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Daily Archives: June 4, 2021
Yieldstreet Announces $100M in Series C to Usher In New Era of Investing – Business Wire
Posted: June 4, 2021 at 3:32 pm
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Yieldstreet, a leading digital investing platform driven to help millions of people claim financial independence by unlocking access to previously unattainable alternative investments, today announced its $100 million Series C funding round.
Tarsadia Investments, led the round, joined by Kingfisher Investment, Top Tier Capital Partners and Gaingels. Existing investors, Edison Partners, Soros Fund Management, Greenspring Associates, Raine Ventures, Greycroft and Expansion Venture Capital also participated. Yieldstreet will channel the new funding to expand its user base, develop new investment products, explore international expansion, and pursue strategic acquisitions.
Yieldstreet was founded by Milind Mehere and Michael Weisz to digitally transform and democratize access to alternative investments, historically the near-total domain of the ultrawealthy and institutional investors. With the diversification opportunity offered by the Yieldstreet platform, retail investors can now modernize their digital portfolios across multiple asset classes and strategies. The appeal of these newly available options is seen in strong investor demand for Yieldstreets investment platform; both investment requests and new investors have surged through May of 2021, each up over 250% over 2020, with new investors already exceeding all of 2020.
Were on the brink of the greatest wealth transfer in history as Baby Boomers pass the torch to new generations. The consumer has changed, yet the tools and infrastructure in wealth management havent kept pace, says Mehere, CEO and Founder of Yieldstreet. Its a new worlda mobile-first digital oneso weve created a platform to eliminate the built-in friction points to better connect with consumers wherever they are, help educate and provide access to investments to fuel their life goals.
The Series C investment underscores the industrys growing recognition of Yieldstreet as a transformative digital platform capable of helping investors reach new streams of wealth to propel their financial outcomes and realize long-horizon goals. As the era of digital transformation accelerates, Yieldstreet is uniquely positioned to help individuals tap into modern investment strategies, with portfolios working around the clock to automatically apply earned income toward everyday expenses.
The 60/40 investment model is over; you simply cant retire on bonds yielding less than two percent, so alternatives are not optional but needed for every portfolio, says Mitch Caplan, President of Tarsadia Investments and former CEO of E*TRADE. Milind and Michael have a clear understanding of what is needed and have assembled a strong leadership team to unlock the future of investing, today. I have no doubt that Yieldstreet will be a household name in alternative investmentswhich sets them worlds apart from other ventures weve analyzed.
Having an investor like Tarsadia with Caplans vast experience, which includes spearheading the transformation of E*TRADE to a fully integrated online investing platform as the companys CEO, validates Yieldstreet's strategic plan as it scales its offerings to a full-service digital wealth management platform across distribution channels and investment classes.
We deserve to have our money work as hard for us as we do for it, added Weisz, President, Chief Investment Officer, and Founder of Yieldstreet. By creating a digitally native investment platform providing a beautiful user experience, transparency and a portfolio that generates passive income and asset growth via an array of alternative investments, were fundamentally changing the way the Yieldstreet community interacts with their money.
About Yieldstreet
Yieldstreet is reimagining the way wealth is created by providing access to alternative investments previously reserved only for institutions and the ultra-wealthy. Yieldstreets mission is to help millions of people generate $3 billion of income outside the traditional public markets by 2025. Its award-winning technology platform provides access to investment products across a range of asset classes such as Real Estate, Commercial, Consumer, Art, Marine, Legal Finance and Aviation. Since its founding in 2015, Yieldstreet has funded over $1.9 billion of investments and is committed to making financial products more inclusive by creating a modern investment portfolio. The company, headquartered in New York City with offices in Brazil, Greece, and Malta, is backed by leading venture capital firms. Join the movement at http://www.yieldstreet.com.
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Yieldstreet Announces $100M in Series C to Usher In New Era of Investing - Business Wire
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Why should women take control of their finances and how? LXME founder Priti Rathi Gupta explains | Interview – The Financial Express
Posted: at 3:32 pm
Planning for the unforeseen and learning to save and invest due to falling incomes have pushed women to take control of their finances in these trying times. Representative image/Pexels
Financial Planning has become more important for women, especially in times like Covid pandemic which has disrupted livelihoods and destroyed thousands of families across the country. According to LXME founder Priti Rathi Gupta, financial independence is an essential life skill every woman should be well equipped with in order to be truly independent. The Covid-19 pandemic and its impact have further added impetus to the importance of financial planning and independence for women.
