The NBER put out a series of reports about algorithmic studies on the share of a teachers’ value-added effect on their students’ student achievement. NBER researchers re-did the analysis of teacher effect on different outcomes such as student height growth and found equally strong correlations.
The EU initiated a new antitrust probe around Google and Facebook’s data collection.
The Senate is holding a hearing today to discuss privacy bills in Congress.
The Intercept released new reporting on Ring — the Amazon-owned video doorbell company. The journalism outlet is reporting that Ring has internal planning documents about using AI paired with its devices to create AI-enabled “neighborhood watchlists.” Ring denies all of the allegations.
The New York Times reported this week that Chinese scientists are attempting to combine DNA and facial recognition databases so that DNA samples can be used to reconstruct facial features.
The Intercept reported that the proficiency test for fingerprint scanners is an extremely low bar to pass with a high rate of false positives.
Just before Thanksgiving, Google fired four senior engineers, possibly because of their internal activism. They have filed a complaint with NLRB.
Brian Krebs showed iPhone 11 Pros have been transmitting location data even when turned off.
Facebook deleted the Facebook accounts of employees of NSO, the Israeli spyware firm hacked WhatsApp to track human rights activists, journalists, political dissidents, and others. This week, NSO filed a lawsuit against Facebook in Israel for deleting user accounts.
There was a suit filed in Israel against the Ministry of Justice’s “Cyber Department.” Normally, there’s a voluntary model in which the Department requests that Facebook/Google remove content and points out where terms of service have been violated (hate crimes, elections influencing, etc.). The new suit alleges that this procedure lacks process, violating constitutional and administrative norms.
Two days ago, a federal court said people who have been victims of a Facebook data breach are not allowed to bring a class action suit for damages against the internet company , but they may sue to force Facebook to adopt better practices.
(Compiled by student fellow Tom McBrien.)