Marketplace Tech

Seven months ago, Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico. Since then, people on the island have had deal with lots of uncertainty, including spotty electricity and an island-wide blackout earlier this month. Cell phone and internet access are often unreliable as well. The FCC has proposed $750 million in funding to rebuild communication systems, but in the meantime patchwork solutions have sprung up. Marketplace Tech host Molly Wood spoke with Marketplace Weekend host Lizzie O'Leary, who just returned from Puerto Rico. She says connectivity on the island is still a mixed bag. For more coverage of Puerto Rico's recovery from Hurricane Maria, check out the Marketplace Weekend podcast.

Last week 34 tech companies signed the Cybersecurity Tech Accord, saying they won't help any government, including the U.S., carry out cyber-attacks. That came amid warnings from the U.S. and the U.K. about the Russian government's global attempts to hack routers and other network equipment. Marketplace Tech host Molly Wood spoke with Bruce Schneier, a cybersecurity expert at Harvard, about how tech companies will play a role in combating international cyber threats.

Will online business be forced to collect state sales taxes? That question will go before the Supreme Court sometime in June. Traditionally, businesses only need to collect sales taxes in states where they have a physical presence. But South Dakota recently passed a law to change that. Two companies, Wayfair and Overstock, sued the state. Marketplace Tech host Molly Wood spoke with Josh Silverman, the CEO of Etsy, about how the court battle could affect smaller online retailers.

Political campaigns want your data. At least that’s what the Facebook and Cambridge Analytica scandal taught us. But data isn’t just a factor in presidential politics. Local campaigns collect lots of data as well, and that data needs to be secured. Marketpalce Tech host Molly Wood spoke with Marketplace’s Kimberly Adams about what kinds of information smaller campaigns have.

The days are numbered for federal net neutrality regulations. In response, some states are working on their own versions to prevent internet service providers (ISP) from blocking, slowing or charging more for some web traffic. Oregon, Washington and several other states have made new rules, but a bill working its way through the California legislature would go the furthest. Marketplace Tech host Molly Wood spoke with Ryan Singel, a media and strategy fellow at Stanford Law School, about how a state can regulate a business that crosses state lines.

Robots are coming for all our jobs, right? It can be hard not to feel that way given the pace of automation. But if it really is inevitable, are we doing anything to prepare for it? Enter the Automation Readiness Index, a research project put together by The Economist and funded by Swiss robotics giant ABB. It’s a global list ranking the nations most prepared to smoothly integrate “intelligent automation into their economies.” Marketplace Tech Host Molly Wood spoke with Guido Jouret, ABB’s chief digital officer, about which countries came out on top and how the United States is faring.

This week, Facebook revealed more about the way it collects data on just about everyone. The company disclosed how much data it collects when users aren’t logged in to Facebook and are just surfing the web. The company even tracks people who don’t have a Facebook account. To put the deluge of privacy news into perspective, Marketplace Tech host Molly Wood spoke with Tom Merritt, host of the "Daily Tech News Show" podcast, about whether this is all just a Facebook problem.

Many Americans rely on a cable provider to connect them to broadband internet, and streaming and other tech trends are changing the way we watch television. Marketplace Tech host Molly Wood spoke with Amanda Lotz about her new book, "We Now Disrupt This Broadcast," on the role of cable and the internet in transforming the way we are entertained.      

We’re all being photographed, a lot — by each other, and by cameras in public and private spaces.  As our images become more widespread, there’s also more facial recognition technology that’s used to identify us. This week, a federal judge said Facebook must face a lawsuit over its use of facial recognition. Marketplace Tech host Molly Wood talks with Joseph Lorenzo Hall, chief technologist at the Center for Democracy and Technology about the value in this kind of technology, along with what kind of harm it can cause.

It's Tax Day, and if you are one of the 50 million people who prepared their taxes online, you might have seen an option to talk to a real accountant through video chat. That’s because accountants are now part of the gig economy — and many certified public accountants are working gigs with TurboTax. On Marketplace Tech, we look at the need for accountants on demand and discuss how the gig economy is changing for highly educated workers.