Homa Hosseinmardi and a group of researchers from Stanford University, the University of Pennsylvania and Microsoft Research tracked the TV news consumption habits of tens of thousands of American adults each month from 2016 through 2019. They discovered four aspects of news consumption that, when taken together, paint an unsettling picture of the TV news ecosystem.
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: Browser extension lets you remove specific sites from search results; Best VPN services 2022 — Today’s top picks; DOJ ramps up efforts to curb digital stalking and abuse; and Report: Adobe Reader is blocking antivirus tools from scanning loaded PDF documents.
Technology has significantly changed our concept of privacy as well as our ability to maintain it. The are a wide spectrum of tools, services and strategies available to assist you in the effort to maintain a sliding scale of privacy in an increasingly porous, insecure online environment. Whether you are browsing the internet, using email or SMS, encrypting data on PCs or mobile phones, trying to choose the best VPN, or working to secure your online services from cybercrime, hacking or surveillance, Marcus Zillman has identified a wide range of sources for you to consider. The foundational issue regarding privacy is that you must be proactive, diligent and persistent in evaluating and using multiple applications for email, search, file transfer, and social media. There is no “one size fits all” solution, and your vigilance and willingness to remain flexible in applying effective solutions are part of an ongoing process.
More than a quarter of a century since its first commercial use, the growth of the online world is now slowing down in some key categories. A multi-year research project analyzing global trends in online diversity and dominance conducted by Paul X. McCarthy and Marian-Andrei Rizoiu reveals a dramatic consolidation of attention towards a shrinking (but increasingly dominant) group of online organizations. So, while there is still growth in the functions, features and applications offered on the web, the number of entities providing these functions is shrinking.
Chirag Shah, Associate Professor in the Information School, University of Washington and Founding Director of InfoSeeking Lab, which focuses on issues related to information seeking, human-computer interaction (HCI), and social media. Shah’s research describes how search engines are not just one of society’s primary gateways to information and people, but they are also conduits for misinformation. Similar to problematic social media algorithms, search engines learn to serve you what you and others have clicked on before. Because people are drawn to the sensational, this dance between algorithms and human nature can foster the spread of misinformation.
Prof. Lorrie Cranor, Carnegie Mellon University and Hana Habib, Graduate Research Assistant at the Institute for Software Research, Carnegie Mellon University, highlight their research on how many people who use private browsing have misconceptions about what protection they’re gaining. A common misconception is that these browser modes allow you to browse the web anonymously, surfing the web without websites identifying you and without your internet service provider or your employer knowing what websites you visit. The tools actually provide much more limited protections.
Privacy and security 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 security, often without our situational awareness. Four highlights from this week: Dressing for the Surveillance Age; How To Tell If Your Smart Home Security Camera Is Hacked; Digital security best practices for working remotely; and The best, and the worst, of the coronavirus dashboards.
Privacy and security 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 security, often without our situational awareness. Four highlights from this week: 2019 Internet Crime Report Released; The silent threat of the coronavirus: America’s dependence on Chinese pharmaceuticals; Equifax breach: How Chinese army hackers allegedly stole personal info; and How to Share Files Securely Online: Dropbox, Firefox Send, and More.
Privacy and security 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 security, often without our situational awareness. Four highlights from this week: EU can force Facebook and social media platforms to remove content globally; How to Set Your Google Data to Self-Destruct; The whistleblowing process, explained; and ABA Tech Report 2019.
Privacy and security 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 security, often without our situational awareness. Four highlights from this week: Viral App FaceApp Now Owns Access To More Than 150 Million People’s Faces And Names; What Does Incognito Mode Actually Do? Here’s Everything You Need to Know; How vulnerable are the undersea cables that power the global internet?; and Equifax To Pay Hundreds Of Millions In Data Breach Settlement (with many caveats).