Hundreds of Android apps sent user location data to a data broker that had been banned from the Google Play Store since December 2020. Close to 200 messaging apps, video and file converters, dating sites, and religious and prayer apps downloaded tens of millions of times had X-Mode installed. Despite the ban, only ten per cent of these apps have been removed from Google Play. The tracker caused controversy after Vice's Motherboard reported that the United States military was buying the granular movement data of users of a a Muslim prayer and Quran app that had more than 98 million downloads worldwide. The US military has reportedly used location data to target drone strikes.

Last year, CNET traveled to San Marcos, California, for an early, behind-the-scenes look at a new generation of artificially intelligent sex robots from Abyss Creations, maker of the popular "RealDolls" line of customizable sex dolls. Now, customers can expect to start receiving those same sexbots within the next month. So says Abyss Creations founder and chief designer Matthew McMullen in a recent video interview with a RealDoll enthusiast and Harmony beta tester who goes by "Brick Dollbanger." In the interview, McMullen says fully equipped AI sex robots should start shipping in September, which matches what a spokesperson for Abyss Creations subsidiary Realbotix told me earlier this week. McMullen also said putting the final touches on his company's new creations has proven to be "a little more difficult than we anticipated."