“Online misinformation is rampant. At the same time, the supply of factual and well-sourced knowledge has never been greater nor easier to access. Gigafact’s goal is to empower credible sources to counter the unsupported claims that are undermining democratic society, and provide a process for rebuilding our factual foundations. We believe that fact checks published… Continue Reading
Accurate, Focused Research on Law, Technology and Knowledge Discovery Since 2002
Category Archives: Civil Liberties
Ring Will No Longer Facilitate Police Requests for Footage from Users
EFF: “Amazon’s Ring has announced that it will no longer facilitate police’s warrantless requests for footage from Ring users. This is a victory in a long fight, not just against blanket police surveillance, but also against a culture in which private, for-profit companies build special tools to allow law enforcement to more easily access companies’… Continue Reading
Cops Used DNA to Predict a Suspect’s Face and Tried to Run Facial Recognition on It
Wired – [read free]: “Police around the US say they’re justified to run DNA-generated 3D models of faces through facial recognition tools to help crack cold cases. Everyone but the cops thinks that’s a bad idea…In a controversial 2017 decision, the department published the predicted face in an attempt to solicit tips from the public.… Continue Reading
Facial Recognition Technology Current Capabilities, Future Prospects, and Governance
National Academies: “Advances in Facial Recognition Technology Have Outpaced Laws, Regulations; New Report Recommends Federal Government Take Action on Privacy, Equity, and Civil Liberties Concerns. Some uses of facial recognition technology raise significant concerns that merit a swift government response, says a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. The report… Continue Reading
How Many of Your State’s Lawmakers Are Women?
ProPublica – If You Live in the Southeast, It Could Be Just 1 in 5. A record number of women were elected to statehouses last year. But in the Southeast, where some legislatures are more than 80% male, representation is lagging as lawmakers pass bills that most impact women, like near-total abortion bans… Seven states,… Continue Reading
Tools for Thinking About Censorship
Ex Urbe: “Was it a government action, or did they do it themselves because of pressure?” This is inevitably among our first questions when news breaks that any expressive work (a book, film, news story, blog post etc.) has been censored or suppressed by the company or group trusted with it (a publisher, a film… Continue Reading
New Digital Tool Provides State-by-State Analysis of High Court Rulings on Abortion
Center for Reproductive Rights: “Since the U.S. Supreme Court eliminated the federal constitutional right to abortion in its 2022 ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, states have become the battlegrounds for abortion rights. State courts are deciding whether and how their own constitutions protect abortion rights, some for the first time. Plus, voters… Continue Reading
Is AI Friend or Foe: Legal Implications of Rapid Artificial Intelligence Adoption
Conklin, Michael, Is AI Friend or Foe: Legal Implications of Rapid Artificial Intelligence Adoption (April 25, 2023). Michael Conklin, Is AI Friend or Foe: Legal Implications of Rapid Artificial Intelligence Adoption, 26 ATLANTIC L.J. ___ (forthcoming 2023). , Available at SSRN: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4429539 “The term “artificial intelligence” (hereinafter “AI”) was coined in the 1950s and has… Continue Reading
NYC Public School Wipes Israel from the Map
The Free Press: “The poster at Brooklyn’s PS 261, where young students are taught ‘Arab Culture Arts,’ is part of a program funded by the Qatar Foundation. A New York City public school is being accused of “Jewish erasure” after a map from one of its classrooms surfaced showing all the countries of the Middle… Continue Reading
Legal Petition to Treasury Department Aims to Limit Imports from Key Seafood Companies Tied to Forced Labor
Ian Urbina – The Outlaw Ocean Project: “Shortly after we published our investigation globally, officials from several federal agencies asked if we might consider molding our findings into a formal legal petition under the Global Magnitsky Act. We agreed and recruited help from lawyers with an NGO called the Human Rights Foundation (HRF), which has… Continue Reading
EFF Unveils Its New Street Level Surveillance Hub
“The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) today unveiled its new Street Level Surveillance hub, a standalone website featuring expanded and updated content on various technologies that law enforcement agencies commonly use to invade Americans’ privacy. The hub has new or updated pages on automated license plate readers, biometric surveillance, body-worn cameras, camera networks, cell-site simulators, drones… Continue Reading
Protecting Students from Faulty Software and Legislation: 2023 Year in Review
EFF: “Lawmakers, schools districts, educational technology companies and others keep rolling out legislation and software that threatens students’ privacy, free speech, and access to social media, in the name of “protecting” children. At EFF, we fought back against this overreach and demand accountability and transparency. Bad bills and invasive monitoring systems, though sometimes well-meaning, hurt… Continue Reading
