Digital hucksters once had to guess what kind of person might fall for their unsophisticated cons, targeting ads by age, geography, or interests. Now Facebook does that work for them.
While the nation remained fixated on gun control and Facebook’s violative practices last week, the U.S. government quietly codified the CLOUD Act, its own intrusive policies on citizens’ data.
"...Donald Trump makes it click in your head that this actually has a much wider impact... I don't think that military-style information operations is conducive for any democratic process,"
His decision means that Washington, not London, will be the site of the great public inquest into big tech firms and their usage of user data for commercial purposes...
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's equivocating response when asked by CNN if he'd acquiesce to lawmakers' demands that he appear to testify is starting to make a lot more sense.
The Federal Trade Commission has confirmed that it has opened a nonpublic probe into Facebook's privacy practices, saying it's committed to protecting consumers' privacy and data and will hold accountable companies that abuse the FTC guidelines.
"We are certainly in a period in which the world order is transitioning from being U.S.-dominated to being multipolar... it is especially important to keep one’s portfolio liquid (to be flexible) and diversified (to not have concentrated risks)."
Despite the interviews and the full-page ads, Zuckerberg and his pals are losing once again as investors continue to aggressively unfriend the social network...
"...there are cracks appearing at the company level, and the gap between reality and what investors chose to believe – sentiment – is widening with a negative bias. "
It seems that "Black Monday" has been averted, with global risk sentiment making a full reversal to start the week, and the precipitous selloff from Thursday and (Black) Friday turning into a furious rally on Monday, which has sent S&P futures up 1.4%.
"Throughout history, great nations and empires fail when they surrender their institutions to an individual. The Chinese know this. Why’d they do it? Is Beijing preparing for instability?"
