Technology

SAVE 17%: As of Feb. 23, you can get the Mohu Leaf Amplified Indoor TV Antenna for $49.99, down from $59.99, at Amazon. That's a 17% discount or $10 savings.

Mohu Leaf Amplified Indoor TV Antenna $49.99 at Amazon
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If you've cut the cord on cable but still want to watch live sports and local network broadcasts, paying for yet another streaming service gets expensive fast. All you need is a digital antenna, and fortunately, we have a solid recommendation to get you started.

SEE ALSO: NYT Connections Sports Edition today: Hints and answers for February 23, 2026

As of Feb. 23, you can get the Mohu Leaf Amplified Indoor TV Antenna for $49.99 at Amazon. (If you don't need the signal amplifier, the standard passive version is also available for $39.99.)

This is one of the digital antennas Mashable's Matt Binder recommended in his recent explainer on why every cord-cutter needs one. It features a 60-mile range to pick up channels and includes a Jolt Switch in-line amplifier that lets you easily control your signal boost. Once it's set up, you can watch free over-the-air broadcasts in 1080p and 4K UHD sans WiFi.

SAVE 21%: As of Feb. 23, you can get the 16-inch LG Gram Pro (Intel Core Ultra9, NVIDIA RTX5050, 32GB RAM, 2TB SSD) for $2,499.99, down from $3,149.99, at Amazon. That's a 21% discount or $650 savings.

16-inch LG Gram Pro (Intel Core Ultra9, NVIDIA RTX5050, 32GB RAM, 2TB SSD) $2,499.99 at Amazon
$3,149.99 Save $650   Get Deal at Amazon

If you travel for work or just hate carrying a heavy bag, finding a laptop that's both lightweight and powerful can be tricky.

As of Feb. 23, you can get the 16-inch LG Gram Pro (Intel Core Ultra9, NVIDIA RTX5050, 32GB RAM, 2TB SSD) for $2,499.99, down from $3,149.99, at Amazon. That's a 21% discount or $650 savings.

SEE ALSO: The best gaming chair for dedicated players

This laptop features an Intel Core Ultra 9 processor, 32GB of RAM, and a 2TB SSD. You'll also get a dedicated NVIDIA RTX 5050 graphics card. This means it can handle heavy multitasking, video editing, and modern gaming without freezing up or overheating, and it all looks sharp on the 2560 x 1600 resolution display.

Most laptops with this kind of hardware are thick and incredibly heavy. LG managed to fit all these high-end components into a super durable (it passed seven military-grade durability standards) 0.62-inch frame that weighs exactly three pounds. If you refuse to compromise on speed but hate lugging around a heavy bag, the LG Gram Pro is only $2,499.99 right now.

SAVE $60: The Westinghouse 49-inch curved gaming monitor is on sale at Amazon for $539.99, down from the standard price of $599.99. That's a 10% discount and the lowest we've seen at Amazon.

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Gaming monitors make a huge difference in the overall experience of sitting down with a new title. Unfortunately, some of the best models come with shocking price tags. If you're not in the mood to spend a ton of money on a new gaming set-up, but you're interested in a curved gaming monitor, check out this deal at Amazon.

As of Feb. 23, the Westinghouse 49-inch curved gaming monitor is on sale at Amazon for $539.99, marked down from the normal price of $599.99. That's a 10% discount that takes $60 off. It's the lowest we've seen at Amazon.

With an 1800R curve, the Westinghouse gaming monitor will give you a serious upgrade. It's equipped with AMD FreeSync Premium, built-in speakers, and a 3 millisecond response time. The 120Hz refresh rate will be nice for many games, but keep in mind some gamers will be looking for a higher rate for quick-action games.

SEE ALSO: The best DJI drone deals this week take almost $500 off great combos at Amazon

Since a curved gaming monitor takes up significant space on your desk, you might want to use it for work too. Westinghouse added a USB-C port on the monitor that'll charge up your laptop while connected. The brand even includes the USB-C cable with the gaming monitor.

