British lawmakers on Wednesday gave a gift to every Facebook critic who has argued that the company, while branding itself as a do-gooder enterprise, has actually been acting much like any other profit-seeking behemoth. That gift was 250 pages’ worth of internal emails, in which Facebook’s executives are shown discussing […] Read more »
To Reduce Privacy Risks, the Census Plans to Report Less Accurate Data
When the Census Bureau gathered data in 2010, it made two promises. The form would be “quick and easy,” it said. And “your answers are protected by law.” But mathematical breakthroughs, easy access to more powerful computing, and widespread availability of large and varied public data sets have made the […] Read more »
Trump administration officials suggested sharing census responses with law enforcement, court documents show
Justice Department officials appeared to be considering ways to circumvent the confidentiality of census responses, according to documents filed Friday in a California legal challenge to adding a citizenship question to the decennial survey. CONT. Tara Bahrampour, Washington Post Read more »
For Sale: Survey Data on Millions of High School Students
Three thousand high school students from across the United States recently trekked to a university sports arena here to attend an event with an impressive-sounding name: the Congress of Future Science and Technology Leaders. … Through their schools, many students in the audience had taken a college-planning questionnaire, called MyCollegeOptions. […] Read more »
How Data Privacy Blunders and Conspiracy Theories Helped Fuel the ‘Techlash’
Smartphone addiction, data privacy blunders, and a growth-at-all costs mentality has led to public backlash against the tech industry that some refer to as “techlash.” That rising skepticism was the focus of heated debate at Fortune‘s Brainstorm Tech conference on Tuesday in Aspen, Colo. Is the tech industry good, bad—or […] Read more »
Genealogical Curiosity Is A Top Reason For DNA Tests; Privacy A Concern
… With the rise of genetic testing, we asked Americans about their attitudes toward it and experiences with it in the latest NPR-Truven Health Analytics Health Poll. The survey of more than 3,000 households conducted in December followed up on questions we asked in early 2016. First off, we found […] Read more »