“Every minute of every day, everywhere on the planet, dozens of companies—largely unregulated, little scrutinized—are logging the movements of tens of millions of people with mobile phones and storing the information in gigantic data files.” These are the first lines of New York Times opinion editor Stuart A. Thompson’s recent co-authored piece “Twelve Million Phones, […]
Living with Big Tech
The internet is dominated by five companies: Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, and Microsoft. And it’s not just online—these giant tech companies are behind a lot of the smart devices collecting information about us every day, from Amazon Echo to robot vacuums to even “smart” toothbrushes that many consumers are bringing into their homes. Today on […]
The Dangers of ‘Doxxing’
“Doxxing,” based on the word “documents,” is the deliberate exposure of personal information on the internet. In the past several months,activists have used doxxing to expose neo-fascist activists who participated in race riots in Charlottesville, and to fuel protests against New York attorney Aaron Schlossberg for his online rant against Spanish-speakers. Are there ethical, or […]
Anonymity on the Internet: The TOR Network
In the wake of the ascension of Donald Trump to the Presidency of the United States, the Monday Eight O’Clock Buzz continues its series of interviews on internet privacy. Last week, we talked to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, who spoke about their efforts to harden servers, and encrypt e-mail accounts. Today, we hear from the […]
The FBI Wants Your Fingerprints
Have you ever been fingerprinted for a job, school or to obtain welfare benefits? Or used a retinal scanner to get through a security checkpoint? Or been somewhere where a surveillance camera is using facial recognition software? If so, there’s a chance the FBI has a copy of your biometric data in their Next Generation […]
Tenure & Sexting
How can we adapt norms of privacy and consent for new media? How can we distinguish between consensual sharing and the malicious distribution of a private image? Does sexting inevitably victimize young women? Listen to this edition of A Public Affair to find out more!
