In an exclusive interview with WIRED, Paragon Solutions CEO Andrew Boyd reveals the limits of the company's promise to keep bad actors from abusing its powerful espionage tool. Spyware maker Paragon Solutions has long positioned itself as the good guy in an industry seemingly filled with bad ones, vowing to never sell its mobile spyware to authoritarian regimes or ones with poor human rights records. It also promises to cut off any customer caught misusing its products against journalists, dissidents, or other non-legitimate targets. Yet weeks after Paragon, then Israeli-owned, was acquired by the US equity firm AE Industrial Partners in December 2024 and merged with REDLattice--an American offensive cyber firm owned by AE that this week announced plans to go public --WhatsApp alleged that Paragon's Graphite spyware was used to infect the phones of more than 60 individuals in more than 20 countries, including journalists and activists. Most of the targets were not identified, but the University of Toronto's Citizen Lab named two journalists and two activists in Italy. Italian authorities denied misuse . Paragon and its new US owners, despite their zero-tolerance policy for customer abuse of their software, initially declined to comment on the allegations, and reportedly was exploring potential legal action against WhatsApp after the company sent a cease-and-desist letter to Paragon.

Andy Burnham once kept Palantir out of Greater Manchester. His first test as prime minister is whether to cut the company's £330 million NHS contract--and risk a rupture with Big Tech and Washington. When Andy Burnham sat in his office in Manchester as the regional mayor, building an unrivaled power base on Britain's left that ultimately catapulted him into the prime minister's office, he did so in the only region of England that refused Palantir access to its data. Now, as Burnham enters his first parliamentary session as British leader, Palantir could prove to be his first major test in office, as sources in Westminster tell WIRED the prime minister is under significant pressure from his new colleagues to break the company's contentious contract with the National Health Service. The dispute could become the first major crisis of Burnham's premiership, with those sources saying pressure is mounting on him to decide the future of Palantir's growing role across the British state in the coming weeks.

Follow this section to personalize your feed and get instant alerts. Follow Go to your personalized feed WHY FOLLOW? Smart Alerts: Get notified about major news as it happens. Follow this tag to personalize your feed and get instant alerts. Follow Go to your personalized feed WHY FOLLOW? Smart Alerts: Get notified about major news as it happens.

Look Up Versus Say More Mashable's Best: E-readers, robovacs, laptops, earbuds, smart home and more Mashable Selects Creator Playbook In My Bag Trending Now Back to School Good Connection: Uplifting stories for a digital age Switch Off Mashable Voices All Series Judge allows most of Reddit's lawsuit against Anthropic to proceed A judge advanced most of Reddit's data-scraping suit against Anthropic, though two claims need amending. Chance Townsend is the General Assignments Editor at Mashable, covering tech, video games, dating apps, digital culture, and whatever else comes his way. He has a Master's in Journalism from the University of North Texas and is a proud orange cat father. His writing has also appeared in PC Mag and . Reddit's lawsuit accusing Anthropic of illegally scraping user comments to train its Claude chatbot has cleared another hurdle.

Versus Say More Look Up Mashable's Best: E-readers, robovacs, laptops, earbuds, smart home and more Mashable Selects Creator Playbook In My Bag Trending Now Back to School Good Connection: Uplifting stories for a digital age Switch Off Mashable Voices All Series Everyday people have dug up contracts, questioned data access, and persuaded some towns to cancel their Flock deals. Olivia Tauber is the deputy editor of digital culture, covering creators, media, movies, beauty, and more. Based in New York, her work has appeared in The New York Times, Vanity Fair, The Cut, Teen Vogue, Complex, and Interview Magazine. She holds a Master's degree in Journalism from NYU and a Bachelor's from the University of Michigan. She also runs Fan Mail, a weekly pop-culture newsletter.

