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
Edward Snowden Issues 'call to Arms' For Tech Companies in Secret Sxsw Meeting
NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden was a highlight of last year's SXSW, where he gave one of his first public speeches. This year, Snowden was back at SXSW—but only...
From ACM Opinion
How Isis Succeeds on Social Media Where #stopkony Fails
Social networks offer an incredible tool for tapping into the collective unconscious, a virtual Jungian arena in which competition might be expected to amplify...
From ACM Opinion
Don't Want Nsa to Spy on Your Email? 5 Things You Can Do
More than half of Americans are worried about the U.S. government's digital spies prying into their emails, texts, search requests and other online information,...
From ACM Opinion
So Sayeth Google
Search for "vaccines." At least within our filter bubble, the top item in Google's "In the news" section earlier this week was an anti-vax column about the "feds'...
From ACM Opinion
Data and Goliath: Bruce Schneier on the Hidden Battles to Collect Your Data and Control Your World
The book chronicles how governments and corporation have built an unprecedented surveillance state.
From ACM Opinion
Teaching Robots to Be Moral
"Chappie," the highest-grossing movie in America last weekend, is, to put it mildly, not a great film; the critics have given it a twenty-nine on Rotten Tomatoes...
From ACM Opinion
Don't Edit the Human Germ Line
It is thought that studies involving the use of genome-editing tools to modify the DNA of human embryos will be published shortly.
From ACM Opinion
The Disastrous Events That Would Break the Internet
The Internet is unbreakable. At least, we think it is.
From ACM Opinion
If an Algorithm Wrote This, How Would You Even Know?
Let me hazard a guess that you think a real person has written what you're reading. Maybe you're right. Maybe not.
From ACM Opinion
Smartphones Set For Large-Scale Health Studies
Countless owners of smartphones and wearable devices are already using their devices to track their sleep, exercise, blood pressure and other measures of health...
From ACM Opinion
Year Zero: Our Life Timelines Begin
In 10 years, every human connected to the Internet will have a timeline.
From ACM Opinion
The Mathematics Behind Internet Virality
For a few days in late February, the world stopped to argue over a photograph.
From ACM Opinion
How to Restore Trust in American Technology
Last November in the town of Wuzhen, China hosted its first large international summit on Internet governance and cybersecurity.
From ACM Opinion
There Is Actually One Thing You Can Do to Fight the Surveillance Machine
Reading this right now?
From ACM Opinion
Are Your Devices Hardwired For Betrayal?
It's an interesting time to be a computer security researcher.
From ACM Opinion
After Net Neutrality Vote, an ncertain Future For the Internet
Thursday, during a rancorous meeting of the Federal Communications Commission, the agencyvoted 3-2 to impose public utility regulations on Internet access providers...
From ACM Opinion
The World Loves the Smartphone. So How About a Smart Home?
My coffee maker is texting me again. It's scheduled to make coffee tomorrow, the message says, but I need to refill its water tank.
From ACM Opinion
Why Everyone Was Wrong About Net Neutrality
Today, the Federal Communications Commission, by a vote of three to two, enacted its strongest-ever rules on net neutrality, preserving an open Internet by prohibiting...
From ACM Opinion