EFF: “With Gmail’s new design rolled out to more and more users, many have had a chance to try out its new “Confidential Mode.” While many of its features sound promising, what “Confidential Mode” provides isn’t confidentiality. At best, the new mode might create expectations that it fails to meet around security and privacy in Gmail. We fear that Confidential Mode will make it less likely for users to find and use other, more secure communication alternatives. And at worst, Confidential Mode will push users further into Google’s own walled garden while giving them what we believe are misleading assurances of privacy and security. With its new Confidential Mode, Google purports to allow you to restrict how the emails you send can be viewed and shared: the recipient of your Confidential Mode email will not be able to forward or print it. You can also set an “expiration date” at which time the…
Between You, Me, and Google: Problems With Gmail’s “Confidential Mode”
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EU aims to abolish planned obsolescence
RetailDetail: “The European Parliament accepted a resolution to lengthen consumer goods and software’s longevity, a counter to the alleged planned obsolescence process built into a lot of products. Indication of minimal life expectancy – The European Parliament now wants the European Commission to create a clear definition of the term “planned obsolescence” and to develop a system to track that aging process. It also wants longer warranty periods and criteria to measure a product’s strength. Each and every device should also have a mention of its minimal life expectancy. Devices should also be easier to repair: batteries and other components should be freely accessible for replacement, unless safety dictates otherwise. Manufacturers will also need to give other companies access to their components so that consumers can visit those companies for repairs…” See also “iFixit is a global community of people helping each…
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Book Review: Crime and Global Justice: The Dynamics of International Punishment
Blog of the London School of Economics: “In Crime and Global Justice: The Dynamics of International Punishment, Daniele Archibugi and Alice Pease delve into the hypocrisies and failings of international justice projects. Their book offers a timely reminder that the current international justice regime has not offered a silver bullet for complex political problems, writes Teemu Laulainen. “In the absence of truly cosmopolitan jurisdiction, international criminal justice has remained in the shackles of powerful political interests, even though law by its nature should strive towards categorical impartiality. This is the central conundrum addressed by Daniele Archibugi and Alice Pease in Crime and Global Justice: The Dynamics of International Punishment. Archibugi is a Research Director at the Italian National Research Council (INRC) and a Professor of Innovation, Governance and Public Policy at Birkbeck College; and Pease, a…
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The origins of the Society of American Archivists
National Archives History – As the Society for American Archivists (SAA) meets for the 82nd annual meeting here in Washington, DC, we’re taking a look back at the origins of the organization. SAA was founded just two years after Congress created the National Archives and came to be, in part, because the efforts of National Archives staff. “The nation’s first association of archivists was the Public Archives Commission of the American Historical Association (AHA). It was established 1899 and held its first conference in 1909 in conjunction with AHA’s annual meeting. But, by the time the National Archives was created in 1934, the commission had largely disbanded. The following year, first Archivist of the United States R.D.W. Connor, with the help of the National Archives Director of Publications, Solon Buck, organized a program on the need for an archival organization for AHA’s 1935 annual meeting. The group met in Chattanooga, TN, in…
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Men and Women Communicate Differently, But …
A lot has been written about the differences in how men and women communicate when pursuing business. In particular, how either gender should relate to the other when they’re the seller and the other is the buyer. Once, someone asked: “How do you advise a male lawyer interview or assess the needs of a female general counsel?” The questioner acknowledged there is no one best way to communicate for all business interactions and there are many exceptions. But she cited an example of a male litigator telling a female prospect his fees upfront and why he was worth them. A Red Herring I didn’t take the bait. Gender is a red herring here. The male litigator described is simply a clumsy pitchman with no selling skill or even baseline awareness of how to conduct himself. That’s true whether he’s speaking with a woman or man. (Talking price before eliciting your prospect’s perception of value, expressed in dollars, is just stupid.)…
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Legaler Raises $1.5M To Build Blockchain To Help Bridge Justice Gap
