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Communication and Technology news
Cryptocurrency startup claims BMW partnership, but BMW disagrees
2018-03-21

Fledgling cryptocurrency startup carVertical made waves after announcing last week that the company had struck a partnership with BMW that would see the two parties build the “first ever connected reports for cars.” But it appears the company might have misrepresented its relationship with the German automobile...

Why I’m Leaving Facebook–And Maybe You Should, Too
2018-03-21

We’re giving up too much (data) and getting too little in return. By now we’ve all heard the cliche: If you’re getting something for free on the internet, and you can’t identify the product that’s being sold, then you are the product. Your attention, your purchasing potential, your...

Messenger makes it easy to let folks into group chat (or keep ’em out)
2018-03-21

Amid all the drama at Facebook, the company is continuing to pump out new features. Today, its Messenger app is introducing additional tools for group chats, which permit up to 250 simultaneous text chatters, or 50 via voice or video. People in a chat can share “joinable links” to invite others into the...

This Is How We Take Power Back From Facebook (And Every Other Monopoly)
2018-03-21

The power of tech giants (and giants in industries from air travel to beer) are starting to have damaging effects on the environment–and our democracy. For all its fabled dynamism, the American economy isn’t particularly dynamic at the moment. The rate of new business creation is at historic lows. Wages...

A Brief History Of Mark Zuckerberg Apologizing (Or Not Apologizing) For Stuff
2018-03-21

From college days forward, Facebook’s CEO has plenty of experience dealing with unhappy people. Will it help him dig out of the Cambridge Analytica mess? Mark Zuckerberg has yet to speak publicly about last week’s news that a researcher turned 270,000 responses to a Facebook quiz into profiles of 50...

These are the top 50 companies where Americans want to work now
2018-03-21

Amazon tops the list of the 50 most in-demand places to work according to LinkedIn’s ranking of data generated by its 546-plus million members around the world. The top 10 are: Amazon Alphabet (Google) Facebook Salesforce Tesla Apple Comcast Walt Disney Company Oracle Netflix You can see the full list here. The...

Zuckerberg to address Cambridge Analytica crisis in next 24 hours
2018-03-21

Well, it looks like the public will get a chance to hear from Zuck before his employees do. The Facebook CEO is said to have plans to make his first comments on the scandal that has gripped his company (and the news cycle) since last week, reports Axios. The site says they’ve been told by … Continue...

Google is reportedly buying camera maker Lytro for up to $40 million
2018-03-21

The company’s first product was the revolutionary “light field” technology camera that allowed people to refocus shots after they were taken. Since then, Lytro has pivoted to cameras that capture VR. In that time, Lytro has acquired a wealth of patents linked to cutting-edge camera technology,...

Cambridge Analytica’s CEO reportedly used the N-word to describe potential clients
2018-03-21

Alexander Nix, Cambridge Analytica’s disgraced CEO, was suspended on Tuesday after the scandal involving his company and Facebook showed no sign of abating. Now things are set to look even worse for him after an internal Cambridge Analytica email surfaced in which Nix allegedly referred to two potential clients...

AI And Open Data Show Just How Often Cars Block Bus And Bike Lanes
2018-03-21

Using publicly available camera footage and a machine-learning algorithm, we can now say that the lanes are blocked almost always. Alex Bell, a cyclist, programmer, and lifelong New Yorker, is fed up with vehicles drifting into lanes that are not meant for them. His frustration began with UPS trucks: So frequently...

WhatsApp cofounder says it’s time to #deletefacebook
2018-03-21

Brian Acton, who cofounded WhatsApp along with Jan Koum before selling it to Facebook in 2014 for an initial $16 billion (Facebook ultimately paid around $22 billion), has taken to Twitter to tell everyone it’s time to delete Facebook. It is time. #deletefacebook — Brian Acton (@brianacton) March 20,...

Mark Zuckerberg will address Cambridge Analytica with Facebook employees on Friday
2018-03-21

Since the scandal broke, one thing has been consistent: the absence of any comment from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. His silence about the Cambridge Analytica scandal has lead to hashtags asking #WheresZuck and memes of the same theme. But it’s not just the public wondering why Zuck has remained silent....

