How to Prepare for Your Digital Afterlife

The New York Times/unpaywalled: “How do you want your social media pages, smartphone photos and computer files handled after you die? While property and money distribution are usually at the top of the estate-planning list, don’t forget to leave instructions regarding your digital accounts and assets — so your survivors are left with more than …

Subjects: Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Privacy, Social Media

The SAVE Act Would Disenfranchise Millions of Citizens

CAP: “The Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act has been reintroduced in the U.S. House of Representatives. This legislation would require all Americans to prove their citizenship status by presenting documentation—in person—when registering to vote or updating their voter registration information. Specifically, the legislation would require the vast majority of Americans to rely on a …

Subjects: Censorship, Civil Liberties, Government Documents, Legal Research, Legislation

Data Rescue Project

Data Rescue Project – There are many individuals, organizations, and community-based resources that document and assist with rescuing efforts. Below is the list of tools, data sources, library guides, and articles we are aware of and their associated scopes. This list was developed from the original Data Rescue Google Doc. Please email suggestions to [email protected]. …

Subjects: Censorship, Congress, E-Government, Economy, Education, Financial System, Health Care, Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Libraries

The Best AI-Free, Encrypted Alternatives to Google Docs

Lifehacker: “Face it: with the competition spending hundreds of millions of dollars on it, Google’s recent foray into AI isn’t going to stop anytime soon. While you can hide Google Workspace’s Gemini buttons and prompts for now, you can’t actually stop the company from continuing to build its apps around a technology that revolves around …

Subjects: AI, E-Records, Internet, Knowledge Management, Privacy

The Venn Diagram of Trump’s Authoritarian Actions

Kottke.org:  Professor Christina Pagel of University College London has mapped the actions of the Trump administration’s first few weeks into a Venn diagram (above) with “five broad domains that correspond to features of proto-authoritarian states”: Undermining Democratic Institutions & Rule of Law; Dismantling federal government Dismantling Social Protections & Rights; Enrichment & Corruption Suppressing Dissent …

Subjects: Censorship, Civil Liberties, Climate Change, Congress, Courts, E-Government, Education, Government Documents, Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research

Federal workers say they increasingly distrust platforms like Facebook

The Verge: “As Elon Musk and President Donald Trump have sought to gut and remake the federal government to their liking, federal workers have changed how they communicate with one another and with friends. They have locked down communication channels, migrated to new platforms, and what was once skepticism has grown into deep distrust — …

Subjects: Censorship, Civil Liberties, E-Records, Economy, Financial System, Health Care, Internet, Knowledge Management, Privacy, Social Media

Condé Nast, other news orgs say AI firm stole articles, spit out “hallucinations”

Ars Technica: “Condé Nast and several other media companies sued the AI startup Cohere today, alleging that it engaged in “systematic copyright and trademark infringement” by using news articles to train its large language model. “Without permission or compensation, Cohere uses scraped copies of our articles, through training, real-time use, and in outputs, to power …

Subjects: AI, Copyright, Digital Rights, Government Documents, Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Legislation

Metals in Wildfire Suppressants

Metals in Wildfire Suppressants. Marella H. Schammel, Samantha J. Gold, and Daniel L. McCurry. Environ. Sci. Technol. Lett. 2024, 11, 11, 1247-1253. Open Access Publication Date (Web): October 30, 2024. Pages 1136-1259. ABSTRACT: Frequent and severe wildfires have led to increased application of fire suppression products (long-term fire retardants, water enhancers, and Class A foams) …

Subjects: Climate Change, Energy, Environmental Law, Food and Nutrition

Bluesky Now Has Its Own Version of TikTok

Lifehacker: “Bluesky is setting itself up to be a social media jack of all trades. There’s the main experience, of course, which replaces something like X or Threads. But it’s not all about the text posts: Soon, you’ll be able to use an app like Flashes to transform Bluesky into a kind of Instagram. Before …

Subjects: Social Media

Google’s Gemini AI recorded meetings without consent

IT Brew: “Federal agencies are having a Rear Window moment, but they don’t know who’s behind the binoculars.On Jan. 15, Google began rolling out an update to its Workspace utility suite that turned on its AI assistant, Gemini. For some companies—including Morning Brew—this update arrived without warning and required IT staff to disable the feature. …

Subjects: AI

USAspending Data Sources and SAM.gov

“USAspending.gov links data from many government systems, including agency financial systems and governmentwide award systems. Scroll below to learn more about these systems, as well as the context for this historic initiative to provide federal spending transparency.” Try searching for contracts by vendor name such as AWS, Inc., Space Exploration Technologies Corp., Tesla Laboratories, Inc. …

Subjects: Defense, E-Government, E-Records, Economy, Financial System, Government Documents, Legal Research