In a long- awaited report, the Federal Trade Commission today called for consumers to have more control over their personal information. The FTC wants Congress to consider legislation restricting the way data brokers can use the information they gather from “online” and “offline” sources. For example: What consumers buy, their social media activity, magazine subscriptions and political affiliations. In this episode we look at how the data brokers operate. Also, Google recently introduced a prototype for their self-driving vehicle. Generation of Americans have experienced driver’s-ed as a rite of passage, sitting behind a wheel while a driving instructor with his own set of controls yells, “Cwutch it! Cwutch it!!!!” (Or maybe not…) Now that Google is developing a second-generation self-guided car with no controls for a human driver to grab, it is possible to imagine a life where people in cars don’t even need to know how to drive. …New York comes to mind. Plus, “The Star Trek vision for a Universal Translator isn’t a galaxy away,” says corporate VP of Skype, Gurdeep Pall. And with that, comes the unveiling of new translation software that will work in real-time: “Skype Translator” will be launched later this year. After decades of research, Microsoft has apparently made a “breakthrough” in translation software, so we look at how much of a difference this will make, and the impact on international business.
