Marketplace Tech

The Smithsonian Institution’s Arts and Industries Building in Washington, D.C, is helping visitors explore how technology can, and should, shape the world of tomorrow. Marketplace producer Sasha Fernandez takes a tour of the “Futures” exhibition.

The $1.2 trillion infrastructure law President Joe Biden signed in November included $65 billion to get high-speed internet to more people. Much of that funding is expected to be channeled into rural and low-income communities. Now, exactly how all those billions will be distributed is still being worked out. But in the meantime, many states aren’t waiting. They are boosting broadband access using another pot of cash, tapping into pandemic relief funds from the American Rescue Plan Act — a law that included about $360 billion for broadband investments and support. Marketplace’s Kimberly Adams speaks with Anna Read, senior officer with the Pew Charitable Trusts’ Broadband Access Initiative, about this tactic.

Marketplace is for public good, not for profit. We count on you, our listeners, to help cover the cost of tech and business reporting you rely on. If you’re in a position to donate, give what you can at Marketplace.org/GiveTech. 

The Academy Awards used to be the battleground between major Hollywood studios. It’s now increasingly a fight between streaming services. Netflix nabbed 27 Oscar nominations on Tuesday, the most of any studio. Marketplace’s Kimberly Adams speaks with Julia Alexander, a senior strategy analyst for Parrot Analytics. She says nominations for companies like Netflix and Amazon are a sure sign of the times.

The IRS announced on Monday it’s dropping a plan to require taxpayers to sign up for and use facial recognition software. The plan had been to require people to use a service provided by a third-party company, ID.me, to verify their identities to access documents or make payments online. It was already being rolled out for people who created new online accounts this year, and was going to kick in for existing accounts by this summer. The decision comes after backlash from advocates and lawmakers over privacy concerns. Tonya Riley, a privacy and cybersecurity reporter at CyberScoop, joins Marketplace’s Kimberly Adams to discuss.

Nonfungible tokens, or NFTs, are basically digital certificates of ownership, a virtual claim that an image or gif or even a song belongs to you. And while some artists are happy to jump into this new space, others have been surprised — or furious — to find that strangers beat them to owning and selling NFTs of their work. Just last week, several musical artists publicly complained after the website HitPiece temporarily listed NFTs for their songs or albums without the artists’ permission. But does selling someone else’s art as an NFT break the law? Aram Sinnreich is a professor and chair of the communication studies division at American University. He said this gets into a gray area, at least when it comes to existing copyright law.

On Friday, the National Labor Relations Board starts sending unionization ballots to more than 6,000 workers at an Amazon facility in Bessemer, Alabama. Organizers say they want a union so they can negotiate safer working conditions and dispute terminations. Marketplace’s Kimberly Adams speaks with Marketplace senior reporter Meghan McCarty Carino, who covers workplace culture. She said it’s significant that these workers are getting a redo after their union vote last year, which failed.

The Beijing Winter Olympics officially start Friday, although preliminary events have already happened. In addition to the normal concerns about security and logistics, this year’s Games come with tight COVID-19 protocols and, according to cybersecurity experts, additional risks for attacks on the technology people are using. Marketplace’s Kimberly Adams spoke with China correspondent Jennifer Pak about how the government is preparing for security threats. She said contractors hired to manage the threats have identified some particularly high-risk targets.

There are many different types of virtual money these days, among them cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum and Dogecoin, which are largely unregulated. Now more and more governments around the world are getting on board with the concept of their own official, regulated digital-only currencies. These are called central bank digital currencies, and the Federal Reserve recently took the first step in exploring the possibility of an American CBDC. It issued a 40-page paper outlining the potential benefits of, and concerns surrounding, a government-backed digital dollar. Marketplace’s Kimberly Adams speaks with Yaya Fanusie, an adjunct senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security.

This week, a repair team is set to help restore Tonga’s internet, after a volcanic eruption and tsunami last month severed the country’s primary communication connection to the rest of the world: a submarine cable, one of many that crisscross the floors of oceans and seas around the planet. In fact, if you’re listening to this outside of the U.S., this episode has itself traveled along a cable, or multiple cables, at the bottom of the ocean to make its way to you. To unpack this technology, we’re joined by Alan Mauldin, a research director for market research and consulting firm TeleGeography.

January was National Human Trafficking Prevention Month. Trafficking involves the use of force, fraud or coercion to compel someone into labor or commercial sex. Contrary to how it’s often portrayed on TV, most traffickers aren’t strangers; they know their victims. More and more, the recruitment and exploitation of those victims is happening online. Marketplace’s Kimberly Adams speaks with Alyssa Currier Wheeler, associate legal counsel at the Human Trafficking Institute, about the growth of recruitment on social media.