On Tech: Amazon and Google’s true advantage

These companies have mastered spending big to stay Big Tech.

View in browser|nytimes.com Continue reading the main story October 30, 2020 Amazon and Google’s true advantage Charlie Le Maignan By Shira Ovide My colleagues wrote about the eye-popping sales numbers coming from America’s technology superstars, including Google, Facebook and Amazon. Their sales and profits this year, in the middle of a pandemic, are truly hard to fathom. It’s so much money, you guys. But these companies also spend gobs of money, which in turn helps them make more money. The ability to spend like crazy — because Big Tech has money and hardly anyone questions how the companies spend it — is one of the secrets to why the tech industry giants are so difficult to unseat. A few examples: Amazon hired 250,000 full- and part-time employees — on average roughly 2,800 each day in the 90 days that ended in September — and then about 100,000 more people in October, the company said. Google has spent nearly $17 billion this year on things like hulking computer equipment — that’s about the same as Exxon’s comparable spending figure for digging oil and gas out of the ground. Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg talked excitedly on Thursday about spending whatever it takes on futuristic projects like eyeglasses that overlay virtual images with the real world. Imagine walking down the street and seeing a virtual list of menu items for the taco shop on the corner. Continue reading the main story ADVERTISEMENT Some of this stuff, yes, can immediately help companies generate more of those eye-popping sales and profits that my colleagues wrote about. When Amazon hires people to work in its warehouses or to drive trucks, those workers help push more packages to your door this Christmas. But a lot of this stuff, honestly, who knows. What the heck is Apple cooking up in its research labs, on which it spent $19 billion in the last year? Can Facebook get us to buy into a future of our world mixed with virtual images? Are Amazon’s gazillions of new package warehouses, transportation depots and computer centers really justified? This is the kind of stuff that might never pay off. And that’s one reason Big Tech is so different. Few large companies get mostly patted on the back for spending money in ways that may — or may not — pay off. This is part of the ultimate dilemma about these technology giants that dominate our lives and often our leisure and work hours. They make tons of money, which means they have more money to stay on top. (Also, governments and competitors say these companies break the rules to advantage themselves at the expense of rivals, hurting consumers like us.) Continue reading the main story ADVERTISEMENT One of the most cringe-inducing words in business is “moat.” What this means is a company has some unique advantage — a globally recognized brand name for Coca-Cola, or a unique technology that helps Uber move cars around efficiently — that gives it an unbreachable border of water filled with monsters. It’s a terrible, overused piece of jargon. But the tech superstars have a moat. (Imagine me cringing as I typed that.) Their unique advantage is access to giant piles of money. And they’re using it to dig that watery trench of monsters even deeper. SEND US YOUR QUESTIONS: We want to hear your election tech questions. What are you curious or concerned about related to how tech companies are handling election-related misinformation, or how secure America’s election technology is? Send your questions to ontech@nytimes.com, and we’ll answer a selection. Please include your full name and location. Don’t fall for bogus holiday ‘deals’ online Retailers really, really, really want you to start your holiday shopping early, because — well, read this about possible holiday package shipping