While it's on sale for a new record-low price, snag the 49-inch Westinghouse curved gaming monitor. Hook up your console and you'll be on your way to great gaming.

Anthropic is accusing three Chinese artificial intelligence companies of "industrial-scale campaigns" to "illicitly extract" its technology using distillation attacks. Anthropic says these companies created 24,000 fraudulent accounts to hide these efforts.

In a blog post detailing the attacks, Anthropic named three AI firms, including DeepSeek, the maker of the popular DeepSeek AI models. Anthropic explicitly framed the attack as an issue of national security.

"We have identified industrial-scale campaigns by three AI laboratories—DeepSeek, Moonshot, and MiniMax—to illicitly extract Claude’s capabilities to improve their own models," reads the blog post. "These labs generated over 16 million exchanges with Claude through approximately 24,000 fraudulent accounts, in violation of our terms of service and regional access restrictions."

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In January, OpenAI also accused DeepSeek of engaging in distillation attacks, effectively stealing its technology.

At the time, many people reacted not with sympathy, but with mocking, as OpenAI and other AI companies have claimed they have the absolute right to train their models on copyrighted works without permission or payment. Typically, AI industry supporters say they have no choice but to train on copyrighted works because Chinese competitors are sure to ignore copyright laws anyway.

"You can't be expected to have a successful AI program when every single article, book, or anything else that you've read or studied, you're supposed to pay for," President Donald Trump said at an AI event in July 2025. "When a person reads a book or an article, you've gained great knowledge. That does not mean that you're violating copyright laws or have to make deals with every content provider." He also added, "China’s not doing it."

SEE ALSO: Anthropic releases Claude Sonnet 4.6: Benchmark performance, how to try it

That puts AI companies in the awkward position of claiming their intellectual property is off-limits for model training, while also engaging in similar behavior themselves.

What are distillation attacks?

Distillation is a common training technique for large-language models; however, it can also be used to effectively reverse-engineer some aspects of the technology. In distillation, AI researchers run variations of the same prompt repeatedly to see how a particular model responds.

"Distillation is a widely used and legitimate training method. For example, frontier AI labs routinely distill their own models to create smaller, cheaper versions for their customers. But distillation can also be used for illicit purposes: competitors can use it to acquire powerful capabilities from other labs in a fraction of the time, and at a fraction of the cost, that it would take to develop them independently."

Chinese companies have a reputation for flagrantly ignoring intellectual property treaties and copyright laws, and reverse-engineering technology from Western companies. However, while Anthropic says the distillation attacks it uncovered violated its terms of service, it's not clear that they violated any international laws, or what remedy Anthropic has besides suspending the violating accounts.

To prevent attacks like this, Anthropic called for cooperation between AI companies, government agencies, and other stakeholders.

AI companies like Anthropic, xAI, Meta, and OpenAI are in the midst of one of the largest spending booms ever seen, with tens of billions of dollars being poured into AI infrastructure, data centers, and research and development. If rival foreign AI companies can cheaply recreate their LLM technology using distillation, they would clearly have an advantage over their U.S. rivals.

"These campaigns are growing in intensity and sophistication," the blog post reads. "The window to act is narrow, and the threat extends beyond any single company or region. Addressing it will require rapid, coordinated action among industry players, policymakers, and the global AI community."

Mashable reached out to Anthropic with questions about the distillation attacks, and we'll update this article if we receive a response.

Disclosure: Ziff Davis, Mashable’s parent company, in April 2025 filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.

Nearly a year after his YouTube channel was hacked by crypto scammers, Steve still thinks about the ordeal every day. "I’m scared to leave my browser open," he says.

Steve, along with his wife, Danielle (who are withholding their last name for privacy reasons), launched Vegas Action in 2020, chronicling their wins and losses playing poker and blackjack at Sin City casinos. The couple wanted to highlight their love for Vegas while also showing the reality of gambling (aka, the house always wins).

