Digital Ethics

Elon Musk said Twitter would begin authenticating users who pay $8 for Blue. Our tech columnist was still able to get a checkmark for an impostor Sen. Ed Markey.

Exclusive: tech firm quietly launches new audiobook catalogue narrated by AI – but move expected to spark backlash

Microsoft Editor in Edge and Enhanced Spellchecker in Chrome are sending personal information to Microsoft and Google respectively.

Existing and future use-cases for AI in web and product design

Our new research shows how popular chart choices can trigger unconscious social biases and reinforce systemic racism.

Technology has given police vast reach to compare the faces of criminal suspects against a trove of mug shots, driver’s licenses, and even selfies plucked from social media.

The Stable Diffusion Explorer shows how words like "assertive" and "gentle" are mapped to sexist stereotypes.

A security researcher has won a $107,500 bug bounty after discovering a way in which hackers could install a backdoor on Google Home devices to seize control of their microphones, and secretly spy upon their owners' conversations.

A Discussion with Alex Hanna

You no longer fully own the movie you bought, your next car will not work 100% even though you bought it if you don't keep paying, your smartphone is not fully yours since you are not free to repair it even though you own it, your home devices "betray you" by sharing data with companies even though you have welcomed them into your home... I'm sick to death of this technological modernity.

The willingness most people seem to have to put their trust into (and even idolise/fawn over) corporations shows a lack of insight into the way proprietary technology, corporations, and society work. It's a diabolical mix that's going to be our downfall. For more see https://davelane.nz/megacorps & https://davelane.nz/proprietary It's why I say we're in a digital Dark Age - most of society, despite being increasingly dependent upon it, lacks this crucial tech literacy. https://davelane.nz/darkage

In the wake of this year’s Supreme Court decision in Dobbs overruling Roe v. Wade, sheriffs and bounty hunters in anti-abortion states will try to investigate and punish abortion seekers based on their internet browsing, private messaging, and phone app location data. We can expect similar tactics...

MSG Entertainment, the owner of the arena and Radio City Music Hall, has put lawyers who represent people suing it on an “exclusion list” to keep them out of concerts and sporting events.

People who upload images of children that Google flags as potentially illegal will be able to provide more context to appeal bans.

The clock is a useful social tool, but it is also deeply political. It benefits some, marginalizes others and blinds us from a true understanding of our own bodies and the world around us.

Open source microblogging site has seen surge of interest since Musk took over Twitter.

So, it’s been quite a year for legacy, centralized social media — and all without any really big change to the laws that govern it (yet — the EU’s are coming into force shortly, but pos…

Friction is a design tool, when applied correctly it improves our experiences, decision satisfaction, and can protect us.

Modern institutions are rife with tech that disenfranchises, dehumanises, excludes and even bullies students and teachers. It’s high time for a rethink, says Andy Farnell

2022 was a big year for fighting tech-enabled abuse, from physical trackers to stalkerware. https://t.co/juoxOSgJpd— Eva (@evacide) December 27, 2022

"Contrary to what The New York Times has speculated, we are not at peak newsletter. We are just at peak newsletter via email delivery."

It turns out ChatGPT has a dark side: It can create malware – without being given any snippet of code. That means less-skilled criminals can learn to become a cyber-attacker.

Tesla’s CEO was long portrayed as a business genius. His incompetent rule of Twitter proves he’s really just a thirsty, right-wing dimwit.

Lensa.ai and other photo apps like it could put your personal biometric data at risk, experts say, and warn that once you give your data to those companies, you have no control over how the companies use it.

Buzzy products like ChatGPT and DALL-E 2 will have to turn a profit eventually.

A growing number of people are experimenting with federated alternatives to social media like Mastodon, either by joining an “instance” hosted by someone else or creating their own instance by running the free, open-source software on a server they control. (See more about this movement and joining...

A recent incident at Radio City Music Hall involving the mother of a Girl Scout is shedding light on the growing controversy of facial recognition, as critics claim it is being used to target perceived enemies — in this case, by one of the most famous companies in the country.

An attorney whose firm is in litigation with MSG Entertainment was barred from attending a Radio City Rockettes’ show with her daughter and other Girl Scouts because the company’s facial recognition technology knew where she worked. NBC New York’s Sarah Wallace reports.