Reporter for The Athletic fumes over Arch Manning, silent on Josh Jacobs' alleged violence against woman Jordon Hudson dusts herself off and resumes her WAG duties, Belichick vs Sydney Sweeney & 'Gainesville Ripper' Mets are'trash' because they're not listening to former NJ Gov Chris Christie, Stephen A Smith says Orioles pitcher Shane Baz drilled with 105.1 mph line drive in scary scene NFL's battle with drinking and driving continues as Keenan Allen formally charged in Indianapolis Anthony Molina and Matthew Liberatore's struggles make over 8 runs the play for Giants-Cardinals Shota Imanaga's home run struggles and Wrigley wind make over 7.5 the play for Braves-Cubs Jaxson Dart's girlfriend Marissa Ayers shines in Week 1 win, a Giants-Cowboys fan fight & Ole Miss tension MLB's most electric slugger just had one of the slowest, most disrespectful walk-off home runs of all time James Franklin makes Virginia Tech press conference extremely awkward with bizarre'Hey Michael' moment Texans' Azeez Al-Shaair to be fined once again by NFL for wearing Pro-Palestinian personal message on eyeblack Stephen A. Smith calls out NBA star Kawhi Leonard for letting Clippers take the fall for salary cap scandal Sheriff decries Democrat's'disgusting display' at House hearing on sanctuary laws Sheriff decries Democrat's'disgusting display' at House hearing on sanctuary laws Sheriff calls Democrat's questioning at House hearing a'disgusting display' It's urgent for Congress to step in and protect college sports: Sen Ted Cruz Mike Pence warns this Trump move would send a'deafening' message to Putin'COMPLETE WASTE OF MONEY': Real estate celebrity calls out $200,000 housing mistake Rand Paul slams Congress over AI regulation: 'I wouldn't put Congress in charge of a McDonald's' Rand Paul slams Congress over AI regulation: 'I wouldn't put Congress in charge of a McDonald's' Ed Sheeran responds to Macklemore backlash amid'Free Palestine' controversy Landry said Ole Miss AD Keith Carter'could have saved some money and waited until Saturday' to find Umanmielen I think they're going to put them on their roster that has to be submitted by Friday afternoon. And then all eyes are going to be on, do they run out of the tunnel Saturday afternoon in Columbia, South Carolina, or in Baton Rouge, Louisiana? And if that's the case, Dan, the SEC is going to have a decision to make. On Tuesday afternoon, however, the rivalry received another jolt outside LSU's football facility. In a lawsuit filed this past July, the Ole Miss athletic department is currently suing former players, and current LSU Tigers, Devin Harper and Princewill Umanmielen, on charges of breach of contract tied to their exit from Oxford following the departure of head coach Lane Kiffin.

The burrito chain has enlisted Palantir for a platform that monitors pest incidents, employee illnesses, and other factors. The partnership comes after a nightmare summer for food safety across the US. Fast-casual burrito chain Chipotle is working with the data infrastructure giant Palantir . The company is working on a "food safety risk platform" hosted on Palantir's flagship software platform Foundry, according to screenshots viewed by WIRED. The platform appears to analyze factors like a store's health department scores, pest incidents, and employee illnesses to assign a food safety score--basically, the store's risk level.

The agency that oversees prediction markets has investigated Polymarket trades on Biden pardons and the Iran war--and even more potential insider trading at Google, documents obtained by WIRED show. The US government launched at least three previously unreported investigations into trading on the prediction market Polymarket, according to documents obtained by WIRED through a Freedom of Information Act request. Voting records from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the federal agency that regulates prediction markets, shed new light on how the government approaches these investigations. In early May, CFTC chairman Michael Selig approved an order allowing the agency's enforcement division to launch a private investigation into potential insider trading on Polymarket event contracts related to pardons issued by former president Joseph Biden. The order granted permission to take testimony, obtain subpoenas, administer oaths, and require the production of documents in the course of the investigation.

If you work regularly with PDF documents then the chances are you're already very familiar with PDFelement by Wondershare . This hugely popular software is the go-to for many people when they want to create, edit, sign or convert PDFs. Now, with the arrival of Version 13, there are powerful new AI tools that will make life even easier for those that need to work with multiple forms of documentation or have to manage agreements across a team. So, here's how PDFelement V13 can streamline your workload and help you study, research or prepare presentations, all while saving you time. Spaces is one of the standout new features in PDFelement V13. This is a simple, organized workspace where you can gather together information from various sources (PDFs, YouTube URLs, text documents, Powerpoint files, spreadsheets, notes and other reference materials) then ask the AI contextual questions about the content.

It's Weirder Than You Could Imagine Cofertility lets women freeze their eggs for free--as long as they give half of them back to the company. What happens next is anyone's guess. The Instagram post, precision-guided by sex and age, had zeroed in on its target. Yuchen Tu is a conser vatory-trained viola player from Chongqing, China, a lover of science fiction, and an aspiring member of the US Army Reserve Officer Training Corps. And late last spring, just after her 24th birthday, she realized she might be the perfect candidate to freeze her eggs--for free. Tu goes by Sue, a name she likes because it reminds her of the 2024 body horror film, whose protagonist tortures herself in pursuit of youth and beauty. To prequalify for free egg freezing, all Sue had to do was take a two-minute quiz. "Not everyone can pass this exam," she remembers thinking. "Oh, it seems like a competition." Sue passed, as have thousands of young women allured by the promise of a company called Cofertility. "The best time to freeze your eggs is when you can least afford it," goes the company's mantra, uttered on repeat by its public face and CEO, onetime Uber employee Lauren Makler. Thus was born Cofertility's mission: to help women like Sue, who had just received her master's degree in classical music and was preparing to embark on a second bachelor's, preserve their future fertility for zero dollars. Instead of paying to freeze and store her eggs with money--the going rate in New York City, where Sue lives, is about $18,000--she would use a currency she already had in abundance: the eggs themselves. Cofertility's clients must, in the company's words, "donate half of the eggs retrieved to intended parents that need the help of an egg donor to have a baby." It's a model called egg sharing, and it hadn't been commercialized widely in the US until Cofertility came along.