James Farrell
Latest from James Farrell
Microsoft defends Pentagon HoloLens contract after employee pushback
Microsoft Corp. Chief Executive Satya Nadella Monday defended his company’s $479 million contract to supply the Pentagon with augmented reality headsets after some employees asked that Microsoft end its ties with the military. Late last year Microsoft won the contract to supply the Department of Defense with up to 100,000 units of its augmented reality headset ...
Google is putting an end to forced arbitration for employees
After employee protests and a winter of discontent at Google LLC, the company today said it will end forced arbitration for all employees starting March 21. After a global walkout in November that saw thousands of employees taking to the streets, Google Chief Executive Sundar Pichai said a change in policy was on its way. ...
YouTube updates policy: Three strikes and you’re still out, but first offenders get some slack
Google LLC’s YouTube hasn’t always been clear as to what is a violation deserving of temporary punishment and channel deletions, so today the company said it wants to make things clearer. In a blog post today, YouTube said it has updated its Community Guidelines and will from now on be more consistent in how it enforces ...
Australia’s main political parties hit by ‘sophisticated’ cyberattack
With elections just weeks away, Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced Monday that the country’s three main political parties were hacked by a “sophisticated state actor.” The Australian Cyber Security Centre head, Alastair MacGibbon, said that it’s unknown exactly what data might have been accessed in the breach, adding, “We are piecing together all of ...
UK report concludes Facebook is out of control and needs to be reined in
Following an 18-month investigation, a U.K. parliamentary committee has said that Facebook Inc. should not be allowed to govern itself. The damning 108-page report, published today, accuses Facebook of concentrating more on profits than ethics, calling the company a “digital gangster.” Facebook is a threat to society, the report states, and something that needs immediate ...
Facebook could be looking at a multibillion-dollar fine over privacy breach
Facebook Inc. and the Federal Trade Commission are currently negotiating what might turn out to be a record-breaking multibillion-dollar fine, according to an article in The Washington Post today. As it stands, the biggest fine ever imposed by the FTC on a tech company was back in 2012 when Google LLC was hit with a $22.5 ...
Facebook accused of being a hotbed of anti-vaccine conspiracy theories
Facebook Inc. is facing growing pressure to do something about the spread of anti-vaccination content that surfaces on its platform. A number of health experts this week stated their case in an article published by The Guardian, each saying that the misinformation doing the rounds on the social media platform is an imminent threat to ...
Apple reportedly irks publishers by taking 50% cut for its upcoming news service
Apple Inc. has yet to release its Apple News subscription service, but according to reports Tuesday some big publishers are not happy with the deal on the table. It has been dubbed the “Netflix for news,” which sounds enticing, although according to the Wall Street Journal the financial terms for some news publishers are not very ...
Apple will let veterans access health records from their iPhones
Apple Inc. announced Monday that it’s partnering with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to allow veterans to access their health care records via the iPhone Health Records app. Some 9 million veterans that have received care from the VA will now be able to see what treatment they’ve received, diagnoses, immunizations, lab tests and ...
Apple gets tough on apps that record users’ screens without their consent
Following news this week that a number of iPhone apps have been using analytics services to record data relating to how people interact with their phone, Apple Inc. Thursday warned developers that if they don’t disclose the existence of such software, their apps could be removed from the App Store. The stern warning came after ...