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4 Big Problems with Social Security Numbers
From ACM Opinion

4 Big Problems with Social Security Numbers

A Social Security number is like a skeleton key, able to unlock a kingdom of untold riches for identity thieves.

What Is the Syrian Electronic Army Trying to Accomplish, Anyway?
From ACM Opinion

What Is the Syrian Electronic Army Trying to Accomplish, Anyway?

In June 2011, just a few short months after protests first erupted in Syria, the country's president, Bashar Al-Assad, made a speech in which he thanked a group...

Syrian Electronic Army Hacks Israel's Main Infrastructure Control System
From ACM Opinion

Syrian Electronic Army Hacks Israel's Main Infrastructure Control System

The Syrian Electronic Army launched a successful cyberattack on the main infrastructure system of Haifa, one of the most important ports in Israel, disrupting the...

Is Massively Open Online Education a Threat or a Blessing?
From ACM News

Is Massively Open Online Education a Threat or a Blessing?

In fall 2011, Sebastian Thrun, a research professor at Stanford, and Peter Norvig, the top scientist at Google, teamed up to develop and teach a free, online course...

From ACM Opinion

Measuring the Benefits of Tech Tools

When I was a young reporter we could not afford cellphones.

Apple: An End to Skeuomorphic Design?
From ACM Opinion

Apple: An End to Skeuomorphic Design?

Why do most smartphones make a clicking noise, like a camera shutter closing, when you take a picture with them? Why do the virtual pages of a book on a tablet...

Why Vertical Search Is Threatening Google's Reign
From ACM Opinion

Why Vertical Search Is Threatening Google's Reign

Until recently, Google has dominated search. It has been the main stomping ground for consumers looking to buy products, visit sites, or conduct research.

Bruces Sterling's Vision of the Future City
From ACM Opinion

Bruces Sterling's Vision of the Future City

In 2050, the Earth's population is expected to hit 10 billion, and 75% of those people will live in cities.

Intelligent Robots Will Overtake Humans By 2100, Experts Say
From ACM Opinion

Intelligent Robots Will Overtake Humans By 2100, Experts Say

Are you prepared to meet your robot overlords?

Superhero or Supervillain?
From ACM Opinion

Superhero or Supervillain?

From invisibility to superhuman strength to telekinesis, a wave of emerging technologies promise to give people powers once reserved for comic-book characters.

Why iPhone Accessory Makers Love Bluetooth
From ACM Careers

Why iPhone Accessory Makers Love Bluetooth

Apple's closed ecosystem is losing the battle for how we connect our mobile devices to accessories as open solutions like Bluetooth dominate over Apple's proprietary...

Why We Often View Digital Culture Through Insect Metaphors
From ACM Opinion

Why We Often View Digital Culture Through Insect Metaphors

Swarms. Hive minds. The Web.

China Sees Cyberwar as Reducing ­.s. Advantage in Future Conflict
From ACM News

China Sees Cyberwar as Reducing ­.s. Advantage in Future Conflict

It's one thing to read news concerning the latest report to Congress by the U.S. Department of Defense on China's latest military activities. But with regard to...

Personal Information Is the Currency of the 21st Century
From ACM Opinion

Personal Information Is the Currency of the 21st Century

The currency of the 21st century digital economy is your personal information. It has no transaction costs and does not decrease in value when the supply increases...

Why Fbi and CIA Didn't Connect the Dots
From ACM Opinion

Why Fbi and CIA Didn't Connect the Dots

The FBI and the CIA are being criticized for not keeping better track of Tamerlan Tsarnaev in the months before the Boston Marathon bombings.

Are All Telephone Calls Recorded and Accessible to the ­.s. Government?
From ACM Opinion

Are All Telephone Calls Recorded and Accessible to the ­.s. Government?

The real capabilities and behavior of the U.S. surveillance state are almost entirely unknown to the American public because, like most things of significance done...

It's Not About New Icons: What Jony Ive Needs to Do For Apple's Ios
From ACM Opinion

It's Not About New Icons: What Jony Ive Needs to Do For Apple's Ios

iOS 7 will be flat, as in flat design.

Digital Tattoos, Mind-Reading Headphones: The Shape of Things to Come?
From ACM Opinion

Digital Tattoos, Mind-Reading Headphones: The Shape of Things to Come?

Forecasting future technology has never been easy. In the 1950s, scientists and technologists envisaged that by now the world would be free from disease, traversed...

Why I Love the National Internet Sales Tax Plan
From ACM Opinion

Why I Love the National Internet Sales Tax Plan

The Internet, in the popular imagination, is supposed to be free—"the last bastion of our economy untouched by the government," as they say on Fox News.

Governments Won't Need to Issue Ids: Data Brokers Will Identify You For Them
From ACM Opinion

Governments Won't Need to Issue Ids: Data Brokers Will Identify You For Them

Our government collects a lot of information about us. Tax records, legal records, license records, records of government services received—it's all in databases...
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