Planning for the unforeseen and learning to save and invest due to falling incomes have pushed women to take control of their finances in these trying times. In these uncertain times of COVID-19, we have in fact seen circumstances prompt greater ownership from women. Gupta said this systemic shift has arisen from various interests in financial preparedness, personal finances, investment behaviours and challenges faced earlier in the case of saving and investing.
In an e-mail interaction with FE Online, Gupta explained further why women should take control of their finances and the steps they should take for this purpose. Excerpts:
In order to be truly independent, financial freedom should be the topmost privilege that every woman should aim for. Women are born money managers. When armed with the right attributes of being risk-aware, disciplined, making informed decisions, and staying calm under stress, women can go from managing home budgets to smart investors. When women begin to invest and grow their money, they carry the potential to bring about a societal change, because they begin by investing back into their community and children. The future of financial freedom for women is the onset of an evolutionary change, and it begins with a simple adaptation of money management, as a life skill.
ALSO READ | Why do smart people make stupid money mistakes?
Women have the knowledge of finance and yet are dependent on the male members of their household to make the decisions. Financial acumen and wealth creation are a joyous experience and if we simplify it and break the barriers between finances and women, the trailblazers of financial feminists would be leading the way in no time.
The first step in the journey of becoming financially fit and independent is to understand your financial patterns. This means that not only is it essential to be aware of your earnings, its also important to be aware about your significant expenditure. Use a journal or an online spreadsheet to write it down and understand your financial behaviour. Make sure you jot down all details as they will further help you make decisions accordingly.
Set financial goals since the very beginning, especially for short term plans like a trip or buying a car. For long term goals, you can consider investing in real estate or decide to use different investment mechanism to create wealth, depending on your goal. Keep aside at least 30% of your monthly income to fulfil these goals.
Time-based investment tools like Systematic Investment Plans and incremental investment through lump sum helps in building a healthy portfolio. SIP is among the most effective tools to invest. Automation is a great place to start and reach financial independence as fast as you can. The strategy is to make, save, and invest as much money you can. Try to increase the automation savings amount once every few months.
An emergency fund can help one stay afloat in times of a financial crisis such as the current one. Also, this fund should be quickly and easily available as cash, if and when required because there is no point of having money which is not liquid since you wont be able to withdraw it when emergency strikes.
No freedom can be achieved overnight, and the same goes for financial freedom as well. Staying up to date with the trends and terms can help expand your knowledge and avenues. Whether you do it with the help of a financial advisor or by taking courses online, but constantly upgrading your knowledge will help you feel more confident and adapted to the financial world.
It is important to reach out to professionals like registered financial advisors, who in turn would help you select and decide the best financial tools and investment avenues available in the market to achieve your financial goals. You could also consider joining a financial community like being LXME, etc., where motivated individuals and members, with a common goal, are willing to share tips and discuss their journeys. Such platforms help you be accountable, and you can learn techniques to manage your money better.
ALSO READ | Not following these 7 points will make Covid-19 claim difficult for you
What is LXME?
LXME is Indias 1st Financial Platform for Women, which aims to bridge the gap between women and finance with a community led expert-backed hassle-free platform curated for women.Women have differentiated financial needs; differentiated earning potential, career peaks, career breaks, longer life expectancy and a different approach & mind-set toward financial planning. It is thus imperative for women to take charge of their money through smart planning and investing best suited for their needs. Financial Freedom is the topmost privilege for any woman and LXME helps inspire that.
Today, LXME is a fast growing robust community led financial management, planning, and education platform for women. We aim to inspire a wave of financially fearless women to actively manage their money and achieve their dreams.
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Pension crisis as gaps widen between men and women in saving – are you affected? – Express
Posted: at 3:32 pm
Pensionsaving is an endeavour undertaken years in advance, with Britons ensuring they are amply protected for retirement. However, undoubtedly, impacts in the present are likely to have a knock on effect in the future. With Britons grappling with the fallout of the pandemic, may have been financially affected, but research has shown it is single women who face the most challenges.
While this can provide great opportunities for financial independence, its also a significant responsibility to shoulder, not least for the 90 percent of two million single parents in the UK, who are women.
