Communications of the ACM
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Peloton Vulnerability Found and Fixed
Researchers have discovered a vulnerability in Peloton stationary bicycles, one that would give the attacker complete control…
From Apophenia
The Muddled Speech of Numbers: Blood clots, COVID-19 vaccines, and statistical risk
Earlier this week, the CDC paused the roll-out of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccination after 6 women experienced serious blood clots. Their caution has merit...
From Apophenia
Behind every algorithm, there be politics.
In my first class in computer science, I was taught that an algorithm is simply a way of expressing formal rules given to a computer. Computers like rules. They...
From Apophenia
The US Federal Government Needs a VP of Engineering, not a CTO
If you look at the roster of the Biden-Harris transition team, it’s quickly apparent that the incoming administration is tech-forward. Given the systematic dismantlement...
From Apophenia
Teens Are Addicted to Socializing, Not Screens
Screenagers in the time of coronavirus. (This was originally written for OneZero.) If you’re a parent trying to corral your children into attending “school” online...
From Apophenia
Joyfully Geeking Out
In 2015, I was invited to join the Commerce Department’s Data Advisory Council. Truth be told, I was kinda oblivious to what this was all about. I didn’t know much...
From Apophenia
Facing the Great Reckoning Head-On
I was recently honored by the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Alongside Oakland Privacy and William Gibson, I received a 2019 Barlow/Pioneer Award. I was asked...
From Apophenia
Agnotology and Epistemological Fragmentation
On April 17, 2019, I gave a talk at the Digital Public Library of America conference (DPLAfest). This is the transcript of that talk. I love the librarian community...
From Apophenia
The Messy Fourth Estate
(This post was originally posted on Medium.) For the second time in a week, my phone buzzed with a New York Times alert, notifying me that another celebrity had...
From Apophenia
The case for quarantining extremist ideas
(Joan Donovan and I wrote the following op-ed for The Guardian.) When confronted with white supremacists, newspaper editors should consider ‘strategic silence’...
From Apophenia
You Think You Want Media Literacy… Do You?
The below original text was the basis for Data & Society Founder and President danah boyd’s March 2018 SXSW Edu keynote,“What Hath We Wrought?” — Ed. Growing up...
From Apophenia
The Reality of Twitter Puffery. Or Why Does Everyone Now Hate Bots?
(This was originally posted on NewCo Shift.) A friend of mine worked for an online dating company whose audience was predominantly hetero 30-somethings. At some...
From Apophenia
Panicked about Kids’ Addiction to Tech? Here are two things you could do
Flickr: Jan Hoffman (This was originally posted on NewCo Shift) Ever since key Apple investors challenged the company to address kids’ phone addiction, I’ve gotten...
From Apophenia
Beyond the Rhetoric of Algorithmic Solutionism
(This was originally posted on Medium) If you ever hear that implementing algorithmic decision-making tools to enable social services or other high stakes government...
From Apophenia
The Radicalization of Utopian Dreams
Amazon Fulfillment Center, CC Scottish Government The following is a transcript of my lightning talk at The People’s Disruption: Platform Co-Ops for Global Challenges...
From Apophenia
Your Data is Being Manipulated
Excerpt from “The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine,” Sergey Brin and Larry Page (April 1998) What follows is the crib from my keynote at...
From Apophenia
Data & Society’s Next Stage
In March 2013, in a flurry of days, I decided to start a research institute. I’d always dreamed of doing so, but it was really my amazing mentor and boss – Jennifer...
From Apophenia
How “Demo-or-Die” Helped My Career
I left the Media Lab 15 years ago this week. At the time, I never would’ve predicted that I learned one of the most useful skills in my career there: demo-or-die...
From Apophenia
Tech Culture Can Change
We need: Recognition, Repentance, Respect, and Reparation. To be honest, what surprises me most about the current conversation about the inhospitable nature of...
From Apophenia
Failing to See, Fueling Hatred.
I was 19 years old when a some configuration of anonymous people came after me. They got access to my email and shared some of the most sensitive messages on an...
From Apophenia