Posts Tagged: Facebook

News

Clinical trial into ‘bubble baby disease’ back on track

Baby Evangelina Padilla-Vaccaro on the day she received a gene therapy stem cell transplant.(Photo: UCLAhealth.org)

Twenty children seeking treatment for a rare affliction called the “bubble baby disease” today have some big-time, good news concerning a life-saving genetic therapy that they were once denied as the result of a tangled affair that included private profit and the public funding of cutting-edge scientific research.  

Opinion

Big Tech’s assault on workers and democracy must be stopped

Workers at a February 2021 demonstration protesting Amazon's policies. (Photo: Sheila Fitzgerald, via Shutterstock)

OPINION: Our nation finds itself at a major crossroads. The anti-democratic forces that have sought to delegitimize the 2020 presidential election continue their movement to attack free and fair elections, aided and abetted by companies like Google and Facebook.

News

Relying on Big Tech in pandemic undermines public health system

An illustration of several Big Tech companies on a cell phone display. (Photo: Koshiro K, via Shutterstock)

Gov. Gavin Newsom has embraced Silicon Valley tech companies and health care industry titans in response to the covid-19 pandemic like no other governor in America — routinely outsourcing life-or-death public health duties to his allies in the private sector. At least 30 tech and health care companies have received lucrative, no-bid government contracts, or helped fund and carry out critical public health activities during the state’s battle against the coronavirus, a KHN analysis has found.

News

Say hello to Eleni Kounalakis

Eleni Kounalakis speaks to the Sacramento Press Club in August. (Photo: Associated Press/Steve Yeater)

Eleni Kounalakis bristles at the suggestion that she won the election for California lieutenant governor because of her wealthy father’s support. It’s true that her father Angelo Tsakopoulos is a very rich land developer. But his mother couldn’t read or write and he spent his early years working in the fields after arriving in this country from Greece.

Opinion

Cruelty-free cosmetics: Good for business

Shelves of cosmetics for sale in a store. (Photo: Scharfsinn, via Shutterstock)

OPINION: The bill, sponsored by Sen. Cathleen Galgiani, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, and Social Compassion in Legislation, would make it unlawful for any cosmetic manufacturer to import or sell any cosmetic, including personal hygiene products such as deodorant, shampoo, or conditioner, in California if the final product or any component of the product was tested on animals after Jan. 1, 2020.

News

Hot on the trail of the ‘bots’

A robot typing on a keyboard, a photo illustration depicting automated content. (Image: Mopic, via Shutterstock)

What’s in a name? When it comes to social media, maybe a lot more than you think. There is a move in the Capitol to force social media companies such as Twitter and Facebook to identify “bots,” those robot-like, automated accounts that move through the internet and interact with real people — and each other.

Analysis

CA120: Politics, data and Cambridge Analytica — a followup

An image of voters on a digital information background. (Illustration: Maksim Kabakou, via Shutterstock)

With all the headlines about Cambridge Analytica and the potential that millions of Facebook users had their data leaked to third parties, there is one obvious question on the minds of candidates and consultants: What will this mean for continued use of digital ads in my campaign? The answer: Probably nothing.

Analysis

CA120: The hard truths about data

Investigators probe the London premises of Cambridge Analytica last week, after a search warrant was issued by a High Court judge. (Photo: Yui Mok/Press Association, via AP)

It hasn’t been long since we learned of a presidential campaign that used personal information gleaned from Facebook apps to enhance voter files, and target voters and their friends with political messaging. This campaign was so sophisticated that they could identify people who would be swayed by particular messages, were more persuaded by messages about immigration, education, or health care, were likely or unlikely to vote, or even were likely to volunteer or donate money.

Opinion

Memo to Zuckerberg: Protect privacy

As you are no doubt aware, we are sponsoring a privacy initiative to appear on the November 2018 California ballot, the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018. The measure would allow California consumers to protect their personal information from the type of breach that just occurred at Facebook.

News

Net neutrality repeal a political battleground

Ethernet cables tangled over a digital device. (Photo illustration: Ivan Marc)

The latest skirmish in California-vs.-the-Trump-Administration is developing around the repeal of “net neutrality,” in which purveyors of internet access treat all data equally. The Federal Communications Commission, chaired by former Verizon executive Ajit Pai, repealed net neutrality in a Dec. 14 ruling on a party-line 3-2 vote, with the Republican commissioners in the majority.

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