Support our non-partisan non-profit newsroom 💜 Donate now

A supply chain improvement industry is rising from the pandemic

Jan 11, 2022
From new startups valued in the billions to old legacy companies, the business of supply chain visibility is booming.
"The future of supply chains really is this visibility, it's being able to know where your goods are at all times, what your suppliers are planning," says Eric Oak, a senior trade analyst with S&P Global Market Intelligence. Above, an aerial view of shipping containers.
Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

If you lead people to a more private search engine, will they care?

Sep 25, 2018
"People talk a big game here when it comes to privacy, but they don't actually do very much," one venture capitalist says.
Matt Cardy/Getty Images

How movie tracking has changed

Jul 4, 2016
Polls can estimate a movie's numbers even before the flick is released, a practice that has changed with social media.

New doc shows our evolving relationship with big data

Feb 24, 2016
It's not all black and white.
A staff member at the Somerset House in London stands in front of an art exhibit themed on big data. Rick Smolan, executive producer of the film "The Human Face of Big Data," says our relationship to data isn't black and white.
JUSTIN TALLIS/AFP/Getty Images

Black boxes for truckers

Nov 2, 2015
A new rule requiring truckers to digitally record driving hours may soon pass.

Barcode license plates? Try mass traffic surveillance

Jan 15, 2015
Our roads feature scarier technology than the streets of "Back to the Future II."

When stores, and credit firms, watch you shop

Feb 4, 2013
Retailers used to keep tabs on shoppers to prevent theft. Now they’re using various technologies to study shoppers so they can increase sales.
Oli Scarff/Getty Images

For public good, not for profit.

The growing art of data dodging

Nov 29, 2012
As paranoia about online tracking grows, so too the number of businesses that help consumers prevent marketers from mining their personal data.
In July, federal Judge Esther Salas was deliberately targeted in her home in New Jersey.  A man — who had a case before her — came to her home with a gun and shot her husband and son.  Her husband is in the hospital and her son died. Salas believes this incident was possibly due to the fact that her private information was publicly available for the attacker to find her.
Frederic J. Brown/AFP/Getty Images

Microsoft makes 'Do Not Track' the default

Jun 4, 2012
Advertisers are not amused. In the upcoming version of Windows, Internet Explorer will have its "Do Not Track" feature turned on by default. Goodbye creepy ads that seem to follow you around -- hello, more generic ads for great deals on car insurance?