Brace yourself! Google is watching you. It’s for real, this time.
Remember that new Google privacy policy that you have neglected to read on purpose? Well, it starts up today.
As of this morning, Google will combine the private user data from all of its services, creating “personal dossiers” to target ads to catered audiences. Yes, it is just like Minority Report, but with a billion users. Gmail, Google Plus, YouTube and most other Google products are included in the new policy — one that users have not been able to opt out of.
While there are ways to minimize how much data Google gathers, Google can still track a user’s traffic, even when they are not logged in. Privacy experts have cited several legal concerns over these changes, mostly stemming from the lack of user consent or input after years of developing a dependency on the service. Yikes.
READ: For more on how to protect yourself from Google’s new privacy policy
Oxycontin, a.k.a. Hillbilly Heroin, will be taken off pharmacists’ shelves today. Mostly.
Starting today, “Hillbilly heroin,” or OxyContin, will be mostly removed from the Canadian prescription drug market.
Six provinces, including Ontario, will discontinue or heavily restrict access to the drug. Oxycontin, one of the most abused prescription drugs in the country, is being replaced by a pain-relieving substitute, OxyNEO, which, according to its manufacturer, is much harder to crush or liquify.
Sure, the drug does not get its street namesake from nowhere. Easily ground up or injected, it has been a versatile drug for addicts for years, this opiate posing longstanding risks for users.
But according to leaders in the pain community, this decision is hilariously misguided, and can result in dangerous addiction transfer, or lesser care for patients in need of relief.
Canadians are among the highest users of prescription opiods, or chronic pain relievers, in the world. Keep your eye on this story unfolds — it looks to be a lot messier than Health Canada ever expected.
A Global Commission on Drug Policy says Canada is “too hard” on pot.
On Wednesday, the Global Commission on Drug Policy singled out Canada to stop pursuing the “destructive, expensive and ineffective” prohibition of pot.
Worldwide governments are softening their stances on the war on drugs, but according to this Brazil-based commission, Canada is moving in the opposite direction.
In a press release, former Brazilian president Cardoso pleaded with the Canadian government to “start by treating cannabis use as a health issue and undermine organized crime by legally regulating the drug’s use rather than promoting prohibition policies which actually fuel gang violence.”
But, the government’s current stance is not reciprocated everywhere in Canada. Earlier this year, the Liberals voted yes to legalizing marijuana at their biennial convention, while Conservatives dismissed the motion.
Regardless, if Harper’s government is going to put more money into drug prohibition, that may be fine for now, but a closer inspection on the issue couldn’t hurt. Just chill, bro.
New Dragon to launch $100-million investment fund for digital startups. Cool.
Yet another Dragon has taken on a side project — but this time, it’s not about ex-cons: it’s a $100-Million fund for digital startups.
Dragon’s Den newcomer, Bruce Croxon, a venture capitalist, created a new fund to invest in Canada’s newest, and most savvy online business ventures.
Croxon is perhaps best known for co-founding the dating service, Lavalife, in 1988, long before social networking, and prior to selling it for a crisp $170-Million. Cool.
For now, Croxon is looking to invest in companies between Montreal and Windsor, with Canada-wide expansion in the future, and possible cross-promotional Dragon’s Den synergy. You can never have too much synergy, especially as a digital start-up looking to get your name in lights. Or, I guess, in pixels. Or something.
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Joanna Adams writes the Morning Cable, and lots more, for Toronto Standard. Follow her on Twitter at †@nowstarringTO.
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