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We’re All Cyborgs and Didn’t Even Realize It

Andrew Orr ·

It’s certainly interesting to think about. Do smartphones count as “external brains?”Does wearing an Apple Watch make us a cyborg? Alex Hern examines the issue, although I disagree on one part: It’s definitely not an Apple-specific phenomenon.

Without us even noticing, Apple has turned us into organisms living symbiotically with technology: part human, part machine. We now outsource our contact books, calendars and to-do lists to devices. We no longer need to remember basic facts about the world; we can call them up on demand.

Read the article, then watch this TEDTalk from cyborg anthropologist Amber Case.

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Facebook Hit With Fine by South Korean Privacy Watchdog For Sharing User Data Without Permission

Charlotte Henry ·

South Korea’s recently launched privacy watched has announced a $6.1 million for Facebook, Reuters reported. It said the social media giant shared millions of users’ data without their permission.

The country’s Personal Information Protection Commission, launched in August this year, said in a statement it fined Facebook after a probe found that the personal information of least 3.3 million of the 18 million Facebook users in Korea were provided to operators other than Facebook without their knowledge, from May 2012 to June 2018. When someone uses another operator’s service through Facebook’s log-in, the personal information of the user’s Facebook friends were provided to other operators without their consent, the commission said. The commission said it will refer Facebook Ireland Ltd, the recipient of the fine, to the country’s prosecution for a criminal investigation.

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How Disney+ Could Change How we Watch Movies

Charlotte Henry ·

With cinemas closed around the world, filmmakers have been forced to rethink how to release their features. As Gizmodo notes, Disney+ is helping its parent company navigate the issues, and the change could be long term.

Key to building on the success of Disney+ and its growing subscriber base is new and exclusive content. It’s not hard to imagine Disney might tap its slate of yet-to-be-released feature films to help bring in new subscribers given how things are looking in the U.S. right now—which is to say, not great. While Disney was tight-lipped about the success of its Mulan release through Premier Access, data from Sensor Tower estimated that app installs of Disney+ between Google Play and the App Store rose by 68% during a three-day period when Mulan hit the service over the same three-day period the week prior, while in-app spending also rose 193% that week.