[ WWW.TECHLIFE.NET ] [ 011 ]
HOTSPOTNEED TO KNOWTHE WEB RECENTLY turned 28 years old and its inventor, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, used the
occasion to publish an open letter on the World Wide Web Foundation website detailing the
“three new trends” affecting the internet — our loss of control over sharing of personal data,
fake news or “misinformation” and political advertising.
In the letter, Berners-Lee calls for corporates and governments to loosen their stranglehold on
our personal data, and wants social media platforms to step up their efforts to fight back against
fake news. And given how online advertising during political campaigns target individuals in an
undemocratic fashion, he wants to see more “algorithmic transparency” in political advertising
and other forms of online tech.
Berners-Lee hopes that people will join him in his fight to make the web a better place, so to
speak, concluding, “It has taken all of us to build the web we have, and now it is up to all of us to
build the web we want — for everyone.” [ SHARMISHTA SARKAR ]
[ SAY IT LIKE IT IS ]
Web’s inventor weighs in on its future
IT’S ALL ABOUT PRIVACY, FAKE NEWS AND POLITICS.OVER HALF THE world’s internet users get their news from social media sites like Facebook
and Twitter and most swallow the story whole without checking its veracity. After much
finger-pointing at Facebook’s promotion of fake news during the US Presidential election,
Zuckerberg promised to take action and, in a lengthy letter in February, wrote, “We’ve made
progress fighting hoaxes the way we fight spam, but we have more work to do”.
Earlier this year, the social media giant announced the outsourcing of fact-checking to
third parties and dropping flagged news stories to the bottom of a user’s feed. Now there’s
another tool in town to combat fake news — a ‘disputed’ tag is being rolled out.
Stories flagged by users as fake are sent to the third-party fact-checkers for validation.
If the story is identified as fake and it shows up on user news feeds, it will be accompanied
by a ‘disputed’ warning label, along with a link to the fact-checking site that will explain why
it isn’t true. [ SHARMISHTA SARKAR ]
NEW GAME TEACHES KIDS
STRANGER DANGER
DANIEL MORCOMBE FOUNDATION
LAUNCHES AN ONLINE GAME TO HELP
KIDS AVOID SEXUAL ABUSE
Having previously launched an app that aims
to help Australian parents track their kids,
the Daniel Morcombe Foundation has now
announced a new version of online game
Orbit, originally developed by Christian
Jones, which teaches kids how to recognise
and avoid sexual predators. The parents of
the 13 -year-old Australian murder victim say
the new game, titled Orbit Rescue, “will
teach children in a non-threatening way
to recognise predatory behaviour... then
illustrate safety strategies.” [ SS ]T WITCH TO START SELLING GAMES
HOPING TO WATCH THE CASH STREAM IN
With Twitch’s latest venture, the massively
popular live-streaming gaming service will
add the ability to purchase the very game
you’re watching via the stream page. With a
simple click you could earn yourself some
Twitch-related goodies (such as ‘Bits’ —
the site’s currency) as well as earning the
streamer themselves 5% of the profit. With
an already massive user base, this move
could give Steam some serious competition.
[ HD ]
YOU WON’T LIKE THE SOUND
OF THIS...
RESEARCHERS HAVE FOUND A NEW
HACKING VULNERABILIT Y THAT COULD
ALLOW DEVICES TO BE COMPROMISED
VIA AUDIO
Researchers in the US have used the
resonating frequency from audio files
to hack or control accelerometers — the
sensors that determine motion and speed
— which are used in millions of gadgets
including phones, fitness trackers, cars,
medical equipment and IoT devices.
The hack demonstrations included the
steering control of a car and a Fitbit clocking
up ghost steps. [SS][ BS ALERT ]
Facebook introduces
‘disputed’ label to help
identify fake news
SEPARATING THE CHAFF FROM THE GRAIN.