Author archives

DOGE Threat: How Government Data Would Give an AI Company Extraordinary Power

Gizmodo: “The Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, has secured unprecedented access to at least seven sensitive federal databases, including those of the Internal Revenue Service and Social Security Administration. This access has sparked fears about cybersecurity vulnerabilities and privacy violations. Another concern has received far less attention: the potential use of the data to …

Subjects: Cybercrime, Cybersecurity, E-Government, E-Mail, E-Records, Financial System, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Privacy

How Government Data Would Give an AI Company Extraordinary Power

Gizmodo: “The Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, has secured unprecedented access to at least seven sensitive federal databases, including those of the Internal Revenue Service and Social Security Administration. This access has sparked fears about cybersecurity vulnerabilities and privacy violations. Another concern has received far less attention: the potential use of the data to …

Subjects: AI, E-Government, E-Records, Economy, Government Documents, Knowledge Management, Legal Research

Tracking the Ukraine war through graphs

War Wrapper: “Below are a series of charts showing how the control of territory has developed throughout the war, from the rapid advances by the Russian forces in the early days of the conflict to the counter-offensive operations by Ukraine to regain control of the lost territory. If you follow the war in Ukraine closely …

Subjects: Defense, Legal Research

Improved Public Access to CRS Reports on Congress.gov

“We are pleased to announce the new Congressional Research Service (CRS) products collection that is searchable within Congress.gov. CRS products include coveted CRS reports, testimony by CRS analysts, infographics, and more. Find descriptions for each CRS product type on our About Congressional Research Service (CRS) Products page. Public access to CRS products, which are produced …

Subjects: Congress, E-Records, Government Documents, Legal Research

DOGE Has Deployed Its GSAi Custom Chatbot for 1,500 Federal Workers

Wired – no paywall – “Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency has deployed a proprietary chatbot called GSAi to 1,500 federal workers at the General Services Administration, WIRED has confirmed. The move to automate tasks previously done by humans comes as DOGE continues its purge of the federal workforce. GSAi is meant to support …

Subjects: AI, Cybercrime, Cybersecurity, E-Government, E-Records, Knowledge Management, Privacy

Photos are disappearing, one archive at a time

Washington Post – no paywall: “Kira Pollack, a former editor at Time and Vanity Fair, is a distinguished fellow at the Starling Lab for Data Integrity, a research lab co-anchored by Stanford University’s School of Engineering and USC Libraries. When Hurricane Milton threatened Tampa last October, photojournalist Christopher Morris faced a familiar challenge: protecting his …

Subjects: Climate Change, Education, Environmental Law, Knowledge Management, Libraries

Military marks vast imagery database for DEI purge

“The Associated Press obtained a database of tens of thousands of Department of Defense website images that have been flagged for removal [scroll down to middle of this article is find and search the database], or already removed due to having content that highlighted diversity, equity or inclusion. Images highlighting female service members’ contributions have …

Subjects: Censorship, Civil Liberties, E-Government, Education, Government Documents, Knowledge Management, Legal Research

National Cancer Institute Employees Can’t Publish Information on These Topics Without Special Approval

ProPublica: “Employees at the National Cancer Institute, which is part of the National Institutes of Health, received internal guidance last week to flag manuscripts, presentations or other communications for scrutiny if they addressed “controversial, high profile, or sensitive” topics. Among the 23 hot-button issues, according to internal records reviewed by ProPublica: vaccines, fluoride, peanut allergies, …

Subjects: Censorship, Civil Liberties, Education, Freedom of Information, Government Documents, Health Care, Legal Research

The Benefits of a Burner Number

WSJ via MSN: “Our digits have become one of the most valuable pieces of data. Just take a look at your texts: How many authentication codes, receipts, reminders or other business messages have you received lately? There are legitimate reasons to hand over your number. And then there are…more questionable applications. (Looking at you, “free” …

Subjects: E-Records, Internet, Legal Research, Privacy

These Words Are Disappearing in the New Trump Administration

The New York Times – unlocked: “As President Trump seeks to purge the federal government of “woke” initiatives, agencies have flagged hundreds of words to limit or avoid, according to a compilation of government documents…All presidential administrations change the language used in official communications to reflect their own policies. It is within their prerogative, as …

Subjects: Censorship, Civil Liberties, E-Government, Freedom of Information, Government Documents, Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research

Signal President Meredith Whittaker calls out agentic AI as having ‘profound’ security and privacy issues

TechCrunch: “Signal President Meredith Whittaker warned Friday that agentic AI could come with a risk to user privacy. Speaking onstage at the SXSW conference in Austin, Texas, the advocate for secure communications referred to the use of AI agents as “putting your brain in a jar,” and cautioned that this new paradigm of computing — where …

Subjects: AI, Economy, Financial System, Legal Research, Privacy, Search Engines