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September 2021 - Things of Interest


WhatsApp fixes its biggest encryption loophole. The ubiquitous messaging service will add end-to-end encryption to backups, keeping your chats safe no matter whose cloud they're stored in

Google faces whistleblower complaint that it underpaid temp workers by as much as $100 million. Pay disparities over several years in markets outside the US added up quickly

Hundreds of current and former Apple workers are complaining about their work environment, a rarity for the once tight-lipped company.

After backlash over user privacy, Apple delays child protection laws including a feature that would scan photos for sexual abuse material

Everything you need to know about Ray-Ban Stories. Facebook, EssilorLuxottica release their smart glasses

DoorDash, Grubhub, Uber Eats sue NYC over price caps

Facebook knows Instagram harms teens. Now, its plan to open the app to kids looks worse than ever (another article here)

Facebook says it will tweak its news feed algorithm to de-emphasise current events and political stories based on negative user feedback, while expanding tests where engagement metrics like clicks and shares have less influence

The bitter lawsuit hanging over the Apple Watch’s new swipe keyboard. Apple allegedly offered to buy his app; instead, it’s being Sherlocked

Virgin Galactic flights grounded over Branson spaceflight 'mishap.' It drifted out of its defined airspace for a while

MIT study finds Tesla drivers become inattentive when Autopilot is activated

Refugees help power machine learning advances at Microsoft, Facebook, and Amazon. Big tech relies on the victims of economic collapse

Competition, chips, AI on table at first U.S.-EU trade and tech meet

Why China crushed its tech giants. After years of breakneck growth at the likes of Alibaba and ByteDance, China is pulling ranks on its own Big Tech darlings

Global internet speeds

Smart cities are a legacy of 9/11

This is why China finally halted its bitcoin boom. They have tried to ban cryptocurrencies many times before. This time, it’s different

Antitrust has failed (in the US)

A new approach to FTC antitrust regulation

FTC’s Lina Khan outlines plans for antitrust enforcement and after the withdrawal of the guidelines, how will the FTC evaluate vertical mergers? Lina Khan elaborates in her separate statement

Apple must allow other forms of in-app purchase, rules judge in Epic v Apple. The order opens a new avenue for purchases on the iPhone A Judge rules Apple must make it easier to shop outside the App Store

Apple’s app store just suffered an epic blow in federal court. Epic leaves a big crack in Apple’s walled garden. A judge ordered significant changes to the App Store today, but the fight between Epic Games and Apple isn't over yet. Judge says Apple may be ‘stretching the truth’ on Mac malware concerns. What the ruling in the Epic Games v Apple lawsuit means for iPhone users. Apple and Epic both lost. Apple stands to lose billions; Epic failed to #FreeFortnite. Apple bars Epic's 'Fortnite' from App Store until all court appeals end

An Epic Fail or an Epic Win for tech antitrust?

Britain refers record label dominance to competition authority. ‘Meagre’ returns from current system under spotlight for some successful and critically acclaimed musicians and non-featured performers on songs are being “frozen out altogether”

Google sues Indian antitrust regulator over investigation report leak and offers to settle EU antitrust probe into digital advertising. But it is getting caught in the global antitrust net. As more governments force US tech companies to change how they do business, one case in Turkey cuts to the heart of the search giant’s power

Samsung fined US$47m for price fixing in Netherlands

Paper: Competition Law, Big Tech and Financialisation: The Dark Side of the Moon

Paper: Product Design and Business Models in EU Antitrust Law

Rolling Stone's (updated) ranking of the 500 best songs ever.

