Five things worth sharing from the last week or so, brought to you by a different member of the Browser Media team every Friday.
This week’s My Five is by Lisa.
1. The British public… don’t trust the British public
According to the British Social Attitudes Survey, nearly half of the British public think they can’t trust other people. 47% of people claimed that they are suspicious of others, and more than a third described themselves as ‘deeply suspicious’, believing that others were likely to lie to, or cheat them somehow.
The most distrusting age group are 18-34 year olds, whose suspicions have grown 14% since 2005. However, a spokesperson for the survey reports that the overall picture is actually pretty similar to statistics from 1998, going against the cliché that society is becoming disconnected because nobody is talking face-to-face anymore due to the rise in digital communications.
2. New Vlogger Guidelines
CAP, The Committee of Advertising Practice have published a new set of guidelines for video bloggers who become involved in marketing relationships with brands. These rules require vloggers to clearly label when their content is sponsored, or exchanged for payment or free goods.
The director of CAP says that advertising rules should apply across all media platforms, and that the public should be able to feel confident that they can trust what advertisers have to say.
“It’s simply not fair if we’re being advertised to and are not made aware of that fact,” he said. “Our guidance will give vloggers greater confidence that they’re sticking to the rules which in turn will help maintain the relationship and trust they’ve built with their followers”
– Shahriar Coupal, Director of CAP via The Drum
3. Hackers post stolen data
Sensitive customer data, which hackers stole from infedelity website, AshleyMadison.com about a month ago has now been leaked online.
10 GB of information including names, addresses, phone numbers and payment details for more than 32 million users, dating back to 2008 were published in blackmail after media owners failed to delete the site.
A serious data breach issue with huge implications for many, but the broadcast is of course already being trolled, check this from Arena Flowers:
.@AshleyMadison Could you put this tweet on your most secure server? We’re trying to get it to reach a big audience https://t.co/oDG7W59mRT — Arena Flowers (@ArenaFlowers) August 19, 2015
4. Amazon primetime
Last week, the New York Times published an article about the ways in which e-commerce giant, Amazon, apparently treat their corporate employees. Inside information explains how the company’s “unreasonably high” standards create a culture whereby round-the-clock workers are actively encouraged to tear apart fellow colleague’s ideas, and even sabotage one another. The article suggests that the company are conducting an experiment to see how far they can push workers, to the point where many grown men have been left crying. There has been plenty of conflicting follow-up around the article, particularly on Twitter –
Worth a read. Crazy that Amazon can recruit so effectively to such an intentionally un-empathetic culture. https://t.co/E0huQNBzK9— Rand Fishkin (@randfish) August 15, 2015
I couldn’t help but think of the “Hunger Games” when I read this excellent story on Amazon’s Darwinian work culture http://t.co/nMNY8RnGAD — Rukmini Callimachi (@rcallimachi) August 15, 2015
Well, this piece on Amazon’s work culture is slightly terrifying http://t.co/Wug4szn6SC
— PatrickFreyne (@PatrickFreyne1) August 15, 2015
5. Google’s Humanoid Robot is set free
Footage of Google’s two-legged Atlas robot entering the real world for the first time as it stumbles through a forest has been making the rounds online after it was shown at the Fab Lab 11 conference earlier this month.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqRKzI59eRo
Skip to 0.40 sec, and you will see the 6ft 2in terminator-like robot putting it’s balance to the test in a struggle to stay upright – but still managing to negotiate the whole path without falling over.
Creators are promising that the robot will one day be more agile than a human.
Google robot 1
Drunken weekend reveller 0
