Greetings, Future Tensers,
This week, we’ve been hitting hard on stories of who gets access to your digital data. In case you missed it, Slate’s Molly Olmstead has the details on Congress’ vote to allow broadband providers to sell your data—including location, app, and browser history—without your knowledge or consent.
We’ve also got the story of how a company called Geofeedia, which boasted about providing law enforcement officers the ability to mine real-time social media posts to help law enforcement surveil and target protesters, prompted Facebook to prohibit developers from using their data to provide such tools. But, Ilana Ullman cautions, Geofeedia won’t be the last third-party developer to abuse vague or incomplete terms of service. “Without company disclosure about the steps they take to detect and prevent such abuse, users are left in the dark about how—or whether—their privacy rights are respected.”
As we close out March, we’re also finishing up our Futurography series on the geopolitics of space. We’ve got a piece from Craig Hardgrove about what role, exactly, NASA should play as we move toward commercializing space. (You can also follow the cubesat that Hardgrove’s sending to the moon on Twitter.) You can also catch up on how private satellite companies are providing critical information about climate change and read about Nigeria’s ambitious, but stalled, space program.
Plus, here are some other things we read while watching Madeline the Robot Tamer:
- It’s the Little Hacks That Matter: Though we tend to think of cyberattacks on the grand scale—the Russian election interference, the Chinese breach of U.S. Office of Personnel Management records, the Target or Sony megahacks—there’s a bigger security crisis brewing on a smaller scale. Gregory Michaelidis explains why the nation’s approach to cybersecurity so dangerous.
- The Ends of the World: Jacob Brogan writes about how the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, often cast as the world’s doomsday failsafe, instead works to sustain us through disasters of here and now.
- Technofossils: We humans are leaving behind so much stuff that earth scientists are now suggesting it’s creating a distinct geological layer. But before it goes the way of the dinosaurs, writes Starre Vartan, it will also make “a deep impact on our terrestrial future.”
- Untargeted Surveillance: No, Barack Obama did not wiretap Donald Trump for political purposes. But, as Sean Vitka points out, the government probably did spy on the now-president at some time—in the way that it surveils almost all Americans.
Events:
TONIGHT: Is technology enriching language? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Join Future Tense in New York for a happy hour conversation on how new and emerging technologies are changing the way we speak, write, and communicate. RSVP to attend here.
With the love of a girl who mistook an abandoned water heater for a robot,
Kirsten Berg
for Future Tense
Future Tense is a partnership of Slate, New America, and Arizona State University.