Our research reveals the extend to which the financial gaps between men ad women have been widened as a result of the pandemic, with the impact on single women greatest.
Now, with many needing to prioritise their day to day finances and recover on income gaps, there are fears about financial certainty in the future.
Ms Currie expressed worry about the gender pension gap potentially being further exacerbated due to the challenging circumstances faced over the last year.
Indeed, long-term savings could also be jeopardised, potentially creating financial chaos later down the line.
Earlier this year, research from Fidelity showed the disproportionate financial impact of the pandemic upon women.
Women were found to be 1.5 times more likely to have lost or quit their jobs during the pandemic.
And women were far more likely to be furloughed, while those who stayed in work often lost productivity due to other responsibilities and pressures such as caring for children or older relatives.
For those who are looking to secure a long-term financial future, Ms Currie urged action as soon as possible.
Firstly, it is important to review ones financial situation to look at monetary health.
While everyone approaches money differently, looking at ones short and long-term goals while eliminating any unnecessary spending will be key.
Next, it will be important to have some funds set aside waiting in the wings for the right moment.
The pandemic created a financial shock for many, and to avoid similar circumstances happening in the future, creating an emergency fund is important.
Generally, experts suggest an easy access fund worth three to six months of money, but Britons can adjust this according to their needs.
Finally, taking a long-term view is likely to benefit individuals in the future - with building a nest egg particularly vital.
Ms Currie concluded: A monthly investment into a self-invested personal pension or ISA is an easy and tax efficient way to help give you the financial freedom you want for the future.
This step is even more crucial for women given the gender pay gap and womens propensity to choose saving over investing.
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Pension crisis as gaps widen between men and women in saving - are you affected? - Express
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Sexual violence is a hidden impact of the climate crisis thats not discussed enough – VOGUE India
Posted: at 3:32 pm
We know the climate crisis is already herewith environmental destruction leading to many people being displaced from their homes, as well as causing health problems and economic hardship. And generally, the impacts of climate change are felt by women and girls the most.
The UN estimates that more than 80 per cent of people displaced by climate change are women, partly due to gendered labour roles such as having to stay behind after disasters to care for children and elders. In the 2004 tsunami, an Oxfam report showed that men survived women at a shocking ratio of almost 3:1 in Sri Lanka, Indonesia and India.
One aspect thats not often discussed, though, is how the aftermath of climate disasters can often lead to an increase in sexual violence against women, girls and other marginalised genders of all ages. The reasons for this are multifaceted, and go back to issues of exploitation and displacement, which impact Indigenous, Black, and migrant people the most.
After natural disasters, women who are displaced can end up in unsafe, overcrowded shelters and other facilities where theyre at greater risk of sexual assault, Osub Ahmed, senior policy analyst of womens health and rights at US thinktank the Center for American Progress, tells Vogue.
Almost a third of sexual assaults reported during Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita, both in 2005, took place at evacuation shelters in the predominantly Black city of New Orleans, according to a 2006 survey by the National Sexual Violence Resource Center, while a rise in sexual violence was also reported in Japan in the immediate aftermath of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami.
The economic strain that often follows such disasters can also take away womens financial independence, and often their partners, forcing them to travel further to get resources, such as wood or water in refugee camps, or find work. Psychological and emotional stresses indirectly caused by climate changejob loss, being displaced from your home, or experiencing general civil unrestcan lead to higher levels of sexual violence in the home, Ahmed continues.
New research published in BMJ Global Health explores this connection between the climate crisis and domestic violence, highlighting cases of murder, coercive control, aggressive behaviour, forced early marriage and financial abuse. The study found that more than a third of perpetrators were current or ex-partners, while 15 per cent were relatives.
In communities where extractive mining of fossil fuels or the construction of chemical plants take place, Indigenous communities are also at risk of violence from the sudden influx of mostly male transient workers, according to Amnesty Internationals Out of Sight, Out of Mind 2016 report, as young men are statistically more likely to be perpetrators of violent crime.
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Mindy Diamond on Independence: The Catalysts Behind the Growth of Mega-Firm Cerity Partners – WealthManagement.com
Posted: at 3:32 pm
What do you get when you cross a successful wealth management executive with a New York billionaire?
You get a spectacular $31B firm.
