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AI chat toy company Bondu left its web console almost entirely unprotected. Researchers who accessed it found nearly all the conversations children had with the company’s stuffed animals.

If you roll your eyes when passing the corner of Clark and Ohio streets in River North, you’re not the only one. Sneering or even clutching your pearls go back more than 30 years on this site, to the early 1990s.
The vacant building on the northeast corner looks a little ridiculous, its doorway flanked by giant, colorful mushrooms and its blocky shape draped with ersatz jungle vines, trees and animals.
Oversized mushrooms still decorate the building’s exterior.
K’Von Jackson for WBEZ (…)

Good afternoon ! It’s Monday, and National Pizza Day (not that we need an excuse to eat this comfort food). Here’s what else you need to know today.
1. Wall Street investors are now barred from buying single-family homes. Will that ease homebuying in Chicago ?
Chicagoans may not see much benefit from President Donald Trump’s recent executive order that aims to block institutional investors from buying single-family homes. But experts say those landlords are still a contributing factor (…)

If you log into your phone or computer using Face ID or your fingerprint, you’re using biometric data to authenticate your identity. It’s an easy and secure login method because it only requires something you are, not something you remember. Biometric data is made up of your specific physical characteristics, such as your face, your voice, or your fingerprints, which can feel safer.
Logging into an app stores your biometric data locally on your device using the operating system, making it (…)

Chicagoans may not see much benefit from the White House’s recent executive order that aims to block institutional investors from buying single-family homes, but experts say those landlords are still a contributing factor to the region’s housing shortage.
President Donald Trump signed the executive order Jan. 20 ; it directs government agencies to define institutional investors and set guidelines to prevent the federal government and government-sponsored entities from approving purchases (…)

The Chicago Housing Authority reversed course after moving to permanently block the daughter of longtime CHA Board Commissioner Debra Parker from continuing to do business with the agency, records show.
Lovie Diggs faced what the CHA calls permanent debarment after she was arrested, charged and entered a guilty plea, according to Cook County circuit court records and CHA documents.
But her lawyer appealed to CHA executives, and documents obtained through a public records request show the (…)

Weeks after a mural of a slain Ukrainian refugee appeared in a West Side neighborhood, a local Ukrainian group is fighting to prevent a second mural from going up.
Members of the Illinois chapter of the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America (UCCA) received word from Ald. Gilbert Villegas (36th) that a constituent had made a request to paint a mural somewhere in the North Center neighborhood. It was not immediately clear if the proposed mural was linked to the North Center artwork of (…)

Suspected Chinese state-backed hackers hijacked the Notepad++ update infrastructure to deliver a backdoored version of the popular free source code editor and note-taking app for Windows.

Typos and misprints may be common mistakes in texts and emails (and on rare occasions, news articles). But what about city street signs ? Yes, even street signs : The most observant Chicagoans have pointed out these anomalies many times.
“There was one up in Rogers Park several years ago where Rogers Avenue was spelled with a ‘d’ like Aaron Rodgers, the quarterback,” said Bill Savage, professor of instruction in the Department of English at Northwestern University.
Savage is writing a (…)

Hundreds of Chicago teens huddled in the cold February air in Lincoln Square on Monday to speak out against President Donald Trump’s deportation campaign and to advocate for immigrant communities.
Students from several high schools, including Mather, Northside College Prep, Roosevelt, Amundsen and Von Steuben, walked out of school about noon carrying flags from Mexico, the U.S. and other countries. They called for federal immigration officers to leave Chicago and other cities.
Students (…)