delays. That means Black Friday and other preholiday sales have already started. The problem is, a lot of times when websites scream DEAL it’s not actually a good deal. Continue reading the main story ADVERTISEMENT Nathan Burrow from The New York Times’s product review website, Wirecutter, has these tips to make sure we’re not getting fooled by something that promises a discount but is a bad buy: Comparison shop: The hot item that the website says you can’t find for less anywhere else? Yeah, you probably can. Type the name of the product into a shopping search in your web browser. (If you’re considering a “flash” sale online, first add the item to your shopping cart. Often you have up to 15 minutes to check out, enough time to check on the price.) Read the reviews: Customer reviews aren’t always reliable. So read up on a product that intrigues you from multiple publications — may I suggest Wirecutter? This isn’t a guarantee that you’re getting a good price, but it will help you avoid getting excited by a sale and buying a junk product. Use (free!) shopping tools: Websites like CamelCamelCamel.com or Keepa will give you a useful, albeit imperfect, idea of how much a given item has sold for on Amazon over time. That’s a good indication of whether you’re getting a good deal right now, or can wait. Even when you’re not shopping on Amazon, you can check whether the retailer’s price is a good deal by comparing it to how much the same product tends to sell for on Amazon. Have an informed plan: Don’t believe the hype, be patient and know that there are good discounts to be found. You may just need to cut through the noise to find them. If you don’t already get this newsletter in your inbox, please sign up here. Before we go … He’s a star on Facebook. He’s not sure why: My colleague Kevin Roose talked to Dan Bongino, the right-wing commentator who said he can’t really explain why he went from a B-list pundit to one of the most popular figures on Facebook. Kevin writes that it’s both charming and terrifying that people like Bongino get big on Facebook, YouTube and TikTok because their “personas happen to fit into the grooves of a platform’s algorithm.” Listen to this to understand the antitrust case against Big Tech: Lina Khan helped reshape the legal views on how antitrust laws apply to big technology companies. On my colleague Kara Swisher’s podcast, “Sway,” Khan had a clear explanation of how she believed big technology companies hurt all of us, and she gave a glimpse inside Congress’s recent investigation into Big Tech power. Sigh. Math problems by emoji is not a good solution: Bloomberg News writes about teachers in the Philippines improvising remote classes with printed handouts and lessons over Facebook Messenger, because a majority of the country’s households have limited internet access. One teacher started texting her students a daily math problem using emojis in place of numbers. Hugs to this The best moment of my week was reading this article about people who are obsessed with the $300 12-foot Halloween skeleton sold by Home Depot. (Also hello to this video of a Home Depot skeleton lashed to the roof of a Mini Cooper.) We want to hear from you. Tell us what you think of this newsletter and what else you’d like us to explore. You can reach us at ontech@nytimes.com. If you don’t already get this newsletter in your inbox, please sign up here. Continue reading the main story Need help? Review our newsletter help page or contact us for assistance. You received this email because you signed up for On Tech with Shira Ovide from The New York Times. To stop receiving these emails, unsubscribe or manage your email preferences. Subscribe to The TimesGet The New York Times app Connect with us on: Change Your EmailPrivacy PolicyContact UsCalifornia Notices The New York Times Company. 620 Eighth Avenue New York, NY 10018

