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Amid COVID-19 crisis, tech platforms are making a premature bet on AI, as human moderators shift to moderating less sensitive content while working from home (Casey Newton/The Interface)

Casey Newton / The Interface: Amid COVID-19 crisis, tech platforms are making a premature bet on AI, as human moderators shift to moderating less sensitive content while working from home  —  Today, let’s talk about some of the front-line workers at Facebook and Google working on the pandemic: the content moderators who keep the site

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Opera partners with e-payments startup Wyre to enable US users of its browser-based crypto wallet to buy bitcoin and ether using a debit card or Apple Pay (Danny Nelson/CoinDesk)

Danny Nelson / CoinDesk: Opera partners with e-payments startup Wyre to enable US users of its browser-based crypto wallet to buy bitcoin and ether using a debit card or Apple Pay  —  The Opera browser app has partnered with e-payments startup Wyre to expand its built-in wallet’s crypto buying power, the Norwegian web developer announced

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U.S. government, tech industry discussing ways to use smartphone location data to combat coronavirus

The U.S. government is in active talks with Facebook, Google and a wide array of tech companies and health experts about how they can use data gleaned from Americans’ phones to combat the novel coronavirus, including tracking whether people are keeping one another at safe distances to stem the outbreak. U.S. government, tech industry discussing

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FireEye: 76% of all enterprise ransomware attacks occur outside business hours, when IT staff support is reduced, overall ransomware attacks up 860% since 2017 (Catalin Cimpanu/ZDNet)

Catalin Cimpanu / ZDNet: FireEye: 76% of all enterprise ransomware attacks occur outside business hours, when IT staff support is reduced, overall ransomware attacks up 860% since 2017  —  FireEye: 27% of all ransomware attacks take place during the weekend, 49% after working hours during weekdays. FireEye: 76% of all enterprise ransomware attacks occur outside

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Google employees demand better treatment for contract workers amid coronavirus crisis

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge A group of Google employees has sent a memo to company leadership demanding stronger commitments to protect the more vulnerable members of Google’s workforce, primarily its contract workers, during the ongoing coronavirus crisis, according to a report from Business Insider. The memo is written by both full-time employees

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Amazon prioritizes shipments of household staples and high-demand products to its warehouses, partially suspending Fulfillment by Amazon program through April 5 (Eugene Kim/Business Insider)

Eugene Kim / Business Insider: Amazon prioritizes shipments of household staples and high-demand products to its warehouses, partially suspending Fulfillment by Amazon program through April 5  —  – Amazon told sellers and vendors on Tuesday that it was suspending shipments of all nonessential products to its warehouses … Amazon prioritizes shipments of household staples and

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Medical company threatens to sue volunteers that 3D-printed valves for life-saving coronavirus treatments

Image: Massimo Temporelli A medical device manufacturer has threatened to sue a group of volunteers in Italy that 3D printed a valve used for life-saving coronavirus treatments. The valve typically costs about $11,000 from the medical device manufacturer, but the volunteers were able to print replicas for about $1 (via Techdirt). A hospital in Italy

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How to order takeout safely and ethically

{$inline_image} Illustration by Angie Wang Since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus, we’ve been advised to stay inside and to minimize human contact. One of the biggest challenges that creates is getting food. Many states and cities have restricted restaurants to takeout since dining out is no longer considered safe or responsible. However, ordering delivery is

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