The Tech Industry Is Clueless About People. Let’s Debug It.
Mother Jones illustration; Dimitris66/Getty In October, Google Maps rolled out an experimental feature that estimated the number of calories burned when people walked to their destinations. The feature had a little quirk, though: It used mini-cupcakes to illustrate the calorie counts. The backlash was immediate. Users pointed out that calorie counts could act as a…
Here Are the Social Media Ads That Russia Used to Influence the Election
The House intelligence committee on Wednesday released a trove of social media ads from 2016 that were created by firms connected to the Russian government with the purpose of influencing the election. The sample ads spanned a wide variety of divisive topics—religion, race gun control, and more—and appear to confirm lawmakers’ concerns that Russia sought…
Hackers Are Stealing Sensitive Student Data—And Schools are Paying Thousands of Dollars to Get it Back
FOTOKITA/iStock/GettyImages Earlier this month, students and parents in Johnston, Iowa, received a barrage of threatening text messages. “I’m going to kill some kids at your son’s high school,” one said, according to KCCI, a local Des Moines news outlet. The threats eventually caused the school district to shut schools for a day. And just last month, students and parents around…