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Communication and Technology news
Yes, Senator, Facebook Does Have A Profile On You
2018-04-10

When Senator John Kennedy questioned a Facebook lawyer about personal data at a Congressional hearing last October, things got heated. Facebook’s chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, finally goes before Congress today and tomorrow to discuss the Cambridge Analytica scandal and how the company protects user...

Instagram’s new Focus tool brings portrait mode to most iPhones and some Androids
2018-04-10

Instagram is rolling out a dedicated portrait mode within its app called Focus, allowing users to take portraits even on phones which don’t have a portrait setting of their own. To use Focus, open your Instagram Story and swipe to the option under the “Record” button — it’ll be next to “Superzoom.” After...

Here’s What Mark Zuckerberg Should Be Posting On Facebook This Week
2018-04-10

Cue selfie-op in front of the Washington Monument. This story reflects the views of this author, but not necessarily the editorial position of Fast Company.Read Full Story

This new Gender Pay Scorecard gives Apple an “A minus” and Facebook a failing grade
2018-04-10

Apple and Facebook are two of the 33 companies that were scored based on their equal pay disclosure, performance, and commitments in the finance, tech, and retail sectors. Apple got an A- grade (the highest on the card), as did Bank of New York Mellon, eBay, JPMorgan, Nike, and Starbucks. The quantitative...

Jimmy Kimmel just made the perfect video to share on Facebook
2018-04-10

In the wake of Facebook’s Cambridge Analytica scandal, CEO Mark Zuckerberg may be feeling a little friendless. Not only is he being hauled before Congress to answer questions this week, but Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak deactivated his Facebook account, and Mexico and Australia are lining up to...

Mark Zuckerberg Congress live-stream: How to watch the Facebook CEO’s Senate testimony
2018-04-10

For people who have been following Facebook’s ever-escalating data privacy scandal, today is the day they’ve been waiting for. Mark Zuckerberg will testify this afternoon before a Senate judiciary committee on Capitol Hill, where he will face (hopefully) tough questions about the company’s use of...

YouTube hackers deface and unlist tons of popular music videos
2018-04-10

Something fishy is going on with YouTube. It appears the Google subsidiary has been hit by hackers as a number of popular music videos have been defaced – or have suddenly disappeared. Indeed, the platform’s most viewed video ever – Despacito by Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankeee – was temporarily unavailable on...

Here’s how to tell if your Facebook data was shared with Cambridge Analytica
2018-04-10

The social media giant has released a simple tool to let you check if your data was shared with Cambridge Analytica. Just click this link (make sure you are logged in to your Facebook account already) and you’ll be taken to Facebook’s “How can I tell if my info was shared with Cambridge...

Amid Fake News And Data Leaks, Ad Industry Makes Brand Safety Official
2018-04-10

IPG Mediabrands’ UM appoints its first chief brand safety officer and teams with others in the industry to launch the Advertising Protection Bureau. Last January, P&G chief marketing officer Marc Pritchard gave Google, Facebook, and his ad agency partners an ultimatum: Do more to address transparency,...

Google’s Home smart speakers arrive in India at last
2018-04-10

Roughly a year and a half since their launch, Google’s Assistant-powered Home and Home Mini smart speakers have finally made their way to India. The voice-activated speakers, which can play music, answer questions, and control your connected home gadgets, works with Indian accents; it offers content from a range of...

YouTube just got hacked, popular music vids defaced
2018-04-10

Hackers calling themselves Prosox and Kuroi’sh have hacked YouTube and defaced music videos–including the most viewed YouTube video of all time, reports The Verge. A number of high-profile music videos uploaded to the artists Vivo YouTube accounts have been hit, with the hackers changing their titles and...

Uber is buying electric bike sharer Jump
2018-04-10

It’s not known how much Uber is paying for Jump, but the startup had previously raised $11.6 million, reports Recode. Jump is the only dockless bike sharer in San Fransisco. Despite that, the company only has 250 bikes available for hire due to limitations placed on it by the city, which has an exclusive...

