Latest from Matthew Braga
Analysis
Tesla is a cautionary tale of too much automation, too soon
Tesla finally made 5,000 of its mass-market Model 3 electric cars in one week — a crucial goal. How'd it get there? More humans, not more automation.
When governments censor websites and block messaging apps like Telegram, here's where to turn for proof
As network filtering and censorship technology becomes easier to obtain and use, data collected by an organization called Open Observatory of Network Interference is helping hold governments to account.
Analysis
Sidewalk Labs says its 'smart' neighbourhood will respect your privacy — but proof is in the details
At a roundtable meeting in Toronto on Thursday, Sidewalk Labs offered little in the way of specifics about how the sensor-filled smart neighbourhood it's proposing for the city might work.
To censor the internet, 10 countries use Canadian filtering technology, researchers say
Technology developed by a company in Waterloo, Ont., is being used by regimes and democracies throughout the world to censor online content, according to a new global investigation conducted by Citizen Lab.
Analysis
You can control what you share on Facebook — but not what Facebook collects
The deceivingly simple toggle between public and private sharing obscures the full extent of what data Facebook collects, writes Matthew Braga.
Everything you've ever posted publicly on Facebook has probably been harvested. So what?
There's "a huge gulf" between what users expect when they give information to Facebook versus the reality — in this case, the mass scraping and aggregating of public profile data without their knowledge.
Facebook says more than 600,000 Canadians may have had data shared with Cambridge Analytica
Facebook says an estimated 622,161 Canadians may have had their data shared with the British company Cambridge Analytica. In a conference call with reporters, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said: "We didn't take a broad enough view of what our responsibility was. And that was a huge mistake."
Everything you need to know about AggregateIQ, the Canadian tech company with ties to Brexit and Ted Cruz
A small Canadian company has been caught up in the scandal involving Cambridge Analytica, the British consulting firm that mined the data of 50 million Facebook users to aid their clients’ political campaigns, but just what is AggregateIQ and how is it connected to the data leak?
Canadian firm AggregateIQ used to sidestep Brexit campaign spending limits, whistleblower alleges
A Canadian online advertising company widely credited for its outsized role in convincing British voters to leave the European Union was also used in an effort to sidestep Brexit campaign spending limits, according to a whistleblower.
With the threat of regulation looming, Google doubles down on its fight against false news
With a $300-million investment in journalism-related initiatives, the tech giant wants to show it's taking the spread of disinformation, the manipulation of its platform, and threats to democracy seriously.