Digital Discourse Database

Number of Posts: 38
Posts 31 - 38

Facebook says police can’t use its data for ‘surveillance’

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Newspaper | Washington Post
Date | 13.3.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | Facebook, law, politics, privacy
Summary | Though Facebook's biggest source of revenue is advertising, they do cooperate with police investigators on a case-to-case basis. The government however has the option to subject Facebook users to mass surveillance in case of a disaster. "Disaster" is not defined so this gray are enables the government to misuse privacy agreements with Facebook at any given moment.
Image Description | Hand holding magnifying glass against a wall of Facebook logos.
Image Tags | Facebook, hand(s), logo

Should You Spy on Your Kids?

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Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 9.11.2016
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | childhood, privacy, research/study, threat
Summary | Many parents now monitor their children's online and social media activity, regulate their internet access (or even texting abilities) through the night and school hours using sophisticated technology, a few even observe the movements of their children or partners by tracking their devices. While tracking each other's devices in a relationship can be useful to avoid texting while driving, such technology can also be exploited and result in an emotionally abusive relationship. This is especially risky when the monitoring is not mutual like when parents 'stalk' their children, danah boys says. It is impossible for children to learn media competency when they are constantly under surveillance, they become less reluctant to share social media passwords with their peers and can otherwise remain naïve when it comes to online safety because they have been shielded from everything growing up.
Image Description | A series of minimalistic illustrations of a woman with a smartphone leaving a trail (dotted line).
Image Tags | female(s), smartphone

For Millions of Immigrants, a Common Language: WhatsApp

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Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 21.12.2016
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | privacy, WhatsApp
Summary | WhatsApp is hugely popular in South America, Europe, India, Africa, and among the masses of refugees fleeing from the Middle East at the moment. It has transformed the refugee and immigrant experience, enabling people who are in a lonely, desperate situation in their lives to stay connected with their loved ones. Refugees use WhatsApp for strategic communication as well, to call for help or let their families know that they are safe, they can send photographs and make free calls provided they have access to WiFi. Their WhatsApp communication is also encrypted, making it safe for those moving through different countries without legal permission. Expats and immigrants can now partake in the daily lives of their friends and family back home by easily sending pictures back and forth and simply communicating more - something that was very expensive even a few years ago.
Image Description | GIF of a WhatsApp icon globe spinning around.
Image Tags | logo, WhatsApp

Finding Inspiration for Art in the Betrayal of Privacy

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Newspaper | New York Magazine
Date | 27.12.2016
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | privacy, threat
Summary | A collective of Berlin-based artists have opened an art exhibition in Manhattan reflecting present society's relationship with new technology and data privacy. Contemporary art concerned with technology is much more pessimistic than it used to be a decade or two ago. The initial optimism is gone and artists have begun to criticize the fact that what we base our sense of self on nowadays - social media - is owned by a handful of corporations and are geared towards mining our data and selling us products.
Image Description | Photo illustration by Adam Ferriss. Source photograph by Jean-Erick Pasquier/Gamma-Rapho, via Getty Images.
Image Tags | female(s)

Mattel's Aristotle is like an Amazon Echo for kids

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Newspaper | USA Today
Date | 3.1.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | artificial intelligence, childhood, digitized education, privacy
Summary | A new baby monitor by Mattel is enhanced with various affordances we know from chatbots: the monitor starts a lullaby when the baby wakes up or plays with older children, teaching them colors by asking them to name what color light they see or learning a new language and so on. The monitor called Aristotle reports all these things to the parents by means of smartphone notifications and also gives them suggestions on where to stock up on diapers. The developers are emphasize their high standards for child privacy security.
Image Description | Video about CES 2017 conference in Las Vegas.

LAPD's watchdog rolls out smartphone app to share more information with public

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Newspaper | Los Angeles Times
Date | 12.1.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | law, privacy
Summary | The LAPD has launched an app to keep citizens informed about local police matters without middle men. The app also enables users to file complaints or commendations about officers as well as direct them to the nearest police station. The LAPD decided to provide this service as a free app because many locals do not have home computers but most do have a smartphone.
Image Description | "Los Angeles police officers monitor the scene of a shooting in the Nickerson Gardens housing project in Watts last summer. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)"
Image Tags | female(s), male(s)

It's time to stamp out sexting: Teens will be teens, but parents must be parents

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Newspaper | Pittsburgh Post Gazette
Date | 11.4.2014
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | privacy, sexting, threat, youth
Summary | Cases of teenage sexting keep sprouting up across the country. One cannot blame the youths because they are inexperienced and hormonal. They do not realize that creation, posession, and distribution of nude images of themselves or their peers constituted a child pornography felony with serious ramifications. Many sexts go viral nowadays, which makes sexual recklessness today much more dangerous. Some victimized teenagers have commited suicide. Parents must monitor their children's activities on their smartphones to protect them from themselves. They have all right to do so since they are paying for their cell phone plans.
Image Description | Illustration of a girl looking at her phone not seeing that she is about to jump off of a ledge.
Image Tags | female(s), smartphone

WhatsApp Finally Adds Fully-Encrypted Video Calling Service

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Newspaper | Huffington Post
Date | 15.11.2016
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | privacy, WhatsApp
Summary | WhatsApp announced that it will soon be possible to have end-to-end encrypted video calls. Since WhatsApp has been acquired by Facebook, they have been able to use Facebook's huge infrastucture which enabled them to include online calls and now video calls, too. Users seem very worried about government surveillance, especially now that Donald Trump has been elected. WhatsApp still keeps dossiers of their users' contact lists and other meta-data but not of the content of their messages. Initially in the WhatsApp/Facebook merger, the companies ensured users that their data of the two platforms would not be connected but their privacy policy has recently changed, breaking this promise.
Image Description | Getty image of a hand holding an iPhone with just a huge WhatsApp icon on it. A video explaining the new adjustments to WhatsApp's user privacy policy.
Image Tags | hand(s), smartphone

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