Reporters and bloggers writing about a company are supposed to disclose any stock they own in that firm. With currencies, that’s not the case. But what about Bitcoin? Read more at paidContent »
The digital age has made possible many of the human-technology interactions that once were the stuff of science fiction. But at what cost? UX designers must be aware of and accountable for the human impact of their work. Read more »
The government of Malaysia paid 10 media columnists to smear its political opponents on American media sites. It was able to pull this off, in part, because of online publications’ insatiable appetite for content. Read more at paidContent »
A New York newspaper has come under fire for publishing a map with the addresses of registered gun owners — data that is legally public, but not often published. The incident raises a number of thorny questions about what personal information should be made public and when. Read more »
The nine-month-long inquiry in to British press standards says newspapers’ ethical standards have caused ‘havoc’, so a new self-regulator is required to hold them to better account. Read more at paidContent »
UK thriller author Stephen Leather’s admission that he created fake accounts to review his own books has led to a storm of controversy over bad author behavior and “sock puppet” reviews. Here’s what’s happened so far and how bad author behavior might be fixed. Read more at paidContent »
A group of researchers has developed a machine learning model that can detect tweets relating to bullying, and even identify bullies, victims and witnesses. Next, it wants to add sentiment analysis to determine individuals’ emotional states. But if they see trouble, how do they intervene? Read more »
Facebook is working on new, more-personal methods for letting users alert members of their social networks to content they find offensive or potentially embarrassing. It’s a good start in the quest to make social media — and perhaps the people who use them — more civil. Read more »
By becoming an underwriter for some of the world’s largest banks and credit card companies, ZestFinance might actually be able to achieve its goal of using big data to supply the underbanked with needed credit. It’s not altruism by any means, but here’s how it works. Read more »
ZestCash, the startup co-founded by former Google CIO and VP of Engineering Douglas Merrill to provide short-term loans to the underserved, has changed its name to ZestFinance and its business model, as well. Now essentially an underwriting service for lenders, can ZestFinance remain ethical? Read more »
It’s 2023, and here you are, 13 years old and finally ready for your own Facebook page! I’m sorry if my decision not to digitally document your life up to this point makes it tougher for you to be successful. But I hope you’ll thank me. Read more »
Taking money to plug a company is a cardinal sin of journalism and can even be against the law. Yet, astro-turfing — spinning paid opinion as popular sentiment — remains a thriving trade all the same. Read more at paidContent »
Apple released its latest Supplier Responsibility Progress Report on Friday, detailing efforts it made during 2011 to improve conditions at its supplier facilities, and to make sure its standards for labor, health and safety, and impact on the environment were being met. Read more »
If asked to imagine the drawbacks of connecting online via social networks, most of us would probably suggest something like the time-wasting attractions of the likes of FarmVille. But a new survey suggests another surprising possible drawback of heavy social network use: lower ethical standards. Read more »
A growing problem as the web becomes more central to how we share and work is that an average person doesn’t know how abstract laws can affect their lives and the media doesn’t expose how well (or poorly) politicians understand technology. These questions are a start. Read more »
However it’s defined, the concept of big data ultimately boils down to money. But I think there’s a line we shouldn’t cross when it comes to using analytics to squeeze every last dollar out of an operation. It’s between things we want and things we need. Read more »
A recent study seems to indicate that remote workers commit fewer ethical violations than in-office workers. But why? Is it simply because there’s less opportunity when you don’t see your coworkers? Or, as some experts suggest, could trust be the key difference? Read more »
UPDATED: Last week, Facebook and Skype launched a new video calling application, hosted at facebook.com/videocalling. But Samuday Web Technologies says it was at that domain first. Samuday now says its video chat app was unceremoniously kicked off of Facebook to make way for the new Skype feature. Read more »
Large companies hiring PR firms to plant negative stories about their competitors isn’t a new phenomenon, but Facebook’s attempt to do this about Google and privacy isn’t just ironic, it’s a sign of how scared the social network really is about competition from the web giant. Read more »
Internet payment firm VeriFone found that you can easily create an app that uses the payment dongle employed by its competitor Square to skim financial and personal info from a user’s credit card, so it went ahead and created one and released it to the public. Read more »
Apple has been criticized in the past for not doing enough to ensure that labor conditions in its supplier factories were up to international humanitarian standards. Today, it released its 2010 Supplier Responsibility report (PDF), in which it provides the details of audits it conducts at […] Read more »
It can sometimes be easy to forget that Apple’s primary purpose as a company is to make money, not to continually wow the industry and the public with fresh designs and technical innovation, which is all actually just a means to the end of profitability. Occasionally, […] Read more »
Writing on Fast Company, Farhad Manjoo says that not long ago, he got his hands on “one of the slowest, ugliest, and least-user-friendly Macintosh laptops the world has ever seen” — and he loves it, since it sports a couple of features that others can’t match. […] Read more »
This morning, Apple had a little more to worry about than the usual leaks, rumors and lawsuits. Protesters in Taipei, Taiwan, gathered outside of the company’s corporate office in the region to express their displeasure in Apple’s choice of suppliers. Wintek, which makes flat-panel displays for […] Read more »
