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Category Archives: E-Records

What are location services and how do they work?

Proton: “Location services refer to a combination of technologies used in devices like smartphones and computers that use data from your device’s GPS, WiFi, mobile (cellular networks), and sometimes even Bluetooth connections to determine and track your geographic location. This information can be accessed by your operating system (OS) and the apps installed on your… Continue Reading

Giving Windows total recall of everything a user does is a privacy minefield

The Register: “Microsoft’s Windows Recall feature is attracting controversy before even venturing out of preview. Like so many of Microsoft’s AI-infused products, Windows Recall will remain in preview while Microsoft refines it based on user feedback – or simply gives up and pretends it never happened. The principle is simple. As noted earlier, Windows takes… Continue Reading

Google – Introducing the Frontier Safety Framework

The Framework – The first version of the Framework announced today builds on our research on evaluating critical capabilities in frontier models, and follows the emerging approach of Responsible Capability Scaling. The Framework has three key components: Identifying capabilities a model may have with potential for severe harm. To do this, we research the paths… Continue Reading

Secrets in Your Data

NOVA, PBS Documentary – YouTube – Official Website: https://to.pbs.org/3QEVLKC | #novapbs Whether you’re on social media or surfing the web, you’re probably sharing more personal data than you realize. That can pose a risk to your privacy – even your safety. But at the same time, big datasets could lead to huge advances in fields… Continue Reading

Slack has been using data from your chats to train its machine learning models

Engadget – “The only way to opt out is by asking your company’s workspace owner to send Slack an email. Slack trains machine-learning models on user messages, files and other content without explicit permission. The training is opt-out, meaning your private data will be leeched by default. Making matters worse, you’ll have to ask your… Continue Reading

Data brokers are undermining country’s safety, privacy and security

roi-nj.com: “In Jersey and beyond, our law enforcement, judges and elected officials are putting both their privacy and lives on the line to serve. We must take steps in Congress and beyond to protect the well-being of those who choose to work for the people. New Jersey saw the acute need for privacy for our… Continue Reading

Generating Harms II: Generative AI’s New & Continued Impacts

“Today, the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) released Generating Harms II: Generative AI’s New & Continued Impacts, a follow-up report that expands on the harms detailed in last year’s Generating Harms report. The new report includes a deep dive into four new issue areas and explores the different remedies and enforcement actions that are being… Continue Reading

What I wish I’d known before my smartphone was snatched

FT.com – unpaywalled: “Phone theft is rising at a rapid pace. And far more lucrative than the value of the handset, organised criminal gangs know that our smartphones have become the gateway to a vast amount of our personal financial information. They will go to incredible lengths to steal phones unlocked, deploying tactics including “shoulder… Continue Reading

The material consequences of “chipification”: The case of software-embedded cars

Forelle, M. (2022). The material consequences of “chipification”: The case of software-embedded cars. Big Data & Society, 9(1). https://doi.org/10.1177/20539517221095429 “Today’s modern car is an assemblage of mechanical and digital components, of metal panels that comprise its structure and silicon chips that run its functions. Communication and information studies scholars have interrogated the problematic aspects of… Continue Reading

Top spy official releases principles on intel agency use of info bought from data brokers

Cyberscoop: “The U.S. spy chief on Wednesday published its policies for how intelligence agencies collect and use information from data brokers, but a prominent Hill critic says the guidance doesn’t address a key point about what kind of information it can or can’t obtain. The “Policy Framework for Commercially Available Information,” or CAI, released by… Continue Reading