Decision Algorithms, EPA Agency Guidance, Google, More: Friday ResearchBuzz, March 6, 2020

Decision Algorithms, EPA Agency Guidance, Google, More: Friday ResearchBuzz, March 6, 2020
By ResearchBuzz

NEW RESOURCES

Rutgers University: Rutgers Law Professor Authors Algorithm Database for Public Research. “Rutgers Law School Professor Ellen P. Goodman, the Rutgers Institute for Information Policy and Law (RIIPL), and MuckRock have launched a new, open database of automated decision systems and algorithms used in city, county, state, and other public entities across the United States. The database, which is open to the public, is the result of a yearlong reporting and research project conducted by RIIPL and MuckRock into more than 200 instances of algorithmic policy being instituted across America.”

EPA: EPA Meets President Trump’s Deadline, Makes Agency Guidance Available to the Public. “Today, in support of President Trump’s Executive Order to promote transparency, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) launched a new guidance portal that provides public access to agency guidance documents. This new searchable database will make it easier for the regulated community to find and follow agency guidance.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Bloomberg: Google Pulls Down Political Ads as Candidates Keep Pushing Limits. “Google has rejected dozens of ads from Donald Trump’s presidential campaign for violating its ad policies in the week leading up to Super Tuesday, as well as a Bernie Sanders ad and two from a political action committee supporting Joe Biden, according to data released by the company Tuesday.”

Search Engine Land: Several WordPress SEO plugins are on the fritz. “It’s been a challenging week for many SEO plugin users. Numerous users of the Google Analytics Dashboard for WP plugin by ExactMetrics are claiming that they’ve lost traffic data after updating to version 6.0. Meanwhile, the Yoast SEO and Rank Math plugins are producing incorrect canonical URLs when those URLs contain Unicode characters.”

CNET: Facebook gives WHO free ads to cut down coronavirus misinformation. “Facebook is letting the World Health Organization advertise for free to try to combat misinformation on the coronavirus outbreak. The social network wants people to feel confident that information is ‘credible and accurate,’ CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a post late Tuesday.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Popular Information: Facebook allows Trump campaign to run deceptive Census ads. “The Trump campaign is currently running more than 1,000 ads urging users to ‘take the Official 2020 Congressional District Census today.’ The ads also include an image of the ‘2020 Census.’ Users that click on the ad are directed to a campaign website labeled as the ‘Certified Website of President Donald J. Trump.’ The upper right of the landing page says, ‘For Official Use Only.’ There is a clear and deliberate attempt to make this look like a government document.”

The Verge: WeChat has been censoring keywords about coronavirus, study finds. “China’s most popular messaging app, Tencent-owned WeChat, has been censoring keywords about coronavirus since as early as January 1st, an analysis found. Popular Chinese livestreaming platform YY has been censoring coronavirus content, too.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

New York Times: Before Clearview Became a Police Tool, It Was a Secret Plaything of the Rich . “Those with Clearview logins used facial recognition at parties, on dates and at business gatherings, giving demonstrations of its power for fun or using it to identify people whose names they didn’t know or couldn’t recall.”

New York Times: U.S. to Hold Tech Firms Accountable for Spread of Child Sex Abuse Imagery. “Legislation announced on Thursday aimed at curbing the spread of online child sexual abuse imagery would take the extraordinary step of removing legal protections for tech companies that fail to police the illegal content. A separate, international initiative that was also announced takes a softer approach, getting the industry to voluntarily embrace standards for combating the material.”

Reuters: Virgin Media reports database breach. “Virgin Media, owned by Liberty Global (LBTYA.O), on Thursday reported a breach that allowed unauthorized access to the cable company’s database that contained personal information of about 900,000 customers. The company said the breach did not happen due to a hack but occurred as the database was incorrectly configured.” To me that is not a breach. It’s a leak.

RESEARCH & OPINION

Ubergizmo: Your Computer Can Help Scientists Find A Cure To The Coronavirus. “Back in the day, your computer used to be just your computer. However, with our computers becoming increasingly connected to the internet, your computer isn’t just yours anymore. In fact, if you’re not opposed to it, it seems that you can actually ‘donate’ some of your computer’s processing resources to scientists who are working on a cure to the coronavirus.” Weird lede considering that SETI@Home ran for 20+ years and just shut down, but hey.

