Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul sues company for publishing voters’ personal data , Chicago Sun-Times;
Issues and developments related to ethics, information, and technologies, explored in the "Ethics of Data, Information, and Emerging Technologies" and "Intellectual Property and Open Movements" graduate courses I teach at the University of Pittsburgh School of Computing and Information. -- Kip Currier, PhD, JD
Wednesday, May 15, 2024
Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul sues company for publishing voters’ personal data; Chicago Sun-Times, May 9, 2024
Thursday, June 29, 2023
The Vatican Releases Its Own AI Ethics Handbook; Gizmodo, June 28, 2023
Thomas Germain, Gizmodo; The Vatican Releases Its Own AI Ethics Handbook
"The Vatican is getting in on the AI craze. The Holy See has released a handbook on the ethics of artificial intelligence as defined by the Pope.
The guidelines are the result of a partnership between Francis and Santa Clara University’s Markkula Center for Applied Ethics. Together, they’ve formed a new organization called the Institute for Technology, Ethics, and Culture (ITEC). The ITEC’s first project is a handbook titled Ethics in the Age of Disruptive Technologies: An Operational Roadmap, meant to guide the tech industry through the murky waters of ethics in AI, machine learning, encryption, tracking, and more."
Saturday, February 19, 2022
AirTags are being used to track people and cars. Here's what is being done about it; NPR, February 18, 2022
MICHAEL LEVITT, NPR; AirTags are being used to track people and cars. Here's what is being done about it
""As technology becomes more sophisticated and advanced, as wonderful as that is for society, unfortunately, it also becomes much easier to misuse and abuse," she told NPR. "I wouldn't say that we've necessarily seen an uptick with the use of AirTags any more or less than any cutting edge technology."
Williams said that what was rare was a technology company taking the issue seriously and moving to address it.
"[Apple is] not only listening to the field, but actively reaching out at times to do safety checks. That in and of itself might sound like a very small step, but it's rare," she said.
Still, Galperin thinks that Apple should have done more to protect people ahead of time.
"The mitigations that Apple had in place at the time that the AirTag came out were woefully insufficient," Galperin said.
"I think that Apple has been very careful and responsive after putting the product out and introducing new mitigations. But the fact that they chose to bring the product to market in the state that it was in last year, is shameful.""
Friday, April 24, 2020
Connecticut town tests 'pandemic drone' to find fevers. Experts question if it would work.; NBC News, April 22, 2020
"A Connecticut police department said it plans to begin testing a "pandemic drone" that could detect whether a person 190 feet away has a fever or is coughing.
But an expert on viruses and a privacy advocate question whether such technology can work and, if it does, whether it would help in controlling the spread of the coronavirus."
COVID-19 and the Ethical Questions It Poses; University of Nevada, Las Vegas, April 22, 2020
UNLV business ethics expert Wonyong Oh on the coronavirus pandemic and the ethical dilemmas facing health care workers, corporations, and government
"What are some ethical questions that businesses are wrestling with in light of COVID-19?
Thursday, January 30, 2020
Happy “Data Privacy Day” – Now Read The New York Times Privacy Project About Total Surveillance; Forbes, January 28, 2020
"It’s worth saying again: every time we blog, tweet, post, rideshare, order from Amazon, rent an Airbnb – or anything that leaves a digital trail – we feed what Shoshana Zuboff calls “surveillance capitalism,” which is the monetization of data captured through monitoring people's movements and behaviors online and in the physical world, and which is summarized in the New York Times. Countless digital systems now track where we are, where we go, what we eat, what we think, who we like, who we love, where we bank, what we know and who we hate – among lots of other things they know all too well because we remind them over and over again.
Just in time for Data Privacy Day, the New York Times described just how pervasive surveillance really is. On Sunday, January 26, 2020, in a special section titled “One Nation, Tracked,” the Times presented some frightening stories...
Part of the ongoing “Privacy Project,” the Times analyzes every aspect of surveillance."