The channel was demonstrating steady growth until it was hacked in April, after which it was shut down by YouTube. After numerous entreaties to Google, which owns YouTube, the channel was finally returned to Steve and Danielle's control a month later. But by that point, it was losing subscribers and momentum. Now at 37,000 subscribers, Steve and Danielle hoped at this point they'd be north of 50K.

"Our sub growth is now 30 percent of what it was a year ago," Steve says. "We’re struggling and trying to hang in there and be positive."

As for the hacking itself, Danielle describes it as "traumatic."

Discovering the hack

The scammers got control of the channel by posing as potential advertisers for Vegas Action. Specifically, they claimed to represent the popular translation service Duolingo.

"Some of our viewers are from other countries," says Danielle. "There are people who watch and don’t speak English. It seemed kind of a neat opportunity."

"We thought we were working with an advertiser to do an integration," Steve says. "We hadn’t done one in a long time, so we said, ‘Ok will do this. We need the extra revenue. It’ll help pay for airfare and other expenses.' I was having issues with them, and I clicked on something I shouldn’t have, and it took over."

Soon after, the scammers got control of the email account Danielle used for the channel.

"[The scammers] couldn’t do anything until I logged into the email, and then they got my password," says Danielle, who used two-factor authentication to log in. "They changed some things. We noticed within an hour and took the email back, but they had made themselves a parent to my email. So, no matter what, they could get in."

SEE ALSO: Super Bowl sports bettors: Think twice about that parlay bet

Along with realizing their email had been hacked, the couple soon learned they couldn't log in to their YouTube channel.

"We gave YouTube a warning that we’ve been hacked," Steve says. "Over live chat, of course, because we couldn't get an actual person there to talk to."

That night, the scammers completely took over Vegas Action and launched a livestream, pitching crypto to Steve and Danielle's tens of thousands of subscribers. Soon after the livestream launched, YouTube shut down the channel entirely, making it impossible to find even through search.

Steve and Danielle were devastated, and tried to get the word out to their subscribers via social media. As the channel's deletion stretched from days to weeks without any word from Google, the couple launched a new channel, but much of the damage was done.

Getting the channel back online

The couple filed help tickets and sent emails to Google's feedback address, but received only automated responses. In speaking with other gambling creators, Steve and Danielle discovered that several had also been hacked by the Duolingo impersonators but had regained control of their channels after a week or so.

They reached out to Brian Christopher, a gaming YouTuber with over 750,000 subscribers. Not long after connecting with Christopher, YouTube returned the channel to their control, with no explanation.

Steve and Danielle believe Christopher spoke to his contact at Google about the Vegas Action hack, and that may have sped the channel's return.

"If you’re a big channel on YouTube, just like if you’re a big player at the casino, you get a [human] host," Steve says.

SEE ALSO: When the urge to gamble strikes, try mindfulness

Boot Bullwinkle, Policy Communications Manager at Google, tells Mashable that YouTube doesn't attach a specific subscriber minimum to gain access to a human contact. He directs hacked creators to visit this Google page immediately to report the problem and chat with an AI assistant (Steve says they reached out to the digital assistant but never received anything helpful).

Steve and Danielle have no idea who took over their channel. Bullwinkle declined to state how many YouTubers are hacked every year.

Advice for other creators

Steve and Danielle say they still get solicited by potential advertisers that appear to be scammers. They've only done one advertising partnership since the hack, with a company they've worked with already.

"It’s kind of booted us out of doing [partnerships,] because we’re scared," Danielle says.

The couple recommends using a new email address when launching a YouTube channel and to be very wary of clicking anything, especially if it's from someone unfamiliar.

"Take note of email addresses," Danielle says.