ForKurt Miscinski, his meeting with New York-based billionaire and entrepreneur Howard Milstein could possibly be called serendipitous.
Because at that time, Kurt was considering leaving his management role at Deutsche Bank and Howard was looking to make long-term strategic investments in the wealth management space.
As a high-profile executive at Deutsche Bank, Kurt certainly had options. But instead he saw the early potential of building a full-service wealth management RIA firm that can serve ultra-high net worth families, executives and companies.
So in 2009 HPM Partners was borna firm with zero assets but with Kurts crystal clear vision and the backing of investor Howard Milstein.
After starting from scratch and growing to $9B in less than a decade, renowned private equity firm Lightyear Capital invested in HPM and then later rebranded the firm to Cerity Partners.
Today, Cerity manages over $31B in assets, a result of their strategic organic growth initiatives complemented by an inorganic growth strategy that led to a string of high-profile M&A transactions.
Kurt shares the story with Louis Diamond, starting with the early stages of HPM on through to Cerity Partners today, including:
Kurt shares a unique vision on growth and how its impacted by cultureone that is based on running to something rather than away from something. Its an incredible story with key learnings for advisors and business owners alike.
Download a transcript of this episode
Listen to more episodes of Mindy Diamond on Independence:A Podcast for Financial Advisors Considering Change.
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Join in on the Summit County treasure hunt – TownLift
Posted: at 3:31 pm
COALVILLE, Utah. The Summit County Library is offering a unique treasure hunt activity, geocaching. For the unindoctrinated, geocaching is an outdoor treasure hunt, using GPS technology to guide participants to hidden treasures called geocaches. Players simply download the free geocaching app on their phones (iPhone & Android).
Coalville Branch Library Manager Susan Murph Murphy said in a statement, When my kids were little, they were NOT fans of hiking. Then we discovered geocaching and used it to get our kids excited to search for hidden geocaches along hiking trails. It worked like a charm! Murph had read that other libraries throughout the country had implemented geocaching programs and knew the charming town of Coalville would be a perfect fit.
The Summit County librarians worked with Joe Frazier, the Summit County Historian, to choose five important historic locations throughout Coalville. In a statement, Frazier said, It was difficult to narrow it down to five locations, actually! There are so many historic locations in town, but we chose five spots that are especially interesting.
Librarian Diane Brown caught the geocache bug and began to search for geocaches throughout Summit County to understand the activity. She said in a statement, There are hundreds of geocaches in our county; its pretty amazing. Ive become a bit of a geocaching fanatic and have pulled off the road on the way to the grocery store, just to search for a geocache!
One doesnt have to search far to find other geocaching fanatics like Chris Rock. Geo-guru Rock lives in Salt Lake City, has worked at Deer Valley for 15 years, and geocached in all 50 states plus Washington D.C. Shes geocached in the following 13 Countries:
At the behest of the State of Utahs tourism project, Utah GeoTour, back in 2016, Rock placed one near the city hall in Coalville, one near the Kamas City Hall, and even one intended to be done at night at the rodeo ground in Oakley. Theres also been one near the Rafter Bs convenience store in Wanship. She volunteers with a trip planning site for geocachers.
Rock said, I enjoy caching because of the places it takes me. Whether a mountain top, an unknown park, or something more unusual (Micronations anyone? e.g. Zaqistan, Molossia) theres always a cache to bring me there. With an interruption from the pandemic, I have been hosting a monthly caching hike for over 12 years. Its a way to get local cachers (sometimes out of towners too) together and find some caches along the trails of the Wasatch mountains. The mental challenges of solving puzzles to get the coordinates for some caches or opening clever gadget caches keep things interesting even in an urban environment.
All five geocaches within the Summit County Librarys new system are within walking distance from the Coalville Branch Library, and for those looking for a little exercise, it is a total of 6,723 steps. The geocaches are also drivable for those who prefer to drive. The librarians hope that after completing the geocache activity, people will stop in the library, then visit one of the family-owned restaurants along Coalvilles Main Street.
Kids and adults throughout Summit County are invited to participate in the Coalville Geocache Challenge, which runs June 1 through August 18, and everyone who completes the activity will be entered in a prize drawing for gift cards to local restaurants.
For more information on the Coalville Geocache Challenge, visit the librarys website or call 435-336-3070.
