Category Archives: News

Apple’s new privacy feature will change the web. And not everyone is happy about it.

📸: Jimmy Benson

With iOS 14.5, Apple has introduced some new privacy features that will limit targeted advertising.

By Daphne Leprince-Ringuet
📸: Jimmy Benson

Ever been spammed with sportswear adverts after looking up gym membership fees, or been bombarded with tempting hotel discounts upon booking flights for your next getaway?

These sort of adverts, almost eerie in how relevant they are to users’ interests, are now a common part of our experience of using apps and the web. But with the new release of iOS 14.5, and with it a new feature called App Tracking Transparency (ATT), these ads might now become less of a common sight.

The Cupertino giant, in effect, is introducing some limitations to the data collection practices that constitute the bread-and-butter of creepy targeted advertising arising from our use of apps.

ATT was confirmed earlier this year, and it is a major blow to most modern-day online advertising strategies. The feature requires apps to get users’ permission before tracking their data across other companies’ apps or websites for advertising purposes.

In other words, if users decide to select “Ask app not to track,” then the app’s developers will not be allowed to collect data about users’ behavior outside of the services provided on their own platform.

See More [ZDNet]

Where Are Those Shoes You Ordered? Check the Ocean Floor | WIRED

More containers have fallen off ships in the past four months than are typically lost in a year. Blame heavy traffic and rolling waves.

SINCE THE END of November, this is some of what has sunk to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean: vacuum cleaners; Kate Spade accessories; at least $150,000 of frozen shrimp; and three shipping containers full of children’s clothes. “If anybody has investments in deep-sea salvage, there’s some beautiful product down there,” Richard Westenberger, chief financial officer of the children’s clothing brand Carter’s told a conference recently. 

You can blame the weather, a surge in US imports tied to the pandemic, or a phenomenon known as parametric rolling.

All told, at least 2,980 containers have fallen off cargo ships in the Pacific since November, in at least six separate incidents. That’s more than twice the number of containers lost annually between 2008 and 2019, according to the World Shipping Council.

— Read on www.wired.com/story/where-shoes-ordered-check-ocean-floor/

Ex-Google Employees Build New Search Engine Down The Road From Google

Neeva Home Page Image

By Rebekah Dunne

You may have read about the social media platform built for good recently; well, how do you feel about a search engine created for privacy?

Sure, you have the likes of DuckDuckGo that offers additional privacy protections, and Mozilla Firefox, which has built-in cookie jars to prevent third parties from sharing your information, but this particular search engine is offering something that no other platform does.

Neeva is dedicated and extremely strict about operating its platform without ads.

“Search is the gateway to the world’s information, and with Neeva, we want to help you experience the Internet in a new way—free of distractions, prying eyes and frustration.”

BrownieBytes has a Question: Are you willing to pay $5-$10 a month for a subscription?

R. Michael Brown

The brand wants its users to see search results that aren’t dictated by advertisers.

So, if Neeva has ditched the ads, how is the search engine made available? The platform will operate on a subscription basis, costing users between $5-10 per month.

See More [SEJ Search Engine Journal

Article Table of Contents

  1. Built And Run By Ex-Googlers
  2. How Does Neeva Work?
  3. What Data Does Neeva Collect?
  4. How Does Neeva Use This information?
  5. So, How Is This Different?
  6. How Is This Different To Google?
  7. Do We Need Another Search Engine?
  8. Citations

Neeva isn’t available yet but you can check it out.

Explore Neeva and join their waitlist

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Homebuyers Are Heading to Florida During Covid, but Nearly as Many Are Moving Out – WSJ

By Candace Taylor

Thanks to hurricanes, heat and red-hot home prices, the state’s population growth hit its lowest rate since 2014 during the pandemic.

David Gewirtz never got used to the heat, even after 15 years in Florida.

Still, Mr. Gewirtz, who grew up in New Jersey, and his wife, Denise Amrich, liked their adopted hometown of Palm Bay, Fla., and probably would have stayed if it weren’t for the “brutal” hurricanes.

“Staring at those tracker maps for weeks before a hurricane hits starts to create a stress level,” said Mr. Gewirtz, a technology columnist in his early 50s. “It’s three weeks of wondering whether you’re going to have a house at the end.”

The couple evacuated their home in the path of 2017’s Hurricane Irma, kept driving until they got to Oregon and decided to stay.

— Read on www.wsj.com/articles/people-moving-to-florida-during-covid-11615463911

The Rise and Fall of the Cruise Industry

Cruise ships are scrapped and dismantled in an industry that's in a declining free fall.

By Robert Leslie , Noah Lewis , and Claire Price

Until COVID-19 hit, the global cruise industry was on course for a record-breaking year. But major coronavirus outbreaks on board ships cost lives, jobs, and damaged the reputation of the fastest-growing sector of the travel industry.

See More [Business Insider]

Small American Cities are Making Attractive Offers to Lure Tech Workers Away from the Metros

Fayetteville, Arkansas

Cities in North-West Arkansas are making offers to workers in New York and Los Angeles that’re simply too good to pass. Incentives including cash bonuses, free mountain bikes and year-long discounted rent prices.

Are you ready to move out of the big metro areas and why?

Europe’s tallest active volcano has been spewing lava for three weeks — and now its raining stones and ash on the villages below

Italy’s famed active volcano, Etna, has been spewing lava for over three weeks. On Sunday, March 7, the fiery mountain on the eastern coast of Sicily let out its tenth big blast of the season since February 16. Only this time, it also rained down ash and small lava stones on the town nearby.

At nearly 3,324 meters above sea level, Etna is the tallest active volcano in Europe. According to Italy’s National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology ( INGV), the giant exploded at approximately 2:00 am local time, pushing the column of ash and lava to a height of 10,000 metres.

The lava down below did not change direction and continues to flow from the southeast crater — down the side of the volcano that does not house any residents.

See More [Business Insider]