Denmark to review court cases after discovering faulty cell location data, unsafe items being are sold on Amazon, YouTube terminates more than 200 accounts undermining Hong Kong protests.
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That’s all the tech news that’s trending today. It’s Monday, August 26th, and I’m your host, Tom Li.
Trending on Reddit, Denmark is reviewing more than 10,000 court cases after reports of incorrect cell location tracking. Cell phone location data can link a person’s whereabouts to a crime, and if it’s flawed, then it could lead to wrongful convictions. According to the New York Times, in a few instances, some cellphones were erroneously linked to the wrong tower, which could have mislabelled innocents to crime scenes. Affected cases date back all the way to 2012 and are undergoing review.
Trending on Reddit again, Amazon has been caught items that were deemed unsafe by federal agencies. A Wall Street Journal investigation revealed more than 4,000 items, many of which are toys and medications, that have been deemed unsafe or lack the proper warning labels. In response to the report, Amazon says that its automated vetting AI has blocked more than three billion suspicious items from being sold in 2018 alone. Unfortunately, even a marginal error in the algorithm can result in massive consequences for a platform as big as Amazon.
Finally, trending on Google, YouTube has terminated over 200 channels tied to Chinese media reporting on the ongoing Hong Kong protest. In a blog post, Google stated that the accounts showed masking behaviors that tried to hide its origins, which are consistent with influence operations related to China. Google’s move came just two days after both Facebook and Twitter had swept up hundreds of accounts that undermined the protest in Hong Kong on the grounds that they’re linked to the Chinese government.
That’s all the tech news that’s trending right now. Hashtag Trending is a part of the ITWC Podcast network. Add us to your Alexa Flash Briefing or your Google Home daily briefing. I’m Tom Li, thanks for listening.