• 
• 5 min
• Wired
• 2020

As means of preserving deceased loved ones digitally become more and more likely, it is critical to consider the implications of technologies which aim to replicate and capture the personality and traits of those who have passed. Not only might this change the natural process of grieving and healing, it may also have alarming consequences for the agency of the dead. For the corresponding Black Mirror episode discussed in the article, see the narratives “Martha and Ash Parts I and II.”

• Control of Personal Data/Identity
• Digital Immortality
• Machine Learning
• Smartphones

• 
• 5 min
• Tech Crunch
• 2020

During Google’s attempt to merge with the company Fitbit, the NGO Amnesty International has provided warnings to the competition regulators in the EU that such a move would be detrimental to privacy. Based on Google’s historical malpractice with user data, since its status as a tech monopoly allows it to mine data from several different avenues of a user’s life, adding wearable health-based tech to this equation puts the privacy and rights of users at risk. Calls for scrunity of “surveillance capitalism” employed by tech giants.

• Data Privacy
• Tech Monopolies
• Data Mining
• Mobile Computing

• 
• 7 min
• ZDNet
• 2020

Dr. Gary Marcus explains that deep machine learning as it currently exists is not maximizing the potential of AI to collect and process knowledge. He essentially argues that these machine “brains” should have more innate knowledge than they do, similar to how animal brains function in processing an environment. Ideally, this sort of baseline knowledge would be used to collect and process information from “Knowledge graphs,” a semantic web of information available on the internet which can sometimes be hard for an AI to process without translation to machine vocabularies such as RDF.

• Limitations of Digital Technologies
• Scientific Innovation
• Machine Learning
• Networks

• 
• 5 min
• Gizmodo
• 2020

The data privacy of employees is at risk under a new “Productivity Score” program started by Microsoft, in which employers and administrators can use Microsoft 365 platforms to collect several metrics on their workers in order to “optimize productivity.” However, this approach causes unnecessary stress for workers, beginning a surveillance program in the workplace.

• Data Privacy
• Data Mining
• Networks

• 
• 3 min
• TechCrunch
• 2020

This short article details a pledge inspired by the practices of the French government for tech monopolies to be more responsible in the areas of taxes and privacy. As of 2020, many have signed onto this initiative.

• Tech Monopolies
• Data Mining

• 
• 2 min
• The Verge
• 2019

In this very short narrative, the Social Media Addiction Reduction technology Act is presented in the context of social networks and concerns around digital addiction.

• Digital Addiction
• Recommender Systems
• Social Networks