Author: The Conversation

When people say “privacy is dead”, it’s usually for one of two reasons. Either they truly believe that privacy is irrelevant or unachievable in today’s hyper-connected world or, more often, that not enough is being done to protect privacy when huge amounts of personal information are being posted online. Although I agree more could be done to protect privacy online, I believe that privacy is not dead, it’s just changing forms. While it’s true that we’re sharing more information online than ever before, this doesn’t mean that we no longer care about privacy. On the contrary, some curious trends in…

Read More

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently announced that the company is finally working on a much-desired feature: a “dislike” button. According to Zuckerberg, this feature has long been one of those most-requested by the Facebook audience. Although his comments suggest that the new button more likely will express sympathy or empathy, rather than simple dislike, Facebook users have nevertheless greeted the announcement with enthusiasm. https://twitter.com/hansabumsadaisy/status/643950794434322432?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw But why is Facebook introducing the button now, after so many years of audience lobbying and corporate resistance? One explanation could be the changing profile of the site’s users. Facebook is increasingly a technology used by…

Read More

After a slow start, electric vehicles are gaining in popularity. London is now host to an electric car-sharing service, which proved successful in Paris. Sales of electric vehicles have seen significant rises in the last year. Now Volkswagen has unveiled a battery-powered Porsche that is capable of travelling 500km on a single charge and refuelling in just 15 minutes. Not that long ago the traditional car industry was accused of limiting the progress of electric vehicles. In the 2006 documentary, Who killed the electric car?, S David Freeman said: “I think the clean car is too important to be left…

Read More

The greatest barrier to extending internet use in South Africa, and indeed in most African countries, is the cost of data. In South Africa one gigabyte of data on mobile networks – the only means of accessing the internet for most – is R149 (pre-paid). This means that for millions of people in the country data is a luxury. So when mobile operators start giving some of this valuable commodity for free it warrants attention. From July, the country’s third-largest mobile services provider Cell C started offering some services such as Facebook and Wikipedia for free without paying for the…

Read More

Just because you may not have seen a drone overhead doesn’t mean it hasn’t seen you. And, as was demonstrated by the killing of two British jihadis in Syria recently, these unmanned aerial vehicles are increasingly deployed by the West as frontline weapons of war. Drones are set to become a defining feature of this century. Thousands are already in operation in most developed countries worldwide – and that is likely to grow to hundreds of thousands as drones of different shapes and sizes are deployed by the media, emergency services, scientists, farmers, sports enthusiasts, hobbyists, photographers, the armed forces…

Read More