Two big reasons not to use Gmail

03.10.2020/09.14

I was absolutely shocked to learn this is how Gmail works. If I read this correctly, #Google lets more than one person use a single email address (in this case, over 200!)? How daft! Why would they do that? pic.twitter.com/KtTO6PnDEI — Jack Yan 甄爵恩 (@jackyan) September 27, 2020 PS.: This was the image linked […]

The FT covers lawsuit alleging Facebook knew about inflated metrics

21.03.2020/08.38

I’ll be interested to read the judgement, should it get to that point: Facebook is being sued over allegedly inflating its audience numbers, and COO Sheryl Sandberg and financial officer David Wehner are also named. The plaintiff alleges that Facebook has known this for years. The suit dates from 2018 but there are new […]

Tesla or SpaceX doesn’t like you? They’ll say you’re an active shooter

24.11.2019/08.01

What does Tesla do to whistleblowers? They tell the cops you’re an active shooter. Apparently, this case about a gentleman called Martin Tripp emerged in 2018 but only today were the police documents released, and are worth reading. Above: Two of the pages from the Storey County Sheriff’s Office over the false […]

Who is changing Facebook links to affiliate ones?

14.09.2019/11.40

I know someone else has come across this before, since there’s a page on it here. The very same thing has begun happening on Autocade, whenever the Facebook link is clicked. I’d love to blame Facebook, but I don’t believe it’s them. I’ve contacted Sovrn (formerly Viglinks) as the discussion board participants identify […]

Has Google My Business ever given you business?

22.08.2019/02.27

I had a call from a nice gentleman working for Google called Shabhaz today. No, he wasn’t about to tell me that I wasn’t on the ‘first page of Google’: he worked for Google My Business, where they want to verify businesses and suck them into the ecosystem, complete with dashboard and social features. […]

More Facebook lies in its ad preferences’ manager?

21.04.2019/12.06

As I’ve often said, it’s wise to keep an eye on your Facebook ad preferences’ page. Even if you’ve opted out of Facebook targeting, Facebook will still keep compiling information on you. I see no other purpose for this other than to target you with advertising, contrary to what you expect. Facebook also tells […]

More reminders that Google lies

21.02.2019/10.14

Nest/Creative Commons We’ve been here countless times before since last decade. Funny how many of these “errors” Google has, and funny how they only admit to these “errors” after they get busted. How many more “errors” are there? If you have a Nest Secure, please be advised that there's a microphone in the system whose […]

The descent of Twitter

22.09.2018/12.09

Dawn Huczek/Creative Commons 2·0 This Tweet was probably half in jest: Twitter 2009. I like apples.I like pears.That’s cool.Yeah. Twitter 2018. I like apples.So you’re anti pears then.No, I just prefer apples.So you hate pears.I never said that.Fucking pear hater.I don’t hate pears!Yes you do. You make me sick. Scum. — Amanda (@Pandamoanimum) September 13, […]

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Facebook and Cambridge Analytica: the signs were there for years, if one only looked

20.03.2018/09.14

Facebook’s woes over Cambridge Analytica have only prompted one reaction from me: I told you so. While I never seized upon this example, bravely revealed to us by whistleblower Christopher Wylie and reported by Carole Cadwalladr and Emma Graham-Harrison of The Guardian, Facebook has shown itself to be callous about private data, mining preferences even […]

Facebook overestimates and underestimates reach depending on the story it wants to tell

04.03.2018/22.56

Funny, isn’t it? Last year, Facebook was busted for claiming that in some demographics, their ads could reach more people than there were people. When it comes to the US’s Russia probe, they claim their ads reached far, far fewer people: they initially claimed they reached 10 million, but Jonathan Albright, a researcher at Columbia […]