SACRAMENTO — New California data shows insurance companies declined to renew nearly 350,000 home insurance policies in areas at high risk for wildfire since the state began collecting data in 2015. The data released this week did not say how many people who lost their insurance were able to purchase...
The Internet Is Rotting – Let’s Embrace It
I have just taken an entire website and gigabytes of data offline. It covered a highly successful series of conferences on the data economy. It brought together thought leaders and key decision-makers from around the world for annual retreats – over a decade ago. And now it is gone. Every...
Girls Cyberbullied More Than Boys as Harassment Increases
SEATTLE — Rachel Whalen remembers feeling gutted in high school when a former friend would mock her online postings, threaten to unfollow or unfriend her on social media and post inside jokes about her to others online. The cyberbullying was so distressing that Whalen said she contemplated suicide. Once she...
Equifax to Pay up to $700M in Data Breach Settlement
WASHINGTON — Equifax will pay up to $700 million to settle with the U.S. and states over a 2017 data breach that exposed Social Security numbers and other private information of nearly 150 million people. The settlement with the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Federal Trade Commission, as...
Myths and Risks in App That Gives You Peek Into Older Self
SAN FRANCISCO — Is a peek into the future worth your privacy in the present? That concern was pushed to the spotlight this week with the resurgence of a smartphone app that uses artificial intelligence to transform your current face into your younger and older selves. People raised fears on...
Google to Acquire Data Firm Looker for $2.6 Billion
NEW YORK — Google is acquiring data analytics firm Looker for $2.6 billion cash in an effort to expand its Google Cloud business. The company says Looker will give its cloud-computing customers more ways to use their data. The companies were already working together and share about 350 customers including...
State Lawmakers Block Expansion of Data Privacy Law
SACRAMENTO — California lawmakers blocked an effort to expand the state's sweeping new data privacy law Thursday, handing a victory to the tech industry as it faces mounting scrutiny over how it collects, stores and sells consumers' information. The California Consumer Privacy Act will be the first of its kind...
3 Reasons Why People Fall for Politicians’ Lies About Statistics
Why do people make such poor decisions about politics? Why are they so often distracted by lies, irrelevant alternatives and specious arguments? Politicians use and abuse statistics and fabricate when it suits their purposes. Contemporary examples of either deliberate or inadvertent misuse of data are easy to find on all...
How Much Did Interest Groups Pay per Vote? The Answer, as We Break Down the Midterms With Data.
Ballot propositions are an expensive business in California. In the lead-up to November’s election, advocates spent an eye-popping $409 million for or against 11 ballot measures. Among these were a mix of earnest policy initiatives of broad public interests (say, making daylight saving time permanent) and narrow proposals that sought to...
How to Find and Delete Where Google Knows You've Been
Even if you have "Location History" off, Google often stores your precise location. Here's how to delete those markers and some best-effort practices that keep your location as private as possible. But there's no panacea, because simply connecting to the internet on any device flags an IP address that can be...