The Outline

William Turton

William Turton
The Future Oct 12

Facebook wants tough questions from someone who bows to powerful people

The company’s latest transparency effort is as manufactured as ever.

The Future Oct 11

This is why tech companies won’t disclose content of Russian ads

A 1986 law makes it difficult to release the ads while also protecting user privacy in other legal cases.

The Future Oct 02

The algorithm is innocent

Google and Facebook deflect responsibility onto algorithms, as if they don't control their own code.

The Future Sep 29

What isn’t Telegram saying about its connections to the Kremlin?

The supposedly secure messaging app has employees in St. Petersburg, multiple sources say, in the same building as Kremlin-influenced social network VK.

Power Sep 20

Want to tell on Trump? A D.C. lawyer will represent you for free

Whistleblower Aid aims to provide free legal services to people who want to report on government wrongdoing.

The Future Sep 12

Apple store patrons react to the new iPhone

The new iPhone is being announced today, and shoppers are confused.

The Future Sep 11

Apple’s needless cult of secrecy

Apple subjects its employees to a culture of fear, but everything leaks anyway.

The Future Sep 11

These LinkedIn job postings requesting a ‘neutral accent’ are probably illegal

Discrimination laws forbid them, but some slip through anyway.

The Future Sep 07

Gamergate is never going away

Gamers will always make something up to get mad about.

The Future Sep 06

The Node.js world is imploding

Another programming community is having a meltdown due to festering sexism.

The Future Aug 28

“I guess we can’t do anything about it:” shoppers react to a new Whole Foods

Amazon's $13.7 billion acquisition of Whole Foods was seen for the first time today.

The Future Aug 25

Facebook hired the worst person in media to work on “transparency”

Liz Spayd is a perfect fit at the social network.

The Future Aug 17

These Amazon ads are an eternal mystery

This indiscernible blue rectangle is a bestseller on Amazon, apparently.

Power Aug 16

Trump’s business councils are all made up and fake

Executives are fleeing these councils, but they were never real in the first place.

The Future Aug 14

Anonymous did not hack The Daily Stormer

The white supremacist site appears to have staged an attack on itself in the name of a dead collective.

The Future Aug 10

Travis Kalanick is being sued by Uber investors

Uber’s own investor is suing Uber.

The Future Aug 10

Amazon is coming to town

E-commerce jobs are reviving former steel country — at least until the robots arrive.

The Future Aug 07

A Silicon Valley kingmaker wants to fix what tech did to California

The conscience of liberal venture capitalist Sam Altman.

The Future Aug 03

The WannaCry hacker hero was spending big in Vegas before his arrest

Marcus Hutchins, credited with stopping a global malware attack, has been arrested by the FBI.

The Future Aug 02

Bitcoin Cash, a new version of Bitcoin, is in massive flux

Bitcoin Cash went up to $12 billion and then down to $6 billion in its first 24 hours.

Power Aug 01

Lawsuit alleges White House was complicit in Fox News conspiracy peddling

So far, Trump is minimizing the story.

The Future Aug 01

How to hack a mouse to win millions at esports

Now it’s a mouse. Now it’s a keyboard. Now it’s a mouse.

The Future Jul 28

The time I was handcuffed to a chair in Vegas

In front of an audience of hackers.

The Future Jul 26

Facebook’s security chief says engineers need to have more empathy

Alex Stamos outlined what he thinks the security community gets wrong.

The Future Jul 19

These people are suing Trump for blocking them on Twitter

They say he violated their First Amendment rights.

The Future Jul 18

Uber employees are miserable

Uber employees spoke to BuzzFeed about its cutthroat culture.

Power Jul 13

Totally normal Trump lawyer has measured response to email

“Don't be afraid, you piece of shit.”

The Future Jul 13

Prosecutors will be able to use a man’s pacemaker data against him

This is believed to be the first case of its kind.

The Future Jul 12

If net neutrality gets struck down, we’re going to be seeing this more often

Websites are using loading icons to brand the net neutrality fight.

Power Jul 11

This is how the Trump campaign met a Russian lawyer in Trump Tower

A timeline to help make sense of this incredible story

Power Jul 11

Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, Paul Manafort, and a Russian lawyer meet in Trump Tower...

How did it happen? Swipe or scroll for the whole story.

The Future Jul 10

Venture capitalist writes horrible email in wake of sexual assault scandal

Jonathan Teo of Binary Capital is not pleased with the coverage his firm is getting.

The Future Jul 05

China’s ambitious ‘bus of the future’ project is over

The Transit Elevated Bus stalled out after a mass arrest.

