We’ve all seen those personalized internet ads. You search the internet one day for pair of shoes. Then, for the next two months, you receive countless ads for shoes right on your browser. Thanks to Big Data, Big Brother — or Big Business — is watching. Now, some big travel websites and online general merchandisers […]

The attack reinforces the need for the two nations to better collaborate to protect against threats on North American soil, one expert said. “It reinforces that the need to deal with this threat is a shared one,” said Homeland Security expert Stephen E. Flynn, a professor at Northeastern University. But, Flynn added, just worrying about […]

The discovery last weekend of the bodies of seven women, mostly prostitutes, in Indiana did not result from an intensive manhunt for a serial killer, the kind of sleuthing often featured in television crime dramas. Rather, it was the arrest of Darren Deon Vann, 43, in connection with the disappearance of one woman, 19-year-old Afrika […]

Ebola is spread through contact with sick people’s fluids. So clearly, nurses and doctors who treat patients have a higher risk than others. But let’s pretend for a minute that the probability of getting Ebola in the U.S. is the same across the whole population (a.k.a., the risk is evenly distributed). The U.S. encounter with […]

New research to be unveiled by Northeastern University Thursday found that major travel websites and general merchandisers are testing price steering and discrimination in small doses. The techniques can make it easier for online consumers to find what exactly they want, or conversely, harder to get the best deal. “You do a search for an […]

The Web is full of personalized content, whether it’s a Netflix recommendation or the results of a Google search. But consumers have protested when e-commerce companies have extended their behind-the-scenes personalization to prices, charging different sums for the same goods, or pushing some people toward higher-priced offers. A new study of top e-commerce websites found […]

The founder of Boston Dynamics, the Waltham company that’s known around the world for its development of animal-like robots, said life at the firm hasn’t changed much since it was acquired by Google last year. “We’re still doing the same kind of work, working on dynamic robots that can operate in a variety of circumstances,” […]

New England’s agriculture, resort and hospitality industries are ripe for labor trafficking and the exploitation of immigrants, according to a study released Monday by Northeastern University and the Urban Institute. At a busy outdoor café on an ordinary day, Northeastern criminal law professor Amy Farrell explains how labor human trafficking takes place unnoticed. “Unless someone […]

Do you think you can find the lowest prices by shopping online? Think again. A new study by researchers at Northeastern University confirmed the extent to which major e-commerce websites show some users different prices and a different set of results, even for identical searches. For instance, the study found, users logged in to Cheaptickets […]

But researchers are working to answer the question of where labor trafficking is happening in America, and who its victims are. A major new report from the Urban Institute and Northeastern University offers one of the most detailed looks yet at how labor trafficking works. Drawing on the records of hundreds of survivors who managed […]

Many foreign-born victims of labor trafficking actually came to the United States legally, according to a study released Tuesday that provides an in-depth look into forced labor. The study from Urban Institute and Northeastern University draws upon a trove of data, including closed records of 122 victims, as well as interviews with people who had been forced […]

While many veterans of the music industry are pessimistic, Northeastern University music business guru Dave Herlihy feels the shift is not necessarily a bad thing. “People complain about the passing of the scene of the old industry, but the social aspect of music is ascending. I think that kind of one-to-one social connection is infuriating […]