All products featured on WIRED are independently selected by our editors. However, we may receive compensation from retailers and/or from purchases of products through these links.
The past year has been a spectacular display of scandal, incompetency and corruption. Putin hijacked our Facebook feeds and Silicon Valley was called out for sexism.
But, there's also been progress: from DeepMind AI breakthroughs to Nasa's successful Cassini mission. With the year coming to a close, WIRED takes a look back at the highs and lows of 2017 in tech.
Russian interference: The US intelligence community finds that the Russian state hacked into Hilary Clinton's emails, as well as that of her close aids, in order to influence the 2016 presidential election.
Netflix success: A year after adding 130 more counties to its service, Netflix announced a 56 per cent rise in profits and a global customer base of 93.8 million people. The company also announced it would spend $6 billion on original content in 2017, up from $5bn the year before.
Sexism at Uber: Former Uber engineer Susan Fowler writes a blog post calling Uber out for sexism. Her bravery starts a wave of allegations of sexual harassment and discrimination in Silicon Valley.
Facebook and AI: Mark Zuckerberg publishes a 5,500 word essay outlining the future of the company. The underlying theme? Artificial intelligence.
Targeted cyberattacks on women: Emma Watson took legal action after stolen, private pictures of her appeared online. The actress had previously been threatened in 2014 after a speech she gave on gender equality as a UN Ambassador for Women, by hackers claiming they had nude images of her.
The Nintendo Switch arrives: Nintendo released the Switch on March 3. As of the end of September, the console had sold 7.63 million unites globally – far exceeding analyst expectations.
Snapchat went public: Snap, the parent company of Snapchat, had its IPO. Its shares were priced at $17 a piece and the firm had an overall value of $19.7 billion.
Nasa discoveries: The space agency's Cassini mission found that the Saturnian moon Enceladus had all the ingredients needed for life, giving further encouragement to humanity's ongoing mission to confirm we are not alone in the universe.
Russia hijacks newsfeeds: Facebook admits that its platform was used by Russia in an attempt to sway the 2016 American presidential election and the 2017 French election. In a bid to clamp down on any subversive activity, Facebook shut down 30,000 accounts in France.
Wannacry hits the NHS: The NHS fell victim to the Wannacry ransomware attack, which has since been blamed on North Korea. A number of hospitals in the UK were targeted by the malware which locked users out of their computer systems and demanded a ransom fee.
EU fines Facebook: Facebook is fined €110 million after the EU finds it misled EU officials over its WhatsApp takeover in 2014.
EU fines Google: European competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager fined Google €2.4bn over its search engine results. Google has appealed.
Uber in turmoil: Uber founder Travis Kalanick resigns from the company. Demands for Kalanick's resignation came from five of Uber's biggest investors after months of scandals.
Progress in nuclear fusion: Scientists made real progress in creating fusion energy on Earth; a dream since nuclear energy was first invented. Scientists at the Chalmers University of Technology developed a technique to slow down moving electrons that have so far wreaked havoc with fusion reactors.
Bikes for hire: Singapore-based startup oBike announced it was launching its bike-sharing service in London. It joined Chinese firm Ofo in competing with the capital’s Santander Cycles, though both Ofo and oBike use tracking technology rather than physical docks to lock and unlock bikes.
AI with an imagination DeepMind announced it was developing an AI capable of 'imagination' that it hopes will be able to predict the outcome of a decision before making it.
North Korean threat: North Korea fires missiles over Japan, marking a significant technological advancement in weaponry for the country.
Stabby robots: Ethical hackers turned a cute little robot into a stabbing machine. Exploiting authentication protocols allowed staff at security consultancy IOActive to remotely control the Nao, Pepper, and Alpha robots… with spooky consequences.
That Google memo: A male software engineer at Google sent an internal memo explaining why there aren't many women in Google: it was, apparently, due to the natural inferiority of the female brain. This sparked a huge row and raised questions concerning the sincerity of Google's efforts to improve diversity.
iOS 11 launched: Apple launched the latest (and current) version of iOS on September 19. Key features included augmented reality support and the expansion of Apple Pay.
An underwhelming iPhone: Apple also launched the iPhone 8 shortly after it made the iOS 11 announcement. Although this was quickly upstaged by the iPhone X.
London versus Uber: London mayor Sadiq Khan announced that Uber's licence to operate in London was to be revoked. Transport for London refused to renew the app's license, blaming a lack of corporate responsibility on behalf of Uber. The ride-hailing firm is appealing the decision.
Google acquired HTC: With HTC struggling financially, Google spent $1.1 billion on a 2,000-person research and development team from the firm.
Apple tax: The European Commission took Ireland to court over its tax dealings with Apple. Ireland is still owed €13 billion by the tech giant, which is appealing the ruling.
Twitter trolls: In the wake of the Las Vegas shooting, hundreds of people took to Twitter to spread disinformation and lies about missing people and purported suspects. It was the latest in a series of tragic events where social media was used to spread lies, seemingly for nothing more than the lolz.
Equifax breached: The credit rating company Equifax Credit was hit by a major data loss in September. The UK's Financial Conduct Authority and other oversight bodies investigated after the firm admitted that over 143 million US customers and 600,000 UK customers had been affected by the data breach, despite originally believing fewer than 400,000 were affected.
Yahoo data breach: Yahoo also finally admited that three billion accounts were accessed by hackers, despite originally claiming it was one billion accounts. In 2016, Yahoo admitted it had been hacked three years previously.
Backflipping robots: The tech world leapt for joy and shuddered in fear as Boston Dynamics released a video demonstration of its new and improved Atlas robot. Beware the backflips.
The iPhone X arrives: Apple's iPhone X made its long awaited debut. Although many rated it as the best iPhone yet, its high price and the dreaded notch caused a fair bit of consternation.
Twitter (finally) innovates: Twitter extends its character limit from 140 characters to 280. What a time to be alive.
Russia used Twitter to influence Brexit: Evidence emerged that the Russia-based Twitter accounts which spread propaganda and lies during the US presidential election campaign also targeted the EU referendum, using divisive and racist language to inflame public opinion.
Tesla revealed new electric vehicles: At a flashy Tesla event, Elon Musk revealed their new Roadster and Semi truck. Musk promises to have the Roadster ready for 2020, but its still very much a concept.
Bitcoin, bitcoin and bitcoin: 'Tis the season to buy bitcoin. The price of the cryptocurrency rose 17-fold in 2017, peaking at $20,000 in December.
Net neutrality nixed: The Federal Communications Commission, or FCC, an independent agency of the United States government voted to end net neutrality, despite huge support for it.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