The Future Jul 05

China is taking internet censorship to a new level

China wants online content to adhere to “core socialist values.”

The Future Jun 27

We may never know how many Americans are being swept up in ‘foreign surveillance’

Senators grilled lawyers for U.S. intelligence agencies today, to no avail.

The Future Jun 26

There’s been another sexual harassment scandal in Silicon Valley

One of Binary Capital's cofounders has stepped down.

Power Jun 23

Obama knew about Russian meddling before the election

This what happened inside the White House as Russia interfered in our election.

The Future Jun 21

Uber hasn’t changed

And it probably never will.

The Future Jun 20

Leaked recording: Inside Apple’s global war on leakers

Former NSA agents, secrecy members on product teams, and a screening apparatus bigger than the TSA.

The Future Jun 20

How A p p l e stops l e a k s

The most valuable company on Earth is serious about stopping leaks, according to a recording of an internal presentation titled “Stopping Leakers - Keeping Confidential at Apple” obtained by The Outline.

 
Power Jun 13

Uber board member: Women talk too much

Women + board = more talking

The Future Jun 13

Uber’s CEO is taking a leave of absence

Kalanick didn't say how long he will be leaving for.

The Future Jun 13

The history of the secret code that printers put on all your documents

This is how researchers discovered microdots.

Power Jun 13

Dennis Rodman is going back to North Korea

This time, he's sponsored by Potcoin.

The Future Jun 08

Kurt Eichenwald says he was just trying to show his wife some tentacle porn

But he can’t stop explaining himself.

Power Jun 08

The best moments from James Comey’s testimony on Trump

Comey was called to testify about the President’s conduct in front of the 15-member Senate Intelligence Committee.

Power Jun 08

James Comey testifies in the Senate

The former FBI director was asked to testify about whether President Trump attempted to circumvent the agency’s independence.

 
The Future Jun 07

Uber has gone to hell

The company suffers another hit to its tarnished reputation.

Power Jun 07

How Fox News fell for parody and Russian propaganda

Fox deleted the article after being contacted by the New York Times

Power Jun 05

The alleged NSA leaker really, really hates Trump

Her Twitter hashtags include #notmypresident and #trumpisacunt.

The Future Jun 05

This is how not to leak top secret documents

Reality Winner, an NSA contractor, is accused of leaking a document to reporters

Power Jun 05

Palmer Luckey is trying to cash in on the candidate he backed

The multi-millionaire Trump fan is back

The Future Jun 01

A biker gang used a hacked database to steal 150 Jeeps

Why hot wire when you have the specs to print a new key?

The Future May 30

Uber just fired its star self-driving car engineer

It is all part of a lawsuit that pits Uber against Google, shaking up the nascent market.

The Future May 26

Playboy model sentenced for posting nude Snapchat of woman

Dani Mathers will be doing a lot of community service.

The Future May 25

A Russian hacking campaign targeted an American journalist, report says

The latest disinformation tactic is to plant “fakes in a forest of facts.”

The Future May 24

Why I just sold all my bitcoin

It was a painfully analog experience.

The Future May 23

We talked to a troll who made up a fake Manchester victim for retweets

Trolls who invented fake Manchester victims think everyone is overreacting.

The Future May 22

Chemtrail truthers are still waiting for Trump to do something

A new president has renewed hope in the conspiracy community

Power May 20

Sean Hannity and Kim Dotcom arrive from a parallel universe to save Trump

Seth Rich’s murder is the new Pizzagate. But this time Rupert Murdoch’s machinery is at work.

The Future May 19

We got one of Apple’s patented round pizza boxes

The container designed exclusively for Apple employees

The Future May 15

Who is to blame for the global ransomware attack?

Experts are arguing over whether to point fingers at Microsoft, hospitals, or the NSA.

The Future May 12

People may die because of a hack on English hospitals

Hackers locked computers in at least 25 hospitals and demanded a ransom to unlock them.

The Future May 12

A restaurant used facial recognition to show men ads for pizza and women ads for salad

Hidden cameras that detect gender, ethnicity, and whether someone is smiling are the future of advertising.

The Future May 11

An Austrian Court ordered Facebook to censor speech worldwide

A politician is claiming that a post calling her a “corrupt klutz” is hate speech.

The Future May 09

OkCupid’s new app icon is bad, just like dating

Also, sea levels are rising rapidly.

The Future May 09

Emmanuel Macron’s tech chief claims he outwitted hackers

But the campaign still got pwned on gigabytes of hacked emails.