Ahmed Al-Rawi, Assistant Professor, News, Social Media, and Public Communication, Simon Fraser University – identifies and explains how features of search engine autocomplete functions enables users to find fast answers to their questions or queries. However, autocomplete search functions are based on ambiguous algorithms that have been widely criticized because they often provide biased and racist results.
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: How Often Do Ads Share Your Data Every Day? Hundreds of Times; Threat actors compromising US business online checkout pages to steal credit card information; Your Bosses Could Have a File on You, and They May Misinterpret It; and Hackers are Hijacking Phone Numbers to Empty Crypto Accounts.
As a researcher of social media platforms, Anjana Susarla, the Omura-Saxena Professorship in Responsible AI at the Broad College of Business, finds that Musk’s ownership of Twitter and his stated reasons for buying the company raise important issues. Those issues stem from the nature of the social media platform and what sets it apart from others.
Author and blogger Dave Pollard addresses the incendiary global war of lies vs. truth, reminiscent of the MAD Magazine cartoon Spy Vs. Spy for those who of us who can recall the scenarios they played which remain eerily prescient. Pollard posits the most effective way to win and retain political power is by seizing the hearts and minds of citizens through a mix of propaganda, mis- and disinformation, and censorship. He continues, this is especially true now, living with a ubiquitous and unceasing firehose of often-conflicting information, and exploitative for-profit “social” media controlled by a handful of dimwitted and unstable western oligarchs.
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: Data From Friends and Strangers Show Where You Are; TSA’s Terrorist Watch List Comes for Amtrak Passengers; Facial recognition not required as tax ID – yet. But the tech spreads; You’re muted… or are you? Videoconferencing apps may listen even when mic is off; and Mismanaged Cloud Services Put User Data at Risk.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine, we keep hearing that this war is like no other; because Ukrainians have cellphones and access to social media platforms, the traditional control of information and propaganda cannot work and people are able to see through the fog of war. For these communications scholars and historians, Professors Katharina Niemeyer, Dominique Trudel, Heidi J. S. Tworek, Maria Silina and Svitlana Matviyenko, it is important to add nuance to such claims. The question is not so much what is “new” in this war, but rather to understand its specific media dynamics. One important facet of this war is the interplay between old and new media — the many loops that go from Twitter to television to TikTok, and back and forth.
What use are we in helping to solve difficult global challenges if we’re so depressed and cognitively depleted that we can’t think of the best actions to take? Ukraine doomscrolling can harm your cognition as well as your mood. Professors Barbara Jacquelyn Sahakian, Christelle Langley, Chun Shen and Jianfeng Feng describe their research findings on what to do about it.
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: Report: Cybersecurity teams need nearly 100 days to develop threat defenses; Russian General Killed After Using Unsecured Phone; A sustainable look at secure device destruction; and Ukraine reportedly adopts Clearview AI to track Russian invaders.
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: 2022 Guide to Internet Privacy Resources and Tools; Russia creates its own TLS certificate authority to bypass sanctions; Twitter quietly launches Tor service in the face of Russian censorship; Decentralized identity using blockchain.
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: How to make software supply chains resilient to cyber attacks; Russian Invasion Highlights Growing Importance of Open Source Intelligence; Cybersecurity: Internet Architecture is Considered Resilient, but Federal Agencies Continue to Address Risks; and Senate passes major cybersecurity legislation to force reporting of cyberattacks and ransomware.