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December 2016

How Will the Public Learn About Cyberattacks Under President Trump?

If the public is to stay informed about foreign hacking that the executive branch wanted to keep quiet, whistleblowers in the intelligence community would have to come forward to leak important findings. But under President Barack Obama, leakers have faced steep penalties for sharing classified information with the press or the public—and President-elect Donald Trump seems far more hostile toward transparency, as evidenced by his stances on journalism and free speech. In the absence of official reports about hacking, the private sector would have a bigger role to play, too.

Uber said it protects you from spying. Security sources say otherwise

For anyone who’s snagged a ride with Uber, Ward Spangenberg has a warning: Your personal information is not safe. Internal Uber employees helped ex-boyfriends stalk their ex-girlfriends and searched for the trip information of celebrities such as Beyoncé, the company’s former forensic investigator said. “Uber’s lack of security regarding its customer data was resulting in Uber employees being able to track high profile politicians, celebrities, and even personal acquaintances of Uber employees, including ex-boyfriends/girlfriends, and ex-spouses,” Spangenberg wrote in a court declaration, signed in October under penalty of perjury.

After news broke two years ago that executives were using the company’s “God View” feature to track customers in real time without their permission, Uber insisted it had strict policies that prohibited employees from accessing users’ trip information with limited exceptions. But five former Uber security professionals said that the company continued to allow broad access even after those assurances. Thousands of employees throughout the company, they said, could get details of where and when each customer travels. Those revelations could be especially relevant now that Uber has begun collecting location information even after a trip ends.

FCC Set for Possible Partisan Stalemate After Commissioner Rosenworcel Nomination Fails

The US Senate adjourned without confirming Jessica Rosenworcel for a second term on the Federal Communications Commission, forcing her out of office and setting up the agency for a partisan deadlock as the Republican administration of Donald J. Trump begins. Without other changes, the Democrat’s departure would leave the FCC hindered, with two Republicans and two Democrats on the five-member panel, until the Senate can confirm a Republican to gain a majority.

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler Wheeler, 70, can stay with the commission until 2018 and he hasn’t said when he may leave. In the most recent transfer of power, FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, a Republican, left on Obama’s inauguration day although he had more than two years remaining in his term. Lawmakers had been working on Rosenworcel's confirmation for more than a year. Retiring Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) said her confirmation was supposed to be part of an agreement struck in 2015 to jointly confirm both a Republican and a Democrat at the same time. Michael O’Rielly received confirmation, but Rosenworcel did not.

How the Internet keeps poor people in poor neighborhoods

Every time you “like” something on Facebook or search something on Google, these companies learn a little bit more about you — and provide a slightly more personalized experience based on that. And people of different races and classes have different needs and constraints, so we all use the Internet differently. In turn, we get an even more personalized experience. Those personalized experiences impact whether or not we get real-world opportunities — like the chance to move to a better neighborhood.

This story could very well have been about job listings or college advertisements, but it seems apt to talk about how algorithms have sorted us online and, in turn, real life. “When the nature of the discrimination comes about through personalization, it's hard to know you're being discriminated against,” said Michael Tschantz, a Carnegie Mellon researcher. This could affect a wide swath of marginalized people, but the group that is especially vulnerable to housing discrimination is black Americans. Racist policies of our past created two divergent Americas: largely middle-class neighborhoods for white people and lower-class neighborhoods for black people. And the civil rights movement did little to help black families overcome this discrimination and get out of poor neighborhoods.

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