Online Sleuths Are Outing Racists, But Should They?
After Charlottesville, crowdsourced efforts online to identify racists and damage their reputations–or worse–raise complicated questions. Shortly after last Saturday’s white nationalist march through...
View ArticleGoogle, Mozilla, And The Race To Make Voice Data For Everyone
The voice-control platform wars are getting open sourced. A voice-controlled virtual assistant–Siri, Alexa, Cortana, or Google Home–is only as good as the data that powers it. Training these programs...
View ArticleFEMA tamps down rumors that immigration agents would be patrolling Harvey...
The two agencies principally responsible for immigration enforcement “have stated that they are not conducting immigration enforcement at relief sites such as shelters or food banks,” the Federal...
View ArticleThousands of Katrina evacuees who moved to Houston are reliving a nightmare
Among those affected by Tropical Storm Harvey’s unprecedented flooding of Houston are likely thousands of survivors of Hurricane Katrina’s 2005 strike on Louisiana, who in some cases are once again...
View ArticleFake cops are telling Harvey victims to evacuate so they can rob their homes
Immigration and Customs Enforcement reports that people are pretending to work for the agency and telling people in Texas to evacuate their homes in the wake of Hurricane Harvey, possibly in order to...
View ArticleYouTube video captions are more accurate if you’re white
As speech recognition becomes more prevalent–and used in settings such as hiring or medical diagnoses–the issue of data and algorithm-driven bias begins to have broader implications. And, as a new...
View ArticleFast, Secure Blockchain Tech From An Unexpected Source: Microsoft
Microsoft is aiming to make shared ledger transactions safe enough for its stalwart corporate clients. The networks behind cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and Ethereum were built with mistrust in mind....
View ArticleOur Personal Data Is Out There For The Taking Because People Are Lazy And Sloppy
Millions of sensitive records of Time Warner Cable customers and others were left on an unprotected server–the latest case of a now-routine problem. Millions of records relating to customers of Time...
View ArticleA powerful solar storm is headed toward us, bringing hazards and rare light...
The Space Weather Prediction Center has upgraded a geomagnetic storm watch for September 6 and 7 to a level only occasionally seen, but scientists say it’s nothing to be too alarmed about. They do...
View ArticleEquifax execs dumped almost $1.8 million in stock before revealing giant data...
Three Equifax executives sold almost $1.8 million worth of stock in the company shortly after the company discovered a security breach that could affect about 143 million U.S. consumers and an...
View ArticleResearchers Say Bitcoin Data Could Help Spot Sex Traffickers
Bitcoin transactions could help find links between sexual ads, but advocates caution such investigations might harm voluntary sex workers. Bitcoin is often described as an anonymous way to pay online,...
View ArticleMore Details Are Emerging About The Sophisticated Hackers Who Penetrated U.S....
The attackers, linked to a group dubbed Dragonfly, have accessed systems that could be harnessed to sabotage parts of the electric grid. More details are emerging about the sophisticated hackers who...
View ArticleThese 2 loopholes in the new spying bill help the U.S. spy on Americans
The Senate joined the House in passing a six-year renewal of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, over the objections of civil libertarians who say the law makes it too easy to spy...
View ArticleDuckDuckGo Moves Privacy Beyond Search With New App And Extension
The privacy-focused company wants to protect users even after they leave the search page. Over the last few years, search engine DuckDuckGo has built a loyal audience among privacy-conscious internet...
View ArticleHow the U.S.’s first safe drug injection sites would work
Philadelphia city officials announced plans Tuesday to encourage the opening of safe drug-injection sites in the city, which has been particularly hit hard by the national opioid epidemic, the...
View ArticleThese cloned monkeys are pretty cute. The next steps could get ugly
Zhong Zhong and Hua Hua, a pair of long-tailed macaque female monkeys living in China, are 49 and 51 days old respectively, but genetically they are completely identical. Scientists affiliated with the...
View ArticleA popular jogging app is leaking military secrets
The fitness tracking app Strava released a heat map last fall showing jogging routes logged by its users around the world. But in recent days, independent military experts have noticed the map...
View ArticleU.S. elections are still vulnerable to foreign meddling, warn experts
Despite the attention that’s been paid to apparent Russian interference with the 2016 presidential vote, U.S. elections are still vulnerable to foreign interference, warns a new report from the...
View ArticleNew Mission For North Korea’s Hackers: Get Rich
Pyongyang’s hackers, once known for spying and vandalism, have been accused of stealing millions in cryptocurrency in a string of digital heists. Just a few years ago, hackers working for North Korea...
View ArticleHow Dutch Spies Were Able To Outwit Russian Hackers
Online spies outfoxed the notorious Russian hacking group and fed information about their attacks on U.S. federal systems to American authorities. Since at least 2010, the Russian state-sponsored...
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