Hands-on with the jacket with Google woven in (video, bbc.co.uk).
“A partnership between Levi’s and Google has yielded the Jacquard, a denim jacket with technology woven into the fabric. Once paired to a smartphone via Bluetooth, the jacket allows the wearer to control key functions with just a brush or tap of the cuff. A double tap with two fingers, for example, starts or stops music.”
You know, I don’t see that taking off though because a.) wearable tech just hasn’t, à la Google Glass and Apple Watch b.) will it be even eventually available in more than two jacket designs and more than three denim colours c.) It likely tells your mum, Google or the NSA whether or what not deodorant you have on and sends “interesting” targeted body spray ads to Bluetooth’d smartphone.
While in the other online ad empire…
Facebook admits flaw in image moderation after BBC report (politicsbox.com).
“A Facebook executive has admitted to MPs its moderating process ‘was not working’ following a BBC investigation. BBC News reported 100 posts featuring sexualised images and comments about children, but 82 were deemed not to ‘breach community standards’. Facebook UK director Simon Milner told MPs the problem was now fixed.”
Indeed, but as with all those awkward stories of Google search indulging in racist personification (usatoday.com, Jul. 2015) little was said of tweak that had now “fixed”, as was case with Google’s notoriously secret search algorithm (fossbytes.com, Apr. 2015).
“He was speaking to the Commons Home Affairs committee alongside bosses from Twitter and Google as part of an investigation into online hate crime. The investigation reported dozens of posts through the website tool, including images from groups where users were discussing swapping what appeared to be child abuse material. … Mr Milner, who is the firm’s head of policy, told the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee he welcomed the reports as they exposed a flaw in its content moderation process.”
A “moderation process”—that has took much flak of late for banning breast cancer awareness and historical images (theguardian.com, Oct. 2016)—we can hope is not purely flagging dodgy material by the “GoogleTube Community”—“dodgy” being anything more popular than you yourself have uploaded—a nipplebot like Instagram which disabled an account thinking aunt Effie’s cake is a boob (dailydot.com, Apr. 2016), or “volunteer” moderators that so popularly made it unsure for artists on MySpace all those years ago whether their illustrated content was acceptable or not dependant upon moderators on that day’s own take.
Facebook’s cut-price hate video “police”: Social media giant “pays young Filipinos £1.81 an hour to assess and remove terror-related material from the site” (dailymail.co.uk, 28th May 2017).
A Mail on Sunday investigation has discovered the multi-billion pound social networking site employs hundreds of young Filipinos—some with limited English skills—who work gruelling shifts and say they earn just £1.81 an hour. They are forced to decide in seconds whether or not to delete videos, pictures and posts which are too graphic or violent. Staff face being sacked if they fail to meet strict quotas that mean they have to assess hundreds of extreme posts every shift.
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