Thursday, November 21, 2019
Americans and Privacy: Concerned, Confused and Feeling Lack of Control Over Their Personal Information; Pew Research Center, November 15, 2019
Americans and Privacy: Concerned, Confused and Feeling Lack of Control Over Their Personal Information
Majorities think their personal data is less secure now, that data collection poses more risks than benefits, and believe it is not possible to go through daily life without being tracked
"Data-driven products and services are often marketed with the potential to save users time and money or even lead to better health and well-being. Still, large shares of U.S. adults are not convinced they benefit from this system of widespread data gathering. Some 81% of the public say that the potential risks they face because of data collection by companies outweigh the benefits, and 66% say the same about government data collection. At the same time, a majority of Americans report being concerned about the way their data is being used by companies (79%) or the government (64%). Most also feel they have little or no control over how these entities use their personal information, according to a new survey of U.S. adults by Pew Research Center that explores how Americans feel about the state of privacy in the nation.
Americans’ concerns about digital privacy extend to those who collect, store and use their personal information. Additionally, majorities of the public are not confident that corporations are good stewards of the data they collect. For example, 79% of Americans say they are not too or not at all confident that companies will admit mistakes and take responsibility if they misuse or compromise personal information, and 69% report having this same lack of confidence that firms will use their personal information in ways they will be comfortable with."
Tuesday, October 15, 2019
Student tracking, secret scores: How college admissions offices rank prospects before they apply; The Washington Post, October 14, 2019
Saturday, September 14, 2019
Orwellabama? Crimson Tide Track Locations to Keep Students at Games; The New York Times, September 12, 2019
Saturday, January 5, 2019
How to protect your digital privacy from new Christmas presents; The Guardian, December 18, 2019
"Here are the best tips to protect your digital privacy, without resorting to Christmas gifts whittled from wood."
'Tracking every place you go': Weather Channel app accused of selling user data; Associated Press via The Guardian, January 4, 2019
"“Think how Orwellian it feels to live in a world where a private company is tracking potentially every place you go, every minute of every day,” Feuer said. “If you want to sacrifice to that company that information, you sure ought to be doing it with clear advanced notice of what’s at stake.”
A spokesman for IBM, which owns the app, said it had always been clear about the use of location data collected from users and will vigorously defend its “fully appropriate” disclosures."
Wednesday, August 29, 2018
Welcome to the Age of Privacy Nihilism; The Atlantic, August 23, 2018
"Your data is everywhere, and nowhere, and you cannot escape it, or what it might yet do to you."
Wednesday, April 11, 2018
Congress tried to crack Zuckerberg – but Facebook still has all the power; The Guardian, April 10, 2018
"In the end, it was Zuckerberg’s attitude toward his own privacy that was most revealing of the difference between the control that Facebook offers users and actual privacy. Zuckerberg said many times that he and his all his family used Facebook – a talking point we were apparently meant to take as proof that Facebook is safe.
Yet under questioning from Senator Dick Durbin, Zuckerberg expressed discomfort with revealing certain personal information, such as which hotel he was staying at while in Washington DC.
I’m a relatively well-informed Facebook user. I probably pay more attention than most people to privacy settings, and I consistently turn off things like location tracking. And yet, my Facebook data includes dozens of cases where the company has logged my location based on my IP address.
Zuckerberg may not want us to know where he slept last night, but his company sure as hell knows where the rest of us are sleeping."
Tuesday, March 6, 2018
The tyranny of algorithms is part of our lives: soon they could rate everything we do; Guardian, March 5, 2018
"The tyranny of algorithms is now an inbuilt part of our lives.
These systems are sprawling, often randomly connected, and often beyond logic. But viewed from another angle, they are also the potential constituent parts of comprehensive social credit systems, awaiting the moment at which they will be glued together. That point may yet come, thanks to the ever-expanding reach of the internet. If our phones and debit cards already leave a huge trail of data, the so-called internet of things is now increasing our informational footprint at speed...
Personal data and its endless uses form one of the most fundamental issues of our time, which boils down to the relationship between the individual and power, whether exercised by government or private organisations."
