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Texas AG Sues GM for Unlawfully Collecting Drivers’ Private Data and Selling It To Several Companies, Including Insurance Companies

“Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued General Motors for its false, deceptive, and misleading business practices related to its unlawful collection and sale of over 1.5 million Texans’ private driving data to insurance companies without their knowledge or consent. This action follows Attorney General Paxton’s June 2024 announcement that he opened an investigation into several car …

Subjects: E-Records, Government Documents, Legal Research, Privacy, Transportation

Washing clothes with synthetic materials is the single greatest contributor to ocean microplastics

Washington Post – Sustainability experts say to avoid fabrics that blend natural and synthetic materials. [unpatwalled] “…Compared to 100% natural fibers or other biodegradable materials such as viscose, or rayon, which is made from a wood-like fiber, blended synthetic fabrics can be more durable and withstand more stress. They can also feel softer and smoother, …

Subjects: Climate Change, E-Commerce, Energy, Environmental Law

US government wants to make it easier for you to click the ‘unsubscribe’ button

“Today, President Biden and Vice President Harris are launching “Time Is Money,” a new governmentwide effort to crack down on all the ways that corporations—through excessive paperwork, hold times, and general aggravation—add unnecessary headaches and hassles to people’s days and degrade their quality of life. Americans are tired of being played for suckers, and President …

Subjects: E-Commerce, E-Mail, E-Records, Economy, Privacy

Website finds cheap knockoffs of pricey designer furniture

Boing Boing: “Do you desire a Noguchi coffee table or an Eames Lounger but don’t feel like spending thousands of dollars on the real thing? A website called Dupe helps find reproductions at a fraction of the cost. It even has a plug-in to make it easy to shop for knock-offs.”

Subjects: E-Commerce

Figures and insights from Harvard Undergraduate Survey on Generative AI

Harvard Undergraduate Survey on Generative AI – Shikoh Hirabayashi, Rishab Jain, Nikola Jurković, Gabriel Wu. “How has generative AI impacted the experiences of college students? We study the influence of AI on the study habits, class choices, and career prospects of Harvard undergraduates (n=326), finding that almost 90% of students use generative AI. For roughly …

Subjects: AI, Economy, Education, Internet, Knowledge Management

Who Has Your Face

EFF – Who Has Your Face – “Law enforcement and government agencies have access to over 641 million photos for facial recognition purposes—photos of more than half of Americans. Knowing which agencies can access these images is necessary to fight back against this invasion of privacy. Learn more below. Table of Contents State Licenses/IDs Passports, …

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

How to Turn Off AI Overview Results in Your Google Searches

How to Geek – “Have you been scrolling through Google settings looking for the button that turns off AI overviews in search? I tried it too and learned two things. First, there’s no official way to disable AI overviews. Luckily, there are workarounds to get rid of those experimental search results on Google. Google Doesn’t …

Subjects: AI, E-Mail, E-Records, Internet, Privacy

De-Google your life: How to delete all photos from Google Photos

Proton Blog: “Using Google Photos to store and share your pictures means allowing the company to see, analyze, and process them. Many people concerned about their privacy have taken steps to move away from the Google ecosystem, despite the company’s efforts to hide its surveillance-based business model. Apart from privacy concerns, Google made promises about …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Cybercrime, Cybersecurity, Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Privacy, Search Engines, Social Media

In November 2024, everything is at stake

“The cornerstone of democracy rests on the foundation of an educated electorate. That’s a quote from Thomas Jefferson, and it’s super-relevant to our situation today. Our schools aren’t doing enough to create an educated electorate, and most of our journalists are doing a terrible job. This is terrifying, because the 2024 elections could be the …

Subjects: Censorship, Civil Liberties, Congress, Courts, Free Speech, Freedom of Information, Government Documents, Health Care, Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Privacy, Social Media

Thousands of Corporate Secrets Were Left Exposed. This Guy Found Them All

Wired – Security researcher Bill Demirkapi found more than 15,000 hardcoded secrets and 66,000 vulnerable websites—all by searching overlooked data sources [unpaywalled]: “If you know where to look, plenty of secrets can be found online. Since the fall of 2021, independent security researcher Bill Demirkapi has been building ways to tap into huge data sources, …

Subjects: Cybercrime, Cybersecurity, E-Mail, E-Records, Economy, Financial System, Legal Research, Privacy

Mainframes Find New Life in AI Era

WSJ via MSN: “Banks, insurance providers and airlines still find uses, including artificial intelligence, for the large computers that have been around for decades The industrial-strength mainframe computer, invented decades ago for heavy-duty data processing, is proving its staying power even as next-generation artificial intelligence takes center stage. The two are interconnected: Banks, insurance providers …

Subjects: AI, Economy, Energy, Financial System, Knowledge Management

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