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In yet another development in the unfolding saga of Facebook and Cambridge Analytica’s activities – the following via Fast Company: How Amazon Helped Cambridge Analytica Harvest Americans’ Facebook Data“Facebook has been rocked by reports of a massive data scrape carried out by Cambridge Analytica and one of its then-contractors, a Cambridge University academic named Aleksandr …
The Economist – Editorial – “Facebook faces a reputational meltdown: This is how it, and the wider industry, should respond.” “Facebook is not about to be banned or put out of business, but the chances of a regulatory backlash are growing. Europe is inflicting punishment by a thousand cuts, from digital taxes to antitrust cases. …
EFF – “You shouldn’t have to do this. You shouldn’t have to wade through complicated privacy settings in order to ensure that the companies with which you’ve entrusted your personal information are making reasonable, legal efforts to protect it. But Facebook has allowed third parties to violate user privacy on an unprecedented scale, and, while …
Google Blog: “…we’re launching the Google News Initiative (GNI), our effort to help journalism thrive in the digital age. The GNI signifies a major milestone in Google’s 15-year commitment to the news industry, and will bring together everything we do in collaboration with the industry—across products, partnerships, and programs—to help build a stronger future for …
Washington Business Journal: “Amazon.com Inc.’s first brick-and-mortar bookstore in Greater Washington opened Tuesday in Georgetown. And just so all you book lovers are aware, the new Amazon Books — located at 3040 M Street NW — isn’t your average book boutique. The books available at the store are selected by a team of curators and …
The Billionaire Philanthropist – “It is an American tradition for CEOs to stockpile their wealth, avoid taxes, then in their later years, participate in the theater of giving. Will Jeff Bezos make it scale?..During the political chaos of the last year, one American institution has emerged stronger than ever. As its revenues soared, Amazon’s stock …
Via NYT – Benton Foundation – [Commentary] “It seems as if you are never “hard core” enough for YouTube’s recommendation algorithm. It promotes, recommends and disseminates videos in a manner that appears to constantly up the stakes. Given its billion or so users, YouTube may be one of the most powerful radicalizing instruments of the …
The Week: “No matter what President Trump says, the decline of American manufacturing won’t be reversed by modest tariffs on aluminum and steel. There is more to this issue than industrial metals. Perhaps the largest structural economic crisis this country faces — one that encompasses everything else from outsourcing to stagnant wages to the environment …
Via LLRX – Barnes & Noble lays off hundreds of experienced employees, may not be long for this world. Chris Meadows explains the rapid descent of the only remaining national bookstore chain and the impending impact on the bookselling landscape, including on the stores’ employees and customers.
Chromium Blog – Under the hood: How Chrome’s ad filtering works – While most advertising on the web is respectful of user experience, over the years we’ve increasingly heard from our users that some advertising can be particularly intrusive. As we announced last June, Chrome will tackle this issue by removing ads from sites that …
The Verge: “The publisher Elsevier owns over 2,500 journals covering every conceivable facet of scientific inquiry to its name, and it wasn’t happy about either of the sites. Elsevier charges readers an average of $31.50 per paper for access; Sci-Hub and LibGen offered them for free. But even after receiving the “YOU HAVE BEEN SUED” …
Motherboard: “In May, the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will officially go into effect. The GDPR is ostensibly a law to protect the privacy of European citizens when it comes to how internet megacorporations like Google and Facebook handle their data. But the privacy regulations also come with some secondary effects whose influence …