The aftermath

After regaining their channel, Steve and Danielle returned to regular posting and increased their uploads to at least five a week. YouTube regularly tells its creators that consistency is key to growing your channel, according to Steve and Danielle, who noted that even missing a day of posting affects their subscriber and view counts. Being offline for weeks was catastrophic to their growth, they say.

"We were down for a month, so some people either go elsewhere and find other things to watch, other things to do, and they forget about you," Danielle says. 

"And there are so many new [gambling] channels doing tables like we are," Steve adds. "They’re popping up left and right."

During the days before they got their channel back, Steve and Daniel had some long discussions.

"We did talk about walking away [from the channel], because if we don’t get it back, how do we start from scratch?," says Danielle. "We put so much money into it. For several years, it’s a huge loss because you’re not making anything."

Ten months after the hack, the Michigan-based couple remains committed to their channel and subscribers. But the hack changed everything.

"We were talking seriously about eventually moving to Vegas, possibly this year, before the hacking," Steve says. "Now, those plans are just gone."

A massive snowball fight broke out in New York City on Monday after a blizzard dumped some 20 inches of snow in the Big Apple.

The wintry conflict took place at Washington Square Park in Manhattan's West Village. Videos of the battle quickly went viral on social media, which is not surprising for a few reasons. One: The videos are fun and joyous. Two: The event was organized by Side Talk, the viral NYC series that famously gave us the "BING BONG" videos.

But look at this snowball fight. It looks like the most fun you could have — hundreds of people hurling snow at each other.

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As a fellow New Yorker, I'm hoping this was winter's last blast in the city. But if another storm rolls in, you can bet I’ll be at the next snowball fight.

Paramount+ is definitely a streaming service with a library big enough to make browsing its catalog for a movie to watch feel productive and indecisive at the same time. You didn't sign up for a scavenger hunt, but we did—challenge accepted.

TL;DR: Escape into the music with these Sony WF-C710N Truly Wireless Noise Canceling Earbuds, on sale now for $69.99 (reg. $129.99).

Opens in a new window Credit: Sony Sony WF-C710N Truly Wireless Noise Canceling Earbuds (Open Box) $69.99
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If you’re in the market for earbuds, consider this your sign. These Sony WF-C710N Truly Wireless Noise Canceling Earbuds bring you the best of both worlds — totally immersive, top-quality sound with advanced noise cancellation you can dial up or down as needed. And right now, they’re on sale for $69.99.

Looking for premium sound without paying a premium price for earbuds? The Sony WF-C710N earbuds are proof that it’s possible. These comfortable earbuds feature Sony’s 5mm drivers and DSEE processing, so you can enjoy powerful bass and clear vocals for $70.

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If you want to fully escape into your music, the dual noise-sensor technology blocks out distractions. If you’re out and about, you can still enjoy the music safely, thanks to the adjustable ambient sound mode that keeps you aware of your surroundings. If you’re taking a call or just want to focus, wind noise reduction is available for clearer audio.

These earbuds don’t feature your average controls — just a single tap on the Sony WF-C710N can hit play, stop, or skip. Adjust the volume with a tap, and if you need to remove your earbuds, you won’t miss a beat thanks to the sensors that pause the music.

Share the love with a multipoint Bluetooth connection, which allows you to pair with two devices simultaneously. You’ll also enjoy 8.5 hours of playback on a full charge, with an included case that brings that up to 21.5 hours on the go. And you can rest easy knowing the Sony WF-C710N are IPX4 water-resistant, so they’re up for your sweatiest workout.

You’re saving big on these earbuds thanks to their Open Box status. That means they were likely excess inventory returned to the warehouse, but you’ll receive them verified in new condition, with clean packaging.

Get the Sony WF-C710N Truly Wireless Noise Canceling Earbuds for just $69.99 (reg. $129.99) while supplies last.

StackSocial prices subject to change.

TL;DR: Change the way you work with AI with improved prompts with this lifetime subscription to PromptBuilder AI Prompt Engineer Pro Plan, on sale now for just $99.