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Google is moving parts of YouTube to its cloud service – CNBC
Posted: at 3:30 pm
Sundar Pichai, Alphabet CEO
David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Google is moving parts of its popular YouTube video service from the advertising company's internal data center infrastructure to the company's cloud service, the head of Google's cloud said.
The effort indicates Google is looking inward as it seeks to expand its share of the growing cloud-computing market and become less reliant on advertisements appearing on its web search engine and other properties.
Historically, Google has leaned on its own systems to run its most widely used applications across computer servers in its data centers. The Google Cloud Platform offering has coexisted separately, and Google has not undertaken the effort to migrate its eponymous search engine, for example, to the Google public cloud.
But the company's perspective on the value of having its top products use the cloud just like third-party applications has shifted.
"Part of evolving the cloud is having our own services use it more and more, and they are," Thomas Kurian, CEO of Google Cloud, told CNBC in an interview last month. "Parts of YouTube are moving to Google Cloud."
The change will bring Google more in line with its main U.S. competitors, Amazon and Microsoft.
In 2019 Amazon said its consumer business had turned off its final Oracle database in favor of databases from Amazon Web Services, after years of work. Microsoft has sought to make its LinkedIn social network and Minecraft video game more dependent on the company's own Azure public cloud.
The Google Workspace bundle of productivity apps formerly known as G Suite, the Waze navigation app and the DeepMind artificial intelligence research group all draw on Google cloud infrastructure, Kurian said.
YouTube is different. It's the second-largest website on the internet, according to Amazon's Alexa analytics tool, with more than 2 billion users each month. Google bought the property in 2006 for $1.65 billion.
Google's decision to consume public-cloud resources for YouTube and other consumer services might make life easier for the company's salespeople, who are constantly trying to persuade large companies to try building on the Google cloud or running existing applications on the Google Cloud Platform. Salespeople will be able to say the Google cloud is good enough for the company's business-critical workloads.
That, over time, could boost Google's cloud revenue. In the first quarter nearly 58% of Google parent Alphabet's revenue came from the Google Search and Other category, which includes advertising displayed on Google's web search engine, Gmail, Google Maps and other online destinations it operates. Google's cloud business, which includes the public cloud and Google Workspace, delivered 7% of revenue but grew faster.
The cloud unit has narrowed Alphabet's operating margin with billions in annual losses for at least three years, but the largest cloud infrastructure provider by revenue, Amazon Web Services, has become a key source of profit.
Google held 5% of the cloud infrastructure market in 2019, while Amazon had 45% and Microsoft had about 18%, according to technology industry research company Gartner. Gartner has not released more recent figures.
WATCH: Google Cloud's Thomas Kurian on the future of cloud and Google
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Google is moving parts of YouTube to its cloud service - CNBC
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Google follows Apple’s lead and makes it harder for advertisers to track users on Android – CNBC
Posted: at 3:30 pm
Sundar Pichai, senior vice president of Android, Chrome and Apps for Google Inc., speaks during the Google I/O Annual Developers Conference in San Francisco, California, U.S., on Wednesday, June 25, 2014.
David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Google is tightening its privacy practices that could make it harder for companies to track users on Android phones and tablets.
Google already allows Android users to opt-out of personalized ads. But even if users do that, software developers may still access the user's Advertising ID, a unique string of characters that identifies the user's device. Firms can use this Advertising ID for purposes such as allowing developers to measure app usage or letting advertisers detect and prevent invalid traffic.
Following the change, if a user has opted out of personalized ads, the Advertising ID will not be available requests for it will return only a string of zeros.
The company said in a policy update that its rollout will affect apps running on Android 12 devices starting in late 2021 and will expand to apps running on devices that support Google Play in early 2022. It said it will "provide an alternate solution to support essential use cases such as analytics and fraud prevention" in July.
With regulators taking a closer look at user privacy, and consumers becoming more concerned about the use of their personal data, tech giants are trying to get ahead by making changes in the name of privacy. Google said in early 2020 that it would end support for third-party cookies on its Chrome browser within two years.
But with advertising making up about 80% Google's revenue, it also needs to keep advertisers happy by offering alternative ways to place ads in front of users they want to reach and track how effective they are. The company has been the market leader in online advertising for well over a decade, and is expected to command nearly a 29% share of digital ad spending globally in 2021, according to eMarketer.
