Sydney, Australia | AFP | A plan to mine data from Commonwealth Games visitors who use free and fast wifi in Australia was abandoned Thursday as a privacy scandal swirls around social media giant Facebook. The local Gold Coast council is offering a service up to 10 times normal speed …
Read More »Uber self-driving car kills Arizona pedestrian
San Francisco, United States | AFP | Ride-sharing giant Uber said Monday it is suspending its self-driving car program after one of the vehicles struck and killed a pedestrian in the US state of Arizona. The Uber vehicle was in autonomous mode, with an operator behind the wheel, when it …
Read More »Facebook suspends Trump campaign data firm Cambridge Analytica
Washington, United States | AFP | Facebook says it has suspended the account of Cambridge Analytica, the data analysis firm that helped Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, for failing to delete user data. Also suspended were the accounts of its parent organization, Strategic Communication Laboratories, as well as those of …
Read More »Drake breaks new streaming record – in video games
New York, United States | AFP | Hip-hop superstar Drake has broken a new record in streaming — this time in video games. The most streamed artist on Spotify, whose latest hit “God’s Plan” has spent the last seven weeks at number one on the US singles chart, made waves …
Read More »Rihanna hits Snapchat over beating ad, sending shares tumbling
New York, United States | AFP | Rihanna on Thursday denounced Snapchat after an advertisement made light of her beating by fellow pop star Chris Brown, sending the company’s share prices tumbling. The social media platform — which counts 187 million users, especially young people drawn to its quickly vanishing …
Read More »Apple buys digital magazine subscription service
San Francisco, United States | AFP | Apple announced Monday it is buying digital magazine subscription service Texture, adding to the side of its business aimed at making money from online content or services. The iPhone maker did not disclose financial terms of the deal to buy Texture from its owners …
Read More »Jeff Bezos rockets to richest person on the planet
San Francisco, United States | AFP | Jeff Bezos is officially the richest person on the planet thanks to the success of Amazon — but his bold vision extends to space and even time itself. With Amazon’s share price up nearly 60 percent during the past year, the personal wealth …
Read More »Obama in negotiations to create Netflix series: report
San Francisco, United States | AFP | Former US President Barack Obama is in negotiations with Netflix about producing a series of shows for the online streaming giant, according to US media reports. Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama would provide Netflix with exclusive content, with the format …
Read More »More boys suffer online sex abuse than thought: study
Brussels, Belgium | AFP | Boys account for nearly a third of online child sex abuse images and often suffer the worst horrors, a new study revealed Tuesday, suggesting a greater problem than first thought. Interpol and Ecpat, a Bangkok-based international organisation fighting child sexual abuse, produced the findings after reviewing …
Read More »Facebook apologises for censoring prehistoric Venus statue
Vienna, Austria | AFP | Facebook apologised on Thursday for censoring the prehistoric “Venus of Willendorf” figurine, considered a masterpiece of the paleolithic era. “Our advertising policies do not allow nudity or implied nudity but we have an exception for statues. Therefore, the ad with this image should have been …
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