James Farrell
Latest from James Farrell
Democratic senator lays out plan to crack down on Big Tech and social media
In a major move by some Democrats to rein in big tech platforms, Sen. Mark Warner has come out with a policy paper with a list of fixes to some of the recent tech-related conundrums. The policy paper, published Monday by Axios, covers three main issues: combating disinformation, protecting user privacy and promoting competition in tech. ...
Amazon’s facial recognition software mistook members of Congress for criminals
Amazon.com Inc.’s controversial face recognition technology, “Rekognition,” heralds to some a dystopian future of omnipresent surveillance, and recent tests of the product have made skeptics even more worried. Those tests were conducted by the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California. Some 25,000 mugshots of people who have been arrested for a crime were used, ...
Tech execs will return to Capitol Hill for another grilling over Russia
Tech executives from Google LLC, Facebook Inc. and Twitter Inc. are expected to return to Capitol Hill to face a Senate Intelligence Committee over Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. Presidential election. According to reports, the committee has invited a triumvirate of top execs from each company, although Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg hasn’t been invited ...
In leaked memo, Alex Stamos talks about how Facebook should proceed after scandals
Just a few days after Facebook Inc. Chief Security Officer Alex Stamos revealed he was leaving the company, he sent a candid memo to employees entreating them to act responsibly and morally. The memo, titled “A Difficult Week,” released today by Buzzfeed, was sent to employees March 23. Stamos (pictured) begins by telling employees about ...
Google’s Nest wants to make life easier for the aged
Nest Labs, the Google LLC-owned home automation division of the company, is reportedly looking at getting into a new market: senior citizens. CNBC wrote Google’s intention is to develop products that will help seniors live independently for as long as possible. At the moment, a slew of ideas is floating around as to how this can ...
Amazon rolls out Part Finder to help find nuts and bolts and more
Amazon.com Inc. has rolled out what could be a very useful feature, an app for iOS that will help you find the right nut, bolt, washer or screw you’re looking for. It’s called “Part Finder,” a feature you can find in the search bar when you’re in the Amazon app. The icon is a screw. ...
Mark Zuckerberg appears to defend Holocaust deniers on Facebook, then backtracks
When Facebook Inc. Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg sat down with Recode’s Kara Swisher for an interview published Wednesday, he discussed the issues in which he has been embroiled over the past year or so, from conspiracy theories appearing on Facebook to whether he should keep his job after the Cambridge Analytica data leak scandal. But what ...
Undercover investigation reveals Facebook isn’t moderating itself nearly as well as it should
An investigative documentary called “Inside Facebook: Secrets of the Social Network” has revealed that the site allows images of child abuse, hate speech, graphics violence and racist content to stay on the platform in some instances. This information was discovered after an undercover journalist working for Channel 4’s Dispatches program in the U.K. went undercover ...
Amazon Prime Day gets off to a rough start
Amazon.com Inc.’s 36-hour shopping bonanza Prime Day got off to a shaky start on Monday, with shoppers complaining of outages on the site along with other glitches. Some of the reported issues were users getting stuck in frustrating loops, being asked to “Shop all deals” only to click through on that link and return to the ...
German court rules parents of deceased daughter can access her Facebook
In a landmark case, a German court ruled Thursday that the parents of a dead girl can legally have access to her Facebook account and private messages. Judge Ulrich Herrmann at the country’s highest civil court ruled that such digital data was no different from diaries or letters left behind, so the parents of the ...