Privacy is something of a Marmite concept. Some cling to it in their personal lives, others let their activities and opinions all hang out on social media (not to mention in their back gardens). Some see it as the key bulwark against oppression, others as an impediment to protecting law-abiding citizens from criminals. The concept is big news, in the wake of the scandal over Cambridge Analytica’s alleged use of Facebook data – gathered by an academic – to influence voters in the Brexit referendum and the US presidential election. The European Commission, which has always valued privacy highly, is…
Author: Loknath Das
Andrew Cuomo all but declared war on the teachers union when he ran for governor of New York eight years ago. The centrist Democrat, who was the state attorney general at the time, campaigned on cutting education spending and capping property taxes (which fund public schools). He supported charter schools, which are publicly financed but privately run and typically don’t employ unionized teachers. The major teachers union in the state declined to endorse him; he won, nonetheless. When Cuomo unveiled his first budget, the union-backed Alliance for Quality Education released a video featuring its spokesperson—a familiar, telegenic woman standing in a home kitchen. “New York State has a budget to balance,…
What price can you put on a child’s education? It depends on who that child is. New figures show the average fee for attending a top private school has now risen above £17,000 a year for the first time. In contrast, a child attending a state school in England can expect to have £4,000 to £6,000 spent on them, depending on location and additional allowances. This would be worrying in any circumstances but when we have crumbling and cramped state schools, it feels almost grotesque. While some children enjoy drama halls and swimming pools, others are trying to learn surrounded by leaks,…
Social media managers take note: The Stories format Snapchat invented and Facebook ripped-off is on track to eclipse the ubiquitous News Feed format. According to a new report from social media agency Block Party, more than 970 million accounts across Instagram, WhatsApp, Snapchat, and Facebook Messenger currently consume or create Stories every day, an 842 percent increase since early 2016. From the second quarter of 2016 through the third quarter of 2017, the top 3 Stories products (Instagram, WhatsApp, and Snapchat) grew 15 times faster than the top News Feed platforms (Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter). “While Feeds generated a healthy 28 percent growth, that pales…
It’s undeniable that people stare at their phone screens too much. In fact, a Nielsen study found that the average adult spends five and a half hours every week on social media. That’s nearly 12 full days every year. If that doesn’t scare you enough, a lot of us are now addicted to social media. The rush of dopamine you get from likes, comments and retweets is actually rewiring your brain to crave Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. To test if you’re at risk for addiction, ask yourself: Do you feel like social media is keeping you from doing your best work or living up to your full…
China’s push to cleanse its internet of unsavory elements appears to have claimed an unlikely victim, with thousands of videos of children’s cartoon program “Peppa Pig”reportedly culled from a video app. Douyin, an online video platform owned by technology firm Beijing Bytedance Technology Co., removed all trace of the British TV show, the state-run China Dailyreported on Tuesday. The app had previously carried more than 30,000 videos related to Peppa Pig, according to state media. Searches of the Douyin app for the program — which follows the adventures of a young cartoon pig and her family — yielded no results on Wednesday.…
Imagine paying over $900 to a government agency just to be allowed to blog. This is what the government of Tanzania wants to require of its citizens. The Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority has given all online content providers until May 5 to submit massive amounts of documentation to earn state approval for what the Internet has always given for free. If you can’t pony up details of shareholders, share capital, citizenship of owners, staff qualifications, training programs and a tax clearance certificate, you risk a fine of at least $2,200 and/or a year-long prison sentence. While the rest of the progressive world is considering…
During his first trip to the free throw line in the third quarter Tuesday, Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry heard “MVP” chants. “Our crowd is crazy in general,” Curry said after the Warriors’ 121-116 win over the New Orleans Pelicans. “And whatever opportunity they have to kind of pick us up and create that home-court advantage that we rely on, that’s big for us.” In his return from a Grade 2 MCL sprain that he suffered on March 23, the two-time MVP played like his usual self, as he went for 28 points and seven rebounds in his postseason debut in Game 2 of…
Spruce Finance is exiting the residential efficiency and solar lending and property-assessed clean energy origination business, leaving behind an increasingly cutthroat space to attempt a comeback in the third-party-owned residential solar space. In a Tuesday email to its dealer partners, Spruce said it “will be exiting the efficiency and solar lending and PACE origination business effective immediately.” The San Francisco-based company said it would continue servicing its book of assets and loan portfolios, however, as well as continuing to “process and fund deals that have achieved specific milestones.” Spruce Finance did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Tuesday.…
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has given its approval to provide financial assistance at the rate ₹ 5.50 per quintal of cane crushed in sugar season 2017-18 to help sugar mills offset the cost of cane. The objective is to help sugar mills clear cane dues of farmers. The details are: * The assistance will be paid directly to farmers on behalf of the mills. * It will be adjusted against the cane price payable due to the farmers against fair and remunerative price (FRP), including arrears relating to previous years. * Subsequent balance, if any, will be credited…