Stuff New Zealand: Social media vitriol has ‘profound effect’ on council staff

Stuff New Zealand: Social media vitriol has ‘profound effect’ on council staff. “‘Yous are proving to be ABSOLUTELY USELESS,’ reads one, under a Tasman District Council post about a cycle lane. ‘You f**cken clowns, no brains at all.’ ‘WHAT ARE YOU DOING??!? WHO IS MAKING THESE INCOMPETENT DECISIONS!?’ another shouts. Stuff contacted Tasman and Nelson councils to ask how they dealt with social media vitriol after a council employee, who asked to remain anonymous, got in touch to express their distress about such comments.”

KLCC: Oregon launches database to track public investments

KLCC: Oregon launches database to track public investments. “The Oregon Department of Treasury has launched a new tool to track how the state invests. The agency manages nearly $100 billion in public employee retirement funds. Around 400,000 public workers are beneficiaries. It means Oregon is a shareholder in publicly traded companies around the world. Previously, if you wanted details on how Oregon used its shareholder votes, you’d need to make a public records request. State Treasurer Tobias Read said now, all that is online.”

Man of Many: GTA VI Trailer Breaks the Internet with Record-Shattering 24 Hours

Man of Many: GTA VI Trailer Breaks the Internet with Record-Shattering 24 Hours. “While it’s still a long, long road to Grand Theft Auto VI (set to release sometime in 2025), that hasn’t stopped Rockstar Games’ upcoming juggernaut from breaking records. The first trailer for GTA VI dropped recently, sending the whole of the internet into a frenzy, and according to Guinness World Records, the new trailer has already shattered three official world records. Within a mere 24 hours, the trailer had amassed a staggering 90.4 million views (currently sitting at 121 million), setting a new record for the most-watched video game trailer ever.”

The PrivaSeer Project In 2023: Access To 1.4 Million Privacy Policies In One Searchable Body Of Documents (Future of Privacy Project)

Future of Privacy Project: The PrivaSeer Project In 2023: Access To 1.4 Million Privacy Policies In One Searchable Body Of Documents. “In the summer of 2021, FPF announced our participation in a collaborative project with researchers from the Pennsylvania State University and the University of Michigan to develop and build a searchable database of privacy policies and other privacy-related documents, with the support of the National Science Foundation. This project, PrivaSeer, has since become an evolving, publicly available search engine of more than 1.4 million privacy policies.” I did mention this project a couple of years ago but it seems to have grown considerably since then.

University of Texas at Austin: Census Bureau’s Proposal Threatens Integrity of Race and Ethnicity Data

University of Texas at Austin: Census Bureau’s Proposal Threatens Integrity of Race and Ethnicity Data. “As a demographer and former analyst with the bureau, I support the desire to achieve accurate data for these populations. But the combined question is riddled with too many ethical and methodological flaws to be considered a viable solution. As it stands, the question conflates race and ethnicity by making both concepts co-equal and relies on a coding infrastructure that forcibly reassigns people to race groups they did not initially identify with.”

WIRED: The Generative AI Copyright Fight Is Just Getting Started

WIRED: The Generative AI Copyright Fight Is Just Getting Started. “The biggest fight of the generative AI revolution is headed to the courtroom—and no, it’s not about the latest boardroom drama at OpenAI. Book authors, artists, and coders are challenging the practice of teaching AI models to replicate their skills using their own work as a training manual. The debate centers on the billions of works underpinning the impressive wordsmithery of tools like ChatGPT, the coding prowess of Github’s Copilot, and artistic flair of image generators like that of startup Midjourney.”

404 Media: Civitai and OctoML Introduce Radical New Measures to Stop Abuse After 404 Media Investigation

404 Media: Civitai and OctoML Introduce Radical New Measures to Stop Abuse After 404 Media Investigation. “Civitai, a text-to-image AI model sharing platform, is seeking a new cloud computing provider and instructing its millions of users to complain to its current provider, OctoML, after OctoML decided to end its business relationship with Civitai entirely, after a 404 Media investigation.”

StateScoop: New website catalogs states’ digital-transformation executive orders

StateScoop: New website catalogs states’ digital-transformation executive orders. “The new website includes a data dashboard and database of executive orders. It compiles and analyzes executive orders spanning the last decade. Users can search the orders by group or filter them by state or territory, year of enactment or topic. The group also highlighted a handful of executive orders that represent bold action, such as Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s order creating the Commonwealth Office of Digital Experience.”

Noupe: How to make WordPress GDPR-compliant

Noupe: How to make WordPress GDPR-compliant. “GDPR(General Data Protection Regulation) is a set of European regulations designed to protect your data. It gives you control over how your data is used and ensures that businesses handle it by stringent guidelines. Before using your data, they must obtain your consent and notify you in case of a data leak. Businesses that violate these regulations risk incurring hefty fines. These guidelines apply to any business, regardless of location, that handles information from individuals in Europe. Similar to a global norm, GDPR protects the privacy of your data.”

Lifehacker: You Can Create Your Own Custom iPhone Browser With Quiche

Lifehacker: You Can Create Your Own Custom iPhone Browser With Quiche. “Safari on the iPhone is fast, convenient—and, admittedly, a bit boring. There are plenty of third-party options on the App Store, but seeing as Apple forces them all to use WebKit, most are essentially Safari. However, that hasn’t stopped one indie developer from trying to make things interesting. Greg De J’s Quiche browser is unique, engaging, and fully customizable, down to every button and toolbar you see in the interface. You can take advantage of this to make the browser much more functional, like adding a button dedicated to private mode in the toolbar. Plus, it has many color and layout options to explore for truly fine-tuning your browsing experience.”