Trust is eroding, Spotify ups entertainment value, NewsGIF sums up stories, Google Maps is racist, Seinfeld dates Hulu, and Germany advertises beer to women.

Americans Don't Really Trust Anyone

Many Americans don't trust anyone when it comes to keeping their data private and secure, at least according to a survey by the Pew Research Center. A whopping 93 percent of the people who took part in the survey believe it's important to be in control of who can get information, and 90 percent want to be in control of what information is collected about them.

Unfortunately, on the key question of who they trust, everyone does badly. Just 38 percent of respondents believe credit card companies will keep their data safe. It's 31 percent for government agencies, 29 percent for email providers, 16 percent for search engines, 11 percent for social media sites, and just 7 percent for online advertisers.

There is a lot more data to take in here, but it's clear that there's a huge disconnect between the levels of privacy and security the average American wants, and the levels they actually get. Can this be fixed? Probably not. Especially while all of those entities mentioned above continue to either purposely collect data or inadvertently leak data like a sieve.

Spotify Gets More Entertaining

Spotify is adding a slew of new features and content to its app, including video clips, audio podcasts, news bulletins, and a running mode which plays music matching your pace. This move into other areas of entertainment has been rumored for a while, prompting us to wonder whether there's room for Spotify and Netflix to play comfortably alongside one another.

This was all announced at a glitzy event that saw Spotify CEO Daniel Ek talking up the company's successes. There were shades of an Apple press conference here, which may have been intentional given Apple's imminent relaunching of Beats Music. If Apple is encroaching on Spotify's turf, then Spotify needs to fight fire with fire.

Apple is thought to be pushing record labels to kill free tiers in an effort to decapitate Spotify. Thus allowing it to swoop in and steal the show with what's expected to be rebranded as Apple Music. Whether Spotify's foray into new areas helps protect it against that threat remains to be seen.

NewsGIF Tells the News With GIFs

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NewsGIF is a new service aiming to deliver the news in the form of GIFs. Well, kinda. It all depends whether you feel a descriptive headline and an unrelated GIF are enough to go on. If not, you'll need to click through to the source itself to actually put some meat on the bones.

It's fair to say this is aimed at the younger generation, for whom GIFs are life and whose attention spans are worse than those of goldfish. NewsGIF is available now on the Web and iOS, with an Android version reported to be in the works. In the meantime, check out 4NewsWall.

Google Maps Is Racist

It turns out Google Maps is racist. But only as racist as the people using it. As discovered by The Washington Post, searching for the N word led Google to point people to the White House. Where Barack Obama, the first black President of the United States of America, currently resides.

Searching for "N***er House" in a global view of the world turned up this result, as did searching for "N***er King" when focused on Washington DC. We don't understand why anyone would have searched for these terms in the first place, but someone clearly has done, and word has then spread.

Google issued a statement saying, “Some inappropriate results are surfacing in Google Maps that should not be, and we apologise for any offence this may have caused. Our teams are working to fix this issue quickly.” However, that doesn't explain why these searches are leading people to the White House in the first place.

Seinfeld Scores Date With Hulu

Seinfeld will debut on Hulu on June 24th, with all 180 episodes being available to stream in their entirety from that date on. Not only is this convenient (for those in the U.S. and subscribing to Hulu), it means we no longer have to make do with the edited versions that have been airing in syndication since the show ended in 1998.

Hulu paid a reported $180 million for the rights to stream Seinfeld, which works out at around $1 million per episode. This is double the price Netflix paid for the rights to stream all 10 seasons of Friends. But then both shows are virtually priceless in their ability to provide laughs time and time again.

How to Advertise Beer to Women

And finally, in an effort to persuade more women that beer is actually rather tasty, German brand Astra advertised directly to the female half of the population. For directly, read exclusively, as these automated billboards only started up when there was a woman in the vicinity.

A small camera attached to the billboard uses facial recognition software to detect gender and age. And if a female is walking past, one of 70 videos starring German comedian Uke Bosse starts playing. And if it's a guy? He's told to keep on walking past. Possibly to buy some beer. [H/T PSFK]

Your Views on Today’s Tech News

Do you trust credit card companies and government agencies to keep your data private and secure? What should Google do about its racist Maps problem? Would you buy beer after seeing a targeted ad?

Let us know your thoughts on the Tech News of the day by posting to the comments section below. Because a healthy discussion is always welcome.

Image Credit: Craig Cloutier via Flickr