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If you’re using AI to improve your workflow, you know how important a good prompt can be. PromptBuilder takes the guesswork and confusion out of the process, helping you take simple requests and turn them into optimized AI prompts in just a few seconds.

Right now, a lifetime subscription to PromptBuilder AI Prompt Engineer Pro Plan is on sale for just $99.

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Elevate the way you work with AI with some help from PromptBuilder. This tool turns anyone into an expert-level user, helping you create powerful prompts that get you better results.

PromptBuilder works with all the leading AI models — ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Llama, and more — and it takes less than 15 seconds to enhance your prompt. Get your plain idea turned into an optimized prompt, or access more than 1,000 proven templates for these models in this handy tool.

Use prompt engineering to get help creating code, optimizing your SEO, developing marketing materials, or creating social media content. It can even make platform-specific material for Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, and TikTok. If you develop a prompt you’ll be using regularly, PromptBuilder lets you store, tag, and organize your favorite prompts for easier access.

This lifetime subscription to PromptBuilder’s Pro Plan gives you 1,500 prompts a month, 1,500 assistant requests a month, a history of generated prompts, and priority customer service when you need it.

Work smarter with AI with this lifetime subscription to PromptBuilder AI Prompt Engineer Pro Plan for only $99.

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Netflix on a weeknight is a classic trap. You open the app on the hunt for a movie to watch, and soon 30 minutes go by and you're still reading blurbs like you're doing homework. Well, school's out.

Dropout's about to go mainstream — sort of.

Comedy fans know Dropout is the streamer to go to for hilarious shows like Game Changer, Very Important People, Make Some Noise, and Dimension 20. But next week, Dropout stars Vic Michaelis, Jacob Wysocki, Zac Oyama, Anna Garcia, and CEO Sam Reich will pop up on ABC's police procedural show The Rookie, playing themselves on the Game Changer set. Fittingly enough, the episode is called "Fun and Games."

In the ep, Nolan (Nathan Fillion) and Celina (Lisseth Chavez) are dispatched to a robbery call at Dropout TV studios, where, according to the press release, "Nolan encounters a familiar face." Could the familiar face be among the Dropout cast? Or maybe one of the behind-the-scenes contributors? From the first look images, it's clear the cops interrupt a shoot day on Game Changer. So expect things to get goofy.

Take a look at the images below, and see what clues and Dropout Easter eggs you can find.

Lisseth Chavez and Vic Michaelis face off on the "Game Changer" set on "The Rookie." Credit: ABC Jacob Wysocki, Zac Oyama, and Vic Michaelis on the "Game Changer" set on "The Rookie." Credit: ABC Nathan Fillion and Lisseth Chavez on "The Rookie," episode "Fun and Games." Credit: ABC Nathan Fillion and Jacob Wysocki on "The Rookie," episode "Fun and Games." Credit: ABC

The Rookie's "Fun and Games" will air on ABC Monday, March 2 at 10:00-11:00 p.m. EST, and will be available to stream on Hulu the next day.

UPDATE: Feb. 23, 2026, 4:21 p.m. A previous publishing of this article incorrectly identified the Dropout game show as "Change Changer," instead of "Game Changer." Our sincere apologies for the error.

SMART monitoring tools can tell you whether your SSD is at 100% health or dipping below that, but they can't prove that the files already stored on your NAS are still correct. That's how you end up with a seemingly healthy array and folders upon folders of broken files.

Home Assistant is smart home software that's designed to put local control and privacy first. For the most part, it's very good at doing so, but if you use Home Assistant to send notifications to your phone, those notifications may not be as private as you might believe.

Game of Thronesredefined the landscape of television. George R.R. Martin'snovels provided the inspiration for HBO's most-watched show of all time. From its blockbuster nature and epic scope to its shocking plot twists and strong character development, Game of Thrones became appointment television during its eight-season run. House of the Dragon, the show's first spin-off, is very similar to its predecessor, but with more dragons. Game of Thrones' second spin-off,A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, has taken a different but effective approach to Martin's universe.

