Journalist and educator Adam Tanner has covered the pharma industry, personal data collection and consumer privacy since 2012. In his new book "Our Bodies, Our Data: How Companies Make Billions Selling Our Medical Records," the former Reuters correspondent writes how middleman companies connecting pharmacies, doctors, hospitals and insurance companies are making huge profits by selling anonymized personal details about health consumers' medical conditions.

From 25 April, the service API is to be shut down as the company pushes Hangouts toward enterprise while pushing social use on newer apps Allo and Duo. This could be seen as a quiet own goal for Google. Migrating users to a different messaging client may alienate them all together, and a straw poll has seen most moving towards WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger rather than the Google replacements.

Most Monopoly players have a favorite token, the one that's guaranteed to boost their luck in the game. (Team Scottie Dog!) Back in 2013, game maker Hasbro ditched the iron token and replaced it with a cat, as chosen by a Facebook vote. Hasbro is once again turning to the wisdom of the internet for a new vote on tokens -- and for a simple way to drum up interest in an old-school board game.

In a fresh report called "Clicking Green," environmental organization Greenpeace on Tuesday picked Apple for the third year in a row as the tech company that had made the biggest effort to reduce its ecological footprint. According to the report, Apple was credited with playing "a catalytic role within its IT supply chain, pushing other IT data center and cloud operators … to follow its lead in powering operations with renewable energy." Greenpeace said the energy footprint of the global IT sector currently accounted for only 7 percent of global electricity needs.

The technology giant removed both the English and Chinese-language news apps from its mainland China store on December 23, according to a report in the newspaper on Thursday. Apple spokesman Fred Sainz told the Times: "For some time now the New York Times app has not been permitted to display content to most users in China and we have been informed that the app is in violation of local regulations."

Daniel Seitz: "Jugendhackt" is a program for young, technically gifted people. "To code a better world" is our motto. We stage regular events, which give youth people aged between 12 and 18 the opportunity to tinker around for a better world alongside kindred spirits. So that means you're not so much a club as event organizers. How regularly do these events take place? This year there were eight events in all. Five of them were in Germany, one was in Austria, one in Switzerland and one in South Korea at the invitation of the Goethe Institute. That's a record for us, but when you look at it from the point of view of what these young people need, it's far too few. And these events are called "hackathons"?

It is unusually dark in the Hamburg Congress Center these days. Lighting has been dimmed to a minimum in a space normally lit by thousands of bright lights. The 12,000 attendees of the 33rd Chaos Communication Congress - most, dyed-in-the-wool computer experts - apparently feel more at home in the dark. Once a year, hackers from around the world meet at the conference to exchange new ideas and to share their experiences.

Apple Inc (AAPL.O) has removed the New York Times Co's (NYT.N) news apps from its app store in China following a request from the Chinese authorities, the companies said separately on Thursday. Apple removed the app from both the English-language and Chinese-language iTunes store in China on December 23, according to the New York Times, which first reported the action. (nyti.ms/2hTOV3J)

Retired Cambridge Professor Stephen Hawking has lived his life defying expectations. Diagnosed with motor neurone disease in 1963 he was given two years to live. Now more than 50 years on, the physicist is due to celebrate his 75th birthday on January 8. At the age of 20, the Cambridge student had just embarked on his doctoral studies when he was diagnosed with a fatal and extremely rare disease known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

Data from studies commissioned by the German Public Health Insurers Association (GKV) concerning 129 medications that came on the market since 2012 suggests that only about a third of new medications (44) offered across-the-board improvements over old ones. One-third of medications (44) only worked better for some patients, while the final third (41) represented no progress at all.

On September 19, 2008, just before midnight, two pilots attempted to abort their takeoff from the Columbia Metropolitan Airport in South Carolina. The pilots, who thought that they had blown a tire, were unable to stop the plane on the remaining runway they had left.

You have been researching lichens for nine years at the Charles Darwin Research Station on the Galápagos Islands. What fascinates you about these humble organisms? Frank Bungartz: For me, when I started, it was a whole new world that opened to me. When I looked at the organisms under the magnifying glass, I saw structures that are more fantastic than many pieces of art. But lichens are also very interesting as far as biology is concerned.

Animal testing for the treatment of cancer using gold has been concluded and has shown promising results, said Egyptian researcher and head of the cancer treatment with gold nanoparticles research team, Professor Mostafa al-Sayed.

During 2016 I was lucky enough to interview some incredibly smart people and several trends/themes emerged time and time again. 2017 is a big one for me so I will need to focus in order to make sure everything runs smoothly (plus who doesn’t need more time to do what they really want to do?). Here are five habits to break in 2017 if you want to be smarter and claw back time in 2017.

On Wednesday, December 28, Twitter launched live 360-degree video via its periscope live-streaming platform. While everyone can watch these immersive videos, for now only a select group of broadcasters can post live 360-degree video content. But the service is coming to all users shortly, and the tools to make and stream immersive video are already available to the public.

The 50th edition of the Consumer Electronics Show is upon us: From January 3-8, 160,000 attendees are expected to descend upon Las Vegas to catch a glimpse of the latest technology that will shape our future. First held in New York in 1967 with 117 exhibitors and 17,500 attendees, the automotive area of this year's CES alone will feature 138 companies and 200,000 square feet of exhibition space. DW spoke with Consumer Technology Association (CTA) Chief Economist Shawn DuBravac about how traditional car makers could thrive in an on-demand, driverless future.

Despite all our best intentions to lose those pounds piled on over Christmas, it doesn't always work out. All too often, exercise plans - like regularly attending the gym - go by the wayside before January is through. In a study reported in the journal Cell Metabolism, US scientists found that diet and dopamine - sometimes dubbed the happiness hormone - might be a factor in our motivation.

Next year will be very much about Saturn. Early in the year, the Cassini spacecraft will come very close to the planet's rings, transmitting unprecedented views of the breathtaking system. However, on September 15, the joy will turn into sadness. At 1207 UTC the spacecraft will plunge into the planet and burn up in its thick atmosphere. This is going to be the end of one of the most successful space missions ever. The Cassini spacecraft, a US-European mission, was launched in 1997. Sentinel-3A (Eumetsat)

Nokia Corp (NOKIA.HE) said on Wednesday it had filed a number of lawsuits against Apple Inc (AAPL.O) for violating 32 technology patents, striking back at the iPhone maker's legal action targeting the one-time cellphone industry leader a day earlier.

The world's most popular social network is also the app that is still eating away most at your Android handset's performance. According to Avast Software's latest study into app use and performance drain, Facebook still tops the charts. Moreover, because of Instagram (6th place), Pages Manager (9th) and Facebook Messenger (10th), the company actually has four apps in the top 10.

The Ministry of Antiquities said it seized an archaeological stone that was placed on display at a market in Gharbiya governorate on Friday.