The Verge - Science Posts |
- Mental health app privacy language opens up holes for user data
- Amazon-owned PillPack settles DOJ insulin lawsuit for $6 million
- Why fossil fuel companies see green in Bitcoin mining projects
| Mental health app privacy language opens up holes for user data Posted: 04 May 2022 06:30 AM PDT  In the world of mental health apps, privacy scandals have become almost routine. Every few months, reporting or research uncovers unscrupulous-seeming data sharing practices at apps like the Crisis Text Line, Talkspace, BetterHelp, and others: people gave information to those apps in hopes of feeling better, then it turns out their data was used in ways that help companies make money (and don't help them). It seems to me like a twisted game of whack-a-mole. When under scrutiny, the apps often change or adjust their policies — and then new apps or problems pop up. It isn't just me: Mozilla researchers said this week that mental health apps have some of the worst privacy protections of any app category. Watching the cycle over the past... |
| Amazon-owned PillPack settles DOJ insulin lawsuit for $6 million Posted: 04 May 2022 05:48 AM PDT  Amazon-owned online pharmacy company PillPack agreed to pay nearly $6 million after admitting to giving patients more insulin at a time than Medicare and Medicaid allow, according to a settlement announced by the Department of Justice on Monday. Government healthcare programs like Medicare and Medicaid put limits on the supply of drugs they'll cover at one time, which restricts the amount of the drug a pharmacy can distribute to a patient. According to the settlement, PillPack would give patients a full box of insulin pens (which contains 300 units of insulin), an amount that exceeds the limits. It would then falsely report the supply of insulin given to patients in its reimbursement claims submitted to the health programs. Patients... |
| Why fossil fuel companies see green in Bitcoin mining projects Posted: 04 May 2022 05:00 AM PDT  Of all the corporate climate hype floating around this spring, ExxonMobil's secret project to cut down its pollution by mining Bitcoin has to rank up there as one of the strangest. Exxon launched a pilot project in 2021 to mine Bitcoin in North Dakota's Bakken oil fields, according to reporting by CNBC in March. The US's biggest oil and gas company is also thinking about doing the same in Alaska and parts of Nigeria, Argentina, Guyana, and Germany, Bloomberg reported. And it's not alone. Other oil companies, including ConocoPhillips in North Dakota, see the energy-hungry cryptocurrency as a way to offload some of their climate footprint and maybe make some cash in the process. The US has become the biggest hub for Bitcoin mining... |
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