Privacy invasions. Unhelpful algorithms. Over-eager monkeys. This is the Mozilla News Beat.
| | | | | | | | | Welcome to the Mozilla News Beat, a glance at the best and worst internet news of the week. We hope you enjoy it! |
| Mounting Goats. There's video of a monkey hopping onto a goat's back and we're dying to know what happened next. Did they ride off into the sunset? Charge into battle?? We don't have those answers, but we do know that this monkey is the real GOAT. | via Reddit | | | Owl Co-Pilot. Ever have an owl hop in your vehicle mid-ride? That's what happened to one helicopter pilot fighting wildfires in California. The pilot and owl locked eyes and he realized it was friendly, "like he just wanted to say hi." | via The Dodo | | | Moon Internet. 4G's coming to the moon, y'all. NASA enlisted Nokia's help with the Artemis program, which aims to send the first woman to the moon and bring wireless data to Earth's natural satellite. Coming soon: folks here on Earth wondering how the heck the moon got 4G before they did. | via The Guardian | | Politicians Among Us. When U.S. House Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez hopped on Twitch this week to play Among Us, the stream went gangbusters, with a peak of more than 400,000 viewers. The stream wasn't too far from the record-holding 600,000 viewers who tuned in to watch Drake play Fortnite. | via The Verge | | Anti-Trusted. The U.S. Department of Justice is taking Google to federal court to curb what it deems the company's anti-competitive practices. The DoJ argues Google uses its massive warchest to sustain its lead in the search engine market, edging out smaller competitors. | via Wall Street Journal | | Two Can Play. Facial recognition software is becoming more sophisticated and more ubiquitous every day. But it isn't just law enforcement who has access to these tools. A new report from the New York Times notes how activists are using the police's own tech against them. | via New York Times | | The Cost Of Privacy. Would you send Amazon 10 receipts a month for $10 store credit? Bezos hopes so. A new program by the retailer will ask users to hand over shopping habits and personal info (minus sensitive information like prescription numbers) in exchange for money. | via TechCrunch | | Crowd Control. U.S. universities are increasingly tracking students' whereabouts to manage crowd density during COVID-19. While some are using less-invasive Bluetooth to determine where students are, others are using apps like PathCheck, which ask for students' location data. | via OneZero | | Unfck the Internet. In a new ad in the Washington Post, Mozilla and 6,000 supporters call out Facebook and Twitter for fcking over democracy with recommendation algorithms and features that can spread viral disinformation. | via Fortune | | There Goes the Neighborhood. Facebook is now competing with NextDoor in Calgary, Canada. Facebook is telling users of the new Neighborhoods feature to "Keep It Clean" and "Be Inclusive." Will these kind asks stop people from being racist on the app? We're unconvinced. | via Bloomberg | | Facebook's Gonna Facebook. A new report reveals the inner workings of the News Feed at Facebook, namely when it comes to which types of stories, and even publications, are recommended over others. | via Mother Jones | | Deplorable. A new report shows that over 100,000 women have seen their social media photos turned into deepfaked nudes and shared across the messaging app Telegram. Those who do this don't have to hide; there are no laws to prevent these violations. | via BBC |
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