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If you're tempted to stream The Odyssey through an unofficial download, think twice. Security researchers at Bitdefender have found pirated copies of the new blockbuster laced with Lumma Stealer, a piece of malware that quietly scrapes crypto wallets, saved passwords, and active browser sessions from your machine. The lesson, as ever, is that free comes with a hidden price.

Staying with the theme of data you didn't mean to give away, Engadget is taking a close look at what actually happens when you tap "allow tracking" on your phone. The answer is layered and uncomfortable — behavioral patterns, location signals, and browsing habits flowing to ad networks in ways most users never see. The "ask app not to track" button helps, but it's far from a complete shield.

And in the world of open-source artificial intelligence, a genuine debate is sharpening around Jensen Huang and the question of who ultimately owns AI systems when their weights are made public. It's a tension between democratizing powerful tools and losing any meaningful control over how they're used — a trade-off the industry hasn't resolved and probably won't anytime soon.

Keep surfing. Tech Beat out.

Sources

  1. https://decrypt.co/375747/pirated-copies-odyssey-hiding-crypto-stealing-malware
  2. https://www.engadget.com/2236798/what-happens-when-apps-track-activity/
  3. https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2026/08/17/no-change-in-bitcoin-holdings-as-strategy-lifted-dollar-reserve-and-bought-back-more-strc-last-week
  4. https://twitter.com/lydiakauppi/status/2089196932413452386
  5. https://aiengineerhub.com/who-owns-intelligence-open-weight-ai
  6. https://hollisrobbinsanecdotal.substack.com/p/what-if-wirecutter-rated-universities
  7. https://www.technologyreview.com/2026/08/17/1142175/the-download-dead-robot-friends-censorship-industrial-complex/
  8. https://www.coindesk.com/tech/2026/08/17/ethereum-s-next-big-upgrade-has-66-proposals-including-a-major-privacy-fix
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