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Category Archives: E-Records

NSA can track powered-down phones: how to actually protect your privacy

BoingBoing – Ellsworth Toohey: “Yesterday I wrote about Privacy Guide’s mobile phone privacy and security guide for protesters. Today, Randy Zar, CEO of Faraday pouch manufacturer SLNT wrote: “Just want to let you know your cell phone is tracking you regardless if you have it in airplane mode or not.  It even ping’s when it’s… Continue Reading

State Chief Data Officer (CDO) Tracker

“The State Chief Data Officer Tracker, created by the Beeck Center’s Digital Service Network and Data Labs teams, is a first-of-its-kind resource that tracks the evolving role of CDOs in state governments and their efforts to advance data-informed decision-making and collaboration across agencies. Data is a powerful tool for improving government transparency, accountability, and service… Continue Reading

Searchable Full Project 2025 Text: Mandate for Leadership

“Project 2025 – the extreme political right’s plans to dismantle the U.S. federal government and put all power in the hands of the Executive.” One of the primary authors is Russell Vought who was confirmed as the head of OMB and promptly named himself Acting Director of the Consumer Finance Protect Bureau (CFPB), whose work… Continue Reading

Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, February 8, 2025

Via LLRX – Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, February 8, 2025 – Privacy and cybersecurity issues impact every aspect of our lives – home, work, travel, education, finance, health and medical records – to name but a few. On a weekly basis Pete Weiss highlights articles and information that focus on… Continue Reading

Policy Map – Where to Find Trump’s Disappeared Data

“The administration removed hundreds of federal web pages containing critical information about Americans. Fortunately, it still lives at Philly-based PolicyMap, whose director walks us through what just happened — and why it’s too soon to Last week, President Donald Trump came for our data. Executive orders to eliminate any DEI and climate change-related language from… Continue Reading

The Government’s Computing Experts Say They Are Terrified

“Charlie Warzel and Ian Bogost from The Atlantic talked to four experienced federal-government IT professionals who have all “built, modified, or maintained the kind of technological infrastructure” that Elon Musk’s team of young hackers are attacking. They are beyond concerned about the potential consequences. Based on what has been reported, DOGE representatives have obtained or… Continue Reading

Government Agrees to Temporarily Restrict DOGE From Treasury Records

Democracy Docket:”The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) agreed to restrict the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) access to Department of the Treasury records after a coalition of federal unions and an advocacy group sued to block DOGE’s actions. According to the order — issued by a federal judge Thursday after the DOJ reached an agreement… Continue Reading

Update on the 2024/2025 End of Term Web Archive

“Every four years, before and after the U.S. presidential election, a team of libraries and research organizations, including the Internet Archive, work together to preserve material from U.S. government websites during the transition of administrations. These “End of Term” (EOT) Web Archive projects have been completed for term transitions in 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016, and… Continue Reading

Project 2025 Executive Action Tracker

“The Center for Progressive Reform and Governing for Impact are monitoring the Trump administration’s implementation of Project 2025, tracking the authoritarian blueprint’s executive action proposals across 20 federal agencies. The Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 is the conservative movement’s blueprint for weakening our government and building an authoritarian presidency. To monitor the Trump administration’s regulatory and… Continue Reading

Harvard Announces the Data.gov Archive

Harvard Law School Innovation Lab: “Today we released our archive of data.gov on Source Cooperative. The 16TB collection includes over 311,000 datasets harvested during 2024 and 2025, a complete archive of federal public datasets linked by data.gov. It will be updated daily as new datasets are added to data.gov. This is the first release in… Continue Reading

Meta torrented over 81.7TB of pirated books to train AI, authors say

Ars Technica: “Newly unsealed emails allegedly provide the “most damning evidence” yet against Meta in a copyright case raised by book authors alleging that Meta illegally trained its AI models on pirated books. Last month, Meta admitted to torrenting a controversial large dataset known as LibGen, which includes tens of millions of pirated books. But… Continue Reading

Deferred Resignation Email to Federal Employees, Updated Continuously

Via LLRX – Deferred Resignation Email to Federal Employees, January 28, 2025 – Updated Continuously – I am adding news and government document updates to this article to keep readers abreast of the accelerating plan to force federal employees, who work at agencies throughout the government, to resign by the end of day, February 6,… Continue Reading