Facebook Facebook removes setting from Ads API that let advertisers see which users are viewing ads based on keywords In mid-December 2018, Facebook published a public page intended to explain how its system works and answer questions users might have. “Facebook Advertisers: Who’s Reading Your Ads?” The company
Lyft Here’s why Lyft is being classed as a company that doesn’t deserve a good rating A report issued earlier this week by Moody’s, a credit rating agency, analyzed 54 business practices across the industries it covers. Some of the most surprising business practices were
Uber Uber’s 10 or 15 risk factors don’t take into account everything it should be worrying about Uber is one of the most high-profile public tech companies. But in its public disclosure about risks to investors, it only talks about 10 or 15 risk factors. For comparison,
Google Beto O’Rourke was thinking this through when he did his speech When US congressman Beto O’Rourke crashed a press conference by senator Ted Cruz to endorse Elizabeth Warren in the Massachusetts primary on Thursday, I immediately began wondering: why didn’
chief executive officer How this eco-activist turned oil CEO makes sure her words are inclusive Although she has long held executive roles in the oil industry, now Susie Tompkins Buell has one of the few female CEOs for an oil and gas company. Before leaving
artificial intelligence How a team of journalists worked with A.I. to capture and reconstruct Leaks It’s the end of another month in the Mauritius Leaks saga—which, astonishingly, is the longest news-related investigation in some time. The findings so far: The secretive owner of
The New Propaganda This is what happens when digital advertising gets granular If only the 2016 presidential campaign had been chronicled through a single technology. Last year, The New York Times reported that advertisements often aren’t scrubbed clean from Facebook. And
Facebook Financial tools to hurt black and brown people have proliferated online—and are ready to leave us in ruins The financial markets are teeming with already-illegal behaviours: Credit-rating companies enriching themselves to deny credit to poor people. Financial institutions selling subprime mortgages to people with poor credit. Banks siphoning
Twitter How Twitter could get help fighting “fake accounts” with its latest ad ban Social-media giants — particularly Twitter — are considering bans on advertisements that support “unlawful candidates, advocacy groups, or causes.” The company gave no indication that it would apply those restrictions to pro-Trump
Facebook SEC charges company with fraud over Medicare monopoly scheme The US Securities and Exchange Commission has charged a company that some say has been exploiting anxieties about health care for about a decade with fraud. But the origins of
influencer marketing Marco Rubio is trying to profit off financial illiteracy Marco Rubio’s presidential campaign strategy is based partly on the infamous 2013 speech by former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani that has since become part of American political
United States of America Among silver’s many biases, it’s also anagram for “Bill Gates” Silver—if not all precious metals—have a long history of tabooness and taboo terms. The 2,400 year old ancient Mayan ceremonial jewellery known as the “Hurera” (catalazuela) once
Facebook Our Facebook book tells a story about how American democracy was gutted by money Why is it that people who try to do the right thing for the greater good for only a moment are immediately branded as bad citizens and divisive influences? This
Google Google says it’s still ranking politics—but I don’t care about my political leanings According to data from our Google Chrome browser, my political leanings are—quietly—right on center right. This may be news to you. Facebook and Google routinely told me I
Massachusetts Massachusetts is threatening to sue an online coin dealer over what it calls “forensic fraud” Massachusetts has threatened to sue a coin seller for allegedly selling coins it shouldn’t have, potentially voiding thousands of sale contracts between Massachusetts residents and the site Metals.com.
Internet privacy We know how the NSA can read your encrypted messages. So put them on a Christmas list and get them soon. The question of whether to encrypt your messages—presumably a privacy-conscious gift for you this holiday season—is an intractable one. But there’s no reason it should be. How
Facebook Facebook is planning to start measuring its political ads on an ad-spend map of the US For most of 2018, Facebook’s one true claim to fame has been political damage control. Its access to our personal information and relationships was compromised, innocent users discovered they
Donald Trump Trump has been employing a radical strategy to attack Mueller for the past year The White House has joined with Sinclair Broadcast Group and fellow Republican lawmakers to call for an end to congressional investigations of President Donald Trump, as part of the administration’
Facebook Facebook could launch ads tailored to your ethnicity to make its service less irritating What does “OK” look like in China, or Burma, or Venezuela? Facebook confirmed last week that its first-ever ad product is an ongoing test in those countries, one that targets
Cambridge Analytica How Cambridge Analytica inverts Facebook’s “interest graph” in its advertising campaigns What’s the point of the Facebook ads you’ve seen: Those in the data-mining scandal involving Cambridge Analytica are supposed to get you to click or call on a
Quartz World Bank’s Angola scandal is getting a detailed investigation into the data from just last November Allegations of dark and shady meetings inside World Bank headquarters have turned out to be much harder to hide than initial reports suggested. Now the latest blockbuster data dump is
Donald Trump Amazon, Facebook, and Microsoft are all working with Google, not Google alone. On Jan. 17, Facebook’s head of global media partnerships, Campbell Brown, answered questions at the India Today Conclave for the latest batch of candidates to run in America’s
Donald Trump Facebook tells marketers to push TV shows and brands into your News Feed One of the deeper revelations of Facebook’s unprecedented data grab in 2018 is how easily brands and media companies can target individual users with customized ads, according to the
Facebook A well-heeled California insurance exec is buying ads attacking Bernie Sanders on Facebook Has the Soviet Union come back to haunt Bernie Sanders? The secret nonprofit, Cooperative for Global Security, has spent $1.2 million thus far this year to target the senator
Facebook The latest lawsuit targets Facebook’s policies that allow advertisers to target users based on their past activity A lawsuit filed on Feb. 8 challenges the ability of Facebook users to see ads on the platform that are targeted to them based on their past behavior or based