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4 articles from Technology Review Feed - Tech Review Top Stories

Instagram’s blackout means well—but doing these 4 things is more useful

“Blackout Tuesday” has overtaken Instagram, but there are more effective ways to show support. What’s Blackout Tuesday? If you’ve been on Instagram today, you may notice black posts. The movement was started by musicians calling for “an urgent step of action to provoke accountability and change But if you want to support the protests against police brutality without marching, there...

The US’s draft law on contact tracing apps is a step behind Apple and Google

American legislators have outlined a plan to regulate digital contact tracing apps to protect people’s privacy. But the bill, unveiled on June 1 with bipartisan support, largely recommends measures already built in to a technology provided by Silicon Valley giants Apple and Google. The Exposure Notification Privacy Act is a proposal to prevent potential abuses by the apps, which aim to alert...

How to protect yourself online from misinformation right now

There wasn’t a communications blackout in Washington, DC, on Sunday, but #dcblackout trended on Twitter anyway, thanks to some extremely distressing tweets telling people that, mysteriously, no messages were getting out from the nation’s capital. The tweets, Reddit posts, and Facebook messages about the “blackout” got thousands of shares, fueled by pleas to spread the information widely...

Two-meter distancing might halve infection risk compared to one meter

The news: Keeping people two meters apart from each other is far more effective than just one at reducing the risk of spreading coronavirus, according to a new analysis in The Lancet. The researchers combed through 172 observational studies across 16 countries. Using statistical analysis, they found that the risk of infection when people stand at least one meter away came to 3%, compared with 13%...