Accurate, Focused Research on Law, Technology and Knowledge Discovery Since 2002

Category Archives: Internet

GovWayback

“GovWayback is a simple tool to quickly access archived versions of government websites from before January 20, 2025 – just add “wayback.com” after “.gov” in any government URL. GovWayback automatically redirects you to that page’s archived version from the Internet Archive. Why January 20, 2025? January 20th is Inauguration Day for the U.S. presidential term.… Continue Reading

Recent CRS and GAO Reports Highlight Key Issues of Trump Administration

2/3 – USAID Under the Trump Administration (CRS) 2/3 – No More Deference: Sixth Circuit Relies on Loper Bright to Strike Down Net Neutrality Rules (CRS) 2/3 – Food Safety: Status of Foodborne Illness in the U.S. (GAO) 2/4 – Recent White House Actions on Immigration (CRS) 2/6 – Federal Workforce Downsizing: Voluntary and Involuntary… Continue Reading

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

Anatomy of an AI Coup

Tech Policy News: “Artificial intelligence (AI) is a technology for manufacturing excuses. While lacking clear definitions or tools for assessment, AI has nonetheless seized the imagination of politicians and managers across government, academia, and industry. But what AI is best at producing is justifications. If you want a labor force, a regulatory bureaucracy, or accountability… 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

Announcing the Data.gov Archive

Harvard Law School Library: “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 our… Continue Reading

‘Things Are Going to Get Intense:’ How a Musk Ally Plans to Push AI on the Government

404 Media: Thomas Shedd, a Musk-associate and now head of the General Services Administration’s Technology Transformation Services (TTS), told government tech workers in a meeting this week that the administration plans to widely deploy AI throughout the government. Shedd also said the administration would need help altering login.gov, a government login system, to further integrate… Continue Reading

As Internet enshittification marches on, here are some of the worst offenders

Ars Technica: “Two years ago, a Canadian writer named Cory Doctorow coined the phrase “enshittification” to describe the decay of online platforms. The word immediately set the Internet ablaze, as it captured the growing malaise regarding how almost everything about the web seemed to be getting worse. “It’s my theory explaining how the Internet was… Continue Reading

Data Governance in Open Source AI: Enabling Responsible and Systemic Access

“As the Open Source Initiative convened its process to define Open Source AI, it became clear that organizations that care for open, fair and public-interest AI need to pay particular attention to and establish a shared position on data sharing and data governance. Open Source Artificial Intelligence (AI) development presents an opportunity to democratize technological… Continue Reading

Federal workers: Here’s how to lock down your communications

Washington Post unlocked: “Tips and apps that can help everyone talk about sensitive topics safely.  Chances are, until now, most people haven’t worried much about their private group chats or jokey social media posts being used against them. But under the Trump administration, privacy experts say there’s a new urgency to making sure people understand… Continue Reading

What Is OpenAI’s Powerful New Deep Research Tool Capable Of?

LawSites: I Use It to Analyze the Legality of President Trump’s Pause of Federal Grants – “Over the weekend, OpenAI released Deep Research, an AI agent capable of completing multi-step research tasks and synthesizing large amounts of online information. OpenAI’s chief product officer Kevin Weil said it can complete complex research tasks in minutes that… Continue Reading