NEW TECHNOLOGIES and MEDIA
Google now controls an estimated 70% of the online search engine market, but its deep-drilling of user information – where we surf, whom we e-mail, what blogs we post, what pictures we share, what maps we look at, what news we read – extends far beyond the search feature to encompass the “total information awareness” feared by privacy activists. counterpunch.org/
In one of the largest penalties levied against it, Facebook was hit with a €110 million ($122 million) fine by the European Commission for providing “misleading information” over its ability to match its users with WhatsApp’s users when it acquired the chat platform in 2014. qz.com/
The “sharing economy” doesn’t exactly share the wealth. President Donald Trump’s administration has pledged to cut federal corporate and income tax rates substantially this year, but on the state and local level, sharing economy firms have been waging another tax battle — costing state and municipal governments, by some estimates, hundreds of millions across the U.S. ibtimes.com/
Electronic medical records have become the bane of doctors and nurses everywhere. They are the medical equivalent of texting while driving, sucking the soul out of the practice of medicine while failing to improve care. wbur.org/
The companies responsible for programming your phones are working hard to get you and your family to feel the need to check in constantly. Some programmers call it “brain hacking” and the tech world would probably prefer you didn’t hear about it. cbsnews.com/
Though viewed by many as one of few unbiased news sources in the Middle East, Al Jazeera’s stripes are showing as it expands into social media. The network’s subservience to the government of Qatar has become unmistakably obvious as it tries to expand its audience. mintpressnews.com/
|