TWEAKS AND UPDATES

BetaNews: Microsoft will never again sneakily force Windows downloads on users. “There have been various controversies with Windows 10, from issues with privacy and telemetry, to ads and forced upgrades. Following a court case, Microsoft has vowed to never force upgrade files onto users again. Windows users in Germany were particularly unimpressed when Microsoft forcibly downloaded many gigabytes of files to upgrade from Windows 7 and 8 to Windows 10. Having held out for 18 months, and losing its case twice, Microsoft has finally agreed to stop its nefarious tactics.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Wired: Amazon’s Turker Crowd Has Had Enough. “Today, MTurk is more important than it’s ever been. Its crowd-work model has been adopted by Silicon Valley’s biggest companies to train AI algorithms, spot fake news, and keep violent content off of social media. In the long run, AI might take these jobs over—but right now humans are very much needed for tasks like cleaning and categorizing data. Turkers know they’re in demand, and some are losing patience with Amazon. For over a decade, activist-minded Turkers have been rallying for change, with little success. Meanwhile, other platforms in the gig economy have begun inching toward improvement—just in the past few months, Uber has added in-app tipping, and Postmates and Lyft have come out in support of legislation to help develop portable benefits programs for workers. Many Turkers feel that it’s long past time for a crowd work overhaul.”

Daily Post (Nigeria): Nigerian Army monitoring anti-government, anti-military speeches on social media‎ – Spokesman. “The Nigerian Army said it will now monitor the social media for anti-government and anti-military speeches. The Director of Defence Information, Major-General John Enenche, told Channels that the move became necessary in the light of troubling activities and misinformation capable of jeopardizing the unity of the country.”

Xinhua: Somali government bars ministers from using social media. “Somali Prime Minister Hassan Khaire has ordered his ministers to avoid using the social media to comment on sensitive political developments. Khaire also warned ministers against communication with media without seeking clearance from his office.”

TechCrunch: Facebook faces another moderation scandal over migrant torture videos. “Facebook is faced with yet another content-related scandal, after The Times newspaper reported that people traffickers and slave traders are using its platform to broadcast videos of migrants being tortured to try to extort money from their families. According to the newspaper’s report, footage showing Libyan gangmasters threatening the lives of migrants had remained on the social network for months.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Naked Security: Identity theft at ‘epidemic’ levels, warn experts. “Identity theft is running at ‘epidemic’ levels in the UK, fraud prevention service Cifas has glumly announced. Ever the bearer of bad news, the organisation has been saying the same thing for years. Since 2008 (when ID fraud fell after the credit crunch), reporting of the problem by Cifas’s 360 members across banking and financial services rose steadily from 77,000 cases in 2009 to 173,000 in 2016.”

The Sunday Times: Google accused of rigging flight results. “Google could face more multibillion-euro fines as the European Commission turns its sights on the company’s flights and hotel services.” You’ll need to register to see the whole article.

RESEARCH & OPINION

The Next Web: Fake followers are ruining influencer marketing. “With claimed returns of 6.5 times for every dollar spent, influencer marketing is definitely a bet that brands want to place with high stakes. But, is it really legit?… Let’s face the truth. The massive fan following of our favorite celebrities, politicians and the myriad of social influencers seem to have aren’t legit. Plus, you can always ‘buy’ followers to retweet, like, share or do whatever on social media to make you look popular.” Good afternoon, Internet…

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