data mining

17 Stories

Apple's Wozniak Dumps Facebook: 'More Negatives Than Positives'

Apple co-founder has deactivated his account over data commotion

(Newser) - One of the biggest names in tech says he's defecting from one of tech's biggest platforms. Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak told USA Today in an email Sunday he's leaving Facebook due to privacy concerns in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica data-mining scandal. "Users provide every...

Next Week, a Congressional Grilling for Mark Zuckerberg

Facebook CEO to testify next Wednesday in front of House committee on his site's use of user data

(Newser) - The leaders of a House oversight committee say Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg will testify before the panel next Wednesday. In an announcement Wednesday, Reps. Greg Walden and Frank Pallone say the hearing will focus on Facebook's "use and protection of user data." Facebook is facing scrutiny over...

Facebook Made Him Rich. Now He Says Delete the Site

Brian Acton is co-founder of WhatsApp, which Facebook bought for $19B

(Newser) - WhatsApp co-founder Brian Acton made a fortune when the messaging app was acquired by Facebook for $19 billion in 2014. Now he says it's time to dump the social media site. "It is time. #deletefacebook ," Acton tweeted Tuesday as the Cambridge Analytica data-mining scandal deepened. Acton remained...

Data Mining Might Have Stopped 9/11: FBI Chief

Robert Mueller takes his turn on Capitol Hill

(Newser) - Various security officials have made the case that the government's phone and Internet surveillance is necessary to keep the country safe, but FBI chief Robert Mueller brought out the big guns during testimony on Capitol Hill today. Had this kind of data mining been in place 13 years ago,...

To ID Rich Donors, Romney Uses Secret Data-Mining

Marketing databases reveal purchase history, family details

(Newser) - Team Obama may no longer be the data-savviest kid on the block. Mitt Romney's campaign is running a behind-the-scenes operation that uses data mining to ID potential donors—rich ones. Texas analytics firm Buxton has been employed by Romney to analyze thousands of databases containing a trove of legally...

Mac User? Orbitz Makes You Pay Up

 Mac User? Orbitz 
 Makes You Pay Up 
in case you missed it
Jun 30, 2012 12:15 PM CDT

Mac User? Orbitz Makes You Pay Up

Travel website sends Mac users to nicer hotels

(Newser) - Orbitz has found that Mac users drop about 30% more per night on hotels than PC users, so now the travel website is ever-so-helpfully directing Mac users to nicer hotels, reports the Wall Street Journal . Even when Orbitz sends Mac users to the same hotel, it often suggests fancier options....

Your Online Privacy Is Shot —but Don't Sweat It

Time's Joel Stein thinks the benefits of data mining outweigh the costs

(Newser) - It's a fact of modern life: If you go online, know that you're being tracked and that data mining companies are selling bits of information about you—websites you visit, the apps you use, etc.—to any willing buyer. With Congress ready to start hearings next week on ways...

'Scrapers' Sell Personal Info Ripped From Web

It's perfectly legal and very intrusive

(Newser) - The line between research and invasion of privacy has never been so thin as with data "scraping"—the practice of rapidly collecting massive amounts of personal data from the web to sell as consumer research. The Wall Street Journal zeroes in on the experience of PatientsLikeMe.com, a...

FBI Database Tracks Hotel Reservations, Car Rentals

(Newser) - Big Brother alert: A data-mining system set up by the FBI ostensibly to catch terrorists is quickly growing into a database that tracks the comings and goings of ordinary citizens. The database has tens of thousands of records from private corporations, including some Wyndham hotel reservations, Avis car rentals, and...

No Child Left Unrecruited
No Child Left Unrecruited
analysis
Sep 1, 2009 3:32 PM CDT

No Child Left Unrecruited

Pentagon uses NCLB, other sneaky means to get info on teens in high school

(Newser) - The military is using a host of behind-the-scenes methods—including the No Child Left Behind Act—to gather information on high school students for recruitment, writes David Goodman in Mother Jones. A little-known provision in NCLB, for instance, requires schools that get funding to supply recruiters with info on all...

Google Mentor Dead in Freak Swimming Accident

(Newser) - A Stanford computer science professor who mentored Google's founders has drowned in his swimming pool, the San Jose Mercury News reports. Rajeev Motwani, 47, who could not swim, drowned at his Atherton, Calif., home, leaving a wife, two daughters, and many admirers in Silicon Valley. “It's a rare combination...

Feds Forge National Crime Dragnet
Feds Forge National Crime Dragnet
Mar 6, 2008 11:23 AM CST

Feds Forge National Crime Dragnet

Link data of local police agencies for instantaneous search

(Newser) - Law enforcement agencies all over the country are building a new information "dragnet" that will dramatically boost data-sharing,  the Washington Post reports. This month the Justice Department will begin hooking up local and county police forces to the new federal National Data Exchange, creating a "one-stop-shop" that...

Company Yanks Online Cell Directory

90 million numbers taken offline after consumers freaked out

(Newser) - Data company Intelius scoured business records and other sources and managed to compile around half the cellphone numbers in America, MSNBC reports. When it put those 90 million numbers online, available to anybody paying a $15 fee, people were outraged. Consumers were shocked to find their private cellphone numbers were...

Airline Sleuths Dig Up Data to Save Lives

Flight record scans reveal hidden risks, prevent crashes

(Newser) - Airlines and air safety investigators have a new way to snoop for clues that can help avoid future accidents, the Washington Post reports. While they once depended on crash remains for evidence, they have now gone digital, pursuing daily probes of thousands of computer records and pilots' reports to dig...

Data Digger Arms Pols With Dirt on Voters

Gives scoop on your friends, arrests, finances, web habits

(Newser) - Political data miner Aristotle Inc has worked for every president since Reagan, 200 House candidates last year, and several current presidential hopefuls. Now the firm’s founder is debuting technology that breaks ground in accessing private information—revealing voters’ income, house value, conviction history, and even online behavior. One privacy...

CIA, Wal-Mart, Fox News Purge Wiki Entries

Hacker reveals vanity changes to online encyclopedia articles

(Newser) - A new data-mining tool has tracked the identities of the anonymous users who make edits to Wikipedia entries—and revealed that Wal-Mart, voting-machine magnate Diebold, and even Fox News have tried to bowdlerize or spin their appearances in the online encyclopedia. And they're not the only ones, Wired reports.

DNI Exposes Broader Spying
DNI Exposes Broader Spying
Aug 1, 2007 4:42 PM CDT

DNI Exposes Broader Spying

Gonzales still under fire for perjury

(Newser) - The executive branch has had more authority to spy on citizens than yet reported, the Washington Post revealed today. Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell explained yesterday that the controversial NSA warrantless wiretapping and data mining program was only one element in a broader series of secret surveillance activities issued...

17 Stories