Smart Cities?: Proceed With Caution!
Zaheer Allam provides a balanced view of the future impact of AI on societyIn some Smart City master plans, our privacy will be seriously compromised.
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How Much Google Do You Really Need?
As more people are becoming concerned about Big Tech’s snooping and apparent political ambitions, practical responses are emergingGetting away from constant surveillance and dangerous little bubbles of manipulated information is easier than some users may realize, tech pioneers and experts say. You can make simple changes today.
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Your Browser CAN Be Secure
If you are willing to think beyond GoogleThe place to begin, however, is with a simple rule of thumb: if a system is convenient, you are probably trading your information for that convenience. If you want to reduce your “digital exhaust,” you will need to do things that are a little less convenient.
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Cash For Your Data Won’t Solve Big Tech Privacy Issues
It seems like such a great idea… at first. But how do you know what the data is really worth?Privacy is a fundamental right tied to the person, rather than something on which a price tag can be placed, which can be sold for a fistful of dollars.
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Escaping the News Filter Bubble: Three Simple Tips
Spoiler: Reduce the amount of information big providers have about YOUOver time, unnoticed bubbles form ever more effective barriers against alternative information, maybe information you need. But getting out requires only a few simple steps.
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Facebook Gets Rich Off What We Tell Our Friends
Social media pioneer David Gelernter also has a proposal for sharing the wealth more fairlyYale University computer science prof David Gelernter, “a leading figure in the third generation of artificial intelligence” (Edge.org). social networks pioneer, and Unabomber survivor, discusses his idea in a podcast at The Federalist Radio Hour.
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Pop-Ups? Just Say “No” — and Close Those Tabs
Making the internet work for YOU means, among other things, getting control of who can follow you aroundIf allowing these notifications sounds like a perfect avenue for an attacker, that’s because it is. This attack surface is a very large hole in the security of your computer.
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How Far Has AI Mindreading Come?
Further than we may think. And some trends are troubling
China: What You Didn’t Say Could Be Used Against You
An AI voiceprint could be used to generate words never said
Should You Pay For a Virtual Private Network (VPN)?
Here's what a VPN can and can't do for youIn some cases, specifically when you are using public wireless services, using a VPN can add measurably to your privacy and security. But VPNs are not a “silver bullet” in solving the many security and privacy issues users face today.
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Confirmed: DeepMind’s Deepest Mind Is on Leave
The chess champ computer system just never made money
“Anonymized” Data Is Not Confidential
It’s almost as anonymous as your fingerprint, actually
The Machine Knows You Are Angry
Okay, it knows if your facial muscles are twisted in a certain way… does the difference matter?
The Internet’s Structure Builds In Privacy Flaws
The Domain Name resolver knows every service you visit, and every service those services rely on, as you move around the internetHow can you create a directory that anyone can access and yet keep what everyone is asking for private? Short of moving to a paper-based DNS system (think, a stack of New York City-size telephone directories), there isn’t a good answer within the present system.
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Many Parents Ignore Risks of Posting Kids’ Data Online
The lifelong digital footprint, which starts before birth, makes identity theft much easier
You Think You Have Nothing To Hide?
Then why are Big Tech moguls making billions from what you and others tell them?The bottom line is this: if you think you don’t have anything to hide, then you don’t understand how the modern data economy really works, nor the impact of being caught in a riptide of public opinion.
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Chinese Technocracy Surges Ahead with AI Surveillance
So what do the reservations expressed, about “the soul” and “love,” really mean?Both big tech entrepreneurs Kai-Fu Lee and Jack Ma seem to believe in souls but do not believe that souls can be trusted with freedom, the way governments can.
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Is Data Privacy a Luxury Now?
In an age of constant connectedness and digital monitoring, access to privacy is becoming the new digital divide. Can you afford it?The people most likely to know how to protect their privacy are the well-informed. In an information society in the free world, as an information analyst notes, “well-informed” tends to correlate with well-educated (which in turn correlates with being better off).
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Why You Can’t Just Ask Social Media To Forget You
While we now have a clear picture of the challenges current social media pose to peoples and cultures, what to do is unclearStan Horaczek explains how you can download what social media and information brokers know about you but, he cautions, “Set aside lots of time and extra hard-drive space.”
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George Gilder: Cloud Computing Is Reaching Its Limits
The “cloud” isn’t something ethereal “up there,” Gilder reminds us; it is giant factory floors of computersGilder, tech philosopher and author of Life after Google: The Fall of Big Data and the Rise of the Blockchain Economy, argues that the regime of huge data centers, all parked by bodies of water, is coming to an end.
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