Kara Zajac said SPART*A, a small nonprofit serving transgender military service members and veterans, helped her begin her transition while in the Navy. To give back, she volunteered to build the group’s website in her spare time after leaving the military—and kept her eye on a key value: privacy.“I don’t track users,” Zajac said. “Not everyone in the military is wanting to be known for being trans. They might not be out yet. So any time we can protect privacy in that way, we try to do it.”She said she only allowed three trackers on spartapride.org: from Twitter and Facebook that accompany...…Kara Zajac said SPART*A, a small nonprofit serving transgender military service members and veterans, helped her begin her transition while in the Navy. To give back, she volunteered to build the group’s website in her spare time after leaving the military—and kept her eye on a key value: privacy.“I don’t track users,” Zajac said. “Not everyone in the military is wanting to be known for being trans. They might not be out yet. So any time we can protect privacy in that way, we try to do it.”She said she only allowed three trackers on spartapride.org: from Twitter and Facebook that accompany...WW…

Google faced unprecedented regulatory pressure in 2020 and a financial hit from the pandemic but still managed to pull in $25 billion in profit in the first nine months, on track for another record-breaking year.The COVID-19 pandemic initially , threatening the company’s core business just as American politicians and regulators plotted ways to curtail the company’s power. In October, the U.S. Department of Justice filed an in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia against Google, the most significant use of the Sherman Antitrust Act against a tech company since its 1998...…Google faced unprecedented regulatory pressure in 2020 and a financial hit from the pandemic but still managed to pull in $25 billion in profit in the first nine months, on track for another record-breaking year.The COVID-19 pandemic initially , threatening the company’s core business just as American politicians and regulators plotted ways to curtail the company’s power. In October, the U.S. Department of Justice filed an in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia against Google, the most significant use of the Sherman Antitrust Act against a tech company since its 1998...WW…

This month, that its 2020 holiday shopping season was its biggest ever—and it’s a sign of how much has changed in the past year that that is one of the least stunning statistics about the e-commerce company’s 2020. The company has long been , but this past year it pushed its ubiquity to new levels. With the pandemic sending many consumers away from physical stores, the company expanded its reach, hiring hundreds of thousands of workers and delivering packages on a never-before-seen scale. The online buying frenzy, however, came with its own pains for Amazon: criticism over its...…This month, that its 2020 holiday shopping season was its biggest ever—and it’s a sign of how much has changed in the past year that that is one of the least stunning statistics about the e-commerce company’s 2020. The company has long been , but this past year it pushed its ubiquity to new levels. With the pandemic sending many consumers away from physical stores, the company expanded its reach, hiring hundreds of thousands of workers and delivering packages on a never-before-seen scale. The online buying frenzy, however, came with its own pains for Amazon: criticism over its...WW…

By Jeremy B. MerrillViewable online atGoogle’s advertising system allowed employers or landlords to discriminate against nonbinary and some transgender people, The Markup found.Companies trying to run ads on YouTube or elsewhere on the web could direct Google not to show those ads to people of “unknown gender”—meaning people who have not identified themselves to Google as “male” or “female.” After being alerted to this by The Markup, Google pledged to crack down on the practice.“We will be implementing an update to our policy and enforcement in the coming weeks to restrict advertisers from...…By Jeremy B. MerrillViewable online atGoogle’s advertising system allowed employers or landlords to discriminate against nonbinary and some transgender people, The Markup found.Companies trying to run ads on YouTube or elsewhere on the web could direct Google not to show those ads to people of “unknown gender”—meaning people who have not identified themselves to Google as “male” or “female.” After being alerted to this by The Markup, Google pledged to crack down on the practice.“We will be implementing an update to our policy and enforcement in the coming weeks to restrict advertisers from...WW…

By Aaron SankinViewable online atLast week, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote a post about COVID-19 circulating on Facebook.“We’ve taken down hundreds of thousands of pieces of misinformation related to COVID-19, including theories like drinking bleach cures the virus or that physical distancing is ineffective at preventing the disease from spreading,” Zuckerberg wrote.But at the very same time, The Markup found, Facebook was allowing advertisers to profit from ads targeting people that the company believes are interested in “pseudoscience.” According to Facebook’s ad portal, the...…By Aaron SankinViewable online atLast week, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote a post about COVID-19 circulating on Facebook.“We’ve taken down hundreds of thousands of pieces of misinformation related to COVID-19, including theories like drinking bleach cures the virus or that physical distancing is ineffective at preventing the disease from spreading,” Zuckerberg wrote.But at the very same time, The Markup found, Facebook was allowing advertisers to profit from ads targeting people that the company believes are interested in “pseudoscience.” According to Facebook’s ad portal, the...WW…

