Communications of the ACM
Generative AI Degrades Online Communities
How large language models are influencing online communities.
From ACM Opinion
How Cambridge Analytica's Facebook Targeting Model Really Worked, According to the Person Who Built It
The researcher whose work is at the center of the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica data analysis and political advertising uproar has revealed that his method worked...
From ACM Opinion
Ready Player One: We Are Surprisingly Close to Realizing Just Such a VR Dystopia
I was fortunate enough to catch a preview screening of Ready Player One, Steven Spielberg's adaptation of Ernest Cline's futuristic novel.
From ACM Opinion
sing Blockchain to Secure the 'Internet of Things'
The world is full of connected devices—and more are coming. In 2017, there were an estimated 8.4 billion internet-enabled thermostats, cameras, streetlights and...
From ACM Opinion
Your Mobile Phone Can Give Away Your Location, Even If You Tell It Not to
U.S. military officials were recently caught off guard by revelations that servicemembers' digital fitness trackers were storing the locations of their workouts—including...
From ACM Opinion
Trust in Digital Technology Will Be the Internet's Next Frontier, For 2018 and Beyond
After decades of unbridled enthusiasm—bordering on addiction—about all things digital, the public may be losing trust in technology.
From ACM Opinion
Real Security Requires Strong Encryption–even If Investigators Get Blocked
The FBI and the U.S. Department of Justice have been fighting against easy, widespread public access to encryption technologies for 25 years.
From ACM Opinion
How the Chinese Cyberthreat Has evolved
With more than half of its 1.4 billion people online, the world's most populous country is home to a slew of cyberspies and hackers.
From ACM Opinion
The Only Safe Email Is text-Only email
It's troubling to think that at any moment you might open an email that looks like it comes from your employer, a relative or your bank, only to fall for a ...
From ACM Opinion
Tracing the Sources of Today's Russian cyberthreat
Beyond carrying all of our phone, text and internet communications, cyberspace is an active battleground, with cybercriminals, government agents and even military...
From ACM Opinion
End-to-End Encryption Isn't Enough Security For 'real people'
Government officials continue to seek technology companies' help fighting terrorism and crime. But the most commonly proposed solution would severely limit regular...
From ACM Opinion
Building Privacy Right Into Software code
When I was 15, my parents did not allow me to use AOL Instant Messenger. All of my friends used it, so I had to find a way around this rule.
From ACM Opinion
Helping or Hacking? Engineers and Ethicists Must Work Together On brain-Computer interface Technology
In the 1995 film "Batman Forever," the Riddler used 3-D television to secretly access viewers' most personal thoughts in his hunt for Batman's true identity.
From ACM Opinion
7 in 10 Smartphone Apps Share Your Data with Third-Party Services
Our mobile phones can reveal a lot about ourselves: where we live and work; who our family, friends and acquaintances are; how (and even what) we communicate with...
From ACM Opinion
Melding Mind and Machine: How Close Are We?
Just as ancient Greeks fantasized about soaring flight, today's imaginations dream of melding minds and machines as a remedy to the pesky problem of human mortality...
From ACM Opinion
Cybersecurity's Next Phase: cyber-Deterrence
Cyberattackers pose many threats to a wide range of targets. Russia, for example, was accused of hacking Democratic Party computers throughout the year, interfering...
From ACM Opinion
Why Save a Computer Virus?
On average, 82,000 new malware threats are created each day.
From ACM Opinion
After Fatality, Autonomous Car Development May Speed p
The world has witnessed enormous advances in autonomous passenger vehicle technologies over the last dozen years.
From ACM Opinion
How Risky Are the World Economic Forum's Top 10 Emerging Technologies For 2016?
Take an advanced technology. Add a twist of fantasy. Stir well, and watch the action unfold.
From ACM Opinion
What Makes a 'smart Gun' Smart?
Every time a toddler accidentally shoots a friend or family member, a teen kills himself via gunshot or a shooter perpetrates an act of mass violence, public discussion...
From ACM Opinion
How Wwi Codebreakers Taught Your Gas Meter to Snitch on You
In the depths of night on August 5th 1914 the British Cable Ship Alert took the first significant action of World War I, severing the five German submarine cables...12