In line with what I discovered in 2011: Google tracks your location even after opting out

The Associated Press had an exclusive this week: Google does not obey your opt-out preferences.    I could have told you that in 2011. Oh wait, I did. And I pointed out other instances where Google ignored your request to pause your history, continuing to track you either through its main site or its properties […]

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Has Facebook stopped forcing its “malware scanner” on to users after being busted by Wired?

  Since Louise Matsakis’s story on Facebook’s malware scanner came out in Wired, the number of hits to my pieces about my experience has dwindled.    This can mean one of two things: (a) Wired’s getting the hits, which I don’t mind, considering they are the only tech media who had the cojones to talk […]

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The big difference with the internet of the ’90s: it served the many, not the few

Above: Facebook kept deleting Nick Ut’s Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph each time it was posted, even when Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten did so, preventing its editor-in-chief from responding.   There’s a significant difference between the internet of the 1990s and that of today. As Facebook comes under fire for deleting the “napalm girl” photograph from the Vietnam […]

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Google Plus is about to turn three: will media remember the hype?

As Google Plus nears yet another anniversary—I believe it’s its third next week—it’s interesting to reflect back on the much-hyped launch. Or, more accurately, on the number of people who drank the Google Kool-Aid and believed this would be the biggest thing since Facebook. Have a glance at the cheerleading: a handful of links I […]

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Frack away, IGas Energy: the Metropolitan Police has your back

The spirit of Gene Hunt is alive and well in the Greater Manchester Police, in the form of Sgt David Kehoe.    Arresting someone over drink driving when he has neither drunk nor driven reminds me of The Professionals episode, ‘In the Public Interest’, about a corrupt police force in an unnamed English city outside […]

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Russian mass media believe it’s the Putin right that counts

World Economic Forum, licensed under Creative Commons Vladimir Putin has won the first round in the presidential elections in Russia by such a margin that he won’t need to face rivals for a second-round run-off. But the one place where he scored less than half of the vote was in Moskva, the most educated and […]

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Optimism marks out the Indian decade

Symbiosis Institute of Media and Communication I’ve had a wonderful time in Pune and Mumbai, two cities to which I had wanted to go for some years. Like some New Agers say: be careful what you put out into the universe. It can come true.    My main reason for going was to address the […]

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Occupy, the brand

VBlessNYC, under Attribution-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic It was in the fourth quarter of the year that Occupy became a brand. Just capitalize it, and everyone knows what you mean. The original geographical indicator of Wall Street disappeared—to be fair, it began disappearing when similar protests began happening across the United States and then, the world—but I’ve […]

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Giving our young people a fair go

Earlier this month, I gave a workshop talk to the Leadership and Development Conference for the New Zealand Chinese Association in Auckland.    I’ve just uploaded the speech notes, and as I did so, I wanted to append a few more thoughts.    The topic was identity—not just branding, but personal identity.    My self-critique […]

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Glimmers of hope for the people of Christchurch

As jobs are vital to any economy, there is, at least, a glimmer of good news from Christchurch’s manufacturing sector.    Tait, Sanitarium, and Steel & Tube appear to have escaped major damage, says The New Zealand Herald.    It’s not much solace to those who have lost everything from homes to limbs to family […]

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