By Anna Tong and Jeffrey Dastin Around a decade after virtual assistants like Siri and Alexa burst onto the scene,

Senator Ted Cruz of Texas is attempting to rally support for a bill that would reveal to Americans if their household devices are spying on them. Mr Cruz took to the Senate floor on Tuesday to rally support for the Informing Consumers about the Smart Devices Act — warning that as more and more Americans bring smart devices into their homes, the result could be a loss of privacy. “In Texas, we’ve become very aware of that cost,” Mr Cruz said. “The past few years, smart thermostats have allowed electric companies to control the temperature in your own home from afar in the name of conserving energy. Furthermore, a lot of Americans don’t realize or expect that the growing number of smart household devices and appliances, have cameras on them, and microphones that can surreptitiously record families and transmit data.” Mr Cruz says his bill would require technology manufacturers to clearly disclose whether their appliances have listening devices, cameras, or any other spying technologies. The bill would not apply to cell phones, laptops, or other devices “that a consumer would reasonably expect to include a camera or microphone.” Mr Cruz first introduced the proposal back in January with Sen Maria Cantwell of Washington, a Democrat. Sen Raphael Warnock of Georgia also joined the bill as a co-sponsor in late March, shortly after it was marked up by the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation committee. According to Mr Cruz’s testimony, the bill passed the Commerce Committee by a voice vote but has not yet been taken up by the full Senate. At its core, Mr Cruz said, the bill is designed as a consumer protection measure to let Americans know what they’re bringing into their home — a right that he feels takes precedent over concerns about government overreach. “Now, I’m sympathetic to the argument that there are too many mandates from government and that many of the mandates are unnecessary, burdensome, and costly,” Mr Cruz said. “But requiring a manufacturer to tell you if they’re spying on you does not fall into that category. And I have to say in assessing the minimal burden, the disclosure burden, against the harm, I fall down on the side of individual liberty. I fall down on the side of privacy.” Privacy is, in many ways, one of the defining issues of the internet age — particularly at a time when the buying and selling of people’s personal data is a multi-billion dollar industry that is expected to grow exponentially in the coming years. “I don’t think the American people want their air fryer spying on them,” Mr Cruz said. “And at a minimum, they have a right to know if their air fryer is spying on them.” Read More Ted Cruz accuses new Barbie movie of ‘pushing Chinese propaganda’

Four US senators are scrutinizing Twitter's privacy practices and questioning whether the platform under CEO Elon Musk flouted consumer protection law following widespread layoffs and resignations, highlighting vast legal risks for Twitter and Musk.

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Controversial influencer Andrew Tate has put himself in the spotlight again after sitting down for an interview with right-wing media personality Tucker Carlson. Carlson shared the two-and-a-half-hour-long conversation between the pair on Twitter as part of his new independent talk show named “Tucker on Twitter”, following his sacking from FOX News in April. Tate, along with his brother Tristan and two other associates, has been charged in Romania with rape, human trafficking and forming an organised crime group. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter During his interview with Carlson, he discussed his opinions “masculinity” and other aspects of his life and personal experiences. The tweet containing the interview has been viewed more 107 million times, according to Twitter statistics. Is it the most-watched television interview ever? Some of Tate’s fans have made the claim that the interview is the most-watched TV interview of all time, with one “fan” Twitter account, writing: “Andrew Tate's interview with Tucker Carlson is the most watched interview of all time. With the tweet, they shared a screenshot of a Wikipedia page with the title “List of most watched television interviews”. An arrow pointing to the top of the table listed the Tate and Carlson interview in the number one spot, however, the interview was never aired on television and instead was posted on Twitter. Sportskeeda revealed the Wikipedia screenshot with either edited or photoshopped because the current page lists a 1993 Oprah Winfrey interview with Michael Jackson as the most-watched television interview with an average viewership of 62.3 million. The false claim by Tate’s fans was made despite the Wikipedia page stating: “This is specifically on broadcast television and not on other television sources such as YouTube, Twitter or other online source.” However, the interview might be able to claim the title of 'most watched ever' if the television side of the discussion is ignored. The interview has outperformed the widely reported most viewed video on Twitter, which was a piece of skill by Lionel Messi that had more than 19 million views. However, its got a long way to go before it can outperform the biggest video on YouTube; 'Babyshark' which has been viewed an astonishing 13 billion times. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

E-commerce behemoth Amazon increased its net sales 11% to $134.4 billion in the second quarter as analysts monitor consumer spending in both the cloud and retail markets.

A woman has gone viral on TikTok after another passenger asked her to move seats on a flight so she could be closer to her child. Sabra, a pharmacist and content creator based in Seattle, posted a short clip from a recent flight she took where she flew from the Pacific Northwest to Paris. In the 6-second video posted to Sabra's TikTok, she films herself in her first class seat with the text overlay reading: "POV: Flight agent asks me if I want to give up my 1A seat so a child sits with their family." In the popular audio used in the TikTok you hear the phrase "girl, f**k them kids and f**k you too". Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter The TikTok has been viewed over 9 million times, and has over 800,000 likes. @lifewithdrsabra That’s a no from me dawg ? would you have given up your seat? Also they ended up finding a solution so no, i am not a terrible human being. Also the child was like 13. In the caption of the video, Sabra asked her viewers if they would have given up their seat, but many agreed with Sabra. "Good for you! If they wanted their kid next to them they should've booked adjacent seats," one user commented. Even parents were agreeing with Sabra with one mum commenting "as a parent that's up to me to make sure my family sit together not at the expense of someone else, I would never dare ask someone to move." "Nope, cause, as a mom, it's a parents responsibility to plan ahead. Just travelled to Europe for 1.5 moths with my toddler and no one had to move," added another. One user suggested that passengers do it deliberately: "I wonder if some families actually on purpose buy the cheapest tickets, to plan to ask someone for their seat 'I got kids, pls move'". Sabra also added that the family "ended up finding a solution so no, I am not a terrible human being. Also the child was like 13." Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.