On Tech: You (YOU!) can stop election rumors

As Americans vote amid a pandemic, misleading election information seems to be everywhere.

View in browser|nytimes.com Continue reading the main story October 29, 2020 You (YOU!) can stop election rumors Lydia Ortiz By Shira Ovide Americans are voting in a highly unusual election, during a highly polarized time, and mistrust in authority figures is in overdrive. Misleading information about election tampering and voter suppression is now everywhere. I spoke about the prevalence of election-related rumors and confusion with my colleagues Kellen Browning and Davey Alba, who wrote on Thursday about the local election officials who are trying to counter bad information: Shira: How does false information or misunderstandings about the election start? Is it just made-up lies? Kellen: It often starts with a grain of truth that gets spun out of proportion. The lead attorney of Henrico County, Va., told me about two recent instances that made voters fearful. There was a batch of mail stolen from mailboxes in the Richmond area, and a utility outage at some state offices meant people couldn’t register to vote online right before the deadline. Each instance made some people believe that there was a plot to stop people from voting, although there was no evidence of this. There’s also a lot of nonsense out there. Election officials in Philadelphia said that some people believed the voting machines are owned by the liberal financier George Soros, and others believed they’re owned by the Koch family, the conservative financiers. Neither is true, but when people feel like the “other side” is out to get them, these things can get out of hand. What have local election officials learned about effectively responding to misinformation or fears? Kellen: Responding quickly to bad information is essential. Sonoma County, Calif., was dealing with tweeted photos of out-of-date and empty ballot envelopes that had been discarded at a recycling center, and some people twisted that as evidence of votes being thrown out. (That wasn’t true.) Continue reading the main story ADVERTISEMENT The tweet went out overnight, and the next day the county released an explanation of what was really going on that was firm and authoritative. Even so, the false claim of ballot fraud spread widely, and not everyone believed the county’s explanation. What are the lessons for voters? Davey: One lesson is that we shouldn’t take all information we see at face value. Falsehoods spread fast, often by what looks like word of mouth but isn’t. There are repeated examples of online messages by an unnamed “friend” of the person posting who seems to be in-the-know and passes on information like that ballots could be invalid if election officials write on them. (This is false.) If you don’t know the origin of the information, don’t repost it or spread it. Ask your local elections office, and look for communications directly from them. I worry that focusing on misinformation will give people a false impression of election chaos. Davey: I worry about that, too. The message to Americans should be, yes, there will always be isolated cases where ballots are mixed up or stolen, or where elements of the voting process are botched. But the data that we’ve collected show that these instances are rare and generally not evidence of widespread fraud or a broken system. Continue reading the main story ADVERTISEMENT Try to be aware of things that could go wrong, stay mindful of the information you read and believe, but also know that we can trust in the reliability of the voting process — and we should. And vote. Just do it. SEND US YOUR QUESTIONS: We want to hear your election tech questions. What are you curious or concerned about related to how tech companies are handling election-related misinformation, or how secure America’s election technology is? Send your questions to ontech@nytimes.com, and we’ll answer a selection. Please include your full name and location. When fear itself undermines elections False information and chatter about isolated cases of botched voting are insidious because they can slowly chip away at our trust in elections or other institutions. As Davey talked about, essential institutions function best when people have faith in them. America’s enemies know that, too. My colleagues David E. Sanger and Nicole Perlroth wrote about warnings from U.S. officials that hackers and foreign governments are exaggerating smaller attacks on local voting systems or election-related websites as part of efforts to erode public confidence in the integrity of the election process. Continue reading the main story ADVERTISEMENT The Department of Homeland Security official responsible for securing voting systems says that one of his biggest concerns is “not a vast attack but a series of smaller ones, perhaps concentrated in swing states, whose effect is more psychological than real,” David and Nicole wrote. These so-called perception hacks might include the recent defacing of the Trump campaign website, and the threatening, faked emails sent to voters by hackers who U.S. officials said were backed by Iran and had obtained relatively innocuous information on Americans. David and Nicole wrote about vulnerabilities in election systems, too, including hackers who locked up the voter signature verification systems in Gainesville, Ga., and forced poll workers to pull registration cards manually. But again, my colleagues wrote, the point of hacking attacks may not be to compromise voting or tamper with election results, but to make people believe that election results were compromised. So as Davey said, be on the lookout for when things go wrong. Be angry when our government officials are incompetent at managing important things like an election. But also be aware that — to steal a line from Franklin D. Roosevelt — one of the things we have to fear is fear itself. If you don’t already get this newsletter in your inbox, please sign up here. Before we go … This tests how low people can sink in the middle of a pandemic: Nicole writes that the same Russian hackers who U.S. officials are worried could stir up election trouble are also targeting American hospitals for computer attacks that hold their data hostage in exchange for ransom payments. (I recently wrote an explanation of these so-called ransomware attacks.) This is what supporters of social media say it’s for: Many traditional news outlets in Nigeria have been reluctant to report on growing protests in the country against police brutality and the government’s sometimes violent crackdown of them, Vice News writes. But online magazines and protest organizers are using social media to help organize demonstrations and inform people about them, Vice said. Is there nothing K-pop fans can’t do? Bloomberg Businessweek has this fun tale of the hyperactive online activity of fans of Korean pop supergroups. Sometimes they swarm people online to harass them or mass-call radio stations to request songs by their favorite boy bands. And sometimes they use their influence to organize charitable donations and combat dangerous online conspiracies. Hugs to this PLEASE ADMIRE these adorable kangaroos from a sanctuary in Australia. (This Instagram account of fuzzies was recommended by a reader of the At Home newsletter.) We want to hear from you. Tell us what you think of this newsletter and what else you’d like us to explore. You can reach us at ontech@nytimes.com. If you don’t already get this newsletter in your inbox, please sign up here. Continue reading the main story Need help? Review our newsletter help page or contact us for assistance. You received this email because you signed up for On Tech with Shira Ovide from The New York Times. To stop receiving these emails, unsubscribe or manage your email preferences. Subscribe to The TimesGet The New York Times app Connect with us on: Change Your EmailPrivacy PolicyContact UsCalifornia Notices The New York Times Company. 620 Eighth Avenue New York, NY 10018