By Alfred Ng and Leon YinViewable online atFacebook is blaming “technical issues” for its broken promise to Congress to stop recommending political groups to its users. Facebook made the pledge once in October, in the run-up to the presidential election, and then falsely reiterated it had taken the step after rioters overtook the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, a deadly event the platform. The Markup like “Donald Trump Is Our President” and the “Kayleigh McEnany Fan Club” in an investigation published on Jan. 19. Examining the top 100 groups recommended to roughly 1,900 users on our...…By Alfred Ng and Leon YinViewable online atFacebook is blaming “technical issues” for its broken promise to Congress to stop recommending political groups to its users. Facebook made the pledge once in October, in the run-up to the presidential election, and then falsely reiterated it had taken the step after rioters overtook the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, a deadly event the platform. The Markup like “Donald Trump Is Our President” and the “Kayleigh McEnany Fan Club” in an investigation published on Jan. 19. Examining the top 100 groups recommended to roughly 1,900 users on our...WW…

By Dara KerrViewable online atBy the time the ambulance arrived, Brandy Littrell said she didn’t know how many times she’d been shot. As the paramedics carefully cut off her clothes, they counted—seven. She said she was hit in her leg, stomach, arm, breast, neck, and back. The impact of the bullets broke her shoulder and bruised a lung.Littrell was driving for Lyft when she picked up a passenger around noon on Nov. 2, 2021, in a tree-laden suburb of Jackson, Miss. Shortly after the ride began, the passenger, whose name in the app was “dtown,” held a gun to Littrell’s head and told her to...…By Dara KerrViewable online atBy the time the ambulance arrived, Brandy Littrell said she didn’t know how many times she’d been shot. As the paramedics carefully cut off her clothes, they counted—seven. She said she was hit in her leg, stomach, arm, breast, neck, and back. The impact of the bullets broke her shoulder and bruised a lung.Littrell was driving for Lyft when she picked up a passenger around noon on Nov. 2, 2021, in a tree-laden suburb of Jackson, Miss. Shortly after the ride began, the passenger, whose name in the app was “dtown,” held a gun to Littrell’s head and told her to...WW…

Who is peeking over your shoulder while you work, watch videos, learn,explore, and shop on the internet? Enter the address of any website, andBlacklight will scan it and reveal the specific user-trackingtechnologies on the site—and who’s getting your data. You may besurprised at what you learn.Blacklight normally takes between 30 seconds and one minute to finish all tests.Enter a website above to get startedOr read about what we've found with…Who is peeking over your shoulder while you work, watch videos, learn,explore, and shop on the internet? Enter the address of any website, andBlacklight will scan it and reveal the specific user-trackingtechnologies on the site—and who’s getting your data. You may besurprised at what you learn.Blacklight normally takes between 30 seconds and one minute to finish all tests.Enter a website above to get startedOr read about what we've found withWW…

By Colin LecherViewable online atIn 2010, California hired the consulting firm Deloitte to overhaul the state website people use to apply for unemployment benefits. Things didn’t go well: Later that year, technical errors led to the halting of payments for some 300,000 people, . And, the paper reported that, at $110 million, the final cost of the system was almost double the initial estimate.A decade later, the taxed, aging system built by Deloitte in California is again, this time under the strain of new applicants put out of work by the pandemic.But Deloitte still won a fresh contract...…By Colin LecherViewable online atIn 2010, California hired the consulting firm Deloitte to overhaul the state website people use to apply for unemployment benefits. Things didn’t go well: Later that year, technical errors led to the halting of payments for some 300,000 people, . And, the paper reported that, at $110 million, the final cost of the system was almost double the initial estimate.A decade later, the taxed, aging system built by Deloitte in California is again, this time under the strain of new applicants put out of work by the pandemic.But Deloitte still won a fresh contract...WW…

By Jeremy B. Merrill and Aaron SankinViewable online atAs confrontations between Black Lives Matter protesters and police erupted across the country earlier this month, some Oregonians, mostly older people, saw a Facebook ad pushing a headline about how a Republican politician “Wants Martial Law To Control The Obama-Soros Antifa Supersoldiers.”Needless to say, there was no army of left-wing “supersoldiers” marching across Oregon, nor were former president Barack Obama and billionaire George Soros known to be funding anything antifa-related. And the politician in question didn’t actually say...…By Jeremy B. Merrill and Aaron SankinViewable online atAs confrontations between Black Lives Matter protesters and police erupted across the country earlier this month, some Oregonians, mostly older people, saw a Facebook ad pushing a headline about how a Republican politician “Wants Martial Law To Control The Obama-Soros Antifa Supersoldiers.”Needless to say, there was no army of left-wing “supersoldiers” marching across Oregon, nor were former president Barack Obama and billionaire George Soros known to be funding anything antifa-related. And the politician in question didn’t actually say...WW…