The Humanitarian Data Exchange (HDX) is an open platform for sharing data across crises and organisations. Launched in July 2014, the goal of HDX is to make humanitarian data easy to find and use for analysis. Our growing collection of datasets has been accessed by users in over 200 countries and territories. Watch this video Read more about Humanitarian Data Exchange[…]
When it comes to knowing where humans around the world actually live, resources come in varying degrees of accuracy and sophistication. Heavily urbanized and mature economies generally produce a wealth of up-to-date information on population density and granular demographic data. In rural Africa or fast-growing regions in the developing world, tracking methods cannot always keep Read more about How Facebook is Using Machine Learning to Map the World Population[…]
Authorities in the United Kingdom have made unauthorized copies of data stored inside a EU database for tracking undocumented migrants, missing people, stolen cars, or suspected criminals. Named the Schengen Information System (SIS), this is a EU-run database that stores information such as names, personal details, photographs, fingerprints, and arrest warrants for 500,000 non-EU citizens Read more about UK made illegal copies and mismanaged Schengen travelers database, gave it away to unauthorised 3rd parties, both business and countries[…]
Organisations that deploy Facebook’s ubiquitous “Like” button on their websites risk falling foul of the General Data Protection Regulation following a landmark ruling by the European Court of Justice. The EU’s highest court has decided that website owners can be held liable for data collection when using the so-called “social sharing” widgets. The ruling (PDF) Read more about It’s official: Deploying Facebook’s ‘Like’ button on your website makes you a joint data slurper, puts you in GDPR danger[…]
scientists at the University of California San Diego have gone ahead and made it a reality. They’ve created a contact lens, controlled by eye movements, that can zoom in if you blink twice. How is this possible? In the simplest of terms, the scientists measured the electrooculographic signals generated when eyes make specific movements (up, Read more about Scientists create contact lenses that zoom when you blink twice[…]
Modern aircraft systems are becoming increasingly reliant on networked communications systems to display information to the pilot as well as control various systems aboard aircraft. Small aircraft typically maintain the direct mechanical linkage between the flight controls and the flight surface. However, electronic controls for flaps, trim, engine controls, and autopilot systems are becoming more Read more about Small aircraft can be quite easily hacked to present wrong readings, change trim and autopilot settings – if someone has physical access to it.[…]
A hacker raided Capital One’s cloud storage buckets and stole personal information on 106 million credit card applicants in America and Canada. The swiped data includes 140,000 US social security numbers and 80,000 bank account numbers, we’re told, as well as one million Canadian social insurance numbers, plus names, addresses, phone numbers, dates of birth, Read more about Capital One gets Capital Done: Hacker swipes personal info on 106 million US, Canadian credit card applicants[…]
Basically they don’t like data being shared with third parties doing predictive profiling with the data and they don’t like all the telemetry being sent everywhere, nor do they like MS being able to view and running through content such as text, pictures and videos. Source: Ministerie van justitie: Stop met gebruik Office 365 – Read more about Dutch ministry of Justice recommends to Dutch gov to stop using office 365 and windows 10[…]
The way the robots work is simple. Guided by cameras and computer systems trained to recognize specific objects, the robots’ arms glide over moving conveyor belts until they reach their target. Oversized tongs or fingers with sensors that are attached to the arms snag cans, glass, plastic containers, and other recyclable items out of the Read more about Meet the AI robots being used to help solve America’s recycling crisis[…]
The encryption debate is typically framed around the concept of an impenetrable link connecting two services whose communications the government wishes to monitor. The reality, of course, is that the security of that encryption link is entirely separate from the security of the devices it connects. The ability of encryption to shield a user’s communications Read more about Facebook’s answer to the encryption debate: install spyware with content filters! (updated: maybe not)[…]
Deep TabNine is what’s known as a coding autocompleter. Programmers can install it as an add-on in their editor of choice, and when they start writing, it’ll suggest how to continue each line, offering small chunks at a time. Think of it as Gmail’s Smart Compose feature but for code. Machine learning can seriously improve Read more about Deep TabNine AI-powered autocompletion software is Gmail’s Smart Compose for coders[…]
For example, aspirin was discovered in 1897, and an explanation of how it works followed in 1995. That, in turn, has spurred some research leads on making better pain relievers through something other than trial and error. This kind of discovery — answers first, explanations later — I call “intellectual debt.” We gain insight into Read more about Intellectual Debt (in AI): With Great Power Comes Great Ignorance[…]
