Technology

How Big Tech Impacts Our Lives

176 stories published since 2014

Leaked Documents Show How China’s Army of Paid Internet Trolls Helped Censor the Coronavirus

by Raymond Zhong, Paul Mozur and Aaron Krolik, The New York Times, and Jeff Kao, ProPublica

December 19, 2020, 5:00 am EST
Trump Won Florida After Running a False Ad Tying Biden to Venezuelan Socialists

by Jeremy B. Merrill, and Ryan McCarthy, ProPublica

November 12, 2020, 5:00 am EST
Trump ganó Florida tras publicar un anuncio falso que vinculaba a Biden con los socialistas venezolanos

por Jeremy B. Merrill y Ryan McCarthy, ProPublica

November 12, 2020, 5:00 am EST
Al menos 800,000 residentes de estados clave recibieron robocalls pidiéndoles que se “quedaran en casa” el día de las elecciones. El FBI está investigando.

por Jack Gillum, ProPublica y Jeremy B. Merrill

November 3, 2020, 8:33 pm EST
Robocalls Told at Least 800,000 Swing State Residents to “Stay Home” on Election Day. The FBI Is Investigating.

by Jack Gillum, ProPublica, and Jeremy B. Merrill

November 3, 2020, 6:17 pm EST
Foreign Hackers Cripple Texas County’s Email System, Raising Election Security Concerns

by Jack Gillum, Jessica Huseman, Jeff Kao and Derek Willis

September 24, 2020, 6:00 am EDT
Facebook’s Political Ad Ban Also Threatens Ability to Spread Accurate Information on How to Vote

by Jeremy B. Merrill

September 4, 2020, 2:35 pm EDT
Amazon’s New Competitive Advantage: Putting Its Own Products First

by Renee Dudley

June 6, 2020, 5:00 am EDT
2020 Political Ad Collector

by and ProPublica

April 16, 2020, 2:31 pm EDT
Millions of Americans Might Not Get Stimulus Checks. Some Might Be Tricked Into Paying TurboTax to Get Theirs.

by Justin Elliott and Paul Kiel

April 15, 2020, 5:00 am EDT
The Hate Store: Amazon’s Self-Publishing Arm Is a Haven for White Supremacists

by Ava Kofman, ProPublica, and Francis Tseng and Moira Weigel for ProPublica

April 7, 2020, 5:00 am EDT
When the State Shifted to E-learning, This Rural School Superintendent Shifted to the Copy Machine

by Jodi S. Cohen

March 27, 2020, 11:30 am EDT
Some Election-Related Websites Still Run on Vulnerable Software Older Than Many High Schoolers

by Jack Gillum

March 2, 2020, 5:00 am EST
TurboTax Is Still Tricking Customers With Tax Prep Ads That Misuse the Word “Free”

by Will Young

February 18, 2020, 12:05 pm EST
Dating Apps Can Be Dangerous. Congress Is Investigating.

by Keith Cousins, Columbia Journalism Investigations

January 31, 2020, 3:14 pm EST
The IRS Decided to Get Tough Against Microsoft. Microsoft Got Tougher.

by Paul Kiel

January 22, 2020, 5:00 am EST
Like Voldemort, Ransomware Is Too Scary to Be Named

by Renee Dudley

December 23, 2019, 5:00 am EST
Kansas Abandons Technology Trumpeted by Kris Kobach, Trump’s Onetime Voter Fraud Czar

by Jessica Huseman

December 12, 2019, 5:00 am EST
We Are Investigating Sexual Violence and Dating Apps

by Keith Cousins and Elizabeth Naismith Picciani, Columbia Journalism Investigations

December 2, 2019, 5:00 am EST
YouTube Promised to Label State-Sponsored Videos But Doesn’t Always Do So

by Ava Kofman

November 22, 2019, 5:00 am EST
The Ransomware Superhero of Normal, Illinois

by Renee Dudley

October 28, 2019, 5:00 am EDT
Millions of Americans’ Medical Images and Data Are Available on the Internet. Anyone Can Take a Peek.

by Jack Gillum, Jeff Kao and Jeff Larson

September 17, 2019, 12:00 am EDT
Report on Election Security Gains Attention, and a Sharp Rebuke

by Jessica Huseman

September 13, 2019, 5:00 am EDT
How Kentucky Gambled for Hundreds of Millions of Dollars From a Broadband Program It Didn’t Qualify for

by Alfred Miller

September 4, 2019, 5:00 am EDT
How Amazon and Silicon Valley Seduced the Pentagon

by James Bandler, Anjali Tsui and Doris Burke

August 22, 2019, 5:00 am EDT
New York Is Investigating Whether Facebook Lets Advertisers Discriminate

by Ariana Tobin

July 5, 2019, 3:37 pm EDT
Civil Rights Groups Have Been Warning Facebook About Hate Speech In Secret Groups For Years

by Ariana Tobin

July 2, 2019, 7:20 pm EDT
People Are Using Secret Facebook Groups To Spread Hate We Can’t See. We Need Your Help.

by Ariana Tobin, Thalia Beaty and Lucas Waldron

July 2, 2019, 7:19 pm EDT
Aggression Detectors: The Unproven, Invasive Surveillance Technology Schools Are Using to Monitor Students

by Jack Gillum and Jeff Kao

June 25, 2019, 5:00 am EDT
Methodology: How We Tested an Aggression Detection Algorithm

by Jeff Kao and Jack Gillum

June 25, 2019, 5:00 am EDT
Sting Catches Another Ransomware Firm — Red Mosquito — Negotiating With “Hackers”

by Renee Dudley

June 24, 2019, 11:13 am EDT
The Trade Secret: Firms That Promised High-Tech Ransomware Solutions Almost Always Just Pay the Hackers

by Renee Dudley and Jeff Kao

May 15, 2019, 5:00 am EDT
We’re Reporting on Ransomware. Do You Know Something About an Attack?

by Renee Dudley and Jeff Kao

May 15, 2019, 4:59 am EDT
A High-Speed Internet Boondoggle Is Now a Campaign Issue in Kentucky

by Alfred Miller, Louisville Courier-Journal

May 13, 2019, 10:00 am EDT
Kentucky’s $1.5 Billion Information Highway to Nowhere

by Alfred Miller, Louisville Courier-Journal

May 8, 2019, 8:00 am EDT
The Missing Millions: Some States Are Still Waiting for the Gambling Windfall

by Derrick Clifton

April 10, 2019, 5:00 am EDT
Prosecutors Dropping Child Porn Charges After Software Tools Are Questioned

by Jack Gillum

April 3, 2019, 5:00 am EDT
HUD Sues Facebook Over Housing Discrimination and Says the Company’s Algorithms Have Made the Problem Worse

by Ariana Tobin

March 28, 2019, 1:18 pm EDT
Legalized Betting Could Change How We Watch Sports

by Derrick Clifton

March 28, 2019, 5:00 am EDT
Facebook Won’t Let Employers, Landlords or Lenders Discriminate in Ads Anymore

by Jack Gillum and Ariana Tobin

March 19, 2019, 2:00 pm EDT
Facebook and Twitter Turned to TurboVote to Drive Registrations. Officials Want Them to Turn Away.

by Jessica Huseman

March 11, 2019, 3:51 pm EDT
Facebook Moves to Block Ad Transparency Tools — Including Ours

by Jeremy B. Merrill, and Ariana Tobin

January 28, 2019, 4:29 pm EST
Do You Know Someone Struggling With Video Gambling?

by Logan Jaffe

January 16, 2019, 4:59 am EST
Georgia Officials Quietly Patched Security Holes They Said Didn’t Exist

by Jack Gillum, Jessica Huseman, Mike Tigas and Jeff Kao, ProPublica; and Stephen Fowler, Georgia Public Broadcasting

November 5, 2018, 3:57 pm EST
How Big Oil Dodges Facebook’s New Ad Transparency Rules

by Jeremy B. Merrill

November 1, 2018, 5:00 am EDT
New Partnership Will Help Us Hold Facebook and Campaigns Accountable

by Jeremy B. Merrill

October 8, 2018, 3:00 pm EDT
Why Am I Seeing This? Interesting Facebook Ads From Our Political Ad Collector

by ProPublica

September 25, 2018, 10:15 am EDT
Facebook Is Letting Job Advertisers Target Only Men

by Ariana Tobin and Jeremy B. Merrill

September 18, 2018, 6:39 pm EDT
The Overlooked Weak Link in Election Security

by Jack Gillum and Jessica Huseman

September 14, 2018, 5:00 am EDT
D.C.-Based Pro-Israel Group Secretly Ran Misleading Facebook Ads to Target Pro-Palestinian Activist

by Justin Elliott, ProPublica, and Josh Nathan-Kazis, The Forward

September 12, 2018, 5:00 am EDT