The Australian legal technology company Legaler has raised $1.5 million to be used to help build a proprietary blockchain aimed at bridging the global gap in access to justice. Legaler’s blockchain will provide the infrastructure and developer tools for legal services providers to build their own secure and scalable decentralized applications, the company says. This funding round to help drive that development was led by MasterNode Ventures, joined by Pacific Blue Capital and others. Legal cofounder and CEO Stevie Ghiassi says he is targeting the 4 billion people in the world who are without access to justice. Even in developed countries such as the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia, he notes, 80 percent of people encountering a legal issue are unable to get help. “There needs to be a fundamental shift and blockchain technology will provide just that,” Ghiassi says. I first wrote about Legaler’s plan last February, reporting then that…
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“Material Support for Terrorists” Lawsuit Against YouTube Fails Again–Gonzalez v. Google
This is one of numerous lawsuits against social media providers, seeking to hold them liable for terrorist attacks because they publish third party-provided terrorist-related content. These lawsuits have gone nowhere, including this one. I blogged the dismissal of the Second Amended Complaint. The plaintiffs tried a Third Amended Complaint, but it too fails. Remarkably, the court gives the plaintiffs a fifth chance, but only on one theory. When that theory inevitably fails, the case will be ready for its almost-certainly-futile appeal. Section 230 For the most part, the court treats the plaintiffs’ arguments as reconsideration of its ruling on the Second Amended Complaint. The court recaps: Claims one through four allege that Google violated the material support statutes by permitting ISIS and its supporters to publish harmful material on YouTube, and by failing to do enough to remove that content and the users responsible for posting the material. These claims target…
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A New Algorithm Change, and How to Recover Lost Ground
Once again, the search engine optimization (SEO) and online marketing worlds have been flooded with news of another core change to Google’s search algorithm. While the update came out at the beginning of the month, it only finished “rolling out” in the past few days. Now, the data is spilling in, rankings are fluctuating, and websites that lost ground are asking the all important question: How can we fix it? New Changes to Google’s Core Algorithm Back on August 1, Google announced that it was rolling out a new “broad core algorithm update.” This week we released a broad core algorithm update, as we do several times per year. Our guidance about such updates remains the same as in March, as we covered here: https://t.co/uPlEdSLHoX — Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) August 1, 2018 As usual, they were fairly tight-lipped about what was being changed, or even how widespread the effects would be: No, not doing that. — Danny…
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Failure is an option
Nobody likes to fail so most of us tend to avoid doing things we’re not good at, things we’ve failed at before. Thomas J. Watson, the founder of IBM, said that’s the opposite of what we should do: “Would you like me to give you a formula for success? It’s quite simple, really: Double your rate of failure. You are thinking of failure as the enemy of success. But it isn’t at all. You can be discouraged by failure or you can learn from it, so go ahead and make mistakes. Make all you can. Because remember that’s where you will find success.” I don’t think he meant we should literally increase our “rate” of failure, meaning the percentage of mistakes or failures. I can’t see how intentionally doing worse would help us to become more successful. I think he meant we should double the “number” of failures, meaning the number of times we “attempt” things we’ve failed at. The more…
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WSJ – What Your Car Knows About You
Auto makers are figuring out how to monetize drivers’ data [paywall]: “Car makers are collecting massive amounts of data from the latest cars on the road. Now, they’re figuring out how to make money off it. With millions of cars rolling off dealer lots with built-in connectivity, auto companies are gaining access to unprecedented amounts of real-time data that allow them to track everything from where a car is located to how hard it is braking and whether or not the windshield wipers are on. The data is generated by the car’s onboard sensors and computers, and then stored by the auto maker in cloud-based servers. Some new cars have as many as 100 built-in processors that generate data…Car companies stress that they get the owner’s consent first before gathering any data…Still, privacy experts say it is not always clear to consumers when they are giving consent. As with other electronic devices, the data disclosures are often buried in…
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Those Partisan Agencies Spent the Most on Google Ads
Statista: “In an effort to increase transparency, Google disclosed American political groups’ expenses in advertising on its platform in the current election cycle. As our chart shows, organizations affiliated with both parties spend huge amounts of money to advertise their policies. Within the top 10 one can find six organizations with a direct link or a leaning to the Republican party and 4 with links to the Democratic party. Trump’s Make America Great Again Committee spent the most money on political advertising on Google and also bought the biggest amount of single ads.”
