Author archives

Public records data must be off-limits for AI

The Hill – “Companies are looking for innovative ways to collect data to feed their data-hungry artificial intelligence systems and create innovative applications. Fortunately, some do not have to go too far. Then, there are the companies that collect data from public records to share on the internet and run analytics. There are many compelling …

Subjects: AI, E-Records, Economy, Financial System, Government Documents, Legal Research

OpenAI says its latest GPT-4o model is ‘medium’ risk

The Verge: “OpenAI has released its GPT-4o System Card, a research document that outlines the safety measures and risk evaluations the startup conducted before releasing its latest model. GPT-4o was launched publicly in May of this year. Before its debut, OpenAI used an external group of red teamers, or security experts trying to find weaknesses …

Subjects: AI, Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Privacy

It’s not worth paying to be removed from people-finder sites

Ars Technica: “If you’ve searched your name online in the last few years, you know what’s out there, and it’s bad. Alternately, you’ve seen the lowest-common-denominator ads begging you to search out people from your past to see what crimes are on their record. People-search sites are a gross loophole in the public records system, …

Subjects: Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Legislation, Privacy, Search Engines

Artificial Intelligence Impacts on Privacy Law

Rand Research Published Aug 8, 2024 -“The European Union (EU)’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) Act is a landmark piece of legislation that lays out a detailed and wide-ranging framework for the comprehensive regulation of AI deployment in the European Union covering the development, testing, and use of AI. This is one of several reports intended to …

Subjects: AI, Education, Government Documents, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Legislation, Privacy

How to protect your college laptop: A student’s guide to cybersecurity

PCWorld: “Security is essential for any laptop, whether you’re on a college laptop, a gaming laptop, or especially a business laptop. But college laptops face unique challenges. For example, if you’re a student and you’re connecting your own laptop to your school’s network — perhaps in a dorm — then you should really be using …

Subjects: Cybercrime, Cybersecurity, E-Mail, E-Records, Internet, Privacy

Art auction sales

Data is Plural: “Kangsan Lee et al. have compiled a dataset of “34,200 auction sales records, including images, artists’ attributes, and market information, encompassing 590 living contemporary artists spanning 17 years (1996 to 2012) across 23 countries.” It includes the artist’s name, nationality, and birth year; the artwork’s name, year, medium, and dimensions; the auction …

Subjects: Internet, Marketing

Meme – Tim Walz Fixed Your Bicycle

Via Kottke – Tim Walz Fixed Your Bicycle – “Immediately after Tim Walz was announced as Kamala Harris’s VP pick, the memes started. Most zeroed in on Walz’s potent Midwestern dad energy; he’s the kind of guy who would help a neighbor fix a car, pick you up from the airport, or bring you some soup …

Subjects: Internet

You can upgrade your old PC to Windows 11

ZDNET – even if Microsoft says it’s ‘incompatible’ here’s how: “On October 14, 2025, Microsoft will stop delivering security updates to your Windows 10 PC unless you’re willing to pay an exorbitant price to join the Extended Security Updates program.  If you try to upgrade to Windows 11 on a PC over a few years …

Subjects: Internet, Microsoft

Hackers Allegedly Steal Billions of Personal Records From Fla. Security Firm

PC Mag: “A little-known company in Florida allegedly lost records on 2.9 billion individuals to hackers, according to a class-action lawsuit. National Public Data specializes in background checks and fraud prevention. But the data it collects appears to have ended up in the hands of a hacking group called “USDoD.” It began selling access to …

Subjects: Cybercrime, Cybersecurity, Internet, Legal Research, Privacy

The world’s richest countries in 2024

The Economist [unpaywalled]: “Sorting countries into rich and poor can be difficult. Measures such as GDP are affected by population size (more people generally mean more output). But adjusting for population alone is not enough. Dollar income per person does not account for differences in prices between countries (a Big Mac, for example, will set …

Subjects: Economy, Financial System