Innovative blockchain technology balances privacy with regulatory compliance

Blockchain’s inherent transparency, while beneficial for validation and trust, poses significant privacy concerns. Traditional transactions on public blockchains are permanently visible, compromising user privacy. This visibility has been a double-edged sword, providing transparency but at the cost of personal data exposure. A new protocol called Privacy Pools offers a potential solution to the seemingly contradictory goals of blockchain privacy and regulatory compliance.

Shuffling the deck for privacy

By integrating an ensemble of privacy-preserving algorithms, a KAUST research team has developed a machine-learning approach that addresses a significant challenge in medical research: How to use the power of artificial intelligence (AI) to accelerate discovery from genomic data while protecting the privacy of individuals

WashU Expert: Your smart speaker data is used in ways you might not expect

“Hey, Alexa, play the latest Taylor Swift album.” Smart speakers offer amazing convenience — from playing your favorite tunes to re-ordering toilet paper — with only a simple voice command. But that convenience can come with a steep cost in privacy that many consumers aren’t even aware they’re paying.

ORNL launches Center for AI Security Research to study AI’s impacts on society, security

The Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory announced the establishment of its Center for AI Security Research, or CAISER, to address threats already present as governments and industries around the world adopt artificial intelligence and take advantage of the benefits it promises in data processing, operational efficiencies and decision-making.

Social media experts explains why Congress set the stage for a TikTok ban

TikTok, the world’s fastest-growing social media app, used by two-thirds of America’s teenagers, has federal lawmakers debating its potential threat to national security with legislation introduced by a bipartisan coalition of U.S. Senators  empowering President Joe Biden to ban its use. Mike Horning, an associate professor of multimedia journalism at Virginia Tech’s School of Communication, offers his perspective about the issues with TikTok that have put government officials on edge.

How to talk with youth about the dangers of viral challenges and online safety

Viral challenges have been around almost as long as the internet. Some, like the ice bucket challenge are good, raising awareness on important issues. But others are not, and can put both youth and their parents at risk. What makes these viral challenges attractive for youth? How should parents approach the topic of online safety with their children? A Virginia 4-H specialist and a Virginia 4-H’er provide advice on how to do just this.

New Study Examines Privacy and Security Perceptions of Online Education Proctoring Services

Educational institutions have had to transition to remote learning and exam taking. This has led to an increase in the use of online proctoring services to curb student cheating. In a first-of-its-kind study, researchers explored the security and privacy perceptions of students taking proctored exams.

FAU Invention for Maximum Privacy of Sharing Files Online Gets U.S. Patent

While services such as Snapchat allow self-destructing messages or notify users when a recipient takes a screenshot of a message, there is no way to prevent someone from photographing or showing it to others on the screen. A new invention controls how and when shared documents are displayed and restricts individuals from viewing documents based on individual identity (e.g., face ID, a voice sample), their social network, and when and where the document is being viewed.

UCI researchers use campus as test bed for coronavirus contact tracing system

Irvine, Calif., July 8, 2020 – Who among us does not value a good, reliable Wi-Fi signal? For researchers at the University of California, Irvine, that appreciation goes further: They want to use the campus’s connectivity to help combat the spread of COVID-19. A team in UCI’s Donald Bren School of Information & Computer Sciences recently received a rapid funding award from the National Science Foundation to explore the deployment of the university’s wireless network as part of a coronavirus contact tracing application.

Billions of people could be invisible in COVID-19 contract tracing efforts utilizing smartphone apps

A West Virginia University consumer law expert says recent announcements by Apple and Google that they’re developing a system to enable widespread contact tracing in an effort to contain the COVID-19 pandemic raises significant questions beyond whether such a plan…

The Rise of Digital Dictators, With Andrea Kendall-Taylor

Andrea Kendall-Taylor, senior fellow and director of the Transatlantic Security Program at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS), sits down with James M. Lindsay to discuss the increasing use of technology by authoritarian regimes. Kendall-Taylor’s article “The Digital Dictators: How Technology Strengthens Autocracy,” coauthored with Erica Frantz and Joseph Wright, can be found in the March/April 2020 issue of Foreign Affairs.

Arizona State University experts call for new approach to technology policy & governance, Thunderbird’s dean Sanjeev Khagram presents collaborative white paper at World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Thunderbird dean leads new collaboration with World Economic Forum Technological innovations, especially in the last half-century, have altered the way we live, work and interact with one another. Breakthroughs in technology are now happening so rapidly and frequently that they…

The new monopolies: reining in big tech

The University of Chicago Booth School of Business Stigler Center Committee on Digital Platforms today released its first report delivering eight policy recommendations on how to rein in Big Tech, including creating a new Digital Authority.
The independent and non-partisan Committee – composed of more than 30 highly-respected academics, policymakers, and experts – spent more than a year studying in-depth how digital platforms such as Google and Facebook impact our economy and antitrust laws, data protection, the political system and the news media industry.

The new monopolies: reining in big tech

The University of Chicago Booth School of Business Stigler Center Committee on Digital Platforms today released its first report delivering eight policy recommendations on how to rein in Big Tech, including creating a new Digital Authority.
The independent and non-partisan Committee – composed of more than 30 highly-respected academics, policymakers, and experts – spent more than a year studying in-depth how digital platforms such as Google and Facebook impact our economy and antitrust laws, data protection, the political system and the news media industry.