• 
• 10 min
• The New York Times
• 2019

Databases of people’s faces are being compiled without their knowledge by companies and researchers (including social media companies or dating sites), with many shared around the world and fueling the advancement of facial recognition technology.

• Data Privacy
• Machine Learning
• Biometrics

• 
• 28 min
• Cornell Tech
• 2019

Pre-trial risk assessment is part of an attempted answer to mass incarceration. Data sometimes answers a different question than the ones we’re trying to answer (data based on riskiness before incarceration, not how dangerous they are later). Essentially, technologies and algorithms which end up in contexts of social power differentials can often be abused to further cause injustice against people accused of a crime, for example. Numbers are not neutral and can even be a “moral anesthetic,” especially if the sampled data has confounding variables that collectors ignore. Engineers designing technology do not always envisage ethical questions when making decisions that ought to be political.

• Civil Surveillance
• Algorithmic Bias
• Machine Learning

• 
• 10 min
• MEL Beta
• 2019

The continued existence of pirating websites such as The Pirate Bay demonstrates how digital technologies can be used against institutions such as copyright, and further designates the idea of a completely free and open internet.

• Cyber Crime
• Technology Based Entertainment and Leisure
• Data Streaming
• Networks

• 
• 15 min
• MIT Tech Review
• 2019

An attack in Saudi Arabia through malware known as Triton demonstrates that hackers, potentially even those belonging to nation-states, are willing to spend considerable time and money to hack into the increasing numbers of targets in industrial internets of things. Such cyber attacks could lead to unsafe workplaces and even catastrophes.

• Cyber Crime
• Workplace Safety
• Internet of Things
• Malware

• 
• 2 min
• Kinolab
• 1990

With his homing signal activated, the android Data takes control of the USS Enterprise and its systems and blocks the human crew from stopping him. For further reading, see the narrative Triton is the world’s most murderous malware, and it’s spreading.

• Cyber Crime
• Workplace Safety
• Internet of Things
• Robots

• 
• 5 min
• Wired
• 2019

Axon’s novel use of an ethics committee led to a decision to not use facial recognition programs on the body cameras which they provide to police department, on the basis of latent racial bias and privacy concerns. While this is a beneficial step, companies and government offices at multiple levels debate over when and how facial recognition should be deployed and limited.

• Civil Surveillance
• Algorithmic Bias
• Computer Vision