alphabet

Bias, subtweets, and kids: Key takeaways from Big Tech’s latest outing on the Hill

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Enlarge / There was no fancy Hill hearing room for this all-virtual event, so Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey dialed in from… a kitchen. Daniel Acker | Bloomberg | Getty Images A trio of major tech CEOs—Alphabet’s Sundar Pichai, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, and Twitter’s Jack Dorsey—once again went before Congress this week to explain their roles …

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Google tells harassment victims to take “medical leave,” report finds

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Enlarge / Sunset, over the Google empire. 400tmax | Getty Images A new report alleges that Google employees who report experiencing gender or racial harassment or discrimination routinely are told to take “medical leave” and seek mental health treatment—only to be shoved aside when they try to come back. Nearly a dozen current and former …

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Alphabet’s Wing argues new US drone rules will hurt privacy

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Wing Alphabet’s Wing is less than thrilled with the FAA’s new rules for drone ‘license plates,’ and it’s pushing for significant changes. Reuters and The Verge report that the drone delivery company has attacked the rules for remote IDs, warning that they might have “unintended consequences” for privacy. Wing argued that the requirement to use …

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FTC kicks off sweeping privacy probe of nine major social media firms

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Enlarge Aurich Lawson / Ars Technica The Federal Trade Commission is stepping up its digital privacy work and has asked just about every major social media platform you can think of to explain what personal data it collects from users and why. The requests for information went out today to nine platforms (or their parent …

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Alphabet CEO: Plan to target EU commissioner was not “sanctioned” by me

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Enlarge / EU Commissioner for Internal Market Thierry Breton talks to media during a press conference in June. Thierry Monasse | Getty Images The chief executive of Google’s parent company Alphabet has apologized to Thierry Breton after an internal document laid out a plan to attack the EU commissioner and promised that such tactics were …

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Alphabet delivers wireless Internet over light beams from 20km away

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Enlarge / Piloting Taara’s wireless optical communication links in Kenya. Allphabet Alphabet will soon deliver wireless Internet over light beams in Kenya using a technology that can cover distances of up to 20km. Alphabet’s Project Taara, unveiled under a different name in 2017, conducted a series of pilots in Kenya last year and is now partnering …

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Alphabet’s Loon sets a new record for longest stratospheric flight

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Alphabet Google parent Alphabet has revealed that one of its Loon balloons spent 312 days aloft, breaking its previous stratospheric flight record of 223 days, by a wide margin. It had quite a journey during that time, launching in Peurto Rico and heading to Peru, where it provided three months of test internet service. It …

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Alphabet’s Mineral moonshot wants to help farmers with robotic plant buggies

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Alphabet / Mineral In 2018, Alphabet’s X lab said it was in the process of exploring how it could use artificial intelligence to improve farming. On Monday, X announced that its “computational agriculture” project is called Mineral. The Mineral team has spent the last several years “developing and testing a range of software and hardware prototypes based …

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House: Amazon, Facebook, Apple, Google have “monopoly power,” should be split

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Enlarge / The United States Capitol Building, the seat of Congress, on the National Mall in Washington, DC. Omar Chatriwala | Getty Images Last June, the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial, and Administrative Law began an in-depth investigation into four major firms—Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google. The subcommittee wanted to answer one key question: …

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Alphabet, shareholders settle in lawsuits over sexual harassment at Google

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Enlarge / Google’s corporate headquarters. Alex Tai | SOPA Images | LightRocket | Getty Images Alphabet, Google’s parent company, said today it has settled a set of shareholder lawsuits related to the company’s handling of sexual harassment claims. Alphabet will commit $310 million to corporate diversity programs over the next decade, and the company agreed …

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