Just over a month after Uber received a California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) license to test driverless cars on public roads, the company has resumed autonomous testing in San Francisco. From a report: Uber says it will limit its time on the road to a “few weeks” while it completes a codebase and infrastructure update and that two of its…
Tag: criticism
People Kept Working, Became Healthier While On Basic Income: Report
Participants in Ontario’s prematurely cancelled basic income pilot project were happier, healthier and continued working even though they were receiving money with no-strings attached. That’s according to a new report titled Southern Ontario’s Basic Income Experience, which was compiled by researchers at McMaster and Ryerson University, in partnership with the Hamilton Roundtable for Poverty Reduction. CBC.ca reports: The report shows nearly…
China Tech Groups Censored Information About Coronavirus
Chinese social media platforms, including Tencent’s WeChat, censored keywords related to coronavirus as early as December [Editor’s note: the link may be paywalled; alternative source], potentially limiting the Chinese public’s ability to protect themselves from the virus. From a report: Beijing has strictly controlled access to information throughout the coronavirus outbreak, which has killed more than 3,000 people worldwide. Research by…
Amazon Is Collecting Donations For a Scientology-Linked Anti-Drug Charity
An anonymous reader quotes the Guardian:
Amazon has agreed to channel funds to a controversial drug rehabilitation charity linked to the Church of Scientology, the Guardian has learned. The web giant will make donations to Narconon — which runs programmes for drug addicts based on the teachings of the Scientology founder, L Ron Hubbard — when supporters buy products through the site,…
Apple Weighs Letting Users Switch Default iPhone Apps To Rivals
Apple is considering giving rival apps more prominence on iPhones and iPads and opening its HomePod speaker to third-party music services after criticism the company provides an unfair advantage to its in-house products. From a report: The technology giant is discussing whether to let users choose third-party web browser and mail applications as their default options on Apple’s mobile devices, replacing…
‘There’s Nothing Wrong With My No-Email Policy’
Julian Lewis MP responds to criticism over his refusal to use email for constituency correspondence, and says letters, phone calls and surgery appointments are “perfectly adequate.” He writes: There is nothing “mysterious” about the fact that I do not use email for constituency correspondence: it is openly stated on the homepage of my — very extensive — website, and has been…
Is Google Facing a Backlash From Medical Record Vendors?
Two months ago the Washington Post reported that Google “has partnered with health-care provider Ascension to collect and store personal data for millions of patients, including full names, dates of birth and clinical histories, in order to make smarter recommendations to physicians.” Now CNBC reports that the medical record vendor Epic Systems “has been phoning customers to tell them it will…
After Mishap with Boeing Spacecraft, NASA Faces a Dilemma
An anonymous reader quotes the Washington Post: As it probes why Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft suffered a serious setback during a flight test last month that forced the cancellation of its planned docking with the International Space Station, NASA faces a high-stakes dilemma: Should the space agency require the company to repeat the uncrewed test flight, or allow the next flight to…
Facebook Is Forcing Its Moderators To Log Every Second of Their Days
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Motherboard: When Valera Zaicev began working in Dublin as one of Facebook’s moderators a couple years ago, he knew he’d be looking at some of the most graphic and violent content on the internet. What he didn’t know was that Facebook would be counting the seconds of his bathroom breaks. Facebook, which outsources the…
Facebook Says It Won’t Back Down From Allowing Lies in Political Ads
Facebook said on Thursday that it would not make any major changes to its political advertising policies, which allow lies in ads, despite pressure from lawmakers who say the company is abdicating responsibility for what appears on its platform. The New York Times: The decision, which company executives had telegraphed in recent months, is likely to harden criticism of Facebook’s political…