TL;DR: Live stream Newcastle vs. Qarabag in the Champions League for free on Virgin Media Player. Access this free live stream from anywhere in the world with ExpressVPN.

The Champions League playoff round delivered drama, entertainment, and bags of goals from the first legs.

Newcastle United scored six in their first-leg victory over Qarabag. Their place in the first knockout round is all but guaranteed, but they'll still want to deliver a confident performance in front of their own fans. Qarabag will be looking to defend their honor in this second-leg clash.

If you want to watch Newcastle vs. Qarabag in the Champions League for free from anywhere in the world, we have all the information you need.

When is Newcastle vs. Qarabag?

Newcastle vs. Qarabag in the Champions League kicks off at 8 p.m. GMT on Feb. 24. This fixture takes place at St James' Park.

How to watch Newcastle vs. Qarabag for free

Newcastle vs. Qarabag is available to live stream for free on Virgin Media Player.

Virgin Media Player is geo-restricted to Ireland, but anyone can access this free streaming platform with a VPN. These tools can hide your real IP address (digital location) and connect you to a secure server in Ireland, meaning you can unblock Virgin Media Player to stream the Champions League for free from anywhere in the world.

Live stream Newcastle vs. Qarabag for free by following these simple steps:

1. Subscribe to a streaming-friendly VPN (like ExpressVPN)

2. Download the app to your device of choice (the best VPNs have apps for Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, Linux, and more)

3. Open up the app and connect to a server in Ireland

4. Visit Virgin Media Player

5. Watch Newcastle vs. Qarabag for free from anywhere in the world

Opens in a new window Credit: ExpressVPN ExpressVPN (1-Month Plan) $12.95 only at ExpressVPN (with money-back guarantee) Get Deal

The best VPNs for streaming are not free, but most do offer free-trials or money-back guarantees. By leveraging these offers, you can watch Newcastle vs. Qarabag without committing with your cash. This isn't a long-term solution, but it does give you enough time to stream select Champions League fixtures before recovering your investment.

What is the best VPN for Virgin Media Player?

ExpressVPN is the best choice for bypassing geo-restrictions to stream live sport on Virgin Media Player, for a number of reasons:

• Servers in 105 countries including Ireland

• Easy-to-use app available on all major devices including iPhone, Android, Windows, Mac, and more

• Strict no-logging policy so your data is secure

• Fast connection speeds free from throttling

• Up to 10 simultaneous connections

• 30-day money-back guarantee

A two-year subscription to ExpressVPN is on sale for $68.40 and includes an extra four months for free — 81% off for a limited time. This plan includes a year of free unlimited cloud backup and a generous 30-day money-back guarantee. Alternatively, you can get a one-month plan for just $12.99 (with money-back guarantee).

Watch Newcastle vs. Qarabag in the Champions League for free with ExpressVPN.

You might not know that Microsoft has a full-featured task management tool, like Asana, Trello, Motion, and AirTable. It's called Microsoft Planner, and even though it's getting a new design and more features, you still can't use it.

Weeks ago, the hacker group ShinyHunters claimed to breach the likes of Panera Bread, Match Group, and the dating app Bumble. Now, a Texas woman is suing Bumble, claiming that the app failed to protect her and other users' personal information.

The complaint states that in January, ShinyHunters infiltrated Bumble's "inadequately protected network servers and accessed highly sensitive PII [personal identifiable information] which was being kept unprotected." In this case, PII could include full names, birth dates, addresses, home and cell phone numbers, Social Security numbers, and account numbers.

