BuzzFeedNews: “…The internet of the 2010s will be defined by social media’s role in the 2016 election, the rise of extremism, and the fallout from privacy scandals like Cambridge Analytica. But there’s another, more minor theme to the decade: the gradual dismantling and dissolution of an older internet culture. This purge comes in two forms:… Continue Reading
Accurate, Focused Research on Law, Technology and Knowledge Discovery Since 2002
Category Archives: E-Commerce
Washington’s New Anti-Robocall Law Won’t Stop the Calls
WSJ.com [article is paywalled but the 5 minute accompanying video is not, and well worth listening for the specificity of the explanation] “In a rare bipartisan achievement, Congress has moved to combat the scourge of robocalls inundating Americans. Just don’t stop the calls to stop coming any time soon..” Continue Reading
Smart Home Tech, Police, and Your Privacy: Year in Review 2019
EFF: “If 2019 confirmed anything, it is that we should not trust the microphones and cameras that large corporations sell us to put inside and near our homes. Thanks to the due diligence of reporters, public records requesters, and privacy researchers and activists, consumers have been learning more and more about how these “smart” home… Continue Reading
The privacy worries with smart cities
Axios – Momentum for smart cities projects, which has been fed by big promises from industry and big hopes in government, is slowing down in the face of a wave of public skepticism. Driving the news: Alphabet-owned Sidewalk Labs, which has proposed a futuristic smart-city development for Toronto’s waterfront, has pledged not to sell personal… Continue Reading
UK CMA lifts the lid on digital giants
“The UK Competition and Markets Authority’s (CMA) has published an update in its examination of online platforms and digital advertising, uncovering new detail about how the sector’s biggest names operate. The CMA’s interim report [12/18/19] has found that: Last year, Google accounted for more than 90% of all revenues earned from search advertising in the… Continue Reading
You Might Be Buying Trash on Amazon—Literally
WSJ.com [paywall – but includes a video that is free to watch] – You Might Be Buying Trash on Amazon—Literally. Dumpster divers say it’s easy to list discarded toys, electronics and books on the retailer’s platform. So we decided to try…”Just about anyone can open a store on Amazon.com and sell just about anything. Just… Continue Reading
The Decade Tech Lost Its Way
The New York Times – The Decade Tech Lost Its Way – An oral history of the 2010s – “When the decade began, tech meant promise — cars that could drive themselves, social networks that could take down dictators. It connected us in ways we could barely imagine. But somewhere along the way, the flaws of technology… Continue Reading
Why every website wants you to accept its cookies
Vox/Recode: “…cookies are pieces of information saved about you when you’re online, and they track you as you browse. So say you go to a weather website and put in your zip code to look up what’s happening in your area; the next time you visit the same site, it will remember your zip code… Continue Reading
Ring’s Hidden Data Let Us Map Amazon’s Sprawling Home Surveillance Network
“Gizmodo has acquired data over the past month connected to nearly 65,800 individual posts shared by users of the Neighbors app. The posts, which reach back 500 days from the point of collection, offer extraordinary insight into the proliferation of Ring video surveillance across American neighborhoods and raise important questions about the privacy trade-offs of… Continue Reading
Fake ‘Likes’ Remain Just a Few Dollars Away, Researchers Say
The New York Times – Despite Big Tech’s attempts to combat manipulation, companies that sell clicks, likes and followers on social media are easy to find. “Companies like Facebook and Twitter are poorly policing automated bots and other methods for manipulating social media platforms, according to a report released on Friday by researchers from the… Continue Reading
Predictions for how blockchain will impact our lives in the next 5 years
ComputerWorld – “As blockchain gains credibility in the marketplace, it’s being piloted for uses never before considered. But the nascent technology will need to mature, both technically and as a part of a more complete ecosystem, before seeing widespread adoption…” – Looking ahead: Defeating fake news Blockchain for digital securities exchanges China likely to take… Continue Reading
How do I protect my online privacy from ‘surveillance capitalism’?
The Guardian UK – “…On [December 2, 2019], the Electronic Frontier Foundation published a 17,000-word report on this topic. Behind the One-Way Mirror: A Deep Dive Into the Technology of Corporate Surveillance, by Bennett Cyphers and Gennie Gebhart, covers both online privacy problems and the growth of real-word surveillance. BOWM, for short, explains how personal… Continue Reading
