In The News

The Omnipresent Craft: Graft

Nayan Chanda February 4, 2014
The “opening up of a country to trade and investment has created opportunities for bribery and corruption on a scale greater than at any other time in the past,” writes Nayan Chanda, YaleGlobal’s editor, in his column for Businessworld. But the internet rallies citizens to protest corruption, too. Corruption in politics or business – including bribes and kickbacks, abuse of power, nepotism,...

“Snowden Effect” Threatens US Tech Industry's Global Ambitions

Gerry Smith January 28, 2014
Claims by a former US National Security Agency contract worker that multinational companies like Google, Facebook and Microsoft cooperate in handing over user data has reduced global trust in the US tech industry. Equally alarming are Edward Snowden’s claims that the US engages in industrial espionage. “The impact of the Snowden leaks could threaten the future architecture of the modern Internet...

Per Fars News Agency, US Run by Nazi Aliens

Max Fisher January 24, 2014
The gulf between Iran and the United States is wide. Iran’s Fars News Agency reports that US National Security Agency documents released by a former contract worker suggest that a shadow government of aliens ran Nazi Germany, intent on world domination, and now runs the United States, also intent on world domination. The report, labeled under the category of “space,” emerges as the United States...

Sharing NHS Data Saves Lives

Jeremy Farrar January 15, 2014
Governments increasingly promote digital health records to ensure better tracking of individual patients and public health trends. A dilemma has emerged about who controls such data: Some argue that healthcare funded by taxpayers should be subject to review; others focus on patient privacy. Writing for the Telegraph, physician Jeremy Farrar explains how children are rarely used in randomized...

Panel Urges Curbs on US Surveillance

Ellen Nakashima, Ashkan Soltani December 19, 2013
A panel of experts appointed by President Barack Obama to review US surveillance methods has recommended limits for the National Security Agency. Currently the NSA collects and stores many US phone records. Among the 46 recommendations: storage of US phone records by telephone companies or another third party rather than the government; court approval for specific records of US citizens; a...

Why We Can’t Let American Tech Take Over the World

Sean Madden December 17, 2013
Apps, designs, websites and other technology exports wield great cultural influence, argues Sean Madden in Wired, adding “Our iPads, Fuelbands and Xboxes may be made in China, but they’re the products of an emphatically American cultural mindset…. Even the major electronics innovators of Asia have centered their user experience design efforts in the U.S.” Marketing for products tout individuality...

NSA Uses Google Cookies to Pinpoint Hacking Targets

Ashkan Soltani, Andrea Peterson, Barton Gellman December 16, 2013
The US National Security Agency has taken advantage of internet advertising tracking to pinpoint targets for surveillance, reports the Washington Post, based on internal documents provided by former NSA contract worker Edward Snowden. “For years, privacy advocates have raised concerns about the use of commercial tracking tools to identify and target consumers with advertisements,” reports the...