Google's changes will follow other changes Apple recently made for iOS devices, but are not as dramatic. Apple's changes make it easy for iPhone and iPad users to opt out of the kind of tracking that helps advertisers target ads or measure whether ads worked, by placing a prompt in front of them whenever they open a new app. Facebook, among others, objected strongly to the changes, saying that users would see less relevant ads and that small businesses would be hurt as targeted advertising got harder.
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Google follows Apple's lead and makes it harder for advertisers to track users on Android - CNBC
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Senate Democrats Urge Google To Investigate Racial Bias In Its Tools And The Company – NPR
Posted: at 3:29 pm
Democratic senators, led by Cory Booker of New Jersey, say they worry about how Google's products and policies may perpetuate bias. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images hide caption
Democratic senators, led by Cory Booker of New Jersey, say they worry about how Google's products and policies may perpetuate bias.
A group of Democratic senators is urging Google parent company Alphabet to investigate how its products and policies may be harming Black people.
In a letter to the tech giant's CEO, Sundar Pichai, and other executives, Sens. Cory Booker of New Jersey, Ron Wyden of Oregon, Mark Warner of Virginia, Ed Markey of Massachusetts and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut said they worried about bias and discrimination, both in the products Google makes and the way it's handled workplace diversity.
"We are concerned about repeated instances where Alphabet missed the mark and did not proactively ensure its products and workplaces were safe for Black people," the senators wrote.
They highlighted several examples of Google products that appeared to produce biased results or potential harms for Black people.
"Google Search, its ad algorithm, and YouTube have all been found to perpetuate racist stereotypes and white nationalist viewpoints," they wrote.
They cited recent reporting from Vice showing that a new app to identify skin conditions hadn't been trained using a "sufficiently diverse" dataset and therefore wasn't effective on people with dark skin.
They also pointed to the controversial firing of prominent artificial intelligence ethicist Timnit Gebru, who was the first Black woman to be a research scientist at Google as well as a vocal critic of the company's diversity efforts.
The senators suggested the company has not made good on racial justice pledges Pichai made in a letter to employees and congressional testimony following the murder of George Floyd a year ago.
The first step, the senators said, is a "racial equity audit." They want Google to work with outside civil rights and legal experts to identify the root causes of any discrimination within the company and its tools, and what it can do to address the problems.
Google and other tech giants have long come under criticism for making slow progress in diversifying their largely white workforces. At Google, for example, only 3.7% of U.S. staff is black, according to its 2020 diversity report, compared with 2% in 2013.
The companies have also been slammed for not paying enough attention to the impact of their technologies on people of color and the way their design and development may perpetuate bias.
In their letter to Google, the lawmakers pointed to Facebook and Airbnb, which have done similar audits examining racial bias and discrimination on their platforms and within their companies after outside pressure from activists and lawmakers.
Facebook's audit, completed last year, gave a damning assessment of what the outside auditors called the company's "vexing and heartbreaking decisions" to prioritize free speech over civil rights.
The senators said a similar investigation is long overdue at Google.
"As Congress and the federal government do more to protect communities of color from civil rights violations online, companies need to do their part by examining areas for improvement and ensuring their workplaces are safe for members of these communities," they wrote.
"We can no longer rely on promises and need Alphabet to take affirmative steps to protect Black people and other people of color."
Google did not respond to NPR's request for comment.
Editor's note: Google, Facebook and Airbnb are among NPR's financial supporters.
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Huawei launches its own operating system on smartphones in challenge to Google Android – CNBC
Posted: at 3:29 pm
A mobile phone shows Huawei app interface. Huawei unveiled HarmonyOS, its own operating system in 2019. In June 2021, the company launched the operating system on a smartphone for the first time.
Costfoto | Barcroft Media | Getty Images
GUANGZHOU, China Huawei on Wednesday launched its self-developed operating system across a slew of devices, including smartphones. The move comes as the Chinese tech giant looks to wean itself off its reliance on U.S. technology and could pit it against software from Apple and Google.
HarmonyOS launched in 2019 after the U.S. blacklisted Huawei, cutting it off from access to Google's Android operating system. That move, along with further sanctions restricting Huawei's access to critical semiconductors, crippled its smartphone business just months after it became the number one player in the world.
