FTC Launches Effort To Review, Update Data Privacy Rules
By: The Hill August 11, 2022 The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) will launch an effort to review and update rules on how companies collect and use data, the agency announced Thursday. The FTC said it will explore rules to “crack down on harmful commercial surveillance and lax data security,” expanding on Democratic Chair Lina Khan’s […]
Don’t Let Fearmongering Derail a New Law That Has Real Teeth to Protect Kids’ Privacy
By: Gizmondo August 9, 2022 For two decades, we have watched as the tech sector rose from quirky start-ups – many of which originated here in the state of California – to global behemoths with the power to entertain, inform, manipulate, addict, and destabilize at an individual, local, and global scale. Some of those hurt […]
Snapchat Introduces Its First Parental Controls
By: NY Times August 9, 2022 SAN FRANCISCO — Snapchat, the ephemeral messaging app, introduced its first parental controls on Tuesday, as social media platforms face increasing scrutiny for exposing young users to potentially harmful content. Snap, Snapchat’s parent company, said in a blog post that its new tools would let parents see whom their teenagers were […]
This Is the Data Facebook Gave Police to Prosecute a Teenager for Abortion
By: Vice August 9, 2022 A 17-year-old girl and her mother have been charged with a series of felonies and misdemeanors after an apparent medication abortion at home in Nebraska. The state’s case relies on evidence from the teenager’s private Facebook messages, obtained directly from Facebook by court order, which show the mother and […]
How Facebook Helped Axios Sell For $500 Million
By: Vox August 9, 2022 Axios is an against-the-grain success story: a five-year-old media startup, backed by venture capital, that succeeded journalistically and financially. Which is why it has been able to sell itself for more than $500 million to Cox Enterprises. But there’s something else unusual about Axios, at least compared to most media companies: […]
Data Brokers Resist Pressure To Stop Collecting Info On Pregnant People
By: Politico August 1, 2022 Democratic lawmakers are piling pressure on data brokers to stop collecting information on pregnant people in order to protect those seeking abortions. They’re not having much luck. For years, brokers have sold datasets on millions of expectant parents from their trimester status to their preferred birth methods. Now that the […]
Time To Fish: Congress Needs To Direct A Space Junk Clean-Up Mission
By: Hill August 5, 2022 The Biden administration’s recently released implementation plan for addressing orbital debris — space junk — is another inside-the-beltway toothless wonder. It’s time Congress step in and legislate action on orbital debris, instead of accepting this policy’s approach of “paralysis by analysis.” The new White House “National Orbital Debris Implementation Plan” provides 14 pages of […]
Self-Driving Truck Accident Draws Attention to Safety at TuSimple
By: Wallstreet Journal August 1, 2022 On April 6, an autonomously driven truck fitted with technology by TuSimple TSP -2.06%▼ Holdings Inc. suddenly veered left, cut across the I-10 highway in Tucson, Ariz., and slammed into a concrete barricade. The accident, which regulators disclosed to the public in June after TuSimple filed a report on the incident, underscores concerns that the […]
NASA Knocks Chinese Officials For Falling Debris
By: The Hill Date: 31 July, 2022 NASA Administrator Bill Nelson is calling out China for failing to share information about debris from a rocket booster falling back to Earth. “All spacefaring nations should follow established best practices, and do their part to share this type of information in advance to allow reliable predictions of potential debris […]