Accurate, Focused Research on Law, Technology and Knowledge Discovery Since 2002

Daily Archives: March 27, 2015

Assigning More Students to Their Top Choices: A Tiebreaking Rule Comparison

Ashlagi, Itai and Nikzad, Afshin and Romm, Assaf I, Assigning More Students to Their Top Choices: A Tiebreaking Rule Comparison (March 2015). Available for download at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2585367

“School choice districts that implement stable matchings face various design issues that impact students’ assignments to schools. We study properties of the rank distribution of students with random preferences, when schools use different tiebreaking rules to rank equivalent students. Under a multiple tiebreaking rule a vanishing fraction of students match to one of their top choices, in contrast to a single tiebreaking rule under which a constant fraction of students are assigned to one of their top choices. When students can submit only a relatively short preference list, the multiple tiebreaking rule allows a constant fraction of students to match to one of their top choices, with only a ”small” fraction of students remaining unmatched.”

How the Volcker Rules Became an 8 Billion Annual Business

Via AmericanBanker.com, John Heltman (free to non-subscribers): “The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency — one of the five regulatory agencies that had to write and implement the Volcker Rule — estimated the cost of compliance at just under $1 billion when it conducted a cost-benefit analysis of the proposal back in 2011. A… Continue Reading

Even more unwanted software protection via the Safe Browsing API

Google Online Security Blog: ” Deceptive software disguised as a useful download harms your web experience by making undesired changes to your computer. Safe Browsing offers protection from such unwanted software by showing a warning in Chrome before you download these programs. In February we started showing additional warnings in Chrome before you visit a… Continue Reading

Detekt – free tool that scans your Windows computer for traces of commercial surveillance spyware

Via FastCoExit: “Spyware like FinFisher contributes to a multi-billion dollar business. But until last week, activists had few ways to defend themselves, aside from the well-placed bit of duct tape over the computer camera and rigorous digital hygiene practices. That’s why Amnesty International, Privacy International, Digitale Gesellschaft, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation rolled out a… Continue Reading

FCC Releases Redacted Manual for Mobile Surveillance

Follow up to previous posting – StingRay surveillance device intercepts a cellphone signals, capture texts, calls, emails and other data – via Slate, via TheBlot: A heavily redacted copy of the 2010 manual for StingRay and KingFish mobile data surveillance equipment was released by the FCC in response to a FOIA request by TheBlot over… Continue Reading

United Nations To Create Special Rapporteur on Right to Privacy

EPIC: “The UN Human Rights Council has adopted a resolution on The Right to Privacy in the Digital Age that will lead to the selection of an independent expert on privacy. According to the resolution, the special rapporteur will have a broad mandate to assess developments, make recommendations, and promote the right to privacy. EPIC… Continue Reading

New GAO Reports – Children’s Health Insurance, NASA, Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute

Children’s Health Insurance: Coverage of Services and Costs to Consumers in Selected CHIP and Private Health Plans in Five States, GAO-15-323: Published: Feb 25, 2015. Publicly Released: Mar 27, 2015. NASA: Assessments of Selected Large-Scale Projects [Reissued on March 26, 2015] GAO-15-320SP: Published: Mar 24, 2015. Publicly Released: Mar 24, 2015. Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute:… Continue Reading