Jun 8, 2021 | algo, audio, networking
Whether you want it or not, Amazon’s new Sidewalk service is here. Starting today, Amazon’s internet-sharing network has been activated on millions of Amazon Echo and Tile devices. But if you don’t want it, there is a way to opt out.
Source: Your Echo is now sharing your internet with your neighbors. Here’s how to opt out.
Jun 8, 2021 | justice & equality, networking, trends
The Five Star Movement (5SM), wanted to upend Italian politics with its revolutionary plans for digital direct democracy. Over the past few months, instead, it almost managed to upend itself, stuck in a kafkaesque drama that left its online voting platform paralysed.
Source: Italy’s failed digital democracy dream is a warning
Jun 8, 2021 | mobile, networking, trends
The price for Ubers, scooters and Airbnb rentals is going up as tech companies aim for profitability.
Source: Farewell, Millennial Lifestyle Subsidy
Jun 7, 2021 | algo, mobile, networking
Despite a poor reputation for privacy, Google’s Chrome browser continues to dominate. The web browser has around 65 per cent market share and two billion people are regularly using it. Its closest competitor, Apple’s Safari, lags far behind with under 20 per cent market share.
Source: It’s time to ditch Chrome
Jun 5, 2021 | networking
Social media makes us feel terrible about who we really are. Neuroscience explains why – and empowers us to fight back.
Source: Social media and the neuroscience of predictive processing – Mark Miller & Ben White | Aeon Essays
Jun 4, 2021 | justice & equality, networking
Arabic-language conversion content still thrives on Facebook, where practitioners post to millions of followers through verified accounts. English-language content blocked, but Arabic posts growing. LGBT+ campaigners want tougher content moderation, action.
Source: LGBT conversion therapy: Banned on Facebook but thriving in Arabic
Jun 3, 2021 | algo, mobile, networking
The pandemic supercharged Amazon’s ecommerce machine — but the same phenomenon strengthened a rising rival, Shopify, which takes a very different approach to selling online. The company positions itself as a counterpoint to Amazon by enabling smaller merchants to create their own stores and develop their own relationships with customers.
Source: Building the anti-Amazon: How loans and payments help Shopify compete
Jun 3, 2021 | algo, mobile, networking
With COVID-19 restrictions lifting and employees starting to make their way back into offices, hackers are being forced to change tack. While remote workers have been scammers’ main target for the past 18 months due to the mass shift to home working necessitated by the pandemic, a new phishing campaign is attempting to exploit those who have started to return to the physical workplace.
Source: Hackers are targeting employees returning to the post-COVID office – TechCrunch
Jun 3, 2021 | algo, justice & equality, networking
As companies develop ever more types of technology to find and remove content in different ways, there becomes an expectation they should use it. Can moderate implies ought to moderate. After all, once a tool has been put into use, it’s hard to put it back in the box.
Source: More Content Moderation Is Not Always Better
Jun 2, 2021 | algo, mobile, networking, trends
Six restaurants in Washington, D.C., joined together earlier this year to sell a subscription supper club. They offered home delivery of a gourmet meal from a different chef each week for six weeks for $360. It sold out in six days.
Source: Everything’s becoming a subscription, and the pandemic is partly to blame
Jun 2, 2021 | networking
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Monday signed a law that gives the state the power to penalize social media companies when they ban political candidates, escalating a fight between the tech industry and Republicans such as DeSantis and former President Donald Trump.
Source: Florida governor signs ban on ‘deplatforming’ by tech companies
Jun 1, 2021 | networking
In 1851, the inventor and entrepreneur Benjamin T. Babbitt began traveling around the United States in a wagon, offering consumers free lithographic prints with the purchase of baking soda. According to historian Wendy A. Woloson , this new mode of marketing inspired enterprising salesmen to launch their own prize giveaways, many of which ended up being scams.
Source: We have basically no idea if anyone wins Instagram giveaways
Jun 1, 2021 | algo, networking
Depending on how many transactions are being processed on the Ethereum blockchain, and how many miners are available, the cost of gas can rise and fall. The higher your price, the faster your transaction goes through.
Source: Buying a pink NFT cat was a crypto nightmare
May 30, 2021 | algo, audio, games & graphics, justice & equality, mobile, networking, trends, video
One year after George Floyd’s murder, science and technology institutions continue to evolve. The most radical and necessary step remains..
Source: STEM’s Racial Reckoning Just Entered Its Most Crucial Phase
See also:
May 29, 2021 | networking, trends
Scientists almost never say they’re sure, and it could take years to pin down the pandemic’s origins. Until then: People are trying to scare you.
Source: The Covid Lab Leak Theory Is a Tale of Weaponized Uncertainty
May 28, 2021 | algo, mobile, networking
Lemonade, the fast-growing, machine learning-powered insurance app, put out a real lemon of a Twitter thread on Monday with a proud declaration that its AI analyzes videos of customers when determining if their claims are fraudulent.
Source: A disturbing, viral Twitter thread reveals how AI-powered insurance can go wrong
May 28, 2021 | algo, mobile, networking, trends
Internal documents, messages, and roadmaps show how crime app Citizen is pushing the boundary of what a private, app-enabled vigilante force may be capable of.
Source: ‘Inside Citizen’s Dangerous Effort to Cash In On Vigilantism
May 27, 2021 | mobile, networking, trends, video
Specific language about the QAnon conspiracy theory has all but disappeared from mainstream public social media platforms, new research concludes. Driving the news: Researchers from the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensics Lab found that the volume of QAnon content available online plummeted following major moderation and policy moves from Google, Facebook and Twitter.
Source: QAnon is disappearing from online view
May 26, 2021 | networking, video
Face-to-face interactions beat digital ones for gaining familiarity with someone else’s face.
Source: Another strike against Zoom: the brain learns faces better in person
May 21, 2021 | mobile, networking
From making solidarity videos on TikTok to using Twitter to organize international protests to posting videos to Instagram showing Israeli airstrikes on Gaza, Palestinians and those around the world sympathetic to their plight have made social media a central weapon in the narrative fight against Israel. Those weapons are deployed on many fronts: using different platforms to target multiple audiences — in the region and around the world — while also using apps to coordinate actions among themselves.
Source: The “TikTok intifada”
