Communications of the ACM
An edited collection of advanced computing news from Communications of the ACM, ACM TechNews, other ACM resources, and news sites around the Web.
From ACM TechNews
How Technology Could Revolutionize Refugee Resettlement
A new software program uses a matching algorithm to allocate refugees with no ties to the U.S. to their new homes.
From ACM News
The Computer Scientist Who Prefers Paper
For years, Barbara Simons was the loneliest of Cassandras—a technologist who feared what technology had wrought. Her cause was voting: Specifically, she believed...
From ACM News
The Coming Software Apocalypse
There were six hours during the night of April 10, 2014, when the entire population of Washington State had no 911 service.
From ACM Careers
Inside Waymo's Secret World For Training Self-Driving Cars
In a corner of Alphabet's campus, there is a team working on a piece of software that may be the key to self-driving cars.
From ACM News
The Algorithm That Makes Preschoolers Obsessed With Youtube
Toddlers crave power. Too bad for them, they have none. Hence the tantrums and absurd demands.
From ACM News
The Founding Fathers Encrypted Secret Messages, Too
Thomas Jefferson is known for a lot of things—writing the Declaration of Independence, founding the University of Virginia, owning hundreds of slaves despite believing...
From ACM News
Who Owns Your Face?
It takes a feast of facial imagery to teach a machine how to recognize an individual person.
From ACM News
Even Bugs Will Be Bugged
When mark zuckerberg posted a picture of himself on Facebook in June, a sharp-eyed observer spotted a piece of tape covering his laptop’s camera.
From ACM News
Is Digital Privacy Becoming a Partisan Issue?
In a Congress where lawmakers have trouble performing even the most basic functions of the legislative branch—funding the government or approving judicial nominees...
From ACM News
The Research Pirates of the Dark Web
There's a battle raging over whether academic research should be free, and it’s overflowing into the dark web.
From ACM News
How Do Americans Weigh Privacy Versus National Security?
Three years ago, Edward Snowden leaked troves of previously classified information that laid bare the American government's widespread surveillance of its citizens...
From ACM News
The Convenience-Surveillance Tradeoff
People love free stuff. That's the principle that helps explain the complicated series of privacy-related calculations that modern life increasingly requires.
From ACM News
The High-Stakes Race to Rid the World of Human Drivers
The race to bring driverless cars to the masses is only just beginning, but already it is a fight for the ages.
From ACM News
After 10 Years, Google Books Is Legal
On Friday, a federal circuit court made clear that Google Books is legal.
From ACM Opinion
If You're Not Paranoid, You're Crazy
I knew we'd bought walnuts at the store that week, and I wanted to add some to my oatmeal.
From ACM News
The Secret Agents Who Stake Out the gliest Corners of the Internet
When President Obama launched his Twitter account in May, people noticed his rapid accumulation of followers, a silly back-and-forth with President Clinton, but...
From ACM Opinion
Beware the Listening Machines
One of my great pleasures in life is attending conferences on fields I'm intrigued by, but know nothing about.
From ACM Opinion
Hacking the Brain
The perfectibility of the human mind is a theme that has captured our imagination for centuries—the notion that, with the right tools, the right approach, the right...
From ACM News
Blueprint For a Better Human Body
When Elizabeth Wright smacks her right leg on a table, she says "ow."
From ACM News