Below you will find pages that utilize the taxonomy term “privacy”
new publication: Canvas and student privacy awareness
- kudos:For the past couple of years, my colleague Dr. Meghan Dowell and I have been working on a paper on students’ awareness of what data the Canvas learning management system collects (and subsequently makes available to certain stakeholders). I’m a fan of Nick Proferes’s paper [Information Flow Solipsism in an Exploratory Study of Beliefs About Twitter] and have long wanted to do something similar related to LMSs. This is even more Meghan’s area of specialty than mine, though, so I was grateful that she was also interested in the subject and took the lead in turning this idea into reality.
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Duolingo is one of those apps I really loved once but now can’t see as anything but creepy adware. It’s hard to complain when it’s teaching kiddo more French than I ever managed to, but I still worry I’ve sold her soul to that little green owl.
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Someone Made a Dataset of One Million Bluesky Posts for 'Machine Learning Research''
- kudos:It’s uncomfortable for me to think about how close my “digital traces” research is to surveillance and YOLO data mining. link to “Someone Made a Dataset of One Million Bluesky Posts for ‘Machine Learning Research’”
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“Your browser settings are preventing an optimal experience with Microsoft 365.” Yes, and that’s how I know they’re set up properly.
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Fitness app Strava gives away location of Biden, Trump and other leaders, French newspaper says'
- kudos:I stopped using Strava over five years ago when the stories were about secret military bases being identified through the service were coming out. link to “Fitness app Strava gives away location of Biden, Trump and other leaders, French newspaper says”
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'The Real Monsters of Street Level Surveillance'
- kudos:This is cute, but also Ring doorbells are seriously the thing that scares me most on Halloween. link to “The Real Monsters of Street Level Surveillance”
📚 bookblog: ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ for Vigilant, by Cory Doctorow
- kudos:Cory Doctorow taking on Proctorio by proxy is such a delight. This story on how dumb proctoring software is, how it could be beat technically, and how it needs to be beat politically ought to be required reading for everyone in ed tech. It also has compelling characters, enough food porn to remind you who the author is, some fun technical asides (learned a lot about WannaCry!), and is just fun.
📚 bookblog: ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ for Dark Wire: The Incredible True Story of the Biggest Sting Operation Ever, by Joseph Cox
- kudos:This is the story of when the FBI ran an encrypted phone company marketed to criminals. Working with Australian Federal Police and European partners, they had a glimpse into gangsters’ and drug dealers’ conversations for years before they wrapped it up with a series of worldwide arrests. It’s a wild story that sounds like fiction but happens to be true. In fact, that’s Cory Doctorow’s blurb on the back—his recommendation on his blog is what got me to check this out.
surveillance (but not accountability) in school acceptable use policies
- kudos:It’s that time of year (again) for signing the acceptable use policy for kiddo’s school, and I’m again grumpy about a lot of the details in here. Some of these details are me being a nitpicky academic, like the use of the word “technology” to refer to digital technologies alone. Others strike me as more serious, though. Let’s take a look at this paragraph, listed under a “Roles and Responsibilities of Parents/Guardians” header:
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Amazon-Powered AI Cameras Used To Detect Emotions of Unwitting UK Train Passengers - Slashdot'
- kudos:This sucks on so many levels. link to “Amazon-Powered AI Cameras Used To Detect Emotions of Unwitting UK Train Passengers - Slashdot”
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'As The US Freaks Out About TikTok, It’s Revealed That The CIA Was Using Chinese Social Media To Try To Undermine The Gov’t There'
- kudos:Oh, so the moral panic is hypocritical, too. link to “As The US Freaks Out About TikTok, It’s Revealed That The CIA Was Using Chinese Social Media To Try To Undermine The Gov’t There”
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'N.S.A. Buys Americans’ Internet Data Without Warrants, Letter Says - The New York Times'
- kudos:Well, this sucks. Appreciate Ron Wyden’s diligence in this area. Gift link. link to “N.S.A. Buys Americans’ Internet Data Without Warrants, Letter Says - The New York Times”
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Meta’s new AI image generator was trained on 1.1 billion Instagram and Facebook photos | Ars Technica'
- kudos:The phrase popped into my head before the article could even get to it: We are the product. link to “Meta’s new AI image generator was trained on 1.1 billion Instagram and Facebook photos | Ars Technica”
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'He Wanted Privacy. His College Gave Him None – The Markup'
- kudos:This is a really important read. It’s why educational technology researchers should be concerned about more than “does it improve learning?"—and why our understanding of edtech needs to include all of these platforms, not just the obvious stuff. link to “He Wanted Privacy. His College Gave Him None – The Markup”
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'AI chatbots can infer an alarming amount of info about you from your responses | Ars Technica'
- kudos:Welp, this is scary. link to “AI chatbots can infer an alarming amount of info about you from your responses | Ars Technica”
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Amazon’s ‘Neighborhood Watch’ Might Be Turning Police Officers Into ‘Reddit Moderators’ – The Markup'
- kudos:Public-private surveillance is the worst of both worlds. Ring is creepy. link to “Amazon’s ‘Neighborhood Watch’ Might Be Turning Police Officers Into ‘Reddit Moderators’ – The Markup”
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Why a search engine that scans your face is dangerous : NPR'
- kudos:Facial recognition is the worst. link to “Why a search engine that scans your face is dangerous : NPR”
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Reddit will no longer allow users to opt out of ad personalization - The Verge'
- kudos:It baffles me when platforms think “oh, but we can help you see more relevant ads” is a selling point. Also, “not sharing data outside Reddit” doesn’t help either—it’s still an invasion of privacy. link to “Reddit will no longer allow users to opt out of ad personalization - The Verge”
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Google gets its way, bakes a user-tracking ad platform directly into Chrome | Ars Technica'
- kudos:Team Firefox foreverrrrrr link to ‘Google gets its way, bakes a user-tracking ad platform directly into Chrome | Ars Technica’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on '*privacy not included | Shop smart and safe | Mozilla Foundation'
- kudos:Well, this sucks. [link to ‘*privacy not included | Shop smart and safe | Mozilla Foundation’](https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/privacynotincluded/articles/what-data-does-my-car-collect-about-me-and-where-does-it-go/
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I’m torn between how much I dislike the idea of a connected car and how easy it just now made it to get a question answered at the local dealer. I guess we wouldn’t agree to all this surveillance if it wasn’t actually useful sometimes.
