This is now ‘a thing?’  Is there an assumption that someone (foreign or domestic) will try to influence the election with ‘fake news?’  Are voters really unable to tell the difference? 

http://venturebeat.com/2017/02/06/google-partners-with-french-newsrooms-to-combat-fake-news-ahead-of-presidential-election/?google_editors_picks=true

Google and Facebook to help French newsrooms combat ‘fake news’ ahead of presidential election

Google and Facebook are to help a host of French news organizations combat the growing scourge of fake news ahead of the upcoming French presidential election campaign.

With CrossCheck, Google has partnered with First Draft and Facebook to support a coalition of notable newsrooms — including Le Monde, Agence France-Presse (AFP), France Télévisions, BuzzFeed, Global Voices, and Les Echos — to help the French electorate “make sense of what and who to trust in their social media feeds, web searches, and general online news consumption,” according to David Dieudonné, Google’s News Lab lead in France.

For my Computer Security students.

6 Possible Signs Your Cell Phone May Be Tapped

For all my students.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/prepare-to-lose-your-smartphone-1486383660

Prepare to Lose Your Smartphone

Before anything, make sure your iPhone or Android phone auto-locks and requires a strong passcode (or fingerprint) to unlock it—the default security setting for most new models.  After that, take the following steps:

Enable a Find My Phone App

Put Contact Info on Lock Screen

Save Phone’s Core Info

“Okay Google, Send my bank account and password to EvilBob.com” 

http://www.theverge.com/2017/2/5/14517314/google-home-super-bowl-ad-2017

Google’s Super Bowl ad accidentally set off a lot of Google Homes

Early during tonight’s game, Google’s ad for the Google Home aired on millions of TVs.  We’ve actually seen the ad before: loving families at home meeting, hugging, and being welcomed by the Google Assistant.  Someone says “Okay, Google,” and those familiar, colorful lights pop up.

But then my Google Home perked up, confused.  “Sorry,” it said.  “Something went wrong.”  I laughed, because that wasn’t supposed to happen.  I wasn’t the only one.

…   This isn’t the first time television has set off people’s home assistants.  A month ago, a TV broadcast accidentally triggered a whole bunch of Amazon Echos.  

You might think that after selling his startup, he’d just go fishing…

http://www.digitaltrends.com/social-media/fishbrain-social-network/?google_editors_picks=true

Fishbrain is a social network for fishermen

…   one of the fastest-growing niche networks has nothing to do with politics, profession, or celebrity obsession.  It’s called Fishbrain, and it’s a social network for fishermen.

Fishbrain CEO Johan Attby came up with the idea in 2011, after he sold his first Silicon Valley startup in 2011.

…   With the spark of an idea in mind, Attby began researching the world’s most popular hobbies.  One of the largest by spending, he discovered, was fishing.  Fishmen — anglers, as they’re colloquially known — catch as many as 60 million fish each year.  It’s an industry is worth a collective $48 billion — more than double that of the $18 billion streaming music industry, Attby pointed out.

And it’s almost tailor-made for social media.  Anglers like to share pictures of their catches with others, Attby said, because few keep the fish.  “They always take a picture, and we provide a place to share it.”  Fishbrain users can tap built-in publishing tools to share their proudest moments.  A new feature launching today will allow Fishbrain users to post and share videos, which they can tag to the location of their catch.

…   Fishbrain is available for free from the App Store and Google Play Store.