An anonymous reader quotes a report from The New York Times: A military arm of the intelligence community buys commercially available databases containing location data from smartphone apps and searches it for Americans’ past movements without a warrant, according to an unclassified memo obtained by The New York Times. Defense Intelligence Agency analysts have searched for the movements of Americans within…
Tag: digital age
House Antitrust Chair Says Big Tech Abuses Gatekeeper Power
Google, Amazon, Apple and Facebook abuse their power as gatekeepers of the internet, said the head of a House antitrust panel who’s poised to propose legislative changes to rein in the technology giants. From a report: “Each platform uses their gatekeeper position to protect their own power,” said Representative David Cicilline, who chairs a House antitrust panel that’s spent more than…
When is the next Great Comet?
There’s a nice binocular comet – Comet NEOWISE – in the early morning sky now. Some experienced observers are catching it with the eye alone. It’s nice … but not great. When will we see our next Great Comet? Source: https://earthsky.org/space/northern-hemisphere-overdue-for-a-great-comet…
Do We Need To Talk About ‘Cloud Neutrality’?
“A multibillion-dollar, privately-owned infrastructure is now essential to the modern internet economy,” writes Wired. And if you care about net neutrality, “That should freak you out.” [T]here’s an even bigger issue brewing, and it’s time to start talking about it: cloud neutrality. “While its name sounds soft and fluffy,” Microsoft president and general counsel Brad Smith and coauthor Carol Ann Browne…
Learn and take action with three new Teach-Outs from JHU, Emory, and the University of Michigan
A guest post written by: Benjamin Morse, Design Manager University of Michigan Stephanie Parisi, Associate Director of Instructional Design Emory University @snparisi Rebecca G. Williams, Research Program Manager Johns Hopkins University @rebecca_gwen Our world is evolving rapidly and the need to understand complex societal issues and engage in productive and civil discourse has never been […]
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Italy Follows France in Levying a Digital Tax
Italy soon will join France in applying a new tax on large tech companies, a move that could deepen trans-Atlantic trade tensions and snarl up already-faltering negotiations over how best to tax companies such as Facebook and Google parent Alphabet. From a report: The new tax, passed this week by Italy’s parliament, will take effect Jan. 1. Similar to the tax…
Algorithms Will Be ‘Driving the Majority of Facebook News,’ Says Facebook
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Facebook’s news section, which was previously reported to be imminent, is here: The company is rolling out Facebook News in a limited test in the U.S. as a home screen tab and bookmark in the main Facebook app. In a blog post, Facebook’s Campbell Brown (vice president of global news partnerships) and Mona…
China and Taiwan Clash Over Wikipedia Edits
Ask Google or Siri: “What is Taiwan?” “A state”, they will answer, “in East Asia”. But earlier in September, it would have been a “province in the People’s Republic of China.” From a report: For questions of fact, many search engines, digital assistants and phones all point to one place: Wikipedia. And Wikipedia had suddenly changed. The edit was reversed, but…