“If you aren’t paying for the product, you are the product.” That’s a truism about the digital age so obvious that you’ve no doubt become sick of hearing it. Facebook denies this plain reality in a just-published response to the ragingly-popular film, The Social Dilemma. That makes it pretty hard [Keep reading]
Black voters were labeled for “deterrence,” and in states narrowly won by Trump, many stayed home on election day 2016. Click to watch Channel 4’s exclusive reporting. The Cambrdige Analytica scandal, and dirty digital electioneering tactics in general, are always going to be complex stories that are hard to get [Keep reading]
Don’t believe everything you see The easiest way to hack an election in our media-intense age is not to hack the election itself — but merely to hack the results. Specifically, the appearance of results. Imagine if official government websites were hacked on election night to display vote tallies [Keep reading]
(FBI image) INTRODUCTION It might be the worst-kept secret in all of cybersecurity: the FBI says don’t pay ransomware gangs. But corporations do it all the time, sending millions every year in Bitcoin to recover data that’s been taken “hostage.” Sometimes, federal agents even help victims find experienced virtual ransom [Keep reading]
Click to visit the FTC’s Covid complaint dashboard. U.S. consumers have now filed 203,000 Covid-19-releated complaints with the Federal Trade Commission, and counting. Vctims say scam artists have stolen $144 million, or about $300 per incident, the FTC’s dashboard says. “While people are scared about their health and finances, con [Keep reading]
Dirty digital politics is a fact of life all over the world now. Democracies are going to have to learn how to live with it. One thing that could help US voters understand this murky world is to learn about the kinds of tactics being used in other countries. Fortunately, [Keep reading]
Introduction “Privacy tends to lose when there is a clear public safety use case.” That means firms like Clearview AI, and everything else like it, is here to stay. Now what? That’s today’s “In Conversation.” Earlier this year, Kashmir Hill of The New York Times broke one of the most important [Keep reading]
ARCHIVE — Originally published Sept. 20, 1999 The Irish love a bittersweet story. A nation of amateur historians, they retell national tragedies with pride and have always seemed most comfortable when there’s not a dry eye in the room. So why is there a now lilt of Irish laughter in [Keep reading]
Credit: California Secretary of State’s office Voting by mail is safe – at least as safe as any other way you’ve voted in a U.S. election. It’s hardly new. I voted by mail for years when I lived in Washington State, one of five states that currently have all-mail elections. [Keep reading]
Headphones. A good pair of headphones. And an external mouse. And maybe a door. Whether your family is starting school in person or remotely, everyone should prepare for long-distance learning this fall. I recently asked a bunch of parents what’s the one thing they knew in June that they [Keep reading]
Bob Sullivan