Sunday, February 4, 2018
My Pacemaker Is Tracking Me From Inside My Body; The Atlantic, January 27, 2018
[Kip Currier: Not an overstatement to say that this 1/27/18 first-person piece in The Atlantic is a profoundly thought-provoking, unsettling case study at the intersection of personal health data, privacy, digital networked technologies, and cybersecurity.]
"The idea of a battery-equipped, internet-connected device living forever inside my chest both terrifies and fascinates me. When people say, “I’ll die if I lose my iPhone,” they never mean it literally. But I really might die without this smart gadget. I’m also at risk in other ways. A wireless pacemaker can be hacked, or, as recently happened in Ohio, become legal evidence that incriminates its user.
There is a crucial difference between my device and more ubiquitous digital technologies: I never made the choice to implant the pacemaker in my body. I’m grateful to the hardworking doctors who minimized my pain and helped me get better. At the same time, the device they installed raises questions that now haunt me. It’s not clear who might have access to data about my pulse, my health, and possibly my whereabouts—data generated by a device inside me."
Thursday, February 1, 2018
WTF is GDPR?; TechCrunch, January 20, 2018
"The EC’s theory is that consumer trust is essential to fostering growth in the digital economy. And it thinks trust can be won by giving users of digital services more information and greater control over how their data is used. Which is — frankly speaking — a pretty refreshing idea when you consider the clandestine data brokering that pervades the tech industry. Mass surveillance isn’t just something governments do.
The General Data Protection Regulation (aka GDPR) was agreed after more than three years of negotiations between the EU’s various institutions.
It’s set to apply across the 28-Member State bloc as of May 25, 2018. That means EU countries are busy transposing it into national law via their own legislative updates (such as the UK’s new Data Protection Bill — yes, despite the fact the country is currently in the process of (br)exiting the EU, the government has nonetheless committed to implementing the regulation because it needs to keep EU-UK data flowing freely in the post-brexit future. Which gives an early indication of the pulling power of GDPR.
Meanwhile businesses operating in the EU are being bombarded with ads from a freshly energized cottage industry of ‘privacy consultants’ offering to help them get ready for the new regs — in exchange for a service fee. It’s definitely a good time to be a law firm specializing in data protection."
Amazon patents wristband that tracks warehouse workers' movements; Guardian, January 31, 2018
"Amazon has patented designs for a wristband that can precisely track where warehouse employees are placing their hands and use vibrations to nudge them in a different direction.
The concept, which aims to streamline the fulfilment of orders, adds another layer of surveillance to an already challenging working environment."
Friday, July 14, 2017
Face scans for US citizens flying abroad stir privacy issues; Associated Press via Hawaii News Now, July 12, 2017
"During the trials, passengers will be able to opt out. But a DHS assessment of the privacy impact indicates that won't always be the case.
Tuesday, July 4, 2017
Facebook can track your browsing even after you've logged out, judge says; Guardian, July 3, 2017
"A judge has dismissed a lawsuit accusing Facebook of tracking users’ web browsing activity even after they logged out of the social networking site.
The plaintiffs alleged that Facebook used the “like” buttons found on other websites to track which sites they visited, meaning that the Menlo Park, California-headquartered company could build up detailed records of their browsing history. The plaintiffs argued that this violated federal and state privacy and wiretapping laws.
US district judge Edward Davila in San Jose, California, dismissed the case because he said that the plaintiffs failed to show that they had a reasonable expectation of privacy or suffered any realistic economic harm or loss."
Monday, July 3, 2017
How to See What the Internet Knows About You (And How to Stop It); New York Times, July 3, 2017
"The relentlessly unyielding (but highly profitable) personalization of the products and services we use is getting deeper and creepier than ever. This type of data is incredibly valuable, we’re producing a ton of it every day, and it’s all being used to turn us into products. As one Facebook developer famously said: “The best minds of my generation are thinking about how to make people click ads.”
Let’s go down this rabbit hole. Start with this neat and medium-scary site, which our friends at Gizmodo flagged, that shows you everything your browser knows about you the second you open it. Here’s another one."