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Daily Archives: April 14, 2021

Opinion – Data Brokers Are a Threat to Democracy

Wired – “Unless the federal government steps up, the unchecked middlemen of surveillance capitalism will continue to harm our civil rights and national security…Enter the data brokerage industry, the multibillion dollar economy of selling consumers’ and citizens’ intimate details. Much of the privacy discourse has rightly pointed fingers at Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and TikTok, which collect users’ information directly. But a far broader ecosystem of buying up, licensing, selling, and sharing data exists around those platforms. Data brokerage firms are middlemen of surveillance capitalism—purchasing, aggregating, and repackaging data from a variety of other companies, all with the aim of selling or further distributing it. Data brokerage is a threat to democracy. Without robust national privacy safeguards, entire databases of citizen information are ready for purchase, whether to predatory loan companies, law enforcement agencies, or even malicious foreign actors. Federal privacy bills that don’t give sufficient attention to data brokerage will therefore fail to tackle an enormous portion of the data surveillance economy, and will leave civil rights, national security, and public-private boundaries vulnerable in the process. Large data brokers—like Acxiom, CoreLogic, and Epsilon—tout the detail of their data on millions or even billions of people. CoreLogic, for instance, advertises its real estate and property information on 99.9 percent of the US population. Acxiom promotes 11,000-plus “data attributes,” from auto loan information to travel preferences, on 2.5 billion people (all to help brands connect with people “ethically,” it adds). This level of data collection and aggregation enables remarkably specific profiling…”

How to keep your retirement investments gun-free

Mashable: “Despite a year-long pandemic in which Americans were asked to stay indoors, gun violence is on the rise in the United States. In 2020, almost 20,000 Americans died by gun violence, according to the nonprofit Gun Violence Archive (this number doesn’t include self-inflicted gun violence). The organization has already reported more than a hundred… Continue Reading

Better than the best password: How to use 2FA to improve your security

ZDNET – “You are one data breach away from having your entire online life turned upside down. The problem is passwords, which are hopelessly fragile ways to secure valuable resources. Don’t be lulled into a false sense of security by the belief that creating a longer, more complex, harder-to-guess password will somehow make you safer… Continue Reading

Online platforms: Economic and societal effects

European Parliamentary Research Service Report – Online platforms: Economic and societal effects: “Online platforms such as Google, Amazon, and Facebook play an increasingly central role in the economy and society. They operate as digital intermediaries across interconnected sectors and markets subject to network effects. These firms have grown to an unprecedented scale, propelled by data-driven… Continue Reading

The Environmental Protection Agency is cleaning up its image

The Verge – After years of turmoil, the EPA looks for a fresh start: “…Even though Trump’s term is over, the “brain drain” that the EPA has suffered for years could still pose real harm to the environment and people the agency is tasked with protecting. And after years of tumult at the agency, potential… Continue Reading

One in Five Still Shun Vaccine

“About 1 in 5 American adults remain unwilling to get the Covid vaccine, even as more people are getting the shot. The Monmouth University Poll also finds that President Joe Biden continues to get positive job ratings overall as well as high marks for his handling of the pandemic. Nearly half of the public feels… Continue Reading

The presence of Superfund sites as a determinant of life expectancy in the United States

Kiaghadi, A., Rifai, H.S. & Dawson, C.N. The presence of Superfund sites as a determinant of life expectancy in the United States. Nat Commun 12, 1947 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-22249-2: “Superfund sites could affect life expectancy (LE) via increasing the likelihood of exposure to toxic chemicals. Here, we assess to what extent such presence could alter the… Continue Reading

Domestic Terrorism Cases on the Rise in February Following January 6 Breach of Capitol

Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse  – “In February 2021, according to federal internal case-by-case records on prosecutions obtained after successful court litigation by TRAC, there were 57 prosecutions of domestic terrorism filed in the federal district courts. The majority of these prosecutions—54—were filed in the District of Columbia following the storming of the Capitol on January… Continue Reading