Good morning Her Campus! With a break-neck news cycle, there is no possible way for you to stay on top of every story that comes across your feeds—we’re all only human, after all.
But, life comes at you fast. So grab a cup of coffee and settle in for this quick and dirty guide to stories you might’ve been sleeping on (like, literally. It’s early.)
North Korea Says It’s Still ‘Willing’ to Meet With Trump
Despite the fact that President Trump abruptly canceled his meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un Thursday, North Korea released a statement Thursday evening saying it would still be willing to meet with the U.S.
“We express our willingness to sit down face-to-face with the U.S. and resolve issues anytime and in any format,” North Korea’s vice foreign minister Kim Kye Gwan said in a statement.
The historic meeting was scheduled to take place June 12 until Trump released a statement Thursday morning saying he’d decided to cancel the meeting as a result of Kim Jong Un’s “open hostility” in recent statements toward the U.S. that felt “inappropriate.”
Breaking: Trump issues letter to Kim Jong Un cancelling their summit. pic.twitter.com/r7UdVj0Pcn
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) May 24, 2018
Alexa Recorded and Sent a Couple’s Private Conversation & It’s Terrifying
If you’ve ever joked that your Alexa or Google Home was probably eavesdropping on your in your own, private home even when it wasn’t in use, well, ha, it’s not exactly a joke. As CNN reports, one Alexa user was totally freaked out to learn that her device had recorded a private conversation between her and her husband and sent it to her husband’s coworker — who later called telling the couple to unplug their Alexa after she received the recording.
While they at first assumed their Alexa had been hacked, a lengthy phone call with an Amazon engineer revealed that the device had probably misheard a few of the “wake words” it constantly listens for in the background, prompting it to place a call to one of the couple’s contacts. But still…scary.
So I just threw my smart speakers into the garbage https://t.co/puCUS17O31
— Katie Benner (@ktbenner) May 24, 2018
All Those Privacy Policy Emails You’ve Been Getting, Explained
If you feel like your inbox has been inundated with emails about an update to a site’s privacy policy lately, it’s because it has been. Per Time, tons of companies are being forced to quickly update their privacy policies in preparation for a new Internet privacy law that takes effect in the European Union on Friday. Basically, the law will now require that all businesses explain their privacy policy on their site in ways that an average person can read and understand — a.k.a, say goodbye to scrolling through tons of legal jargon, lying and checking the box that you’ve read it all.
Because most major sites that do business in the U.S. also do business in the European Union, they’ll be required to make their privacy policy readable for everyone — so even though the law doesn’t apply in the U.S, we’ll still see its effects here.
Sorry I couldn’t hang out this week, I was reading the updated privacy policy from every website I’ve ever visited
— Zack Bornstein (@ZackBornstein) May 25, 2018
What to look out for…
It’s National Wine Day! (You know, in case you needed an excuse other than rosé season and, you know, *Friday* to pop open a bottle.)