Category «Civil Liberties»

Air Force taps Clearview AI to research face-identifying augmented reality glasses.

The New York Times: “The U.S. Air Force is looking into keeping its airfields safer with help from the facial recognition start-up Clearview AI. The Air Force Research Laboratory awarded Clearview $49,847 to research augmented reality glasses that could scan faces to help with security on bases. Bryan Ripple, a spokesman for the lab, described …

Subjects: AI, Civil Liberties, Legal Research, Privacy

It’s Not Just the IRS—the US Government Wants Your Selfies

Wired: “…More than 20 federal agencies, including the Social Security Administration, use a digital identity system called Login.gov run by the General Services Administration. It’s built on services from LexisNexis and can use selfies for account verification. The GSA’s director of technology transformation services Dave Zvenyach says facial recognition is being tested for fairness and accessibility and …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, E-Government, Government Documents, Legal Research, Privacy

Today is Data Privacy Day. Here’s what you need to do to secure your info

CNET: “There’s no shortage of made-up national holidays. Among the fabricated celebrations: Houseplant Appreciation Day, Irish Coffee Day and Bubble Wrap Day. However, there is one such holiday actually worth observing: Data Privacy Day, which happens to be today. It’s a good reminder to check up on the safety of your personal data. The holiday began …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, EU Data Protection, Government Documents, Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Privacy, Social Media

TikTok is confronting Holocaust misinformation but antisemitism persists

TechCrunch: “In honor of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, TikTok launched a portal on its Discover page this morning, intended to educate users about the historic catastrophe, as well as the ongoing threat of antisemitism. The platform also hosted a similar portal last year. When users navigate to the Discover page on the TikTok mobile app, …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Free Speech, Government Documents, Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Social Media

New Tracking Global Online Censorship Site Explains Content Moderation Practices and Impacts

EFF: “Content moderation has become a critical topic across the globe. Unfortunately, it can still be difficult for the average person to understand the processes that go into content moderation, much less how to appeal decisions that those platforms make to censor content or accounts. To help fill this gap, we’re launching a resource for …

Subjects: Censorship, Civil Liberties, Freedom of Information, Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research

Eurasia Group: Top Risks 2022

“Top Risks is Eurasia Group’s annual forecast of the political risks that are most likely to play out over the course of the year. This year’s report was published on 3 January 2022. As we enter 2022, the lack of global leadership that characterizes our G-Zero World is clearer than ever. That’s not a good …

Subjects: Censorship, Civil Liberties, Climate Change, Defense, Economy, Energy, Environmental Law, Free Speech, Government Documents, Internet, Knowledge Management

IRS Will Require Facial Recognition Scans to Access Your Taxes

Gizmodo: “Online tax filers will soon be required to submit a selfie to a third-party identity verification company using facial recognition tech in order to file their taxes or make IRS payments online. Starting this summer, users with an IRS.gov account will no longer be able to log in with a simple username and password. …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, E-Records, Government Documents, Legal Research, Privacy

1942 meeting document on organization and execution of “final solution”

Auschwitz Memorial: “20 January 1942 | A meeting was held in a villa in Berlin-Wannsee to discuss logistics and legal aspects of the operation of the extermination of Jews. This is a 29 page document from the #Wannsee conference protocol. Find documents here: https://ghwk.de/fileadmin/Reda” #NeverForget #AlwaysRemember #Holocaust

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Education, Government Documents, Knowledge Management

Fight Censorship! Updated Resources from the Office for Intellectual Freedom

The Office for Intellectual Freedom of the American Library Association: “Book challenges have been a hot topic in news and politics lately. The American Library Association (ALA) Executive Board and eight divisions recently released a statement affirming its opposition to widespread efforts to censor books in U.S. Schools. OIF has tracked 155 unique censorship incidents …

Subjects: Censorship, Civil Liberties, Education, Free Speech, Freedom of Information, Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Libraries

Martin Luther King Jr. said more than 35 words

Popular Information: “Martin Luther King Jr. wrote several books, delivered hundreds of speeches and sermons, and produced a massive quantity of documents and correspondence. The King Papers, a collection of King’s writings and published by the Martin Luther King Jr. Research and Education Institute at Stanford University, spans 14 volumes, each about 750 pages…” Our …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Education, Knowledge Management

Striking findings from 2021

Pew – “…here are some of Pew Research Center’s most striking research findings from the past year. These 15 findings cover subjects ranging from extreme weather to the COVID-19 pandemic and ongoing demographic shifts in the United States. And they represent just a small slice of the year’s full list of research publications…”

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Climate Change, Congress, Economy, Education, Environmental Law, Health Care

How democracy gets eroded – lessons from a Nixon expert

Via LLRX – How democracy gets eroded – lessons from a Nixon expert – Ken Hughes is a researcher with the Presidential Recordings Program of the University of Virginia’s Miller Center. Hughes argues that erosion in American democracy depends on the conspiracy theory, destructive and demonstrably false, that the 2020 election was stolen. As the …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Congress, Government Documents, Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Social Media