James Farrell
Latest from James Farrell
Mark Zuckerberg lays down plan for more privacy-focused messaging
Facebook Inc. Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said in a lengthy blog post today that he thinks he knows what people want, and that’s more private connections. Since its inception, Facebook has concentrated in getting as many users as possible to share as much as they can on the platform, but Zuckerberg now says he wants ...
Chinese hackers allegedly targeted U.S. universities to access naval secrets
Chinese hackers targeted at least 27 universities mainly in the U.S. in an effort to access maritime technology being developed for the military, according to a report today in the Wall Street Journal. Most the institutions were in the U.S., but the report stated that attacks were also found at universities in Canada and South ...
Google pay analysis finds some men paid less than women doing the same job
It seems some men at Google LLC have been getting the short end of the stick when it comes to pay, according to a recent pay equity analysis study. In a blog post today, Lauren Barbato, Google’s lead analyst for pay equity and people analytics, wrote that some men were being paid less the women doing ...
FedEx will start testing autonomous delivery bots
FedEx Corp. is grabbing the baton from other delivery services with plans to try out autonomous robots that bring packages to the doorstep. The company said in a press release today that its “SameDay Bot” is “designed to help retailers make same-day and last-mile deliveries to their customers.” Since many customers live within a few miles ...
U.S. Cyber Command beat back Russian troll farm during 2018 elections
The U.S. Cyber Command thwarted attacks from a notorious Russian troll on Election Day in 2018 and for several days after, according to a report published by The Washington Post Tuesday. The report said the U.S. military hackers staged an attack against the Saint Petersburg-based Internet Research Agency, an outfit accused of numerous propaganda campaigns, ...
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 ...