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Meta May Offer Ad-Free Subscriptions for Instagram and Facebook in the E.U. - The New York Times'
- kudos:I’m in no way Team Meta, but this may not be a terrible thing? link to ‘Meta May Offer Ad-Free Subscriptions for Instagram and Facebook in the E.U. - The New York Times’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'You Are Not Responsible for Your Own Online Privacy | WIRED'
- kudos:Some important—if disheartening—observations from Marwick. link to ‘You Are Not Responsible for Your Own Online Privacy | WIRED’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Lexington KY police start using Fusus camera software | Lexington Herald Leader'
- kudos:Ew, gross, no. link to ‘Lexington KY police start using Fusus camera software | Lexington Herald Leader’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Generative AI Is Making Companies Even More Thirsty for Your Data | WIRED'
- kudos:This is not a future I look forward to (or a present I want to live in). link to ‘Generative AI Is Making Companies Even More Thirsty for Your Data | WIRED’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'JCPS approves $11.7M for AI weapons detection in schools'
- kudos:Guns in schools are bad, but adding surveillance to schools is not the solution. link to ‘JCPS approves $11.7M for AI weapons detection in schools’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Let the Platforms Burn: The Opposite of Good Fires is Wildfires | Cory Doctorow's craphound.com'
- kudos:Lots to appreciate here. link to ‘Let the Platforms Burn: The Opposite of Good Fires is Wildfires | Cory Doctorow’s craphound.com’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Why We Don’t Recommend Ring Cameras | WIRED'
- kudos:Hear hear. Ring is a creepy company, and we shouldn’t support them. link to ‘Why We Don’t Recommend Ring Cameras | WIRED’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Neighborhood Watch Out: Cops Are Incorporating Private Cameras Into Their Real-Time Surveillance Networks | Electronic Frontier Foundation'
- kudos:This sounds worrying to me. Surveillance can and will be abused, and we should be wary about embracing it on this scale. link to ‘Neighborhood Watch Out: Cops Are Incorporating Private Cameras Into Their Real-Time Surveillance Networks | Electronic Frontier Foundation’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Tesla employees reportedly passed around personal videos from owners’ cars - The Verge'
- kudos:I had never thought of a car as a creepy surveillance device, but this is horrifying. link to ‘Tesla employees reportedly passed around personal videos from owners’ cars - The Verge’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Podcast Episode: So You Think You’re A Critical Thinker | Electronic Frontier Foundation'
- kudos:I’ve enjoyed reading Alice Marwick’s work in the past, and I really enjoyed her appearance on the EFF’s podcast here. link to ‘Podcast Episode: So You Think You’re A Critical Thinker | Electronic Frontier Foundation’
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Venmo’s insistence that transactions be accompanied by notes makes me wonder what they’re doing with that data. For several months now, I’ve insisted on replacing any helpful indication with random characters.
📚 bookblog: ❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤 for Little Brother, by Cory Doctorow
- kudos:To my own surprise, I’ve been getting into audiobooks recently, and having listened to Doctorow’s “Walkaway,” I decided to revisit his Little Brother series in audio form. Parts of the first book haven’t aged well (including some language that was bad enough to be edited out of the print version I have), and while I enjoy Doctorow’s opinions, they sometimes overwhelm the story here. That said, to quote TVTropes, some anvils are worth dropping, and the messages about privacy, surveillance, and civil liberties are as relevant as ever, I don’t know if I enjoyed the book as much as I did my first time through, but I still like it enough to give it four hearts.
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'ChatGPT is a data privacy nightmare, and we ought to be concerned | Ars Technica'
- kudos:Important points in here. link to ‘ChatGPT is a data privacy nightmare, and we ought to be concerned | Ars Technica’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'People Can’t Stop ‘Spotify Snooping’ on Friends, Exes and Crushes - WSJ'
- kudos:This is dumb and gross, and another reason I’ll never use Spotify. link to ‘People Can’t Stop ‘Spotify Snooping’ on Friends, Exes and Crushes - WSJ’
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In the Canvas LMS main interface, it describes analytics reports as based on “near real-time data.” In documentation, it specifies that “near real-time” is “may be delayed by 40 hours.”