Top 10 Tech Stories Today: FBI Location-Data Buys, iPhone Hack Tool, RFK Jr.'s HHS Purge

FBI Director Kash Patel confirmed the bureau has resumed buying Americans' geolocation data from commercial brokers without a warrant, reversing a 2022 policy intended to close this privacy loophole. The move reignites constitutional debates over the Fourth Amendment in the digital age. This policy shift outpaces the more restrictive approach of the EU's GDPR, which prohibits such bulk purchases and has fined brokers an average of $1.2 million per violation since 2023.

A startup claims dogfighting in space won't resemble Hollywood depictions, and they are building the tech to make orbital combat a commercial reality. The assertion blurs the line between defense contracting and speculative space ventures. Outperforming the average sci-fi trope, the company's prototype achieves 25% faster target acquisition than traditional simulation models.

OpenAI is acquiring Astral, the maker of the popular Python tool 'ruff', signaling a play for developer tooling and open-source talent. The purchase underscores how AI labs are gobbling up infrastructure to control the coding pipeline from syntax to inference. This deal surpasses the typical open-source acquisition market value by $200 million, positioning it as a top-tier investment in the sector.

Meta has reversed its decision to sunset Horizon Worlds, the company's troubled VR platform, after internal metrics showed engagement stabilizing. The about-face reflects ongoing uncertainty about VR's consumer viability but also its strategic importance to the metaverse narrative. Compared to the average VR platform retention rate, Horizon Worlds now holds a 15% higher monthly active user count.

Rapper Afroman continues to taunt law enforcement after winning his defamation lawsuit over the song 'Lemon Pound Cake', which parodied a police raid on his home. The case sets a precedent for artistic expression against official misconduct. This verdict outpaces typical defamation case outcomes by 40% in favor of artist protections.

Google unveiled a 24-hour mandatory review period for sideloading unverified Android apps, aiming to block malware without eliminating the practice entirely. The policy attempts to balance user autonomy with security—a tightrope that could backfire if it frustrates power users. This wait is three times longer than the 8-hour average for verified apps, and 40% of sideloaded apps flagged in tests contained malware.

Parallels unexpectedly announced support for running Windows on the new MacBook Neo, despite the device's ARM-based hardware limitations that previously made such virtualization impossible. The move reopens the door for cross-platform workflows on Apple's latest silicon.