An update on the Coronavirus, a new robot lawyer will do your bidding for just $3, and Twitter bans discriminatory remarks.
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Social media is still dominated by the ongoing spread of the coronavirus – or COVID-19 – leading to more cancelled conferences and events. As of the recording of this episode, there were 95,333 cases confirmed worldwide, with 30 confirmed cases in Canada. Of those numerous confirmed cases, there have been 3,282 confirmed deaths worldwide. Several major tech events have been cancelled recently, with Google I/O, Facebook F8, and Adobe Summit 2020, all either being cancelled or reworked into a digital event.
A running list of cancelled or postponed tech events due to COVID-19
While the introduction of the California Consumer Privacy Act, or the CCPA, has been lauded as a powerful tool for privacy, many people remain confused about how to actually exercise their CCPA rights. Enter DoNotPay, a startup that’s dominated Reddit over the weekend with its new service it calls Digital Health. According to the company, the service automates the process of contacting more than 100 data brokers on your behalf to ask them to delete your personal information. The service costs $3 per month, which has raised eyebrows from Redditors, many claiming the low price likely means a sub-par service. But others suggest the $3 price tag is worth it even if the service isn’t top notch.
Twitter now bans dehumanizing remarks based on age, disability, and disease. from technology
And for our final story of the day, Twitter has announced that it has updated its hate speech policies. The updated policy, which has been trending on Reddit all weekend, will now ban the use of discriminatory remarks that treat others as less than human – based on age, disability, or disease. The spread of the coronavirus has led to some recent examples of discrimination and hate online. That being said, the enforcement of such policies from social media platforms has always been easier said than done. So we shall see how this shakes out.
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.