MIT News: Historic migration patterns are written in Americans’ DNA. “Studies of DNA from ancient human fossils have helped scientists to trace human migration routes around the world thousands of years ago. But can modern DNA tell us anything about more recent movements, especially in an ancestrally diverse melting pot like the United States? To find out, researchers from the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) analyzed data provided by more than 32,000 Americans as part of the National Geographic Society’s Genographic Project.” Good morning, Internet…

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March 6, 2020 at 06:40PM
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Google I/O, Bookshlf, Coronavirus/GitHub, More: Thursday Evening ResearchBuzz, March 5, 2020

Google I/O, Bookshlf, Coronavirus/GitHub, More: Thursday Evening ResearchBuzz, March 5, 2020
By ResearchBuzz

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

CNET: Google I/O canceled due to coronavirus concerns. “Google on Tuesday said it’s canceling I/O, the search giant’s annual developer conference and its biggest event of the year, because of concerns about the novel coronavirus that’s caused worldwide disruptions.”

TechCrunch: Bookshlf launches an app to curate and share your favorite digital content . “Bookshlf has created a new way for people to recommend media — whether it’s music, videos, articles, podcasts or even tweets — to their friends and to the rest of the world. The New York-based startup is officially launching its web and iOS app this week and announcing that David A. Steinberg, co-founder and CEO of marketing company Zeta Global, has signed on as both an investor and advisor.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Reclaim the Net: Chinese citizens turn to GitHub to archive coronavirus outbreak events in a bit to avoid censorship. “As ever with any loss or grievance, we have on one hand the human desire to forget bad experiences in order to be able to move on with your life – and on the other, the urge to keep some memories, regardless of how traumatic they may be. In China, this is even more involved and difficult, as citizens are racing to preserve coronavirus memories against censors. And on GitHub, as it happens to operate both in China – and ‘beyond the Great Firewall.'”

This story is from Super Tuesday (non-American readers, Super Tuesday is when a bunch of states in the US (including mine) go to the polls to vote in our political parties’ primaries. The good news is you get an “I voted” sticker. The bad news is that you get no relief from the constant existential dread and sense of impending doom. But, hey, sticker!) Vox: Facebook’s top news stories are like a window into an alternate dimension. “There are a lot of consequential and important things going on. Not only is today Super Tuesday, but Americans are on edge about the spread of the novel coronavirus that could reach pandemic proportions. But if you consume your news on Facebook, the biggest news of the day has to do with Hillary Clinton’s emails. Yes, really.”

Politico: City Hall calls Google-backed LinkNYC consortium ‘delinquent’. “New York’s high-tech solution to the pay phone has run into a low-tech problem: money (or the lack thereof). The Google-backed LinkNYC program that was supposed to replace New York City’s payphones with 9-foot-tall ‘Links’ on city sidewalks has ground to a halt. The CityBridge consortium stopped installing Links in the fall of 2018, said New York City’s new commissioner of the Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications on Tuesday.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

The Verge: ICE rigged its algorithms to keep immigrants in jail, claims lawsuit. “A new lawsuit claims Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) rigged software to create a ‘secret no-release policy’ for people suspected of breaking immigration laws. ICE’s New York office uses a risk assessment algorithm to recommend that an arrestee be released or detained until a hearing. But the New York Civil Liberties Union and Bronx Defenders say the algorithm was changed in 2015 and again in 2017, removing the ability to recommend release, even for arrestees who posed no threat.”

