Saturday, November 23

Big Tech, Digital Economy

Big tech has the power to make or break societies. Powerful in their promise and abilities, they are often designed with efficiency in mind. That comes with questions about control, responsibility, and the impact on humanity. Meanwhile, the digital economy is emerging as a separate topic, posing opportunities in the global marketplace.

U.S. Government Sues Amazon.com In Massive Lawsuit
26Sep By Patti MohrNo Comments
Big Tech, Digital Economy, Types of News: Brief

U.S. Government Sues Amazon.com In Massive Lawsuit

FTC Says Firm Uses 'Illegal Monopoly' Practices To Inflate Prices, Cheapen Products And Stifle Innovation Amazon.com corporate headquarters in Seattle, Washington. September 26, 2023—The U.S. government came out swinging hard today against one of the world's largest tech companies. In a lawsuit filed today, the Federal Trade Commission and 17 state attorney generals accuse Amazon.com ofusing illegal strategies to "inflate prices, degrade quality, and stifle innovation for consumers and businesses." Massive Lawsuit It's an extensive lawsuit in its scope of accusations of monopolistic power. "With its amassed power across both the online superstore market and online marketplace services market, Amazon extracts enormous monopoly rents from everyone within its reach," the FTC s...
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Tax Prep Software Shared Data With Big Tech
2Aug By Patti MohrNo Comments
Big Tech, Digital Economy, Types of News: Brief

Tax Prep Software Shared Data With Big Tech

Meta Pixel Collects Massive Amounts Of Information August 2, 2023—Several tax-preparation companies used a computer code known as pixels to share millions of data about users with Meta and Google, according to a congressional investigation. The companies TaxAct, TaxSlayer, and H&R Block confirmed to Senate investigators that they used Meta Pixel on their websites and a similar code for Google Analytics. The Meta Pixel is a piece of code used to track website visitors and their actions offsite. According to Meta, the parent company of Facebook, it is used for advertising and ad-targeting purposes. But the congressional report reveals that pixels contain "massive amounts of user data." Data Shared The report indicates that taxpayers who used the company websites to file th...
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Tech Leaders Call For Pause In A.I. Experiments
30Mar By Patti MohrNo Comments
Big Tech, Digital Economy, Types of News: Brief

Tech Leaders Call For Pause In A.I. Experiments

Artificial Intelligence Poses 'Profound Risks to Society And Humanity' March 30, 2023—As computer scientists race to advance artificial intelligence technologies, tech and academic leaders are calling on AI laboratories to pause experiments on all products greater than one called GPT-4. Furthermore, they called on governments to intervene to force a stop if labs do not impose one. A nonprofit organization called Future of Life published the letter on Wednesday. It warned: "AI systems with human-competitive intelligence can pose profound risks to society and humanity, as shown by extensive research[1] and acknowledged by top AI labs," the letter says. "As stated in the widely-endorsed Asilomar AI Principles, Advanced AI could represent a profound change in the history of life on E...
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US, Canada, EU Look Deeper Into TikTok Privacy Issues
1Mar By Patti MohrNo Comments
Big Tech, Digital Economy, Types of News: Brief

US, Canada, EU Look Deeper Into TikTok Privacy Issues

March 1, 2023—Government officials in the United States, Canada, and the European Union are investigating potential data harvesting by the video-sharing app TikTok, which is owned by Chinese firm ByteDance. The governments in those countries and the broader EU banned staff from having the app on devices. This week the European Parliament followed recent actions by the European Commission and the EU Council to ban TikTok from government devices. Furthermore, the parliament "strongly recommended" to lawmakers and staff to remove the app from their personal devices, according to reporting by Reuters. On Monday, the Canadian government adopted similar restrictions. Biden Executive Order Going Into Effect President Joe Biden strengthened and replaced an executive order by former Pre...
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Why The Wuhan Lab Story Matters
27Feb By Patti MohrNo Comments
Big Tech, Digital Economy, Globalization, Global Disintegration, Types of News: Analysis

Why The Wuhan Lab Story Matters

Information Control Skewed Science And Public Opinion Feb. 27, 2023—On Sunday, the Wall Street Journal broke the news about a leaked classified U.S. intelligence report that says the Covid-19 virus most likely originated from a laboratory leak. The report matters in more ways than one. At stake are lessons for international cooperation in organizations, trust in government and responsible media management. The article carefully points out the disparate views of different U.S. agencies and says the newly leaked report comes from the Department of Energy. That's significant because DOE "has considerable scientific expertise and oversees a network of U.S. national laboratories, some of which conduct advanced biological research." According to the WSJ, the DOE and the FBI believe t...
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At G20, India PM Pushes Digital Currency Model
25Feb By Patti MohrNo Comments
Big Tech, Digital Economy, Types of News: Analysis

