Who is Mark Zuckerberg really? Is he the awkward, robotic tech billionaire seen in public, or something very different behind closed doors?

Sheera Frenkel, Pulitzer Prize winning New York Times journalist and co-author of the bestselling An Ugly Truth: Inside Facebook's Battle for Domination, joins Adrian to examine the Meta chief's personality, upbringing and leadership style.

From his privileged childhood and early coding obsession to Facebook's move fast culture, Zuckerberg's rise is a story of relentless ambition, fierce control and extraordinary resilience.

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The week on The Big Tech Show, Adrian Weckler, speaks with Jim Browning, the Northern Ireland based digital investigator known for exposing global scam operations. With millions of YouTube subscribers, Browning explains how he infiltrates scam call centres by gaining access to their systems and turning their own tactics against them.

He describes how scammers trick victims into handing over banking access, and how his work helps identify offenders and alert authorities. Browning also discusses the ethical challenge of watching scams in real time while deciding when to intervene to protect potential victims and support law enforcement action.

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• The uncomfortable truth about banning under 16s from social media

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Should Ireland follow the UK and ban social media for under 16s? Adrian is joined by JJ Clarke to examine why many child safety experts argue that bans do not work and may even create new risks for young people online.

The discussion looks at Ireland's plans for age verification, the challenge of enforcing existing rules, and why regulators in Brussels are increasingly focused on forcing platforms such as TikTok, Instagram and Facebook to change algorithms that drive addictive content.

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Will Apple users in Europe miss out on the company's biggest AI upgrade yet? And what does the growing dispute between Apple and the European Commission mean for consumers?

Adrian Weckler spoke to Ben Wood at FDM CCS Insight, from Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference in California.

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The discussion focused on Siri AI, Apple's new deeply integrated artificial intelligence platform, and why many of its headline features may not be available on iPhones and iPads in the European Union. Wood explained how Apple's privacy first approach is clashing with EU competition rules, leaving consumers caught in the middle of an increasingly tense regulatory battle.

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Is your phone really listening to you or is something more complex going on behind the scenes?

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Adrian Weckler and JJ Clarke tackle the most enduring tech conspiracy theory, the belief that private conversations trigger targeted ads.

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They explore why this feels so convincing and why it keeps happening. From behavioural signals to location data and algorithmic prediction, they explain why the reality may be both less sinister and more powerful than people think.

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Irish consumers are embracing online banks in their droves, but do they trust them with their salaries, savings and investments?

Adrian Weckler is joined by Bianca Zwart, chief strategy officer at bunq to discuss the rise of digital banking in Ireland, why younger customers are turning to crypto and investing apps, and whether neobanks can compete with traditional institutions on trust, fraud protection and customer support.

We want to earn your trust and are members of the Trust Project. See our ethics policies at independent.ie/ourjournalism

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