Press
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Digital shift opens door to ransomware attacks
"When a victim pays the ransom — typically in digital bitcoins — the thieves provide a digital key to unlock the system. Yet hackers who aren't motivat…
Privacy
Opinion: The ugliest side of facial recognition technology
It's no mystery that big data presents a challenge to privacy. But perhaps more alarming is the emergence of technology that combines facial recognition and…
Press
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A New Way to Report College Sexual Assault
"Collecting sexual assault reports online introduces some new concerns. Hackers could try to get access to the data, exposing the identities of both surviv…
Surveillance technology has advanced far beyond the laws that govern it
Ars Technica's Cyrus Farivar and Annalee Newitz spoke with UC Davis Law Professor Elizabeth Joh about the state and consequences of surveillance and data co…
Blog
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The Mandatory Emergency Disclosure Sinkhole Exception to the Email Privacy Act
The Email Privacy Act is moving forward in the Senate. S.356, which currently has 28 cosponsors, would require a warrant for stored content -- essentially codi…
Spying on Muslims is bad policy
During the presidential primary, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz suggested increased surveillance and policing of Muslim neighborhoods in the United States. This suggestion…
Press
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Safe or Good? We All Have Choices to Make
"In contrast, courts have not forced individuals to reveal the passcodes used to secure their mobile devices.[2] What gives? Albert Gidari, the director of…
Press
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Apple’s Touch ID rules may be designed to protect human rights
"I spoke to Geoffrey King, the technology program coordinator at the Committee to Protect Journalists, a group devoted to reducing the danger to reporters…
Online tracking: A 1-million-site measurement and analysis
Online tracking: A 1-million-site measurement and analysis is the largest and most detailed measurement of online tracking to date. We measure stateful (cookie-…
Press
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Huge new study shows that Google is watching you everywhere you go
"All of this might sound terrifying, but as assistant professor Arvind Narayanan and graduate student Steven Englehardt explain, the preeminence of Google,…
There Is No Such Thing as “Public” Data
Are you an OkCupid user? Would you consider the data on your profile public—fair game for anyone to download and share with the rest of the world? That’s the a…
Press
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Paying without passwords and PINs
Back in 2000, ING Direct Canada – the digital bank that became Tangerine Bank – piloted a “biometric” mouse that would scan users’ fingerprints to help bypass t…