After publishing a steady stream of scoops about Amazon’s anti-competitive tendencies, the Wall Street Journal on Monday dropped one of the biggest media bombshells to rock the e-commerce giant in recent memory: That Amazon has deliberately tweaked its product-search algorithm to more prominently feature products that are more profitable for Amazon, including its own in-house […]
Chinese-Style ‘Digital Authoritarianism’ Grows Globally…
Governments worldwide are stepping up use of online tools, in many cases inspired by China’s model, to suppress dissent and tighten their grip on power, a human rights watchdog study found Thursday. The annual Freedom House study of 65 countries found global internet freedom declined for the eighth consecutive year in 2018, amid a rise […]
Google China Prototype Links Searches to Phone Numbers…
Google built a prototype of a censored search engine for China that links users’ searches to their personal phone numbers, thus making it easier for the Chinese government to monitor people’s queries, The Intercept can reveal. The search engine, codenamed Dragonfly, was designed for Android devices, and would remove content deemed sensitive by China’s ruling […]
Google Was Working on Two Ethically Questionable Projects. It Quit the Wrong One…
Google recently pledged to stop using its technology to sort and classify information for the U.S. military, citing employees’ ethical concerns. Then the news broke that the company was quietly developing a censored search engine for China. The principles guiding Google’s use of artificial intelligence still hark back to its original mantra, “Don’t be evil” […]
Google to Launch Censored Search Engine in China, Leaked Documents Reveal…
Google is planning to launch a censored version of its search engine in China that will blacklist websites and search terms about human rights, democracy, religion, and peaceful protest, The Intercept can reveal. The project – code-named Dragonfly – has been underway since spring of last year, and accelerated following a December 2017 meeting between […]
Google Removes Anti-Semitic Autocompletes from its Search Engines…
Google has responded to claims of anti-Semitism in its search engines by altering autocomplete suggestions. Suggestions for the phrase “are Jews…” by a Google search engine are usually followed by “evil”. People searching “are women…” had autocomplete suggest “evil” and for “are Muslims…”, “bad” was the suggestion…
Verizon Buys Yahoo In $4.8 Billion Attempt To Bore The Internet To Death…
Verizon has confirmed that it has acquired Yahoo in a $4.8 billion all cash deal. According to Verizon’s press announcement, the acquisition of Yahoo’s stumbling empire…