Public Service Internet

It sounds innocent enough. But users are growing suspicious of the app's whimsical, canned questions, many of which read like a marketing survey.

Describes an API for direct access to Universal Serial Bus devices from web pages.

Episode 55: This week we discuss why some people believe that their devices are always watching or listening to them. Oh, and whether or not it's true. Companies are finding more creative ways to target ads and content and consumers are consenting every day. But what are they consenting to?

"Imagine buying an internet-enabled surveillance camera, network attached storage device, or home automation gizmo, only to find that it secretly and constantly phones home to a vast peer-to-peer (P2P) network run by the Chinese manufacturer of the hardware. Now imagine that the geek gear you bought doesn't actually let you block this P2P communication without some serious networking expertise or hardware surgery that few users would attempt."

" Documenting design patterns for personal data sharing, example uses and research. Work in progress. "

"YOU ACKNOWLEDGE AND AGREE THAT ANY INFORMATION YOU SEND OR RECEIVE DURING YOUR USE OF THE SITE MAY NOT BE SECURE AND MAY BE INTERCEPTED OR LATER ACQUIRED BY UNAUTHORIZED PARTIES"

"Data in the 21st Century is on view at V2_ Rotterdam until 14-2-2016. On 12-2 Lev Manovich will give a lecture as part of the closing event of Data in the 21st Century. Gupta starts of with discussing the fashions of data in the past, present and future. He then goes on to discuss how data affects everything, from everyday things like dating till new forms of governance or the economy at large. He finishes his lecture by describing what we can expect in the near future."

"You are being watched. Private and state-sponsored organizations are monitoring and recording your online activities. privacytools.io provides knowledge and tools to protect your privacy against global mass surveillance."

Uber, realizing it had hundreds of millions of people in its back seats as a captive audience, just announced it will allow third-party apps the ability to serve up notifications, content, or ads to its users during their trips. The notifications would be customized to the length and locations of each person's ride, but only with permission from the user.

"A Ford safety feature has also turned out to be a way to track badly-behaved drivers."

"If you need to reverse-engineer a USB protocol on a computer running Linux, your work is easy because you control everything on the target system - you can just look at the raw USB data. If you'd like to reverse-engineer a USB device that plugs into a game console, on the other hand, your work is a lot harder. Until now."

"Late yesterday European institutions finally agreed the text of new data protection rules (GDPR), more than three years after new regulation was proposed. The 28 Member States of the European Union will have two years to transpose the provisions of the GDPR into their national laws, with the regulation set to come into force from 2018."

New York City amasses data on habits, health and security of its citizens to cope with spiralling growth

"While the Philips Hue system is based on open technologies we are not able to ensure all products from other brands are tested and fully interoperable with all of our software updates. For guaranteed compatibility you need to use Philips Hue or certified Friends of Hue products"

Purchasers of the Philips Hue "smart" ambient lighting system are finding out that the new firmware pushed out by the manufacturer has cut off access to previously-supported lightbulbs.

Alex DS explores the role of the kitchen and gender in the homelabkitchen