It should be noted that an early, if not first, instance of an online physical attack on a person has… Read More
Alexa Called as Witness?
By Jim Isaak on December 29th, 2016 in Articles, Privacy & Security
“Alexa, tell me, in your own words, what happened on the night in question.” Actually the request is more like,… Read More
Who’s Monitoring the Baby Monitors?
By Guest Author on December 14th, 2016 in Articles, Privacy & Security
Guest Blog entry by Cassie Phillips With the recent, record-breaking distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks carried out with hijacked Internet-of-Things… Read More
Big Brother/Big Data 2016
By Jim Isaak on December 1st, 2016 in Articles, Privacy & Security
The powers of big data, AI/analytics, and subtle data collection are now converging to a future only hinted at in Orwell’s 1984.
Who Do You Want Listening In at Your Home?
By Jim Isaak on November 9th, 2016 in Articles, Privacy & Security
With Siri and Alexa, you are being asked to “bug your house” with a device that listens to every noise in the house.
Lost in Translation – Building a Common Language for Regulating Autonomous Weapons
By terribookman on October 13th, 2016 in Magazine Articles, Societal Impact
by Marc Canellas and Rachel Haga Autonomous weapons systems (AWS) are already here. Although some of the colloquial names for… Read More
Ethics of Killing with Robots
By Jim Isaak on July 20th, 2016 in Articles, Ethics, Societal Impact
The ability to kill a target from a “position of safety” is essentially the basic design criteria for many weapon systems.
T&S Magazine Wins STC Award
By terribookman on January 19th, 2016 in Social Implications of Technology
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine, the flagship publication of the IEEE Society on Social Implications of Technology, has won a… Read More
Eavesdropping Barbie?
By Jim Isaak on March 17th, 2015 in Articles, Privacy & Security, Robotics, Societal Impact
Should children have toys that can combine speech recognition with a Wi-Fi connection to capture and respond to them, and that potentially are able to record their conversations as well as feed them “messages”? Welcome to the world of Hello Barbie.
Who is Watching My Car — Car Monitoring
By Jim Isaak on March 13th, 2015 in Articles, Privacy & Security
The insurance company’s privacy policy does not allow them to collect the data that their web page claims this device will collect — so clearly privacy is an afterthought.
Who is Driving Your Car? Car Hacking
By Jim Isaak on February 21st, 2015 in Articles, Privacy & Security
A recent CBS Sixty Minutes program interviewed folks at U.S. DARPA, including a demonstration of how a recent hacking of… Read More
U.S. States Use Big Data to Catch Big Thieves
By Jim Isaak on December 3rd, 2014 in Articles, Case Studies, Societal Impact
Various states in the U.S. are using big data tools, such as the Lexus-Nexus database, to identify people who are… Read More
Cyberwar and Social Impact
By Jim Isaak on October 20th, 2014 in Articles, Societal Impact
Cyber attacks are increasing. What might be done about this, by technologists, by citizens, or by nation states?
“Reality” Covers it Well
By Jim Isaak on June 13th, 2014 in Human Impacts
The issue of how video games or movies affect behavior is a recurrent topic in academic and public discourse.
Technology – Society – Issue / Solution – du jour – Feb. 18, 2014
By Luis Kun on June 9th, 2014 in Case Studies, Privacy & Security
The intention of this blog-segment is to bring up a current problem caused by technology and discuss not only its… Read More
Event – John Villasenor and cryptocurrencies
By ieeessit on March 13th, 2014 in Societal Impact
Please join us at 4PM EDT on March 17 for a discussion on cryptocurrencies with John Villasenor, a non-resident senior fellow… Read More
Volume 12. Issue 1.Winter 2014
By ieeessit on February 11th, 2014 in Newsletter
Editor: Deepak Mathur Message from the President IEEE SSIT This past year, 2013, was a busy year for me, and… Read More
IEEE Society on the Social Implications of Technology
By ieeessit on May 5th, 2013 in Social Implications of Technology
Katina Michael at the University of Wollongong, guest editor of the June 2013 Computer magazine special issue on Big Data:… Read More
The Citizen Surveillance State
By laurajacob on April 19th, 2013 in Privacy & Security, Social Implications of Technology, Societal Impact
Like everyone, I listened to the news about the Boston Marathon bombings on Monday afternoon with horror. I’m not from… Read More
Food Technology
By laurajacob on April 15th, 2013 in Ethics, Health & Medical, Social Implications of Technology, Societal Impact
My boyfriend just gave me a sous vide machine. So of course, I spent hours today reading not just about… Read More
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