Communications of the ACM
Innovation Is Overrated: A Provocation
Digital innovation is not working in the interest of the whole of society. It is time to radically rethink its purpose without…
From ACM Opinion
Glenn Greenwald's Pulse-Pounding Tale of Breaking the Snowden Leaks
In June 2013, Edward Snowden was sitting in his room at the Mira hotel in Hong Kong, watching the world react to the first of his explosive leaks about the NSA's...
From ACM Opinion
The Peril of Knowledge Everywhere
Thanks to advances in technology, we may soon revisit a question raised four centuries ago: Are there things we should try not to know?
From ACM Opinion
The Not-So-Distant Future When We Can All pgrade Our Brains
In a decade, cognitive enhancement may have gone mainstream.
From ACM Opinion
Here's How to Learn How Much Your Data Is Worth to Facebook and Google
The anti-virus software company AVG has created PrivacyFix, an app to help you get a handle on just how much you're worth to big-time data players Facebook and...
From ACM Opinion
Former Head of the Nsa and Commander of the S Cyber Command, General Keith Alexander
Recently retired director of the U.S. National Security Agency and commander of the U.S. Cyber Command General Keith Alexander was interviewed by Australian Financial...
From ACM Opinion
The Wizard of Minecraft
It's a wet monday morning in Stockholm, and the door to Markus Persson's office is closed.
From ACM Opinion
The Move Toward Computing That Reads Your Mind
Like many people in this modern world, I struggle with the tension between the conveniences offered by the latest technology and the loss of privacy that comes...
From ACM Opinion
Computer Mice: Still a Thing
For decades, the mouse was a key component of how one interacted with a computer.
From ACM Opinion
4 Ways the Political Elite Try (and Fail) to Avoid Leaving a Trail of Incriminating Messages
The most powerful people in the country are just not as good as teenagers when it comes to being discreet. Mostly that’s by design—there are freedom of information...
From ACM Opinion
Can an Algorithm Solve Twitter's Credibility Problem?
On October 29, 2012, when Hurricane Sandy made landfall, I was in my Brooklyn apartment, refreshing Twitter.
From ACM Opinion
The White House Big Data Report: The Good, The Bad, and The Missing
Last week, the White House released its report on big data and its privacy implications, the result of a 90-day study commissioned by President Obama during his...
From ACM Opinion
The Secret Messages Inside Chinese rls
An American friend living in Beijing once said she refused to communicate with anyone whose email address consisted of a string of numbers, such as 62718298454@163...
From ACM Opinion
Mark Zuckerberg on Facebook's Future, From Virtual Reality to Anonymity
No one ever accused Mark Zuckerberg of standing pat.
From ACM News
How Cloud Storage Complicates the Supreme Court Debate Over Cell Phone Privacy
Should police be able to search the contents of your smartphone without a warrant?
From ACM News
Cyborg Angst: 5 Ways Computers Will Perplex S in 2039
Brain chips mean we are struggling to distinguish our own thoughts from ideas implanted by advertisers.
From ACM Opinion
How to Build a Gesture-Controlled Web Game with Leap Motion
Modern smartphones have helped shed a light on the power of user interfaces that are driven by gesture and touch. It’s increasingly clear that touch will play a...
From ACM Opinion
Farewell Nokia: The Rise and Fall of a Mobile Pioneer
You never forget your first cellphone.
From ACM Opinion
Putin's Fear of the Internet
In the mid-nineteen-sixties, Brezhnev's Soviet Union introduced a law aimed at stifling ideological dissent.
From ACM Opinion