Tracey Lien

More than half of US households have ditched landline phones

More than half of US households — 53.9% — rely entirely on cellphones, according to a survey from the National Center for Health Statistics, an arm of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 2006, only 15.8% of survey respondents said they didn’t have a landline telephone. The iPhone and its Android counterparts launched the next year, and the rate of landline abandonment has since steadily climbed. “There are countries in Europe where 80 to 90% of households are wireless only, so this trend could continue for some time,” said Stephen J.

Why do people hand over so much data to tech companies? It's not easy to say 'no'

By now, most consumers understand that data collection is a core part of advertising-based businesses such as Facebook, Google and Snapchat. The practice can often be a boon to consumers: The more people share with the companies, the better they are able to serve up ads, search results, product recommendations and music and movie suggestions tailored to an individual's liking. Yet many remain unaware of the type of data collected and what companies ultimately do with it. While the answers often lie in privacy policies and terms of service agreements, few take the time to look them over.

Propaganda, lies and social media: Harvard's Nicco Mele on how the tech we love hurts us

Five years ago. Nicco Mele warned that technology — particularly social media — was taking power from big institutions and and giving it to individuals. When used for good, he said in his 2013 book “The End of Big: How the Internet Makes David the New Goliath,” new technologies could empower individuals, give smaller players a fighting chance and challenge incumbents. But there was also a dark side to the power shift, warned Mele, the director of the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics, and Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School.

Tech workers aren't known for political activism. But that may be changing

Donald Trump’s presidential victory sent a shock wave through the socially liberal but generally politically detached tech industry, catalyzing something of an awakening in Silicon Valley. Some tech workers who had long toed their companies’ apolitical lines saw Trump’s win as a turning point; the moment when they should become more vocal about their views.

In the months since the election, some workers have organized protests. Others have joined fledgling activist groups such as the Tech Workers Coalition, or the recently-formed Tech Solidarity. Many are now looking for ways big and small to allay their own fears of how a Trump administration might affect issues such as privacy, immigration, and civil rights. The recent election has also made some in Silicon Valley reflect on the industry’s responsibility as creators of services used by governments and political candidates.

Tech workers pledge to never build a database of Muslims

When asked in 2015 on the campaign trail whether he thought the United States should create a database of Muslims in the country, Donald Trump said, “Oh, I would certainly implement that — absolutely." On Dec 13, hundreds of members of the technology industry weighed in on whether they would help build such a database. The answer? Absolutely not. By Dec 14 some 590 software engineers, designers, business executives and data processing personnel from US firms such as Google, Twitter, Microsoft, Mozilla and Palantir Technologies had signed a pledge “choosing to stand in solidarity with Muslim Americans, immigrants, and all people whose lives and livelihoods are threatened by the incoming administration’s proposed data collection policies."

As part of the pledge, the individuals promised, among other things, to:

  • Refuse to participate in the creation of databases that would allow the government to target individuals based on race, religion or national origin
  • Advocate within their organizations to minimize data collection that would facilitate ethnic or religious targeting
  • Responsibly destroy high-risk data sets and backups
  • Resign from their organization if ordered to build such a database