As News of the World closes, we might be getting better at making business accountable

So James Murdoch has announced the end of the News of the World. It’s no biggie: as others have discovered, a domain name for The Sun on Sunday has been registered, and if this is by an agent of News International, it simply makes sense for the Murdoch Press to consolidate its tabloid brands and […]

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Privacy Commissioner agrees with my 2009 thoughts: New Zealand Post breached your privacy

A Fairfax Press headline today: ‘“Large-scale breach” of privacy rules by NZ Post’. The Privacy Commissioner has found New Zealand Post breached privacy rules in a promotion in July 2009, which I thought would have been a juicy story back then.    The reporters write: The 2009 survey asked participants 57 multi-choice questions, ranging from […]

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Google Ads Preferences Manager issue confirmed by NAI

  I’ve now had confirmation from the Network Advertising Initiative that Google has, indeed, been dodgy about its Ads Preferences Manager. Thank you for bringing this issue to our attention. We were able to reproduce the issues you saw and have been working with Google for the last week to address them. I am happy […]

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The new Honda goes at over 400 mph

I have to hand it to Honda. The next new model from the Japanese firm is faster than the NSX and its old Formula 1 cars. It goes at Mach 0·72.    The simplified version of Honda’s history goes something like this.    Once upon a time, Mr Honda wanted to make cars. He wasn’t […]

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Saab promises new generation of cars will have original DNA

Rumour has it that the new Saab—a small car (finally)—will resemble the ur-Saab, the 92. In fact, inside Saab, it has the codename 92.    Where have I heard this one before? I know. Stefan Engeseth’s Detective Marketing, 2001 edition. And from what I understand, since in 1999 I could not read much Swedish, it […]

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