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Daily Archives: July 18, 2021

Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, July 18, 2021

Via LLRX – Privacy and security issues impact every aspect of our lives – home, work, travel, education, health and medical records – to name but a few. On a weekly basis Pete Weiss highlights articles and information that focus on the increasingly complex and wide ranging ways technology is used to compromise and diminish our privacy and security, often without our situational awareness. Four highlights from this week: YouTube Algorithm Recommends Videos that Violate the Platform’s Very Own Policies; State Data Privacy Bills Growing More Widespread; NIST Outlines Security Measures for Software Use and Testing Under Executive Order; and State Data Privacy Bills Growing More Widespread.

Long-Withheld Office of Legal Counsel Records Reveal Agency’s Postwar Influence

Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University: “Documents released in our FOIA lawsuit for OLC legal opinions issued prior to 1994. This Reading Room contains all of the documents produced to date in Francis v. Dep’t of Justice, a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit the Knight Institute filed on behalf of five scholars, Campaign… Continue Reading

It’s not just bad behavior – why social media design makes it hard to have constructive disagreements online

Via LLRX – It’s not just bad behavior – why social media design makes it hard to have constructive disagreements online – Good-faith disagreements are a normal part of society and building strong relationships. Yet it’s difficult to engage in good-faith disagreements on the internet, and people reach less common ground online compared with face-to-face… Continue Reading

Majority of Covid misinformation came from 12 people, report finds

The Guardian: “The vast majority of Covid-19 anti-vaccine misinformation and conspiracy theories originated from just 12 people, a report by the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) cited by the White House this week found. CCDH, a UK/US non-profit and non-governmental organization, found in March that these 12 online personalities they dubbed the “disinformation dozen”… Continue Reading

How Fear of Government Surveillance Influences Our Behavior

Literary Hub: “If surveillance doesn’t make us act differently, explain this: The psychology department’s coffee room at Newcastle University in the United Kingdom offers coffee and tea on the honor system: users put their money in a box. The department decided to rotate different price list signs as part of a research study. One week… Continue Reading

How a ‘periodic table’ of animal intelligence could help to root out human bias

Aeon: “Over the past several decades, issues of animal rights have transformed from something of a niche cause to a mainstream concern in much of the world. It’s no coincidence that this increased consciousness has occurred amid a flurry of research detailing how nonhuman animals thrive, suffer, emote and process information in ways quite similar… Continue Reading

Forensic Methodology Report: How to catch NSO Group’s Pegasus

Amnesty International: “NSO Group claims that its Pegasus spyware is only used to “investigate terrorism and crime”  and “leaves no traces whatsoever”. This Forensic Methodology Report shows that neither of these statements are true. This report accompanies the release of the Pegasus Project, a collaborative investigation that involves more than 80 journalists from 17 media… Continue Reading