Amazon’s long been a go-to for people to online price compare while shopping at brick-and-mortars. Now, a new patent granted to the company could prevent people from doing just that inside Amazon’s own stores. The patent, titled “Physical Store Online Shopping Control,” details a mechanism where a retailer can intercept network requests like URLs and […]
Major U.S. Tech Firms Press Congress for Internet Surveillance Reforms…
Facebook, Amazon and more than two dozen other U.S. technology companies pressed Congress on Friday to make changes to a broad internet surveillance law, saying they were necessary to improve privacy protections and increase government transparency. The request marks the first significant public effort by Silicon Valley to wade into what is expected to be […]
Amazon Launches Surveillance System, Calls it “A Hands-Free Camera and Style Assistant”…
Hey all you dumbshits who expose SMB to the Internet on unpatched Windows boxes: Your new, “hands-free camera and style assistant” is here. *wink* *wink*…
“The Retail Bubble Has Now Burst”: A Record 8,640 Stores Are Closing in 2017…
The devastation in the US retail sector is accelerating in 2017, and in addition to the surging number of brick and mortar retail bankruptcies, it is perhaps nowhere more obvious than in the soaring number of store closures. While the shuttering of retail stores has been a frequent topic on this website, most recently in […]
Is It Time to Break Up Google?…
In just 10 years, the world’s five largest companies by market capitalization have all changed, save for one: Microsoft. Exxon Mobil, General Electric, Citigroup and Shell Oil are out and Apple, Alphabet (the parent company of Google), Amazon and Facebook have taken their place. They’re all tech companies, and each dominates its corner of the […]
The Massive Monopolies of Google, Facebook and Amazon, and Their Role in Destroying Privacy, Producing Inequality and Undermining Democracy…
Most of us are active on Facebook, use many of Google’s assets (search, YouTube, calendar) and get Amazon products dropped at our doorsteps. But have we ever stopped to think about the enormous impact these three companies have had on our lives and our society? Well, Jonathan Taplin has given it a lot of thought. […]
Facebook Failed to Protect 30 Million Users From Having Their Data Harvested by Trump Campaign Affiliate…
In 2014, traces of an unusual survey, connected to Facebook, began appearing on internet message boards. The boards were frequented by remote freelance workers who bid on “human intelligence tasks” in an online marketplace, called Mechanical Turk, controlled by Amazon. The “turkers,” as they’re known, tend to perform work that is rote and repetitive…
Amazon Echo Shuts Down Over CIA Connection Query (VIDEO)…
The WikiLeaks ‘Vault 7’ data dump allegedly detailing CIA hacking tactics has again thrown the privacy of electronic devices into focus. One viral video showing an Amazon Echo refusing to confirm a link to the US spy agency is summing up people’s fears. On Tuesday, Wikileaks unexpectedly released 8,761 documents claiming to reveal “CIA hacking […]
Amazon Cloud Storage Failure Causes Widespread Outages…
Amazon’s cloud-hosting service Amazon Web Services is experiencing problems in its eastern U.S. region, causing widespread problems for websites and apps. Amazon’s service site states that its customers are experiencing “increased error rates” and notes that it is working on the problem. Affected sites including Trello, Scribd and IFTTT appear to be down…
