Data Science

We have entered the age of personalized politics, and it is very important for us to understand what that means. In practice, there are as many candidates in the 2020 presidential race as there are voters with online access in the United States. Every candidate is a customized persona created specifically for us by a complex set of algorithms that very few people fully understand. This means we are all test subjects in an unprecedented sociopolitical experiment that, quite frankly, scares the hell out of me. Continue Reading →

Mr. Zuckerberg went to Washington yesterday for private meetings with the President and several lawmakers. The meetings were private and Mr. Zuckerberg did not answer questions about specifics. However, according to the WSJ, Sen. Josh Hawley (R., Mo.) challenged Facebook’s CEO saying, “Prove that you’re serious… sell WhatsApp, and sell Instagram.” There is only hearsay Continue Reading →

It’s becoming a trend for smartphone brands to release TVs, as OnePlus, Xiaomi and now Motorola are doing it. OnePlus is due to unveil its own Smart TV this month, so Motorola effectively beat it to the punch. With all the hoopla around Apple TV+ (the service), I think it’s important to remember that Google’s Continue Reading →

Facebook is getting into the dating game. Deepfakes are getting better and better. Put them both together and they present a potential reality as sinister as it is deceitful. Imagine online dating in a world replete with deepfakes. Continue Reading →

In case you missed it, Apple announced its new iPhone 11 line of smartphones yesterday. Here’s everything we know about the new devices and services featured in the press conference. I have been in an abusive relationship with Apple since the mid 80s. They keep torturing me and I keep buying their products. From the Continue Reading →

Fifty attorneys general are joining an investigation into Google over possible antitrust violations according to the initiative’s leader, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. I understand both the desire and the need for our government to get a handle on the issues surrounding data privacy, but think about this… let’s say that the outcome is a Continue Reading →

An invitation to walk in the Labor Day Parade got me thinking about labor law as an alternative path to meaningful data privacy regulation. Think about this… Continue Reading →

The FTC and New York State reported that Google has agreed to pay a record $170 million penalty to settle accusations that YouTube broke the law when it knowingly tracked and sold ads targeted to children.  In agreeing to pay this fine, Google is essentially admitting that YouTube collected user info from kids in violation Continue Reading →

It has been just a week since my essay, Deepfakes 2.0: The Sequel Is Even Scarier. Now, Bloomberg is reporting about Zao, a next-generation deepfake facial replacement tool (a la FaceApp) that is taking China by storm (details below). When you see the results of this “anyone can do it at the tap of a Continue Reading →

Whether it’s because of schadenfreude, morbid curiosity, or simple human nature, the journalistic trope “If it bleeds, it leads” never disappoints. And because anyone who creates content – which is now everyone – is in a never-ending battle for everyone else’s attention, the enduring misalignment of incentives and outcomes raises the question: Whom can you trust? Continue Reading →