Search Engine Journal – “Discover alternatives to the Wayback Machine for preserving website history and data. Explore web archives and their unique features for SEO, The internet is constantly changing, with websites appearing and disappearing and information being added or removed constantly. This makes it hard for people who study and analyze the internet or… Continue Reading
Accurate, Focused Research on Law, Technology and Knowledge Discovery Since 2002
Category Archives: Internet
Democracy Dies Behind Paywalls
The Atlantic [unpaywalled]- “The case for making journalism free—at least during the 2024 election…Paywalls create a two-tiered system: credible, fact-based information for people who are willing to pay for it, and murkier, less-reliable information for everyone else. Simply put, paywalls get in the way of informing the public, which is the mission of journalism. And… Continue Reading
How to Clean Your Laptop the Right Way
PCMag – Gunk happens! Here’s how to clean up your laptop’s act—from the top bezel to the bottom fan—without inflicting harm. (It’s easy, and you can use products you have around the house.) “Dust, coffee stains, oil from your fingertips, food particles, plain old grime: If your laptop shows any of those, it’s time to… Continue Reading
Thrift Stores Are a Goldmine for Geeky Buys
How to Geek: Here’s What I Look For, By Tim Brookes – Who doesn’t love a bargain? Thrift stores can hold hidden gems like video games, consoles, cameras, vinyl, and electronics. Be sure to check for unique items. Consider looking for rare items like collectible video game cartridges, cameras and lenses, and old PC parts… Continue Reading
Journalistic interventions matter: Understanding how Americans perceive fact-checking labels
Misinformation Review: “While algorithms and crowdsourcing have been increasingly used to debunk or label misinformation on social media, such tasks might be most effective when performed by professional fact checkers or journalists. Drawing on a national survey (N = 1,003), we found that U.S. adults evaluated fact-checking labels created by professional fact checkers as more… Continue Reading
New bill would try to make tools like Zoom and Teams work together securely
The Verge: “A new proposal from Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) would require videoconferencing and messaging tools used by the federal government to be able to communicate with each other, even if made by different companies. It would also enforce high security standards for government collaboration tools, including end-to-end encryption. The Secure and Interoperable Government Collaboration… Continue Reading
Tracking AI-enabled Misinformation
“To date, NewsGuard’s team has identified 794 Unreliable AI-Generated News and information websites, labeled “UAINS,” spanning 16 languages: Arabic, Chinese, Czech, Dutch, English, French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Tagalog, Thai, and Turkish. These websites typically have generic names, such as iBusiness Day, Ireland Top News, and Daily Time Update, which to a… Continue Reading
AP Study – AI is already reshaping newsrooms
“A new study from AP – Generative AI in Journalism: The Evolution of Newswork and Ethics in a Generative Information Ecosystem reveals that generative artificial intelligence is already reshaping newsroom roles and workflow. Nearly 70% of newsroom staffers from a variety of backgrounds and organizations surveyed in December say they’re using the technology for crafting… Continue Reading
How to Stop Your Data From Being Used to Train AI
Wired: “If you’ve ever posted something to the internet—a pithy tweet, a 2009 blog post, a scornful review, or a selfie on Instagram—it has most likely been slurped up and used to help train the current wave of generative AI. Large language models, like ChatGPT, and image creators are powered by vast reams of our… Continue Reading
How to Delete Your Google Account After Downloading All of Your Data First
Wired: “Deleting digital accounts that you rarely or never use not only reduces the amount of clutter in your online life—it keeps you safer too. Every extra account you’ve got is an extra target for a hacker, an extra database that might leak, and an extra way that someone might get access to some of… Continue Reading
Virtual Reality and the ‘Virtual Wall’
EFF: “When EFF set out to map surveillance technology along the U.S.-Mexico border, we weren’t exactly sure how to do it. We started with public records—procurement documents, environmental assessments, and the like—which allowed us to find the GPS coordinates of scores of towers. During a series of in-person trips, we were able to find even… Continue Reading
How to Get Past a Paywall to Read an Article for Free
Lifehacker: “Over the past several years, countless websites have added paywalls. If you want to read their articles, you have to sign up and pay a monthly subscription cost. Some sites have a “metered” paywall—meaning you can read a certain number of articles for free before they ask for money—and others have a hard paywall,… Continue Reading
