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A privacy problem is unfolding in real time with Google's generative AI. Users are reporting that the system is surfacing real personal phone numbers in its responses, sending strangers calling at all hours. One Reddit user described a month of misdirected calls from people looking for lawyers, locksmiths, and product designers. Google has offered no clear path to opt out.
Meanwhile, LinkedIn is cutting five percent of its workforce, with marketing, engineering, and product teams all taking hits according to a leaked internal memo. It's a notable move for a platform that built its brand on professional connection — and a reminder that even the network where layoffs get announced is not immune to them.
And over at Meta, workers are pushing back against newly deployed mouse-tracking software. Employees have been posting flyers asking whether they want to work at what they're calling the Employee Data Extraction Factory. The concern isn't just privacy — it's the fear that the behavioral data being harvested will eventually be used to justify cutting the very people generating it.
Three stories, one thread: the cost of being watched, whether you're a user, a worker, or a professional on a platform that knows more about you than you'd like. Keep surfing. Tech Beat out.
