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Tech Week: The CIA Apologizes, Twitter Soars, Foursquare Swarm

Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif. welcomes CIA Director John Brennan on Capitol Hill in 2013.
J. Scott Applewhite
/
AP
Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif. welcomes CIA Director John Brennan on Capitol Hill in 2013.

We know you don't miss a single NPR headline, but just in case you did, here's our weekly look back at what we covered in digital culture, and what we recommend from our friends across the mediascape.

ICYMI

Not OK, Cupid: On the heels of Facebook's much-maligned revelation that it conducts scientific experiments to test the emotional responses of its users, the online dating site OKCupid says it sometimes manipulates user profiles for experiments. Co-founder Christian Rudder spoke with our Audie Cornish on All Things Considered. And Slate's Will Oremus had a satirical response to the news, asking what other psychological experiments companies could play on us: What if Whole Foods injected gluten into foods that said gluten-free?

Not Swarming To Swarm: Foursquare spun off its signature feature, check-ins, to a new app — Swarm. Users are greeting it by deleting both the new app, and its predecessor.

If You Really Love Shoes: If you have a 3-D printer and some talent, 3-D-printed shoes are possible. The ones we wrote about for our Weekly Innovation series are pretty cute, too. But they're not cheap.

The Big Conversation

CIA Apologizes for Snooping: The CIA did hack into Senate Intelligence committee computers, the agency chief admitted on Thursday. It comes after months of denying the meddling and brings an end — we think — to a very "public and contentious spat," our Eyder Peralta writes.

Twitter Stock Soars: After lots of handwringing last quarter, Twitter's stock soared 33 percent in one night on news it doubled its revenue from the previous quarter. Thanks is owed to the World Cup, the company said, which gave tweeting a big boost.

Curiosities

Fast Company: "I Lied To You A Few Days Ago": The Leak Messaging App And Anonymous Honesty

Forget Whisper and Secret, which allow you to widely share anonymous secrets. Now, one-to-one anonymous messaging is supposed to free us of guilt. Or something.

Foreign Policy: The Crypto King of the NSA Goes Corporate

The most recent leader of the National Security Agency, Gen. Keith Alexander, was the agency's leader when Edward Snowden was a contractor there, and when Snowden leaked troves about U.S. cyberspying. All of Alexander's insider knowledge commands $1 million a month, as a corporate adviser.

The Telegraph: Would you buy a driverless car?

Just as the British government prepares to legalize driverless cars, a survey finds Brits aren't getting on the driverless bandwagon.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Elise Hu is a host-at-large based at NPR West in Culver City, Calif. Previously, she explored the future with her video series, Future You with Elise Hu, and served as the founding bureau chief and International Correspondent for NPR's Seoul office. She was based in Seoul for nearly four years, responsible for the network's coverage of both Koreas and Japan, and filed from a dozen countries across Asia.