Hashtag Trending – Google walkout organizer quits; Microsoft deletes facial recognition database; ASUS releases updates for an unreleased phone

The walkout organizer at Google has quit the company citing retaliation against her, Microsoft deleted the database it was using to train facial recognition, and ASUS releases updates for a phone it is not even selling yet.

Hashtag Trending on Amazon Alexa Google Podcasts badge - 200 px wide

It’s all the tech news that’s popular right now. Welcome to Hashtag Trending. It’s Monday June 10, and I’m your host, Buckley Smith.

Claire Stapleton, an employee of Google who was key in organizing the 20,000 person walkout over protests of the companies handling of sexual harassment allegations, has quit the company. And this has many people on Reddit buzzing about the news. In April, she, along with another of the walkout organizers said they had faced retaliation from management and claimed the company had tried to force them into new roles. But on Friday, Stapleton announced that she had left the company. In her statement, she said that despite how much she cared for the company in her career, the culture changed in 2017 and bigger scale issues like sexual harassment were not being addressed properly.

Sticking with Reddit, news has broken that Microsoft has deleted the database of images it was used to train facial recognition technology. The database, known as MS-Celeb-1M, began as a database of celebrity images, but over time it began to be filled with other like images of writers and journalists; totaling about 100,000 different individuals by the end. When asked for its reasoning for deleting the database, Microsoft simply said that the employee who was running the database is no longer with the company and therefore they removed the data.

Last up on the docket we have a story trending on Google about the not yet released ASUS phone, the ZenFone6. Despite it not yet being released, ASUS has already created four updates for the phone aimed at fixing such issues like the unusual camera solution, system stability, and auto brightness setting. Many in the industry are calling for other smartphone manufacturers to follow a similar proactive path instead of allowing bugs to be discovered by users after the release.

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 Buckley Smith. Thanks for listening.

Would you recommend this article?

Share

Thanks for taking the time to let us know what you think of this article!
We'd love to hear your opinion about this or any other story you read in our publication.


Jim Love, Chief Content Officer, IT World Canada

Featured Download

Buckley Smith
Buckley Smithhttps://www.itbusiness.ca
Staff writer for IT World Canada. Covering the world of technology as it applies to business. Buckley is an avid sports fan who loves travel, food, and music. Can be contacted at bsmith@itwc.ca or 416-290-2000.

Featured Articles

Cybersecurity in 2024: Priorities and challenges for Canadian organizations 

By Derek Manky As predictions for 2024 point to the continued expansion...

Survey shows generative AI is a top priority for Canadian corporate leaders.

Leaders are devoting significant budget to generative AI for 2024 Canadian corporate...

Related Tech News

Tech Jobs

Our experienced team of journalists and bloggers bring you engaging in-depth interviews, videos and content targeted to IT professionals and line-of-business executives.

Tech Companies Hiring Right Now