Marketplace Tech

Earlier this week, six U.S. tech companies were named in a lawsuit that accuses them of endangering the lives of child laborers in the mining of cobalt for their products. Several children have been maimed or killed in pursuit of this rare element, most of which comes from the Democratic Republic of Congo. The lawsuit, the first of its kind, names Apple, Alphabet, Microsoft, Dell and Tesla. “This is the first time that tech companies have been on the hook for this,” Roger Cheng of CNET tells host Molly Wood.

The author of a new book wants us to think before we post about our kids. She says that between social media, tech in education and the vast system of government, advertising and digital data collection that we live with every day, our kids are getting an online history that they didn’t choose and can’t escape.

When it comes to design — whether it’s for apps, websites, phones, TVs or computers — we throw around the term “user friendly” a lot. User-friendly design makes using a product easy and painless, which means we don’t notice it, we just enjoy using it. Sometimes, when a design is really good and easy to use, we don’t notice that we’re kind of addicted to an app, game or phone — or that we’re becoming increasingly dependent on those things. Cliff Kuang, a longtime user-experience designer and journalist, explains how the best design comes from empathy.

California’s big consumer privacy law goes into effect on Jan. 1. It’s the first law in the U.S. that demands that companies give consumers more control over their information and more power over what they can do with that information once they have it. On the consumer side, you can now ask companies to show you everything they have on you for free up to twice a year. You can ask companies to delete the data, and the law requires companies to give you an easy way to opt out of having your personal information sold. Jessica Lee, a partner at the law firm Loeb & Loeb and co-chair of the privacy, security and data innovations practice there, helps us understand the new law.

NASA and its Jet Propulsion Laboratory are launching flights to gather more data about the lingering pollutants from fires by flying straight into the smoke plumes. We can’t actually see these super tiny pollutants, but they’re big enough to affect our breathing, especially for those who have asthma. Both NASA and JPL are learning more from studying the plumes during a fire, as well as the air after a fire, to help understand how these pollutants will affect us long term.

Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act says tech platforms can’t be held liable for most things their users post on those platforms. The same section has been under attack recently from politicians and others who say it gives companies too much protection in this age of harassment, radicalization and misinformation. But even as the debate is happening, the law is being exported, so to speak. Language similar to Section 230 is part of U.S. trade agreements with Japan and made the cut in the recently agreed upon deal with Mexico and Canada.

Earlier this week, Steph Korey resigned as CEO of the trendy luggage company Away after a report on the company’s toxic workplace culture. Recently, there have been several negative stories about female CEOs, too. Sara Mauskopf, CEO and co-founder of Winnie, wrote about this and said the negative coverage of female CEOs compared to their male counterparts is noticeably disproportionate.

Chatbots are growing in importance as a way of bringing in revenue: Juniper Research estimates that by the year 2023, retail sales through chatbots will reach $112 billion. But those bots can lose customers if they can’t keep up with conversations. So to make chatbots witty and even funny, tech companies are turning to entertainers.

A report this week in the Financial Times suggests that China might be moving to ban all foreign computer hardware and software from government agencies and public organizations within three years. The move could hurt American tech companies, but what’s tricky is that China doesn’t really have the technology to replace a lot of the software it’s trying to kick out. “Marketplace Tech” host Molly Wood talks with Robert Atkinson, president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank.

Microsoft is one of the world’s biggest tech companies, but it’s mostly been left out of controversies and investigations around privacy, data protection and antitrust. It’s ironic since the company spent about a decade fighting antitrust allegations in the 1990s. Microsoft is still developing many of the technologies that are under scrutiny now.