The product for sale isn't a good or a service. It's a little blue check designated for public figures, celebrities, and brands on Instagram. It grants users a prime spot in search as well as access to special features.

James, whose day job is running an internet startup, has sold five badges since he started earlier this year with the help of his friend who works at Instagram. His contact at Instagram charges $1,200 per blue checkmark, and then James will tack on another fee based on the user's apparent interest or other needs.

Over the past several months, private companies and government entities have successfully deployed facial recognition technology for a number of different purposes, ranging from shopping to public safety.

The speed of deployment for facial recognition in China follows the country’s commitment to boosting its capabilities in artificial intelligence.

"We uphold the ideal of free speech on reddit as much as possible," Reddit said on the official company blog in 2014. But within months, the site started banning communities devoted to racism and misogyny.

Almost everyone can agree that the Daily Stormer is an odious hate site, but critics have warned of a slippery slope. They say that companies are setting a dangerous precedent that could lead to censorship of less offensive speech.

With so many Googlers in government, Google had an outsized influence on policymaking during the Obama years. But today, Google is in a different situation. Most obviously, Schmidt worked hard to get Hillary Clinton elected president, and Clinton lost.

The combination of Bernie Sanders-style populism on the left and Donald Trump-style populism on the right could lead to a future where Google faces hostility from policymakers across parties.

Conservative skepticism of Google has only intensified in 2017. The high-profile August firing of James Damore was one key moment here.

The FDA sent notice Tuesday that nearly half a million pacemakers from the health company Abbott (formerly St. Jude Medical) are vulnerable to being hacked and need a software update to protect them.

The FDA didn't immediately respond to a request for comment about whether any pacemakers have been hacked so far.

The enterprise drives have 363,282 drives days and an annualized failure rate of 1.61%. If we look back at our data, we find that as of Q3 2016, the 8 TB consumer drives had 422,263 drive days with an annualized failure rate of 1.60%. That means that when both drive models had a similar number of drive days, they had nearly the same annualized failure rate.

In fact, the only real question is whether $999 is the starting price, or maybe the middle model. (I hope Apple will at least have mercy and start the storage capacity on the baseline model at 64GB instead of just 32GB.)

I think the iPhone 8 -- or whatever it's called -- priced at $1,000 will sell briskly, and probably be hard to find for months. Far from hurting Apple and the iPhone brand, I think a new "luxury" iPhone will only enhance it.

The tsunami-sized trend to add intelligence with sensors and actuators and to connect devices, equipment and appliances to the internet poses safety, security and privacy risks.

90% of devices collected at least some information via the device
80% of devices, along with their cloud and mobile components, did not require a password complex enough
70% of devices, along with their cloud and mobile components, enabled an attacker to identify valid user accounts through enumeration
70% of devices used unencrypted network services
6 out of 10 devices that provided user interfaces were vulnerable to a range of weaknesses, such as persistent XSS1 and weak credentials

2-hour delivery on booze is free of charge, but if you find yourself in a truly desperate situation, 1-hour delivery is available for an extra $7.99. ID's are checked upon delivery by couriers.

$26 for a 12-pack of Coronas, $15 for a 6-pack of Angry Orchard, and $23 for a bottle of chardonnay, for example. Compare these to the regular retail prices of $18 for the Coronas, $10 for the cider, and $15 for the chardonnay (all prices taken from BevMo).

"This is crazy, being expected to travel around the country and fund yourself," one source at Vodafone told us. "If it was a company of few people you'd expect this. I'm angry about it. They're charging customers several hundred a day for face-to-face meetings. I expect there's enough money to buy me a cup of coffee."