Huawei has been developing HarmonyOS since 2016 and bills it as an operating system that can work across many internet-connected devices from smartphones to wearables. The company claims it is easy for developers to create apps that can work across different products.
The focus on HarmonyOS working across devices is one way Huawei is trying to differentiate its operating system from Google's Android and Apple's iOS.
"HarmonyOS is designed to provide the glue between a growing array of connected devices that Huawei is targeting," Ben Wood, chief analyst at CCS Insight, said.
"Huawei will be hoping that it can follow Apple's lead, by having a single software platform that extends in all directions, providing a seamless experience to customers that buy into its ecosystem of products."
In 2019, Huawei put HarmonyOS on a TV made by Honor, a brand it had used to own. On Wednesday, Huawei launched HarmonyOS on a new version of its flagship Mate 40 smartphone as well as its Mate X2 foldable phone. Huawei's new Watch Series 3 smartwatch and MatePad Protablet will also be equipped with HarmonyOS.
Sanctions in 2019 that cut Huawei off from Google meant users of the Chinese company's smartphones did not receive Android updates.
Huawei announced on Wednesday that many of the company's older phones will be able to upgrade to HarmonyOS. These upgrades will begin from Wednesday and be gradually rolled out through to next year.
U.S. sanctions caused a dramatic slowdown in Huawei's revenue growth in 2020, hitting the company's smartphone and its networking equipment business. Washington has maintained Huawei is a national security threat claiming data the company collects could be shared with the Chinese government. Huawei has repeatedly denied that it would do this.
Huawei has looked to pivot to software and focus on other consumer electronics like wearables and tablets to boost revenue. HarmonyOS is part of that effort along with an increasing focus on cloud computing.
The company has said that nearly 100 different Huawei products are set to support HarmonyOS in China this year. Huawei had previously said 300 million devices will run on HarmonyOS this year.
At an online event on Wednesday, Wang Chenglu, the president of software in Huawei's consumer business group, showed examples of how HarmonyOS works across devices. One example involved opening a "control panel" on a smartphone before choosing one of several music apps and what device to play songs on.
Two operating systems dominate the mobile market today Google's Android and Apple's iOS. In the past, companies from Microsoft to Samsung have tried and failed to create viable alternatives.
What let them down was the lack of scale which failed to attract developers to the platform to make apps. Without apps, users may not want to use the software.
But Huawei has put a big focus on apps and the company's scale and the number of devices HarmonyOS can work across could help draw developers to the platform.
HarmonyOS could "attract the developer ecosystem and increase the install base of devices really fast," Neil Shah, partner at Counterpoint Research, told CNBC. "More developers will see the benefits. There is not a chicken and egg problem."
Huawei has a suite of apps such as mapping and a browser under a brand called Huawei Mobile Services. HMS is similar to Google Mobile Services and offers developers kits that can be used to integrate things like location services into apps.HMS has 2.7 million registered developers globally.
The Chinese firm also has its own app store called App Gallery with 540 million monthly active users worldwide.
"Huawei has been able to generate some scale," Shah said.
Meanwhile, Huawei has opened its operating system to third-party device makers, much like Google's Android. If major home appliance companies or device manufacturers decide to adopt HarmonyOS then that could help the software grow even further, Shah said.
While HarmonyOS could find success in Huawei's home market of China, it may face challenges in international markets.
Google's Android and Apple's iOS dominate the mobile operating system market. And on smartwatches, Apple has its WatchOS while Google last month launched a revamped version of its Wear operating system. The two U.S. technology giants have also been focusing on software for in-car entertainment too.
Both companies also have a huge base of app developers and the world's most popular apps on their platform. That is one area in which Huawei could struggle.
"The only thing (HarmonyOS) still lacks is the big marquee western developers," Shah said.
Huawei's app store is missing major names such Google apps, which are important to users abroad. Facebook meanwhile is available but not for direct download from AppGallery.
Shah said certain continents like Europe and Africa could provide an opportunity for Huawei. However, the Chinese firm will most likely have to deal with the reputational fallout from U.S. sanctions.
"Huawei faces huge challenges outside China," Wood of CCS Insight said. "There has been a palpable loss of consumer confidence in the brand as a result of the US sanctions that will be challenging to overcome as it pivots into new areas."
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Huawei launches its own operating system on smartphones in challenge to Google Android - CNBC
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