ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL
The Washington Post Voting by smartphone in Seattle area pushes the limits of electronic balloting
As it became clear that a technical mishap would delay results from the Iowa caucuses last week, Sheila Nix raced to prepare a chart illustrating how the glitch was isolated.
Yahoo Finance Presidential campaigns are paying millions to Big Tech companies (while also bashing them)
It’s hard to avoid paying your dues to big tech, even if you’re running a campaign to break them up. That is the conundrum in the 2020 field. Yahoo Finance looked through hundreds of thousands of “disbursements” from the presidential campaigns (another way to describe purchases) – on everything from airline tickets to office chairs.
THIS WEEK IN WASHINGTON
Bloomberg Senator Wants DOJ to Absorb FTC to Tackle Big Tech Firms
Republican Senator Josh Hawley released a proposal Monday to absorb the Federal Trade Commission into the U.S. Justice Department as a way to push back on Big Tech companies such as Alphabet Inc.’s Google and Facebook Inc.
CNBC Lawmakers kick the can down the road on discussing the most contentious issues of privacy legislation
As California’s digital privacy bill hurtles toward the first day of enforcement on July 1, federal lawmakers are under pressure to establish a national standard. Several proposals are making their way around Congress but two points of contention still threaten to hold up negotiations over new legislation. First is preemption: the question of whether a federal law should override state laws, which Republicans tend to favor to create consistency for businesses. Democrats often argue it would prevent states from creating stronger laws in the future.
The Hill Bipartisan lawmakers introduce bill to combat cyberattacks on state and local governments
A bipartisan group of lawmakers on Monday introduced a bill that would establish a $400 million grant program at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to help state and local governments combat cyber threats and potential vulnerabilities.
Wired Trump Proposes a Cut in Research Spending, but a Boost for AI
President Trump Monday proposed cutting federal research spending—except in key areas including artificial intelligence and quantum technologies.
ARTICLE SUMMARY
The Verge The NFL account hijackers just compromised Facebook’s Twitter and Instagram accounts
Several of Facebook’s Twitter and Instagram accounts were hijacked this evening, and the group taking credit is the same one that said it hacked NFL and ESPN social media accounts last week. The hijacked accounts had returned to normal in less than 30 minutes.
Buzzfeed News The ACLU Slammed A Facial Recognition Company That Scrapes Photos From Instagram And Facebook
Clearview AI, the facial recognition company that claims to have a database of more than 3 billion photos scraped from websites and social media, has been telling prospective law enforcement clients that a review of its software based on “methodology used by the American Civil Liberties Union” is stunningly accurate.
Quartz How coronavirus is upending Big Tech
The spread of the deadly coronavirus has rattled the tech industry. From iPhones to LCD televisions, much of the world’s consumer technology is either made in China, or relies on parts made there. The nation is the world’s largest manufacturer of mobile phones, computers, and televisions. It exports billions of dollars of goods every year.
Forbes Data Technology Helps Nonprofits Do More—And More Good
Accountability is at the heart of Impact Justice’s programs. The California-based nonprofit works with former prisoners and teenagers who have had encounters with the criminal justice system and is dedicated to putting an end to mass incarceration in the US.
VentureBeat AI, automation, and the cybersecurity skills gap
The cybersecurity skills shortage is well documented, but the gap seems to be widening. The 2019 Cybersecurity Workforce study produced by nonprofit (ISC)² looked at the cybersecurity workforce in 11 markets.
StateScoop In states, concerns with fairness of FCC’s rural broadband fund
Amid widely conflicting reports of how many Americans truly lack access to high-speed internet, state broadband officials said Tuesday that there’s too much funding at stake to rely on the Federal Communications Commission’s unreliable census-block data.
THINK TANK/TECH TRADE ASSOCIATION HIGHLIGHTS
The Brookings Institute
- Blog on AI and Privacy
Our world is undergoing an information Big Bang, in which the universe of data doubles every two years and quintillions of bytes of data are generated every day. For decades, Moore’s Law on the doubling of computing power every 18-24 months has driven the growth of information technology. Now–as billions of smartphones and other devices collect and transmit data over high-speed global networks, store data in ever-larger data centers, and analyze it using increasingly powerful and sophisticated software–Metcalfe’s Law comes into play. It treats the value of networks as a function of the square of the number of nodes, meaning that network effects exponentially compound this historical growth in information. As 5G networks and eventually quantum computing deploy, this data explosion will grow even faster and bigger. (Research – Protecting privacy in an AI-driven world, February 12, 2020)
Note: Voices for Innovation regularly shares a range of opinion articles and press releases from organizations in and publications covering tech policy. These pieces are meant to educate our audience, not to endorse specific platforms or bills.