Author archives

As Internet enshittification marches on, here are some of the worst offenders

Ars Technica: “Two years ago, a Canadian writer named Cory Doctorow coined the phrase “enshittification” to describe the decay of online platforms. The word immediately set the Internet ablaze, as it captured the growing malaise regarding how almost everything about the web seemed to be getting worse. “It’s my theory explaining how the Internet was …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, E-Commerce, E-Records, Economy, Internet, Privacy

Bookshop.org enters the e-book arena, giving indie stores a new way to compete with Amazon

Salon: “Bookshop.org founder and CEO Andy Hunter joked that the e-books question has been the bane of his business’ social media manager’s existence for a while now. “Every day she has people ask her, ‘When are e-books coming? When are e-books coming?’” Now Bookshop has an answer. On Tuesday, it launched a new digital platform …

Subjects: E-Commerce, Economy, Internet, Knowledge Management, Libraries

Workers at NASA Told to ‘Drop Everything’ to Scrub Mentions of Indigenous People, Women from Its Websites

404 Media: “NASA personnel were told to “drop everything” to scrub public sites of mentions of DEI, indigenous people, environmental justice, and women in leadership, according to a directive obtained by 404 Media. The directive, sent on January 22 and obtained by 404 Media, states:“Per NASA HQ direction, we are required to scrub mentions of …

Subjects: Censorship, Civil Liberties, Climate Change, E-Government, E-Records, Environmental Law, Government Documents, Knowledge Management, Legal Research

New OPM Memo – Legality of Deferred Resignation Program

New OPM Memorandum – RE: Legality of Deferred Resignation Program – To Heads and Acting Heads of Departments and Agencies, FROM: Charles Ezell, Acting Director, U.S. Office of Personnel Management, Andrew Kloster, General Counsel, U.S. Office of Personnel Management. DATE: February 4, 2025.  “On Tuesday, January 28, 2025, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (“OPM”) …

Subjects: Government Documents, Legal Research

CFPB halts work after Trump appoints Bessent as acting head

Washington Post [unpaywalled]: “The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau halted much of its work to investigate and penalize corporate wrongdoing Monday, after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent — tapped to lead the watchdog on an acting basis — ordered an agency-wide review to “promote consistency” with the new Trump administration. Shortly after assuming the post, Bessent and …

Subjects: Congress, Economy, Financial System, Legal Research, Legislation, Privacy

Heads Up for Government Employees – How Elon Musk Says He Catches Leakers at His Companies

This Intercept article is from December 2022 but has all the hallmarks of what Musk and DOGE are now perpetrating within our federal government agencies, using OPM, GSA and Treasury’s massive databases of fiscal,  financial data and PII, on all Americans. …To begin with, a wide array of document watermarking measures can identify the source …

Subjects: Censorship, Civil Liberties, E-Mail, E-Records, Privacy

OpenAI’s ‘Deep Research’ Gives Students a Whole New Way to Cheat on Papers

Gizmodo: “Very few former students can claim they never wrote a last-minute research paper the night before it was due. AI tools are already giving students all new ways to fake their papers. Now, OpenAI’s new “Deep Research” tool seems perfectly designed to help students fake their way through a term paper unless asked to cite …

Subjects: AI, Education, Knowledge Management, Search Engines