This is wrong and it needs to stop now. Techdirt: Bogus Automated Copyright Claims By CBS Blocked Super Tuesday Speeches By Bernie Sanders, Mike Bloomberg, And Joe Biden. “Another day, another example of copyright out of control. The latest, as highlighted by Matthew Keys, is that bogus (almost certainly automated) copyright claims by CBS ended up blocking a live stream of a Bernie Sanders speech, but similar notices also interrupted speeches by Mike Bloomberg and Joe Biden.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Route Fifty: The Official Coronavirus Numbers Are Wrong, and Everyone Knows It. “In total, fewer than 500 people have been tested across the country (although the CDC has stopped reporting that number in its summary of the outbreak). As a result, the current ‘official’ case count inside the United States stood at 43 as of this morning (excluding cruise-ship cases). This number is wrong, yet it’s still constantly printed and quoted. In other contexts, we’d call this what it is: a subtle form of misinformation.”

The Conversation: Children’s use of social media is creating a new type of digital native. “The first generation of people who have grown up using social media such as Facebook and Instagram are entering the workforce. For as long as this breed of so-called ‘digital natives’ has been alive, some academics have been arguing that using the internet from a young age would shape the way people learn, work and even think. But it is still not clear how useful this kind of generational divide actually is, or how different these young people are to ‘digital immigrants’ born in a pre-internet age. Some studies suggest what matters is not age but the level of experience and knowledge people have with a particular technology.”

OTHER THINGS I THINK ARE COOL

Music Radar: It turns out that Google Wear OS smartwatches contain a secret drum machine. “You probably didn’t buy your smartwatch planning to make music on it – particularly, it has to be said, a Google-powered smartwatch – but it turns out that high-tech timepieces that run the company’s Wear OS contain a hidden drum machine.” Good evening, Internet…

Do you like ResearchBuzz? Does it help you out? Please consider supporting it on Patreon. Not interested in commitment? Perhaps you’d buy me an iced tea. I love your comments, I love your site suggestions, and I love you. Feel free to comment on the blog, or @ResearchBuzz on Twitter. Thanks!

March 6, 2020 at 06:49AM
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Amazon Alexa, Reddit, 2020 Election Information, More: Thursday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, March 5, 2020

Amazon Alexa, Reddit, 2020 Election Information, More: Thursday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, March 5, 2020
By ResearchBuzz

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Becker’s Hospital Review: Amazon, First Databank partner to let Alexa answer drug-related questions. “Amazon has partnered with First Databank — a database of drug and medical device information — to allow Amazon Alexa users to ask questions about drug information, such as drug interactions and side effects.”

Mashable: Reddit partners with Crisis Text Line to give users mental health support . “The partnership makes it possible for a Reddit user to flag someone they feel is struggling with serious self-harm or suicide. That will trigger an immediate private message from Reddit to the person in distress. The message will include mental health resources and a suggestion to use their phone to text the phrase CHAT to connect with a Crisis Text Line counselor. This tool will only be available for users based in the United States.”

USEFUL STUFF

The Verge: The Verge Guide To The 2020 Election. “At The Verge, we’ve always paid attention to how simple things like the price of broadband are deeply connected to complicated tech policy debates. And we’ve been closely watching the collision between social networks and democracy — Casey Newton has been writing a daily newsletter called The Interface tracking that subject since 2017. So for the 2020 election cycle, we want to give you a central place to learn about the main tech policy issues we’re following, see the latest news, and feel like you have a guide through it all.”

Reclaim the Net: Fraidycat, a tool that pulls websites and social networks into one algorithm-free feed, gets an update. “On the surface, Fraidycat seems like yet another RSS feed reader. Except, thanks to a recent update, Fraidycat can easily become your main window into the online world. In addition to a new dark mode, it now allows you to subscribe to feeds/threads from Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Reddit, GitHub, SoundCloud, Twitch, and Kickstarter, to name a few.” (Wipes drool off keyboard)

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

This may be the first time I’ve ever linked to an advice column in ResearchBuzz. Here we go, from the New York Times: Is It Possible to Feel Creatively Connected Without Social Media?. “It has become a thing for some to use Instagram as a kind of CV, and there are stories of those who have found gallery representation on the basis of their feeds. At the end of the day, though, I suspect that by recusing yourself from social media, what you’re mostly missing out on is the illusion of community, rather than an actual, supportive, real-life one, which you’ve already taken steps to build. Let’s face it: Social media is better at fostering solipsism than it is at inspiring or showcasing creative work.”

