Communications of the ACM
An edited collection of advanced computing news from Communications of the ACM, ACM TechNews, other ACM resources, and news sites around the Web.
From ACM News
Carmakers Strive to Stay Ahead of Hackers
The effects of a breach of a car, or fleet, could be devastating. Auto manufacturers and suppliers have aggressive plans, and a lot of firewalls.
From ACM TechNews
Drive-Throughs That Predict Your Order? Restaurants Are Thinking Fast
Many restaurants expect digital ordering and drive-throughs to remain key business channels, and some are testing artificial intelligence to predict and suggest...
From ACM News
Livestreaming, Still Niche, Grows as a Tool for Retailers
Amazon Live is a prominent example of how interactive video shopping, popularized by TV networks like QVC, has moved online.
From ACM News
Russia Says It Is Slowing Access to Twitter
Moscow accused the social network of failing to remove content it deemed illegal. Soon after, a raft of government websites suffered a short outage.
From ACM News
Your Loved Ones, and Eerie Tom Cruise Videos, Reanimate Unease With Deepfakes
A tool that allows old photographs to be animated, and viral videos of a Tom Cruise impersonation, shined new light on digital impersonations.
From ACM News
A.I. Here, There, Everywhere
Many of us already live with artificial intelligence now, but researchers say interactions with the technology will become increasingly personalized.
From ACM TechNews
China Charges Ahead with National Digital Currency
China is forging ahead with a national digital currency called the electronic Chinese yuan (eCNY).
From ACM News
Digidog, a Robotic Dog Used by the Police, Stirs Privacy Concerns
The New York Police Department has been testing Digidog for deployment in dangerous situations, but some fear it could become an aggressive surveillance tool.
From ACM News
How One State Managed to Actually Write Rules on Facial Recognition
Massachusetts is one of the first states to put legislative guardrails around the use of facial recognition technology in criminal investigations.
From ACM TechNews
Where Do Vaccine Doses Go, Who Gets Them? The Algorithms Decide
Trump administration officials last year formulated a Covid-19 vaccine distribution plan that has an algorithm allocate shots nationwide.
From ACM News
How the United States Lost to Hackers
America's biggest vulnerability in cyberwarfare is hubris.
From ACM TechNews
Here's a Way to Learn If Facial Recognition Systems Used Your Photos
The Exposing.AI online tool lets people search image collections for photos of themselves, to learn if such images were used to train facial recognition systems...
From ACM News
Clearview AI’s Facial Recognition App Called Illegal in Canada
Canadian authorities declared that the company needed citizens' consent to use their biometric information, and told the firm to delete facial images from its database...
From ACM News
Electric Cars Are Coming, and Fast. Is the Nation's Grid Up to It?
GM's decision to phase out gasoline vehicles is the latest in a major shift that will mean drastic new demands on electric utilities. Here are four things that...
From ACM News
What We Learned From Apple’s New Privacy Labels
Requiring that app makers list the data they collect reveals a lot about what some apps do with our information (ahem, WhatsApp) but creates confusion about others...
From ACM News
Google-Linked Balloon Project to Provide Cell Service Will Close
Begun nearly a decade ago, Loon was one of the company's high-profile, cutting-edge efforts. But it was difficult to turn into a business.
From ACM News
Microsoft, Oracle and Salesforce Join Push for Digital Vaccination Credentials
In the U.S., there is no federal system consumers can use to get easy access to their immunization records online and establish their vaccination status for work...
From ACM News
Millions Flock to Telegram, Signal as Fears Grow Over Big Tech
The encrypted messaging services have become the world's hottest apps over the last week, driven by growing anxiety over the power of the biggest tech companies...
From ACM TechNews
He Created the Web. Now He's Out to Remake the Digital World.
Tim Berners-Lee hopes to bring the Web back to his original vision of a decentralized marketplace through personal online data stores (pods), with users controlling...
From ACM News