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Daily Archives: July 22, 2024

New York Times, Washington Post compete with meme accounts for chance to be first with big headline

NiemanLab: “The ways people hear about big news these days; “into a million pieces,” says source. It’s not often that massive political news breaks on a Sunday afternoon — especially one in steamy late July, the leading edge of the Greater August vacation season. But break news Joe Biden most certainly did with this tweet announcing he would not run for reelection this fall. And as always, that big news reached people in a wide variety of ways. Like from Shams Charania, whose usual big breaks involve NBA trades (“how does this impact LeBron’s legacy”). Social media has encouraged people to think that, if the news is really important, it’ll find them. So how did it find people on Sunday? I subscribe to an inordinate number of breaking-news emails, so in my inbox at least, the earliest senders in order were: Axios, Gannett, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Dallas Morning News, Vanity Fair, The Advocate (Baton Rouge, La.), Bloomberg, The New Yorker, The Washington Post, The 19th, Vox. (YMMV, of course.) And Matt Taylor of the Financial Times was tracking push notifications as they came in; congrats to CNBC. Here’s an obviously incomplete list of some of the ways that Americans and others around the world heard the news…”

NewsGuard Launches 2024 Paris Olympics Misinformation Tracking Center

“…To date, NewsGuard’s team has identified and is tracking 14 misinformation narratives relating to the 2024 Paris Olympics  in 13 languages: Dutch, English, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Spanish, and Turkish. The claims have spread on social media as well as on 31 unreliable news and information websites.  Sixteen of the 31 sites have… Continue Reading

How data brokers sell our location data and jeopardise national security

Netzpolitic.org: “The AdTech industry is torpedoing the privacy of millions of people in Germany and is a threat to national security. But the underlying problem is global: databrokers sell location data without sufficient control. This is the summary of a joint research by netzpolitik.org and BR. Our investigation with BR (Bayerischer Rundfunk) shows for the… Continue Reading

Massive IT outage spotlights major vulnerabilities in the global information ecosystem

Via LLRX – Professor Richard Forno highlights the fragility of our enterprise IT systems against the backdrop of the global information technology outage on July 19, 2024 that paralyzed organizations ranging from airlines to hospitals and the delivery of uniforms for the Olympic Games, representing a growing concern for cybersecurity professionals, businesses and governments. Continue Reading

Academic authors ‘shocked’ after Taylor & Francis sells access to their research to Microsoft AI

The Bookseller: “Authors have expressed their shock after the news that academic publisher Taylor & Francis, which owns Routledge, had sold access to its authors’ research as part of an Artificial Intelligence (AI) partnership with Microsoft—a deal worth almost £8m ($10m) in its first year. The agreement with Microsoft was included in a trading update… Continue Reading

Donald Trump wants to reinstate a spoils system in federal government by hiring political loyalists regardless of competence

Via LLRX – Donald Trump wants to reinstate a spoils system in federal government by hiring political loyalists regardless of competence – If elected to serve a second term, Donald Trump says he supports a spoils system, a plan that would give him the authority to fire as many as 50,000 civil servants and replace them… Continue Reading

UN Cybercrime Draft Convention Dangerously Expands State Surveillance Powers

EFF –This is the third post in a series highlighting flaws in the proposed UN Cybercrime Convention. Check out Part I, our detailed analysis on the criminalization of security research activities, and Part II, an analysis of the human rights safeguards. “As we near the final negotiating session for the proposed UN Cybercrime Treaty, countries… Continue Reading

Tell Congress: Don’t Let Anyone Own The Law

EFF: “Court after court has recognized that no one can own the text of the law. But the Pro Codes Act is a deceptive power grab that will help giant industry associations ration access to huge swaths of U.S. laws. Tell Congress not to fall for it. A large portion of the regulations we all… Continue Reading

What the data says about immigrants in the U.S.

“The United States has long had more immigrants than any other country. In fact, the U.S. is home to one-fifth of the world’s international migrants. These immigrants have come from just about every country in the world. Pew Research Center regularly publishes research on U.S. immigrants. Based on this research, here are answers to some… Continue Reading