Data
What will become of human centrality as our species is knocked off its pedestal by machines more intelligent than we are and de-centered by the humbling realization that survival depends on reducing our outsized footprint on this fragile planet? The vise of these two developments is prompting a rethinking of what humanism might mean in
Capitalism
Tech companies fighting for data privacy in the US want to resurrect a forgotten old bill A group of privacy-focused organizations have signed a letter imploring US Congress leaders to schedule a vote on a bill that would hamper data collection by tech giants and promote user access to online privacy tools. In its letter(opens in new
Data
Amazon.com Inc has amassed a vast amount of sensitive personal information on its customers. Internal documents reveal how a former aide to Joe Biden helped the tech giant build a lobbying juggernaut that has gutted legislation in two dozen states seeking to give consumers more control over their data. In recent years, Amazon.com Inc has
Data
Exploiting data to manipulate human behavior has always been Facebook’s business model. The metaverse will be no different. The announcement of Meta, the company’s VR and AR-forward rebrand, is the culmination of a vision that should have been obvious from the start. In 2021, Facebook’s colonization of social data has eclipsed the internet as we
Capitalism
Mark Zuckerberg’s turn toward the “metaverse” claims to put an extra digital layer on top of the real world. But Facebook’s new Meta brand isn’t augmenting your reality — it just wants to suck more money out of it. On Thursday, Facebook changed its name to Meta, as part of a broader shift toward the
Data
“Even though several of the ISPs promise not to sell consumers personal data, they allow it to be used, transferred, and monetized by others.” Over the last few years the justified fixation on the bad behavior of Google, Amazon, Facebook and other Silicon Valley giants has let the abuses of the telecom sector fly under