Month: September 2021

Contracted workers doing the same jobs for less pay and no job security are exposing the tech company’s workplace inequalities Ben Gwin works for Google Shopping in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Though he is technically a temporary worker at the tech giant, Gwin and 65 of his colleagues are now represented by the United Steelworkers union. The …

‘A race to the bottom’: Google temps are fighting a two-tier labor system Read More »

The escapades of the famously Italian brothers will be portrayed by a non-Italian voice cast in an upcoming animated film Thirty years since his first appearance in a video game, Mario is facing his biggest battle yet: on Twitter. The cast of an upcoming feature film based on the escapades of Mario and his motley …

It’s-a me, Chris Pratt: Super Mario Bros cast announcement sparks ridicule Read More »

We lived in our dream home. Then suddenly a huge chasm split our town. Rather than buy a new home for the move, we decided to transplant the house I moved to Malmberget – a town in the far north of Sweden, above the Arctic Circle – from a nearby village when I was four. …

Experience: our house was moved to a different town Read More »

Jimmy Wales says social media companies should follow the digital encyclopedia’s approach Facebook and Twitter should adopt Wikipedia’s approach to battling online abuse and misinformation by deploying thousands of volunteer moderators to monitor controversial posts, according to the digital encyclopedia’s founder. Jimmy Wales said the scale of the problem facing social media companies was underlined …

Facebook and Twitter ‘should use volunteer moderators’ says Wikipedia founder Read More »

Fresh privacy concerns raised after NHS refuses to reveal firms used for ID verification process Undisclosed companies are analysing facial data collected by the NHS app, which is used by more than 16 million English citizens, prompting fresh concern about the role of outsourcing to private businesses in the service. Data security experts have previously …

Undisclosed private companies analysing facial data from NHS app Read More »

Cryptocurrencies are a baffling entity but adopting it as legal tender is the strangest, most worrying aspect of all El Salvador this month became the first country to adopt a cryptocurrency – in this case, bitcoin – as legal tender. I say the first, because others might follow. But they should think twice, because the …

El Salvador’s adoption of bitcoin as legal tender is pure folly Read More »

There’s double-crossing intrigue in Smoke Screen. Plus: the return of Sorted with the Dyers, eclectic album chats in 33 1/3, and an ambitious look at the history of Afghanistan Smoke Screen“The first day that we’d met, she revealed that she had been assigned to infiltrate me as a spy.” So begins an intriguing new series …

Best podcasts of the week: paranoia and espionage in the tobacco industry Read More »

Faster chip, more storage and huge video call camera upgrade keep Apple’s cheapest tablet in front Apple’s updated low-end iPad looks set to continue its dominance of the market with newer chips, twice the storage and a brilliant new video-calling camera. The 10.2in iPad costs £319 ($329/A$499) – £300 for students – making it Apple’s …

Apple iPad 2021 review: still the best tablet for most people Read More »

Ride hailing company calls on rival operators to create a cross-industry pension scheme Uber is to pay out millions of pounds in missed pension payments to UK drivers dating back as far as 2017 under a deal with the retirement savings watchdog. The ride hailing company was forced to guarantee its 70,000 UK drivers a …

Uber to pay pensions to all its UK drivers, backdated to 2017 Read More »

Mediapart claims indicate that devices were targeted by NSO’s Pegasus spyware Traces of Pegasus spyware were found on the mobile phones of at least five current French cabinet ministers, the investigative website Mediapart has reported, citing multiple anonymous sources and a confidential intelligence dossier. The allegation comes two months after the Pegasus Project, a media …

Spyware ‘found on phones of five French cabinet members’ Read More »