SEE ALSO: Epstein used major dating apps after sex offender status, files suggest

ShinyHunters claimed it stole 30GB of Bumble data, according to Cybernews. A Bumble spokesperson told Cybernews at the time, "Our InfoSec team quickly detected and eliminated the access, and the incident is contained. We have engaged external cybersecurity experts to investigate and have notified law enforcement. Importantly, there was no access to our member database, member accounts, the Bumble application, or member direct messages or profiles."

The suit, filed on Feb. 19 in the Western District of Texas (Bumble is headquarted in Austin), alleges that Bumble "disregarded the rights of" plaintiff Tyra Omirin and proposed class members by "intentionally, willfully, recklessly and/or negligently failing to take and implement adequate and reasonable measures to ensure that [their] PII was safeguarded, failing to take available steps to prevent an unauthorized disclosure of data, and failing to follow applicable, required and appropriate protocols, policies and procedures regarding the encryption of data, even for internal use."

As a result, the suit states, their personal data was compromised. Omirin had to spend time verifying the data breach, monitoring her credit and personal accounts, exploring identity theft insurance, and seeking legal counsel. Omirin paid Bumble under the belief that the app would protect her personal information, and the complaint states that she wouldn't have if she had known Bumble wouldn't "reasonably and adequately protect" this data.

SEE ALSO: Match Group responding to alleged hack of user data

She has "suffered lost time, annoyance, interference and inconvenience as a result of the Data Breach and has anxiety and increased concerns for the loss of privacy, as well as anxiety over the impact of cybercriminals accessing, using and selling" her information, the suit states.

In addition to damages, Omirin is seeking relief requiring Bumble to protect all data, including by encrypting it, to delete her and class members' data unless Bumble can provide a "reasonable justification" for retaining it, to require third-party security audits, and to establish an information security program.

Mashable has reached out to Bumble for comment.

The 2026 Winter Olympics should have been a golden moment for American hockey. Both the men's and women's teams won gold. The sport was already in the middle of a cultural surge, fueled in part by the massive fandom that had formed around Heated Rivalry, the breakout series that made hockey newly legible to audiences who had never cared much about it before. In the weeks before the Games, ice hockey was trending on Google. Women joked about going to the "boy aquarium," turning the rink into a kind of female-gaze spectacle.

And yet, as the men's hockey team celebrated its historic gold, besting Canada in an overtime nail-biter, a viral locker-room phone call with President Donald Trump fractured that afterglow.

What should have been a shared moment of national pride instead curdled into something more familiar. On speakerphone, with FBI Director Kash Patel holding the phone inside the locker room, Trump invited the team to the White House and joked that he would "probably be impeached" if he didn’t also invite the gold medal–winning women’s team, reducing their victory to a political aside. Players laughed. The video spread. And just like that, the most dominant force in American hockey — women — was repositioned not at the center of the story, but at its margins.

Online, the reaction was immediate. The clip moved quickly through the same feeds that had helped turn hockey into a cultural moment.

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American women's hockey has long been the standard-bearer for the sport internationally. Since women's hockey was introduced at the Olympics in 1998, the U.S. has won a medal in every Games, including multiple golds, and has consistently been one of the two defining powers alongside Canada. Their victory in Milan, where they also defeated Canada in overtime, wasn't a surprise. It was a continuation of nearly three decades of dominance — and part of a larger pattern at these Olympics, where women accounted for eight of Team USA's 12 gold medals.

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Across the Games, women also shaped the emotional core of the Olympics. Figure skater Alysa Liu's joy on the ice felt almost contagious, her delight visible in every movement. When she stepped onto the podium, she celebrated alongside the silver and bronze medalists from Team Japan, smiling and pulling them into an embrace in a moment that felt inclusive rather than hierarchical, a reminder that victory doesn't have to come at someone else's expense.

It was the kind of victory that made the sport feel bigger, not smaller.

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But that spirit of inclusivity existed alongside a more complicated reality.