Alphabet’s Outline lets you run your own self-hosted VPN for free
2018-03-21

Jigsaw, an incubator that’s part of Google’s parent company, Alphabet, has launched Outline, an open-source virtual private network (VPN) that you can host on your own server at no charge. As an initiative from the human-rights-focused Jigsaw, Outline is being billed as a tool to help journalists securely connect...

Facebook is tainted – can we build a better one?
2018-03-21

In the face of the Cambridge Analytica exposé that saw Facebook expose 50 million users’ information to a data mining company, as well as other recent fiascos with the social network like Russia influencing voters in the US and the spread of fake news, it’s becoming clear that Mark Zuckerberg’s creation has...

Facebook and Cambridge Analytica: Here’s what you need to know
2018-03-21

Strategic Communications Laboratories (SCL) and its data analytics firm, Cambridge Analytica have both been suspended from Facebook after each “gained access to information” without the consent of certain individuals. And if the latter name sounds familiar, it should; but we’ll get to that in a moment. The story...

Facebook isn’t a company. It’s a country that needs to be sanctioned
2018-03-21

It’s hard to imagine Mark Zuckerberg or Sheryl Sandberg wearing a black eyepatch and stroking a cat while overseeing the covert operation to overthrow America’s government. The people at Facebook, for all their flaws, don’t seem like the villains in a James Bond movie. And, for what it’s worth, they may very...

Facebook is being sued by its shareholders over lax data security
2018-03-21

To say Facebook is having a rough few days is becoming a bigger and bigger understatement. After revelations this weekend that a Trump campaign data analytics firm had accessed the Facebook data of some 50 million unwitting users, Facebook’s stock took a dive on Monday, dropping 5.2% to $175.41. The stock shed...

A museum banned Instagram selfies. Here’s why it won’t work.
2018-03-20

The earth-shattering popularity of Instagram and its galaxy of stars (or would-be stars) is having a ripple effect on certain industries — for good and, sometimes, for ill. Museums and other places are taking measures to cut down on damages caused by the photo-snapping masses, but there doesn’t seem to be a single...

Twitter briefly banned the venerated magazine “The Nation” from using its ad platform
2018-03-20

The Nation is an old beloved weekly publication known for its progressivism. It’s not known for disseminating hate and violence. And yet, for some reason, Twitter decided to ban the magazine from using its ad platform because its content supposedly included “hate, sensitive topics, and violence.”...

Twitter needs a different approach to news if it doesn’t want to end up like Facebook
2018-03-20

Twitter and Facebook are evolving their approach to news, and have started to become the opposite of their former selves. Where Facebook is trying to shed its association with news, Twitter is building it into its platform — but it’ll need to avoid Facebook’s problems with fake news. Facebook, whether it likes...

Facebook, Twitter, Snap: Social media stocks are in a free fall today
2018-03-20

Today is a bad day if you’re a popular social media platform. The fallout from revelations about the misuse of Facebook user data by Cambridge Analytica continues, and now government agencies are reportedly investigating Mark Zuckerberg’s enormously powerful platform. But Facebook isn’t the...

Twitter briefly banned the venerated magazine The Nation from using its ad platform
2018-03-20

The Nation is an old beloved weekly publication known for its progressivism. It’s not known for disseminating hate and violence. And yet, for some reason, Twitter decided to ban the magazine from using its ad platform because its content supposedly included “hate, sensitive topics, and violence.”...

Ex-SoFi CEO Mike Cagney’s new startup, Figure, is out of stealth
2018-03-20

SoFi cofounder Mike Cagney, who resigned as CEO last year, has been quietly working on a new project involving home improvement financing and home equity lines of credit (HELOCs) for the last several months. Now, that project is out of stealth, with a live website: Figure.com. According to Cagney’s LinkedIn...

Hey #deletefacebook, here’s how to stop being tracked as an ex-user
2018-03-20

After a stormy couple of months, lots of people seem to be fed up with Facebook. The self-explanatory hashtag #deletefacebook is all over Twitter, another company that makes its money primarily by selling your data. Not here to judge though, just to inform. There could be one thing users who opt to make this bold move...

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