Security, Spoken

Today, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said his company will hire 3,000 people to watch for violent footage posted to the site. The decision comes after two horrific videos caught global attention in recent weeks: a man uploaded a video of himself murdering a grandfather in Cleveland, and a man in Thailand hanged his infant and then himself in a Facebook Live video the authorities saw too late. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

If you get a Google Doc link in your inbox today, scrutinize it carefully before you click—even if it looks like it comes from someone you trust. A nasty phishing scam that impersonates a Google Docs request has swept the internet today, including a decent chunk of media companies. You’ve heard “think before you click” a million times, but it really could save you from a whole lot of hassle. Google has taken steps to neutralize this particular phish. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Last year, Capt. Sean Ruddy and his team of operator-soldiers from the US Cyber Brigade entered a Locked Shields, a NATO-organized cyber-defense war game that pits teams from dozens of countries against “live-fire” attacks. It was their first time. And of the 19 countries represented, the US finished dead last. This week, they got their shot at redemption. Locked Shields challenges participating countries to show off their defensive prowess, rather than offensive firepower. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

It must have seemed like such a good bet, as far as extortion attempts go. Steal one of Netflix’s prized original series months before it’s slated to air, and shake the streaming company down under threat of releasing it. But as season five of Orange Is the New Black‘s recent appearance on torrenting site The Pirate Bay shows, it was a crime destined destined for failure, because it misunderstood how streaming—and the internet at large—works today. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

It was a week full of revelations in the security world. A New York Times Uber story revealed that the company got in trouble with Apple over "fingerprinting" iPhones even after users deleted the app. It's a common enough practice, but Uber took it a few steps too far. And speaking of common practices, here's how to check which services have access to your Gmail and Facebook accounts-you might be surprised at how many do. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

The new Amazon Echo Look seems like a logical enough extension of Alexa, the company’s AI-powered digital assistant. Previously, Alexa lived inside speakers. Now, it’s in a camera. That progression belies just how much more the Echo Look could know about you than other Alexa hardware does—especially if Amazon ever unleashes the full power of its machine learnings smarts. Amazon envisions the Echo Look as a way to get fashion advice. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Once again Uber finds itself taking heat for questionable business practices. This time the company was using software to identify iPhones even after their owners deleted the Uber app, or even wiped the phones altogether. That technique, known as fingerprinting, isn’t uncommon—and shouldn’t be interpreted as tracking your every move. But Uber’s implementation crossed a line with Apple, in particular because it tried to hide what it was doing. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

No one wants murder videos on Facebook. But no one wants Facebook to censor their baby videos, either. Technology isn’t ready to step in and tell the difference. So what are the legal options for stopping videos like the appalling killing uploaded last week from hitting Facebook? None of them will be easy for Americans to swallow. The country could regulate Facebook like it does traditional broadcasters and media by holding the company accountable for the country it distributes. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

The pitch has plenty of appeal: Sign up for our service, and we’ll automatically unsubscribe you from all those pesky email lists. For free! Except, not quite; as it turns out, you end up paying in privacy. That’s just one revelation from a bombshell New York Times look at Uber, which showed how Unroll.me, the service described above, scans the email accounts of its users for information as granular as Lyft receipts to anonymize, package, and sell on the lucrative data market. Unroll. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

As end-to-end encrypted messaging apps have exploded in popularity, several well-known services have added encrypted calls as well. Why not, right? If it works for text-based chat, voice seems like a natural extension. If only it were that easy. Encrypting calls has plenty of value, keeping conversations strictly between the two parties. They can circumvent government wiretaps, or criminal snooping. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices