Civic – Page 29 of 59

Democrats slam consolidation and power in Big Tech during presidential debate

Democrats running for president in 2020 spent nearly 15 minutes debating Big Tech during the latest debate Thursday, the most… Read More

Benioff: Amazon’s Seattle tax fight stoked tech industry opposition to S.F. homeless initiative

Marc Benioff’s new book, “Trailblazer,” is the story of the Salesforce co-founder and co-CEO’s emergence as an accidental activist on… Read More

Amazon gives $1M to group seeking to upend Seattle City Council in upcoming election

Amazon is dramatically increasing its financial commitment to reshape politics in its hometown, in a move that signals a big… Read More

Bernie Sanders calls out Amazon’s hometown tax battle in plan to overhaul corporate America

Sen. Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign unveiled an ambitious plan to reform corporate America on Monday. The proposal holds one company… Read More

Boundless launches tool to help immigrants assess risk, as courts block rollout of new Trump policy

One month after President Donald Trump’s 2017 inauguration, a Seattle startup called Boundless exited stealth mode and announced it would… Read More

Podcast

FTC Commissioner Rohit Chopra on Big Tech’s antitrust reckoning, and implications for investors

The Federal Trade Commission is ramping up its investigations into Big Tech, and one of the agency’s toughest enforcers visited… Read More

Microsoft and GitHub workers protest ICE contracts in latest demonstration of employee activism

Microsoft employees are showing solidarity with workers at GitHub, a subsidiary of the company, who want their employer to cancel… Read More

Amazon lays out positions on privacy, immigration, climate, and other issues on new policy page

Amazon laid out its positions on a wide range of issues in a new web page that surfaced Thursday, bringing… Read More

Podcast

Q&A: Jay Carney on the Trump White House, Amazon antitrust scrutiny, and working for Bezos

Managing public relations for the most powerful country in the world, or one of the most powerful companies, is not… Read More

What Obama and Bezos have in common — from the man who’s called both ‘boss’

The list of similarities between Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and President Barack Obama is not long. But the two leaders… Read More

Amazon considered stricter privacy settings after criticism over handling of voice recordings

After it faced public backlash against the practice of using people to review voice recordings from Alexa devices, Amazon gave… Read More

LIVE: FTC Commissioner Rohit Chopra at the GeekWire Summit

In the year and change that Rohit Chopra has served on the Federal Trade Commission, he’s quickly emerged as one… Read More

Microsoft’s Brad Smith cites Boeing crisis as cautionary tale for intelligent machines, calls for AI kill switch

For decades, sci-fi movies have predicted a future in which humans lose control of intelligent machines and chaos ensues. Those… Read More

Do tech workers vote? New survey shows they do — and these are the top issues on their minds

Tech workers in progressive cities such as Seattle and San Francisco have a bad rap when it comes to civic… Read More

Iranian hacker group attacked email accounts tied to a US presidential candidate, Microsoft says

A hacker group with ties to the Iranian government attacked 241 Microsoft email accounts “associated with a U.S. presidential campaign,… Read More

Washington state and B.C. launch Joint Clean Grid Initiative to align renewable energy transition

Washington state and British Columbia are partnering to share resources and work together as each government pursues ambitious clean energy… Read More

Microsoft donates $223K to finish Seattle-Vancouver high-speed rail feasibility study by 2020

Microsoft is determined to turn the Pacific Northwest into a connected innovation mega-region akin to Silicon Valley, starting with better… Read More

Appeals court upholds net neutrality repeal — but allows states to make their own rules

The Federal Communications Commission’s rollback of internet regulations known as net neutrality was upheld Tuesday by a panel of federal… Read More

Leaked transcript: Facebook’s Zuckerberg thinks a Warren presidency would ‘suck for us’

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg thinks a Warren presidency would “suck for us.” That’s what the besieged executive told employees at… Read More

Why Microsoft won’t unplug government agencies despite opposition to Trump policies

A new wave of employee activism is forcing tech companies to rethink — and in several cases cancel — contracts… Read More

Car2go pulls out of 5 North American cities casting more doubt on free-floating car-sharing’s viability

Car2go is putting five cities in the rear-view mirror as the North American free-floating car-sharing market contracts rapidly. SHARE NOW,… Read More

Tech industry continues push to shape federal facial recognition laws

Tech companies developing facial recognition software want to write the rules that will govern the controversial technology. A coalition of… Read More

Microsoft reveals first affordable housing investment of $500M initiative

Microsoft announced the first loan it will grant as part of its $500 million affordable housing initiative Thursday, seven months… Read More

Microsoft vows to keep fighting gag orders on U.S. government surveillance of customers despite legal setback

For years, Microsoft has been going to bat with the government over gag orders that prevent the cloud provider from… Read More

Comcast boosts internet speeds in 11 states, including Washington and Oregon

About 85 percent of Comcast’s Washington internet customers saw their download speeds increase this week, according to the cable giant.… Read More

Tech company Chef won’t renew U.S. immigration contracts, changing course amid employee activism

Software engineers are powerful players in the technology industry. Typically, they exercise that power to negotiate sky-high salaries that companies… Read More

Thousands of tech workers fighting for climate action descend on Amazon HQ

Thousands of tech workers crowded around Amazon’s iconic Spheres on Friday to answer a call from youth activists to stand… Read More

Portland mayor says ‘exceptions can be made’ for potential widespread facial recognition ban

Some lawmakers and concerned citizens want Portland to blaze a facial recognition ban trail by outlawing private use of the… Read More

With LimePod’s demise, Seattle’s dwindling car-sharing market offers lessons for untested industry

Just a few months ago, Seattle was pioneering free-floating car-sharing in the U.S. as the preferred test market for these… Read More

Lime shutters LimePod, raising questions about viability of free-floating car-sharing model

Car-sharing is stalling in Seattle. Lime is shuttering LimePod, a spokesperson confirmed Wednesday, marking the second closure of a free-floating… Read More