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If you booted up Steam in the last 24 hours, then you probably saw the pop up window asking you to agree to a new Steam Subscriber Agreement (SSA). Valve laid out the changes in an official blog post on the Steam Community forum, and notably, binding arbitration is no longer part of the SSA.
Binding arbitration is a requirement that disputes be resolved by a legal proceeding that takes place outside of courts. Instead of a judge, these disputes are overseen by an arbitrator, who is paid by the company for their service. You can imagine why there might be some conflict of interest inherent (or why companies love these things). Instead, the new SSA says customers should seek resolutions to any problems by first contacting Steam Support. If a solution can't be reached, disputes will be referred to the court instead of individual arbitration.
Hauling a company into court wouldn't be all that notable on its own, except that in recent years with the rise of Terms of Service agreements, arbitration clauses have become ubiquitous. Next time you download an app, join a website or even sign a contract for a new job, take a look at the contract: more often than not, you just signed away your right to sue.
The new SSA also no longer has a class action waiver, which previously barred groups of similarly situated plaintiffs to sue jointly, which is also a major departure from other Terms of Service agreements.
Valve says these changes will have "limited impact" in some regions including the EU and UK, Australia, New Zealand and Quebec. The arbitration requirement in the SSA did not apply to these regions.
While these are positive developments f
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Right now, Ring's latest Pan-Tilt Indoor Cam is on sale for $50 at Amazon, which is the best price we've seen for it so far. This is the latest in Ring's line of indoor security cameras, introduced earlier this year, and it makes some improvements upon previous models.
The most notable feature is, of course, the 360-degree panning and tilting that lets you angle the camera all around to see any spot of the room it's in. Using Ring's app, you can adjust the angle however you want, wherever you want, whenever you want. The app also makes it easy to see what your camera sees via Live View.
The Ring Pan-Tilt Indoor Cam also has two-way talk capabilities, meaning you can chat with your kids when you check in on them or tell off your pets when they're acting out.
It's super easy to install, too. You just need to place it on a shelf or desk, plug it into an outlet, and go through the steps to connect it to your home Wi-Fi network. When you need privacy, you can use the physical Privacy Cover to block the lens until you need it again.
If you don't have an indoor security camera but have been thinking of getting one, this is your chance. Grab a Ring Pan-Tilt Indoor Cam for $50 at Amazon while this deal lasts!
Get Ring's latest indoor security camera for 38% off
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According to recent reports, there have been several active malware attacks spotted with code that's at least partially generated by AI.
BleepingComputer chronicles multiple attacks using suspected AI-written code, with reports from Proofpoint and HP making the case that these tools were generated in ways that no longer need the technical expertise normally required for large-scale malware attacks. You could call it the democratization of hacking.
The attacks used fairly straightforward vectors, HTML, VBScript, and JavaScript, with code that was more broad and less targeted. So, these attacks are most effective when set up as a download hidden within a ZIP file (or some other conventional attack method).
It's the kind of thing power users are already wary about — or at least should be — with decades of these kinds of attacks long before AI code emerged. Complex and specifically targeted attacks, like the recent PKfail disaster, are probably outside of the reach of broad code generation like this for now.
But there's still cause for concern. These tools could exponentially increase the prevalence of simpler attacks on web users, requiring extra diligence from users (especially on Windows) and making virus and malware protection even more crucial.
I'm more worried about the combination of sk
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