Each week, BIV staff will share with you some of the interesting stories we have found from around the web.
Timothy Renshaw, managing editor:
The good news: corruption levels around the world have not gotten any worse over the past year; the bad news: they haven’t gotten any better, as measured by Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index. The CPI analysis notes that two-thirds of countries measured on the index have serious political, business and other corruption problems. Most corrupt countries in the world, according to the CPI: South Sudan and Syria; least corrupt: Denmark, Finland and New Zealand. Canada, meanwhile, is not in the top 10, which is concerning.
https://www.transparency.org/en/cpi/2021
While we are on the subject of deception, flim flam and chicanery, here are some Federal Trade Commission insights on bogus online product reviews and the fight against companies that delete negative reviews posted on their websites.
https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/blogs/business-blog/2022/01/ill-pay-you-give-blog-post-five-stars
https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/blogs/business-blog/2022/01/abracadabra-bad-reviews-be-gone
Mark Falkenberg, deputy managing editor:
A U.S. judge has opened the door to the potential breakup of tech giant Meta, the Mark Zuckerberg company behind Facebook and other social media platforms.
The ruling late last week greenlights a case by the competition watchdog Federal Trade Commission which argues that Meta’s acquisition of companies like Instagram and WhatsApp by the Facebook owner “was anticompetitive because it led to poorer service – for instance lower levels of service quality in privacy and data protection – and less choice for consumers.” – Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/jan/19/techscape-breaking-up-meta
A spoof of Tory embrace of the “freedom convoy” of unvaccinated truckers includes this faux quote from former Conservative leader Andrew Scheer: “So in 2019 we enthusiastically supported the Yellow Vests when they drove to the capital, only for them to turn out to be a xenophobic, alt-right movement. … It’s a totally different situation. These guys don’t have vests AND they drive big trucks! There will be way less Islamophobia and way more fun truck honks.” – The Beaverton
Nelson Bennett, reporter:
You’re waiting for an expensive purchase from Amazon to arrive and you’re afraid some thief might snatch it from your front porch. Did you know that you can easily turn that old smartphone you have in your junk drawer (provided it has a camera) into a wireless video monitor for free that would let you monitor your front door no matter where you are? This Fast Company article explains how a free app, Alfred Camera, installed on your old smartphone and your current one can be turned into a mobile video monitoring device. – Fast Company
https://www.fastcompany.com/90714184/use-old-phone-as-security-camera
One of the great mysteries of the ancient world is why and how flourishing late Bronze Age civilizations suddenly collapsed around the beginning of the 12th century BCE. While the collapse of the highly interconnected Egyptian, Mycenaean, Hittite and Assyrian empires has been blamed on a sequence of events, like earthquakes and invasions from marauding “Sea Peoples,” some scientists believe climate change, in the form of widespread and prolonged mega-droughts, may have triggered the collapse. Archaeologist Harvey Weiss has found evidence that suggests a mega-drought was responsible for the collapse of at least one civilization, the Akkadian Empire, although that happened roughly 1,000 years before the collapse of the late Bronze Age civilizations. – Nature
