Miss a day, miss a lot. Subscribe to The Defender's Top News of the Day. It's free.
Rantz: Amazon Brands Vaccinated Employees, Forces Private COVID Decisions Public
At Amazon, employees are not allowed to keep one particular medical decision private.
Amazon is forcing its employees to brand themselves with stickers indicating they’ve received a COVID-19 vaccination, even if they’d prefer to keep that medical decision private. This move also forces employees to disclose if they have not received a vaccine.
The decision, which impacts all U.S. Field Operations employees, suggests Amazon doesn’t trust its own staff to be honest about their vaccination status.
Uttar Pradesh: Village Refuses COVID Vaccine, Power Supply Goes Off
Over 100 families of Chhibramau village in Kannauj district are living in darkness for the last three days because they didn’t want to get vaccinated against COVID-19.
“A team from the health department had visited our village on Wednesday morning. They wanted the entire village to be vaccinated. However, around 40 per cent of the villagers refused to take the vaccine because they believed that their immunity level would go down for a few days and they might fall sick,” a villager, who didn’t want to be named, told reporters on Friday.
Royal Caribbean Reverses, Won’t Require Passengers on U.S. Cruises to Be Vaccinated
Royal Caribbean International will no longer require any of its cruise passengers to be vaccinated for COVID-19 as it had previously planned to.
In a press release Friday announcing cruises for sale on eight of its ships from U.S. ports this summer, starting with Freedom of the Seas from PortMiami on July 2, the company said it will recommend passengers get the COVID-19 vaccine, but not require it. The announcement is a reversal from previous statements and vaccine protocols the company submitted to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last month that said it would require all passengers at least 18 years old and older to be vaccinated.
Tiny Trackers Give Rise to the Age of Stalking
When Apple released its coin sized AirTags, it proclaimed “a super easy way to keep track of your stuff.” In reality, it now appears that your “stuff” may include your children, co-workers, ex-spouses, enemies, lovers and complete strangers. ⁃ TN Editor
But amid concerns the Bluetooth trackers instead are enabling stalking, Apple last week pledged to update the devices to boost privacy. Now, the AirTags emit an audible tone whenever separated from the device owner for more than eight hours, which would warn someone who’s being followed without her or his knowledge. (Originally, the tone emitted after three days.)
Genius Media, The Nation Sue Google in Advertising Antitrust Lawsuit
Online publishers including Genius Media Group and news website The Nation alleged in a lawsuit seeking class-action status on Wednesday that Alphabet Inc’s Google has unlawfully stifled advertising competition, hurting their businesses.
The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in San Jose, California, resembles an antitrust complaint filed earlier in the day by Texas and nine other U.S. states against Google.
Genius, which provides song lyrics, and two online magazines the Nation and the Progressive, said they used Google software to sell ads but received what they viewed as an unfair split of sales because the search giant had taken over the market.