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Facebook opens up to researchers – but not about 2016 election
NBC News – Facebook’s decision is a roadblock for experts who want to examine possible factors behind President Donald Trump’s victory: “Last month, academic researchers got word of a tantalizing offer. Facebook said it would give them a way to study how web addresses are shared on its social network, for the first time opening a window into the spread of hoaxes, partisan news and disinformation. But there was a catch: Facebook wouldn’t let researchers look at anything before Jan. 1, 2017. The time restriction is meaningful because it has the effect of blocking access to Facebook data about the 2016 presidential campaign, one of the most divisive periods in modern American history, as well as from previous years. Facebook’s decision is a roadblock for experts who want to examine possible factors behind President Donald Trump’s victory, such as alleged Russian influence, his campaign’s digital strategy or the spread of false…
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Paper – The Effects of Sexism on American Women: The Role of Norms vs. Discrimination
The Effects of Sexism on American Women: The Role of Norms vs. Discrimination. Kerwin Kofi Charles, Jonathan Guryan, and Jessica Pan. August 2018. “We study how reported sexism in the population affects American women. Fixed-effects and TSLS estimates show that higher prevailing sexism where she was born (background sexism) and where she currently lives (residential sexism) both lower a woman’s wages, labor force participation and ages of marriage and childbearing. We argue that background sexism affects outcomes through the influence of previously-internalized norms, and that estimated associations regarding specific percentiles and male versus female sexism suggest that residential sexism affects labor market outcomes through prejudice-based discrimination by men, and non-labor market outcomes through the influence of current norms of other women.” The working paper can be found here. The Research Brief of this working paper can be found here. You can…
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Inside Trump’s Judicial Takeover
Rolling Stone – How conservative operatives and Senate Republicans are helping the president pack the courts at a record pace: “One evening last November, Don McGahn, the top lawyer in the Trump White House, walked onstage in an opulent ballroom at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, D.C. He looked out at the audience of several hundred judges, lawyers, clerks and law students seated under a pair of glittering chandeliers that hung from a ceiling accented in gold. McGahn, who rarely gives interviews or speeches, had come to speak at the annual conference of the Federalist Society, the powerful network of conservative lawyers, and the occasion felt like a homecoming and a victory lap. Over the past two decades — including five years serving on the Federal Election Commission — McGahn has become an ideological warrior battling what he sees as the tyranny of the federal government. He parlayed his campaign-finance expertise into a job as Donald Trump’s…
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Greater Commitment Needed by Fintech Firms to Ensure Automated Algorithms Protect Against Discrimination in Loan Applications
“Congressman Emanuel Cleaver, II announced today the findings of his investigation into the small business lending practices of Financial Technology (FinTech) companies. Last year, Congressman Cleaver launched an investigation to study the methods that FinTech companies use to protect consumers against discriminatory practices. One of the primary focuses of the survey was the use of automated algorithms in loan applications. While many FinTech companies claim their algorithms protect against discrimination, many respondents failed to demonstrate how they protect consumers from unintentional discrimination. It is imperative that automated lending algorithms avoid geographical and race-based biases. Companies mentioned in this investigation include LendUp, Fora Financial, Biz2Credit, Kabbage, LendingClub, and OnDeck Capital, Inc. It should be noted that LendUp is in fact a consumer lending company, however they agreed to participate in this investigation. “The initial…
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10 charts that sum up 2018 (so far)
Recode – News cycles come and go, but data is forever. It’s still summer and yet 2018 has felt years long. Here’s a look at the year so far — with a focus on tech and business stories — told through charts.
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Training curriculum for Wikipedia + Libraries now available online for library trainers
OCLC and WebJunction: “This training curriculum will help you confidently begin to use, edit, and teach Wikipedia at your library. These materials were created during OCLC’s Wikipedia + Libraries: Better Together project to strengthen ties between US public libraries and English-language Wikipedia. The project ran from December 2016 through May 2018 and was funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the Wikimedia Foundation, and OCLC. The materials are the product of research and expertise marshaled to design, deliver, and evaluate OCLC/WebJunction’s nine-week Wikipedia online course for US public library staff. Participants learned to: build a deeper understanding of Wikipedia gain proficiency in evaluation and editing develop a plan to implement Wikipedia programming in their libraries amplify the role of libraries as information literacy leaders in their communities. New to Wikipedia? No problem! We’ve selected and curated materials to…
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Science Under Trump: Voices of Scientists across 16 Federal Agencies (2018)
Union of Concerned Scientists – Center for Science and Democracy – Promoting Scientific Integrity: “A year and a half into the Trump administration, its record on science policy is abysmal: undermining the role of science in decision-making, expanding the influence of regulated industries, excluding public voices, censoring scientists, overriding and dismissing science advice, and hindering the collection and dissemination of scientific information. UCS has documented this poor record in our 2017 report, Sidelining Science from Day One, on our blog, and in our ongoing “Attacks on Science” web feature. But what do scientists themselves think? What does the Trump administration’s assault on federal science look like to the people who experience it every day in their workplaces? We decided to ask. In February and March 2018, in partnership with the Center for Survey Statisics and Methodology at Iowa State University, we surveyed more than…
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Intellectual Property Fair Use For Me, But Not For Thee
Above the Law – Fair use is for everyone and benefits rightholders just as it benefits consumers. “A common misconception about fair use in copyright law is that it is relied upon solely by consumers. The reality, however, is that everyone uses fair use, including large rightholders like movie studios and publishers. Even while rightholders are often seen as advocates for strong intellectual property rights, even while they oppose fair use when bringing a lawsuit themselves, they are not shy in asserting their own right to fair use…” While publishers took a dim view of fair use when libraries were creating own searchable database (and providing accessible copies for people who are blind or print disabled), they raised fair use as a defense in the creation of a publisher-owned database. In White v. West Publishing (litigation that happened at the same time as HathiTrust), two attorneys — Edward White and Kenneth Elan — claimed copyright…
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Smart contract legislation updates by state
Via Sagewise [h/t to Joe Hodnicki] – Use this table to see which states have discussed legislation on blockchain or on smart contracts.
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