The day in tech.

Italian regulators fined Meta €805 million for accessing Android users' photos without consent. The probe affected about 20 million users since 2023. Meta must obtain separate consent within 60 days and keep the feature off by default. The penalty equals 0.47% of the group's global turnover.

Tesla opens pre-orders for the Cybercab robotaxi at $29,990 with a mandatory $299 monthly autonomy subscription. Deliveries begin December 2026 in Austin, Texas, requiring a $1,000 non-refundable deposit. The vehicle lacks steering wheel and pedals, marking a shift from fleet-only to limited personal ownership. NHTSA opened a probe into Tesla's self-certification.

SpaceX successfully caught its Starship upper stage on Saturday, November 14, 2026, during the 15th test flight. The vehicle traveled at 17,000mph before deploying 26 Starlink V3 satellites, marking the first time the company recovered a spacecraft from orbit. Elon Musk expects weekly launches by the first half of 2027.

A massive, nearly five-hour shutdown of the US aviation system disrupting more than 20,000 flights since Friday may be the fault of a single router installed by government contractor L3Harris. Officials suspect the new device flooded other routers with over 1,000 connection attempts every four to five seconds, causing instability at 17 of the FAA's 22 en route centers.

On Friday, November 13, the FAA ordered a nationwide ground stop affecting 3,500 aircraft due to overloaded switches and routers. Nearly 6,500 flights were cancelled and 8,800 delayed. Officials ruled out a cyberattack, citing ageing infrastructure instead.

Tesla opens sales of its two-seat Cybercab for $29,990 to select customers, including a $299 monthly Autonomy Subscription. Elon Musk argues the fee should be about $115 per month. The company expanded unsupervised robotaxi service to Dallas and Houston in April 2026 and Miami in July 2026, aiming for nationwide availability pending regulatory approval.

Researchers report a 20 to 40 percent spike in alleged ransomware attacks over the summer, with volume reaching nearly 3,000 incidents. While fully AI-powered ransomware has not emerged, criminals increasingly use LLMs for phishing and negotiation, leading to a fragmentation of the ecosystem with new groups like Global Secret Group claiming 48 victims and Storm listing 71 in 20 days.

An attacker drained roughly $3.76 million worth of KAVA tokens from Kava Lend late Friday by exploiting a dormant BUSD market. The hack caused the KAVA token price to drop nearly 40% as the protocol lost about 55.2 million tokens, which were subsequently bridged to BNB Chain and sold for roughly $2.1 million.

The U.S. government disrupted a North Korean social engineering campaign called FaceStealer, responsible for stealing more than $400 million in cryptocurrency. The campaign ran for 18 months before authorities seized the underlying cloud-based infrastructure. U.S. officials identified more than 900 webcam videos of tech workers used to deceive victims across 58 countries.

Tesla invites select customers to purchase a steering-wheel-free Cybercab for $29,990 plus a mandatory $299 monthly autonomy subscription. Initial availability is limited to supported service areas where Tesla operates its Robotaxi service. The company currently has 278 Cybercabs in operation, representing approximately 40 percent of its fleet.