Some popular online services made legal headlines this week. After years of litigation, a federal appeals court held that Yelp did not extort businesses by manipulating user reviews to coerce advertising purchases. While Yelp still faces other legal claims for false advertising and securities fraud, this case is significant given that Yelp’s handling of user reviews has been widely criticized.
While Yelp was presumably busy celebrating good news, the ride-sharing service, Uber, received bad news on its efforts to expand its services overseas. A German court banned Uber’s ride-hailing services until a hearing occurs later in the year to determine whether Uber unfairly competes with taxis. And, as summer unofficially comes to an end and children return to school, check out the links below on back to school technology gear available to protect your student’s (or your own) technology gadgets.
Technology and the Workplace
Modern Authors Delve Into Digital and Visual Storytelling (Mashable)
The Open Source Tool That Lets You Send Encrypted Emails to Anyone (WIRED)
Building a Robot With Human Touch (NYTimes)
The Future Could Work, if We Let It (NYTimes)
Google Is Working on a Chip that Lets Machines Think Like Humans (Yahoo)
Technology and the Law
Home Depot investigating a ‘massive’ hack (CNN)
Security Never Sleeps, Especially on Three Day Weekends (Forbes)
German Court Bans Uber Service Nationwide (NYTimes)
Apple and the FBI Are Investigating the Mass Celebrity Nude Photo Hack (Yahoo)
Court Says Yelp Doesn’t Extort Businesses (Forbes)
There’s an App for That
Protect and Power Back-to-School Gear (NYTimes)
The Top 10 Reasons Apple Rejects Apps From the App Store (Mashable)
This AI-Powered Calendar is Designed to Give You Me-Time (WIRED)
Why It’s So Hard to Design New Emoji (Mashable)
Ikea Lampoons Apple to Promote Its ‘Bookbook’ (Mashable)