James Farrell
Latest from James Farrell
Justice Department charges former Twitter employees with spying on users for Saudi Arabia
Two former employees at Twitter Inc. have been charged for spying on users for the Saudi government, prosecutors revealed in the U.S. District Court in San Francisco today. According to the Justice Department, the two are named Ahmad Abouammo, a citizen of the U.S., and Ali Alzabarah, a Saudi citizen. A third man, a Saudi ...
Facebook’s political ads policy comes under more scrutiny
Since Facebook Inc. announced that it will allow politicians to run ads and will not fact-check those ads, the company has been hit with a wave of internal and external criticism. This week Facebook faced even more flak. On Monday, Yaël Eisenstat, a former CIA officer and White House adviser who once became Facebook’s head of Global ...
ACLU sues government over facial recognition technology
The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit today against the Department of Justice, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Federal Bureau of Investigations for their secrecy in using face recognition surveillance technology. The organization accused the agencies of having “no accountability” and “no transparency” when it comes to using the software, and has now asked ...
Facebook suspends accounts linked to Russia that targeted African nations
Facebook Inc. reported today that it has removed a number of Russian-backed accounts it said were targeting countries in Africa with misinformation. In a blog post, Nathaniel Gleicher, Facebook’s head of cybersecurity policy, said there was coordinated “inauthentic” behavior spreading misinformation in Madagascar, Central African Republic, Mozambique, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Cameroon, ...
Man runs for California governor to post false ads on Facebook, which says: No, you aren’t
A California resident on Monday registered as a candidate for the governor of the state with the intent of exploiting Facebook Inc.’s controversial ad policy for politicians, but Facebook has apparently stopped him in his tracks. The man in question, Adriel Hampton, has no intention of actually becoming governor, but it seems he is concerned ...
Facebook employees sign joint letter against political advertising policy
In an open letter sent to Facebook Inc. Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg and other top executives, hundreds of Facebook employees said they were unhappy with the company’s decision to allow politicians to say anything they want, true or not, in their ads. Facebook has taken steps to prevent the spread of disinformation on the run-up ...
TikTok video app could pose a national security risk, say US senators
Chinese-owned video app TikTok should be investigated by intelligence officials for potentially harmful data collection, two U.S. senators said Wednesday. Their request first became known on Thursday, with The Washington Post reporting that a letter had been sent to Joseph Maguire, the acting director of national intelligence, from senators Chuck Schumer and Tom Cotton. They ...
Google denies it’s spying on its own employees through Chrome extension
Employees at Google LLC have accused the company of developing an internal surveillance tool to spy on its own employees, something Google “categorically” denies. The news was first reported by Bloomberg on Wednesday after it obtained a memo that outlined how top Google executives had ordered that a Chrome browser extension be developed with the ...
Facebook pledges $1B to create affordable housing in SF Bay Area
In an effort to address the rising cost of housing, Facebook Inc. said Tuesday it will pledge $1 billion in areas where it operates to create affordable units. The company wrote in a blog post that it will build 20,000 housing units for middle- and lower-income households for “essential workers” such as nurses and teachers, ...
Facebook removes scores of inauthentic accounts, one targeting US 2020 election
Facebook Inc. revealed Monday that it had taken down a number of inauthentic accounts, with at least one of the operations trying to interfere with the U.S. 2020 presidential elections. In a blog post, Nathaniel Gleicher, Facebook’s head of cybersecurity policy, said it appears that the operation focusing on the election was likely the work of ...