Wired: “…Synthetic voices have become less grating in recent years, in part due to artificial intelligence research by companies such as Google and Amazon, which compete to offer virtual assistants and cloud services with smoother artificial tones. Those advances have also been used to make reality-spoofing “deepfakes.” Speechki is one of several startups developing speech… Continue Reading
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Category Archives: E-Commerce
How to Download Everything Amazon Knows About You (It’s a Lot)
Likehacker – “Alexa has been keeping tabs on you. Here’s how to see what it knows. Here’s a fun thought experiment; picture the amount of personal data you think tech companies keep on you. Now, realize it’s actually way more than that (hmm, maybe this isn’t that fun). Even as privacy and security become more talked… Continue Reading
How Social Media Firms Moderate Their Content
Knowledge@Wharton: “Content moderation is a delicate balancing act for social media platforms trying to grow their user base. Larger platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, which make most of their profits from advertising, can’t afford to lose eyeballs or engagement on their sites. Yet they are under tremendous public and political pressure to stop disinformation… Continue Reading
Pete Recommends Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, January 22, 2022
Via LLRX – Pete Recommends Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, January 22, 2022 – Privacy and cybersecurity issues impact every aspect of our lives – home, work, travel, education, health and medical records – to name but a few. On a weekly basis Pete Weiss highlights articles and information that focus on the increasingly complex… Continue Reading
Stop Google from storing your location and data history with these settings
CNET – This video teaches you how to provide some level of privacy respective to your google web and app activities and control over your online data, and what you want to share. It involves following a series of procedures and about 5 minutes on each device, but is well worth your time. Continue Reading
Secret Ways to Reach an Actual Person in Customer Service
Likehacker: “In a world that seems increasingly determined to keep us apart, we’re all bound together by at least one universal experience: the frustration of talking to a real person on the phone at a customer service call center. Whether we want to complain, resolve a problem, or simply get information, call center interactions can… Continue Reading
Google, Amazon, Meta and Microsoft Weave a Fiber-Optic Web of Power
WSJ: “To say that Big Tech controls the internet might seem like an exaggeration. Increasingly, in at least one sense, it’s literally true. The internet can seem intangible, a post-physical environment where things like viral posts, virtual goods and metaverse concerts just sort of happen. But creating that illusion requires a truly gargantuan—and quickly-growing—web of… Continue Reading
The true cost of Amazon’s low prices
Vox/Recode: “On the heels of yet another year of record sales, Amazon is dealing with a couple of unwelcome updates in the new year. The Senate Judiciary Committee has announced it will soon be marking up the American Innovation and Choice Online Act, an antitrust bill targeting Amazon and other Big Tech companies. This follows… Continue Reading
Report – People spend a third of their waking day staring at their phones
Mashable: “Worried you’re spending too much time staring mindlessly at random apps? Well, apparently you’re not alone. In 2021, people in the world’s top 10 mobile markets for Android spent a solid 4.8 hours browsing apps, according to app analytics company App Annie’s State of Mobile 2022 report. That’s roughly a third of our waking… Continue Reading
Mozilla launches Facebook Pixel Hunt
“In a collaboration between journalists at The Markup and Mozilla researchers, this study seeks to map Facebook’s pixel tracking network and understand the kinds of information it collects on sites across the web. The Markup will use the data collected in this study to create investigative journalism around the kinds of information Facebook collects about… Continue Reading
New Rules for Disputes Involving Online Marketplaces and Individuals
ABA: “The American Arbitration Association has established a new procedure for disputes involving online marketplaces and platforms versus individual users and subscribers…Millions of consumer purchases take place each year. During the pandemic, an increasing number of these transactions have been occurring online. A number of widely used online marketplaces or platforms, such as Airbnb and… Continue Reading
Facebook is giving you homework to learn about its privacy settings
The Verge: “Meta (the company formerly known as Facebook) has announced a new version of its Privacy Center, which it says you can use to learn about how it collects and uses data and figure out how to navigate the myriad privacy and security controls available. It says the current version of the tool will… Continue Reading
