On episode 81 of Digital Trends Live, hosts Greg Nibler and Drew Prindle convened to break down the biggest news stories from the world of tech.
The first story on the docket this time: Facebook has been embroiled in a number of scandals over the last few years, particularly in regard to the way the company has handled users’ data. CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently made a post on Facebook outlining his vision for a new era of Facebook, in which the platform will be more committed to protecting users’ privacy.
“I believe the future of communication will increasingly shift to private, encrypted services,” Zuckerberg wrote, “where people can be confident what they say to each other stays secure and their messages and content won’t stick around forever. This is the future I hope we will help bring about.”
Zuckerberg goes on to cite WhatsApp’s achievements in encryption as a guidepost for the new Facebook and emphasized that the new model will be built on several principles: Private interactions, encryption, impermanence, safety, interoperability, and secure data storage.
In other news, the technological tensions between the U.S. and China continue to simmer, as Chinese telecommunications company Huawei filed a lawsuit against the U.S. government over the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act, which banned U.S. government agencies from using Huawei equipment or working with companies that do. Huawei alleges that because the act specifically singles out the company, it is unconstitutional. The U.S. government is suspicious that Huawei is too entangled with the Chinese government and would use its equipment to spy on federal agencies (there’s an excellent episode of Planet Money about the origins of this dispute).
Finally, Nibler spoke to Sue Khim, CEO of Brilliant.org, an online learning platform that teaches subjects through “interactive problem-solving.”
“Brilliant offers a website and apps, and we make math and science fun and inspiration through interactive learning experiences,” Khim explains. “One of the things that brought me to this idea was that in college everyone was watching YouTube to learn math and science, and when I looked at the numbers it was staggering: People watch 5 billion STEM videos a month on YouTube.”
Digital Trends Live airs Monday through Friday at 9 a.m. PT, with highlights available on demand after the stream ends. For more information, check out the DT Live homepage, and be sure to watch live for the chance to win occasional prizes.
