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Latest News News Archive Refine your search:
dateMore Than a Year Ago
subjectData / Storage And Retrieval
authorThe Washington Post
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An edited collection of advanced computing news from Communications of the ACM, ACM TechNews, other ACM resources, and news sites around the Web.


Can Amazon Echo Help Solve a Murder? Police Will Soon Find Out.
From ACM News

Can Amazon Echo Help Solve a Murder? Police Will Soon Find Out.

A 2015 Arkansas murder case that had raised privacy questions surrounding "always-on" electronic home devices took a step forward last week after Amazon agreed...

Wikileaks: The CIA Is Using Popular Tvs, Smartphones and Cars to Spy on Their Owners
From ACM News

Wikileaks: The CIA Is Using Popular Tvs, Smartphones and Cars to Spy on Their Owners

The latest revelations about U.S. government's powerful hacking tools potentially takes surveillance right into the homes and hip pockets of billions of users worldwide...

How Hard Is It to Get an Intelligence Wiretap? Pretty Hard. 
From ACM News

How Hard Is It to Get an Intelligence Wiretap? Pretty Hard. 

Wiretaps on Americans in foreign intelligence investigations are not easy to get. And if you're a candidate for president, it's even harder. 

Crispr Pioneer Muses About Long Journey from China to Pinnacle of American Science
From ACM Opinion

Crispr Pioneer Muses About Long Journey from China to Pinnacle of American Science

Feng Zhang occupies a corner office on the 10th floor of the gleaming, modern biotechnology palace called the Broad Institute.

Trump Questions Quest For Cybersecurity: 'no Computer Is Safe' 
From ACM News

Trump Questions Quest For Cybersecurity: 'no Computer Is Safe' 

President-elect Donald Trump has repeatedly questioned whether critical computer networks can ever be protected from intruders, alarming cybersecurity experts who...

Can Alexa Help Solve a Murder? Police Think So—But Amazon Won't Give ­p Her Data.
From ACM News

Can Alexa Help Solve a Murder? Police Think So—But Amazon Won't Give ­p Her Data.

When police responded to a home in Bentonville, Ark., one Sunday morning last November, they discovered Victor Collins's dead body in the backyard.

Scientists Are Frantically Copying U.S. Climate Data, Fearing It Might Vanish Under Trump
From ACM Careers

Scientists Are Frantically Copying U.S. Climate Data, Fearing It Might Vanish Under Trump

Alarmed that decades of crucial climate measurements could vanish under a hostile Trump administration, scientists have begun a feverish attempt to copy reams of...

Pizzagate: From Rumor, to Hashtag, to Gunfire in D.c.
From ACM News

Pizzagate: From Rumor, to Hashtag, to Gunfire in D.c.

What was finally real was Edgar Welch, driving from North Carolina to Washington to rescue sexually abused children he believed were hidden in mysterious tunnels...

China's Plan to Organize Its Society Relies on 'big Data' to Rate Everyone
From ACM News

China's Plan to Organize Its Society Relies on 'big Data' to Rate Everyone

Imagine a world where an authoritarian government monitors everything you do, amasses huge amounts of data on almost every interaction you make, and awards you...

Nate Silver Blew It When He Missed Trump. Now He Really Needs to Get It Right.
From ACM Opinion

Nate Silver Blew It When He Missed Trump. Now He Really Needs to Get It Right.

Nate Silver is on the downtown 1 train. Possibly because he looks like a (modestly) hip math teacher, and hardly looks up from his phone, he goes unrecognized until...

The FCC Just Passed Sweeping New Rules to Protect Your Online Privacy
From ACM News

The FCC Just Passed Sweeping New Rules to Protect Your Online Privacy

Federal officials delivered a landmark ruling in favor of online privacy Thursday, limiting how Internet providers use and sell customer data, while asserting that...

China Has Now Eclipsed US in AI Research
From ACM News

China Has Now Eclipsed US in AI Research

Humanity may still be years if not decades away from producing sentient artificial intelligence.

Why Apple Can Be Forced to Turn Logs of Your Imessage Contacts Over to Police
From ACM News

Why Apple Can Be Forced to Turn Logs of Your Imessage Contacts Over to Police

When a user sends someone a message through Apple's iMessage feature, Apple encrypts that message between Apple devices so that only the sender and recipient can...

Confused About Those Emergency Cellphone Alerts? Here's How They Work.
From ACM News

Confused About Those Emergency Cellphone Alerts? Here's How They Work.

Many New York-area commuters on Monday were interrupted by this alert on their cellphones: "WANTED: Ahmad Khan Rahami, 28-yr-old male. See media for pic. Call 9...

The Science of Smartphone Batteries and How to Keep Them Charged
From ACM News

The Science of Smartphone Batteries and How to Keep Them Charged

Whenever a new iPhone gets announced, there's one feature that every Apple lover is hoping for: improved battery life.

The Bizarre World of Bitcoin 'mining' Finds a New Home in Tibet
From ACM News

The Bizarre World of Bitcoin 'mining' Finds a New Home in Tibet

Inside a metal shed in the Tibetan highlands of western China, thousands of microprocessors flank narrow corridors, generating a constant hum and stifling waves...

Here's How Russian Hackers Could Actually Tip an American Election
From ACM Opinion

Here's How Russian Hackers Could Actually Tip an American Election

Reports this week of Russian intrusions into U.S. election systems have startled many voters, but computer experts are not surprised.

98 Personal Data Points that Facebook ­ses to Target Ads to You
From ACM News

98 Personal Data Points that Facebook ­ses to Target Ads to You

Say you're scrolling through your Facebook Newsfeed and you encounter an ad so eerily well-suited, it seems someone has possibly read your brain.

Putting a Computer in Your Brain Is No Longer Science Fiction
From ACM News

Putting a Computer in Your Brain Is No Longer Science Fiction

Like many in Silicon Valley, technology entrepreneur Bryan Johnson sees a future in which intelligent machines can do things like drive cars on their own and anticipate...

Tim Cook: Running Apple 'is Sort of a Lonely Job'
From ACM Opinion

Tim Cook: Running Apple 'is Sort of a Lonely Job'

On a sleek white coffee table in Apple CEO Tim Cook's fourth-floor office in late July, beneath framed posters of Robert F. Kennedy, the Rev. Martin Luther King...
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