NEW RESOURCES

Google Blog: Preserving stories of Black History in the UK and beyond. “The theme of the motherland can also be found in another new exhibition on Google Arts & Culture. Everyone in the world can trace their origins back to East Africa, which is sometimes called the cradle of mankind. We’ve collaborated with the National Museums of Kenya in a new online collection that celebrates the heritage and stories of Kenya’s many communities.” I had mentioned this before in RB but only as something that was going to happen, and I didn’t realize it was so close to competition.

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

The Guardian: Facebook rebrands as FACEBOOK: can capital letters save a toxic brand?. I swear that looks like the font for the Lucky 32 restaurant. “Amid antitrust investigations, Capitol Hill hearings, and a generally poor reputation, the company announced on Monday it is rebranding itself. In the coming weeks, a new multicolored, all-caps logo will begin appearing across its services. Instagram and Whatsapp, owned by the company, will proudly tell users that they are services ‘from FACEBOOK’.” And I will feel yelled at.

BetaNews: Release candidate of Chromium-based Microsoft Edge available to download now — full launch coming January 15. “Today, after various beta builds, the company is launching the release candidate of the new Microsoft Edge for both Windows and macOS. It has also revealed that the date for general availability is January 15.”

USEFUL STUFF

Lifehacker: How to Skim a Privacy Policy . “While you shouldn’t feel compelled to read your apps’ and services’ privacy policies word for word—boring!—there are still a few key criteria you should look for while you’re skimming. Yes, skimming; you shouldn’t ignore privacy policies completely, because it’s important to know what’s being done with (or to) your data.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

The Verge: A critical analysis of scroll bars throughout history. “Sébastien Matos has built a fantastic interactive trip through the history of one of the most important UI elements we encounter every day: the scroll bar. He’s recreated, as faithfully as possible, 30 years of scroll bars from some of the top desktop platforms of their day, from Xerox Star to Windows 10.”

Mashable: Twitter exec teases possible major changes coming in 2020 . “Twitter is due for a major shakeup. So appears to be the thinking of the company’s vice president of design and research, Dantley Davis, who on Monday announced a series of changes that could come to the platform as early as next year. Well, maybe.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

CNN: Facebook says 100 app developers could have improperly accessed user data for months. “Dozens of third-party apps may have had access to certain Facebook user data for months after the company moved to place limits on that information, the social media giant said on Tuesday. The company says that as many as 100 app developers could have accessed the user data, which included names and profile pictures, through a programming interface for Facebook groups.”

New York Times: ‘Game-Changer’ Warrant Let Detective Search Genetic Database. “The two largest sites, Ancestry.com and 23andMe, have long pledged to keep their users’ genetic information private, and a smaller one, GEDmatch, severely restricted police access to its records this year. Last week, however, a Florida detective announced at a police convention that he had obtained a warrant to penetrate GEDmatch and search its full database of nearly one million users.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

NBC News: More governments than ever are using social media to push propaganda, report says. “Freedom House, a nonprofit group that tracks free speech online, said in a report on Tuesday that it found political leaders in 38 countries had employed people to surreptitiously shape online opinions during the past year — a new annual high, according to the organization.”

University of Texas at Austin: ‘Fake News’ Isn’t Easy to Spot on Facebook, According to New Study. “With the presidential election season moving into high gear, campaign messaging will soon begin increasing dramatically. But for those of us who get our news from social media, a new study from the McCombs School of Business at The University of Texas at Austin offers a strong warning: You can’t trust yourself to discern what’s true and what’s not when you’re on Facebook.” Good evening, Internet…

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