James Farrell
Latest from James Farrell
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 ...
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 ...