Canadian small businesses revolt against Amazon, schools in the U.S. are buying surveillance tech, and what’s up with these big tech firms leaving California?
It’s all the tech news that’s popular right now. Welcome to Hashtag Trending! It’s Monday, December 14, and I’m your host Alex Coop.
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A recent call to action from a single small business in Toronto has blossomed into a massive campaign led by Canadian small businesses seeking to boost the local economy. Not-Amazon.ca, spearheaded by Toronto’s Ali Haberstroh, began as a list of local shops but now contains more than 2,000 store listings across Toronto, Calgary, Halifax, and Vancouver. CBC says since the site went live a few weeks ago, it’s had more than 100,000 views. [Visit the website here]
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U.S. Schools Are Buying Phone-Hacking Tech That the FBI Uses to Investigate Terrorists from technology
A story from Gizmodo is serving readers a frightening reminder of how tech originally developed for the military and intelligence services keeps trickling down to domestic police and even local schools. The publication reviewed accounting documents from eight school districts in the U.S., seven of which are in Texas, showing school administrators paid more than $11,500 for controversial surveillance tech like mobile forensics tools. These tools can siphon text messages, photos, and application data from student’s devices.
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And lastly, Database-software giant Oracle is moving its headquarters from Redwood Shores, California, to Austin, Texas, a company spokesperson confirmed to Business Insider. But the move is just the latest in a string of tech giants fleeing the San Francisco Bay Area for the Southern state. Tesla CEO Elon Musk has recently made it public that he’s moving operations to Texas. [Twitter thread]
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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 Alex Coop, thanks for listening.