Today, Facebook made a series of changes to the kinds of data third-party apps can collect from the social network. The adjustments are designed to limit the information apps can gather from users following the Cambridge Analytica scandal, which Facebook now says affected 87 million users, up from the "approximately" 270,000 initially reported to have downloaded the app by the social media giant in March. The new policies appear to be affecting the performance of the dating app Tinder. Users on Twitter, as well as several people in WIRED's offices, have reported issues logging into the app, instead finding themselves in a never-ending loop between Facebook and Tinder: If you try to log into Tinder with your Facebook account, the app asks you to provide Facebook more permissions. But if you tap "ask me," the only option available, the app requests again that you log into Facebook.

SILENTLY think of a question and I will answer it. That might sound like a magic trick, but it is the promise of AlterEgo, a headset that lets you speak to a computer without ever uttering a sound. It's not quite a mind reader, but it is close. The device brings us a step closer to a world where we can interact seamlessly with machines using only our thoughts. AlterEgo's creators believe that rather than embarrassingly saying things like "OK Google" or "Hey Siri" and then …

I have the original Amazon Echo (the tall one), a 2nd generation (the squat one) and recently purchased an Echo Dot (2nd generation) along with a Bluetooth speaker that I bought specifically to use with it, so I thought it time to post a review comparing the two full size versions against the experience of the Dot. First, as we all know, the Dot has small, tinny speakers which are the equivalent of what you would get from playing on a mobile phone... all fine and as advertised as you can either connect external speakers via Bluetooth or wired. Dependant on what you attach to it you can get audio which could potentially be better than the built-in speakers of the full size devices. What I didn't appreciate was that if you have multiple Echos and are hoping to use the Multi-room audio functionality, if any of your Echos are connected via Bluetooth to an external speaker then the music will not play on that speaker but will revert to the speaker on the Echo itself. I spent an hour thinking I'd set things up incorrectly or the Bluetooth speaker was at fault before I realised.

Ted Dunning (Chief Application Architect at MapR) and Ellen Friedman have written a new O'Reilly Media book on _"Practical Machine Learning – Innovations in Recommendation" _(released in January 2014). This book examines one of the most interesting, fun, and powerful data science applications in the big data universe: recommendation systems. For me, this was one of the most interesting applications of data mining that immediately captured my imagination after I embarked on the journey to data science (drifting away from my astrophysics roots) about a dozen years ago. It is also one of the most common use cases that are taught in data science MOOCs and other analytics training courses. I believe that the love affair with recommender systems can be partly attributed to two things.

Tinder has announced that it has begun testing it's first ever video feature for its dating app. Called Loops, the new feature lets users upload two-second video loops that gives them another shot at making a better impression to potential Tinder matches. "That's right, you get two seconds of looping video to show more personality, which is the best way to get more right swipes," Tinder said on its blog. "You can be flirty, you can be fun, but no matter what, be you. And be quick about it, because everyone who's anyone will be showing off their moves."

On this week's If Then, Slate's April Glaser and Will Oremus discuss the outrage at the largest TV-station owner in the country--Sinclair Broadcasting--after the media conglomerate forced its local-news anchors to read a script that echoes Trumpian talking points. They also unpack Trump's beef about Jeff Bezos owning what he calls the #AmazonWashingtonPost. Meanwhile, music streaming site Spotify went public this week in a totally new kind of way. The hosts take a look at its unorthodox move and what it means for the company's future.

Apple has poached Google's AI chief, John Giannandrea, to run its machine learning and AI operations, in the clearest sign yet that the iPhone creator is attempting to fix the problems that saw its early lead in the field crumble. Scottish-born Giannandrea, who joined Google in 2010 after his startup, Metaweb, was acquired, has led the search firm's push to become market leader in AI and machine learning. Under his command, Google Brain, the company's main AI research team, has rebuilt the technology that underpins some of Google's landmark products, including search, translation and voice recognition. He also led Google into its position today, where it battles with Amazon for technological supremacy in the field of voice controlled assistants. That role was once held by Apple, whose Siri technology introduced the feature to many, but which failed to capitalise on the lead.

If you own an Amazon Fire 7 or Fire 8 HD (2017) tablet, then you're in luck because your device just gained a new feature. If your device is connected to power and/or the screen is in use, you can use the device for smart home voice control thanks to Alexa. The software update that will enable the hands-free Alexa feature is currently rolling out to devices. If you have a PIN or password set on the device, you must unlock it to enable all Alexa hands-free features. You can also opt to disable all of these features (or control whether it works while the device is password locked) in the Alexa settings menu.

You'd think Nest's Secure alarm system would have worked with Google Assistant out of the box, but no -- you've had to arm it the old-fashioned way. Nest has quietly introduced Google Assistant support that allows voice control over Secure from a supporting device. You can arm the system whether you're home or away, check its status, or cancel it within seconds of making a mistake. Not surprisingly, there are limits. You can't disarm the system with voice commands, and you can't arm it if it's set to require a passcode.

USA TODAY's Jefferson Graham explains how you can tell Google, Facebook and Amazon to stop following you around the web. It's not just Facebook and Google that have loads of our personal data. The company isn't only the most popular Internet retailer in the country but it also dishes up content (via Amazon Prime Video, Audible and the Kindle library); runs a successful cloud platform for businesses (Amazon Web Services); sells devices like tablets, Kindle e-readers, set-top boxes and streaming sticks; and lets you access a personal assistant via Alexa-powered speakers and screens. It took the Cambridge Analytica scandal – the unauthorized access of Facebook user data from about 50 million accounts -- to shine a bright spotlight on how much personal data we're (over)sharing, and what's being done with it. You may have downloaded your Facebook and Google data.