Tension had already been simmering throughout these Olympics. Several Team USA athletes, including figure skater Amber Glenn and freestyle skier Hunter Hess, had spoken openly about their discomfort representing the country amid the current political climate, particularly as immigration enforcement policies and ICE raids intensified back home. Hess, who became an unlikely lightning rod after criticizing the administration, put it bluntly at a press conference: "Just because I’m wearing the flag doesn’t mean I represent everything that’s going on in the U.S." In response, Trump called him a "real loser" on Truth Social, and Hess said he used the president's comments as motivation during his halfpipe qualifying round.

Meanwhile, the women's hockey team rejected Trump's insincere invite to the White House.

Trump's relationship with athletes, especially women, has long been fraught. He has publicly targeted prominent female athletes who criticized him and falsely questioned the legitimacy of Olympic women's competitors in the past. That history made his locker-room talk land differently. For many watching, it felt like part of a larger pattern of diminishing women, even in moments of undeniable achievement.

The same screens that welcomed women into hockey also showed them exactly where they still stand — just outside the glass.

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Thinking of verifying your LinkedIn account so you can get that coveted blue checkmark badge?

You may want to hear this first. 

One observant anonymous user is warning other LinkedIn users that the Microsoft-owned social network for professionals utilizes a third-party verification service that, in turn, shares users' data with other companies.

Inc highlighted a story posted on The Local Stack, a blog that covers "surveillance capitalism" from an individual who simply goes by the name "rogi."

According to the report by rogi, after going through the LinkedIn verification process to confirm his identity, he took a deeper look into the privacy policy and terms of service for the process, which is carried out by a third-party vendor called Persona.

Persona may sound familiar if you've been following the ongoing controversies around age and ID verification policy. For example, both Roblox and Discord also use Persona for their age verification process.

SEE ALSO: What would ethical age verification look like online?

According to rogi, what concerned him was exactly what Persona could do with his data. Persona accessed rogi's full name, passport photo, selfie, facial biometric data, NFC chip data (or the info stored on the chip inside his passport), his nationality, sex, birthday, age, email, phone number, physical address, IP address, geolocation, device type, MAC address, browser, OS version, and language.

But that's not all. Persona also reportedly utilized "hesitation detection," which tracked just how long it took rogi to complete the process and where he paused, as well as copy and paste detection.

What's more, Rogi claimed that this data not only gets shared with LinkedIn and Persona, but also with Persona's “global network of data partners,” which includes further third-party vendors, also known as subprocessors. If requested, Persona may even hand over data to law enforcement, according to their terms of service. Persona's subprocessors include Amazon's AWS, Google Cloud Platform, and even a few AI companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic.

After rogi's The Local Stack post on LinkedIn and Persona went viral, the co-founder and CEO of Persona Rick Song addressed the report in a comment on LinkedIn.

"No personal data processed is used for AI/model training," Song said in a comment. "Data is exclusively used to confirm your identity."

SEE ALSO: Discord age verification: How it works, when it happens

Song also said that all biometric data is deleted right after processing, and all other personal data is deleted within 30 days. Song also denied that AI companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic were subprocessors used to verify a user's identity, even though those companies are included on a Persona webpage that lists the company's subprocessors.

"The referenced subprocessor list is the superset of subprocessors used across all customers which is unfortunately misleading," Song said. "Our customers select which products are used which determines which subprocessors are used. We are adding a clarification to this list to make this clearer in the future."

In other words, just because a company is listed on this page, that doesn't necessarily mean that LinkedIn user data in particular will be shared with them.

Persona's growing usage among some of the internet's most popular platforms is certainly putting the company under a microscope. Another recent report on Persona from a security researcher claims that the company performs "269 individual verification checks" on Discord users.

Further causing concern for many privacy watchdog groups? Peter Thiel, the controversial co-founder of surveillance firm Palantir, is a major investor in Persona as well.

Mashable reached out to LinkedIn and Persona for comment, and we'll update this story if we receive a response.