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 Communications of the ACM
Publish Now, Judge Later
A proposal to address the problem of too many conference submissions and not enough time for reviewers to carefully evaluate each one.
From ACM Opinion
Will Your Next Phone Have No Screen?
Google is predicting a generation of screenless computing devices that rely on voice recognition, a senior engineer has said, emphasising that the company encrypts...
From ACM Opinion
Wikimedia Foundation Sends Cease and Desist Letter to Wikipr
On October 21, the Wikimedia Foundation issued a statement from Sue Gardner, our executive director, condemning the black hat practice of paid advocacy editing...
From ACM Opinion
Why Google's Fair Use Victory In Google Books Suit Is A Big Deal—And Why It Isn't
Federal judge Denny Chin rejected a copyright challenge Google’s practices of scanning books into digital format and presenting snippets of those scans in search...
From ACM Opinion
Our Government Has Weaponized the Internet. Here's How They Did It
The internet backbone—the infrastructure of networks upon which internet traffic travels—went from being a passive infrastructure for communication to an active...
From ACM Opinion
The Head of Google X Thinks We're All Too Risk-Averse
Google X is responsible for some of Google's most literally fantastic projects: Google Glass, self-driving cars, gigantic inflatable balloons that beam Internet...
From ACM Opinion
Tim Berners-Lee: Encryption Cracking By Spy Agencies 'appalling and Foolish'
Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the computer scientist who created the World Wide Web, has called for a "full and frank public debate" over Internet surveillance by the National...
From ACM Opinion
Fifth Amendment Prohibits Compelled Decryption, New EFF Brief Argues
Encryption is one of the most important ways to safeguard data from prying eyes.
From ACM Opinion
Google nveils Tools to Access Web From Repressive Countries
Google Ideas, the New York City–based "think/do tank" run by the Internet search giant, is launching several new technologies designed to highlight hacker attacks...
From ACM Opinion
The Information-Gathering Paradox
Consumer trust is a vital currency for every big Internet company, which helps to explain why the giants of Silicon Valley have gone to great lengths in recent...
From ACM Opinion
The Decline of Wikipedia
The sixth most widely used website in the world is not run anything like the others in the top 10.
From Communications of the ACM
Augmented Reality Browsers: Essential Products or Only Gadgets?
How lessons learned from the evolution of the Web and Web browsers can influence the development of AR browsers.
From Communications of the ACM
No Limits to Watching?
Considering the ethical questions raised by technologies that are moving from knowing what we are doing (and where) to knowing who we are.
From ACM Opinion
How to Design—and Defend Against—the Perfect Security Backdoor
We already know the NSA wants to eavesdrop on the Internet.
From ACM Opinion
As We May Type
In 1984, the personal-computer industry was still small enough to be captured, with reasonable fidelity, in a one-volume publication, the Whole Earth Software Catalog...
From ACM Opinion
N.s.a. Director Gives Firm and Broad Defense of Surveillance Efforts
The director of the National Security Agency, Gen. Keith B. Alexander, said in an interview that to prevent terrorist attacks he saw no effective alternative to...
From ACM Opinion
Think You Can Live Offline Without Being Tracked? Here's What It Takes
Nico Sell, the cofounder of a secure communication app called Wickr, has appeared on television twice.
From ACM Opinion
Three Questions For Microsoft's New Head of Research, Peter Lee
Microsoft's new head of research, Peter Lee, is tasked with helping the company invent the future.
From ACM News
Here's Everything You Should Know About Nsa Address Book Spying in One Faq
A new report from The Washington Post, based on documents provided by whistleblower Edward Snowden, reveals that the National Security Agency is collecting hundreds...
From ACM Opinion