“Algorithms are all around us, using massive stores of data and complex analytics to make decisions with often significant impacts on humans – from choosing the content people see on social media to judging whether a person is a good credit risk or job candidate. Pew Research Center released several reports in 2018 that explored… Continue Reading
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Monthly Archives: February 2019
Most Online ‘Terms of Service’ Are Incomprehensible to Adults, Study Finds
Motherboard – Reading the terms and conditions of online consumer contracts requires, on average, more than 14 years of education. Two law professors analyzed the sign-in terms and conditions of 500 popular US websites, including Google and Facebook, and found that more than 99 percent of them were “unreadable,” far exceeding the level most American… Continue Reading
Left to Their Own Devices, Pricing Algorithms Resort to Collusion
Popular Mechanics: “When you’re browsing online, who sets the prices? An algorithm, most likely. A study from 2015 showed that a third of all items on Amazon had prices set by an algorithm, and chances are that percentage has only risen. A new study shows how easy it would be for price-setting algorithms to learn… Continue Reading
Consumer privacy concerns as Amazon buys Eero net routers
Consumer Reports: “Amazon’s agreement to buy the wireless router manufacturer Eero could make it easier for homeowners to manage a wide array of wireless devices, like smart thermostats and video doorbells, according to analysts and Consumer Reports’ in-house experts. But some of them expressed concern over how often high-profile startups get bought by the tech… Continue Reading
Library Systems Embracing Their New Roles As Social Service Hubs
Next City: “Before 2009, the San Francisco Public Library’s bathrooms often became spaces of contention, with security staff escorting patrons out of the library, sometimes arresting them if they were found bathing, sleeping or injecting. But that year, the library hired the first library social worker in the United States, Leah Esguerra, marking a shift… Continue Reading
Senate passed biggest public lands package in a decade – it is not all positive
The Washington Post – “The Senate on Tuesday passed the most sweeping conservation legislation in a decade, protecting millions of acres of land and hundreds of miles of wild rivers across the country and establishing four new national monuments honoring heroes including Civil War soldiers and a civil rights icon. The 662-page measure [S.47, Natural… Continue Reading
Should Libraries Be the Keepers of Their Cities’ Public Data?
CityLab – Public libraries are one of the most trusted institutions, and they want to make sure everyone has access to the information cities are collecting and sharing. “In recent years, dozens of U.S. cities have released pools of public data. It’s an effort to improve transparency and drive innovation, and done well, it can… Continue Reading
Google News is broken
Charged: “Particularly as Facebook traffic began cratering, leaving publishers scrambling to find new sources of traffic. What’s never really discussed, however, is how those platforms work, and how news sources end up getting mountains of traffic from them, let alone approved for them in the first place. Google News is one of the biggest news… Continue Reading
Chinese Telecommunications Device Manufacturer and US Affiliate Indicted for Theft of Trade Secrets
DOJ news release: Huawei Corporate Entities Conspired to Steal Trade Secret Technology and Offered Bonus to Workers who Stole Confidential Information from Companies Around the World A 10-count Indictment unsealed [January 28, 2019] in the Western District of Washington State charges Huawei Device Co., Ltd. and Huawei Device Co. USA with theft of trade secrets… Continue Reading
Paper – Achieving Digital Permanence
The many challenges to maintaining stored information and ways to overcome them. Raymond Blum with Betsy Beyer, acmque – February 6, 2019 Volume 16, issue 6 – “Digital permanence has become a prevalent issue in society. This article focuses on the forces behind it and some of the techniques to achieve a desired state in… Continue Reading
Decoding Algorithms
Macalester Today – “Ada Lovelace probably didn’t foresee the impact of the mathematical formula she published in 1843, now considered the first computer algorithm. Nor could she have anticipated today’s widespread use of algorithms, in applications as different as the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign and Mac’s first-year seminar registration. “Over the last decade algorithms have… Continue Reading
The Women Who Contributed to Science but Were Buried in Footnotes
The Atlantic – In a new study, researchers uncovered female programmers who made important but unrecognized contributions to genetics. “Over the past few years, a team of students led by Emilia Huerta-Sánchez from Brown University and Rori Rohlfs from San Francisco State University has been searching through two decades’ worth of acknowledgments in genetics papers… Continue Reading