Miley Cyrus singing 'Nothing Else Matters' with Metallica is all chills

Famed Swedish band ABBA reunites for first time in nearly 40 years, announcing new studio album out in November and a 2022 virtual concert

Research says “Dislike” feature will improve Spotify recommendations. A listener is 20% more likely to 'like' a song, when the algorithm is generated using “Likes” and “Dislikes”

Emmys honour 'The Crown,' 'Ted Lasso' and 'Queen's Gambit' as Netflix makes history

This is why James Bond doesn’t use an iPhone. Is James Bond cyber-savvy enough to be a spy IRL? His choice of phones in No Time To Die suggests otherwise

Recorded music sales by format share, 1973 to 2021

China’s first data privacy laws go into effect on 1 November 2021. Modelled after the EU’s GDPR, the new regulations “[introduce] perhaps the most stringent set of requirements and protections for data privacy in the world,” writes Scott W. Pink, special counsel in O’Melveny’s Data Security & Privacy practice

Data remains a vital part of the marketing world

UK data protection law reform advocates ‘privacy management’

The battle for digital privacy is reshaping the Internet. As Apple and Google enact privacy changes, businesses are grappling with the fallout, Madison Avenue is fighting back and Facebook has cried foul

And as privacy issues worsen, Congress looks to the FTC

How Google spies on its employees

What do iOS and Android have in common? Their apps suck at privacy, plus 'widespread potential violations of US, EU, UK privacy law' as an added bonus, research found

Protecting student data privacy in the digital age

7 books that will help you make any tough decision

Because We've Read is an international book club and digital library focused on raising awareness and understanding of issues in global politics, race, gender, colonialism, religion, and more

Steven Pinker on why nobody is perfectly rational. His new book is Rationality: What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It Matters

5 key insights from authors Rob Reich, Mehran Sahami, and Jeremy Weinstein in their book, System Error: Where Big Tech Went Wrong and How We Can Reboot

Amazon offers to pay college fees of 750,000 frontline US workers. Company is latest big US firm to offer education-focused perks to workers after Walmart, Target and Kroger

How industrial companies can put e-commerce at the heart of their growth strategy

Ford to spend $2 billion to restructure operations and close plants in India

Scientists created the world's whitest paint that could eliminate the need for air conditioning

The economic recovery has a dirty secret

The lonely economy. As households get smaller, new forms of connection and consumption are emerging

World Bank kills business climate report after ethics probe cites ‘undue pressure’ on rankings. Former World Bank leaders were implicated in fudging China’s global ranking. An outside review found the bank’s ex-CEO (and current IMF chief) Kristalina Georgieva and ex-president Jim Yong Kim played a role in artificially boosting Beijing in the 2018 Doing Business report, which the bank will no longer produce.

India locks down Kashmir after top separatist leader’s death

Pakistan’s friendship with the Taliban is changing. Expect a recalibration of the relationship by both sides now the Taliban are in power.

Can you mix and match COVID vaccines or boosters?

Spotify for readers: the market for read-later apps is heating up again, and the apps are much smarter this time.

How stress affects CEO aging and mortality

How compliance can (and should) improve diversity efforts

They quit. Now they want their jobs back. When the Great Resignation is over, experts believe that the recruitment market will be overrun by boomerang employees

9/11: How air traffic controllers managed the profession’s most chaotic—and harrowing—day

9/11 timeline: three hours that changed everything

Your dog may know if you've done something on purpose, or just screwed up

The Internet, 10 years ago

TIME announces its 100 influential people

George Holliday, man who filmed Rodney King beating by LAPD officers, dies at 61…

…and in 1991: Anita Hill won't back down. Thirty years ago, she helped usher in a new era in the fight against gender violence. Her work, she says, is far from over

Pakistani students designed a Formula Electric car which took second place in a competition held in Russia’s capital city Moscow

Elon Musk sent four civilians into space

The Mom who stole the blueprints for the atomic bomb

Instagram is testing new ‘Favourites’ to bring order to your chaotic feed

Instagram defends itself against report that social network harms the mental health of teen girls. Instagram plans to play down posts promoting 'myths on beautiful bodies' for young girls (part of WSJ’s The Facebook Files)

Facebook may still be reading WhatsApp messages despite denying it. New ProPublica investigation highlighted how contract workers were reading through private sensitive content…more on the Business Recorder

Facebook says WSJ allegations are 'mischaracterizations,' confer 'false motives' on its leadership and employees

The strangest time for nostalgia is now. The Matrix, President Clinton, Blue’s Clues, and what we lose when we live in the past

20 years after 9/11, how lives have changed

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