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Ubisoft continues to raise eyebrows around how it is treating employees as it attempts a business overhaul. David Michaud-Cromp, a level design team lead at Ubisoft Montreal, said last week that he was suspended for three days without pay after voicing opposition to the company's return to office mandate. Today, Michaud-Cromp posted on LinkedIn that he has been fired. "I was terminated by Ubisoft, effective immediately," he wrote. "This was not my decision."A spokesperson for Ubisoft gave Kotaku the following statement regarding Michaud-Cromp's dismissal: "Sharing feedback or opinions respectfully does not lead to a dismissal. We have a clear Code of Conduct that outlines our shared expectations for working together safely and respectfully, which employees review and sign each year.When that is breached, our established procedures apply, including an escalation of measures depending on the nature, severity, and repetition of the breach." We've reached out to the company for additional confirmation and comment. This is the latest in a sequence of bad press Ubisoft has faced regarding its workforce. Shortly after many employees at Ubisoft Halifax unionized, the parent company shut down the studio. In announcing the closure, Ubisoft said the move was part of a broader cost-cutting endeavor across its operations; it shut down a support studio and cut more jobs later in January, with even more layoffs proposed. Most recently, unions representing other Ubisoft workers called for a three-day strike in response to the "penny-pinching and worsening our working conditions" they alleged of the company's management.All these issues could all be coincidental timing. But if so, they're coincidences that don't reflect favorably on Ubisoft.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/ubisoft-fires-employee-who-publicly-criticized-its-rto-plan-220913747.html?src=rss
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France may take additional steps to prevent minors from accessing social media platforms. As its government advances a proposed ban on social media use for anyone under age 15, some leaders are already looking to add further restrictions. During an appearance on public broadcast service Franceinfo, Minister Delegate for Artificial Intelligence and Digital Affairs Anne Le Hénanff said VPNs might be the next target. "If [this legislation] allows us to protect a very large majority of children, we will continue. And VPNs are the next topic on my list," she said.A virtual private network would potentially allow French citizens younger than 15 to circumnavigate the social media ban. We've already seen VPN's experience a popularity spike in the UK last year after similar laws were passed over age-gating content. However, a VPN also offers benefits for online privacy, and introducing age verification requirements where your personal data must be submitted negates a large part of these services' appeal. The French social media ban is still a work in progress. France's National Assembly voted in favor of the restrictions last week with a result of 116-23, moving it ahead for discussion in the country's Senate. While a single comment doesn't mean that France will in fact ban VPNs for any demographic, it does point to the direction some of the country's leaders want to take. Critics responded to Le Hénanff's statements with worry that these attempts at protective measures were veering into an authoritarian direction. The actions in France echo several other legislative pushes around the world aimed at reducing children and teens' access to social media and other potentially sensitive content online. The US had seen 25 state-level laws for age verification introduced in the past two years, which has created a new set of concerns around users' privacy and personal data, particularly when there has been no attempt to standardize how that information will be collected or protected. When data breaches at large corporations are already all too common, it's hard to trust that the individual sites and services that suddenly need to build an age verification process won't be an easy target for hacks.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/cybersecurity/france-might-seek-restrictions-on-vpn-use-in-campaign-to-keep-minors-off-social-media-205308716.html?src=rss
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Like practically every other tech company under the sun, Mozilla has been jamming generative AI features into its products. The organization has now acknowledged that not everyone wants things like plagiarism machines chatbots in the Firefox sidebar, so its giving you the option to turn off all of that. On February 24 (or earlier in Firefox Nightly builds), Mozilla will roll out Firefox 148, which will include an AI controls section in the desktop browser settings. From here, youll be able to block current and future generative AI features, or only enable select tools. At the jump, youll have the option to disable (or enable) chatbots in the sidebar, automated translations and alt text generation for PDFs. Youll also be able to nix a tool called AI-enhanced tab grouping (which offers suggestions of related tabs and group names), as well as webpage previews that display key points" before you actually click on a link. If youd prefer to get rid of all of these and for Firefox to not bother you with pop-ups and notifications about current and upcoming AI features just make sure the "Block AI enhancements" toggle is on. Perhaps Mozilla has come to realize that, rather than having AI cruft soaking up resources and causing apps to bloat, what many people actually want is a fast, secure and streamlined web browser. At the very least, giving users a way to opt out of features they dont want is a positive step. Now then, Google, about AI Overviews...This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/firefox-will-soon-offer-a-way-to-block-all-of-its-generative-ai-features-203132958.html?src=rss
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