Poynter: False cases of coronavirus have infected social media. “On Feb. 12, a 50-year-old man hanged himself in the Indian city of Chittoor to prevent his wife and children from getting the 2019 coronavirus. Feeling sick, he visited a doctor and left the consultation believing he had COVID-19. After his death, however, the presence of the new virus in his body was not confirmed. His son told Times of India his dad died from fear and anxiety, after having watched hundreds of videos about the new disease.”

Gothamist: Photos: Inside The Last Days Of The ARChive Of Contemporary Music In Tribeca. “How many albums can you think of that feature a space helmet on the cover? There’s Gnarls Barkley’s St. Elsewhere, Moby’s 18, Parliament’s Mothership Connection, and Tom Petty’s Highway Companion. There are soundtracks for movies like Moonraker, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and The Day The Earth Stood Still. What about that Star Wars disco album? Does Daft Punk count? There are at least 360 of them according to archivist Bob George, and he should know: he is the founder and director of The ARChive Of Contemporary Music (ARC), a nonprofit archive, music library and research center that has become home to one of the world’s largest collections of popular music in all its physical forms.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Politico: Federal court rejects Gabbard’s bias suit against Google. “A federal judge has rejected a lawsuit in which Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard accused Google of temporarily suspending her presidential campaign ads due to political bias — noting that the online search giant is not a government entity bound by the First Amendment.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Phys .org: With 30,000 surveys, researchers build the go-to dataset for smallholder farms . “Top-down projects for improving the lives of poor farmers were often unsuccessful because they didn’t systematically consider the diverse rural households survive and thrive. To tap this local knowledge, scientists and development agencies began surveying households to assure that research and development schemes were on target. But the surveys were not designed to be compared with one another, lacking what scientists call ‘interoperability’—meaning one organization’s household surveys could not be compared with another’s. For big-picture analysis, much of the data was of little use.”

ZDNet: Facebook has a new tool to spot spammers, and it’s already taken down billions of accounts. “Chasing fake accounts on social networks is a high-tech game of cat and mouse, and as soon as one troll is down, another one pops up. But Facebook has revealed that it has a new trick up its sleeve to better identify spammers – an improved weapon-of-choice that attackers won’t be able to dodge as easily as before, according to the social media giant.” Good afternoon, Internet…

Do you like ResearchBuzz? Does it help you out? Please consider supporting it on Patreon. Not interested in commitment? Perhaps you’d buy me an iced tea. I love your comments, I love your site suggestions, and I love you. Feel free to comment on the blog, or @ResearchBuzz on Twitter. Thanks!

March 6, 2020 at 02:10AM
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Plug-and-play gate drivers target 4,500-V IGBT modules

Power Integrations’ SCALE-2 plug-and-play gate drivers were developed for new 4,500-V press-pack IGBT modules and are suited for high-reliability applications.

source http://www.electronicproducts.com/Analog_Mixed_Signal_ICs/Drivers_Displays_LED_etc_/Plug_and_play_gate_drivers_target_4_500_V_IGBT_modules.aspx

USB-C controllers deliver higher integration

Cypress releases its sixth generation of single- and dual-port controllers for PCs and notebooks.

source http://www.electronicproducts.com/Power_Products/Power_and_Control/USB_C_controllers_deliver_higher_integration.aspx

Plug-and-play gate drivers target 4500-V IGBT modules

Power Integration’s SCALE-2 plug-and-play gate drivers were developed for new 4500-V press-pack IGBT modules and are suited for high-reliability applications.

 

source http://www.electronicproducts.com/Analog_Mixed_Signal_ICs/Drivers_Displays_LED_etc_/Plug_and_play_gate_drivers_target_4500_V_IGBT_modules.aspx

4-A power module cuts solution size by 30%

Texas Instruments’ smallest 36-V, 4-A power module cuts the power solution size by 30% for industrial applications, while reducing power loss by 50%.

source http://www.electronicproducts.com/Power_Products/DC_DC_Convertors/4_A_power_module_cuts_solution_size_by_30.aspx