Author Archive

Heather Timmons

Heather Timmons is the Asia Correspondent for Quartz, based in Hong Kong, where she writes about everything from ramen to derivatives to censorship. Previously she spent 10 years with The New York Times in London and New Delhi, where she covered finance and markets and the Indian economy. She co-founded and ran India Ink, the NYT's first-ever country specific news journal, which provides in-depth news and analysis of the world’s largest democracy and of India’s global diaspora. Before the Times, Heather was the banking editor at BusinessWeek in New York, where she covered the perils of the big bank business model and the danger of banks’ expansion into risky lending, corruption on Wall Street, and a post-9/11 city. She began writing about banking and finance as a reporter with the Daily Deal and American Banker.
Artificial Intelligence

200,000 Volunteers Have Become the Fact Checkers of the Internet

The creation process of Wikipedia is largely transparent.

Digital Government

All the Key Department of Homeland Security Positions Trump Has Left Unfilled

From the department’s chief of staff to literally every leadership position in its “Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction” office.

Emerging Tech

Facebook Failed to Make Good on a Promise Because it Has Too Much Faith in Its Tech

Facebook's advertising business brings in the vast majority of the company’s billions of dollars in revenue every quarter.

Modernization

The Tiny, Passionate Group Battling Google, Facebook, and Amazon’s Grip on US Minds and Wallets

The group believes they need to be stopped before they destroy the US economy and democracy itself.

Modernization

What it Will Take to Keep Trump Tweeting From Behind China’s Great Firewall

While China’s massive censorship machine technically blocks Chinese citizens from using Twitter, there are ways around it.

Digital Government

What to Expect When Twitter, Facebook, and Google Testify in Congress on Nov. 1

The companies will discuss the role they played in Russia’s attempt to influence the US presidential election.

Cybersecurity

Why the Russia Fake News Scandal Hasn’t Touched Snapchat

Snapchat is deliberately much stricter than other social media companies about which news outlets it partners with.

Digital Government

Washington Failed to Regulate Big Tech—And Now it’s About to Discover That It Can’t

Companies like Facebook, Google, and Amazon dominate their markets, and have deep pockets and armies of lobbyists.

Digital Government

What Facebook Told Congress Suggests its Russian Ad Problem Could Be Bigger Than it Looks

Some Congress members, however, believe that the company has yet to quantify the full scope of the problem.

Digital Government

Meet the Woman Who Warned About Russian Election Meddling Years Ago—and Got Death Threats

She was worried about the government turning a “blind eye” to the growing force of the internet in politics.

Modernization

Is the Chinese Government Hacking Every iPhone in the Country?

China has an estimated 100 million iPhone users, and all of them could be vulnerable

Modernization

Beijing Thinks the <span>i</span>Phone is a Threat to China’s National Security

The phone's Frequent Locations function, which tracks the exact places you have been and the amount of time you spent there, is capturing "extremely sensitive data," says Chinese government TV.

Cybersecurity

Hacker Attacks and Pressure From Beijing Are Killing Free Speech in Hong Kong

Last week, targeted attacks briefly took down websites belonging to Next Media, a media group that has often been critical of Beijing.

Cybersecurity

Watch the Global Hacking War in Real Time With a Map

The US and China are locked in an escalating war about online spying that threatens to devastate business for companies in both countries.