📉 Google Grabs Traffic, Tesla FSD Under Fire, Meta Tracks You
Plus: Biological Computer Launches; Nokia Leads EU Drone Push.
Good morning. It’s Wednesday, June 04. Today we are covering:
Google Is Stealing Your International Search Traffic With Automated Translations
A Fatal Tesla Crash Shows the Limits of Full Self-Driving
Meta and Yandex are de-anonymizing Android users' web browsing identifiers
Human Brain Cells on a Chip for Sale
Nokia, Nvidia, defence firms back EU-funded drone infrastructure oversight project
Let’s dive in
Google Is Stealing Your International Search Traffic With Automated Translations
By Erik Sarissky via Ahrefs
Since the March Core Update, Google has ramped up auto-translating English web content into other languages and hosting it on Google-owned subdomains, diverting international traffic away from original creators.
These proxy-translated pages dominate SERP features—including AI Overviews, Featured Snippets, and standard listings—especially in countries like India, Indonesia, Brazil, and Mexico, where native-language content is sparse.
To reclaim traffic, publishers must localize content (even minimal 300-word versions), implement hreflang tags, and consider X-Robots-Tag blocks on critical pages to prevent Google’s translate.google.com from cannibalizing their SEO visibility.
𝕏: Google to SEOs: don't use automatic translations.Google: We're going to do automatic translations for you, and show our site instead. Google being Google... nice writeup from @erik_sarissky - Patrick Stox (@patrickstox)
A Fatal Tesla Crash Shows the Limits of Full Self-Driving
By Dana Hul via Bloomberg
A fatal crash in November 2023 involving a Tesla Model Y with Full Self-Driving (FSD) engaged killed 71-year-old Johna Story, raising serious concerns about Tesla’s reliance on camera-only systems in conditions like sun glare.
The incident, one of several recent visibility-related crashes, prompted a federal defect investigation into FSD, even as Tesla prepares to launch driverless robotaxis, despite ongoing questions about the system’s safety under real-world conditions.
Critics, including legal experts and NHTSA officials, warn that Tesla’s sensor limitations, misleading public messaging, and Elon Musk’s political advocacy for deregulation reflect a premature push toward autonomy that could compromise public safety.
𝕏: A tragic Tesla crash in Arizona raises new questions about Elon Musk’s Full Self-Driving system as Tesla prepares to launch driverless robotaxis. Bloomberg is publishing photos and footage of the crash - Ed Ludlow (@EdLudlow)
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Meta and Yandex are de-anonymizing Android users' web browsing identifiers
By Dan Goodin via Ars Technica
Meta and Yandex are using embedded tracking code in millions of websites to covertly link Android users’ web browsing identities with their mobile app accounts, bypassing browser and OS privacy protections via localhost communications.
The tracking abuses legitimate protocols like WebRTC and WebSocket to send _fbp cookies and other identifiers from browsers to ports silently monitored by apps like Facebook, Instagram, and Yandex apps, effectively de-anonymizing users—even in private browsing mode.
Though Google, Mozilla, and privacy-focused browsers like DuckDuckGo and Brave have begun blocking these techniques, researchers warn such defenses are fragile and call for deeper Android-level changes to restrict local port access and prevent future circumventions.
𝕏: “This overly permissive design allows Meta Pixel and Yandex Metrica to send web requests with web tracking identifiers to specific local ports that are continuously monitored by the Facebook, Instagram, and Yandex apps.” - Peter Steinberger (@steipete)
Human Brain Cells on a Chip for Sale
By Shannon Cuthrell via IEEE
Cortical Labs has launched the CL1, the world’s first code-deployable biological computer that fuses 800,000 lab-grown human neurons with silicon to process information in sub-millisecond feedback loops, with early units priced at $35,000 and cloud access available for $300/week.
Designed for drug discovery, neurocomputation, and AI research, the CL1 allows real-time experiments on live brain cells and has demonstrated potential to restore function in epileptic neural cultures, outperforming traditional AI in some learning tasks.
Building on its earlier DishBrain prototype, the CL1 scales biological intelligence affordably, consumes far less power than AI data centers, and is backed by $11M+ in funding from investors including In-Q-Tel, with ambitions to push toward human-level and beyond-human bioengineered intelligence.
Nokia, Nvidia, defence firms back EU-funded drone infrastructure oversight project
By Nathan Vifflin via Reuters
Nokia, in partnership with Nvidia, European defense firms (including Safran, Leonardo, and Saab), and over 40 other entities, is leading an EU-funded drone project to safeguard Europe’s critical infrastructure like power grids, ports, and data centers.
The initiative, part of the EU Chips Joint Undertaking, will develop advanced drone platforms equipped with laser and radar sensors, with a strong emphasis on civil security and the potential for future dual-use defense applications.
Driven by security concerns post-Ukraine invasion, the three-year project could generate €90 million by 2035, and marks a strategic pivot for Nokia into defense, AI, and data center technologies.
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