Pew Report – Mobile Messaging and Social Media 2015 – August 19, 2015: “In today’s world, people — particularly young people — are continually finding and adapting new ways of communicating electronically to fit their needs. Case in point: 2015 marks the first time Pew Research Center has asked specifically about mobile messaging apps as a separate kind of mobile activity apart from cell phone texting. And already, according to a new survey, 36% of smartphone owners report using messaging apps such as WhatsApp, Kik or iMessage, and 17% use apps that automatically delete sent messages such as Snapchat or Wickr. Both of these kinds of apps are particularly popular among young adults. Half (49%) of smartphone owners ages 18 to 29 use messaging apps, while 41% use apps that automatically delete sent messages. These apps are free, and when connected to Wi-Fi, they do not use up SMS (Short Messaging Service) or other data. Furthermore, they offer a more private kind of social interaction than traditional social media platforms such as Facebook or Twitter.”
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Daily Archives: August 24, 2015
Professor Latanya Sweeney Launches New Privacy and Technology Journa
EPIC – “Harvard Professor Dr. Latanya Sweeney has launched Technology Science, a new online journal for “original material dealing primarily with a social, political, personal, or organizational benefit or adverse consequence of technology.” Among other papers, Technology Science currently features research on Facebook Messenger’s geolocation collection and disclosure, medical privacy, and price discrimination in international… Continue Reading
Appeals Court Upholds FTC’s Data Security Authority
EPIC – “A federal appeals court ruled that the Federal Trade Commission can enforce data security standards. In FTC v. Wyndham, the agency sued Wyndham hotels after the company exposed financial data of hundreds of thousands of customers. The company argued that the FTC lacked authority to enforce security standards, but the court disagreed. EPIC… Continue Reading
FCW obtained official timeline of OPM data breach
FCW.com: “An official timeline of the Office of Personnel Management breach obtained by FCW pinpoints the hackers’ calibrated extraction of data and the government’s step-by-step response. It illuminates a sequence of events that lawmakers have struggled to pin down in public hearings with Obama administration officials. The timeline makes clear that the heist of data… Continue Reading
College Guide Best Bang for the Buck – Northeast Rankings
Via Washington Monthly: “Welcome to the Best Bang for the Buck rankings [402 colleges] from the book The Other College Guide: A Roadmap for the Right School for You. The chart [on the site] shows you which schools in the Northeast are the best value for your money based on “net” (not sticker) price, how… Continue Reading
Do We Know What We Owe? Consumer Debt as Reported By Borrowers And Lenders
News release: “A new Federal Reserve Bank of New York study finds a striking level of accuracy in the correspondence between debt-holding patterns implied by the borrower-reported Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF) and the lender-reported Consumer Credit Panel (CCP). Some exceptions do exist, and chief among them is credit card debt, which appears to be… Continue Reading
Mandatory Minimum Sentencing: Federal Aggravated Identity Theft
CRS report vai FAS – Mandatory Minimum Sentencing: Federal Aggravated Identity Theft – Charles Doyle, Senior Specialist in American Public Law. August 20, 2015. “Aggravated identity theft is punishable by a mandatory minimum sentence of imprisonment for two years or by imprisonment for five years if it relates to a terrorism offense. At least thus… Continue Reading
Intelligence Community and Its Use of Contractors: Congressional Oversight Issues
CRS via FAS – The Intelligence Community and Its Use of Contractors: Congressional Oversight Issue. L. Elaine Halchin, Specialist in American National Government. August 18, 2015. “Contractors have been and are an integral part of the intelligence community’s (IC’s) total workforce (which also includes federal employees and military personnel). Yet questions have been raised regarding… Continue Reading
App adds features to Westlaw and Lexis – makes legal research faster and easier
Bestlaw, a robot for legal research [via Bob Ambrogi] “Features – When you read a document—like a case, statute, or law review article—Bestlaw adds a toolbar with these features: Copy a perfect Bluebook citation with one click Read documents in a clean, readable view with beautiful typography Prevent getting automatically signed off Collapse and expand statutory… Continue Reading
Study – Estimates of Pain Prevalence and Severity in Adults: United States 2012
Journal of Pain – Richard L. Nahin – National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland. Published Online: May 28, 2015. Highlights 2012 estimates of pain prevalence and severity are presented for U.S. adults. A simple, 2-item measure for categorizing pain severity is introduced. Pain persistence and bothersomeness designate 5… Continue Reading
GPO and National Archives Make eCFR available for bulk download in XML
“The U.S. Government Publishing Office (GPO) partners with the National Archives’ Office of the Federal Register (OFR) to make the electronic Code of Federal Regulations (eCFR) available in XML format for bulk data download from GPO’s Federal Digital System (FDsys). OFR provides eCFR files to GPO and then GPO converts files into XML. The eCFR… Continue Reading
