Category «United States Law»

Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, August 23, 2025

Privacy and cybersecurity issues impact every aspect of our lives – home, work, travel, education, finance, health and medical records – to name but a few. On a weekly basis Pete Weiss highlights articles and information that focus on the increasingly complex and wide ranging ways technology is used to compromise and diminish our privacy and online security, often without our situational awareness. Five highlights from this week: Foundations for OT Cybersecurity: Asset Inventory Guidance for Owners and Operators; How poisoned data can trick AI − and how to stop it; This Is How They Know You’re Using a VPN; Swedish startup unveils Starlink alternative — that Musk can’t switch off; and Burner Phone 101 Workshop.

Subjects: AI, Cybercrime, Cybersecurity, Privacy

Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, August 9, 2025

Privacy and cybersecurity issues impact every aspect of our lives – home, work, travel, education, finance, health and medical records – to name but a few. On a weekly basis Pete Weiss highlights articles and information that focus on the increasingly complex and wide ranging ways technology is used to compromise and diminish our privacy and online security, often without our situational awareness. Five highlights from this week: States Have More Data About You Than the Feds Do. Trump Wants to See It; Instagram Map lets your friends, and possibly exes, track your every move; Samsung phones can detect AI voice phishing attacks with One UI 8; Uber Gets Report of Sexual Misconduct Every 8 Minutes; and Home Depot and Lowe’s Share Data From Hundreds of AI Cameras With Cops.

Subjects: AI, Cybercrime, Cybersecurity, Email Security, Federal Legislative Research, Legal Research, Privacy, Search Engines

Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, August 3, 2025

Privacy and cybersecurity issues impact every aspect of our lives – home, work, travel, education, finance, health and medical records – to name but a few. On a weekly basis Pete Weiss highlights articles and information that focus on the increasingly complex and wide ranging ways technology is used to compromise and diminish our privacy and online security, often without our situational awareness. Five highlights from this week: Online Scams and Attacks in America Today; You probably should not use link shorteners; Is Your Phone Call Really Private?; Malicious extensions can use ChatGPT to steal your personal data – here’s how; The food supply chain has a cybersecurity problem; and Why Smart People Fall for False Information and What to do About It.

Subjects: AI, Cryptocurrency, Cybercrime, Cybersecurity, Education, Health, Legal Research, Privacy, Search Engines, Social Media

The Trump Administration’s Continued War Against Science, Research and Public Health

Sabrina I. Pacifici’s overview of selected articles highlights the devastating impact of the Trump administration’s dismantling of agencies across the federal government, with a focus on cancelling critical scientific and health related research grants, as reported in July, 2025. The total cancellation of funds is escalating as grant suspensions are ongoing, but it is in the billions of dollars. Unilateral, sweeping and rapid actions are targeting a wide range of projects, programs, education and funding for research on critical health issues including: Alzheimers’, cancer, the climate crisis, weather and forecasting, vaccines, HIV, infectious diseases, food and drug safety, fossil fuels, air and water pollution.

Subjects: Climate Change, Education, Energy, Federal Legislative Research, Freedom of Information, Government Resources, Healthcare, KM

How to Get AI Out of Your Google Search Results

John R. Platt, Editor of the The Revelator, a news and ideas initiative of the Center for Biological Diversity, reports on how three simple keystrokes will deliver search results that consume less energy and water — and probably contain better information.

Subjects: AI, Climate Change, Energy, Environmental Law, Legal Research, Search Engines, Search Strategies, Technology Trends

Fair Use in the Age of AI: When Training Isn’t Copying, and Licensing Isn’t the Law

Kyle K. Courtney, both lawyer and librarian, is the Director of Copyright and Information Policy for Harvard Library. He guides us through the rapidly evolving legal landscape around artificial intelligence and copyright where two district court opinions now serve as early landmarks. As a result of these recent decisions, he concludes that the case is even stronger, and far more compelling, for libraries doing the same work in service of research, education, and public access.

Subjects: AI, Copyright, Courts & Technology, Legal Research, Libraries & Librarians, Search Engines, Social Media, Technology Trends, United States Law

Trump Administration Looking to Slash Environmental Protection Rules for Rocket Launches

A draft executive order viewed by ProPublica’s Heather Vogell and Topher Sanders directs the secretary of transportation to “use all available authorities to eliminate or expedite” environmental reviews for launch licenses — a change Elon Musk’s SpaceX and others have long sought.

Subjects: Climate Change, Environmental Law, Healthcare

Can you trust climate information? How and why powerful players are misleading the public

Professors Klaus Bruhn Jensen and Semahat Ece Elbeyi are media and communication researchers focusing on environmental communication. Recently, they joined a team of 14 researchers who investigated misinformation about climate change for the International Panel on the Information Environment. Our team carried out the most comprehensive review to date of scientific research on climate misinformation and disinformation. Climate misinformation is when people make mistaken claims about climate change and spread incorrect information. Climate disinformation is where false information is spread deliberately – for example, corporations that “greenwash” their products so that they can sell more. (Greenwashing is where false claims are made that products or services are environmentally friendly when they aren’t). They reviewed 300 studies published between 2015 and 2025, all of which centred on climate misinformation. Our study found that the human response to the climate crisis is being obstructed and delayed by the production and circulation of misleading information. They found that this is being done by powerful economic and political interests, such as fossil fuel companies, populist political parties, and some nation states.

Subjects: Climate Change, Energy, Environmental Law, Legal Research

President Trump’s tug-of-war with the courts, explained

Paul M. Collins Jr. is a scholar of the federal courts. The reasons why some courts have multiple judges and others have a single judge can be confusing. His guide helps readers understand what’s going on in the federal courts.

Subjects: Legal Research, United States Law