Computer & Technology
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Most People Will File Income Taxes Online, Despite Data-Breach Fears

John A. Ratliff

Death and taxes: 2020 saw far too much of the former and delays on the latter, but both remain inevitable and nothing to look forward to (unless you’re getting a refund). Doing your income taxes is a chore, even now that so many of us are are filing electronically.

How many? We found out via a survey on tax habits, preferences, and fears conducted along with our sister site, Offers.com. We asked 1,075 tax-filing adults in the US on February 5, 2021 via Alchemer (formerly SurveyGizmo) about how they’ll handle the tax season and their concerns.

Some respondents (18%) filed early, in January. The majority planned to file taxes in February (43%), while 26% would wait until March. The numbers go down to 9% for April, then get very specific: 2% would file on April 14, and 1% on tax day itself, Thursday, April 15. Another 1% said they’d

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Technology
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Singapore plan to use monitoring app on students’ computers sparks privacy fears

John A. Ratliff

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – A Singapore government scheme to ensure children have access to computers for home learning has raised privacy concerns over monitoring software installed on the devices.

FILE PHOTO: Students wearing protective face masks read in class at Yio Chu Kang Secondary School, as schools reopen amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Singapore June 2, 2020. REUTERS/Edgar Su

The scheme, accelerated by the closure of schools last year during the COVID-19 pandemic, offers subsidies to ensure all secondary school students will have access to computers by the end of 2021.

The government said in December that the computers must be fitted with device management applications, while students using their own computers will also need to have these installed onto their devices.

The software allows teachers to view and control students’ screens remotely, the vendor has said, sparking an online petition against the plan and criticism from international NGO,

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Business
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Bulls Are Charging Despite Bubble Fears

John A. Ratliff

The strong selling in the futures last Sunday evening and early Monday took the March E-mini S&P 500 futures to a low of 3656. The futures were over 80 points higher by Monday’s NYSE open, and the buying lasted all week. The buyers seemed unconcerned by the prior week’s tumult around Gamestop, as they found a number of positive developments to focus on.

While the monthly jobs report was not encouraging, many of the other economic reports last week were better than expected. Additionally, the earnings from big tech stocks like Alphabet Inc. (GOOGL) and Amazon.com (AMZN) gave the market a boost, as they were up 14.3% and 4.6% respectively. With more than half of the S&P 500 stocks reporting, 95% have beat the profit estimates and 88% beat their revenue estimates.

The 5.3% weekly gain in

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Computer & Technology
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Online privacy experts sound alarm as US Senate bill sparks surveillance fears

A US Senate bill that critics say would enable widespread censorship and surveillance has taken a significant step towards becoming law, raising alarm among internet freedom advocates.

The Senate judiciary committee voted on Thursday to advance the Earn It Act, legislation that on paper is intended to address sexual exploitation. However, privacy experts say the act would give the Department of Justice unprecedented power over the internet and potentially threaten the privacy of messages sent online.

The “Eliminating Abuse and Rampant Neglect of Interactive Technology” (Earn It) Act was introduced in March by the South Carolina Republican Lindsey Graham, Democrat Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, Republican Josh Hawley of Missouri, and Democrat Dianne Feinstein of California to address what lawmakers characterized as “the rapid increase of child sexual abuse material on prominent online platforms”.

“Technological advances have allowed the online exploitation of children to become much, much worse over recent years,”

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