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Daily Archives: October 19, 2022

Stop iPhones from spying on kids with this new app

Washington Post – “A frightening number of kids’ apps are spying on them. Now parents can get some help to stop it. A new app called Do Not Track Kids acts like a privacy shield for iPhones and iPads used by children. For $5 per month, it runs in the background of the device to block the companies that harvest personal information from children (and grown-ups too). It also contains cartoon lessons to teach kids about online privacy. Do Not Track Kids was made by a dad who knows a thing or two about digital snoops: former National Security Agency researcher Patrick Jackson. Today, Jackson is the chief technology officer of Disconnect, a company that also makes privacy software used to power tracking prevention in web browsers including Mozilla’s Firefox and Microsoft’s Edge. Making tools specifically to help parents protect children’s privacy has long been on his to-do list. Companies want kids’ data such as their locations and ways to identify their phones to target them with ads, influence impressionable young minds and try to maximize their addiction to apps…”

6 Tips for Escaping From the Endless Bad News Cycle

MakeUseOf: “During tumultuous times in world history, the news plays a critical role in informing people and spreading valuable messages. However, the difference between this digital age and previous periods of significant change is that the 24/7 news cycle keeps us aware of as much bad news as good news at nearly all times. This… Continue Reading

Social listening tool for elections (free and open-source)

Maggie Farley / ICFJ – “Try this free social listening tool [beta] – or customize it for your newsroom.  It’s useful for tracking politicians or issues in the run-up to the elections, and following contested races afterward. Political Pulse US is a social-listening app supported by ICFJ that allows journalists to monitor and analyze what… Continue Reading

We’re Publishing the Facebook Papers

Gizmodo – Here’s How Meta Became the Internet’s Biggest Hub of Covid-19 Misinformation: “…From the onset of the covid-19 pandemic, Facebook understood the outsized role its platform would plays in shaping public opinion about the virus and the safeguards that governments would inevitably institute in hopes of containing it. Ten months before the first reported… Continue Reading

Living in relationship with the Ocean to transform governance in the UN Ocean Decade

Bender M, Bustamante R, Leonard K (2022) Living in relationship with the Ocean to transform governance in the UN Ocean Decade. PLoS Biol 20(10): e3001828. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001828: “Humanity’s relationship with the Ocean needs to be transformed to effectively address the multitude of governance crises facing the Ocean, including overfishing, climate change, pollution, and habitat destruction. Earth… Continue Reading

Martin-Quinn Scores – Ideology of every Supreme Court

“Measuring the relative location of U.S. Supreme Court justices on an ideological continuum allows us to better understand the politics of the high court. In addition, such measures are an important building blocking of statistical models of the Supreme Court, the separation of powers system, and the judicial hierarchy. This website contains the so-called “Martin-Quinn”… Continue Reading

Survey: Job Engagement Declines For A Third of Workers; Remote Work Is Not to Blame

“The latest workforce survey from The Conference Board polled more than 1,600 individuals—predominantly office workers—from September 1-8. Respondents weighed in on workplace culture, work location, compensation, and benefits. A new survey reveals that nearly a third of workers report decreased engagement—the commitment and connection that they feel to their work. Could the shift to remote… Continue Reading

Investigative Report on the role of online platforms in the tragic mass shooting in Buffalo on May 14, 2022

Office of the New York State Attorney General Letitia James, October 18, 2022: “The mass shooting in and around the Tops grocery store in Buffalo, New York on May 14, 2022 that claimed the lives of ten individuals and injured three others was all the more horrific because of the white supremacist ideological motivation that… Continue Reading