International Rights Advocates (IRA), a human rights group in class action lawsuit has claimed Apple, Google, Microsoft, Dell, and Tesla have all “aided and abetted” a supply chain for cobalt metal critical for smartphones and electric vehicles that forces children to work in dangerous conditions in the Democratic Republic of Congo. “Apple, Alphabet, Dell, Microsoft,…
Chinese tech companies are at an advanced stage of shaping facial recognition and surveillance standards at the UN, as they aspire to dominate markets in the developing world for their designs. China Telecom, ZTE, Dahua are among companies proposing global standards in the UN’s International Telecommunication Union (ITU) for facial recognition, video monitoring, city and…
A regulation announced in September 2019, was due to come into effect on Sunday when all people in China are required to have their faces scanned when registering new mobile phone services, as the authorities seek to verify the identities of hundreds of millions of internet users. China has for years been trying to…
Mr Bootle the chairman of Capital Economics argues that the automation and advances in AI will be a huge positive influence in our lives in the coming future and economic effects of artificial intelligence may not be as different from those of previous technological transformations as many suppose, that the speed with which the changes…
Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk branded the laser scanning system Lidar ( light detection and ranging) which is being touted as the best way for autonomous cars to sense their environment. In April he said, Lidar was expensive and unnecessary as he believes that cameras combined with artificial intelligence will be enough to allow cars to…
The Average price of a sponsored photo on Instagram has leaped from £104 ($134) t0 £1, 276 ($1, 6742 in 2019. Brands are willing to pay more to sponsor posts, videos, stories and blogs too. “Digital marketing is the equivalent of word of mouth but there will always be a mix between that and traditional…
Alibaba’s sales grew by 40 per cent with profits more than tripling as China’s legions of shoppers kept spending at the online retailer despite a broader economic slowdown. During the three-month period ended September 30, Jack Ma, founder and chairman stepped down from his formal roles at the company, leaving chief executive Daniel Zhang to…
Google snaps up Fitbit for $2.1bn ( £1.6bn) “ Google is an ideal partner to advance our mission. With Google’s resources and global platform, Fitbit will be able to accelerate innovation in the wearables, scale faster and make health even more accessible to everyone” James Park co-founder and CEO who founded Fitbit 12 years ago.…
Facebook has dropped its year-long appeal against a £500, 000 fine imposed by the UK’s data watchdog for its failure to protect users’ information in the Cambridge Analytica scandal, without accepting any admission of liability. The payment comes amidst intense scrutiny of Facebook’s role in the democratic process, with a fresh dispute emerging over the…
Over 100 Human rights activists, journalists, prominent lawyers, religious figures and political dissidents had their smartphones hacked by spyware that exploited the vulnerability in WhatsApp, according to the Facebook owned messaging service in May 2019. The victims of the attack were only contacted by WhatsApp yesterday. Their smartphones were targeted through WhatsApp’s call function by…