Mexico is investigating companies with links to Cambridge Analytica
2018-04-10

Mexico’s transparency and data protection regulator, INAI, has announced that it has opened an investigation into whether companies that may be linked to Cambridge Analytica broke the country’s data protection laws, reports Reuters. Specifically, INAI is looking at companies that worked with a smartphone...

Cryptocurrency startups bypass Facebook ad ban with sly marketing tricks
2018-04-10

As part of its larger efforts to clean up its act, a couple of months back Facebook announced it will no longer allow ads promoting crypto-products and initial coin offerings (ICOs) on its platforms. But it seems that sly marketers have already worked out how to slip cryptocurrency ads past the filtering system. The...

Facebook could theoretically owe the FTC $7.1 trillion for recent data scandals
2018-04-10

It’s a big week for Facebook. CEO Mark Zuckerberg is set to appear before Congress tomorrow, ready to fess up to his social network’s multitudinous problems. But the company might soon have a bigger adversary: The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which could put Facebook on the hook for more money than even its...

23 Advocacy groups accuse YouTube of illegally collecting data from kids
2018-04-10

A group of 23 child advocacy and privacy groups have filed a complaint with the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) alleging Google has been illegally collecting data and personalizing advertisements to children under 13. According to the Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), websites and services must first obtain...

Read Mark Zuckerberg’s full prepared statements for Congress
2018-04-09

Mark Zuckerberg is poised to begin a series of Congressional testimonies this week in which he will answer questions related to the Cambridge Analytica debacle and other topics concerning data privacy and security. The Facebook CEO has prepared a statement to present to the House of Representatives Committee on...

Facebook just agreed to let an independent commission look under its hood
2018-04-09

With the U.S. midterm elections just seven months away, and as Mark Zuckerberg prepares to testify on Capitol Hill about Facebook’s never-ending series of controversies, the company says it has agreed to open its kimono and let a number of independent academics examine its role (and that of social media in...

Here Are The Questions Mark Zuckerberg Still Needs To Answer
2018-04-09

As the Facebook CEO testifies before Congress this week, he can no longer rely on empty platitudes. Tomorrow, when Mark Zuckerberg sits in the hot seat opposite a bipartisan bevy of lawmakers in Congress, we may finally get some real answers. Or, at least that’s what we’re all hoping. Because, up to...

Here’s a funny Woz vs. Zuck gag to get you through all this horrible Facebook news
2018-04-09

You have to hand it to the press-hungry folks at Madame Tussauds in San Francisco. Hours after news broke this morning that Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak is deactivating his Facebook account, PR reps for the famous wax museum blasted out an email release with this picture: The subject line read,...

Forget swag bags: TED conference 2018 attendees are getting $550 Rimowa suitcases
2018-04-09

TED gift bags have been known to go a bit overboard. Last year, the conference set up a “gifting experience,” where attendees could stuff their TED-branded Lululemon bags with $170 Creme De La Mer face creams and $129 Google Home speakers. There were $449 G-Ro suitcases that were so popular that...

Apple vs. Facebook: Steve Wozniak joins Tim Cook in criticizing the social network
2018-04-09

If you’ve been bragging that you’re Facebook friends with Apple cofounder and ersatz Dancing with the Stars contestant Steve Wozniak, it’s time to come up with a new brag. Woz announced that he has joined the growing #DeleteFacebook movement, which has been sweeping the internet in the wake of the...

Twitter bots are getting busy making sure your tweet goes viral
2018-04-09

About two-thirds of tweeted links to popular websites are posted by bots, not actual humans, according to a new study from the Pew Research Center. For adult sites, that number rises to 90%, and for sharing sports content, about 76% of links are posted to Twitter by automated services, according to the study. News and...

Cryptocurrency thieves are using verified profiles to scam and Twitter is not helping
2018-04-09

Here is why you should never readily trust anyone on Twitter – even those with blue badges. A shifty user has leveraged his verified profile to impersonate high-profile cryptocurrency influencers and scam people. The malicious individual was busted using the verified @Protafield handle to trick naive users into...

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