Tag Archives: internet

Christian Tech Startup Offers Filter To Block Pride Month Posts By “Hostile To Holiness, Dangerous LGBTQ Cult”

Via press release from Christian Newswire: A Christian tech startup has announced the launch of an internet filtering service designed to protect children from indoctrination into what it says is a “dangerous LGBTQ cult.” FreeFiltering.org will help parents block websites devoted to spreading pornography and other harmful ideas about human sexuality. The company’s founder, a father of three, became frustrated …

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Amazon Customers Get Week To Opt-Out Of WiFi Plan

The Guardian reports: Amazon customers have one week to opt out of a plan that would turn every Echo speaker and Ring security camera in the US into a shared wireless network, as part of the company’s plan to fix connection problems for its smart home devices. The proposal, called Amazon Sidewalk, involves the company’s devices being used as a …

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Washington DC Sues Amazon For Alleged Price-Fixing

The New York Times reports: The District of Columbia sued Amazon on Tuesday, accusing it of artificially raising prices for the products in its ubiquitous online marketplace and around the web by abusing its monopoly power, a sign that regulators in the United States are increasingly turning their attention to the company’s dominance across the economy. In the lawsuit, the …

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Yahoo Answers To Shut Down In May, Cultists Fume

Ars Technica reports: Yahoo Answers is shutting down on May 4, 2021, the Verizon-owned Yahoo announced this week. The 16-year-old question-and-answer service will enter read-only mode on April 20, preventing users from posting new questions or answering other users’ questions, Yahoo said.  The shutdown announcement prompted anger from people asking if Yahoo Answers is being “shut to silence conservatives” and …

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Amazon Passes Walmart As Top US Apparel Retailer

The Hill reports: Amazon has surpassed Walmart as the top apparel retailer in the U.S, according to an analysis released by Wells Fargo. Wells Fargo estimated that Amazon’s apparel and footwear sales in the U.S. jumped by 15 percent in 2020, raking in $41 billion in sales, according to a report by CNBC. This placed the tech giant 20 to …

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Tinder To Offer Background Checks On Its Users

The Verge reports: Tinder and other Match Group-owned apps are going to let their users run background checks on possible dates. The company announced an investment in Garbo, a nonprofit that looks to allow people to run background checks with only their first name and phone number or full name. The investment, of which Match didn’t disclose the amount, will …

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Netflix Testing Crackdown On Password Sharing

NBC News reports: Netflix has never made a big deal about password-sharing, but a new test suggests the company may be reconsidering. Netflix is trying out a new policy with some customers, prompting certain people to sign up for a separate account if they aren’t watching with the subscriber. The message reads: “If you don’t live with the owner of …

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Hackers Breach Sprawling Security Camera Network

Bloomberg News reports: A group of hackers say they breached a massive trove of security-camera data collected by Silicon Valley startup Verkada Inc., gaining access to live feeds of 150,000 surveillance cameras inside hospitals, companies, police departments, prisons and schools. Companies whose footage was exposed include carmaker Tesla Inc. and software provider Cloudflare Inc. In addition, hackers were able to …

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Axios: Traffic For News/Politics Sites Dives Post-Trump

Axios reports: Nearly every big news site saw its traffic decline in February, compared to a tumultuous January that included the Capitol insurrection and Biden’s inauguration. Publishers’ traffic was down across the board, and many major sites saw traffic dip more than 20%, according to data from traffic analytics company SimilarWeb. Politics consumption dropped most dramatically, tumbling 28%. News consumers …

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Google: We Will Stop Tracking Users For Targeted Ads

From Google’s corporate blog: Last year Chrome announced its intent to remove support for third-party cookies, and why we’ve been working with the broader industry on the Privacy Sandbox to build innovations that protect anonymity while still delivering results for advertisers and publishers. Even so, we continue to get questions about whether Google will join others in the ad tech …

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Amazon Swaps Out “Hitler” Icon On Shopping App

The BBC reports: Amazon has quickly changed its main shopping-app logo, after commentators said the recent redesign made it look like Adolf Hitler. Launched in January, the icon depicts a strip of blue tape over an Amazon “smile” logo. But some observers said it resembled a toothbrush mustache, associated with the Nazi dictator. The technology giant has now changed the …

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DOJ Withdraws Lawsuit Against CA Net Neutrality Law

Market Watch reports: The Department of Justice is withdrawing a lawsuit aimed at blocking California from establishing statewide net neutrality laws after the Federal Communications Commission repealed similar federal laws in 2018. The FCC’s repeal of net neutrality was controversial at the time, and opposed by Democrats on the commission, including Jessica Rosenworcel [photo], the current acting head of the …

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Twitter Mulls Subscription Model For Some Features

Bloomberg News reports: Twitter Inc. is building a subscription product as a way to ease its dependence on advertising – a plan the social network has considered for years, and one that has taken on a heightened priority given the pandemic and pressure from activist investors to accelerate growth. At least one idea being considered is related to “tipping,” or …

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Facebook To Stop Pushing Political Content To Users

CNN Business reports: CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Facebook is considering steps it can take to reduce the amount of political content in the News Feed. “One of the top pieces of feedback that we’re hearing from our community right now is that people don’t want politics and fighting to take over their experience on our services,” Zuckerberg said. Ahead of …

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Sanders Turns Viral Meme Into Charity Sweatshirts

The Hill reports: Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is cashing in on his viral mittens moment for a good cause — raising money for charity with a sweatshirt bearing his Inauguration Day look. The Vermont senator’s campaign store unveiled a “Chairman Sanders crewneck” this week. The $45 organic cotton fleece shows the now-famous image of Sanders at President Biden’s inauguration on …

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Amazon Cloud Outage Takes Down Sites, Streamers

CNBC reports: Amazon’s cloud-computing service on Wednesday was hit with an outage that took down some websites and services. A notice on Amazon Web Services’ status page said it was experiencing problems with Kinesis, its service that processes large streams of data, causing “increased error rates” for a number of websites. The outage also impacted its ability to post updates …

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Watchdog Group Warns Of COVID Hoax Net Domains

The Washington Post reports: The domain registrars have done little to prevent the sale of dozens of Internet domains with the potential to spread hoaxes related to covid-19, a three-month investigation by the consumer watchdog group Digital Citizens Alliance found. Scammers could use these websites to disseminate false information about the pandemic that could result in things like identity theft …

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Global Internet Outage Takes Down Sites, Streamers

The Verge reports: Reports indicate a slew of popular websites and online services are experiencing outages today, seemingly linked to an issue with Cloudflare. DownDetector, a platform that tracks connectivity complaints, shows that some of the services impacted include the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live. The platform suggests there was a knock-on effect with many popular video games, such as …

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SCOTUS: Generic Dot-Com Names Deserve Trademarks

Courthouse News reports: The Supreme Court ruled 8-1 Tuesday that companies with “.com” in their names are eligible for federal trademark protection, even if their monikers are otherwise generic. “The appellate court also rejected the PTO’s contention that, as a rule, combining a generic term like ‘booking’ with ‘.com’ yields a generic composite,” Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote for the …

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Breakthrough May Bring Million Times Faster Internet

Courthouse News reports: University researchers have developed and recorded the fastest internet data speed in the world from a single optical chip, holding the capacity to download 1,000 high-definition movies in a split second, according to new research revealed Friday. In the wake of the Covid-19 outbreak, the world’s internet infrastructure has experienced increased pressure, heightened by the pandemic isolation …

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