Category «Gadgets»

Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, December 30, 2023

Privacy and cybersecurity issues impact every aspect of our lives – home, work, travel, education, finance, health and medical records – to name but a few. On a weekly basis Pete Weiss highlights articles and information that focus on the increasingly complex and wide ranging ways technology is used to compromise and diminish our privacy and online security, often without our situational awareness. Four highlights from this week: The Worst Hacks of 2023; Think Twice Before Giving Surveillance for the Holidays; How to Check If Something Online Was Written by AI; and This ‘Pig Butchering’ Scam Has Victims on Both Sides.

Subjects: AI, Cryptocurrency, Cybercrime, Cybersecurity, Financial System, Privacy, Spyware

Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, December 23, 2023

Privacy and cybersecurity issues impact every aspect of our lives – home, work, travel, education, finance, health and medical records – to name but a few. On a weekly basis Pete Weiss highlights articles and information that focus on the increasingly complex and wide ranging ways technology is used to compromise and diminish our privacy and online security, often without our situational awareness. Four highlights from this week: Google brings privacy washing to Android; Xfinity discloses data breach after recent Citrix server hack; How to Check If Something Online Was Written by AI; and Artificial intelligence can find your location, alarming privacy experts.

Subjects: AI, Criminal Law, Cybercrime, Cybersecurity, Financial System, Government Resources, Information Management, Legal Research, Privacy, Search Engines, Search Strategies, Spyware

Predictive Policing Software Terrible At Predicting Crimes

Crime predictions generated for the police department in Plainfield, New Jersey, rarely lined up with reported crimes, an analysis by The Markup has found, adding new context to the debate over the efficacy of crime prediction software. Geolitica, known as PredPol until a 2021 rebrand, produces software that ingests data from crime incident reports and produces daily predictions on where and when crimes are most likely to occur. Aaron Sankin, Investigative Reporter and Surya Mattu, Senior Data Engineer and Investigative Data Journalist examined 23,631 predictions generated by Geolitica between Feb. 25 to Dec. 18, 2018 for the Plainfield Police Department (PD). Each prediction they analyzed from the company’s algorithm indicated that one type of crime was likely to occur in a location not patrolled by Plainfield PD. In the end, the success rate was less than half a percent. Fewer than 100 of the predictions lined up with a crime in the predicted category, that was also later reported to police.

Subjects: Big Data, Civil Liberties, Criminal Law, Data Mining, Privacy, Spyware, Technology Trends

Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, June 3, 2023

Privacy and cybersecurity issues impact every aspect of our lives – home, work, travel, education, health and medical records – to name but a few. On a weekly basis Pete Weiss highlights articles and information that focus on the increasingly complex and wide ranging ways technology is used to compromise and diminish our privacy and online security, often without our situational awareness. Four highlights from this week: New EPIC Report Sheds Light on Generative A.I. Harms; Don’t Store Your Money on Venmo, U.S. Govt Agency Warns (or PayPal); FTC Says Ring Employees Illegally Surveilled Customers, Failed to Stop Hackers from Taking Control of Users’ Cameras; and Twitter withdraws from EU’s disinformation code as bloc warns against hiding from liability.

Subjects: AI, Cybercrime, Cybersecurity, Economy, Financial System, KM, Privacy, Spyware, United States Law

A survey of over 17,000 people indicates only half of us are willing to trust AI at work

Professor Nicole Gillespie, and Research Fellows Caitlin Curtis, Javad Pool and Steven Lockey, discuss their new 17-country study involving over 17,000 people reveals how much and in what ways we trust AI in the workplace, how we view the risks and benefits, and what is expected for AI to be trusted. They find that only one in two employees are willing to trust AI at work. Their attitude depends on their role, what country they live in, and what the AI is used for. However, people across the globe are nearly unanimous in their expectations of what needs to be in place for AI to be trusted.

Subjects: AI, Information Management, Software, Technology Trends

Scribe faces a strong Chinese rival able to turn handwritten notes into searchable text

David H. Rothman may have identified one reason why the Kindle Scribe has gone on sale. For $400, Lenovo later this year is to sell a Scribe rival able to record lectures with two built-in mikes and turn handwritten notes into searchable text. Handily, you can sync the audio recordings with notes. Perhaps a tool for journalists, too, not just students?

Subjects: E-Books, KM, Libraries & Librarians

Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, January 8, 2023

Privacy and cybersecurity issues impact every aspect of our lives – home, work, travel, education, health and medical records – to name but a few. On a weekly basis Pete Weiss highlights articles and information that focus on the increasingly complex and wide ranging ways technology is used to compromise and diminish our privacy and online security, often without our situational awareness. Four highlights from this week: The Hidden Cost of Cheap TVs; Cloud email services bolster encryption against hackers; Did ChatGPT Write That? College Kid Creates AI Essay Detector; and the FBI’s Perspective on Ransomware.

Subjects: AI, Cybersecurity, Education, Email Security, Encryption, KM, Legal Research, Privacy, Spyware, Technology Trends

Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, December 3, 2022

Privacy and cybersecurity issues impact every aspect of our lives – home, work, travel, education, health and medical records – to name but a few. On a weekly basis Pete Weiss highlights articles and information that focus on the increasingly complex and wide ranging ways technology is used to compromise and diminish our privacy and online security, often without our situational awareness. Four highlights from this week: 5 cybersecurity predictions for 2023; Cops Can Extract Data From 10,000 Different Car Models’ Infotainment Systems; A Peek Inside the FBI’s Unprecedented January 6 Geofence Dragnet; and Thinking about taking your computer to the repair shop? Be very afraid.

Subjects: Big Data, Congress, Cybercrime, Cybersecurity, Email, Email Security, KM, Privacy, Search Engines, Search Strategies, Social Media, Spyware, Travel

Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, November 19, 2022

Privacy and cybersecurity issues impact every aspect of our lives – home, work, travel, education, health and medical records – to name but a few. On a weekly basis Pete Weiss highlights articles and information that focus on the increasingly complex and wide ranging ways technology is used to compromise and diminish our privacy and online security, often without our situational awareness. Four highlights from this week: Google Settles 40 States’ Location Data Suit for $392 Million; FBI Alert: Watch Out for Subscription Renewal Scams; GAO Science & Tech Spotlight: Zero Trust Architecture; and Employee tracking: From your keystrokes to your emails, here’s what your employer can see.

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Communications, Computer Security, Cybercrime, Cyberlaw, Cybersecurity, Email, Freedom of Information, Legal Research, Search Engines, Social Media, Spyware

Will Amazon’s new ePub capability help the anti-DRM movement?

David H. Rothman has been writing about the issues inherent in publisher control of e-books and e-readers and the impact of digital rights management for many years. Whether you use personal devices or institutional devices, the issues Rothman raises here will impact you.

Subjects: Copyright, E-Books, Information Management, KM, Law Library Management, Legal Research, Libraries & Librarians, Library Software & Technology, Licensing, Software