Ars Technica: “Apple has agreed (PDF) to pay $95 million to settle a lawsuit alleging that its voice assistant Siri routinely recorded private conversations that were then sold to third parties for targeted ads. In the proposed class-action settlement (PDF) — which comes after five years of litigation — Apple admitted to no wrongdoing. Instead,… Continue Reading
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Monthly Archives: January 2025
To kick off 2025, Netherlands throws open archive of suspected Nazi collaborators
JTA – Dutch privacy laws shielded the names from public view until the end of 2024: “A massive trove of documents about suspected Nazi collaborators in the Netherlands is now open to the public for the first time. For the past seven decades, only researchers and relatives of those accused of collaborating with the Nazis… Continue Reading
Inside Pinterest’s quest to restore internet optimism
Fast Company – “Most social media platforms have devolved into a network of bottom-feeders and rage-baiters. Yet somehow, Pinterest has kept its joy. According to Sprout Social’s 2024 content strategy report, more than half of social users think of Pinterest as “more positive” than other platforms. When Bill Ready became Pinterest’s CEO in 2022, he… Continue Reading
The religious composition of the 119th Congress
Pew Report: “When the U.S. Congress convenes for its 119th session on Jan. 3, it will have marginally fewer Christians than it did in the previous session (2023-25), continuing a gradual, 10-year decline. Christians will make up 87% of voting members in the Senate and House of Representatives, combined, in the 2025-27 congressional session. That’s… Continue Reading
New resource available to help scientists better classify cancer subtypes
“A multi-institutional team of scientists has developed a free, publicly accessible resource to aid in classification of patient tumor samples based on distinct molecular features identified by The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) Network. The resource comprises classifier models that can accelerate the design of cancer subtype-specific test kits for use in clinical trials and cancer… Continue Reading
The Changing Medical Debt Landscape in the United States
Urban.org: “Medical debt can intensify financial challenges, affect health care access, and potentially worsen health outcomes. Starting in 2022, the three nationwide credit reporting companies made significant changes to medical debt reporting. Paid medical collections were removed from credit reports, debt in collections would no longer be used in calculating Vantage credit scores, the grace… Continue Reading
Fact-checking information from large language models can decrease headline discernment
psypost.org – “A recent study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences investigates how large language models, such as ChatGPT, influence people’s perceptions of political news headlines. The findings reveal that while these artificial intelligence systems can accurately flag false information, their fact-checking results do not consistently help users discern between true… Continue Reading
This Site Offers RSS Feeds for Pages That Don’t Have Them
Lifehacker: “Several sites, including Tumblr and Craigslist, have removed their RSS feeds. Other services, like TikTok, never offered an RSS feeds to begin with. This is annoying if you want to follow things without creating an account, the way you can with Bluesky and Mastodon. Even worse: there are even some news sites that don’t… Continue Reading
62 Fascinating Facts of 2024
The New York Times: Each day, Times Insider editors scour the newspaper for the most interesting facts to appear in articles. This year, tidbits about grudge-holding crows, the first-ever first kiss and George Washington’s dentures enlightened, informed and entertained us… 21. In the United States, more than 60 percent of the work force lives paycheck… Continue Reading
A Spy in Your Pocket?
DemocracyNow – Ronan Farrow Exposes Secrets of High-Tech Spyware in New Film “Surveilled” – “Is that a spy in your pocket? In a holiday special we speak to Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Ronan Farrow and filmmaker Matthew O’Neill about Surveilled, their new HBO documentary looking at how high-tech surveillance spyware is threatening democracy across the globe.… Continue Reading
January 1, 2025 is Public Domain Day: Works from 1929 are open to all, as are sound recordings from 1924
Via LLRX – January 1, 2025 is Public Domain Day: Works from 1929 are open to all, as are sound recordings from 1924 – On January 1, 2025, thousands of copyrighted works from 1929 will enter the US public domain, along with sound recordings from 1924. They will be free for all to copy, share,… Continue Reading
AI in Finance and Banking, December 31, 2024
Via LLRX – AI in Finance and Banking, December 31, 2024 – This semi-monthly column by Sabrina I. Pacifici highlights news, government documents, NGO/IGO papers, conferences, industry white papers and reports, academic papers and speeches, and central bank actions on the subject of AI’s fast paced impact on the banking and finance sectors. The chronological links… Continue Reading
