Data collection is big business in the US, but a bipartisan data privacy bill rapidly moving through Congress promises to affect the information websites, social media platforms and all other businesses collect.
The future of our cities is being redrawn.
Alex Yuzhakov/Shutterstock
Cyberattacks demanding ransoms for the release of information are on the rise. To determine if they should pay, businesses need to think about how they would react in such a scenario.
As material objects, diaries give scholars an intimate look into their subjects’ lives, including handwriting and mementos. What if diaries in the future are nothing but insubstantial digital ghosts?
Child Q’s case prompted protests across the borough of Hackney, where her school is.
SOPA Images Limited | Alamy
Strip-searches are rarely a matter of public debate in the UK. Raw data – and the impact known from research in other jurisdictions – suggests though that they should be.
Video cameras on city streets are only the most visible way your movements can be tracked.
AP Photo/Mel Evans
Digital twins could be used in the future to predict and influence our behaviour, but this raises concerns about who owns our data and how we can access and control it.
“Hackathons” can imply breaching security and privacy. To more accurately reflect their creative and constructive intent, they can be referred to instead as “datathons” or “code fests.”
Virtual assistants are becoming a more common household fixture, and many children are growing up and interacting with them.
(Shutterstock)
My research shows how urban design can make it harder for women in some countries to make sustainable choices.
Social media is flush with advice urging non-menstruating people to use period tracking apps in order to trip up the apps’ algorithms.
Westend61 via Getty Images
It would take huge numbers of people submitting bad data to affect the algorithms behind period tracking apps, but even then it would be more harmful than helpful.
Cookie notifications become a ubiquitous aspect of online life.
Mohssen Assanimoghaddam/picture alliance via Getty Images
How we get the balance right between using social media to hold people to account versus the risk of invading people’s privacy depends on the context, of course, and is ultimately about power.
Users don’t expect that a more convenient way to get coffee will lead to privacy violations.
(Shutterstock)
The Tim Hortons consumer app was found to have collected detailed user information, including location data. As a privacy violation, this challenges perception of Tim Hortons as a trusted brand.
Who’s allowed to watch what you do and say?
Shannon Fagan/The Image Bank via Getty Images
The Supreme Court has found protections for people’s privacy in several constitutional amendments – and used it as a basis for some pretty fundamental protections.