At G20, India PM Pushes Digital Currency Model

The Digital Rupee Is Backed By A Biometric Infrastructure System February 25, 2023—Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi encouraged G20 delegates meeting in Bengaluru yesterday to follow India's lead in adopting a digital currency model. The digital rupee, as it's known, is run by blockchain and other technologies and is an alternative to cryptocurrency and cash. India's central bank announced its launch in February 2022. By November, it issued its first pilot and began promoting the digital rupee's adoption early this year. This week, India's leaders took that launch one step further: They began pushing the digital rupee abroad as they hosted the G20. "Over the past few years, we have created a highly secure, highly trusted, and highly efficient public digital infrastructure,"...
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US Senator Raises Concerns About Saudi Funding for Twitter
7Nov By Patti MohrNo Comments
Big Tech, Digital Economy, Human rights, Types of News: Bit

US Senator Raises Concerns About Saudi Funding for Twitter

November 5, 2022—U.S. Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut is raising national security concerns about Elon Musk's recent takeover of Twitter. Musk bought the social media company for $44 billion in part with financing from equity investors. Up to 5 percent of the loans came from Saudi Arabian investor Prince Alwaleed bin Talal and Qatar. In a letter to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, the senator asked the Treasury Department's office overseeing foreign investments to use its legal authority to review the deal. Specifically, the senator asked the office known as CFIUS "to examine whether any degree of Saudi influence over Twitter’s operations or access to user data could foreseeably be used to silence government critics and human rights activists, or to further state-sponsored disinform...
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Musk’s $8 Twitter Pay Plan
2Nov By Patti MohrNo Comments
Big Tech, Digital Economy, Types of News: Brief

Musk’s $8 Twitter Pay Plan

November 2, 2022—As the new owner and head of the world's social media gathering place, Elon Musk has a plan to make it a little less free. That is, he intends to charge $8 a month to Twitter users who want validation backing their accounts that they are legitimate. The validation would come from a blue check mark next to their names and handle. Moreover, that check mark could come with the privileges, such as priority in receiving replies, mentions, and search rankings, the ability to post long videos and audio, and half as many ads. Revenue the company receives from charging the fee could help Twitter reward the content creators, Musk said. Here he is discussing his vision in an archived video released today. Are you buying in? See video here. https://video.twimg.c...
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Musk’s Challenge Is Living Up To The Promise
27Oct By Patti MohrNo Comments
Big Tech, Digital Economy, Types of News: Brief

Musk’s Challenge Is Living Up To The Promise

Innovator Says That, Unlike Traditional Media, Twitter Won't Cater To Polarizing Extremes Elon Musk meets with Twitter staff ahead of the purchase. Photo: Walter Isaacson October 27, 2022—A day ahead of closing a $44 billion deal to buy one of the world's largest social media platforms, Elon Musk said he is acquiring Twitter to empower citizen journalism and make it a place where people from various views can come together to conduct health debate. Twitter is one of the world's most popular social media sites. While it is well behind Meta's Facebook and Instagram, Google's YouTube, TikTok, WeChat, and Telegram in terms of users, it boasts of strong engagement among its monthly average users of around 436 million people. Musk is known for his innovation, leadership, and tough ma...
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Interpol Embraces The Metaverse
21Oct By Patti MohrNo Comments
Big Tech, Digital Economy, Corruption, Bribes, Illicit Finance & Money Laundering, Types of News: Bit

Interpol Embraces The Metaverse

Interpol launched its version of a Metaverse platform in New Delhi, Indian on October 20, 2022. International Policing Agency Plans To Target Financial And Cyber-based Crimes October 21, 2022—Interpol, an international organization that trains and serves as a coordination hub for its 194 members, is embracing the Metaverse. The agency announced today it is now part of the Metaverse, where humans become avatars interacting in a make-believe digital world. The agency plans to use its Metaverse creation to train police worldwide and provide an alternative way for officers to meet each other. "As the number of Metaverse users grows and the technology further develops, the list of possible crimes will only expand to potentially include crimes against children, data theft, money laun...
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