.

Robot making schoolgirls set for world championships

Schoolgirls who designed and built a robot will represent the UK in the Robotics World Championship.

Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8+: First look

Samsung's new phones feature a new virtual assistant, Bixby, and longer screens than past devices.

US and UK laptop bans on some Middle East flights come into effect

The US and UK bans affect direct flights from some Middle East airports.

Disturbing YouTube videos trick children

Thousands of videos on YouTube look like versions of popular cartoons but contain disturbing and inappropriate content not suitable for children.

WhatsApp must not be 'place for terrorists to hide'

Messaging apps which are encrypted must be accessible to those fighting terror, the home secretary says.

BT fined record £42m for late installations

BT apologises and agrees to repay telecoms firms for delays in installing high-speed lines.