Videoconferencing tool Zoom experienced widespread outages on Monday, frustrating teachers and students as many school districts were trying to ramp up return-to-school remote learning. It’s yet another sign that we’re living on Covid-19 time right now. While schools spent all summer developing backup plans in case they couldn’t offer in-person [Keep reading]
One app requires permission to disable users’ screen locks. Another claims it doesn’t collect detailed location information, but accesses GPS data anyway. Still another breaks its own privacy policy by sharing personal information with outside companies. And nearly all of them request what Google defines as “dangerous permissions.” Is this [Keep reading]
“People are wired to focus on threats, so positive information is tuned out. When fear grabs our focus, our brains can’t seem to see anything else. That leads to a picture of the world that’s all gray clouds, no silver linings. There’s a link between attentional bias, depression and anxiety.” [Keep reading]
Facebook’s multi-front war on misinformation apparently has a new flank. While the firm wrestles with fake news and constant claims of censorship around the coronavirus, criminals are apparently trying to take advantage of the confusion. Some Facebook Page users are being attacked by an official-looking “Policy Team Page” alert which [Keep reading]
Some Bank of America customers say they logged in Wednesday and found their accounts showed $0 balances — leading some consumers to express fear and rage at the banking giant. The bank confirmed the issue to me and said it was resolved late Wednesday night. One consumer told me his [Keep reading]
An app that tells you if you were exposed to someone with Covid? Sounds great. But, as usual, tech-as-silver-bullet ideas come full of booby-traps. There’s been a lot of scattershot discussion around smartphone contact tracing during the past several months, with privacy advocates saying the harms far outweigh the benefits, [Keep reading]
The United States and many venerated European democracies are well on their way to becoming “a fact-free version of Democracy Lite,” warns today’s podcast guest, Nina Jankowicz. She’s the ‘disinformation fellow’ at the Wilson Center in Washington D.C., and she has a new book out called How to Lose the [Keep reading]
Fake News is stoking violence and helping destroy our democracy. Fake pills make people sick and can even kill them. Fake foods, like fake olive oil, or mislabeled fish, rip consumers off and steal profits from honest companies. The world is becoming overrun by fake everything, says Avivah Litan, renowned [Keep reading]
Too often, people who do the work don’t get paid for that work, or earn only a fraction of the money extracted by institutional layers — middlemen — shoe-horned between producer and consumer. The cook is the least-paid worker at a restaurant chain; the musician or painter gets pennies on [Keep reading]
“Hyperbolic discounting” is one of those terms that sounds more impressive than it is. People make weird – but oddly predictable – decisions when balancing today’s desires against tomorrow’s needs. As a concept, however, it’s quite powerful. There’s a pattern to your bad choices. Understand that pattern and you can [Keep reading]
Bob Sullivan