Yesterday I set out to post an education news scoop and instead featured an article about surveillance capitalism. Today, I will include a few articles and will mainly focus on data, data, data before winding down to some education related articles.
FEPA H.R. 4174 Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act of 2017 was signed into law by the President on January 14, 2019. Shame on Congress for passing this bill. While I have seen lots of articles about this bill prior to its passing, I have seen very few about the fact it has been signed into law.
It seems there is growing awareness and pressure for Congress to address data privacy. It will be interesting (and likely devastating) to see how that plays out. I guess I am naive, but how do you resolve data privacy issues in concert with FEPA in such a way that data privacy is being protected? I am sure there will be some twisted logic involved. Seems like there are two camps ready (or trying) to address data privacy: data privacy advocates and the tech industry. Which do you suppose will win out? Very likely the fox will get to write the rules.
So, here are a few articles along with my not so well thought out comments. Think about how all this ties in with yesterday’s post about surveillance capitalism.
Big Data meets Big Gov’t: New IRS spy software
IRS: Nosey?
There is no such thing as personal privacy these days.
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The contract calls for Palantir to provide hardware, software and training to IRS employees to “capture, curate, store, search, share, transfer, perform deconfliction, analyze and visualize large amounts of disparate structured and unstructured data.”
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This would allow the IRS to meaningfully link tens of millions of tax returns, billions of information returns, and trillions of bank and credit card transactions, phone records and even social media posts.
Do you get frustrated preparing your taxes? Their may be some relief for you. If it happens, I wouldn’t be surprised if the IRS charges you for it.
Under that system, the taxpayer is essentially removed from the tax preparation process because the IRS knows everything there is to know about your personal, business and financial affairs to the point where the agency prepares the return for you. How’s that for tax simplification?
Sheryl Sandberg Outlines Facebook’s Plans to Regain the Public’s Trust
I didn’t trust Facebook from the get go and have never had a Facebook profile.
“We need to stop abuse more quickly and we need to do better to protect people’s data,” Sandberg said.
Such a scramble to protect, or give the appearance of protecting, people’s data. If they didn’t collect all that data to begin with this wouldn’t be such an issue. Oh, I forgot. That would ruin their business model which is built on a foundation of personal data. Certainly don’t want to disrupt surveillance capitalism.
The Viral ’10-Year Challenge’ May Be Mining Data To Teach Facial Recognition Algorithm, Tech Writer Says
This is great example of people willingly feeding the beast. Unknowingly perhaps… possibly because they aren’t told what is really going on. Of course, if you don’t see it or know about it, it ain’t happenin’.
Rhue, a professor at the Wake Forest School of Business, said the “10-Year Challenge” highlights the dangers of giving up too much personal data to a social media company. She said there is a lack of transparency on how Facebook and other platforms are using this data, and in the past, it has been handed over to government agencies and law enforcement officials, bypassing the Fifth Amendment rights of Americans who readily give up information like biometric data and DNA.
5G will have an enormous impact on the world
Imbellus Assessments: Out of the Gate with $23M and McKinsey & Co. as Client
Setting out to replace the ACT and SAT…
Most Americans believe school should be more practical
Are the survey what you would expect on a survey conducted on behalf of H&R Block? I wonder why I am thinking “leading questions”?
Common Core erodes students’ critical thinking skills
OPINION: The Best Solution To Los Angeles Teachers’ Strike? More School Choice
Yet, parents have voted with their feet in favor charter schools.
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Parents and their children who are trapped in Los Angeles’ mismanaged, special-interest-dominated regular public schools have a right to choose a different type of schooling option.
I guess that is easier for parents than rolling up their sleeves and doing the work to take back control of their local public school and get it to work the way they want it to. Choosing to make your school work for you. That is school choice.
A young girl reading the current events in a newspaper; isolated on white background.
The Underground Parent 