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Spotify wants to suggest songs based on your emotions - 10 avril 2021
Spotify has patented technology that will allow it to analyse your voice and suggest songs based on your "emotional state, gender, age, or accent".
The patent, which was filed in 2018 and granted on 12 January, would allow the streaming giant to "make observations" about a user’s environment and emotions using (...)
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Facebook reverses ban on news pages in Australia - 25 février 2021
Facebook has announced it will restore news content to its users in Australia.
The tech giant has blocked news to Australians on its platform since last Thursday amid a dispute over a proposed law which would force it and Google to pay news publishers for content.
Australian Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said (...)
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’Spy pixels in emails have become endemic’ - 20 février 2021
The use of "invisible" tracking tech in emails is now "endemic", according to a messaging service that analysed its traffic at the BBC’s request.
Hey’s review indicated that two-thirds of emails sent to its users’ personal accounts contained a "spy pixel", even after excluding for spam.
Its makers said that many of (...)
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Nicholas Carr : "nous devenons moins intelligents, plus fermés d’esprit et intellectuellement limités avec la technologie" - 10 février 2021
Il y a quelques années, un écrivain américain a osé lancer en l’air une question rhétorique que beaucoup ont qualifiée d’exagérée : "Google nous rend-il plus stupides ?"
Peu après, ce même auteur, Nicholas Carr, a publié un best-seller du New York Times, finaliste du prix Pullitzer et traduit en 25 langues, ce qui l’a (...)
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Union-tracking software proposed by Amazon - 27 novembre 2020
Amazon has responded to a leaked memo about plans to track union activity among workers by saying it is happy for its staff to join labour organisations.
The memo, viewed by website Recode and not disputed by Amazon, discusses plans for a system that would analyse data on unions alongside other threats to the (...)
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How to ’disappear’ on Happiness Avenue in Beijing - 25 novembre 2020
On a busy Monday afternoon in late October, a line of people in reflective vests stood on Happiness Avenue, in downtown Beijing.
Moving slowly and carefully along the pavement, some crouched, others tilted their heads towards the ground, as curious onlookers snapped photos.
It was a performance staged by the (...)
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Police to use AI recognition drones to help find the missing - 25 octobre 2020
Police Scotland has unveiled a new aerial drone system to help in searches for missing and vulnerable people.
The remotely-piloted aircraft system (RPAS) can see things we can’t to try to work out where people are.
It uses advanced cameras and neural computer networks to spot someone it is looking for - from "a (...)
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Coronavirus : 18,000 test results published by mistake - 24 septembre 2020
The details of more than 18,000 people who tested positive for coronavirus were published online by mistake by Public Health Wales.
The health body said the data of 18,105 Welsh residents was viewable online for 20 hours on 30 August.
Most cases gave initials, date of birth, geographical area and sex, meaning (...)
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Snowden criticises Amazon for hiring former NSA boss - 11 septembre 2020
A former National Security Agency (NSA) chief who was in the post when the Edward Snowden scandal broke has joined Amazon’s board as a director.
Gen Keith Alexander, whose appointment was made public on Wednesday, became known to the public after Mr Snowden blew the whistle on the agency’s mass surveillance (...)
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Facebook and Instagram to examine racist algorithms - 10 août 2020
Facebook has acknowledged that it needs to do more to combat racism on its platforms and is setting up two groups to examine its policies and algorithms.
Instagram’s Equity Team and Facebook’s Inclusive Product Council will look for bias in algorithms and work to make both platforms "safe and fair" for all. (...)
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Brazil Bolsonaro : Facebook told to block accounts of president’s supporters - 2 août 2020
Facebook has complied with an order by Brazil’s Supreme Court to block the accounts of a dozen top allies of far-right President Jair Bolsonaro.
The group are accused of spreading fake news against judges.
However, the social media giant said the measure was a threat to freedom of speech, and said it would appeal (...)
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Facebook takes the EU to court over privacy spat - 29 juillet 2020
Facebook has pushed back against a European Union investigation into its practices, taking it to court over privacy concerns.
Two investigations are being carried out into Facebook to find out if it breaches competition laws.
To gather information, the European Commission has demanded internal documents from (...)
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Coronavirus : The great contact-tracing apps mystery - 22 juillet 2020
Germany and Ireland have both trumpeted their success in rolling out contact-tracing apps.
But is there any evidence that they are doing what they are designed to do - warning people they could be infected with the virus ?
Not yet - and the privacy-conscious way in which they are designed could mean we will (...)
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Coronavirus : Alarm over ’invasive’ Kuwait and Bahrain contact-tracing apps - 17 juin 2020
Kuwait and Bahrain have rolled out some of the most invasive Covid-19 contact-tracing apps in the world, putting the privacy and security of their users at risk, Amnesty International says.
The rights group found the apps were carrying out live or near-live tracking of users’ locations by uploading GPS (...)
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Man makes money buying his own pizza on DoorDash app - 20 mai 2020
The owner of a pizza restaurant in the US has discovered the DoorDash delivery app has been selling his food cheaper than he does - while still paying him full price for orders.
A pizza for which he charged $24 (£20) was being advertised for $16 on DoorDash - and when he secretly ordered it himself, the app paid (...)
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Coronavirus : UK confirms plan for its own contact tracing app - BBC News - 13 avril 2020
The UK has confirmed plans for an app that will warn users if they have recently been in close proximity to someone suspected to have be infected by the coronavirus.
The health secretary Matt Hancock announced the move at the government’s daily pandemic press briefing.
He said the NHS was "working closely with (...)
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Coronavirus : Tunisia deploys police robot on lockdown patrol - 3 avril 2020
A police robot has been deployed to patrol areas of Tunisia’s capital, Tunis, to ensure that people are observing a coronavirus lockdown.
If it spies anyone walking in the largely deserted streets, it approaches them and asks why they are out.
They must then show their ID and other papers to the robot’s camera, so (...)
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Coronavirus : Under surveillance and confined at home in Taiwan - BBC News - 28 mars 2020
Milo Hsieh is an American University student living in Taiwan under quarantine. The BBC asked him to write this article after one of his tweets about having his movements tracked by a satellite-based system was widely shared.
I did not expect two police officers to come knocking at my door at 08:15 when I was (...)
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Coronavirus privacy : Are South Korea’s alerts too revealing ? - BBC News - 21 mars 2020
As South Korea battles a snowballing number of Covid-19 cases, the government is letting people know if they were in the vicinity of a patient. But the volume of information has led to some awkward moments and now there is as much fear of social stigma as of illness, as Hyung Eun Kim of BBC News Korean reports. (...)
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China is getting smarter - but at what cost ? - BBC News - 5 mars 2020
Thirty years ago, Shenzhen was a fishing village, surrounded by paddy fields.
Then came a plan to build China’s first special economic zone to allow foreign investments, and out of the quiet rural landscape grew private businesses and factories which over time transformed into a city.
Now Shenzhen, with a (...)
