Marketplace Tech

There are LOTS of cryptocurrencies. Yes, bitcoin, but also: Ethereum, Ripple, Litecoin, IOTA, Dash, TRON and Bitcoin Cash. What’s a new investor to do? Read Reddit threads, of course. And starting this week, there are now official financial ratings of the coins, as well. Weiss Ratings is going to assign letter ratings to cryptocurrencies, though, because of their volatile nature, the grades could change daily. Marketplace Tech host Molly Wood talks with Martin Weiss, who’s behind the ratings.

There are lots of startups as well as established tech companies, like Apple and Google, that are interested in measuring our waists and monitoring our blood pressure. But as the Food and Drug Administration loosens regulations in the digital health space, who’s looking out for the consumers? On our segment Quality Assurance — a second look at the week’s tech news — Marketplace Tech host Molly Wood talks about the regulation of health tech with CNBC's Christina Farr.

Two major Apple investors are asking the company to make sure its devices aren't harming kids. They want Apple to do more research into smartphone addiction. Could exploring this somehow be good business for Apple? Marketplace Tech host Molly Wood talks with Megan Moreno, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Wisconsin.

What does Martin Luther have to do with Facebook? According to one historian, they both prove that networks have great power and can do a lot of harm. Marketplace Tech host Molly Wood talks with Niall Ferguson, whose new book is called "The Square and the Tower: Networks and Power, from the Freemasons to Facebook."

The bitcoin gold rush involves a lot of money, and where there's lots of money, there is also the taxman. The IRS has started to take a keen interest in cryptocurrency over the past several months, and it's not just bitcoin millionaires who should be taking notice. Marketplace Tech host Molly Wood talks with Amy Wall, a licensed tax preparer based in Tucson, Arizona, who specializes in the tax implications of virtual currency.

Revenge porn is the non-consensual sharing of nude photos or videos. Thirty-eight states and the District of Columbia have revenge porn laws, according to the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative. And now Congress is considering a bill that would make revenge porn a federal crime. Marketplace Tech host Molly Wood talks with Danielle Citron, an adviser on the bill and a law professor at the University of Maryland.

The twin security flaws called Spectre and Meltdown let hackers take advantage of almost any device with a chip in it and steal data, passwords, keystrokes — pretty much all the things you want to keep private. Marketplace Tech host Molly Wood talks with independent security reporter Brian Krebs, who says that on the scale of one to 10 in terms of how worried he is, this is about an eight. He also says we should patch our computers. We get into the nitty gritty of the hack for our segment Quality Assurance, a second look at the news.

The controversy over net neutrality hasn't died down a bit. In December, the Federal Communications Commission overturned rules that prevent internet service providers from blocking, slowing down or charging more to access content online. The ruling drew the ire of internet users and small business owners arguing that net neutrality protects consumers and internet startups. Since then, states are considering their own laws, and this week, some 44 senators, including Republican Susan Collins of Maine, said they'll support a bill that would overturn the FCC's ruling.

GDPR stands for General Data Protection Regulation. It’s a new privacy regulation that will affect people who live in the European Union beginning in May. It affects any company that serves residents of the EU, and it could make it harder for companies to access their data. So any company that relies on data as a form of currency may have to figure out another revenue stream. Does this mean that European residents might have to pay for Google searches? And could this trickle over to the United States? Marketplace Tech host Molly Wood talks about it with Jessica Lee, a partner with the law firm Loeb & Loeb, who’s advising clients on the upcoming regulation.

It’s hard for humans to drive in bad weather, and it’s hard for self-driving cars to drive in it, too.  Many of the cars started their lives in sunny California and haven't experienced much of the world. So automakers are sending them out into more snowy climes. Marketplace Tech host Molly Wood talks about it with Chris Gerdes, director of the Center for Automotive Research at Stanford.