Why do these things correlate? These 15 correlations will blow your mind. (Is this headline sensationalist enough for you to click on it yet?) Source: Spurious Correlations
Electricity output was curtailed at six reactors by 0840 GMT on Thursday, while two other reactors were offline, data showed. High water temperatures and sluggish flows limit the ability to use river water to cool reactors. In Germany, PreussenElektra, the nuclear unit of utility E.ON, said it would take its Grohnde reactor offline on Friday Read more about Hot weather cuts French, German nuclear power output by ~ 8%[…]
First Amazon, then Google, and now Apple have all confirmed that their devices are not only listening to you, but complete strangers may be reviewing the recordings. Thanks to Siri, Apple contractors routinely catch intimate snippets of users’ private lives like drug deals, doctor’s visits, and sexual escapades as part of their quality control duties, Read more about Apple Contractors Reportedly Overhear Sensitive Information and Sexy Times Thanks to Siri[…]
The majority of YouTube videos about the climate crisis oppose the scientific consensus and “hijack” technical terms to make them appear credible, a new study has found. Researchers have warned that users searching the video site to learn about climate science may be exposed to content that goes against mainstream scientific belief. Dr Joachim Allgaier Read more about Most YouTube climate change videos ‘oppose the consensus view’[…]
Using a technique to 3D-print liquids, the scientists created millimeter-size droplets from water, oil and iron-oxides. The liquid droplets keep their shape because some of the iron-oxide particles bind with surfactants — substances that reduce the surface tension of a liquid. The surfactants create a film around the liquid water, with some iron-oxide particles creating Read more about In a Lab Accident, Scientists Create the First-Ever Permanently Magnetic Liquid[…]
Source: Cinemaps — Andrew DeGraff
Stock trading service Robinhood has admitted today to storing some customers’ passwords in cleartext, according to emails the company has been sending to impacted customers, and seen by ZDNet. “On Monday night, we discovered that some user credentials were stored in a readable format within our internal system,” the company said. “We resolved the issue, Read more about Robinhood fintech app admits to storing some passwords in cleartext[…]
The scientific consensus that humans are causing global warming is likely to have passed 99%, according to the lead author of the most authoritative study on the subject, and could rise further after separate research that clears up some of the remaining doubts. Three studies published in Nature and Nature Geoscience use extensive historical data Read more about ‘No doubt left’ about scientific consensus on global warming, say experts[…]
Some models of Airbus A350 airliners still need to be hard rebooted after exactly 149 hours, despite warnings from the EU Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) first issued two years ago. In a mandatory airworthiness directive (AD) reissued earlier this week, EASA urged operators to turn their A350s off and on again to prevent “partial or Read more about Airbus A350 software bug forces airlines to turn planes off and on every 149 hours – must have borrowed some old Boeing 787 code[…]
France will develop satellites armed with laser weapons, and will use the weapons against enemy satellites that threaten the country’s space forces. The announcement is just part of a gradual shift in acceptance of space-based weaponry as countries reliant on space for military operations in the air, on land, and at sea—as well as for Read more about France Is Making Space-Based Anti-Satellite Laser Weapons[…]
The two worked together to bring a training method called Population Based Training (PBT for short) to bear on Waymo’s challenge of building better virtual drivers, and the results were impressive — DeepMind says in a blog post that using PBT decreased by 24% false positives in a network that identifies and places boxes around Read more about Waymo and DeepMind mimic evolution to develop a new, better way to train self-driving AI[…]
In June 2017, the notorious file-scrambling software nasty NotPetya caused global havoc that affected government agencies, power suppliers, healthcare providers and big biz. The ransomware sought out vulnerabilities and used a modified version of the NSA’s leaked EternalBlue SMB exploit, generating one of the most financially costly cyber-attacks to date. Among the victims was US Read more about Cyberlaw wonks squint at NotPetya insurance smackdown: Should ‘war exclusion’ clauses apply to network hacks?[…]
After nearly a decade in court, Google has agreed to pay $13 million in a class-action lawsuit alleging its Street View program collected people’s private data over wifi from 2007 to 2010. In addition to the moolah, the settlement—filed Friday in San Francisco—also calls for Google to destroy all the collected data and teach people Read more about Google to Pay only $13 Million for sniffing passwords and emails over your wifi using Street View cars between 2007 – 2010[…]