Digital Ethics

Hello, friends,You may not believe me when I say this, but every year, spies and cops from governments around the world gather at a secretive trade show known as the “Wiretappers Ball.” There they buy spyware, surveillance software and hacking tools they use in spycraft and often on their own citizens.I first encountered the market for off-the-shelf surveillance software in 2011, when my team at The Wall Street Journal obtained the marketing brochures for companies exhibiting their wares at the…

Recordings from a Sheriff’s conference where people tried to sell robot dogs, facial recognition, and “drone stuff.”

When Danny Casale tells me he is “completely, fully doxxed,” a series of nightmare images flash through my mind: videogame designers bombarded with rape and death threats, SWAT teams swarming the homes of innocent people, journalists inundated with crude photos. For me, and I imagine for most ...

Consumer Reports tested 10 DIY home security systems, including Ring and SimpliSafe, for security vulnerabilities. Only half could withstand jamming attacks.

A platform run by the Bosch-owned startup Azena has the potential to transform the surveillance camera industry. Experts worry it is ripe for abuse.

Hello, friends,The U.S. Internal Revenue Service has begun requiring users of some of its online services to submit a selfie to a private company, ID.me, to verify their identity using facial recognition technology.The move marks one of the largest rollouts of the controversial technology and has been decried by critics as a violation of privacy. Activists at Fight for the Future called for the IRS to halt the use of ID.me: “This is creating a massive database that government and law enforcemen…

ID.me's CEO says unemployment fraud is costing taxpayers $400 billion, but his own company is denying claims because of problems with its tech, users say.

At a Duke administrative law conference (yes, this is how I spend my Saturdays). Cass Sunstein says the **most pressing issue** in law / public administration is (1) to reduce the impact of cognitive bias and (2) eliminate noise. For the record I absolutely disagree … (1/n)— Jenna Burrell, PhD (@jennaburrell) February 12, 2022

I was asked at short notice to fill in for a speaker in Stanford's EE380 course who had to cancel. Below the fold is a hastily updated vers...

A year and a half ago I attended Brewster Kahle's Decentralized Web Summit and wrote: I am working on a post about my reactions to the fi...

‎Program: Tech Won't Save Us, Avsnitt: The Poorly Paid Workers Powering Automation w/ Phil Jones – 10 feb. 2022

by Blaise Agüera y Arcas, Margaret Mitchell and Alexander Todorov

Blockchain research firm Chainalysis says the value extracted from the hacks grew by 40% year-on-year.

New Google research suggests what AI does to identify images may not amount to "knowing" anything.

Kathy Baxter and her product design ethics team at Salesforce have a lot of sway over when tech is ready to ship and when it’s not. But there are lots of technologies living on the Salesforce platform beyond their control.

Update (October 22): Earlier this month, SpotSpotter filed a lawsuit alleging that the Vice report linked below contains false and defamatory statements.Court documents recently reviewed by VICE have revealed that ShotSpotter, a company that makes and sells audio gunshot detection to cities and...

Before you post your latest Wordle triumph, read this. https://t.co/oFeANdVHhc— Slate (@Slate) February 7, 2022

Joe Rogan argued for saying the N-word: “Don’t you think by not saying it, it becomes this ridiculously charged magic word?”Rogan predicted people would get in trouble for saying “the N-word,” just like they do for wearing “hoop earrings, braids, and dreadlocks.” #SpotifyKnew pic.twitter.com/CAhTWtTpHn— PatriotTakes 🇺🇸 (@patriottakes) February 6, 2022

absolutely horrifying: amazon’s algorithm identified a product that people were using to commit suicide. it then started to recommend additional products that made the suicide easier to executte. https://t.co/eKX4z8FOt7 pic.twitter.com/BpbvLhjoTO— maxwell (@maxwellstrachan) February 4, 2022

So The British Journal of Photography sold out its twitter account with 250000 followers into a NFT marketing account called 'art3'.They started a new account for photography. Which has 836 followers.And in doing so destroyed their reputation and reach. pic.twitter.com/KDI0HpT2fW— duckrabbit (@duckrabbitblog) February 2, 2022

Got a letter, the Police were to prosecute me for speeding! on a date I was home in a place I have never been. Called, all sorted out, but when they checked the vid it was a silver van, I have a blue Skoda. A quick look at the vehicle data would have flagged this immediately?— LinkoVitch (@Link2076) February 3, 2022

Major chains begin testing automated age-verification, to avoid the wait for staff at self-checkouts.

‎Show Made You Think, Ep 28: Bring the Crowbar. Leverage Points: Places to Intervene in a System by Donella Meadows - 13 Mar 2018

This video is just… so very good. #DataPrivacy #SurveillanceCapitalism #surveillance via @worldsayer https://t.co/J9bFj2cgbJ— Per Axbom (@axbom) January 31, 2022

Evan Selinger vehemently argues against the tenets of Firmin DeBrabander’s “Life After Privacy: Reclaiming Democracy in a Surveillance Society.”...

In 1999, I asked David Gerrold to write a "future of computing" prediction for the magazine where I was Technology Editor. Here's what he wrote. https://t.co/UAMM0Pm4W6

@axbom Wow I've never seen this before, that is amazing that they had this vision of the future back then.

California's net neutrality law will remain in effect after industry associations lost big in court.

I took (most of) January off from writing to take a step back and observe. Writing week in and out, as I did last year, keeps one pretty close to the subject — maybe even too close. And what I no...