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dateMore Than a Year Ago
subjectSoftware
authorThe Guardian
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Stop Complaining About the Facebook Study. It's a Golden Age For Research
From ACM Opinion

Stop Complaining About the Facebook Study. It's a Golden Age For Research

Several years ago, my student and I studied anonymous email server data from 40,000 students, faculty and staff at a large university.

Secrets, Lies and Snowden's Email: Why I Was Forced to Shut Down Lavabit
From ACM Opinion

Secrets, Lies and Snowden's Email: Why I Was Forced to Shut Down Lavabit

My legal saga started last summer with a knock at the door, behind which stood two federal agents ready to to serve me with a court order requiring the installation...

Eugene Kaspersky: Major Cyberterrorist Attack Is Only Matter of Time
From ACM Opinion

Eugene Kaspersky: Major Cyberterrorist Attack Is Only Matter of Time

A major, global cyberterrorist attack has long been the stuff of fiction, the threat that a malevolent hacker could bring down businesses, sabotage power plants...

Heartbleed: Developer Who Introduced the Error Regrets 'oversight'
From ACM Opinion

Heartbleed: Developer Who Introduced the Error Regrets 'oversight'

The developer who introduced the "Heartbleed" vulnerability to the open-source code used by thousands of websites has told the Guardian it was an "oversight"—but...

Are the Robots About to Rise?
From ACM Opinion

Are the Robots About to Rise?

It's hard to know where to start with Ray Kurzweil.

Will Your Next Phone Have No Screen?
From ACM Opinion

Will Your Next Phone Have No Screen?

Google is predicting a generation of screenless computing devices that rely on voice recognition, a senior engineer has said, emphasising that the company encrypts...

Tim Berners-Lee: Encryption Cracking By Spy Agencies 'appalling and Foolish'
From ACM Opinion

Tim Berners-Lee: Encryption Cracking By Spy Agencies 'appalling and Foolish'

Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the computer scientist who created the World Wide Web, has called for a "full and frank public debate" over Internet surveillance by the National...

Grand Theft Auto 5: Inside the Creative Process with Dan Houser
From ACM Opinion

Grand Theft Auto 5: Inside the Creative Process with Dan Houser

We're four days away now. After a year of pre-publicity and a five-year wait since GTA IV, the latest instalment in Rockstar's gangland opus is almost upon us.

Nsa Surveillance: A Guide to Staying Secure
From ACM Opinion

Nsa Surveillance: A Guide to Staying Secure

Now that we have enough details about how the NSA eavesdrops on the Internet, including today's disclosures of the NSA's deliberate weakening of cryptographic systems...

The Problem with Algorithms: Magnifying Misbehaviour
From ACM Opinion

The Problem with Algorithms: Magnifying Misbehaviour

By the time you read these words, much of what has appeared on the screen of whatever device you are using has been dictated by a series of conditional instructions...

Wikipedia's Jimmy Wales Explains Its Mission to Be Mainstream
From ACM Opinion

Wikipedia's Jimmy Wales Explains Its Mission to Be Mainstream

Wikipedia is expanding its major new "open data" initiative, expanding tools that allow developers to use its content on other websites and simplifying its editing...

Bradley Manning 'aiding the Enemy' Charge Is a Threat to Journalism
From ACM Opinion

Bradley Manning 'aiding the Enemy' Charge Is a Threat to Journalism

Thursday, Colonel Denise Lind, the judge in the Bradley Manning court martial, refused to dismiss the "aiding the enemy" charge.

Google's Chief Legal Officer: Eight Things We Learned
From ACM Opinion

Google's Chief Legal Officer: Eight Things We Learned

David Drummond, Google's senior vice president of corporate development and chief legal officer, took part in a live Q&A on Wednesday to answer questions about...

Patent Trolls Are a Serious Threat to ­.s. Innovation
From ACM Opinion

Patent Trolls Are a Serious Threat to ­.s. Innovation

At last, some good news about America's dysfunctional patent system: the White House has noticed there's a problem.

Google+ Isn't a Social Network; It's The Matrix
From ACM Opinion

Google+ Isn't a Social Network; It's The Matrix

Pretty much everyone (myself included) has been reading Google+ wrongly.

Search Me: Online Reputation Management
From ACM Opinion

Search Me: Online Reputation Management

A few weeks ago, I Googled a pub to find out where it was.

Will Giving the Internet Eyes and Ears Mean the End of Privacy?
From ACM Opinion

Will Giving the Internet Eyes and Ears Mean the End of Privacy?

The Internet has turned into a massive surveillance tool.

Is Computing Speed Set to Make a Quantum Leap?
From ACM Opinion

Is Computing Speed Set to Make a Quantum Leap?

"Our imagination is stretched to the utmost," wrote Richard Feynman, the greatest physicist of his day, "not, as in fiction, to imagine things which are not really...

Are All Telephone Calls Recorded and Accessible to the ­.s. Government?
From ACM Opinion

Are All Telephone Calls Recorded and Accessible to the ­.s. Government?

The real capabilities and behavior of the U.S. surveillance state are almost entirely unknown to the American public because, like most things of significance done...

Google Chief ­rges Action to Regulate Mini-Drones
From ACM Opinion

Google Chief ­rges Action to Regulate Mini-Drones

The influential head of Google, Eric Schmidt, has called for civilian drone technology to be regulated, warning about privacy and security concerns.
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