James Farrell
Latest from James Farrell
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 ...
WhatsApp is taking down millions of fake or abusive accounts every month
Facebook Inc.-owned messaging app WhatsApp revealed today that it’s currently taking down about 2 million accounts each month in its fight against the spread of misinformation and abuse of the service. As was reported by VentureBeat, a spokesperson for the company discussed at the press briefing in New Delhi how better technology is helping to ...
Embarrassing message begone: Facebook Messenger now lets you turn back time
Facebook Inc. today released what might be one of the most sought-after features in its history, allowing users to delete messages they have sent in Messenger. In the past, users could always hit delete and the message would disappear from their own inboxes, but that didn’t mean it was scrubbed from the actual conversation for ...
Mark Zuckerberg criticized after waxing positive about Facebook (and negative on its critics)
Facebook Inc. Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg talked about his company’s meteoric rise Monday, a missive written on the social media behemoth’s 15th anniversary — and as is customary, attracted a lot of criticism for that missive. Zuckerberg opened by talking about how an idea for connecting university students turned into a giant plexus connecting 2.7 billion ...
Facebook takes down hundreds of accounts linked to Iranian disinformation campaign
Facebook Inc. said Thursday that it has removed a total of 783 pages tied to Iran that were engaging in inauthentic behavior. “This activity was directed from Iran, in some cases repurposing Iranian state media content, and engaged in coordinated inauthentic behavior targeting people across the world, although more heavily in the Middle East and ...
Second Chinese Apple employee arrested for stealing self-driving car secrets
Just over six months since a former Apple Inc. employee was charged with stealing trade secrets relating to the company’s autonomous vehicle technology, another Chinese employee/spy has been caught doing the same thing. According to documents released Wednesday, a Chinese employee of Apple has been accused by the Federal Bureau of Investigation of attempting to steal ...