Christopher Deason stumbled upon the psychological questionnaire on June 9, 2014. He was taking a lot of online surveys back then, each one earning him a few dollars to help pay the bills. Nothing about this one, which he saw on an online job platform, struck him as “creepy or […] Read more »
What A Booming Economy Means For The Midterms
Despite a wave of controversies, President Trump’s popularity seems to be rising ever so slightly, according to a couple of recent polls. The bump may be linked to the fact that more Americans seem to be crediting Trump for the nation’s healthy economy. And that has raised one of the […] Read more »
Hey, Alexa, What Can You Hear? And What Will You Do With It?
… Amazon and Google, the leading sellers of such devices, say the assistants record and process audio only after users trigger them by pushing a button or uttering a phrase like “Hey, Alexa” or “O.K., Google.” But each company has filed patent applications, many of them still under consideration, that […] Read more »
How people feel about what companies do with their data is just as important as what they know about it
It’s been an exciting week for those of us interested in what companies do with people’s data. The revelation that Cambridge Analytica got its hands on 50 million people’s Facebook data and that Facebook, at least until 2015, made this possible, enabling apps to access not only user data but […] Read more »
The unhappy states of America: Despite an improving economy, Americans are glum
The U.S. economy looks pretty good by most measures: Jobs are plentiful, growth is picking up, prices aren’t rising too quickly, and unemployment is on track this year to hit the lowest level since 1969. But Americans aren’t happy. In fact, Americans are more glum now than they were during […] Read more »
Consumer sentiment: Record current finances clouded by trade uncertainties
The Consumer Sentiment Index reached the highest level since 2004, and the Current Conditions Index set a new peak, dating back to the mid-1940s, according to the University of Michigan Surveys of Consumers. Importantly, all of the March gain was among households with incomes in the bottom third; those in […] Read more »