James Farrell
Latest from James Farrell
Google LLC has been helping federal agents by handing over data related to the searches people do online, it was revealed earlier this week. Court documents show that the company disclosed the IP addresses of anyone who had searched for a certain …
Google and Oracle plead decade-long copyright case before Supreme Court
Google LLC and Oracle Corp. were back in court today — the U.S. Supreme Court this time — fighting a landmark case that has gone on for a decade. Over the years there have been three trials and two appeals. This time the …
House antitrust committee suggests big tech should be broken up
Some of the largest tech companies in the United States have grown too big and need to be restructured, a House antitrust panel said today following a 16-month investigation. A 449-page report presented by the Democratic House antitrust subcommittee said Amazon.com Inc., …
Excel spreadsheet issue blamed for missing COVID-19 cases in UK
A total of 15,841 COVID-19 cases were recently not reported in the U.K., Public Health England announced Sunday, and it seems Microsoft Excel was to blame — along with a dash of human error. PHE said that from Sept. 25 to Oct. 2, …
New EU regulations aim to address power of US big tech monopolies
The European Union has drafted rules that could result in profound changes to big tech’s hold on power in Europe, according to a report today. Under the “Digital Services Act,” companies such as Google LLC, Facebook Inc., Apple Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. …
TikTok launches US elections app to fight misinformation
In an effort to fight misinformation, TikTok announced today that it’s launching an in-app guide for the 2020 U.S. election. The guide will be available today to all users inside the U.S. and will be accessible either on TikTok’s Discover page or …
Leaked data indicate Trump 2016 campaign used targeted ads to suppress Black votes
The 2016 Trump presidential campaign used ads to try to persuade millions of Black Americans not to vote, according to a Channel 4 report published today. Channel 4 reported that it had exclusively obtained a 5-terabyte cache of data used by Trump’s …
Facebook and Twitter take down fake Russian accounts ahead of US election
As the U.S. election season enters its stretch run, Facebook Inc. and Twitter Inc. announced today that they have removed hundreds of accounts linked to so-called bad actors in Russia. Nathaniel Gleicher, Facebook’s head of security policy, said in the blog post …
Facebook says it won’t pull out of EU after all but insists something must change
After a court document this week suggested Facebook Inc. might be forced to close its business in the EU, the company now says it’s not going to happen. Earlier this month, Ireland’s Data Protection Commission stated that its investigation found that Facebook …
YouTube to exploit artificial intelligence to enforce age restrictions
Google LLC-owned video site YouTube announced today that it will introduce more advanced AI to ensure younger people aren’t watching videos designed for an older audience. Up until now, the company has asked creators to put age restrictions on their videos, with …