I’ll never bring my phone on an international flight again. Neither should you. A few months ago I wrote about how you can encrypt your entire life in less than an hour. Well, all the security in the world can’t save you if someone has physical possession of your phone or laptop, and can intimidate you into giving up your password. And a few weeks ago, that’s precisely what happened to a US citizen returning home from abroad. On January 30th, Sidd Bikkannavar, a US-born scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory flew back to Houston, Texas from Santiago, Chile. On his way through through the airport, Customs and Border Patrol agents pulled him aside. Bikkannavar explained that the phone belonged to NASA and had sensitive information on it, but his pleas fell on deaf ears. We’re going to discuss the legality of all of this, and what likely happened during that 30 minutes where Bikkannavar’s phone was unlocked and outside of his possession. But before we do, take a moment to think about all the apps you have on your phone. Wait a second. Is all this inconvenient?
Google is Quietly Recording Everything You Say -- Here's How to Hear It, Delete It, and Stop It Thanks to a function of their search software, Google could have years worth of your conversations recorded, and you can hear it for yourself. Your cringe-worthy history can be heard and viewed along with a list of all your searches, at your personal Google history page. The feature was built into Google’s search function as a means of delivering accurate search results. However, the sheer accuracy and amount of data Google stores is chilling. The good news is that you can turn it off and delete it, and at the end of this article, we will show you how. As the Independent reports: The recordings can function as a kind of diary, reminding you of the various places and situations that you and your phone have been in. However, even if you don’t have an Android phone and conduct Google searches on iDevices, Google is still listening. When visiting your personal history page that the web giant keeps on you, it will show you everywhere Google has a record of you being on the internet.
In age of alternative facts, a scholarly course on calling out crap ired of alternative facts, fake news, and breathless hyperbole, two professors at the University of Washington are trying to strike a blow for science. Their weapon? A new course: “Calling Bullshit In the Age of Big Data.” The class website and colorful syllabus went online last month and almost instantly went viral. article continues after advertisement “We woke up the next morning to chaos. Bergstrom’s teaching partner, Jevin West, an assistant professor in UW’s Information School, put it this way: “We just struck a nerve.” Bergstrom and West are longtime scientific collaborators and have spent years grumbling about the inflated claims, manipulated algorithms, and twisted interpretations of scientific research that they see not just in the popular press, but also in grant applications and scientific papers. Though the course will be held on UW’s Seattle campus — capped at 160 students, it filled in the first minute of online registration — the materials are available free online.
Fake news. It's complicated. - First Draft News This article is available also in Deutsch, Español, Français and العربية By now we’ve all agreed the term “fake news” is unhelpful, but without an alternative, we’re left awkwardly using air quotes whenever we utter the phrase. The reason we’re struggling with a replacement is because this is about more than news, it’s about the entire information ecosystem. And the term fake doesn’t begin to describe the complexity of the different types of misinformation (the inadvertent sharing of false information) and disinformation (the deliberate creation and sharing of information known to be false). To understand the current information ecosystem, we need to break down three elements: The different types of content that are being created and sharedThe motivations of those who create this contentThe ways this content is being disseminated This matters. This is far more worrying than fake news sites created by profit driven Macedonian teenagers. The Different Types of Mis and Disinformation
Google’s featured snippets are worse than fake news | The Outline Peter Shulman, an associate history professor at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio, was lecturing on the reemergence of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s when a student asked an odd question: Was President Warren Harding a member of the KKK? Shulman was taken aback. He confessed that he was not aware of that allegation, but that Harding had been in favor of anti-lynching legislation, so it seemed unlikely. For most of its history, Google did not answer questions. Type in the name of a person and you’ll get a box with a photo and biographical data. Unfortunately, not all of these answers are actually true. Back to Shulman and his students. “I understand what Google is trying to do, and it’s work that perhaps requires algorithmic aid,” Shulman said in an email. According to the Harding Home, a museum in Harding’s former residence, the allegation that he was a Klansman was a lie concocted by the KKK and denied by Harding. The push for quick answers I mean, this isn’t terrible advice.
World's Oldest Paris Photo Is Also the First to Feature Humans In this age of endless selfies, it’s easy to forget that there existed a time before humans were photographed. So what exactly did the very first photo of a human entail? Well, this particular photo is a city shot, and it’s just so happens to be the oldest image of Paris. And it’s only fitting that Louis Daguerre—the inventor of daguerreotype—should be the photographer. Not only did this inventor create one of the most commonly used photographic techniques of the 19th century, but he holds the honor of taking this precious shot. But why do the streets look so empty? If you zoom into the lower left corner of the world’s first Paris photo, you can see the silhouette of a person getting his shoes shined by another individual on the street. That blurry figures are the very first people to ever be captured on film. h/t: [Lost at E Minor]
Politicians cannot bring back old-fashioned factory jobs THE vices are what strike you. The Mercedes AMG factory in Brixworth, a town in England’s midlands, is a different world from that of the production line of yore. Engine making was once accompanied by loud noises and the smoke and smells of men and machinery wrestling lumps of metal. Here things are quiet and calm. Manufacturing exerts a powerful grip on politicians and policymakers in the rich world. Hence Donald Trump’s promise to create “millions of manufacturing jobs”. The problem with such rhetoric is that manufacturing has not really gone away. Ride the carousel Once you understand what manufacturing now looks like, you come to see that the way it is represented in official statistics understates its health, and that the sector’s apparent decline in the rich world is overstated. Both in terms of employment and innovation manufacturing is worthy of political attention. The structure of 20th-century manufacturing helped ensure that those better wages were indeed offered. What next?
Essay: Anatomy of the Deep State Rome lived upon its principal till ruin stared it in the face. Industry is the only true source of wealth, and there was no industry in Rome. By day the Ostia road was crowded with carts and muleteers, carrying to the great city the silks and spices of the East, the marble of Asia Minor, the timber of the Atlas, the grain of Africa and Egypt; and the carts brought out nothing but loads of dung. — The Martyrdom of Man by Winwood Reade (1871) There is the visible government situated around the Mall in Washington, and then there is another, more shadowy, more indefinable government that is not explained in Civics 101 or observable to tourists at the White House or the Capitol. During the last five years, the news media have been flooded with pundits decrying the broken politics of Washington. Yes, there is another government concealed behind the one that is visible at either end of Pennsylvania Avenue, a hybrid entity of public and private institutions ruling the country…
US Senate Says Your ISP Can Sell Your Private Data. Here's What To Do Ever since Edward Snowden took off with a cache of top secret NSA documents, and revealed to the world how un-private online user data really was, there has been an obsession with staying private online. That obsession for privacy was protected by the then-Democratic leadership of the FCC who formulated rules last year to that effect. But now all of that work may have been thrown under the bus by the now Republican-dominated US Senate’s decision to scrap those privacy rules. The new rules would allow ISP’s to sell your private online data to the highest bidder without obtaining your consent first. Opponents say if Congress and President Trump refuse to oppose the Senate’s move, then the term ISP will change from Internet Service Provider to Information Sold For Profit. Because despite blustering explanations by supporters of the new rules about how it will “protect consumers”, all it really amounts to is a smash-and-grab by ISP’s such as Comcast, Verizon, and AT&T.