Kat Aaron

The hacks, the Verizon sale, the uncool factor. This week, the tech loyalties we keep when maybe we shouldn’t.

We visit the Dark Web, where you can get heroin, fentanyl and oxycontin shipped right to your door. This week, the link between online drug markets and America’s opioid crisis.

A third of kids are online before they’re born, thanks to sonogram images posted to Facebook. Is there a downside to all the kid photos we share?

Yeah, it’s been a while for us too. So let’s reset. It’s the Bored and Brilliant bootcamp: three quick challenges to make space for brilliance in our accelerating world.

Black Mirror is a tweaked reflection of technology’s worst consequences - a "sarcastic version of the present." So of course we love it. This week, we talk to its genius creators.

People upload every kind of image (un)imaginable. Content moderators look at all the awful stuff, so you don’t have to. They toil in obscurity. Why aren’t they held up as heroes?

Our producer discovered an FBI file on her grandfather. What if they compiled a file on you? Here's how they'd do it. 

Bot armies are taking aim at our democracies, from last November to Brexit to this weekend’s French election. But what do they want with Manoush?

Uh, mom, the eggplant emoji is not about food. And the crying-laughing emoji is not appropriate for funerals. It’s time for some family tech therapy. With a professional.

We count on robots to do more and more stuff. Drive cars, water crops, diagnose disease. What happens when the robots are racist? 

Your selfies are sharing way more than your smiling face. They’re full of data. Which is being used by stores. And banks. And police. And, well, everyone.

Got that buzzy, anxious feeling of wanting to know about everything going on? Here's one thing you can do to fight information overload right now.

How one revolting, racist, sexist word emerged from the dark corners of 4chan and Reddit. And why we should care.

The story goes: the Trump campaign hired consultants called Cambridge Analytica. Cambridge uses data to target voters' personalities and emotions. Trump wins. But it's not so simple. 

After building the social network’s ad system, Antonio García Martínez tried to set his career on fire. Turns out, it takes a lot to get shunned in the Valley.

American spies know how to get into our devices—according to Wikileaks. But when are these tactics really making our lives safer?

Because if you don’t, I’ll assume you hate me. What happens when passive aggression, shade and FOMO aren’t a bug—they’re a feature.

New devices promise to chill you out with low-level electric pulses. Turns out, it is possible to over-chill.