Accurate, Focused Research on Law, Technology and Knowledge Discovery With Daily Postings Since 2002
Science and Philosophy – Massimo Pigliucci: “As you might have noticed, we have been in the middle of a pandemic for about nine months now. There has been much talk, and much controversy, about what does and does not work to counter the spread of the covid-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) inducing agent, known as severe …
Search Engine Land – “The controversy around AI researcher Timnit Gebru’s exit from Google, and what biased language models may mean for the search industry. George Nguyen on December 29, 202 – Last year, Google announced BERT, calling it the largest change to its search system in nearly five years, and now, it powers almost …
Ars Technica – Phone calls. Web searches. Location tracks. Smart speaker requests. “…Data collected for one purpose can always be used for another. Search history data, for example, is collected to refine recommendation algorithms or build online profiles, not to catch criminals. Usually. Smart devices like speakers, TVs, and wearables keep such precise details of …
In Custodia Legis – “Earlier this month, Margaret shared the enhancements to the Congress.gov Help Center and additional Congresses added to our Bound Congressional Record collection. One of the behind-the-scenes items that we worked on for the latest release was to prepare Congress.gov for the new 117th Congress. We also have been working to make …
Via LLRX – Microsoft Edge Browser – New and Improved – Catherine (Sanders) Reach has run the latest version of Microsoft Edge through its paces, and identifies the browser’s useful features (including security and privacy) and collaborative tools that make it worthy of your review and perhaps – switching from Chrome.
Gizmodo – “When we ask who should take the rap for the decline of local news, most folks agree the blame partially lies on Google’s shoulders. The tech giant has spent the past decade systematically swallowing a larger and larger chunk of the digital ad market, diverting the dollars that outlets—particularly smaller outlets—desperately need. That’s …
Gizmodo – “YouTube’s copyright filter is a labyrinthine nightmare called Content ID. Content ID works by scanning all the videos on YouTube and comparing them to a database of material submitted by copyright holders—often music labels and movie and TV studios—which have been given the ability to add things to the database by YouTube. Once …
EPIC – [week of December 14, 2020]: “Two antitrust lawsuits were filed against Google by state Attorneys General. On Wednesday, Texas and eight other states filed a suit alleging anticompetitive conduct, exclusionary practices and deceptive misrepresentations in connection with Google’s role in advertising technology. “Google’s entire business model is to collect comprehensive data about every …
In Custodia Legis – [December 15, 2020] marks the last webinar of 2020 for the Law Library, but don’t fear! We have created a new webpage so that you will be able to enjoy a selection of our past presentations again and again! We have expanded our previous “webinar archive” to include many of our …
CRS report via LC – Tracking Federal Awards: USAspending.gov and Other Data Sources, Updated December 16, 2020: “USAspending.gov, available at https://www.USAspending.gov, is a government source for data on federal awards by state, congressional district (CD), county, city, and zip code. The awards data in USAspending.gov are provided by federal agencies and represent contracts, grants, loans, …
Open Library Blog: “At the Library Leaders Forum 2020 (demo), Open Library unveiled the beta for what it’s calling the Explorer: an immersive digital library which powerfully recreates and enhances the experience of navigating a physical library. If the tagline doesn’t grab your attention, wait until you see it in action. Get Ready to Explore …
Popular Science – You have the power to limit Google’s snooping. “It’s difficult to avoid Google apps, but using them doesn’t necessarily mean handing over all your data and online activity to the tech giant—you can still work within the Google ecosystem while maintaining a respectable level of privacy. Your options vary depending on the …
